Red Velvet Cake

Whoops! Looks like someone caved and got the special edition tin. I don’t even care for chocolate/Red Velvet cake, but there’s something about Red Velvet-flavoured or -scented stuff that draws me into its trap.

The dry leaf smells a lot like Birthday Cake, which right there is a mega win because I really like Birthday Cake, but wished the tea base was different. Voilà!

The liquor isn’t as red as I had expected, but at least there’s no trace of beets. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of beets, but the thought of a chocolate Borscht tea doesn’t seem right.

The flavour is very similar to Birthday Cake, except of course, we’re dealing with a black tea base instead, which is luckily not astringent at all, and that maple-y flavour that is palpable in Birthday Cake is toned down here. This smells and tastes a little more like cake. When adding milk, it even smells a bit like cake batter.

It’s quite sweet. Not as sweet as Ice Cream Cake (whew, good), but it’s sweeter than Birthday Cake. I would advise against adding additional sweeteners. I wish the black tea base came out a little more, and that it weren’t as sweet, but I’ll happily finish my tin.

Sipdown!

Ok, I confess… this tea has grown on me and now I really like it, hahahahaha. I thought it would be a great candidate for a sipdown while thesis-writing… yum, I was right. The sickly sweet mapley goodness is just working perfectly for me right now. Considering brewing up the last(?) of my Birthday Cake sample soon as well.

I can feel my willpower slipping… I may end up going into my local DT very soon and picking up 50g of this, Salted Caramel, Banana Oolong… and possibly anything else that strikes my fancy… because I deserve a treat, right? Nevermind the 10 years worth of tea I already have in my room…

I thought I was going to love you forever. What happened, Red Velvet Cake?

Maybe I have less of a sweet tooth now so I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to. Or maybe I’m just having an off day.

I still have 50g left to figure it out.

…it’s not you, it’s me.

Well. Keep this in your cupboard for too long and it turns quite disappointing. Too thin and watery (even when following parameters. Even when you add milk) and there’s a really cloying note in the back of your throat similar to when you’ve had too much sugar.

This one was an accidental decupboarding but nonetheless it’s gone. The steeped tea is getting tossed – yuck. Bad luck for tea today I guess!

Thank you, darby, for saving me the time on this one, hahaha.

So admittedly I am all about the red velvet craze. I wanted to buy this just because of the name, not knowing what it actually tasted like. And thankfully darby sent me some to try and now I will not have to regret buying any amount of it, because it is a real bummer.

When I first tasted it, all I could taste was 52Teas’ Pancake Breakfast, but not as good. Not much chocolate, but at least it had that cakey taste to it, although then there was also a maple taste. I know you guys have tons of maple syrup up there in Quebec, DavidsTea, but it doesn’t go in Red Velvet.

Now, the only reason I can get down with immediate Christmas is this magnificent creation from Target. http://instagr.am/p/Rg5XZ8Ja4a/ Needless to say, I figured it’d be perfect to perk this tea up. There’s still a lot of maple notes, but at least now I’ve got chocolate.

Not impressed with this one, it is definitely not a substitute for a delicious slice of southern red velvet cake. And now I want to go to the place with the best kind…

Blargh this is so sweet. I have been procrastinating drinking down my last about 10-15 g of this just because it is so overwhelmingly sweet. I liked this when I first got it, but it’s almost too much now :( I guess if I’m craving sugar, it would be good, but now I have Pumpkin Chai for that lol, with brown sugar. Ah well, I will drink down this tea at some point, along with Stormy night, just too much sweets in those two! See previous notes.

When I saw pics of Red Velvet cakes coming out years ago I attempted to make it, and turned out badly. Too vinegary once, not red at all a few times (wrong food colouring) or messed up texture (wrong food colouring screwing up the liquid content). I’m more of a cookie and pie baker, not a cake baker!

DRY: Smells like cake! Lots of red sprinkles and, white bits and chocolate chips.

STEEPED: Light reddy brown black tea. Smells like cake batter. I thought it would come out more red. Bit of a clear film on top of my cup.

TASTE: Smooth, battery cake taste – rich cake, vanilla buttery with chocolate flavor. Quite sweet without adding any sweetener, Crap!
I sweetened what was left in the pot without tasting, and it’s pretty sweet and spot on toothy sweet cake. The black tea is subtle here, adding some depth. No bitterness or astringency. Do not sweeten this without tasting first!

COMMENTS: If you love Red Velvet Cake, give this a shot. Me? it’s really impressively tastes like cake, which is pretty cool – it be a fun tea to show people new to fun flavored teas. However, RVC is really chocolate cake with red colouring, ya know? I do think this is better than DT’s “Chocolate Cake” as it tastes closer to cake.

Oh crap. I’m scared to see my Steeper, I remember Chocolate cake made a gross mess in my Steeper from the sprinkles, this tea might be the same.

I don’t know why, but when I took my first sip of this today, it tasted weird. You know that smell you get when you water a bunch of house plants – that dirt smell. That’s what my first sip reminded me of. It was quite strange.

After my first sip I said “ugh!”
After the second one I said “hmm?”
After the third I said “mmm…”

I’m finishing off the last of this little sample I bought. I think I mentioned this in my last tealogs for this tea, but if you let this tea get cold, it has a creepy little scum layer at the top of it. Despite this initial dirt taste and cold-scum this tea is still delicious. I can’t remember if this is part of Davids regular collection, but if possible, I intend to at least buy another sample of this in the future. It’s yummy-yum

Yummeh.

I was given a 5 minute break at work today, so I ran up to DT to try this tea! I had to!

It smells divine – reminds me of the other cake teas, but no stevia so it’ll have a different flavour.

As for flavour, my tea was steeped a little weak (not quite enough leaf in my to-go cup), but the flavour was nommy. Reminded me a lot of Birthday Cake, which is my favourite rooibos ever, but with more cakey, baked-good notes that I really enjoyed.

I will definitely get some to take home and steep my way (or the highway), then we’ll decide if I’ll get more. Until then – this sweet cup has made my evening :)

Today is a great day! I got my licence yay! So i’m not spouse to have any tea on my diet but i’m treating myself to this delicious chocolaty goodness tea as a congrats to myself yay!