Panettone Cake

Inkling Advent Day 17. I can see this tea being a little bready, though not like panettone specifically. The black tea isn’t my favorite here, and the flavoring is much too light. I don’t taste fruit or spice or anything. Maybe a hint of nuts? It’s not awful, but it’s not panettone unfortunately!

I was so excited to try this, especially after taking the first sniff of the newly opened bag. But, the aroma just doesn’t translate into the flavor. It’s vaguely fruity, but they rich, dried fruit flavor is really missing. The base also isn’t great- I’m finding it super bitter and distracting.

This is tasting very astringent and raisin-y and I’m wondering if that was just user error so holding off on rating.

Sipdown theme: Ingredient of a trail mix: Raisin
Been a little while since I have wrote a tasting note. Wedding crunch time

Preparation: Western
Tasting note: I have a sample of this one so I don’t have brewing instructions readily available on the package. I brewed at 209F for about 3-4 minutes. Tastes lightly of vanilla and delicate sweetness. I have never had a Panettone cake so I am not a good judge whether there is a likeness to the real thing. I didn’t get a lot of raisiny taste from this tea so I am not sure this is accurate. It’s not bad just not enough distinct flavors to be great.

The first proper restaurant we went to over the trip was a spot called Birdie G’s which was pretty incredible! Between the four of us on the trip we ordered quite an extensive amount of food and drinks to be shared. There was just a lot of taste testing for the entirety of the trip. Though everything at this restaurant was incredible, my two favourite things were the honey cornbread with green chili butter and the raw ice plant that was served as part of a relish tray.

No one in our group had ever been served ice plant before, and it was breath takingly beautiful looking but also super refreshing with a similar kind of saline “pop” to it that sea asparagus has. Here’s a photo for anyone who, like us, wasn’t familiar:

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59ff59bfa803bbdcd265ef82/1577469475396-Q4FBEJC6D3I03P9247NP/DSCN9608.JPG?format=2500w

Anyway, I of course couldn’t resist bringing my own tea with me to drink at the restaurant in addition to a couple cocktails. I thought the relative unsweet nature of this blend along with strong notes of cinnamon and orange were pleasant. I have an sneaking suspicion that if my first tasting of this tea had been at home instead of the restaurant atmosphere that I would have probably been underwhelmed, but it complimented my meal really nicely and even more surprisingly complimented the Persimmon and nutmeg cocktail that I was also sipping on.

Sipdown! (14 | 14)

So I was shocked when I opened this pouch and it really did smell like panettone – sweet with raisin and citrus and a richness from the vanilla.

However, it doesn’t really translate to the steeped tea, which is sort of a bit bland? I do taste hints of all those things – raisin, orange and lemon, a woody boozy note from the vanilla. But it’s all very subtle and the earthy/woody base takes over a bit. I will say this base tea is very smooth, which I appreciate after not liking some of the other black teas with a more tannic base. Also, there’s no sugar here which is always a plus.

Excited about this tea – it sounded like a great flavour combination! And I think it is, but I the flavour was much weaker than what I was hoping for. I’ll try steeping differently next time, possibly with more tea? I probably used about the recommended amount, though.

Flavour is just very lightly lemony/raisin on a moderate black base.