Porch Sippin' Pecan Black Tea

Latte Sipdown (204)

Did this taste like pecans? Yeah. Was it delicious? Uhhh not really. It was quite sweet and nutty but in a weird, slight artificial way. It was fine but not one I need again.

This is a tea I’ve been eyeing for a while, so I hope it’s as good as it sounds. Hmm it’s a little unexpectedly sour. Possibly the pecans are going off already. That would be a shame since this sample is from the advent calendar, so it’s pretty new. It definitely needed some sugar and milk to draw out the flavors. It tastes decent, but not as special as I had hoped. The black tea itself doesn’t have a lot of depth, but the nuttiness is pleasant. Not as good as other nutty teas, though. I also have a one ounce package of it I bought at the same time as the advent calendar. There’s no sourness in that batch, but yeah, it’s still not as special and fun as I wanted it to be, just average.

I’ve seen this one make the rounds on Steepster before advent, so I’m glad to finally have the chance to sample it! And oh my stars, the dry leaf smells delectable! It has such a deep caramelly/pecan sweet aroma! I hope that translates into the brewed cup…

Well, after brewing the whole kitchen smells divine, like a baked dessert. I’m still getting that nutty/caramelly aroma, but now a very strong sweet, baked cinnamon note is present, and it smells like some sort of pastry has just come out of the oven. The brewed tea is… hmm. I feel like I need a little bit more “oomph” compared to the strong aroma I’m getting, I think. That isn’t to say I’m not tasting anything at all, because I am; there is a sweet nuttiness with a lingering cinnamon aftertaste, and the nuttiness is starting to fill out on my tongue even more as my tea cools a bit. I think it’s actually the base that may be my issue, that I want it to feel a little fuller, as somehow the black tea itself is coming across a little thin to me? Fuller/thicker, with the same flavors, just amped up to compensate for a stronger base. I think that would make this just right.

So, excellent tea, I just feel a few tweaks could make it a more perfect execution. I would actually consider getting this one, because with more leaf and the ability to experiment a bit with steeping parameters, perhaps I could get it just a bit closer to what I’m looking for compared to a one-brew sampler.

Advent Day 6

This is very aromatic… almost like a perfume version of pecan. The closer I get my nose to the cup, the stronger and richer the scent. Almost baked and sweet like the pie. The flavor is a little lighter than the scent, but a pretty good representation of pecan.

I used to hate pecans. It wasn’t until I lived in Austin and had two pecan trees in our yard that I really grew to appreciate the nuts. Fresh, they were a totally different thing than the old stale going rancid pecans I had come across in California. It’s a really good thing that pecan trees give bountiful tasty treats or everyone would chop them down for being such messy trees. In the spring they cover everything with a thick layer of yellow pollen and you better hope you aren’t allergic to it. Then they rain down pollen pods after that. Then the nut season, which is very loud when your roof is under their canopy and last is leaf season where they drop all their leaves and take a break for the winter before starting the whole process back up again in the early spring. They are also known for self pruning aka dropping branches when they get the hankering. They are also large and expensive to have chopped down when they catch some sort of root fugus. Ask me how I know about that one. :(

The more consistently I sip on this cup, the more the flavors edge a little too close to too much. Like an oversaturation of flavoring that gives a slightly artificial taste. I bet it would be phenomenal with cream. I’m really enjoying this cup and it’s the first that I might consider buying, but I’m not 100% there yet.

Plum Deluxe Advent Calendar – Day 6

Ooh, I remember seeing a nice note on this tea from Arby a few days ago, so I’m excited to try it for myself! I do enjoy pecans, though pecan-flavored things generally don’t hit the mark for me. This actually smells very maple-y in the packet, though there is pecan there as well.

Hmm. Well I do get a good amount of pecan here, which is lovely. However, I’m not sure I’m a fan of the somewhat cloying sweetness of the other notes. There is some maple or caramel sort of thing going on, and there’s a bit too much of it compared to the pecan for my taste. There’s also a hint a cinnamon which I don’t mind as much.

It must be the “pecan essence” that has some additional praline or maple or something included, as I don’t see any other ingredients that would explain it. Also, I should’ve gone with a 3-minute steep, as the base is slightly astringent.

Anyway, it’s not bad! It just comes off a little more artificial to me because of the slightly cloying sweet flavors. And honestly I’ve had a similar feeling about pecan-flavored coffees so perhaps it’s just me. ;)

(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIdqxdfAjbO/)

Homemade advent calendar day #2

I kept a small sample of this from the latest TTB and brewed it up this morning (just under 1.5 tsp tea with 8oz mug of hot water). I added a touch of unsweetened soy milk because this is such a tasty dessert blend I thought it needed some milk. The tea itself is slightly astringent so the milk rounds this out nicely. The pecan and caramel notes are quite strong – exactly what I like in a dessert flavoured black tea. There is a bit of vanilla (although, I would have liked to add vanilla soy milk to add a bit more vanilla).

If I ever order from plum deluxe, this will be in my cart for sure. One of my favourite snacks is toasted pecans. My local Costco sells big bags for ~$25 and I like to toast ~2 cups of nuts (or about 5 handfuls) on a baking tray at 350 F for 8-10 minutes. It makes such a tasty snack and the toasting brings out the caramelized nutty and sweet notes. They also make killer icecream sundae toppings or tasty additions to baking (shortbread + toasted pecans = heavenly buttery and crisp cookies).

Adventageddon Day 5 – Tea 4/4

I see that I’ve given this tea a rating so I’ve obviously tried this tea before, though honestly I don’t have any memory of having tried it in the past. Clearly it didn’t stand out to me then, but this time around I enjoyed it a lot. It was actually my favourite tea of the day.

Though it does taste like pecan I found that more than anything else it reminded me of the rich sweet brown “sugar goo” that makes up the bulk of a pecan pie’s filling. Very brown sugar-like but also a little bit caramelized and just all together very indulgent and delicious. The hint of cinnamon in the blend also definitely plays up that pecan pie sort of vibe. It’s ironic – I was talking to Cameron B about pralines and cinnamon in pastry inspired teas yesterday, and then I’m served this tea on a proverbial platter which illustrates both of those points.

Overall, I’ve actually been really impressed with the Plum Deluxe advent. We’ll see if they can keep that up, but for the moment this is genuinely shaping up to by my favourite advent this year…

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0fNj5YOs0U/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSl6Ly4DOn4

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I also enjoyed today’s jam with this tea. The jam was fig and cardamom and, though I could have used a little more cardamom, I thought they paired really nicely! The fig was so yummy.

Quarantine life isn’t much different from everyday life as far as my schedule goes, but I do enjoy working from home. A silver lining in all of this uncertainty. Today is a beautiful day so I have windows and doors open to the back porch, and there are lizards on the sill and bees buzzing around our blueberry bushes. We are truly fortunate to be safe and well at home.

Much like Shanie O Maniac, I find myself lacking the motivation to drink tea lately, though I’m surrounded by it and am working right near the kitchen. I felt determined today to have at least one cup so I pulled this, my final tea from Plum Deluxe, from the bin under our tea cabinet. Yes, we are in overflow.

I’m so grateful to companies like Plum Deluxe who make such an effort to share and introduce us to their teas. They could have done many other things, or nothing at all, but they sent three full-size pouches of tea plus a sample for me to try. This is my last of the bunch.

I’m not sure if this is a chocolate tea, but I taste chocolate. It reminds me of one of those hazelnut-flavored coffees, though I don’t actually taste hazelnut. That’s just the most common nutty flavor I think of when I think flavored coffee. And it is nutty, especially as it cools, but it’s not specifically pecan. I really think coffee drinkers would love this. It’s deep and dark and quite flavorful.

Replaying FF7 on my Switch in gleeful anticipation of the PS4 remake. Gamer girl’s gotta game. Anyway. I enjoy nutty teas, but I’ve never had a pecan one. Hazelnut, almond, chestnut, and walnut yes, but never pecan. And so, I figured I’d give this a try.

I’m glad I did. I could drink this every day, and in fact I pretty much have since I got it. Both dry and brewed, it smells amazingly good. There’s big chunks of pecan in the tea, and pecan’s the dominant flavor. The cinnamon plays nice in the background and doesn’t overpower it. My only problem is that I’m going through it a little too quickly since I like it so much.

Plum Deluxe Advent Day 6
Brewed this for my boyfriend, as I just recently re-visited it and didn’t love it as much as I remembered. He wasn’t a huge fan either. Took a few sips to refresh my memory- there just seems to be something a bit bitter and drying from the pecans that isn’t working for me.