Salty Caramel Pumpkin

I have to agree with everyone, at first I tried it as an iced latte and adored it, it was pumpkin spice-ish with the burnt sugar element. However, hot it was rather underwhelming. I think the milk and touch of honey certainly brought out the pumpkin flavor.

Hot- 65
Iced/iced latte/latte- 89

I don’t get this one.

It doesn’t taste anything like the name to me. Like yeah, there’s a bit of a caramel thing going on, but it’s more of a dark, almost burnt, caramelized brown sugar note to me, which isn’t what I think of for salted caramel. And it’s not super strong either. I taste a lot of the base, which is smooth and fine but nothing special or interesting. A bit woody, mostly earthy with some mustiness going on. Certainly no pumpkin to speak of.

So anyway, into the rehoming box it goes! :P

I bought this a while ago now, but the flavor seems like it’s staying consistently vague since I bought it.  I’ve been trying it with different steeping parameters and I think I’ve found the right way to brew it now.  Two teaspoons for a full mug with a very short steep and cooler water makes the flavors pop better than if I just try to oversteep the tea on the first cup.  I’ve found one minute steeps work best on teas with subtle flavoring, especially if there are not really any additional ingredients other than flavoring.  Honestly, it would be difficult to make a tea taste like Salty Caramel Pumpkin with flavoring alone and that is what this is.  Black tea and flavoring.  Like possibly the flavoring was added to a tea, it was taste tested, and someone were asked to think up a name for it… it MIGHT be “salty caramel pumpkin”?  It’s tough to tell what this tastes like otherwise.  There is a hint of salt, sweetness, and maybe the savoriness of a pumpkin, but only if you’re really trying to reach.   Raisins in the second cup when it’s cooled.  I like the depth of the black tea – it’s comforting with these flavors in autumn.  But I will definitely be steeping this tea like this in the future.  Both steeps had equal amounts of flavor.  Otherwise, any longer than one minute and it starts tasting like plain black tea.
Steep #1  // 2 teaspoons for full mug // 22 minutes after boiling  // 1 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  3 minute steep

Also, how did I forget to mention?  It’s The Morning News Tournament of Books Super Rooster time!  Already in the thick of it.  For any bookish fans… I’ve been following this for years and now the WINNERS are competing against each other.  This is a highlight of a dismal year, for sure:  https://themorningnews.org/tob/superrooster/welcome-to-the-super-rooster.php Yes, I have read all sixteen winners.

This was another sampler from the Discovery Teabox, so thank you to Skysamurai for organizing and to everyone that contributed! I took a 5g sample and used half of it for my travel thermos to take to an early morning staff meeting at work yesterday, and am finishing it up this morning.

The base of this tea has a really lovely flavor that makes is apparent that the black tea leaf blend is using at least some Chinese black… there are those notes of burnt toast, smoke, molasses, and a hint of leather and fruit (cherry? mandarin? a bit hard to peg under the flavoring…) Mostly, the natural slightly burnt/smoky flavors come through, and the salted caramel flavoring in this tea is actually really good. Usually even teas that call themselves “salted caramel” just taste like “caramel” to me and don’t have that distinction to me, but this one does, and I quite like it! With the natural smoky notes and rich molasses from the base, I get a bit of a burnt sugar/melted caramel vibe from it. I don’t, however, get any of the proposed “pumpkin flavor” from this tea at all. I realize pumpkin is a difficult flavor to pull off (especially when you are separating it from all the spice) but with such strong flavor notes in here, I’d be curious what the blend would be like if that was turned up a bit. I like pumpkin. Even savory pumpkin. And it isn’t used enough, it’s always the spice blend that gets all the cred.

So some points off for no pumpkin, but I am still a big fan of this Chinese black-heavy base and nailing a salted caramel flavor. Thanks for the sample, tea_sipper!

My third tea from the tea box. I was very excited to try this one since I love pumpkin teas and I love S&V. The flavor is quite pleasant, but I’d say it tastes more like burnt caramel than exactly what it’s supposed to. I added some milk and sugar, and it’s tasty, but I would love some pumpkin flavor or something to distinguish it from several other teas I have of this variety.

Discovery TTB #10

This blend has a delightful caramel aroma! The flavor is on the light side…smooth, slightly sweet caramel with just a hint of spice. I didn’t really pick up on any pumpkin. Overall, a pleasant cup of tea but nothing special.