Sticky Date Delight

Homemade Advent Exchange Tea #2

1 sachet in 450mL hot water. Steeped ~3-4 minutes and added a dash (~1 tbs) soy milk.
2nd steep same parameters but left the tea bag in while I drank it so it steeped much longer.

This tea reminds me so much of Lupicia’s Caramel and Rum rooibos! I get a lot of vanilla and caramel in this one, along with the typical honey sweetness + woody minerals of rooibos (which pairs really well). I don’t taste any dried fruit or dates but it’s still an excellent blend. Second steep was a bit weaker but still excellent.

I love alllll the flavors in the rich, sticky date/toffee category, so I had to purchase this one! And although it’s not exactly what I expected, I like it quite a lot. The rooibos is thankfully not at all medicinal or syrupy; it’s just a slightly sweet woody base. I actually don’t get much straight-up date flavor. Instead I’m picking up on warm toffee baked good vibes, with a bit of fig or date at the back of the sip. I dunno exactly what’s going on, but it’s definitely working for me… especially when I use two tea bags and keep ’em in for the duration of the cuppa! :D

Adventaggedon Day 14: Tea 8/8

I was pretty gutted to see this tea today. Not because I wasn’t excited to try it but because I was really excited to try it but I felt awful and knew my experience of it was going to be negatively affected because of that. It’s such an infamous T2 blend that’s been on my radar for years now!

I opened up the little packet and immediately I was already so invested in the experience. The smell was really familiar and it bugged me that I couldn’t place why, but I loved it! Sweet and fruity but in a sticky/syrupy kind of way leaning into more of those ‘brown’ sweet and dense notes.

The taste is awesome! I couldn’t place what it was reminding me of in the moment but reflecting on it now as I write this tasting note I’m realizing it’s kind of the same dense brown sweetness, caramel/toffee, and fruity date/fig combination as Golden Hour from The Silk Tea Co. but with some nuttiness from the rooibos. Really felt like a good golden ooey gooey type of caramel mixed with that lovely baked fig/date preserve type of heavy and rich fruity sweetness. The idea of this being like a sticky toffee date pudding type thing feels really appropriate to me as well.

I wish I could do a mulligan because I’d love to steep this again when my brain is less like spaghetti and I’m not in actual physical pain because I think I would just enjoy it so much more. It’s going on the wishlist for after advent season ends, though! It’s one of my favourite T2 blends so far along with Singapore Breakfast.

Thank you, AJRimmer! Man, if I don’t even like this one… I’m about to give up on T2. Fig! Dates! Caramel! In reality, this mainly looks like rooibos and marigold petals. The flavor of this one, I swear, is mostly from the marigold petals. It says marigold petals, but I swear it’s calendula, mainly from the appearance and also because it has a similar flavor to Bird & Blend’s Rhubarb and Custard. Is it possible both these teas have the same flavor from the calendula alone? I almost wish I had some calendula to steep alone to see what it tastes like. Otherwise, the flavor is mostly just sweetness… maybe a bit rum-like. Definitely not like figs or dates. At least I also wasn’t tasting the chicory.

Advent Day 9

I’m trying to smell date. I’m trying to taste date. I smell something that I’m hoping will be delightful, but isn’t coming through in flavor. How am I striking out on all of the T2 teas?! I’m changing tactics here and added some maple syrup. I can imagine dates much more clearly now. Right before the maple flavor kicks in at the end of the sip, I can taste date. No idea if it’s sticky and it still isn’t quite delightful, but it’s enjoyable. Starting to wonder if I just need to dump a bunch of sweetener in their teas to get the flavors to present. :/

Well… this is the kind of tea my father would like – and it’s not a compliment here ;-)
He is 65+ years old lovely chap, who loves regular black tea with sugar. I’m not sure if he can appreciate the difference between amazing quality oolong and Lipton black tea.
For him anything that’s sweet – it’s good.

And this is how I view this tea. Sweet rooibos. I would have never guessed I’m supposed to feel Sticky Dates or sticky toffee pudding if I haven’t read it on the packaging.
I find rooibos teas mostly disappointing, and it was no exception. It’s not life changing in any way.

On a positive note, it’s pretty strong rooibos, so you can brew it at least twice.

I absolutely love sticky toffee pudding, so I bought this tea hoping it might be like that awesome dessert. Though the flavor isn’t too similar, it’s quite nice! The flavor is sweet and desserty, and the fruitiness, though not necessarily like dates, is pleasant. It’s a high quality rooibos as well. I look forward to having this one again and again.

195/365

I feel like I should take a moment here to appreciate T2’s sample packaging, because it’s the most colourful and functional I’ve seen in a long time. Each sample is sealed in a foil lined pouch, in its own individual serving size; the size, of course, varies according to the type of tea. I think most of their samples come in plain black packaging with the coloured label that denotes which blend they are, but these limited edition ones each have a different pattern, no two the same. Some are very reminiscent of 60s wallpaper, but some are really cute…and on the whole it’s just an extra touch that makes it feel like they’re putting the effort in on presentation. It’s nice. The back of the pouch has a brief description of the blend, and the brewing guidelines, so you don’t have to go searching to find out what inspired it, what it’s supposed to taste like, what kind of tea it is, or any of that stuff.

I say all of this mostly because they’re regular packaging really sucks. If you buy a “cube” from their website, which is the smallest quantity you can buy of an individual blend (at least in the UK…) you get a cardboard outer box containing a plastic bag of tea. The plastic bag isn’t particularly substantial, and is prone to tearing and splitting, and you can’t pour the tea into the box because it would leak out through the folds in the base. Even if you manage to keep the tea in the bag, it’s not resealable or airtight in any way. No-one is going to get through 50-100g of tea instantly, and they haven’t provided a way of keeping it fresh within its original packaging. I find it hard to believe that the perfectly packaged single-serve samples and the larger, more expensive cubes were designed by the same company. I can’t even begin to make sense of it.

Shall we talk about Sticky Date Delight now? According to the packet, this one’s based on a sticky toffee pudding, with flavours of caramel, toffee sauce, and dates. It’s a rooibos blend, and unfortunately that’s really obvious as soon as you take a sip. It’s brassy and woody and unmistakably rooibos, but I guess that’s always a risk when you use it as a base. It settles fairly quickly, and gives way to a really delicious burnt sugar flavour – it’s sort of caramel, sort of toffee, but reminds me most of all of the sugar crust on a creme brulee – if it had been under the blow torch just a few seconds too long.

The almost-tart sweetness of dried dates is there towards the end of the sip, but it’s mostly overpowered by the sweet sugariness that the toffee/caramel combination provides. I almost get sticky toffee pudding, but I “taste” it somewhere between my nose and throat in the moments after I swallow a sip. The flavour in the mouth is really just rooibos and the rich sweetness of caramelised sugar. After a few sips, it becomes too sweet and cloying to be really enjoyable.

I’m not a huge fan of this one. It’s better as it cools, when the rooibos has settled down as much as its going to, but it’s still not quite as cohesive as a flavoured blend as some of the others I’ve tried from this sampler. I think a different base would have helped, since the rooibos is a real distraction. I think I get what they were trying to achieve, and it’s almost there, but in the end it doesn’t quite make it.