Long have I sought for the tea that will conquer the constant craving for carrot cake. I have tried a few (will be posting soon enough) and this is one of them.
The blended tea smells fantastic, just like carrot cake should smell. You can smell carrot and spice: cinnamon and nutmeg perhaps, along with big pieces of walnut.
Infused hot, five minutes, no additives, the tea is a little blander than I would have liked plain and alone like this. It is definitely carrot cake colored, yet you are really only smelling spice, the flavor is definitely carrots with spice and walnut, but something is missing. The creamy sweetness of cream cheese frosting? Most likely.
So I tried it again, same sampling of the tea, hot, a pinch of rock sugar, infused 4 minutes. This was closer, the added sweetness from the sugar brought out a flavor that was not there before. Interesting. I am liking this one a lot better. Might as well try it with milk.
One last time, same sample of tea, got a decent amount of infuses out of this, hot, infused 4 minutes, a pinch of rock sugar and a splash of half and half. (Sorry about the “technical” terms pinch and splash, they are not a full tablespoon for my full 8 ounce serving of tea, they are like a teaspoon of sugar, and two teaspoons of milk). This is pretty dead on flavor wise. It has a creaminess (from the milk) a sweetness (from the sugar) and then the spiced carroty goodness of carrot cake. The rooibos did not bring too much to the party, I am pretty sure it helped impart color on the liquor, but not much more, it was not overpowering and it let the additional ingredients really do their own thing in the tea.
Overall, this was pretty good. I did prefer it with milk and sugar though.