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“Last Wednesday I woke up excited for Starbucks holiday drinks…except they didn’t come out until Thursday. So in my disappointment I decided to make an iced latte that I thought would sorta resemble...” Read full tasting note
“(52teas (Anne) 2022: 122) 2022 Sipdown 65/365! I stick by my original comments. I really enjoy this tea – there’s clearly more to it than just a great base tea – some spicing and creaminess – but...” Read full tasting note
“Hmmm… So, this tastes quite different from what I expected and it did take me a moment to really reflect on what I was tasting and how it didn’t mesh with what I had anticipated. The flavour is...” Read full tasting note
“Sipdown! and good thing too because my cupboard is about to get bigger again courtesy of my husband picking up teas from variaTEA – both samples AND orders. I’m super exited about it even if it’s...” Read full tasting note
When I first tried Bu Lang black tea, I noted deep, dark, sweet caramel-y notes to it that immediately evoked thoughts of my favorite dessert: crème brûlée! So I had plans to create a tea just like this back when I first tried it, but since then, I’ve utilized the tea in other blends (& loved it) but somehow kept putting off the Crème Brûlée Bu Lang until I didn’t have any left on the shelf. So with my most recent order for more inventory, I made sure to buy enough of these rather distinctive black tea leaves to create a Crème Brûlée Bu Lang!
Here it is!
This blend starts with rich Bu Lang black tea leaves – combined with creamy custard essence, vanilla extract & a touch of caramel & brûléed sugar essences to create a delightful, delectable dessert-y treat for your teacup. SO GOOD – & it’s vegan, gluten-free & allergen free too!
ingredients: black tea, organic calendula petals & organic natural flavors
Wow! I’m in love with this tea!
The BuLang tea is an Assamica varietal grown in the Yunnan Province. The leaves are large & beautiful. I quite like the natural flavor of the tea on it’s own – without essence added – but with my recipe for crème brûlée blended into it – it makes for an astonishingly delightful cuppa! Sweet – but not too sweet – with just enough robust, malty black tea flavor to remind you that you’re drinking tea.
Very nice!
to brew: with these leaves, I highly recommend using a scale to measure it because the leaves are big & bulky & a teaspoon won’t do you a lot of good with these leaves – it won’t give you an accurate measurement. So, if you have a scale, please use 3g of leaf to 12 ounces of near boiling water (205°F) & steep for 2 1/2 minutes. strain & allow to cool for at least 10 minutes to allow those flavors to develop.
PS: After another experiment with this tea (an accidental experiment!) try steeping this a little longer! I steeped it (again, accidentally) for about 5 minutes and it came out LOVELY. I think it might have been even better if it was a little less, maybe 4 minutes!
Also, do give it the cool time to allow the flavors to develop – you’ll be glad you did!
At 52teas.com, you will find unique, hand-blended artisan loose leaf teas: a new limited edition creation every week of the year. We pride ourselves on offering truly unique, one-of-a-kind tea blends that you won’t find anywhere else.
Last Wednesday I woke up excited for Starbucks holiday drinks…except they didn’t come out until Thursday. So in my disappointment I decided to make an iced latte that I thought would sorta resemble the caramel brûlée latte. I made this with salted caramel cold foam and while it wasn’t the same, this was very good.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 122)
2022 Sipdown 65/365!
I stick by my original comments. I really enjoy this tea – there’s clearly more to it than just a great base tea – some spicing and creaminess – but creme brulee would not be what comes to mind. Don’t really care though, I just care that it tastes good. (Also, this is another technical sipdown; I have a large unopened packet of this one as well.)
In other news, there were 3 notable developments/revelations in my tea-related life today:
1) No surprise here, just discovered a bunch more 52teas packages in the stash of teas I had rescued from the work mouse (I keep them apart from the rest in case they were possibly contaminated, and there is much handwashing involved). Did not realize quite how many were there, but a few of my questions on where teas ended up have been answered. I’ll have to properly inventory later.
2) Last night, I was reviewing my 52teas list, and my goodness I swear that half of them start with the letters B or C! Out of interest, I am looking at the exact numbers right now – there are 325 entries on my spreadsheet right now (yes, some duplicates) and 46 of them start with B (6 dupes), while 56 start with C (3 dupes)! Combined, I believe that’s about 31% of my 52teas stash, which is… crazy.
3) My beloved stainless steel variable temp Black & Decker electric kettle…. is leaking. The lid closure mechanism had kicked the bucket sometime last year, so it has been held closed by a fork (when I bother), and there seems to be something a little wonky with the temp gauge on occasion, but both of these issues I could work around. I had been noticing water around the base for a while, and blamed careless pouring… But today, I caught the leak in action. It’s not significant enough to prevent usage yet, but it’s probably only going to get worse, and I’m not sure there’s a boiling-safe way to fix it. The leak is coming from one of the (plastic) windows. Sigh. So, looking for recommendations on favourite stainless steel (or glass), digital variable temp electric kettles. I don’t actually use the variable temp ability, but I do really love knowing the temp of the water in the kettle before I pour it.
Ugh, kettle issues are the worst, and the denial is real. :) I use a cheap plastic non-variable-temperature kettle I got at Home Hardware, so sadly, I can’t help you. Could you just buy another one of the kettles you already have?
I don’t think this particular model exists anymore :( However, I’d buy it again if I found it! I haven’t really done much searching at this point as the denial has (clearly) been very real. And continues to be – honestly, I’m probably going to use this kettle until one of the windows pops out while it’s boiling, and then I’ll be sorry. Haha.
*My husband would prefer I did not use the kettle until such an occurrence, so there will have to be a balance…
Sorry to hear about your kettle. I absolutely love my Breville One-Touch – which is actually a tea maker and not a kettle, but I use it at least 40 percent of the time as a variable temp kettle.
And I had a good laugh about the B/C thing. B … probably a good number of them are Banana? (Just a guess – I have a thing for banana teas) C – I don’t know if there is a particular fruit that I tend to lean toward that is C – ah! Coconut is probably definitely one of them. Another favorite fruit. And possibly Cream/Creme – another flavor profile I am fond of. Last year when everyone was doing the alphabet teas – I contemplated doing something like that where every week, I do the next letter of the alphabet. I might still do that at some point. :)
I’ve had really bad luck with Breville kettles. I had the variable temp steel with plastic window one in 2013 that had to be sent in for warranty repair in 2017 and bought my first glass IQ kettle while waiting for the repair. The glass one had to be replaced a year later in 2018 and it’s starting to act up now 4 years later. They aren’t cheap to be going through so fast.
I would definitely agree that a large part of the “B” is from Banana, but I don’t think the C is exclusive to 52Teas – at work in our tea lab, out of every letter, the “C” section is the most packed as well.
Dustin – good to know, that’s really unfortunate! If I buy anything expensive I’ll definitely have to pay attention to reviews. This one was close to $100 at the time, I believe, but it has served me well. It’s at least 5 years old; I’m not sure exactly when it was purchased.
@Dustin – I’m sorry you had so many troubles with your Breville appliances. I will say that Breville has exceptional customer service. When I first bought my one-touch, I broke the glass kettle after 4 years, and I wanted to simply buy another glass kettle (but they do not sell just the glass kettle replacements) so I happened to call the customer service hotline. I called after hours, so they called me the next business day and offered a refurbished replacement unit (the full unit) if I sent them the base I had from my first unit – they even paid for shipping of the base. I don’t know if they do that for everyone, I’m sure they do not, but they were so kind to me. A year later when I (sadly) broke the replacement kettle, I called them to see if they could offer me a deal, and they offered me a discount on a brand new unit – which I’m still using now. And it’s still working perfectly, some six or seven (?) years later.
My Krups is still going, and my Cuisinart got a window leak after several years. It was so handy that I did buy another. I have a gooseneck Breville for gong fu and so far so good, but it is not used as often. The leaky is still here in the event if another breakdown, because it only leaks when filled over a liter.
52Teas & Roswell Strange –
So yes, a bunch of the Bs are banana! 10 (2 dupes), in fact, 11 if you include Banoffee Breakfast Blend. The other big ones are blackberry (6, 2 dupes), blueberry (7), and other variants on the berry theme (Berried Treasure, Berry Wonderful Root Beer, Boo-Berry Cotton Candy).
C is definitely heavy on coconut (11), and also has a good dose of Cranberry (6, 8 if you include Crangerine Salad and Crisp Cranberry Soda). Aside from those, it’s more of a mixed bag – Caramel (4), Cherry (4), Chocolate (4). Only 2 cream/creme (this tea, and Creme Brulee Beignet).
It looks like the trend is similar in my tea collections from other companies (DavidsTea, A Quarter to Tea) – maybe there are just more flavour-oriented words that begin with those letters! Interesting to note!
I didn’t even think about cranberry! I should have because I’m trying to think of a cranberry tea to create that would be suitable for spring. :)
Expand the “c” list even more. Make custard, crepe and creme de leche teas (with cranberry) :)
Ha! I did use my previous kettle until the plastic window popped out! Now I have one without a window, I have to look inside to see how much water, I figured I drink so much tea I didn’t need any plastic in it. The Secura double walled kettle is not variable temp, but I like it a lot. At least I know I won’t burn anything by touching the outside of the kettle.
When my first Breville kettle went out it was still under the warranty period and they replaced it for free. The glass one touch was past the warranty time frame and there was a $69 fee for repair. Extra bases were sold separately for $50, but they were out of stock. They also didn’t get back to my original customer service inquiry until I emailed them again 2 weeks later. So one experience with good service and one with bad service. I probably should have bought a different brand at that point, but I really liked the kettle.
Hmmm…
So, this tastes quite different from what I expected and it did take me a moment to really reflect on what I was tasting and how it didn’t mesh with what I had anticipated. The flavour is definitely sweet and there’s a distinct vanilla custard type note that does match up with what I associate with a creme brulee or creme brulee inspired tea. The thing that through me for a bit of a loop is actually in two parts. Part one is that there’s this very fruity kind of undertone to the blend that was really unexpected – and I feel like it might be from the black tea base itself, because it’s a sort of figgy red fruit vibe that does sort of match with flavours I’ve experienced with this leaf style.
The other thing that through me for a loop was more of an absence of flavour – and that’s the kind of bitter burnt sugar note that feels really crucial to me in in order to offset the very rich sweetness and creaminess of a Creme Brulee. A think just a little of something in than vein would have helped a lot because this got to feeling rather cloying for me by the end of the mug.
It’s still a nice tea overall, but I think I really need to try it again with a perception shift and see how I feel about it knowing more what it’s going to taste like going into the mug.
Sipdown! and good thing too because my cupboard is about to get bigger again courtesy of my husband picking up teas from variaTEA – both samples AND orders. I’m super exited about it even if it’s just for the sake of more options. I’m discovering that when i was working in the office, a smal cupboard was totally fine becuase i was only drinking 2-4 different teas a day. Now that i’ve been working from home for months, i’m up to 4-12 different teas a day. And soooooo i need more teas lol
I’ve been excited about their drinks too. Their plum danish is pretty good warm if you have that in Canada.
I don’t think we have that