Berry Cream Shortcake

TTB tea! The coconut adds a desserty, almost roasted rice sort of flavor. The slightly savory green tea goes well with the additions, sort of like in a genmaicha. I didn’t taste much fruit or anything cakey. The person I shared the cup with agreed it was really all coconut.

Another from the Strange VariaTea TTB. This is both finicky and just not Deb’s best blend. I accidentally overbrewed it the first time and it ended up tasting mostly of hibiscus (which I like, but is notably not anywhere in the name of the blend). Brewed up properly and latte’d, I do like this but am not wowed. It’s reminiscent of the Hojicha Berry Shortcake, which is maybe intentional given the names of the blends? They have pretty similar ingredients too. I didn’t love that one, either. It’s just sort of a generic berry flavor that is fine, but only fine.

Strange VariaTEA TTB #11

Though I don’t always end up loving the execution, Dessert by Deb’s blends always sound delicious to me. So I had to give this one a try when I saw it in the box! Sadly, I didn’t taste berries, cream, or shortcake in this one. It was mostly coconut and hibiscus on a mild green tea base. I love coconut, but I loathe hibiscus…so overall, not a fan of this one.

Sampled from the Strange VariaTea Traveling Tea Box

This one reads as coconut cream + sour berries, which I guess is two-thirds of the way there? I’m not sussing out any kind of shortcake note, though, and I don’t think the hibiscus is doing the berry component any favors.

Sipdown! (61 | 191)

This one is just really underwhelming to me.

It’s mostly just coconut. There’s maybe a tiny bit of something approaching a dark berry as well?

But really, to me, it’s a light coconut green tea. There is a bit of creaminess to the coconut, which is nice I suppose. The green base is okay, just one of the usual dry grassy ones.

Meh!

Sipdown (1331)!

I mean no shade by this, but I’m honestly shocked how much I ended up liking this tea. It’s not the kind of profile I would have ordered for myself (this was a freebie sample shared by VariaTEA from one of our group orders), and after my experienced with the Matcha Cream Puff I would have felt especially like it wouldn’t have been my style…

However, both cups of this that I made were just exceptionally delicious. Really great balance of flavours, with that perfect “whipped cream” shortcake kind of note mixed with macerated mixed berries and just enough green tea. Do I dare call this one of my favourite Dessert By Deb blends!? Certainly not my favourite but… up there, I think!

Does Deb carry this one all the time!? I think I need more in my next order…

Ou! I like this one quiet a bit. It smells like berries and cream. After steeping this tea, it smells like coconut with a hint of berry.

Most of Deb’s other green teas, except for Pumpkin Pie Tart and Deep Dish Apple Pie, have a prominent classic vegetal green tea taste. However, with this one, I can hardly taste the green tea. Instead, what I taste more is berries, hibiscus, and coconut.

With that being said, I am not sure if I get a strawberry flavour from this per se. It actually reminds me more of blueberries!

I am not sure if I will repurchase this one because Deb has some other yummy tea blends that I love. However, I am glad I got to try it! :)

Sil said this one should be called coconut cake and when I brewed it up it was a lot of that sort of lotion-y coconut smell. So I was worried. Thankfully, it is creamy but not lotion-y. Plus, it’s not ALL coconut. I means it’s a lot of coconut but with a generic berry flavor underneath and at the end of the sip. Honestly, I am getting a super thick and coconut cream mouth feel as if someone put a whackload of coconut whipped cream on top of some macerated berries. But like the ratio is like 2:1 or maybe even 3:1 coconut whipped cream: berries. Nothing says cake to me though. Also, I am getting the slightest bit of green tea base but not as much as I worried there would be given this is a green tea but was steeped for 5 minutes at 200F, per Dessert by Deb’s steeping recommendations.

So I’d say this one is good but not great and not one I need more of. With that said, this is a sipdown of the sample that came in my July order with Sil and Roswell Strange but I got another sample of it with the Fall teas that arrived yesterday.

i feel like this should just be called coconut cake. The berry is really really faint in this one, more there in a “tang” that comes through than in actual flavour. It’s not a BAD tea, but it’s not berry shortcake. Just mostly coconut cake.

Sipdown!

Like an off-brand version of a Strawberry Patch Doll, the aroma of this tea is sooo close to original but goes for the generic “berry” aroma and flavour.

Two types of coconut ingredients and maple give this a “trademark” Dessert by Deb profile, which I find satisfying and generally convincing as in-built “creamers” and sweeteners”. The hibiscus, elderberry, and currants create the generic “mystery red berry” flavour here. The vegetal green base sometimes works ok and sometimes distracts, depending on the cup and my head space.

I didn’t really care for it iced or with milk (don’t use real milk. It’s bad).

Rating: 68 A fun concept, but at times the coconut/hibby gives it an almost metallic quality. Elderberries and other ingredients can also come across as a little “soapy.”