Pudtea

The spices definitely dominate the flavor here. Cinnamon and maybe clove. Nothing at all crumbly. Not really even apple, just that dominating spice. It’s not like it tastes bad (except sometimes it’s randomly bitter) but it’s not really true to its name, which is a shame. Pretty one dimensional, but I won’t mind finishing my bag.

Happy belated Canadian Turkey Day, Steepster friends! :)

I had this one on Thanksgiving, with a special “treat yourself” breakfast I ordered in for myself – blueberry pancakes with English cream! Very rich/decadent, but it was the only thing I did special for the holiday so I gave myself a pass.

I couldn’t remember if I’d had this tea or not – it tasted familiar. Looks like I haven’t though. I enjoyed it, one of the better teas from Pudtea IMO. The apple was light to medium bodied, and a bit more of a baked apple than a fresh apple flavour which does make sense for a “crumble” profile. There’s fudge in this blend, which carries through into the steeped tea in the form of both oiliness and sweetness and while the oily mouthfeel would probably have usually bothered me I didn’t mind it as much with my already very rich/sticky breakfast.

The one thing in the blend that kind of through me for a loop was that it has a very “red hot” cinnamon flavour in the undertone – like Valentine’s Day candies. I didn’t expect it, and it did break the illusion of a baked apple/pastry profile for me. I feel like it was meant to be the more warm and buttery soft cinnamon that’s in so many pastries but that the wrong type was used, resulting in the blend being unbalanced. I got used to it, but the blend would be better served without it IMO.

I’m so glad I ordered from Pudtea when I did because it looks like their website is totally gone now. This tea wasn’t great at room temperature, but it was pretty nice cold. Tart berry flavor and a little bit of a desserty something extra. I was surprised by how tasty it was, while also being not drastically different from other tart fruit teas. I guess this one gets the balance just right. Wouldn’t say that anything about it screams pudding though. Really just a fruit tea.

Latte Sipdown (288)

This tea has such a strong rooibos flavor that I hoped a latte would help soften the rooibos and bring out the vanilla.

I pulled this out since today’s september sipdown is about dessert teas. With that in mind, I topped this latte with whipped cream and caramel and chocolate syrup. It was an alright drink. The chocolate pulled out some vanilla fudge notes which were nice but overall it was still a lot of rooibos flavor.

Fun to try but not a tea I will be looking for again.

If I didn’t know better, I would think this is a rooibos with vanilla…because that’s what it tastes like. So that’s disappointing.

Didn’t like this sample from variaTEA. I DO love ginger, I didn’t like the mess of this tea. So much so that I didn’t want to finish it, which doesn’t happen often. The base tea wasn’t great….it didn’t really come across like gingerbread… can’t win them all ;)

I’ve never had banoffee so no idea what it should taste like but this was the most caramel creamy deliciousness ever. Over the top, but I’d have more lol

Sample from VariaTEA. I wasn’t a fan of this one, and it’s likely because i dislike black forest cake haha. The cherry “tang” that was present in the cup was really jarring for me, and there wasn’t enough chocolate coming through. Glad to try it as always though

Sample from VariaTEA. This one wasn’t bad. It sort of reminded me of brownies, but the caramel side was lacking for me. Chocolately “brownie” feeling came through but not the caramel. Still though, it was a nice first tea from Pudtea to try out. Thanks!

I’m pretty sure that VariaTEA enjoyed this one, so even though I’m not a massive ginger fan I was feeling pretty good going into this cup. However, it was mostly just a cup of “nope” for me – drinkable, but honestly far too much straight ginger, without any sweetness or pastry type of notes to offset the flavour and make me think Gingerbread of just ginger.

Gonna need to play with the rest of the sample, I think…

Sipping away at a mug of this now and I have some mixed feelings.

I really, really wanted a good Blueberry Cheesecake tea and I’m just not getting anything from the flavour that makes me think of cheesecake aside from the very forward nutty (hazelnut) flavours of the rooibos base though could pass a bit as the crumb of a nice cheesecake. The blueberry flavour is a really nice somewhat baked/jammy blueberry compote type of note though and doesn’t have too much hibiscus at all. We all know I’m a sucker for a nice blueberry tea!

Plus, I just really enjoy the rooibos that Pudtea is using in their blends – I think it tastes excellent and I really enjoy it with this fruity profile. So, I’m let down by the absence of Cheesecake but the blend itself is still pretty good!

Edit: Just adding that, as it cools, there is a slight creaminess that’s coming out that could conceivably be a mild cheesecake flavour.

Cold Brew!

I’ve had the Eton Mess blend from Bird & Blend before and I like it, so I was excited to see Pudtea’s take on the same profile – it’s one I’ve only experienced in tea form. My first though when I tried the blend was “Oh, VariaTEA is going to hate this” because it’s really rooibos forward. I, however, loved it!

The rooibos blends from Pudtea have, so far, been rooibos dominant but I like whatever grade/region they’ve sourced. It’s quite nutty tasting to me, like a hazelnut brittle, with a lighter woody and mineral element. The hazelnut notes, in this tea, combined with the other elements of the profile made me think of a parfait!

The strawberry is good, though not particularly juicy/sweet. I feel like the best way to describe it is “Strawberry, but shrill”. Like, it was a high note kind of strawberry with an edge and tartness to it, but not under ripe feeling or sour/tangy. It’s compliments by the sweet, earthy taste of beets as well as a creaminess that reminds me of yogurt. Hence the overall comparison to a parfait! It was so different from what I’d expected, but genuinely it was so good. Very natural feeling, and rich without being sweet.

I am actually really interested to see, though, if I’m right about it not being VariaTEA’s kinda blend…

From earlier this morning.

I’m not totally sure where I land on this – it was a nice tea but it was definitely a little bit different than I had expected. The dry leaf aroma is more of a sweet cinnamon raisin drenched in a golden syrup – smells nice, but fruitier than I would expect a Sticky Toffee Pudding to be…

The steeped cup is pretty similar to the dry leaf aroma, although I found the cinnamon less strong in taste than it was on smell. I got caramel, lightly, as well as both apple and raisin. It’s enjoyable, though slightly thin in the cup and a bit oily in mouthfeel. This would not scream “sticky toffee pudding” to me if I was trying it blindly (too fruity, not dense/rich enough) but I see the connection. It’s actually a bit more of a Spotted Dick type of flavour to me though – perhaps because I associate that raisin note more with that type of dish?

I think when I revisit, I will try to remember to leaf heavier and steep longer.

When VariaTEA placed her order with Pud this was the only tea not available in a sample size, so she asked if I could send her some of my sample (which I am more than happy to do) and because of that, I wanted to prioritize tasting this one…

Unfortunately, I had this during the Steepster Freeze and I misjudged how long it would take for things to get back up and running so I didn’t take notes down for it. I do remember that I enjoyed it a lot though – not as much as the Banoffee Pie but it was pretty darn good IIRC. Thankfully, I have enough to send a cup or two to VariaTEA and still get to revisit it again myself.

From what I recall it was more apple forward, but actually captured that toffee sweetness nicely…

The dry leaf for this tea was my favourite smelling tea of all the Pud samples that I got – which was promising because it was also the only one of the teas that wasn’t available in a smaller size, so I got the next size up because I still wanted to try it…

I tried it last night, and I did actually really enjoy it! The mouthfeel is REALLY oily because of all the melted down chocolate/fudge pieces in the blend but if you set that fact aside the chocolate flavour itself is very smooth and rich. It’s like a moist or more fudgey piece of chocolate cake, which I suppose is what a “Yule Log” is!? I know that a Yule Log is a dessert (I think cake) in the shape of a traditional Yule Log but I don’t think it’s something that’s necessarily very popular in North America? I have seen them before, though! This is like the third UK based company I’ve seen this year with a Yule Log tea though, so maybe it’s a bigger thing ‘across the pond’? I’m not sure, though…

Anyway, this is not my favourite tea that I’ve had from Pud so far but I thought it was nice and I definitely don’t regret going for the larger size.

I was watching Sugar Rush and one team made a spiced cake and I starting craving that spice profile. I originally pulled the Sticky Toffee Pudding tea by Pudtea out of the drawer but wanted more spice so this caught my eye.

Hot, it had a lot of ginger but also a lot of apple flavor which I didn’t love. However, as this cooled slightly, that Apple flavor disappeared a bit and it really does have that sharp ginger and sweet molasses thing that gingerbread has. I’m into it.

Sipdown (277)

Following the day of trick blends, #31daysofhallotean called for a treat blend aka a favorite blend. While this certainly isn’t my favorite blend in my stash, it’s the one I wanted all day yesterday so I suppose its up there. I like it because it’s really fudgey which sells “brownie” all the way. I do get caramel but the brownie element is the star.

Just finished a mug of this…

I saw the dry leaf and I was initially very worried that it would only taste like hibiscus; there was so much in there (along with some lovely vibrant pieces of strawberry flesh). However, the amount was just right to make for a vibrant, bright cup of tea – a nice mix of tart hibiscus, just ripe strawberry, and I felt like maybe a hint of beet, too? I can’t remember if there’s actually beets in the ingredients list (probably not) but something slightly reminded me of beets…

Now, I don’t know if “Summery Berry Pudding” is really a thing – maybe in the UK where this company is based? Here in Canada, I imagine you probably could conceivably make a berry heavy pudding and call it a Summer Berry Pudding but it’s not, like, a “defined” dish. So, with that understood – I don’t think anything about the flavour reminded me of pudding even in the slightest.

It was still enjoyable though!

This is, hands down, the best tea I’ve tried from Pud Tea so far!

In fact, when I steeped this up I was so excited by it that I almost burned what I was making for supper messaging VariaTEA to try and get her to also steep it up right away! I don’t think her experience was as magical as mine, but this was the kind of cup of tea for me that was so good I almost teared up…

We all know that I love a good banana tea, and the way the banana come across in this tea is INSANE – in the best way. To be clear, I’ve never had Banoffee Pie and based on my understanding of it I actually don’t think that this is accurate to that – but what it did taste like was the kind of amazing banana pudding that my Grandmother used to make for us! It was the kind made from real bananas and often had big chunks of unmashed bananas in it, and what I loved about it (though I do love the more artificial boxed banana puddings too) was that it was sweet and creamy with this caramelized sugar note but also very authentically banana flavoured, and bananas when they’re perfectly ripe too! It might be tied as my favourite dessert that she made for us on the regular, with the other dessert being her Angel Food Cake.

So when I tried this tea I was immediately taken back to this really nostalgic place of being a small child eating bowls of amazing banana pudding after summer swimming lessons and picking vegetables and raspberries in her garden.

Aside from being the best banana pudding flavour in a tea that I’ve ever experienced, there was also this delicious graham cracker note as well – like the kind of sweetened graham cracker crust that’s the bottom of a very good slice of cheesecake.

It all came together so magically for me that if nothing else from Pud Tea ends up being mind blowing it’ll still have been a worthwhile order for me just to get to experience that pudding again!

Reached for this earlier in the week to sip on while working from home – one of the few mornings I worked from home this week and had the luxury of my full tea stash at my disposal. It’s still not my favourite; the smell is lovely and does remind me of Black Forest cake but the interaction of the hibiscus and chocolate just isn’t something I see myself getting over any time soon…

I’m on my last few sips of a mug of this one currently…

I read VariaTEA’s tasting note for this blend and that got me a bit more excited for it since the dry leaf does smell really nice! I actually had a slice of Black Forest cake really recently, so I have a fresh memory to compare to.

Unfortunately, this isn’t meeting my expectations. It’s not really a bad tasting tea, but it’s quite hibiscus forward and tart and is lacking that sweet cherry kind of syrupy reduction that’s throughout a Black Forest Cake. Like, there’s a brightness/juiciness to the sweet cherry notes in the cake but it’s not tart. Add to that the fact the chocolate is pretty thin and lighter in terms of flavour than the hibiscus and it just doesn’t work for me. I get chocolate in the finish, but it’s so soft…

A black forest cake needs to be decadent, dark chocolate cake first and foremost with that undertone of sweet cherry compote running throughout.

(This is also very oily from the melted chocolate chips)

So not a bad tea, but not a Black Forest…

Roswell Strange messaged me to try this and that peaked my curiosity so I brewed up a cup. She did 1 pftsp in boiling for 4 mins and I did the same amount in 200F for 3 mins. She loved it but for me it seemed a bit bland at first. As it cooled, a lot more flavor has come out but for me it is a lot more banana bread than banoffee pie. Though I do get some of the caramelized condensed milk that is the filling of banoffee pie. I am a fan but next time I will be trying Roswell’s steeping parameters.