Pudtea

I’ve actually never had Black Forest Cake now that I think about it but I know that it’s cherry and chocolate and I’m a fan of both those things so I figured I’d like this. I was worried when I scooped the tea out because it was a lot of fruit pieces, especially apple. In fact, the apple chunks even stuck to the spoon. There wasn’t a lot of black tea at all and my hesitation grew when the tea brewed up quite lightly. See photo here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CC9ubDXgT1s/?igshid=6dke1jjc8s8d

Tasting it though, it’s pretty good. I don’t think it screams cherry exactly but it’s definitely got that red fruit flavor. That’s what hits you first and initially I thought that’s all there was until I realized the aftertaste was all chocolate. The more I drink, the more the flavours blend together and the more it becomes what I believe would be Black Forest cake. It’s sweet but not one note. All in all, a pretty good start to my pudtea journey.

Also sorta funny story about pudtea…I messaged Roswell Strange about placing an order because I saw it on Instagram and all their teas sounded like my kind of teas. In theory I think I was asking her to talk me out of it but we’re enablers so I knew that wouldn’t happen. Not only did she support me buying ALL their flavours (except one which wasn’t in sample size but she said she’d send me a sample) but it turns out she’d already bought them a day or two earlier. I guess sometimes we really are still tea twins!

Another new sample!

I’ve been craving sweet/creamy vanilla and custard type flavours a lot near the end of this week; I think it’s a comfort thing? So this was one of the teas from this order that I most immediately wanted to prioritize trying. It smells very nice; sweet and creamy vanilla with lots of hazelnut-y rooibos!

Steeped I found the cup enjoyable, but a little flat? The rooibos flavour is very strong and pretty nutty – and I enjoy it a lot, I found the same thing in the Candy Cane blend I tried recently and I thought it was good there too. It’s just that I was hoping for vanilla decadence and sweetness from the fudge pieces and the rooibos really outweighed the subtle taste of vanilla. Yes, it was sweet – but it tasted more like a carmelized sugar rooibos or hazelnut brittle type thing versus a “Vanilla Sundae” which should probably be both vanilla heavy in flavour and creamy/custardy too. Also, there IS black tea in this blend as well but you wouldn’t know it from the taste.

I’ve gotten so much tea mail this month, as all my pandemic tea orders are finally getting “unstuck” from postal delays, and it’s been hard to keep the pace I want to with trying everything quickly – this was from one of those orders that’s come in; I ended up buying a sample of one of every tea that they carry because they all just sounded so good!! Basically, the company’s “thing” is that all the teas are pudding/dessert (cakes/crumbles) inspired – and I do love a good dessert tea!

This is the first blend I tried, and I picked it for two reasons – it’s caffeine free and it was very late at night, and it was at the top of the box.

For a candy cane blend, I have to admit that it sort of misses the mark? And that’s not to say it isn’t a nice tea, because it’s actually a very smooth and potent tasting crisp peppermint with a pleasant, nutty rooibos. However, there’s a difference between the taste of actual peppermint leaves and the sweet and implied “candy like” taste of candy canes – and this is the former, not the latter. Agave or some kind of sweetener might help, but there’s just a herbal undertone that doesn’t exist in processed candy canes.

Good mint tea – not a good candy cane tea…