Dessert by Deb

Intended to latte this tonight but ran out of milk, oops. So I steeped it a bit too strong, and added some coconut milk. Good blueberry flavour, and I tasted the almond this time, but it was astringent. I’m not sure if the increased flavour was worth the astringency, but I still drank it.

Got a huuuuuge teamail today from Deb – 2 sub boxes + 2 orders (one from each of the two latest collections). (And my next huuuuuge teamail from 52teas was mailed out today – hooray!)

Had to dive right into these fun new teas! I was looking forward to this one, as I’ve previously enjoyed one of Deb’s blueberry teas, and was interested in how the almond would come through. The dry tea smelled nicely fruity, though not really much almond. The flavour was similar – a rich black base, distinct blueberry, and just a hint of almond – pretty good! I think I prefer it the way it is, with less almond, as sometimes I find that flavouring to be rather overwhelming, and artificial, which it’s not here.

A good start!

There are big chunks of dark chocolate in this blend, which I was quite excited about, but the scent is very lavender forward.

Well, I don’t taste a stitch of chocolate here. It’s more like a slightly creamy lavender tea. I don’t mind lavender at all, and actually quite like it. But still a bit sad this didn’t live up to its name!

A random aside that I find tea names so important because (at least for me) it sets such an expectation and even if the tea is tasty, I find it difficult to get past when it doesn’t match the name.

Thank you to Cameron for sharing this one! :)

Woohoo, a parcel from Cameron arrived yesterday!

This one does say to steep and enjoy with milk, which I’m not doing (as a disclaimer).

I steeped this for 5.5 minutes, which I was a bit concerned would result in astringency in the base, but I’m happy to report that’s not the case. The base is smooth with just enough depth to make it substantial. The first smell and taste is lemongrass, which I don’t know if I’ve ever had in combination with a black base. While there’s nothing wrong with it, I wasn’t overly thrilled with just a lemongrass black tea. Happily, the banana starts to kick in as the tea cools. It takes a backseat to the lemongrass, but the fit nicely together, creating an almost creamy profile. Overall, a fairly tasty cup and I’m grateful to have been able to try it.

Thanks Cameron!

Definitely wish the base tea was more flavourful here. This is also not an eggnog tea for those who dislike coconut – my second cup was very coconutty. Fine with me, but not what one might expect!

The reason for my recent Amoda order. I cannot resist eggnog teas. :D

The aroma of the tea is nicely spiced (predominantly nutmeg), coconut-heavy and creamy. The flavour follows, although is a bit lighter, and I wish I could taste the green tea sweetness more – kind of like it came through in the Butiki eggnog teas. Overall pretty tasty!

sample from variaTEA – trying to get through them all :) Not a fan of this one but didn’t expect to be. I find deb uses a bit much coconut in her blends for me to get behind most of them. Not terrible, but mostly just coconut hojicha with brown murky residue in the bottom of my cup.

Long tasting note will definitely have to come sometime in the future because I’m fucking tired tonight and I just want to wrap up all the tasting notes I have outstanding before I got into daily advent tasting reviews tomorrow…

So to keep it brief – this is the first Dessert By Deb blend I’ve tasted in a little while where I’ve felt the name was actually pretty damn spot on for how it tasted. Not overly sweet either, which I like! And a restrained amount of chocolate. This was good vibes for me – looking forward to my next cup sometime post advent craziness.

Sipdown! (35 | 487)

I quite enjoyed this one. It reminds me of a cereal I used to like when I was younger, called Blueberry Morning. Apparently Post still makes it, I just haven’t seen it at any stores near me in a long time. I’ll have to keep an eye out!

Anyway… I don’t generally like almond flavoring, but I don’t really taste it here. It reads more sweet and jammy blueberry with a little bit of toasted almond. There’s a brown sugar sweetness that’s reminding me of the sweet granola clusters from that cereal. The black base, as usual, is not my favorite and has a slightly tannic character but not much else.

I will say after having several cups, I remain surprised that there’s no blueberry flavoring in this. The blueberry taste has been very present and consistent, which is unusual for something with just dried berries.

My only complaint is it’s a bit too sweet, and because of that it won’t be a reorder for me. I enjoyed my 25g pouch though! :)

Made this to go with chocolate chip cookies my brother-in-law made to go in the cookie pocket of a mug my sister bought me. It cooled before I started drinking and I’m not loving it. It’s just sort of cloying without a distinctive cookie taste. Check out the pic here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CWzbk2Itr6r/?utm_medium=copy_link

I appreciate that this tea isn’t all puckery hibiscus! It’s actually pretty well balanced, and does actually taste like cranberry. A nice evening choice.

Gave this a fairly long infusion (not totally intentional) and I like the result. Sweet, a little tangy, definitely kind of jammy. Certainly a bit reminiscent of cranberry sauce. I did use a fair bit of tea for this cup as well, though, so not the most economical tea.

This tea fell by the wayside by accident, from a sub box I believe. It wasn’t too bad – I wanted more flavour, particularly the cream, but it was definitely somewhat sweet from the raisins. I think some additional breadiness would also have been useful.

I feel like for a long time Snickerdoodles had kind of fallen off the radar of most people and were sort of seen as “unpopular” but lately I’m seeing snickerdoodle flavoured things everywhere. It’s weird how some foods are almost cyclical in their popularity…

I’m sipping on this one right now and it’s actually pretty nice. I remember feeling underwhelmed a bit by it in past tastings, but as it starts to cool right now I’m finding that the softer flavours are representing its namesake well. Kind of starchy/doughy and baked tasting with hints of cinnamon and a nice maple/toffee kind of finishing note. It’s still not a favourite, but for a lightly sweet Sunday morning cuppa I feel I have nothing to complain about in this moment either.

Sipped on this one just as my work day was ending today.

I feel like a Snickerdoodle tea should be sweeter than this, which is maybe a polarizing statement to make since there’s actually maple sugar in this blend. It’s got all the other flavours though, especially the warm pastry style cinnamon. It’s good. It is good. But, like… it also feels like it’s missing a little something something? That, well, spark that takes it from just nice pastry cinnamon to Snickerdoodle.

Hmmm… Gotta think on this one a little more.

There’s a familiarity to me about this blend – and I don’t think that it’s because it’s reminding me of anything else from Dessert by Deb. I get a lot of front end cinnamon flavour but then the finish was more sweet and maple-y with an almost creaminess to it. Did it remind me of a Snickerdoodle? Yeah, maybe a little? But it’s more just bugging me that it definitely did remind me of something else. Like, it was almost like a cinnamon gingerbread kind of vibe? I don’t know, hard to nail down right now…

Sipdown 183-2021

Really, really did not like this. So much weird apple flavor. Way too sweet. Had to dump it.

This isn’t my favorite. It’s a fine hojicha, but I’m not getting any apple or turnover. A bit of spice, but definitely no baked notes.

This is tasty- juicy peach and a bit of cinnamon.

This is SO GOOD. Fresh, juicy peach combined with lightly spiced crumbly baked topping. This is a great representation of Deb’s talents.

I’m not really into the cinnamon flavour here, and I don’t think I’m a big fan of these matcha blends either. Not a favourite, but I’m also not the biggest fan of cinnamon teas in general, so not surprised.

Iced Latte Sipdown (224)

I’m always surprised by this because it is a boba milk tea. Like spot on.

Made this as an iced latte and it’s so weird because it actually tastes like an unflavoured boba milk tea. It’s got black tea flavour but is also creamy and has a bunch of brown sugar notes. Just needs the tapioca pearls…

Check out the pic of the latte here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CV8ZEwRrTbL/?utm_medium=copy_link

Sipdown 178-2021

This cup was much more creamy and less tart/fruity than previous cups. The green base is also much more apparent and is a bit seaweedy, which isn’t really working with the heavy cream flavor.