Dessert by Deb

Actually managed to get in a September sipdown, which I had given up on! (Sipdown September is now going to be Sipdown October, them’s the breaks, er, sprains). Counting this as a hardest-to-reach tea for ashmanra’s sipdown challenge since it’s in my bottom drawer and bending down is still a project.

I picked this up in my jumbo order from Deb and this is my first sipdown from that order. Not because it’s my favorite but actually because it’s one of my least favorite, so it was an easy one to lean into when I wanted a flavored hojicha but maybe not one that I’ll miss when it’s gone or one that I feel the need to focus on a lot. This is fine, but just fine, which is made the more noticeable in comparison to some of the other teas in the order (Orange Creamsicle Mousse, for example, is an absolute killer). Made as a latte per package recommendations, this is a roasty hojicha base with a sort of muddled, generic tart berry flavor and a creaminess that’s amped up by the addition of oat milk. Not bad by any means, just not my favorite Deb blend. The Hojicha Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding and Matcha Key Lime Pie are calling my name though…

ETA I notice now, looking at other people’s notes on this tea, that they were struck by the hibiscus in it. Which yes dear reader, if you don’t like hibiscus this probably won’t resonate with you. Since I do generally enjoy hibiscus, I’m less sensitive to its overuse, but I can absolutely see how its presence in this blend could read as too strong – and indeed is probably what my brain was reading as “generic tart berry.”

Strange VariaTea TTB #3

The dry leaf of this tea is so pretty and it smells lovely. Unfortunately, once it’s steeped the lavender totally takes over! I don’t taste blueberry and I definitely don’t taste angel food cake; it’s just coming across as a lavender black tea. To be fair, it’s a very nice lavender…not too soapy or perfumey for my tastes. But I was hoping for more based on the name.

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This was a pleasant enough blend. Somehow not as cocoa-y as I expected it to be, given the abundance of cocoa powder making for a seriously murky cuppa. It’s mostly hojicha with subtle touches of cocoa and toasted rice. And there’s not really anything “salted” about it, I guess maybe the rice was meant to fill that role? Not sure why there isn’t just a little bit of sea salt or something to that effect.

Anyway, it’s nice but not a reorder for me. Might have to try my own concoction with cacao shells though, those seem to give the best cocoa flavor in my experience…

The TTB has arrived! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #18

Got a caramel, got a chai, got no butter nor cream.

Fine chai, very mild and sweet (I am not used to teas with added sugar in the blends) and just right amount of star anise in my cup (there was whole, but I took two or three “shines” from it only).

Pretty fine, but for me a bit too sweet. Again, I don’t remember steeping paramters.

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Another in a long line of caramel teas from Deb. This tastes very similar to Salted Caramel Pancakes, and I remember there being several others that I thought were close as well, though I can’t recall the names at the moment. Sweet, somewhat buttery caramel sweetened with brown sugar, paired with toasted rice for a savory grainy note. Rooibos is here again, but luckily here it doesn’t overwhelm the black tea and just adds a subtle woodiness.

It’s fine, but nothing special IMO. I’m a bit confused as to why she didn’t include hojicha here since it’s meant to be a roasted milk tea. I guess she added the toasted rice instead, but to me that’s a bit different of a flavor. Also, a bit strange to throw Hokkaido in there when this doesn’t really taste creamy at all. Anyway, not one that I would reorder.

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I don’t understand the rooibos here. Red rooibos and green tea together? As I would expect, the rooibos pretty much overwhelms the green tea with its stronger flavor. I do enjoy the combination of peach and pineapple together here, but as I’ve said in the past, I don’t love fruity rooibos blends and that’s essentially what this is. It doesn’t taste super medicinal, since the fruits are more tropical and on the tart side, but still not my favorite combo.

Would have liked to see this with just the green tea, but oh well. Can’t love them all! Also, we sometimes get boba at Kung Fu Tea and I love their nata jelly topping, which is pineapple flavored and has a great texture! Now I want some…

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Don’t ask me what I was thinking when I ordered this, lmao. I never like Deb’s Earl Grey teas because of the weirdly earthy black base. I guess I was distracted because the idea of a creamy Earl and jasmine together sounds so lovely to me.

Anyway, I did like it better than some of her other Earls, probably because the black tea is mixed with green and so that earthiness is diluted a bit. Also the cream element and the jasmine helps to tone it down. I really like the combination of the jasmine with the cream, and I feel like creamy jasmine teas should be more of a thing.

Still, I can taste that potting soil sort of black base, and because of that I wouldn’t order more of this one. Love the idea though!

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So the name of this one sounds delicious. Sadly, I don’t really get much of the caramel or buttercream aspects. There’s a touch of creaminess from the coconut maybe, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it buttercream. Mostly, this is a very anise-heavy chai. I basically just taste star anise with a touch of coconut and perhaps a hint of cinnamon.

It’s not awful or anything, as I do like anise, but definitely doesn’t fulfill the promise of the name.

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From Deb’s latest collection. I love the idea of this one – I drank and ate POG-flavored everything when I was in Hawai’i last year, and it’s a wonderful combination. Also, I adore guava-flavored anything, so I was excited to see guava flavoring in the ingredients.

However, this one falls short for me because of the rooibos. It’s too rooibos-heavy in my opinion, and the rooibos comes off quite medicinal, maybe because it’s combined with fruit flavors? It seems like more rooibos than black tea to me, although it’s not according to the ingredients list.

The sweet-tart guava flavoring with the orange slices is quite enjoyable, but the rooibos heaviness ruins it for me. Would love to see this one on a plain black base or even a green base though. :)

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Last free sample from Deb.

This one was odd to me. Not sure if it’s just the combination of the artificial lime Jell-O with the blueberry or something else, but it came out oddly a bit savory? It almost tastes like oregano? And then there’s a hint of cinnamon which makes it even stranger.

Not for me ha ha.

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Another free sample. Not in love with this one – it’s okay, definitely drinkable, just not my favorite. There is a strawberry-esque flavor, but mostly it’s just from the hibiscus, since there are only a few small pieces of dried strawberry here. And then there’s quite a lot of coconut, I guess trying to emulate creaminess.

But really, it tastes like hibiscus with a bit of coconut and some sweetness. Pleasant, but I wouldn’t call it strawberry oat milk…

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This was one of the free samples Deb included with my order. Ignoring the fact that this sounds like the most ridiculous dessert imaginable ha ha, this tea is actually quite good.

The caramel is very creamy, so it ends up having a sort of white chocolate peppermint bark vibe, but with a bit more of a caramelized flavor to it. It’s somewhat sweet from the maple, but not over the top. I don’t taste a lot of actual tea, but it does give a nice body that keeps this from tasting thin and watery. The mint is bright and refreshing, no herbaceous notes in sight.

Would perhaps consider ordering some, but I think it’s a bit too close to my favorite Peppermint Cream from B&B, and I don’t really need two creamy mint teas in my cupboard. Definitely recommend it though!

Ha, I love trying different EGs, but I have to echo what other people mentioned and say that this one tastes like dirt. I also taste a pretty decent blueberry. I think adding almond milk helped this taste like drinkable dirt…but still not desirable. Thanks for giving me the chance to try this, Cameron B!

The TTB has arrived! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #3

I have been actually craving a blueberry tea and I was really happy to find one in the TTB, moreover with black tea base!

I have opened the pouch and it is strongly minty. There is certainly lots of mint in the mint, but there are also black tea leaves so, happy to try this tea.

Well, honestly… I wonder what is pie in this tea. It was quite pleasant minty tea with hints of black tea base (which was somehow plain though) and in the aftertaste I indeed noticed a bit of blueberries or/and other berries.

It was fine, but nothing to re-try at all, sadly.

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.

I loved the Dessert By Deb tea I had a couple days ago, so I had to run and find this among the teas Cameron B sent. Thanks, Cameron B! The scent from the pouch is true to name. I didn’t even hesitate to bypass reading the ingredients list since it smelled so good, other than to check that the base is houjicha. Sadly, the steeped tea is FULL hibiscus. Just drowning in it to the point that I then had to read the ingredients list to see if there was anything else in it other than hibiscus… and houjicha. But there are plenty of lovely ingredients here! Even if coconut seems really weird with some tart fruit flavors — the problem is mainly the hibiscus. I really would have liked this if the hibiscus had been left out. Maybe I shall pick some of the hibiscus out in the future? The second steep seemed toned down on the hibiscus but the other flavors were still missing. What a shame!
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons // 20 minutes after boiling // 2-3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 min

Ok so I haven’t posted in a week, partly because I’m really burned out work-wise and partly because the way I’ve started coping with that is I’ve started restoring my old Polly Pockets from childhood. Turns out I missed a pandemic trend of collecting and restoring classic Polly Pockets, so now I’m catching up and glad that there are folks who have made videos to help me figure this out! There’s something oddly satisfying about taking something small and old and loved and fixing it up, plus it really rewards the detail-oriented way my brain works anyway.

This tea brought me back to Steepster though, because I picked it up in my big recent order and cracked it open today. It’s so delightful! Which, admittedly I’m an easy mark. Rose, cinnamon, and vanilla are three of my favorite flavors. In this case, the rose and cinnamon definitely dominate. Both are strong, in a way that I really enjoy. There’s also a great sweet note and even a cookie-ness to it as a hot latte. I had forgotten about the vanilla again until I sat down to write this, but my guess is that the vanilla flavor folds into the cookie flavor/effect. While I was able to get a second steep, it wasn’t as good as the first. I think I’d probably rather just do a strong single steep. Overall super glad I got this. Would not recommend for anyone who hates rose or cinnamon!

Eating food from Canadian companies today so I’m curating my teas to match! I placed a truly ridiculous order with a vegan grocer in British Columbia, initially because I wanted the specific vegan gummies they had in stock but then because they had a bunch of other intriguing treats. Canadians, your vegan options are SOLID!
I paired this with vegan lox on a bagel and cream cheese. Not the best pairing, but I don’t have any non-sweet low-caffeine/no-caffeine options from a Canadian company. My thinking here was that at least the roastiness of the hojicha might complement the smokiness of the lox. Which it probably would, but the cinnamon sugar really clashes. I ended up waiting until I finished the bagel and drinking most of the tea afterwards.

Managed to get covid for a third time, which at this point just feels like a cruel joke. I still hadn’t fully recovered the most sensitive/acute part of my sense of smell from the last time. The good news is that this is a relatively mild case, with no further degradation of my sense of smell! I’m not fully better yet but definitely already significantly improved and finally starting to have some teas for fun rather than just health.
I knew this blend would hit the spot as soon as I saw it. The combination of roasted, caramel-y hojicha and cinnamon sugar is just so cozy. I made it as an oat milk latte, which is how I usually make most of Deb’s teas. It’s perfect for curling up under a fluffy blanket on the couch on a cold day even when I’m not sick.

I’ve been wanting to place a Dessert by Deb order for a while, but kept putting it off because shipping from Canada is pricey, I’d have to buy a lot of tea to justify it, and I don’t really have the space in my tea drawers to stash a large order. But! She had a big shop re-opening a few weeks ago and it finally drew me in. As I sip on this blend, I regret nothing. This is actually the only blend that I got a large quantity of, and it’s the first one I opened. The name of it isn’t that enticing, honestly. I don’t like bread pudding, so I almost passed right by it. But! The ingredients list is absolutely killer. Just… all things I super enjoy.

I made this hot as an oat milk latte. It tastes like cinnamon-sugar french toast: sweet, cinnamon, roasty, creamy (possibly that’s the oat milk). Sort of like the milk left over after you finish a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch, in a good way. Absolutely starting this shipment off on a high note.

TTB
Strawberry toasty genmica! This one has a stronger strawberry jam taste first steep, the second steep is just toasty rice, but is still very smooth and not bitter. I’d consider this for purchase. Thanks for adding it to the box!

TTB
Not getting a lot of coconut or cream here, the cardamom and ginger are the strongest flavors. I am enjoying the cool morning spring like weather and feeling slightly guilty that the rest of y’all are switching to iced tea. This is not a bad little chai, don’t know if I need it in my cupboard, but I’d drink it again.

TTB
A root beer float! Creamy vanilla and sasparilla, with a slightly spicy finish. Smooth and mellow for an afternoon treat. Can’t say I’ve been a fan of several Desert by Deb’s teas but this one was great!