Pumpkin Pie Tart

Another Sample from variaTEA. Pumpkin pie does not = green teas for me. So i dunno…this was pumpkin pie spice for sure, but on the whole i prefer that flavour with a black base vs any other.

Latte Sipdown (313)

This is creamy and mostly is just pumpkin pie spice. I expected more. It just seems like it is missing something and I think part of the issue is the maple dulls the spice a bit.

My first tea from Deb! I figured I would break into the free samples first, since the other packages are completely sealed and I would rather leave them that way until I get some more sipdowns in. Plus it sounded good!

First, let me just say that Deb is amazing. The package she sent me was covered in cute holographic stickers and filled with pretty tissue paper. She included a little paperback notebook with types of tea printed on the cover, and wrote me a sweet (and rather extensive) note in a cute tea-themed card. All this in addition to the free goodies I got because of the weekly special! What a sweet person she clearly is. Thanks, Deb!

Anyway…

I actually mostly followed the (rather shocking) recommended steeping parameters for this tea. I did shorten the time a little bit just because (1) I can’t imagine more time making a difference and (2) I didn’t want to wait that long. I did overleaf this a bit just because there were quite a few large chunky bits of apple in the pouch.

So… I don’t think I would call this pumpkin or tart, really. I do get the pumpkin pie spices, especially the clove (unsurprising, since there were whole cloves in the tea). But I don’t get pumpkin, which honestly makes sense given there is no flavoring here, and no dried pumpkin. I do get a light and pleasant apple flavor, which goes well with the spices. Thankfully, I do not taste any coconut.

I’m not sure how I feel about the added sweetness from the maple sugar (or whatever it is). It’s not overwhelmingly sweet or cloying, but I never add sweetener to my teas so it’s still quite a bit sweeter than my teas would normally be. I will say, I do appreciate that it’s restrained, as I still find it very pleasant and drinkable even with the included sugar.

So, tl;dr? It’s perfectly pleasant to sip on, but it’s not special to me. The flavor overall is quite light, and mostly it’s the pumpkin pie spices that take center stage. Will happily sip down the rest of the sample, but certainly not a reorder for me.

I was quite excited to try this one, but it didn’t quite deliver as I was hoping. I’m mostly getting saigon cinnamon, with a touch of clove and apple….and coconut, lots of coconut. Not really getting pumpkin, but more of a cinnamon coconut dessert. Still tasty, but not really what I expected.

Just finished my full length blog review of this tea (scheduled to go live late next week), and figured I’d reiterate my thoughts here.

Pumpkin Pie Tart has a very warm, inviting scent to it. Though once steeped, the flavour doesn’t exactly translate the way I would have hoped. It has a light to medium body and tastes a lot like sweet, spiced apple, at least for a majority of the sip. It finishes with a pleasant creaminess and more of the pumpkin spice. Because it doesn’t totally scream pumpkin pie in my mind, I likely won’t be re-purchasing it, but it’s enjoyable enough that I’ll have no issues finishing off what I have left of it!

I loved this one! Sometimes when there’s apple in teas, the tea has no apple flavour, and the apple is just there to add sweetness. And I understand why, since it can be hard for the hot water to absorb the apple flavour, and the apple then just acts as a sweetener.

I have only had this tea hot! But with this tea, you can really taste the apple. The spices remind me of a pumpkin pie latte, which I love! This is such a wonderful blend for the Fall!

I think this tastes more like an apple, pumpkin-spiced pie! But I really enjoyed it (even if it does not taste like a pumpkin! Maybe dried pumpkin is very expensive? Since I have never seen it used liberally in teas anyway).

I think I will repurchase this one.

#2021SteepsterSipdown

I’m a bit behind in writing my tasting note, but this is the tea that I drank for the “Pizza Inspired” theme day from Mastress Alita’s sipdown thread. I was going to do a pineapple tea initially because that’s, unapologetically, my favourite pizza topping – I even have a Pineapple Bacon tea that I thought would be perfect.

However, people who’ve been around on Steepster for a while might remember that several years ago I made a “Pumpkin Spice Pizza” with a spiced matcha glaze on it. So, I opted to go very non traditional and choose a tea inspired by my Pumpkin Spice Pizza.

I love this tea a lot – it’s probably one of my favourite blends I’ve discovered from Deb. It’s got just the right amount and combination of spice notes to actually make me think of pumpkin pie when I try it, as well as a welcome creaminess. I got such great allspice and clove flavours in this cup in particular – it was cozy and delicious!

Got tea mail today from VariaTEA with a bunch of Dessert by Deb samples to try! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!

Being October and a huge pumpkin lover (with an IG account dedicated to all the pumpkin stuff I find and yes, I have one just for tea as well) I had to start with Pumpkin Pie Tart. It smells so much like pumpkin pie! I’ve never had a green tea based pumpkin tea, but this tea makes me think that is the way to go. I can smell crust under the appropriately spiced pumpkin. The sip is mostly spice, but the end of the sip and finish are full pumpkin pie trailing into a buttery flavor. It’s light, yet flavorful at the same time. I was a little surprised by the steeping parameters being hotter and longer than I usually see with green, but they didn’t steer me wrong. This is going to have to go on my shopping list because I want more cups of this!