Plum Deluxe

I usually don’t drink tisanes, but I do like rooibos when I don’t want caffeine. This was much better than expected. Smooth, creamy, chocolatey -but not too sweet.

TTB! I can’t tell what flavor this is supposed to be, but it’s smooth and nice! I guess it’s a little fruity! The resteep was pleasant as well.

Plum Deluxe Hanukkah Sampler (caffeinated) – Day 6

Didn’t take notes while drinking this, so working from memory. But I remember really liking this one, particularly the distinct pecan note, cinnamon, and sweetness. This is the kind of dessert-y tea that makes me feel all comfy cozy.

Plum Deluxe Hanukkah Sampler (caffeinated) – Day 5

I don’t think I’ve ever had actual huckleberries, but supposedly they taste like blueberries. Or are they the same thing? A quick internet search did not provide a clear answer. This blend tastes like blueberries and blackberries on a brisk base. It would probably make a cold brew! There’s nothing wrong with it, but since strawberries are the only berries I really like (that I’ve actually tried), I’m just not the right audience.

Plum Deluxe Hanukkah Sampler (caffeinated) – Day 4

I accidentally oversteeped this one by a few minutes but it doesn’t seem to have done any harm. The cherry flavor and grassiness of the green tea hit at the front of the sip. A gentle floral jasmine note and a very light vanilla linger after the sip. I like that it’s not a treacly candy cherry or cough syrup flavor. It’s more like a black cherry note. This reminds me (favorably) of the Jefferson blend I’m still obsessed with – if I didn’t have a bunch of that still on hand, I’d probably stock up on this one.

Advent tea!
The berry flavor here is medicinal, and it overpowers the puerh. Good thing is I have lots of other tea to drink this morning, now where is that yunnan…

Plum Deluxe was very kind to donate a bunch of samples to our tea society. This one seems the least offensive to my flavor-despising palate. By that I mean natural and artificial flavors. Once you switch to pure, it’s hard to go back. Despite that, I found the wet aroma resembled a buttercream frosted sugar cookie to a T. I took a little sip and thought it was decent. My daughter really enjoyed it.

Advent Tea!
I skipped this one last week and now its a lazy afternoon to catch up on tea notes. This one is spearmint forward with a soft lemon finish. Not a bad afternoon pickmeup, but not something I’ll need to revisit.

Plum Deluxe Hanukkah Sampler (caffeinated) – Day 2

Made this as a cold brew for my partner and just took a few sips for the sake of the tasting note (trying to not overdo it with the caffeine). I hadn’t realized that this one’s flavored, so I was surprised when I took a sip, but I’m getting strong milk chocolate notes, not vanilla! Which I’m really enjoying but since everyone else is getting the intended creamy/vanilla, I’m getting worried that my taste buds might be off somehow…

Advent tea!
Ceylon dominates this blend, but Keemun shaves off the rough edges. Lemon is in there somewhere but just barely. Its a nice cup, but I prefer more awesome tea in my breakfast blends.

Advent tea!
Oh, this was a welcome sight in my advent, a straight black tea to get my ass out the door. I would have normally put two tablespoons of this in a cup, but one did the job. I would add this to an order from PD!

Advent Tea!
This one was just ok. Black tea that was smooth enough with some sort of flavoring? It disappeared from my cup on a busy morning without much to remember it by.

Advent tea!
This one is a boring cinnamon orange tea with not enough of either to overpower or make it an interesting cup. Good enough for a breakfast brew on a cold day, but not something I need in my cupboard.

Advent tea!
The first steep was creamy and the second steep was caramel. Not a bad tea, but not eggnog with nutmeg either.

I am doing the Plum Deluxe caffeine advent again this year. Day 1 was bergamot and it was ok, day 2 was jasmine and I didn’t finish the cup. Here is day three and it’s caramel and clove with a hint of smoke. A nicely balanced cup that disappeared quickly. I would consider adding this to an order, just because it’s not too clove heavy.

This is another tea shared with my by thereadersteacup! And she shared such an incredibly generous amount of it, too! Honestly, I can’t even tell you how big my smile was seeing this one, and it got even bigger smelling the dry leaf. Oh, I was drooling! I absolutely love root beer flavoured things, and this smells exactly like popping the cap off a bottle of Dad’s Old Fashioned Root Beer. If you’ve never tried that brand, it’s one of the best. Such a treat from my childhood!

Steeped up, the smell wafting off the cup was just as mouthwatering though the taste was more black tea forward with a strongly tannic bite to the sip followed by more of a malty, bready sort of note. I wish the sarsaparilla and the overall creamy “float-like” qualities were a little stronger, but it wasn’t as if they were missing. Just more of a backseat to the black tea. Frankly, that’s arguably how it should be. It’s just rough being such a root beer fan and getting drawn in by that heavenly dry leaf aroma. A little sweetener and maybe a short steep time would likely pull all of that root beer goodness more to the forefront.

2025 TTB tea

This is a tea I expected to like more than I did. I didn’t want to risk it being sour so I brewed it 3 minutes in hot water (~150 mL) and then topped it off with ~200 mL cold water. The cup is still super hot (I use cooler water at home but this work kettle is crazy fast and hot). It’s good and fruity. I can pick out distinctly blueberry, raspberry, and red fruit flavours. It isn’t as jumbled and meddled as some mixed fruit teas. The puerh doesn’t come through too much. Slightly sweet and woody but nothing like straight puerh. It’s good for a cup of flavoured tea but it doesn’t have a lot of actual tea flavour.

TTB! This was lightly appley and floral. The black base was very light, barely even noticeable. Hot, it tastes like nothing, but it was pretty enjoyable cold.

The main flavor here is green rooibos, and it’s a really nice one. I also taste some fruitiness that could be the bergamot. I wouldn’t necessarily pick this over other EGs or other green rooibos tea, but this was really quite decent cold with milk and sugar. One of my favorite teas from the TTB!

TTB sample! Never have I tasted a tea that I would describe as lotiony as strongly as with this tea. It was so lotiony that I gave the cup to someone else. That’s all I tasted.

TTB! The peach flavoring was a little chemically for me. It reminds me of maybe an Adagio tea I had years ago. With milk and sugar, it’s still drinkable and reminiscent of peach rings. Not bad, but not something I would seek out. It’s just a little too fake, and I don’t get any cream or much oolong.

April backlog and sip down

Steeping method: Western. 195F @ 3-minutes.

Tasting Notes: The honeybush takes the lead in the cup; however, it helps elevate the chocolate notes as it cools down. There’s a slight hint of the chocolate oranges I’d get in my stocking for Christmas when I was little. Very nostalgic.