T Kettle

Soooo much ginger!

So this is clearly the T Kettle take on “Super Ginger” and, let me tell you, it shows. I can’t drink Super Ginger because it’s too much hot/spicy ginger for me and the same is definitely true of this blend – it’s got the same almost volatile hot and spicy ginger note that feels like static on your tongue, but this time boosted with the addition of chili pepper. There’s totally a customer for this level of ginger, but damn is it not me!

The thing that I find weird about the blend, though, is that it’s pretty similar to T Kettle’s “Gingerbread Cookie” blend – like, definitely the same style of ginger flavour. So, I’m not totally sure I understand the point of having both!? I guess my assumption was that they were going for sweeter and more seasonal with the Gingerbread Cookie but I just read the copy writing for this tea on their website and they also are describing this one as a ginger cookie with a slight holiday spin to it.

It’s a bit confusing to me, but honestly the tea is fine – it’s just SO MUCH ginger and that’s a flavour I’m not into…

Yes, I’m still working my way through T Kettle blends – just trying to keep a balance with everything else in my stash…

I’m not big on chocolate teas – I don’t have a big hate for them but I rarely seek them out, especially when it comes to plain chocolate teas. I thought this one was pretty fine tasting but not exciting at all, but I guess that didn’t surprise me. It has the sort of chocolate flavouring that tastes more like a chocolate liqueur – just alcohol based, sweet and sticky on the palate/tongue. Not off putting, but not “authentic” chocolate either. It’s medium-ish bodied which makes it kind of neutral in my mind; find to have plain if this is your flavour jam, but would take milk or other additions relatively well too. There is also stevia in the blend, but in all honesty I didn’t taste it at all.

Not my favourite, but I think it is what it’s supposed to be.

This Orange Pekoe is an abomination.

Like, I’m sorry because that’s not a very nice thing to say – but it’s what I feel in my heart.

I mean, do you know how much it killed me making the Steepster page for this tea and having to check off that it was a blend of black and green tea!? More than that, which is already a crime in my books, it has cornflowers blended into it!? I’m usually all for colouring just outside the lines when it comes to the “rules” of tea, but this is just so far off the page that when I first saw the tea photo on the T Kettle website I thought they had made a mistake and used the photo from one of their other teas.

This is just not what an Orange Pekoe should be. Why does this exist!?

And more over, it’s not even good. Like, if it tasted okay I could maybe excuse the mess that is this tea – but it was just soooooo stale/flat and lifeless tasting. Just, very very sad tea. I have tried to be reaaalllyyyy conscious of not just roasting some of T Kettles blends because I can. However, I don’t feel bad for this one. Just…

What. Were. They. Thinking.

I actually sipped this one last night, but wasn’t somewhere I could jot down tasting notes. So this’ my second cup. The smell is classic vanilla frosting, creamy and buttery. Nothing chocolatey about it. In fact, I also bought Cozy Cocoa, which has a very distinct alcohol-based chocolate flavouring in its scent, and there’s not a whiff of that here, so I’m doubting they added any chocolate flavouring at all.

Taste-wise… I just finished eating dinner, so I can’t say I’m going to give the best description. Vanilla, a sort of tonka flavour? An alcoholic flavouring-oil like taste, that leaves a mouthfeel that does sort of add to the ‘vanilla frosting’ bit. I can’t say I’m getting any chocolate, still… Although a lot of liquid chocolate flavourings do have a largely ‘boozy chocolates’ taste to them. There’s an astringency at the back of my throat that’s also probably from the flavouring oil.

I AM a sucker for any cakey vanilla sweet flavouring in tea. This is fairly generic but pleasant, minus the bitter note. Maybe four minutes for these teas in the future. I’ll probably do a second note when I’ve got a clearer palate.

Dry, this smells strongly of scented markers I used to play with growing up. I couldn’t say which scent—vanilla or popcorn or some baked good ones. Sweet and a bit plasticy, but good.

Brewed, this smells… Honestly, like how cookie and biscotti smell after you’ve dipped them into tea and they’ve gone soft. It’s very distinct. And very fitting. So it smells good, like biscotti, like tea and milk and honey.

Taste wise… Surprisingly a bit astringent, even though I was very careful with my five minutes this time, and the tea itself looked at first glance like the small curled leaves of a Chinese black tea (the glossyness, in retrospect, might have been flavouring oil). But taste-wise, Sri Lankan. Maybe blended with a Chinese black, and/or some Assam. I always have difficulty picking out bases under flavouring. It’s faintly astringent but not enough to turn you away; there’s a faintly oily mouthfeel of almonds, like a sweet almond oil of some sort, that trails into the aftertaste as I breath out. Unfortunately the baked goods in the smell don’t translate much into the taste. Mostly just almond. Not something I’d reach for in the future, as the astringency is verging on bitterness. I’m sure this would be very nostalgic and pleasant with milk, though.

I’m slowly working my way through a bunch of ounce teas I picked up in-store. I came in knowing exactly what I wanted beforehand. Saves you time, energy, social interaction. I’m typing this while working on a blog post about upcoming tea-book releases. There’s a couple of books I’m excited for in 2021. It’s a nice, lazy Sunday.

So, I finally picked up a few blends. I’ll make a review of the physical location itself once the Places tab is usable again.

This was… The smell was downright familiar, in a "I’ve smelt this exact profile of ‘Pumpkin Tea’ somewhere before’. Stash’s? Republic of Tea’s? Metropolitan’s? I don’t know. Not DAVIDs’, not Murchie’s. It’s something like a ‘liquid chocolate flavour’ kind of scent. Still there while brewed.

This tastes thin, but fine. Rosehip I picked up. Clove and cinnamon, followed by ginger for a warmth. It’s thin, not really creamy and full. I’m surprised I get nothing, or very little, from the stevia. It’s unobtrusive, whereas usually it dominates any blend that has the misfortune of containing it? If it wasn’t listed in the ingredients, I probably would have guessed any sweetness was from the fruit or the candy. The more I sip, the more the ginger sticks and lingers, which is pleasant.

No pumpkin, just the barest watery fruit, overtopped with the usual spices, although no creamyness or heft to it. I picked myself up some vintage mugs, and the taste and look at least fits the aesthetic of the fall-harvest mug I’m drinking it out of.

I hate this name… I can’t explain why, but something about it squicks me out.

The tea itself was alright, but a bit simple. For a recreation of Hibiscus Splash, which is a pretty sweet/juicy cherry profile, this leans rather hard on the tartness of the hibiscus and cranberry in the blend. What I did like though was that, for a tart profile, it wasn’t really sharp – and that’s a fine nuance/distinction to me, but I appreciate a fuller and more thick feeling and tasting tartness. I wish there wasn’t stevia here, because I really tasted it in the finish – but overall it was a pretty good general hibiscus fruit tisane. There’s just so many of those out there that I doubt it’ll be a memorable one.

No complaints about this Sunny C dupe.

It’s straight forward, but very pleasant with a rich and robust full bodied citrus flavour that reminds me of fresh squeezed orange juice. I imagine it would be lovely cold brewed or iced, but it was also just a generally nice time as a hot cup.

Also the short copy on the website for this tea uses the phrase “Squeeze the day” and that might legitimately be my favourite bit of copy writing on the entire T Kettle website. 10/10 – that’s just a great pun.

T Kettle version of Maple Syrup Oolong? Cardamom French Toast? Mash up of the two!?

I’m thinking, based on taste/ingredients list/visual that this was intended to be Maple Syrup Oolong but that T Kettle figured they’re get more “bang for their dupe” and toss in the French Toast into the name and hastily cover two teas in one. Pure speculation, of course, but fits the pattern…

If I wasn’t such a big fan of DT’s Maple flavouring, and Maple Syrup Oolong in particular, I might think that this was pretty good – I enjoy the oolong base a lot, which is noticable and has a nice woodier and nutty quality with some floral undertones. The maple is a bit artificial leaning to me, and rather thin, but far from the worst maple I’ve encountered in a tea before. The chicory is a negative for me – I don’t like the almost sour roast note is sort of wedges into the profile.

Overall, it is a good tea – but it’s lacking the impressive density and complexity of the maple flavour that I know and love in Maple Syrup Oolong. Side by side, I think this would feel a bit sad in comparison. I’d still drink this tea, but with Maple Syrup Oolong so accessible to me… I don’t see any need to.

So, so gingery.

This was a rough one for me – but only because I don’t love super intense and heavy ginger profiles like that, not because the tea itself was unpleasant. It’s basically The Buzz, but I think I like this more because it’s a bit less “muddy” tasting to me – but they’re quite similar. Earthy and hot ginger first, then the sweetness of lemongrass and ginseng. Add in a smidge of a greenness to the cup, from the mate, and a bit of apple as well and that’s basically the profile.

I’d drink it if I was feeling under the weather, because I like lemon and ginger teas for that function, but this is not something I’d turn to for pleasure. Seems well executed overall though, despite not being my style.

Hmm…

Ironically, I found myself thinking about this tea very mindfully as I drank it. I don’t like Buddha’s Blend, which is what this is attempting to mirror – and for me it’s more than the fact that Buddha’s Blend is infamously the most fickle to brew tea that DT carries. There’s just something about the jasmine and white/green tea mixed base that is not to my tastes.

So, by that thought path… I shouldnt like this blend either, right? Well, that’s kind of true I suppose. I’m not crazy about it – the jasmine is heavy handed and the base does nothing for me. However, I think I like it more than Buddha’s Blend at the very least. I will say, this is faaaarrrr less peachy than Buddha’s Blend and that’s probably the best part of that blend (at least to me). So the peach trade off is a bit of a bummer, I guess. This is just overall a smoother and more balance feeling blend though – are just far less fickle to brew…

Even though, intellectually, I know this is just meant to be a rooibos based Earl Grey I have to admit that the entire time I drank this I kept expecting there to be a red fruit or berry notes to the cup – and it’s not the name, because I know the “Red” in The Red Earl is for the rooibos tea base. Something about this blend just seemed… unfinished to me though!?

More than anything, I am just really glad I didn’t find it repulsive and skunk-y like I did the Grapefruit Earl Grey (can’t remember if that was actually the name) that I tried a few weeks ago. I was honestly kind of scared that I might have a similar experience for all of T Kettle’s bergamot blends. This was just boring though – bland rooibos and standard bergamot without any life to the cup. However, my impression of “boring” could also easily be someone else’s impression of “classic” – it’s a fine line of personal preference, in that regard…

I can’t decide if this was supposed to be a dupe of Coco Mango Chai or not.

The copy could be interpreted to imply that, and the ingredients list has a decent amount of overlap… but the taste profile is just so different that it’s a bad recreation if that was the point. So, I’m gonna choose to think of it as its own this entirely – because with that mindset then I actually liked it a lot!

Of the spices, cardamom is the one that stands out the most to me and I really like that because cardamom has this citrusy note to it naturally that works well with a fruity leaning chai like this. I also got a nice peppery finish to the sip, and the earthiness of the turmeric and ginger that grounded the cup a bit. However, my favourite thing about this was the sweet and tropical fruity notes – mango, for sure, but also guava!? Guava isn’t a name ingredient in this blend, but it could be a flavouring. I actually think it’s probably not though, and it’s just my brain interpreting the combo of tropical fruit flavours in an interesting way.

Overall body of the cup is thin – I imagine this wouldn’t have the thickness to ice well, but with that in mind it was a surprisingly lovely hot cup!

I waited way too long to write this tasting note, which is my fault, and now I don’t remember the nuances of the blend…

I do remember thinking that is was very good though – one of the best tasting T Kettle blends I’ve tried yet, actually. You could argue it’s inspired by DT’s “Movie Night” but I’m actually gonna give T Kettle a pass on that one because the two blends are incredibly dissimilar – this one being herbal and more nutty and sweet and the DT blend being a green tea with a buttery apple profile. To me, it very much seems like they’re actually drawing inspiration from different things.

It’s weird to me that this is a “medium caffeine” rating – it’s a tisane comprised mostly of fruits and nuts, but there are cocoa beans so it actually shouldn’t be totally caffeine free because of that – but steeped cocoa beans have a pretty minimal amount of caffeine all things considered. “Low Caffeine” would make sense but to call this “medium” seems like a stretch – and it makes me feel like maybe the caffeine ratings being used are a bit arbitrary and not concluded from actual caffeine testing. I know the overwhelming majority of companies label their caffeine that way, so it’s not surprising – but just something I noticed.

But yes – the taste. Not too sweet, but sweet leaning with a bit of a fruity hibiscus forefront but followed by this caramelized nutty and cocoa profile. The kind of thing that on paper maybe seems like it would be too much or that wouldn’t go together, but just strongly enjoyable. Wish I could remember it more clearly. This is 100% a blend I would order though – it’s unique and interesting IMO.

Also, I can’t remember where I saw it (maybe FB) but someone said that they thought this was the EXACT same thing as Forever Nuts… it’s not. It’s pretty widely known that “Forever Nuts” exists in other forms carried by other brands – but this isn’t one of them.

I’m not really big on sprinkles in tea, but I can appreciate that they make a lot of sense for a Birthday Cake inspired blend such as this one – and I do like the clean and simple visual of the tea as well; it really makes the multi coloured decorettes pop quite nicely.

This is advertised as a chocolate cake slathered in vanilla icing – and while I struggle to get the “chocolate” part of that description I do think that fondant/doughy sort of vanilla note appropriate for this concept comes through quite clearly. It’s not my favourite – I don’t like that doughy vanilla taste in most teas just in general – but I get the appeal and, again, appreciate the simplicity of it. The base is a bit rough for me, and leaned more astringent than I would have preferred – but I think with more care you could steep this better to minimize that quality.

Overall, this isn’t an exciting tea for me. I think the Birthday Cake concept has been done so much now that it’s nearly impossible to bring anything new to the table with it. I also think nicer vanilla black teas exist – however there’s nothing off about this one either, and it would make for a very approachable “sweet” profile that doesn’t push too hard into the sweet realm to the point where you get sick of it quite quickly.

Perfectly average and fine.

This T Kettle blend makes me scratch my head a little bit because it really seems like it’s supposed to be T Kettle’s attempt at recreating Bravissimo – which is an old DT classic that recently made a reappearance as a limited edition tea…

It’s not the concept of them trying to dupe the blend in general which confuses me – that’s clearly been a pattern with many DT blends and a very obvious amount of effort seems to have gone into finding a name in the same style as “Bravissimo” without actually using Bravissimo. That’s more the part that stumps me – because presumably a lot of thought was put into the name/recreation, and yet there were sprinkles added to the tea which seems like a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of the kind of customer that was often buying Bravissimo – a blend intended to be soothing on a sore throat!? I’m sorry but, at least in my mind, Sprinkles does not a Wellness blend make.

With that said, it tastes fine – very licorice forward, but I appreciate that it’s “anise” licorice and not the unpleasant cloying sweetness of licorice root. Man, I just can’t stand licorice root. I think I actually prefer T Kettle’s “Throat Rescue” recreation though, which has a very similar anise like flavour profile – I’m blanking on what they named theirs, though…

Just got an ounce of it. It was raved about in some of the tea community so I thought I would give it a try. Meh. It just tastes like Rooibos with an oil slick. I wish you could take a look at the ingredients before you buy at the store.

I am cold brewing it finish it faster

Man, why so many pickle-y tasting Chai blends lately!?

This one definitely has that strange affect going on from the mix of cinnamon, ginger, cardamon, and close – mostly the cinnamon/ginger just getting all weird and funky together though. I like the clove here, it’s noticeable from me and even though that spice note is not widely beloved in North America is is beloved by me. I also get a pleasant creamy vanilla note in the cup – it’s not named in the ingredients list, but I feel pretty confidant that one of the flavourings used here is either vanilla or cream. Probably vanilla. Weird tasting pickle-y spices with vanilla, though.

Overall, didn’t love the cup but there were nice qualities to it.

Also worth noting that this blend was originally called “Ho Chi Minh Chai” by T Kettle & that’s the name printed on the pouch that I received. However, on the website it looks like it’s now been changed to Saigon Chai – the same name that DT uses for this profile…

I hate Detox messaging.

I wont go into right now because I’ve done so what feels like dozens of time before, and if I let myself go down that road right now I’ll just wind up feeling frustrated – but suffice to say that, if I wasn’t just trying to taste as many blends from T Kettle as possible, I would have read the name of this tea and completely skipped over it.

It’s actually pretty nice tasting – smooth and unassuming green tea with just a hint of ginger and lots of bright, sweet and fresh lemon notes. It’s actually the nicest tasting citrus related flavour that I’ve experienced in any T Kettle blend so far. Not a heavy tea or an intense/full bodied flavour – but still flavourful despite that – and credit to T Kettle that, compared to “David’s Detox”, I like this better in taste to the DT Detox blend.

That said… I don’t know when I would ever find myself craving a lemon green tea. I just… don’t really ‘do’ green tea… So this would probably be my first and only mug of this tea, but it was a pleasant surprise on taste alone.

The T Kettle version of Tulsi Tranquility…

My main criticism with this blend is the same one that I have for Tulsi Tranquility, and that’s that the blend is seriously lacking the distinct and characteristic basil-like flavour of the actual tulsi. I really love the flavour of tulsi, and if I was buying this because it was a tulsi tea I just wouldn’t be happy with the absence of that flavour…

However, with that said, I do actually like the taste of the tea – more so, probably, than I like Tulsi Tranquility to be honest. It’s fresh and natural tasting with this really well balanced mix of red fruit flavours. What I find in Tulsi Tranquility is that it mostly tastes like a general “red fruit” vibe, but here I’m getting distinct notes of raspberry, strawberry, and cranberry. I would call the strawberry more of primary flavour, but I really liked that I could taste all three. It wasn’t too sweet or too tart for me, and it was a really pleasant cup overall…

Just wish there was more tulsi, haha.

I hate to keep making fun of T Kettle’s copy writing, but they just make it so easy…

“Top of the mornin’! A perfect breakfast tea with body, hints of oakiness, and full of flavour.” This is the short copy on the website – nothing super weird about it, other than the fact it definitely sounds like the intro you would give to an IRISH Breakfast Blend. Last time I checked “Top of the morning” was definitely an Irish phrase, haha.

Anyway, the tea is nice – it’s hard to do an English Breakfast poorly. My favourite English Breakfasts usually have this raisin-y kind of note to them, and this doesn’t have that note for me, but I still think it’s good. Full bodied and brisk with a mix of malt, oak, and slight citrus notes. Good balance of astringency, and definitely rich enough to take milk and sugar well. This would serve something looking for that standard breakfast cuppa well, in my opinion.

The marketing on this tea is strange…

When you look at the tea description, it seems like this is trying to mirror DT’s Blueberry Jam – T Kettle even describes it as tasting like “warm buttery toast lathered with wild blueberry preserve”. Side note – the use of the word lathered made me laugh. They definitely meant slathered, but the image of someone lathering a piece of toast with jam sparks far more joy in me.

When you look at the tea name and ingredients list, however, it’s much more clear that this blend was modeled after DT’s Blueberry Fields Forever. That is, in fact, what it tastes more similar to – but if you were just casually reading the tea descriptions I think this would be a pretty weird flavour mismatch from the written out copy of the tea.

It tastes like blueberry, but more of a bright and juicy blueberry versus the cooked down jammy blueberry of a preserve. I found it a bit tart, though that’s understandable given that the blend contains hibiscus. The stevia was noticeable for me in the cup, though I didn’t mind too me. I like Blueberry Fields Forever better because the flavour is just more well rounded IMO, and I get both blueberry and pomegranate and a bit of the floral oolong. Here I mostly just got a tart blueberry. However, it was still a nice enough mug of tea.

This tea tastes fine, albeit very anise/fenugreek heavy in its flavour profile. I like those flavours a lot, so it was an enjoyable cup for me on flavour alone, but…

No other tea that T Kettle has “duped” from DT makes me more angry that this one.

I think that’s because I watched my good friend and coworker pour so much passion and research into making the tea that this steals inspiration from, Bee The Change. That blend was a huge passion project for her – to create something that was visually exciting and beautiful, with ingredients that (on top of being functional) also were all pollinator friendly was not something that didn’t take a lot of work – and then to have a beautiful campaign built around that tea that gave back to an organization working on bee preservation… there was something magical watching her dream come to fruition like that…

Seeing someone else try to capitalize on her passion project… It just makes me sad.

I think, of T Kettle’s blends, this one has my favourite name. It’s very cute, and I think it perfectly conveys the warm and cozy autumnal feeling of the tea…

The blend is simple but effective – like DT’s Cinnamon Rooibos Chai, it’s a cinnamon apple profile with significant emphasis put on the cinnamon. Red hot cinnamon, sweet and coating on the palate and throat. This is a super commercial flavour profile and a million tea companies carry something in the same vein – I know I have one from Retro Leaf Tea that’s basically this same thing, as well. I think it’s a bit less intense that Cinnamon Rooibos Chai, but ultimately they’re all kind of interchangeable to me personally. I’d never feel like I needed more that one of this kind of blend on hand, but I also don’t think I’d care at all which company the one I had stocked came from either.

It’s nice – does what it’s trying to do well.