Creepy Cake/Evil Tea -CuppaGeek

Photo Credit: Evil Tea

Taste buds are a super funny thing.  Over the last few months, my taste buds have been all over the place.  There was even a time frame where I couldn’t even drink tea.  Everything tasted off and not even my favorite teas tasted right.  Right around the same time when I noticed my taste buds going wonky, I was starting to notice other health issues so I decided just to take a break from tea all together, hoping that eventually my taste buds would right themselves again.

Recently I felt the urge to have a cuppa tea and I was delighted when not only did the tea taste amazing but my taste seemed to be sharper.  Like I was able to pick up flavors I wasn’t able to before.  Which was so exciting! I quickly shuffled through my tea stash and got to work enjoying cuppa after cuppa of teas that had not had a lot of attention for a while.  After making some headway in my stash. . I decided it was time to check out my friends at Evil Tea once again.  I had tried their teas before and enjoyed them but never reordered or nabbed any of their latest blends.  After seeing a Halloween promo of theirs, I decided to indulge and pick up a few of their blends.  And then a few days later, picked up a few more. . .because. .I was a bit hooked.

I couldn’t wait to try this blend again.  I had tried this blend a bit ago and while it was good and I enjoyed the cuppa, with having so much tea in my tea stash- I was trying to still sip a few more down before I ordered again.   This morning I was super excited to get home, get the kettle prepped and get this tea a brewing.  I was a bit leery about the 5 minute steep time- so I went with a 3 min steep time with freshly prepped 212F water.

First sip in and straight away you are hit with a delicious dessert like note of vanilla that doesn’t really scream straight out vanilla but almost like that soft vanilla like note you would get from a really upscaled cookie or cupcake.  The aroma hits you in the same fashion.  Just a solid lovely not overdone sweetness that keeps you grabbing for you cuppa and enjoying every sip.  This is a Ceylon based blend and there is a slight briskness or astringent note towards the end of each sip that rounds out the sweetness perfectly.  There are also adorable sugar coated fennel seeds that I’m not really picking up but that is probably because I didn’t stick with the 5 minute steep.  I’m a big fennel fan so I will have to try for that 5 min steep to see if the fennel notes come across stronger.

All in all, just a perfect lovely cuppa that I can only imagine would make an insanely good latte with a spiced oat cream or even a lovely adult beverage with a touch of bourbon cream, which I will be trying later this evening.   I’ve always been a fan of my friends over at Evil Tea since they combine two of my favorite loves- all things dark and spooky and tea.  Can’t wait to steep up the other blends to see if they hit the spot like Creepy Cake does.

 


Want to Know More About This Tea?

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Evil Tea

Description

Ingredients: A blend of Ceylon Teas with Creme Brulee Flavoring and Sugar Coated Fennel Seeds

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

(Sad) Sipdown #4- Mom’s Birthday Cake Black Tea/52 Teas -CuppaGeek-

Sipdown #4 on my sipdown/tea time journey for 2021 and what a sad sipdown it is.

52Teas is a beloved tea company to many tea enthusiasts.  However, the both awesome and sad part about 52Teas is each of the teas are a limited edition in their own way and typically if you fall in love with a blend- you have to ration yourself or your tea loving heart might be broken.  Reason is- 52Teas literally blends up a tea a week throughout the year so there is always new and fun teas to try but on the flip side- restocking on a blend that you adore doesn’t always happen.

That is why this is a sad sipdown.  This blend may actually be my favorite 52Teas blend ever edging out Graveyard Mist ever so slightly, more than likely due to my new love of black teas.  This blend literally has it all- a little sweet, a little spice, and a little sass. And no matter how you brew this gem, the flavors are always spot on.

Today for my “me tea time”, I prepped up water at 212F and allowed the tea to steep between 3-4 minutes and cool for a moment or two. This tea is just such oh sooo good..   The black tea notes hang in the background while the orange, dates and ginger mingle together in perfect harmony.  There is a sweetness that I think is supposed to be the cake part but I’m getting more vanillaish notes than anything else.  I paired this tea with a stroopwaffle and was truly enjoying my me moment today.

I’ve enjoyed several tea pots of this lovely and sadly, this is the last of this blend in my stash.  I do spy with my little eye another cake blend currently available on 52Teas so I might just try that one out but if you ever hear of a reblend for this one, I encourage you to check it out. . .or maybe I don’t. . .more for me (haha).


Want to Know More About This Tea?

Leaf Type:  Black Tea

Where to Buy:  52Teas

Description

This blend is no longer available but click below for blends that are.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Birthday Cake Infused Hot Chocolate/DAVIDs Tea

DAVIDsTEA’s Birthday Cake is actually the very first tea that caught my attention. It is the tea that got me curious about teas and made me drive my mother crazy until she drove me over to a DAVIDsTEA store. It is the tea that started it all and if I am being honest, I didn’t even like it that much when I first tried it.

The idea of a Birthday Cake tea just sounded too good to pass up. I mean, all the flavor of delicious birthday cake and none of the calories…Who could say no to that?! So, I went to the store and since I had no clue what I was doing I bought about 50 grams of the Birthday Cake tea and 50 grams of about 15 other teas. Of course I tried Birthday Cake first and only tasted sweet rooibos and was left disappointed. Among the 15 others, I found some I loved and some I didn’t but I found myself always coming back to Birthday Cake. Even though it wasn’t the best tea, it was the first and for that reason alone it had a special place in my heart.

When I discovered cold brewing, that is when my love for the Birthday Cake tea really bloomed. Cold brewing pushed aside the rooibos flavor, making room for the vanilla frosting deliciousness to shine. Cakey and amazing.

Well, DAVIDsTEA has taken now their beloved Birthday Cake tea and made it even more lovable. They infused their tea in a chocolate cube filled with sprinkles that sits at the end of a stick. Atop the tea-infused chocolate cube is a colorful confetti marshmallow. Submerge this delight in a cup of hot milk and stir until the chocolate is melted and the marshmallow begins to melt. What do you get? A super fun hot chocolate. And, if you are anything like me, you add just a touch more fun with a dollop of whipped cream on top. Yum!

As for the flavor of this hot chocolate…well, it is creamy and rich. It has a smooth, melted milk chocolate flavor that you can only get from real chocolate. More than the chocolate though is the birthday cake flavor. I was skeptical of whether it would actually come through but between the sprinkles and the marshmallow you definitely get a burst of birthday cake sweetness and a touch of vanilla caramel frosting from the tea.

Marshmallowy and full of sprinkle sugaryness, this might be a bit on the sweet side for most but this could make for a very special treat for any kid…or kid at heart.


Want to Know More About This Tea?

Leaf Type:  Rooibos

Where to Buy:  DAVIDs Tea

Description

This combo of tea/chocolate is not longer available but the loose leaf tea is.

This sweet and festive rooibos tea brings the taste of birthday cake to your cup any day of the year – rainbow sprinkles and all. Its creamy vanilla twist is just as craveable as the real dessert. And with all the goodness of rooibos and next to no calories, this caffeine-free infusion lets you have your cake and eat it too.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

The Cake Is A Lie/Geeky Teas

“The cake is a lie” is a video game reference, specifically Portal. If you aren’t a gamer, do yourself a favor and watch someone play through and enjoy. It is a fun little game. Tell Wheatley I said hi.

There are sprinkles in the blend, which makes the morning start with a little smile, because who can resist smiling at sprinkles?

The tea is a nod to cake, and the aroma captures it pretty well. I don’t fall all over myself in astonishment shouting, “Wow, this is just like cake!” But the aromas of the vanilla and cream flavors call it to mind if you already know what they were aiming for. There is caramel flavor, which I don’t immediately associate with cake but definitely with dessert so it has that going for it, which is nice.

While eating breakfast, this was a good companion. When the food was all gone, the tea became a tad more astringent than I care for, because the black tea base has a little fruitiness on the tart side, like the way lemon tingles your tongue.

I don’t usually add milk and sugar, but for the remaining sips of this mug I added the tiniest splash of milk, which brought it back into my comfort zone. Having tried it that way, I wondered if a sprinkle of sugar would increase the cake element of the tea, but since I don’t care for sugar in my tea, it really didn’t float my Borealis.

If I had this again by itself, separate from a meal or snack, I would definitely go with a splash of milk right up front. No sugar needed for me. With food, it is sufficiently companionable as is and I expect the briskness means it is a good breakfast tea and would please those who like milk and sugar in the morning or just like brisk tea.

Of the two Geek Teas I have tried, I prefer Bad Wolf. But if you like brisk breakfast tea, this one is worth a try for you.


Want to Know More About This Tea?

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Geeky Teas

Description

Black tea, natural vanilla flavor, candy sprinkles, natural creme and caramel flavor.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Strawberry Shortcake from The NecessiTeas. . . .

I want to start by saying that CuppaGeek sent me this sample a long time ago and I stupidly let it get lost in my stash. Though my teas are kept away from Sunlight in a cool and dry place, this was only stored in a single ziploc bag and might have had some flavor deterioration due to improper storage. As a result, my review should be considered with that in mind…

When I looked up the NecessiTeas’ Strawberry Shortcake on their website, it was suggested to try it hot or poured over ice. I decided to try it both ways since the sample I was sent was quite generous. I brewed both the hot and iced tea for 3 minutes in 185F degree water, my standard temperature for brewing white teas.

The hot tea is very subtly flavored but pleasantly so. Again the subtlety of the flavoring could be due to flavor deterioration from age and improper storage but then again a Strawberry Shortcake is a lighter and more gently flavored cake so that could also be intentional. Subtle as it is, there is still all the components of its namesake in the flavor. The white tea makes this buttery, like an angel food cake, while there is a smooth creaminess to the tea as a whole. The strawberry sneaks up on you but really fills out the aftertaste. It is good and now I am kicking myself for not trying it sooner because I want more strawberry and more cream but perhaps there was more when the tea first arrived. I guess I will never know.

The iced tea I don’t like as much. That creaminess that is portrayed in the hot cup is entirely lost here. Instead it is a whole lot of white tea flavors with a touch of strawberry tucked in. No cream. No cake. More sweet hay notes and that little bit of fruit. It is also just the slightest bit soapy from the base.

All in all, this tea is middle of the pack for me. Granted I might have felt differently if I’d try this sooner but I also might not have. There are other teas that have been stored in a similar fashion for an equal amount of time that still pack a flavor punch. This is just too subtle and since I don’t love white teas, I find myself seeking more flavor. It is pleasant enough but one I feel I might forget as I continue on my tea journey.


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  White
Where to Buy:  The NecessiTeas
Description

This tea is no longer available but click below for white tea blends that are!

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!