Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
I’m having a glass of this week’s Tea of the Week as we speak. I think this is probably going to be a great comforting hot tea, but to anyone who knows me, I almost always drink my teas iced. The brandy flavor is the most prominent, with the buttery, cakey goodness coming through in the aftertaste. It’s a very unique and soothing flavor pallete. It seems well-suited to cold nights indoors under an afghan or (if you are lucky enough to have a fireplace) in front of a roaring fire.
In the interests of full disclosure, I’ve never had butter brandy cake. In fact, I was thinking that we have butterscotch and butter rum, why not butter-brandy, but when I went to Google it to see if such a confection existed, what I found was butter brandy cake and here we are. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am. My big tumbler is empty now.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is not my first cup of this tea, I have been drinking it about every other day for about a week now. However, I did have a bit of a head cold over the past week, so, I felt my taste buds weren’t quite up to snuff … at least, not enough to offer an adequate tea review on this tea.
The first time I tasted it, I wasn’t exactly sure what I thought of it. I didn’t even rate it numerically on Steepster, because I wasn’t sure about it. I knew I liked it, but, it was just so different from anything that I’d tasted before. I don’t know if that has anything to do with the fact that I’ve never tasted Butter Brandy Cake, I just knew it was delicious, I was enjoying it … but it was … different!
The first flavor that I notice is the brandy, it has a strong, fruity/sweet/almost-wine-y kind of taste to it. Then I notice a caramel-y undertone … a sweet, luscious, buttery caramel-y taste. Toward mid-sip, a buttery, freshly-baked cake-y kind of flavor comes through. Throughout the sip, the black tea base is present, it isn’t a strong, overwhelming presence, but it is there enough so that you know you’re drinking tea and not some weird, space-age, liquid cake that’s been doused with brandy. (Note: In this case “weird” is good … definitely good!)
In the past, 52Teas’ black tea blends had a problem with astringency, that is to say it was really quite astringent to the point of coming across as bitter. Since that time, Frank at 52Teas changed its black tea base to a smoother, more satisfying black tea blend … and I don’t think I’ve noticed much astringency in any of the black tea blends that 52Teas has offered until now. Somehow the flavors here bring out the astringency … but I don’t find it off-putting. Instead, the astringency works well with the flavors … it seems to complete the brandy notes quite nicely.
This is a very compelling blend by 52Teas … I like it quite a bit! It also makes a remarkably tasty latte!
