Day 7!
Have you had any figgy pudding yet this season? How about fig newtons? If you like figs, you will love today’s tea: Sticky Fig Oolong. This tea is also our first oolong of the 12 Teas of a Christmas set this year.
This tea has plenty of the bright, mineral taste oolongs are known for. These flavors are the right match with the sweet-yet-fresh fig taste. Beneath all the oolong brightness, the tea has a bit of complex, roasted, caramelized taste, making the fig part of the blend feel more like a candied dessert.
I’m always a bit intimidated by unflavored oolongs, so having a touch of holiday dessert flavor mixed in made this oolong more approachable for me. The sticky fig flavor isn’t overpowering, so if classic oolongs are your favorite teas, you will still find this blend to be very enjoyable.
I haven’t run into many fig tea blends so this is a great unexpected flavor for a holiday tea set, rounding out the Christmas theme.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description:
This tea was inspired by one of my customers who is also a frequent poster on Steepster, who – in one of her posts – mentioned that she’d like to see a fig tea from me. So here it is (and it won’t be the last, fig is one of my favorite fruits, I just haven’t gotten around with experimenting with fig in tea yet . . . but now that I have, I think I’ll keep it up because – YUM!)
So I started with these three ideas in mind: Holiday tea, Oolong tea & Fig tea. I crafted a blend of Oolongs – Ruanzhi, Wuyi and Qingxin cultivars – which I chose because I wanted the Oolong to be a little more fruity and a little less floral. To this lovely Oolong blend, I added some figs. For the holiday element, I added some cinnamon. For the final touch, I added a little honey essence.
Really lovely – this tea. The oolong is smooth and sweet. It has pleasing notes of fruit with just a hint of floral. The fig is well-defined and the honey compliments the fig nicely. The cinnamon is warm and inviting without overwhelming the cup. As I say: really lovely! It’s also organic, VEGAN, gluten free & allergen free!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Miss Figgy from Tea and Tins
So, I have to say this first: the piggy sprinkles are DEATH-DEFYINGLY cute! (I think that’s a thing?) Also, I appreciate the fact that this is an extra-punny tea: not only is the name a pun, but the tea itself is both figgy AND filled with sugar-based figgy piglets. (Yes, the sprinkles do absorb fig flavor over time. I checked.)
Although you can smell the sweet flavor of figs through the packet, it gets even better while steeping. After steeping, the tea is a nice hazy cedarish amber color. The overall taste is a bit less figgy than I expected from the smell, though the flavor does build up towards the end of each sip. This tea is sweet enough to not need sugar, although it’s good with sugar too! And it’s quite smooth, with no more than a teeny hint of astringency.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type:
Where to Buy: Teas and Tins
Description
Loose leaf black tea, nicknamed Miss figgy!
Ingredients: black tea, fig taste with dried figs and pink pig sprinkles.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, Della Terra Teas Sent Me This Tea!
Merry Christmas! I hope that you had as much fun as I did counting down the days until Christmas day with me. I’m very excited about today’s tea!
Figgy Pudding
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Della Terra Teas
Tea Description:
Merry Christmas!!! You made it! Do you hear the 12 drummers drumming? Now open this up and sip away!
Whether you are having a festive get together like Ole Fezziwig, or spending the day at home with family … like the song says, O’ bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer!
Taster’s Review:
Few tea flavors out there get me as excited as when I find a fig flavored tea. I really love figs, and as I’ve reminisced at least once (probably more) here on this blog, they bring back some happy childhood memories for me. And while there are other fruits that I might enjoy more – like strawberries or peaches, for example – finding a good strawberry or peach flavored tea isn’t quite as challenging as finding a good fig flavored tea. They’re few and far between.
And this tea was well worth the wait as I counted down the teas of Christmas. This is delicious. The fig notes are prominent. From the moment I opened the pouch, I could smell the fig! And just now, as I walked into the kitchen to pour myself of the freshly brewed tea, the smell of warm figs filled my kitchen. YUM! My mouth started watering.
This Figgy Pudding Tea is really, really good. The fig flavor is strong and true to the fruit. It is sweet, just like biting into a fig … all that’s missing is the seedy texture of the inside of the fruit.
There is a slight creaminess to the background, not really a strong, pronounced “vanilla” or even “cream” flavor but more of just a slight creaminess to the cup that might be further enhanced with a drop or two of warm milk, but, I’d not want to risk losing some of this fig flavor!
The black tea is a even-toned base. I suspect it is most likely a Ceylon as it doesn’t have a strong or robust character. Instead, it’s brisk and slightly astringent. It’s not too strong-tasting a tea but I do pick up on slight notes of malt and the hints of fruity taste in the black tea play well to the sweetness of the fig.
Such a yummy Christmas gift from Della Terra Teas! Thank you!
