I am finally sling-free so typing isn’t so difficult for me. Rejoice! Things are still a it uncomfortable so I will (attempt to) be brief.
This is a rather interesting take on caramel tea. It’s not really very sweet though it is obviously caramel. There are only two chunks of actual caramel in my entire bag of tea, neither which I have put in while steeping, so that could influence the “not sweet” bit, but I tend to think that the intention is to keep this tea interesting with caramel and tannic tea notes as the balance of the two is mentioned several time in the description. Also, they suggest the tea be steeped for five minutes, which really does lead to a lot of tannic sharpness.
I prefer this at four minutes where the sweet and tannic seem more evenly balanced. Of all the caramel teas I’ve tried, it’s not really my favorite. (Kusmi’s Caramel or Le Palais de Thes’ Toffee are currently battling for that honor.) Yet, while I don’t love this tea, I respect it. It always manages to keep my attention as I sip on it. I find it similar to Lupica’s English Caramel, which is on the bittersweet side of things, but I found English Caramel a bit too bitter/tannic to be enjoyable. This, however, seems to strike a perfect balance (at four minutes, that it).
But I’m not so much into caramel for the balance or for the bitter. I’m in it for the sweet. So I tend to prefer this when it has cooled greatly, bringing out more caramel and relegating the tannic playfulness to the aftertaste. Still, a well done tea, especially for those that prefer their richer dessert teas to be balanced by some punch.
