Kittenna

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Kittenna drank Salted Caramel by DAVIDsTEA

Not really writing much in the way of notes tonight because my left hand is being uncooperative for whatever reason and it’s annoying me to type.

Anyways. This pretty much tastes like a caramel black to me. Not getting the “salted” part, but the caramel black part is pretty darn good! Nice malty black base, overlaid with sweet caramel. No need for sweetener. The coconut helps round out the flavour well. It reminds me of Buttered Rum, but perhaps, dare I say it, better??

ETA: Ok!! I just figured something pretty major out – steeped, this tea smells exactly like Creamy Nut Oolong!!! I think the flavour is reasonably similar too, but not quite the same. I am so thrilled I made this connection! Can anyone back me up???

Also, I steeped this one for practically infinity (more than 5 min?) for my second infusion, and miraculously it is absolutely delicious, no astringency at all. Ahhh. We may have a tea winner here, after all! Can’t wait to try this one again and verify my enjoyment :)

ETA again: Very long third infusion today (in less water) results in a watered down version of this tea which is actually quite drinkable. I probably wouldn’t bother with it unless I didn’t have other options, or I’d steep the leaves in only about 3 oz. water to concentrate the flavour, instead of the maybe 5-6 oz. I used. Fabulous flavour though.

2012-06-28 00:17:42 -0400

205 °F / 96 °C

4 min 0 sec

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Alphakitty 2012-06-28 00:54:20 -0400

I am thinking of picking this up soon, maybe I’ll just add the salt myself!

Azzrian 2012-06-28 01:05:25 -0400

Oh yummy!

Kittenna 2012-06-28 01:19:41 -0400

This… is surprisingly good. Wish I’d passed some along to people! Lynne-tea and CHAroma, here’s your chance :)

CHAroma 2012-06-29 11:35:15 -0400

I’ve been sitting on a sample of this one. Can’t wait to try it now!

tigress_al 2012-06-29 11:40:49 -0400

Hmm, creamy nut oolong you say….I didn’t pick that up at the time, but now that you say that….I will have to try again and see

Kittenna 2012-06-29 16:16:05 -0400

It’s weird, initially I thought it seemed familiar, but attributed that to the fact that I’ve had a number of flavoured blacks lately, and then it hit me that the flavouring was very similar to Creamy Nut Oolong! I will be testing it again myself, but given that I’d had the CNO bag open a lot recently to send off samples, I was pretty sure my nose wasn’t wrong.

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I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.