Had this one To Go back near the end of December when I popped into Tea Desire to check and see if they had any deals on their teaware following Boxing Day – 15% off; still couldn’t justify getting the Dragonfly themed teapot I wanted, though.
It kind of amazed me that after over a year of trying different teas from Tea Desire I still hadn’t had a cup of this one before: after all Pineapple is a favourite flavour of mine, and I am usually super quick to try a Pina Colada tea when a company offers one (although admittedly I’m finding the pairing less exciting than it used to be). So, I finally had it. I actually asked for a small, like I usually get when trying a tea for the first time, but the associate gave a large, on the house – which was very nice and unnecessary.
Sadly a small would have been more than enough; I really wasn’t impressed with this one at all. I thought that though the pineapple was very sharp and piercing in flavour, which was nice, there was this very thick buttery taste that greatly dominated the flavour of the cup and seemed to carry into the mouthfeel as well. Not a nice, confectionary sort of butter taste either, mind you – but a sort of oily, “low quality” movie theatre butter type thing? Like when crazy people get a popcorn with three or more “layers” of butter. It drove me absolutely crazy working at the movie theatre and serving people who got more than two layers of butter on their popcorn. The most I personally ever sold was nine layers – and I could feel the butter oozing out of the bottom of the bag. There is such a thing as too much butter.
Actually though; the way this is buttery really brings me back to the Nina’s Paris version of this (I think it’s called Cancer, if I’m remembering correctly) which had the EXACT SAME butter problem. Pretty sure it’s from the coconut – but not sure why I’ve only experienced it with this one and the Nina one. Rooibos base was also relatively woody in a low quality kind of way.
Glad I tried it and now know pretty definitely that this one just isn’t for me.
Flavors: Butter, Olive Oil, Pineapple
Ewwwwwww oily butter tea! Blegh.