Salted Caramel

Got a sample of this from akgrowngirl (thanks!).
This tastes EXACTLY like Teavana’s Caramellissimo and looks exactly like it too (Conspiracy eh?)
Anyway, it doesn’t smell like much- maybe a hint of buttered popcorn.
I steeped it for a little over two minutes and it came out tasting like dry, old buttered popcorn, even with some sweetener added. Not feeling this one at all.
Maybe I will try steeping it differently next time,

Okay, so I went to Davids Tea yesterday and picked up some more tea, as I intended. I even picked up the new Spring collection paisley tea pot. It’s so cute, I love it!

And, can I note, that they are awesome and helpful? My DS was crying and was sleepy and hungry and I had a bottle with some of the powder formula in it. I just needed warm water. So I asked the lady for some water and she gave me some willingly! (first she gave me boiling hot water in a cup thinking I needed to submerge the bottle in it. Then she realized, “Oh!” to the formula. lol so kind!)

Anyways – I tried this today. I think I put too much water in, cause it felt watery. I couldn’t taste much, save for a slight hint of the caramel and salt. I think I have to try this again another time.

I did a resteep of it with less water and some more time, and added a pinch of sugar and a tsp of milk. I liked it, but the taste had weakened.

So yah… I can’t rate it because I messed up making the first time. Will redo it.

I love Salted Caramel. I’m a salt junkie, so I’m pretty much on board with adding salt to anything. While I didn’t really taste the salt in this per se, I loved the burnt sugar flavor. As always, I added raw honey and frothed up some hot milk in my milk cafe (I need to review that on this site, it’s the best), and I’ve found a new favorite tea latte flavor. Next time I’ll add a little flake salt like they do at Starbucks for their salted caramel latte and see what happens. This one is definitely a keeper.

There are some teas, especially black teas, with a strong, rich flavour. In my experience thus far, they tend to be caramel-y back teas, though strong-brewed straight black also qualifies. These are teas that taste best with milk, and maybe a little sugar or honey as well. Something about having a robust tea like this in a big mug… somehow makes the tea. They just… don’t fit with the delicate nature of a teacup, and even a regular mug seems a mis-match. But in a big mug, like, the kind with a thick edge that can easily hold two regular cups of tea? They absolutely thrive.

You can tell what these big mug teas are at first sip. They’re strong, robust and heady. They’ve got a bold flavour and require a bold vessel to carry them in order to feel complete, just like they need the creaminess of the milk and perhaps a hint of sweetness just to round out the flavour and make it into something extraordinary. These teas aren’t ruined by the additions like their daintier cousins. No. They’re enhanced by them, and become magnificent — truly their own.

They especially go well with hot cinnamon buns, but unfortunately I’m lacking at these in the time. Oh well.

However, as you’ll notice, I discovered while drinking my tea today, that it was a big mug tea. The log actually goes through my discovery of the fact, so bear with me if it seems repetitive. I thought of putting this bit at the bottom, but I figured I’d be best explaining myself up front rather than after, plus it adds a sense of consistency to my writing.

With that said, let’s get to the tea!

Brewed: 1tbsp in my 2-cup pot

First cup: Brewed 5 minutes
Before I even brewed the tea, I had a smell of it, it was very rich and heady. This scent certainy comes through in the tea’s brewed flavour as well. It’s very rich, musky, and, actually, a bit salty and bitter, even though it was only brewed for 5 minutes (with a 4-7 minute brewing reccommendation). I’ve got a feeling that this would taste better with milk. Actually… it may taste best as a big mug tea. I’ll have to try that sometime….

Second cup: same steep, brewed for around 40 minutes. Milk and honey added.
While I’m sure it’s oversteeped by now, it’s not bad with the milk and honey. Still rather strong in flavour, though it’s mainly up front. There’s a musky aftertaste, but the strength is mainly right upon the tea hitting my mouth. And I still definitely think this tea would work best in a big mug.

3rd cup — resteep, brewed for 30-40 minutes and poured into BIG MUG with milk
Yes, this is DEFINITELY a big mug tea. And, ok, I kind of forgot I was making this, but with the milk, and the fact that it’s a second steep, it doesn’t taste overdone at all. If anything, I wish the flavour was a little stronger. Still, quite good, and still very musky. A decent second steep for sure, and definitely worth the big mug.

4th cup — re-resteep, brewed for around 30 minutes again, and again taken in BIG MUG with milk
Weaker, more delicate, but still a passable big mug tea.

My overall impression: Bold. Heady. Musty. In almost all the right ways. The flavour combination isn’t quite my favourite, but it’s still quite decent. I think I’d prefer something a little sweeter and less salty. Still, a decent cup of tea.

My rating: 79%. Again. A decent cuppa, good and solid. But it’s not… quite to my tastes. It’s a good big mug tea, that’s for sure, but I’ve had better. So it stays off my to-stock list and my A list, but it remains a solid choice overall, for sure.

I adore salted caramel, but this tea did NOT cut it for me. The dry leaf smells great, maybe a little on the sweet side. I brewed this for five minutes. There was quite a bit of scum (melted caramel) floating on the top. I added 1/2 tsp of sugar and some cream. The tea itself is alright, but the ‘salted caramel’ flavor to me reminds me of a musky potpourri. I don’t taste any salt, any caramel. I had three sips of this and cannot drink any more. Too bad, it sounded so promising.

Such an interesting tea! I brewed it on the strong side, and added half and half and sugar, and thought it a really good-tasting tea. Good caramel aroma, tiny hints of salt that brought out the sweetness of the caramel. Really delicious!

I’ve long thought that David’s was missing a good caramel black, and now it has finally arrived. I was skeptical; I thought it might be too salty or too sweet. I don’t like sugar in my tea and I am not supposed to eat salt (shhhh…). Fortunately, it’s neither salty, nor sweet. It’s just a well-balanced caramel.

Picked up the other new tea to try as well – why not, right?

This one has a bit of an off-putting smell dry – I’m not sure what it is, but I expected the caramel/toffee would come out more when it was steeped.

The steeped flavours were definitely stronger and more pleasant than the dry smell – that odd off-putting smell has disappeared. The hint of salt is faintly there, but I think it mostly rounds out and balances the black tea. The caramel/toffee and smoothness kind of reminds me of a werthers candy – without being so cloyingly sweet!

I enjoyed this one. The aroma was delicious. The taste was smooth, sweet and creamy. I’m not sure about the salt, though – I didn’t taste any, and I’m sensitive to salt (which makes me wonder why I bought this in the first place). I liked it.

Let me preface by saying that I’ve been reeeaaaalllyyy hesitant to actually buy some of this, since I already have creme caramel rooibos and, although I do like it, it isn’t one of my absolute favourite teas (I also have a fairly expansive collection and always feel just a tad guilty whenever I buy a new one).
But wow! I’m so glad that I bought this one. It really does taste like salted caramel. It’s sweet and smooth with just a little bit of the salty taste noticeable at the end. And all without overpowering the black tea flavour!
I always make my first cup of any new tea without milk or sweetener, but this is one I think I’ll continue drinking on its own. MAYBE I’ll try it as a latte, but certainly not with the vanilla almond milk I use for most of them. It really doesn’t need any other flavours to make it amazing.

I really have to say that this tea is one of my all time favourites. You can drink it straight, or add milk and sugar – it really tastes amazing either way. This tea was one of my first purchased teas and definitely my fall/winter staple. The scent is just heavenly, to the point where my cousin smelt it and went on the internet to search up a perfume that smelt like it! It’s well worth it and I know for a fact that when fall is nearby, or they foolishly decide to discontinue this tea, I’ll be sure to buy a full tin or two of it.

Thank you elizabeth229 for the trade! I’ve been wanting to try Salted Caramel for a while, so I was excited when I finally received this in the mail. The smell was sweet when I opened the package, but nothing special. The taste is much better than the scent of the dry leaves. The black base is pretty mellow and the caramel really stands out. I am missing the salt though. I think if there was a touch more salt in this tea, it would be even better. I finished the cup pretty quickly though, so that is good thing. I think this one is a keeper!

I picked up 10g of this to try. In the store, I wasnt really sure if I liked it or not but decided to try it. I’m so glad that I did because I love the taste. Its very similar to salt-water taffy. I will definetely be buying more of this soon!

This is a nice morning tea for me because it isn’t really sweet like some of the flavoured teas. Nice black tea flavour that the caramel blends with nicely. I left it to steep a little too long, but a little milk took the bitterness away and let the caramel really shine.

So, I’m drinking this tea right now. It’s not in my cupboard. A friend has it at her desk and I wanted to try something new.

I steeped it for about 6 minutes. Not sure if it was long enough to really let the caramel flavour out. It’s nice, and not overwhelmingly sweet or salty. It didn’t rock my world or anything, but I’m enjoying it none-the-less.

I realize this Tasting Note is probably quite pointless for others as it doesn’t really say much (which is quite close to how I feel about this tea), but I’m determined to log every tea I try, so here it is.

EDIT: I used my DavidsTea tea-press to make this tea and as it continues to steep, the flavours really start to develop into a much richer, more caramel-y brew.

Salted caramel, usually i love stuff that has caramel in the title like Starbucks Salted Caramel hot chocolate or Presidents Choice’s new Salted Toffee Cheesecake pops. So it was safe to say that i would probably like this tea.
When i got the chance to smell it at the store i couldn’t really smell anything at all, but i decided to give it a chance. I bought a 3$ cup of tea. And honestly i only usually put milk and a tiny bit of sugar in the black teas that i drink. After letting this tea cool for like what seemed an hour i finally took a sip and it tasted like warm milk water so i had to add a tone more sugar before i could taste anything at all. Therefor i would not reccommend this tea for anyone who likes their tea without milk and sugar.

Dry Leaf Nose: Sweet, almost chocolatey notes.

Liquor: Dark rich brown.

Flavour: Subtle caramel flavour.

Who doesn’t love salted caramel? I know I certainly do, so you can imagine my excitement upon opening up this tea this morning.

While I won’t say it tastes just like a cup full of melted caramels, this is by no means a bad thing. The fact is when it comes to these flavoured black teas I like the flavours to be much more subtle. It also reminded me of another tea I’ve tried in the past, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what exactly it was…

That said, this one could probably stand to taste a bit more like caramel, though perhaps with a stronger steep it would accomplish this.

It’s always tough to know how long to steep these new teas. My first try I tend to go the shortest time and work my ways up (thankfully there seems to be plenty of tea to make more than one cup).

But again, it’s a really lovely tea, one that’s not too sweet or artificial tasting which is exactly what I want. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a desert tea (like, say, Pumpkin Chai) since the flavours are much more subtle, making it a much more well rounded tea. This one is definitely high on my “revisit” list.

While being thoroughly impressed with the previous sample’s in my ever-so-beautiful David’s Tea Advent Calendar, this specific rendition disappointed me. Despite my distaste for anything salted carmel, I steeped this with an open mind, hoping to be blown away similarly to my reactions of Buttered Rum and Chocolate Rocket. However, no such pleasure satisfied my taste buds, the bitterness of my mug turned me away and I drained out the majority of the contents that I originally brewed. Not impressed David, not impressed.

Tea #4 of 24. Great smell and taste. I found it had a good caramel taste without being too strong or weak. I’ve had some compliments at work today on the aroma coming from my mug.

I had a hard time finding a good way of drinking this tea. The dry leaf aroma is outstanding, and I could probably just sniff at my little jar of tea all day and be perfectly happy.

I think I oversteeped the tea both times I tried it, so I actually discovered Steepster while trying to figure out the best method of drinking this tea. The third time I tried is the charm, though I might add a bit of full-fat milk in a further cup. I can taste the caramel, but as other reviewers said, no salt. I did add a bit of brown sugar, which really brought out the caramel for me and made it a nice tea to drink. I don’t think it’ll be a permanent part of my cupboard, but I am happy I found a good means of drinking it now.