Red Velvet Cake

i used the http://www.jaydeee.net/pickatea.php tool to help choose this tea last night.
it was great!

and then i put my roller skates on and did spins in the living room (before we refinish the floor and move the furniture back in).
did i mention i used to competitively roller skate? like what they do on ice skates on tv.
i had some pretty rad costumes.

New to me tea #3 from my order.

This is such a pretty leaf tea. Sprinkled with white chocolate chips & red & white sprinkles. Super cute.
It smells sweet & cake like. Om nom nom. I had my very first red velvet cupcake a few months ago. I have to say after the first couple of bites I didn’t like it, by the 4th or so I was in love! s thick in my mouth. drool I wants more!!!!!!! I feel like I ate a piece of cake with icing. I must buy more of this. I will probably get one of the pretty tins if I can find them

My order came- and it was totally delivered to my apartment door!!!! That never ever happens! So now I have bunches and bunches of new flavors to try – SQUEE!!!

I fortunately got a lot of rooibos flavors (which I will be getting to after dinner) but I could still get away with one black blend if I got started on it immediately. So I went with this because – well, I haven’t had cake in a long time, really since going gluten free a few months ago.

Preparation: no additives, 1.5 tsp. leaf to 8 oz. water.

The dry leaf did have a sort of chemically maple smell that reminded me strongly of my first (not so good) impression of their salted caramel. But once I kept sniffing it there was a definite note of chocolate cake in there. It smells REALLY sweet – makes me want some cake frosting. My favorite part of any cake is ALWAYS the frosting!

It didn’t brew up as red as I was expecting, given that beetroot powder is an ingredient. It did brew up cloudy, though, which I was expecting because of the sprinkles/chocolate bits that are interspersed throughout the leaf.

Tastewise, I get echoes of chocolate cake and frosting – more an aftertaste now that I think about it. It tastes great – though not specifically of red velvet cake, if I’m honest. A little bit too caramel tasting for that.

Still – I do like it very much…and this is boding well for the next 10 or so I have to try!

Yum, thanks Meowkattack! I am not a giant fan of red velvet (I wrote a whole post on my blog on that subject, haha) but I do like dessert teas, and I’ve been wanting to try this one for a while. Mm, sprinkles and chocolate chips! I didn’t try and eat a chip, though I was tempted. Kind of a murky, cloudy brew…the sprinkles bloat and dissolve in a fascinating and disgusting manner. Appetizing! Haha, okay, tasty! Really, really sweet. I wasn’t expecting so much maple flavor (it’s not something I ever associated with red velvet), but it’s still really delicious. Does it taste like cake? Not really. But I’ve stopped expecting tea to taste like cake, even if it is labeled so.

This tea is something Little Debbie® would approve.
It is sickeningly sweet, chocolaty and dough-like. Let’s not forget the icing, because David knows better than to forget the icing.

Since I bought the collectable tin, I’ll reserve this tea as a post-workout treat. Better yet for guests, detainees of the sweet tooth war, if you will.

I’m one of those people who really really loves red velvet cake, and this tea smelled amazing so I was super excited to try it. I wasn’t completely disappointed!
It tastes a lot like Birthday Cake actually, which is one of my favourite dessert teas. I was a little worried about the beetroot, since it often makes teas taste weird and metallic to me. It only comes out a little in this tea though. That’s really the only bad thing about it… otherwise it’s “sweet and lightly creamy” just like the description says. I actually get strong hints of cream cheese icing which is what most reminds me of red velvet cake here… there’s not much chocolate coming through. As far as the cake teas go, this is not my favourite, but it is a satisfying dessert tea and I will happily finish my 25g bag!

Session photo: http://i.imgur.com/cgrHodB.png

Wow, okay, this really does taste like Red Velvet Cake. No, really. I tested it. My bank teller-turned-friend gave me some of their office party Red Velvet Cake during my Friday visit today. Not only was that completely sweet (ha!), it also helped me decide what tea to have when I got home…

This tea tastes almost identical to Red Velvet Cake, except that it’s a notch darker in overall profile, with chocolate notes, and it’s lighter than I expected as a black tea. The addition of cream or milk would probably make this even more accurate; actual cream cheese frosting does well too, haha! Even without additives, this is pretty creamy and delicious, and I’m surprised to find no strange off-tastes.

Perhaps it’s a little redundant to pair dessert tea with the dessert itself, since the point was to replace the real thing, but that at least extends the decadence of the slice, making it even better and fuller. And speaking of dessert teas, this is my very first one. Thank you for it, Dustin!

A second steep yields more of a tea profile. It’s smoother, and somewhat lemony. The Red Velvet Cake is still identifiable, but it’s not cohesive; there’s also a touch of an off-taste. It’s worth a resteep, but I doubt a third steep would yield a good brew.

I wanted my 100th note to be something I really love. Thank you Vanilla Beans for this extremely generous sample!!

I love it. I don’t taste a huge difference between this and Birthday Cake besides the type of tea of course, but that makes me like it even more. I love the sweet vanilly baked cake flavor that just fills your senses, and now I can have it caffeinate me!! This is going to be on my list for my first DAVIDs order in a large size. It smells amazing, and it tastes even better.

I’m finding a great love in DAVIDs dessert teas over Teavana’s, I get this artifical sugar dried pineapple flavor in every Teavana tea but I feel I can enjoy each DAVIDs tea separately as it’s own. I am so excited that I got to try this, and Vanilla Beans sent enough samples of amazing teas to get me through until my DAVIDs order!!

Hello maple. I can smell you there, even if I don’t see you in the ingredients.

Red Velvet Cake is reminding me of Birthday Cake, at least the smell. We shall see momentarily how the taste pans out. Birthday Cake was too much for me. Though in all fairness it could have been the rooibos base, since I have yet to discover a rooibos I enjoy.

I’m enjoying this one! Despite my dislike of chocolate I think this one may be kept around in my cupboard in small doses. The overwhelming sweet smell doesn’t do the tea justice. It’s a nice smooth, cup of tea. Yes sweet, but not sickeningly so.

Really liked this tea. I haven’t had red velvet cake that I can remember so I cant compair it to the cake. But this tea is a nice sweet tea. Delicious.

I made THE best latte of this today. Sweet and light. I wish it was more chocolatey but I see why others would love it.

At last count I had 47 teas in my possession, not including tea blossoms (they’re all on one box so I counted them as one) or bagged tea. As my husband would say, “You have an addiction.”

And I do, I don’t deny it.

Thus in an attempt to make a dent in what he’s called my “doomsday tea stash” I’m forcing myself to drink more tea (or trying to anyways) even while 17 weeks pregnant and still not completely over my nausea. I can’t really give a good review since my tastes and stomach are severely off at the moment, however I’m sure that if I was feeling better I would LOVE this tea. Right now though it’s tasting far, far too sweet to me, much like Birthday Cake without the rooibos base. Besides, there are far better reviews of this tea out there…

Yes, I like to drink black tea in the evening. This is a dessert tea, right? The aroma is really nice, very sweet and chocolately. I should really have red velvet cake with these teas. It’s important for flavour research. Anyway, I do taste cake in this tea. Otherwise, it has a good chocolate flavour.

The first time I steeped this, it wasn’t so good. I don’t know what I did wrong, but it was very weak. This time though it was delicious! Creamy, velvety cake taste. I’m not a big fan of red velvet cake in person, but in a tea, I love it. Glad my momma got me this for christmas :)

Another tea I had with History Laced, either one of her Christmas swap or that she ordered herself, my memory fails me. I love these little tea tastings, I always end up taking home something new.

Observation 1: My lovely boyfriend prepared the tea for us. The tea was prepared as instructed at 93 degrees Celsius for 4 minutes. Leaves were placed loose in the teapot.

Observation 2: Naked, this tea is very sweet. There is a chocolatey taste with lots of icing.

Observation 3: With sugar, the flavor is very artificially cake-like, more like the dye on sprinkles than actual cake. I can taste the black tea base very strong and clear.

Observation 4: With milk the taste is akin to cream cheese.

Observation 5: with milk and sugar it tastes the closest to red velvet cake; not only am I tasting the chocolate cake, but also the cream cheese icing flavor. This tea clearly tastes the way it was intended.

Overall: A very fun blend for tea tastings. I am not a fan, but this tea was a decent representation of a red velvet cake. History Laced even noted there were sprinkles in the tea blend. :P I am not a big sweet eater and over the course of recent years cream cheese icing has made itself the bane of my existence; so I think that I would drink this tea on very rare occasions in very small doses. I seem to be having bad luck with David Teas, maybe because they use artificial flavoring that throws off the experience on my palate? I am not seeming to be a fan of Davids Teas. Such a shame; I want to like them.

Boyfriend Remarks: With milk and sugar, tastes like cake.

^^ He REALLY likes cake. I think he would dump me for a cake my size. (After reading this, he replied: “I would not dump you for a cake your size; it would go bad.”)

I’ve now had 3 cups of this, and the other half has had a couple too. It’s so good! I think DavidsTea really gets cake teas (though I’ve only tried the black base ones). It’s sweet and tastes like red velvet cake! Really good. Not sure what else to say, just that I like it a lot!

I’ve been using boiling water, and steeps of around 4-4.5 mins.

YUM***YUM***
I was very surprised that a black tea could taste so good when blended! Davids definitely has the in on which black tea to use for their concoctions. I prepared as directed with 208 degree water and for 4 minutes. It was perfectly sweet and didn’t need any editing. Would probably be great as a latte too! Fortunately I have enough to try that next time.
Will for sure be ordering more of this wonderful dessert tea!

A temptation that I just couldn’t resist in Harvest Tin form. It has a wonderful aroma and does remind the senses well of the actual cake. In both dry form and when it is brewed. Much like the other cake teas did for their match all the way up to the cute sprinkles. The flavor is very rich and mellow with just the right notes of sweetness. Just like a hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream only a little more milder. Between this and Chocolate cake I’d probably say that this one is a bit more creamier than the other with its more complex nuances. I will definitely be drinking more of this one or stock up if its a limited edition.

My first cuppa after a long hot summer, this was perfect. Rich and chocolately without being chalky or powdery. Yummmmm. Only note: needs a longer steep time.

Strange that I am pretty sure I didn’t love this the first time I tried it. Or perhaps I did, but I may have gotten it confused with DT’s Birthday Cake tea, which to me just tastes purely of rooibos, which I don’t love. I was a huge fan when they came out with their original cake teas, including Birthday Cake (meh), Ice Cream cake (very artificial but also pretty true to the intent!) and, my personal favorite, Chocolate Cake.

I figured that the whole world would agree with me that Chocolate Cake (hereby known as “CC”) was the clear winner of the three, I was wrong! DT ended up keeping the Bday Cake as a permanent tea instead, and so I was left clinging to the rest of my CC Tin.

Until now! I know this Red Velvet Cake has existed for awhile, but clearly “David” took the original CC mix and ran with it! Now THIS is a definite winner. I am still a novice when it comes to writing these reviews and as far as being able to taste different notes within a single tea, however this one is easy. I swear I can taste the frosting! And somehow it is cream cheese frosting! It’s definitely a good chocolatey tea, not in a gross fake way. I will try some more of my beloved CC tea later to compare, but I’m so glad this one is permanent! I can see this being a great craving killer, it really tastes like dessert! It is VERY sweet. I’m drinking it straight up and followed the steeping directions on the bag.

I’m actually drinking it for breakfast as we speak, which is kind of sick. I have never denied my sweet tooth though. Incidentally i am also in the middle of making homemade mayo for some deviled eggs to bring to a gathering later, and just in case you were wondering, as far as smell goes, mayo and chocolate tea do NOT mix.

To summarize, another win!