Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

This is my first tea from Della Terra, but I was impressed. I opened this up and it just smelled delicious. I fixed it the first time around without sweetening it, but really I shouldn’t have done that, this tea just asks for sugar, especially if you have a sweet tooth like me. This isn’t one that I could see myself drinking every day, however when I’m craving something sweet this will really hit the spot. This tea also has the added bonus of making the whole house smell wonderful, so much so that my husband came and asked me what i was baking.

I was on the fence about this tea for a long time, but I’m finally ready to announce my verdict. While it doesn’t taste like biting into an actual oatmeal raisin cookie, this tea does share some very similar flavors. Overall, a pretty tasty tea.

This tea smells like a bakery. I think the brown sugar and oats really contribute to the cookie-like quality of the smell. Once brewed, the cinnamon packs a bit of a punch which blends really nicely with the other flavors. I don’t get much from the raisins at all. Honestly, I think they’re just eye candy.

As far as resteeping goes, it’s pretty decent for a flavored tea. I’ve found that keeping the first steep short really helps. For a long time, I found the 2nd steep of this blend to be almost flavorless until I found the sweet spot— 2:30 for the first steep, 5 minutes for the second. While enjoying my second steep today, someone sitting a few seats over from me could smell the cinnamon and clove!

For experimentation purposes, I steeped this a third time. I accidentally let it go for 15 minutes! The black base was not bitter at all, which I found remarkable for such a long steep. That being said, the tea was incredibly weak and the cinnamon was the only other flavor I could detect. I can live with having just two good steeps, though.

I was super excited to try this tea. It is a tasty tea, for sure. To me though it tasted like Cinnamon Crackle, which I like. So while that is not a bad thing, it’s just not a oatmeal cookie to me.

I got a sample of this one from T.C….its on my shopping list now because it is REALLY GOOD! Mmmmmm liquid cookie tea!!!

As a rule I don’t like or drink flavored teas, invariably they wind up having an artifical flavor or aftertaste. But something about all the descriptions of this tea made me put aside my normal reluctance aside and try it.

I’m glad I did.

Openning the pouch wasn’t auspicious. It smelled like one of those cloyingly sweet pipe tobaccos that have a picture of an old clipper ship and Captain or Rum in the name. But I put the kettle on in the galley anyway.

It brewed up dark and heavy, with a strong nose of cinnamon and fruit. The pipe tobacco aroma was still there but softened a bit and no longer cloying. Fortunately it was not in the taste of the tea.

I agree with others that this doesn’t taste to me much like or even remind me of Oatmeal Raisin cookies because of the cinnamon and butter. It’s more like a Hot Toddy. And the underlying black tea base underneath it all was not totally drowned out or lost.

It does need a sweetner to cut the cinnamon, but once sweetened it’s delicious and not a bit artificial tasting. I’d like to try it as a latte with a bit of milk foamed with my espresso machine wand. It would be perfect that way with a low calorie sweetener and foamed skim milk when I want a sweet treat but don’t want the calories.

This was a nice choice to start the morning off with! It is officially below zero here in the mornings, frost on the ground and everything. So I find myself gravitating to spicier, warmer teas to start the day off. This one was light on the raisins (much to my relief), but heavy on the vanilla and cinnamon. I drank it with a touch of sugar to help bring out the sweeter base notes. To me, it was comparable to some of my other spice blends but without the cloves a lot of the them tend to focus on. I could see myself drinking this more often when I am looking for something soothing and cinnamon focused. Another solid tea from Della Terra!

It’s pouring rain here today, so I figured it would be a good chance to try some of the samples that scribbles sent me. I made this one hot, and it smells so yummy.. it really makes me want a cinnamon raisin cookie, it tastes just like them!. I must say though, I do prefer monkeybread to this one :)

Big fan of the way this smells brewing and in the cup, sweet and comforting without being saccharine or one-note. Sorta makes me think of those chewy flat perfectly round cookies with the big round flecks of sugar on top that you can get at the supermarket, the ones that come in a paper carton wrapped in plastic like Thomas english muffins do, with red labeling…does anyone know what I mean? G’ah, that’s going to drive me crazy. [EDIT: Archway! Yes!] Anyway, it reminds me a bit of those, the way there’s some spice. And you can totally smell and taste the raisin too; it has a squidgy, melty, baked element to it that makes it yummy. Very comforting.

Huh, on my second cup I added a bit of raw sugar and a tiny splash of milk, and now I can taste the oats, they come out more. Kinda makes me appreciate the tea more.

Looks fairly pale in the cup, and the flavor isn’t nearly as strong as the smell (but the smell is so pleasant I almost don’t care). I think next time I may brew a minute longer.

EDIT: this has really grown on me. The first couple times I was kind of disappointed at how the flavor didn’t live up to the delicious aroma, but clearly the subtlety of the taste has worked its magic on me slowly because the past 2 nights just as I think I’m done for the night I get this gnawing urge to brew myself a cup specifically of this as a pre-bedtime snack, caffeine be darned. And it’s really been hitting the spot, I must say. The fact I keep craving it is, uh, telling, ha.

When I saw this tea I just HAD to try it – and I wasn’t disappointed. The dry leaf has a very strong cinnamon scent however this is misleading as once brewed it adds just the right flavor to the blend. Once brewed the smell and flavoring are spot on for me but I did find it a bit on the sweet side. According to the ingredients the only sweetener seems to be the raisins so perhaps this is just my taste buds since I don’t tend to consume much sugar (or other sweeteners). With this said, it is a VERY tasty blend that’s true to its name. Now only if someone would come out with a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie tea … :D

I had never tried Della Terra teas before, so I ordered two of the pick your own sample packs and this was one of my picks. Those things are brilliant and I wish every company would give you a trial option like that! I can smell cinnamon, oatmeal and raisins when this tea is dry and a strong cinnamon scent when it’s brewed. When trying it plain I can’t pick out much flavor on the sip, but the aftertaste is very much like I just had an oatmeal cookie in my mouth! Next I added what may amount to a little too much sugar – whoops. The cinnamon is much more pronounced on the sip and the cookie aftertaste is stronger too. Now I’ll try it with cream! The cream tones down the cinnamon which is nice because it was being a bit of a stage hog. The scent is more even too and I can pick out the oatmeal taste at the end of each sip as well as after now. My first impression is that this tea is yummy and interesting, but it isn’t awing me either. What it is doing is making me want to bake oatmeal raisin cookies. I wonder if that is the result of a flavor association in my brain. My mouth tastes oatmeal and my brain expects my stomach to feel full? Strange!