Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I was worried this may be TOO pineapple-y but its not. It has just enough of the pineapple flavor to taste it but this mostly takes like CAKE. This is THE cakey-ist flavor I have ever tasted in any tea.
I will have to savor more of this to give a better review.
What I can say is that I love Della Terra’s flavorings, never cloying, never artificial.
This is very good!

Ohhhh man. Smelling this in my cup now. My second Della Terra ordered arrived today, happy birthday to me!!! Great timing because it’s a rough birthday.
This is fast becoming a fave tea company of mine. Move over Davidstea!!

I’m going to let it cool a bit and then report my findings.

Ok, drinking this again. I made it at work yesterday and again right now, my coworkers practically followed the scent from the kitchen to my cubicle. I could hear them saying “mmmm, what’s that smell?? Something smells good!”

It is so fresh that it looks wet in the bag. That may seem gross to you but it just makes me want to eat it with a spoon . I wouldn’t go that far though, you guys, come on.

It’s almost as good as it smells. And the similarities to Davidstea Red Velvet Cake are pretty amazing because that one is chocolatey and this isn’t!

Maybe they used a similar cake flavouring. You can’t pull the wool over my eyes, I know that’s how it works. Just tell me where you bought it so I can use it on everything else.
It’s very sweet, this tea. Definite brown sugar notes, creamy, I guess the only “complaint” I have is that I can’t taste the pineapple very much. I wish this was a bit more different from the Red Velvet Cake because given the ingredients and intention with this I should love it way more than that one. I do love it though, and will have to do a comparison sometime! Another DellaTerra win!

(Made as directed)

It’s a cold, rainy night in NY and I am craving a cup of something rich and warming. Something like… cake! As luck would have it I just got a sample of this tea from Chuckieroy, what perfect timing. This tea smells just divine, not just pineapple-y but very much like cake. Often cake blends fail to deliver on that aspect, but I had high hopes for this one since Della Terra seems to excel at dessert blends.

Oh my GOODNESS. This tastes just like cake! The pineapple is strong but tempered by brown sugar and a rich, creamy quality. It’s so buttery and, well, cake-y! Definitely the most cake-like tea I’ve tasted, this so lives up to its name and I will be adding this to my permanent stash for sure. Thanks so much for letting me try this one, Chuckieroy!

Sil, you are now my best friend!
This tea is SO AWESOME!
I opened the package, & the smell is AWESOME!!!
It smells like butterscotch chips. It smells like cake, & a creamy frosting. It smells wonderful!
I steeped it, & I love it. My son Drew walked into the room & said, “What is that awesome smell?” I allowed him to sample 1 tsp of my cup of tea, & he said, “We MUST get more of this.”
He’s right!

Ok this tea? doesn’t taste like pineapple…it’s like stuffing my face full of cake. It even smells like yellow butter cake. I wish there was a bit more pineapple to the taste but overall, I can totally forgive that this tea also isn’t quite what it’s supposed to be because OH.MY.GOD. Cake! without any stupid sprinkles or other nonesense that della terra and david’s tea typically add to their teas. Just ohmygodcanieatthispleasecake!

My first order just arrived! I decided to go with this because I was oh so curious about this cake note everyone keeps talking about.

The dry leaf smells like… DT’s Red Velvet Cake. If you haven’t smelled that before, it is basically extra sweet, warm sugary cake with a a vat of frosting dumped on it. But almost to the point that it just smells like a sugary toothache. So, not a good thing after all.

This also tastes very similar. There is no pineapple to be had, unfortunately. I can at least taste the base in this blend more, and Pineapple Upside Down Cake lacks the oily film that DT’s has. It has a tiny bit of a film on top, but not nearly as much, most likely because there aren’t any sprinkles or white chocolate chips in here.

The aroma of the steeped tea is very tantalizing, though. The gooey sweetness has filled my entire bedroom. As a matter of fact, a while ago, I was trying to read an academic article for a paper while this was cooling, and I couldn’t for the life of me concentrate because it smelled so freakishly good. I had to drop what I was doing, come on Steepster, and talk about this.

PS: While I was brewing this up, my roommate asked me how/why the kitchen smelled like pancakes.

Although I chose to order this as part of one of my Try Me packs, it never seemed to grab me as a tea I wanted to try until tonight, when I decided it was high time for a bit more progress on my new teas (yeah, the ones I received while here, hahahahaha).

I cannot believe how incredibly delicious this tea smells! Like the sweet, caramelized sugar crust around the edges of a pineapple upside-down cake that I used to break off and eat (and get in trouble over). I didn’t want the rest of the cake, just that part! Anyways, this tea smells like that. Dry and brewed. It’s incredibly strong, and soooo intoxicating!

Unfortunately, the flavour doesn’t quite live up to the aroma. When the tea was still warm, there was a strong flat/cardboardy/stale note right after the initial sip, which then faded into delicious caramelized sugar flavours and perhaps a hint of fruitiness (I really taste no pineapple here, to be honest). I found the stale flavour quite disconcerting – it was almost as if I was just tasting the black base, quite weak and stale, before the flavouring hit my tongue. This phenomenon has happened to me before, and it seems to be unique to flavoured teas (so it makes me think it’s something do with flavouring in some way). Either way, the tea has now cooled, and this flatness no longer makes an appearance, it’s just delicious caramelly goodness.

I’m a bit disappointed that I can’t really pick out any pineapple here, but the strong caramelly flavours will make this a great one for the travel mug (although I only have enough for one serving left!)

CAKE.

This is more buttery cake than pineapple, I could so use a bit more. I probably have something somewhere I could add. Or next time I will just sweeten it a little. But yes, if you like cake, this is your tea. It tastes just like cake.

This one smelled so good in the package that I had to make some. I’m not a pineapple fan, but read that it’s not strong in this and that’s totally the case. In fact, I don’t taste any pineapple at all, but the gooey cake is crazy good. I already placed a della terra order that’s on its way so I should probably wait to place another, but I don’t know if my will power can withstand that. We shall see….

Oops, I was so excited to write about how yummy this is that I forgot to thank Whatshesaid for the sample! A million apologies! Thank you so much for my new favorite DT tea!

Update this tea just provided some heartbreak for the big kid when she came running down for dinner thinking we were having pancakes for dinner. Oh the disappointment!

This is a sample surprise kindly sent by Nicole, thank you very much for this one too.
The dry leaves are full of pineapple chunks and smells like caramelized fruits.
After steeping it smells really like a fresh home made cake coming out of the oven ! incredible – and it tastes absolutely like a caramelized fruit cake.
The pineapple is not very perceptible as caramel, cake and vanilla flavours but I can taste it very very very far behind.

The flavours are so strong you keep the taste a long time after drinking !

A very well done dessert tea.

Thanks to Emilie for sharing this!

Not super wild about the dry smell. Very strong and somewhat unnaturally caramel.

OMG… this is amazing. Still smells super strongly of caramelized brown sugar. I don’t taste pineapple very much, but wow, does this ever taste like cake. This is the only dessert tea I’ve had that tastes so much like a dessert that I could have it and fool myself into thinking I am having a real dessert. I would definitely order some of this.

Now I need to make pineapple upside down cake…

Happy Mother’s Day, Steepsterites!

I’ve never had upside down cake but this tea gives me the impression that there is a whole lot of sugar involved. Caramelized sugar and brown sugar are the two dominant notes I pick out of this, with tangy sweet pineapple creeping in near the end of the sip. I thought there would be more pineapple flavour but it’s a subtle thing here. It’s rich, buttery, and creamy- it’s extreme cake tea. There may be more cake here than in some actual cakes. It’s a little overwhelming.

I personally do not need or crave this much cake in my tea, and prefer some of the lighter dessert teas to sugar monsters like this and Red Velvet Cake (from David’s Tea). This is great for what it is, however, and I’ll enjoy drinking the rest of the sample that Cavocorax provided (now I know what sample made your envelope smell so sweet)!

I’m super excited to try this tea. This is one of the ones that I was most excited about ordering from Della Terra. The dry leaves smell so much like a rich, buttery cake with just a little hint of pineapple that comes and goes. Wow, the aroma from the tea is seriously filling up my whole kitchen. It’s making me really crave some pineapple upside down cake! The aroma is a rich, butter brown sugar smell. The flavor is initially a little malty, with a buttery and cakey taste. There is a sweet pineapple finish, and the aftertaste is of heavy brown sugar and pineapple upside down cake. It honestly tastes like I just took a big bite of this cake! I love how there is a little black tea maltiness at the beginning. All of the flavors just mesh together so well, it’s hard to focus on one flavor – it’s so perfectly flavored like the actual cake. I added some milk and sweetener and it became a creamy and smooth cup. This tea completely lived up to my expectations, probably even surpassed them a little. I still have six of my new Della Terra teas to try, but this company is quickly becoming a favorite! Someone please stop me from ordering every single tea that they make!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs with small pieces of dried pineapple and pieces of dried cherry.
-Dry leaves smell strongly of buttery cake with a hint of pineapple. Tea liquor aroma is of rich brown sugar.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium yellow brown color.
-Malty, buttery and cakey flavor with a sweet pineapple finish. Heavy brown sugar and pineapple upside down cake aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Excellent tea. Heavy and rich brown sugar flavor. Tastes exactly like pineapple upside down cake.

This was really good! Its sweet and creamy and delicious! It reminds me a lot of DT red velvet cake but not as sweet. Yum its so good.

This is so good! Sweet, buttery cakey goodness. The main flavor is the cake, but the sweetness of the pineapple is there, becoming more pronounced as the tea cools. Not that I allowed this tea to cool off too much. I steadily sipped it until my cup was empty.

Looks like I need a refill and a reorder. I’m going to go through this sample way too fast!

I picked this tea tonight for the sipdown!

It’s really tasty and ultra sweet. It’s enjoyable, but I think I prefer their rooibos teas and chocolate teas more than this one. I’m passing the rest on to Jackie T, who I hope enjoy it more than I did!

The PINNACLE of delectable teas. The gooey-est, butteriest, most fantastic tea I’ve ever had the pleasure of trying. THE PERFECT TEA. This is the only tea I’ve ever had that I’ll give a complete 100 rating for! This is my first tasting note for Pineapple Upside Down Cake but NOT the first time I’ve had this tea. I’ve had this tea many, many times before! I’m rambling because I can’t say enough good things about this tea. Perfect 100!

I’m not much of a fan of pineapple, of any sort, fresh, canned, juice etc. But I love Della Terra, so I definetly wanted to try this.
I received it in a swap from chukie.

This smells very bakey, cakey goodness.
It steeps up much the same, so delicious. Certain teas should be made into candles, this is one. hmmmm that gives me an idea…

Anyways this is very cake like, at first I didn’t think I tasted pineapple, but on the third sips & so on I got a slight hint of sweet, tangy pineapple.

This is really great. So good. Another win!

I’m very eager to drink this tea as apparently it has a great cakey flavor. The scent is almost like a maple syrup with something in the background that’s a little like pancakes.

Sipping…. I’m tasting more caramel than anything. It’s not like other caramel teas I’ve had as this one tastes a little bit burnt. It’s almost like burned caramel with maple syrup drizzled on top. Ew.

I’ve never had pineapple upside down cake so I’m not sure what this tea is supposed to taste like.. I really don’t taste much pineapple at all and I’m disappointed that I am tasting caramel instead of cake. It’s certainly drinkable, but the flavor is getting to be overwhelming.

I think perhaps it’s me, and that maple is somehow hard-wired into my taste buds? Both this and Blueberry Crumble were overwhelmingly maple scented and tasting! What’s up with that?

I let this cool and the maple certainly wore off somewhat. I want it to be pineapple though! Should I be steeping this longer or shorter? Different temperatures perhaps?

Update April 16/13: Everyone raves about this tea so I had to try it again. What am I missing? It still smells overwhelmingly of maple. Maybe I’m getting a cake taste? When it was still piping hot I think I caught a hint of pineapple, but not as it cools. I was so hopeful for something delicious here. Darn.

Anyone interested in swapping? I’ve got a few cups worth of a few different Della Terra’s and David’s blends I posted on the swap discussions.