Caramel & Rum

This could possibly get me to order a rooibos!
I get the rum and caramel but combined this is BUTTERSCOTCH and you all know I love butterscotch! On the other hand – Rooibos – :P
However the flavor is so strong I can’t even taste the rooibos so all is well! :)
On the shopping list it goes!

Excitement! My gaiwan from Teavivre has arrived! I want to use it right now but several things are stopping me. It’s too late for caffeine, and my right wrist has been injured for the past month and is still healing. Sad.

This tea I’m drinking now arrived in my order from Lupicia. I felt like an easy tea this evening because my muscles are sore from exercising and the less I move the better. Haha. Yay tea bags!

I’m really enjoying this a lot more than expected. The smell of the dry tea made me nervous. It seemed so rummy! But after brewing all I can taste is caramel it actually reminds me of caramel Baileys Irish cream. Tasty! I wouldn’t mind keeping a bunch of this around!

I’ve had all new teas today so I thought I’d continue the trend with this one, my only untried herbal. The first sniff of the dry not-leaf was full on caramel. The second was rum. The third I got almost totally rooibos. The forth things started to meld a little and it smells like rum cake. Toasted.

Brewed, the rooibos is kind of there but it seems to meld with the rum. Again, the rum gives me rum cake thoughts, not a shot of rum. I’m thinking that is because of the sweetness added by the caramel.

The taste is… unexpected. Clean and sweet on the front – caramel glaze more than a caramel chew – and rooibos woody on the end. The aftertaste is a mix of caramel glaze with an alcoholic note. I love love love the flavor on the front. It’s so tasty and sweet and yum. But the transition into rooibos is a little confusing for me because I don’t really like rooibos and the rooibos taste comes right after such a delightful taste that has no hint of rooibos. See, it’s confusing.

The rooibos taste isn’t sour or rotting wood sweet or anything so that’s good. It’s obviously there but it’s just wood. Plain, dry, unrotted wood. I’m still not jumping up and down for the rooibos but the more I sip, the more I don’t care that the rooibos is there.

It’s not the best rooibos ever simply because it’s rooibos. But for those that can deal well with rooibos when it doesn’t taste like rotting wood, this one is pretty freakin’ good.

Finally I made it to the newly remodeled Lupicia store in San Francisco. They changed locations and seemed to have downsized their square footage slightly as well as the number of teas they carry – I was looking for a few they have listed on their website that they did not have in the store. Still, it is quite a good assortment of tea and tea related paraphernalia they have there in the retail shop. The salespeople were helpful but a wee bit pushy. Just a wee.

In any case I left with only a few selections and not the entire lot of hundreds – exercising some self-restraint! I am not sure what possessed me to take this, as I know I am not a big fan of red rooibos. But I do like rum, and caramel, and honeybush sometimes.

This is really sweet – over the top for me. I added some soymilk to it to make a nice dessert tea. It’s not bad but again, I get the weird roobois aftertaste which bothers me. I am getting a lot of rum but not so much caramel. I might try brewing this up also with some decaf black tea to take the sweetness down a notch. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it could be, but I did not love it either….

This has a buttery rum flavor. I didn’t really pick up on the caramel but I am satisfied with the rum. It was actually a really nice evening tea with a friend. I was able to get two steepings from this because the flavor was so strong and just let it steep extra long while we drank the first batch.

I searched my tea-bag (a medium sized paper department store bag that I’ve filled to the brim with loose leaf tea) to see what rooibos I had left that I hadn’t had in the last few days while convalescing. Tonight I am finishing the last bit of this tea I have with buttered rum seasonings. Yum!

The seasonings really do this delicious rum flavored rooibos justice! My only regret is these painkillers prevent me from adding cinnamon flavored 24K gold schnapps, which would really bring out the warm-and-fuzzies of this tea.

HistoryLaced gave me more tea at our tasting, particularly several packets of oolong (she just hasn’t found one she likes yet. I think my muscat oolong might be of some persuasion to her.) which required me to wash out the preserve (tiny mason jar) container that had that rancid Teavana Ayurvedic chai in it. I bought all these tiny mason jars to lock in my tea flavors, what I didnt expect was the lid to absorb the scent of that rancid tea so much that dousing it in rubbing alcohol did absolutely nothing! Well luckily, those lids come about a dime a dozen- I’ll just replace it. Seriously though, first experience with Teavana and it’s horrifying. :S

Now that I am drinking the last pot of this tea I have, I must ask myself: is this a tea to restock? I think as a cool weather drink, yes it is delicious and I love it; it’s definitely a blend that screams “Comfy!!!” but this is southern California. The weather is beginning to warm up, our rainy season seldom lasts a few weeks and school starts the first week of February. I think “comfy” may be going out of season.

Hopefully I will see this blend in-store next fall/winter right in time for another cool winter break spent indoors with my sweetie. :)

For now though, I think it’s time to stock something bold, spicy and packed with caffeine!

P.S.: I am feeling tons better and can’t wait to be 100% again! I only needed one painkiller at all today. Go me!

Husband is away on business for a couple nights leaving me alone. I usually don’t sleep well when he’s gone. Hoping Caramel & Rum helps me sleep…

Upon opening the bag, all I smell is booze. No hint of caramel. Used 2.5 tsp for 10 oz of water. Steeped this for the full amount of time and the smell of caramel filled my cup. Unsweetened, I find this pretty blah. No caramel; no rum – all rooibos.

I’m determined to make this taste better. Post sweetener it tastes the same, just a sweeter kind of blah. Some half & half added to the cup and I taste a faint bit of caramel.

I think I’m going to have to use an extra tsp next time for the same amount of water – hopefully the next cup will turn out better.

Got this as a sample from Teasuce. Its a nice dessert tea, and lately I have been wanting something sweet. I can not really make out the rum, but the carmel flavor is nice.

The aroma reminds me of rum cake. It does taste like caramel, and rum at first. Then I get more of a butterscotch flavour.

I like it, but I feel it needs something.

Another sachet tea bag from Lupicia’s Tea Latte set. I was not eager to try this, because as a general rule I’m not a fan of rooibos. The distinct scent always feels too “sweet” for me. But it was late at night and I wanted a warm tea latte, so I gave it a try.

I don’t know if I will like this straight, because the smell was almost overwhelming when I first took the bag out. You can smell all three: caramel, rum, and rooibos. When you add milk and sugar, the rum and rooibos stand out and caramel, not so much. But I like it that way because it doesn’t taste exactly like other caramel flavored teas. I would buy this again for a nighttime tea latte.

I got a sample of this in Lupicia’s latest newsletter.

The scent as I prepared this tea was of a very buttery caramel. It seems very autumnal to me; I can’t help but think of colorful dry leaves (which we don’t really get in California) and smoky fires. It’s not that these are part of the brew, but back when I worked at Bath & Body Works one of the seasonal Halloween fragrances was “Creamy Caramel” – and the association of that smell with fall has become permanently affixed to my memory.

I ramble.

The tea is sweet. The rum note is quite strong, and grows more noticeable as the tea becomes cooler. Although I am not drinking this with milk, I can definitely see how the creaminess would complement this tea.

Very seasonal and appropriate tonight, when the first bit of winter chill has appeared.

Testing this out as a late night alternative to tea. Like other reviewers, I was prepared not to like it, but surprisingly actually quite good. The description of caramel and rum lives up to its name, but not in a bad way. I was worried that it would be sickeningly sweet, especially from the smell of the tea bag. It leads with slightly sweet caramel and rum, and the rooibos makes a surprisingly mild and toasted base that isn’t overwhelmingly sweet. I had it plain, and then added milk and sugar to try it as well. Yum! While I’m not in LOVE with it, it’s pretty good.

This was a tasty rooibos. The name Caramel & Rum led me to expect something as good as Lupicia’s Rum Raisin! It didn’t disappoint. When I removed the lid from my cup after brewing, the creamy and rummy aroma made me feel like Christmas (am I the only one who associates this aroma with Christmas?)! The rooibos base was decent, it was nutty and there’s no weird vegetal flavour. I am usually a fan of caramel but this time it was definitely overshadowed by the bright taste of rum. Yum! :9

I got this as the sample with the October 2012 mailer. Because I also ordered a package that month, I got a second newsletter/sample. My boyfriend and I drank them tonight.
Before brewing it smells really rummy, and brewed it smells/tastes overwhelmingly rummy. I think. I don’t drink alcohol, so I guess I don’t really know what rum tastes like, I’m just going off of my imagination… and my boyfriend says that no, it doesn’t taste like rum.
The rooibos flavor is hidden beneath the other flavors.
It does really taste like a butterscotch candy. I really don’t like butterscotch, so I didn’t care for this tea. My boyfriend loved it though, and he’s not particularly into tea, so that is bumping up the rating for me.

Before Steeping:
Color- Browns, golds, caramels…etc
Scent- Rum, with a hint Caramel

After Steeping:
Color- Amber
Scent- Caramel, and a hint of rum

Taste:
Nude- waterdown rum, with butterscotch and caramel
With Sugar- heightened the flavor of everything

*would be a great desert tea, the only issue that I had with it was that it was too watery, next time I might increase the amount and lengthen the steeping time

Got this one as a free teabag sample from Lupicia last month. I really liked the taste, so I went ahead a purchased some loose tea.
This tea is sweet smelling, definately large hints of rum, a little more subtle in the caramel. You also will pick up the rooibos scent, though it’s not overt. I do think that next time I prepare it I will let it steep for less time, as it came out a little too potent for my taste.
Taste:
The caramel comes forward a bit once it’s brewed, and I can taste it, though the rum taste is more prominent. The rooibos is detectable, but I didn’t find it overpowering. This tea is definately sweet, and sometimes by the end of the cup I’m glad there isn’t any more, or else I might get sick of it. It’s a nice treat after dinner, though.

Strong caramel and rum flavors and rooibus itself very faint, almost non existent. Makes a perfect night time dessert with a bit of milk.

So the first time I had this, I wasn’t impressed, but I know a lot more about making loose tea now, so it’s improved with every subsequent cup.

I’d say you need at least 1 heaping teaspoon per 8-10 ounces to really get a solid sweet caramel flavor. The caramel is sweet but not cloyingly so, making this a nice treat at the end of a day.

Suprised by its desert like qualities.

I got a tea sachet of this from Lupicia. It is a tasty tea but the rum is more pronounced in smell and taste. It has a pleasing smell and aftertaste. I added sugar to the last half but it doesn’t add anything special. I wish I had more to try with some milk.