Toasted Nut Brulee Oolong

Another June tea of the month on the classic plan.

It smells terrific in the bag. A sort of nutty, gingery, cinnamony mix. It looks like a typical Teavana mixture with stuff other than tea in it. Big chunky trail mix-like pieces. Not quite as big as some of the other Teavana fruit mixtures that featured almost entire slices of citrus, but chunky nevertheless.

The tea is yellow in color with some orange in it as well. Darkish yellow, and though not entirely opaque, it isn’t clear either. There are little rooibos kitties down at the bottom of the glass. The aroma is fruitier than the dry mix. I can smell the apple (second ingredient) and some other fruit that smells like citrus ( oddly, as there is no citrus listed in the ingredients). I can also detect a faint cinnamon smell.

The taste is, in fact, much better than the aroma at least at first. Interestingly, it’s a third thing altogether. It doesn’t have a lot in common with either the dry aroma or the steeped one. Here I really taste the toasted nutty flavor I was expecting from the name (since oolongs often have a toasted nutty flavor, it seemed a natural fit for this type of flavoring). It’s got a sweetness to it, and some gingery spiciness as well. There’s a strange orangey note that has no real explanation. It seems to be tied to the cinnamon, somehow. Maybe it’s a result of the combination of the various fruit pieces. I can’t say I taste pineapple or papaya.

It’s true, as someone else said, that the initial sips are the best. After the initial nuttiness and toasty flavor, the cinnamon and apple/weird orange note take over. It’s not bad, it’s just not as good as the first sips, and starts to seem more like a Constant Comment echo.

Second steep, three minutes. Pretty much all the flavoring agents were washed away in the first steep it seems, except for a slight apply/cinnamony flavor. Usually at this point at least I’d get an oolong flavor, but unfortunately, the apple/cinnamon flavor is so distracting I can’t even tell whether the tea is bringing anything to the party.

I should disclose that I put about twice as much of the mix in as would ordinarily be recommended, as I find that otherwise the size of the pieces in these mixtures makes for a weak steep.

Not the worst flavored oolong by any stretch, but doesn’t live up to the promise of its name.

My perplexity with Teavana, and more specifically, their marketing department appears to be growing.

With a name like Toasted Nut Brulee Oolong, I naturally expected this tea to taste like nuts. The problem is there is so much else going on here: roobois, apple, pineapple, coconut, cardamom. The flavors are conflicting and the tea is schizophrenic. To me it seems more like it should be called a tropical tea? In any event, it is at least drinkable and not unpleasant.

Can anyone recommend a flavored oolong that really does taste like nuts?

A co-worker took advantage of the free shipping sale from Teavana and got this in today. The smell of the tea filled the lunchroom and I had to steal a cup.

I used 3 teaspoons of tea for large cup and steeped for 4 minutes. This almost tastes like cider and cinnamon. Not a bad taste but certainly not nuts or brulee. I checked the ingredients and apples are surely listed. Very little oolong to this oolong. I’m glad I got to try this but its not worth the price.

Grabbed a cup of this while at the mall. My wife was getting her eyebrows done….so I treated myself to tea. A good call I think. This one is pretty good. The cinnamon just about knocks you over. I could also pick up the apple and caramel. However there was just a funky aftertaste that I had with this one. I think it was pretty good and think my mom would love this one for Christmas or her birthday. I think they should rename it cinnamon bun instead of toasted nut brulee.

I received this tea in a swap with Ottawa Tea… thanks!

It smelled like cinnamon in the bag, sweet and spicy at the same time. 195/3 min (plus another minute afterward because it was too weak)

The scent and flavor remind me a lot of Forever Nuts, however, in order to achieve that, I used nearly double the amount of tea than I normally do. I’ve found that some of Teavana’s teas just have so much stuff in them that the tea to stuff ratio is seriously off and requires adjustment. This tea is no exception.

Hot, it tastes of apples and cinnamon, but as it cools, it takes on more of a nutty sweetness, like an apple crumble or apple cobbler. It’s quite good, but I don’t think the cost it would take to produce a pot of this (with needing to double the tea amount) would be worth it in the long run.

I got this in a coffee and tea exchange, along with wonderberry truffle and superfruit unity.

When I opened the bag, it smelled extremely cinnamony and spicey. Not really what I expected from the name. There were big, delicious looking pieces of nuts in there. After steeping,it smelt very toasty and nutty and more of what I was expecting. I think I didn’t use enough, because it was a bit weak, but the flavors I was getting were lots of cinnamon and a definite toasty, nutty flavor.

I got suckered into the $10 off $20 sbux Teavana coupon, and bought 4 teas (spent $20! Super pleased with myself!).

This is the first one I decided to try. It’s OK. Yes, it’s nutty, but I taste the flavouring and there’s very little oolong. It might be contributing to the metallic taste, but I’m going to attribute that to the flavour.

Not one I’d get again, but it’s good enough for a caffeine boost at work tomorrow! Doesn’t need milk and sugar, but is somewhat improved by it.

Apparently I got sidetracked before I actually wrote the review yesterday.

I need to drink this again before I weigh in with an actual rating.

Like others have mentioned, this wasn’t very nutty or brulee-ish. The smell and the taste didn’t really match. I ignored it most of the time it was hot and actually enjoyed it more cooled off.

I’ll put more thought into this when I try it again.

I have to take an official stance and say enough with Christmas songs. It’s only the first week of November and I’m sick of it already. How is this even physically possible?!
I picked this tea over the sweet oolong revolution (for now…) because hubby seemed to like it more. And oh no! The Teavana people know who I am now! :O They’re like…haven’t I met you before? I cringe a little and say yes. I am an addict. A tea addict. I have to keep crawling back to this, my dispensary for the only things that help me going during my homework!
The smell on this is very warm and cinnamony. I like that a lot recently. The brew is really lovely and is much less cinnamon than I expected. I decided to eat this with a half of a English muffin with apple butter. This combination was heaven. There’s just this awesome fall synergy that happened that was so amazing! I am really tempted to mix this with my chocolate oolong from them. As this cooled the flavor had a lot more of the apple that was mentioned somewhere. I don’t taste the pineapple at all. This is actually a great flavor and something I could easily see as a fall staple in a chai lovers cabinet; even though this is not really a “chai” blend. I do have to agree with other reviewers though; I have no idea where they came up for the name of this. To really be called a brulee I’d like some more of the toasted-sugar flavor that I have experienced from such great teas as the caramel Kusmi.

Rueful laugh and somewhat frustrated sigh This is the 12? tea that I’ve tried from Teavana, and like many of the others, cannot say I am a fan. I got this tea last week, on wednesday, but didn’t get around to making it til today. (Or rather, since I’m writing this at 5:00am, yesterday.) Now, as when I smelled it at the store….OMG it smells divine! and when I smelled it again as I was spooning it into my infuser, MMMMMmmm! When I poured the water in, it kind of smelled alittle odd, but not terrible. As my usual M.O. I automatically put in several packets worth of sugar in, before tasting it. Then tested it, while I still smelled nuttiness, all I could taste was cinnamon, and a very faint after taste of nuts. Which I am not a fan of. I prefer teas that are balanced in their flavors, if there is more then one. Cinnamon you have to be careful with as it can take over! So, while I will do my usual adjusting the temp and steeping time, but I suspect that this will not improve over time. If anyone can recommend a tea that would be a good match for this, preferably a herbal or non caffeine tea that maybe has some fruit in it? I am thinking a slightly intense fruity tea might make it at least an interesting drink that will help me get rid of the tea and help me feel that I havn’t wasted my moola. A note of complaint: I have an variable temp electric kettle, and it has an oolong setting, but the Teavana bag suggested that I use 195, but since I have no setting for that, I picked the one for 200, and when it came to a boil, I waited about 10 seconds then poured. Should I next try the Oolong setting (190.)? and I think it was steeped for 3 minutes, though did not keep as much of a check on the time as I should of.

Toasted Nut Brûlée Oolong is a very poorly named tea. I don’t hate this tea… it simply doesn’t taste a bit like the description. Well, that’s what I get for letting my nose determine my tea purchase. Toasted Nut Brûlée Oolong smells pretty damn amazing dry.

I brewed TNBO with double the tea measurement as advised by my fellow Steepsters. At first sip, there’s a very strong cardamom and cinnamon flavor. That moves to a smooth tea body but I’m hard pressed to detect much of an oolong in this tea period. To be honest, it tastes more like a mild chai than anything. The finish is but slightly nutty. Not terrible… but certainly not great either. Let’s hear it for just okay!

Drinking this now, absolutely delicious. Prepared hot with no additives.

The dried blend smell nutty and sweet. Note: I would not call them leaves, because there are large pieces of candied fruit and pieces of nuts. Steeped for full three minutes and the aroma filled the kitchen: a sweet and nutty aroma with a touch of cinnamon.

The flavor is fantastic, I can taste cardamom, cinnamon, hazelnuts and almonds, coconut and pineapple on top of a smooth oolong (with a touch of rooibos) blend of tea. With so much going on, it might seem TOO complex, but it actually blends very nicely, needs no additives or variations.

Taken Plain.
It’s not toasty…
It’s not really nutty…
and it tastes nothing like a brulee.
This might be the worst named tea ever… wait I found it!
The only hint of flavors that resemble the name are in the initial wash of flavor. All of the middle and after taste is of fruit and spice which really reminds me of the old blend of Sweet Oolong revolution. It even has that same mildly bitter after taste. This tea is nice if a fun different way until the after taste hits and then I don’t like the flavor at all. The tail end of the flavor reminds me of when I was a kid and wanted to know what nutmeg by itself tastes like and my mouth got all drink and I felt like I needed to drink something.
So I’m going to go drink something else…

I’ve just had a sadly tealess week in Chicago, but now I’m with my tea-drinking friend in Boston and we’ve made a trip to Teavana, so the tea situation is greatly improved!

This is a nice tea, but just totally not what either of us were expecting from the description, or from the aroma. I was expecting something pretty sweet and smooth and maybe a bit nutty, but this tea is actually sort of spicy, with cinnamon being the overwhelming flavour of the taste and the aftertaste. Definitely a good tea to have around during the cooler weather.

I have been hesitate to try this one at all… I don’t like Oolongs. I have tried a few too, but most of the time I don’t like them. I think I had one oolong that I actually drank and that was a peach one from Teaopia. I didn’t even realize it was an oolong at that time.
Anyway, I got this one from a friend for Christmas and I’ve been putting off trying it ‘cause of it being an oolong. (Sorry friend!) I’m now wishing I had tried it sooner!
It was definitely a surprise to me. I agree with other reviews on here. The toasted and nutty part of the tea doesn’t come through at all. I notice the cinnamon for sure. And I notice the fruit. This tea should almost be called apple cinnamon fruit tea, or something like that.
It does taste about how it smells too. It smells more fruity and cinnamon-y then nutty or toasted. And too, the nutmeg is definitely another flavour that comes through too.
I do like this tea a lot. I’m going to really enjoy it!

This was my mom’s tea but apparently she didn’t like it as much as she thought she would and passed it to me. I like oolongs, typically greener ones, but I’m up to trying it and there’s only about an ounce left. Holy cow there are a lot of flavorings in this tea! Granted I like a lot of the flavorings in this tea, but there are just way too many here and I certainly cannot taste them all. I mostly get the spices: cinnamon, cardamom, I think I’m getting a hit of the ginger and I’m getting almond too. It says there are fruit pieces and flavorings in here, I’m not tasting or smelling most if any of them. It smells like cinnamon oatmeal raisin cookies, it sure doesn’t taste like it though! I’m on my third steeping hoping that the spices would have calmed down by now, nope, maybe a little, but not really. I feel like I need some peppermint to calm my stomach down now. This tea isn’t totally bad, not one I’d buy, but if it’s there I’ll drink a cup. Definitely too much going on with this one to make it any good.

The dry tea smells wonderful. It has a warm, spicy smell, with the cinnamon and cardamom really coming through, but not overpowering the nuttiness. The brewed tea itself is an excellent dessert tea. It smells like a spiced baked apple. It also rather tastes like it—the cinnamon mellows out, and apple is the dominant fruit note. It has a sort of dry mouth feel. The aftertaste is more fruity than spicy.

I am new at tea – but I tried this tonight and it was light but very flavorful – to me the spices did not overwhelm the “teaness” of it. Flavorful but not overly spicy. Could taste the cinnamon and fruity notes, and a light nuttiness. Very nice in the evening after dinner.

I thought this my be a replacement for my much missed Creamy Nut Oolong from Teaopia. Nope, this isn’t it. This is very similar to Davids Forever Nuts. Annoys me that companies mislead you by the name. This doesn’t really taste like nuts, it doesn’t really taste like Oolong, and I’m not really sure what brulee is suppose to taste like, but I’m sure fruit and cinnamon isn’t it.
All in all this isn’t that bad to drink, it’s just not what I was expecting.

This is my first oolong. I really like this one. If it stays in the lineup, I’ll get it again. It smells great, but the taste is better. I drink it with some honey in it. It’s smooth and filling.