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Maple from Tropical Tea Company

Steepster Score 3 Ratings Rate This Tea

75/100

Maple

Black Tea by Tropical Tea Company

This Maple Black Tea is made with a luxury black tea from Sri Lanka. It will brew a sweet cup with piquant caramel notes. A unique flavor that compliments high grown tea very well. This tea includes sunflower petals, natural flavors, and maple syrup.

5 Tasting Notes

takgoti
70
takgoti 3 tasting notes

Right.

Auggy sent me this tea ages ago and we’re just not going to ask questions about “Exactly how long ago was that?” or “Why has it taken you so long to get around to trying it?” or “Why do you suck like a Dyson D28? Why? WHY?”

I don’t know! I don’t know! And I especially don’t know why I am so aware of the Dyson product line model numbers! My brain is a sponge and I have no control over what it absorbs! Leave me alone!

I’m sorry. I’ve got to get it together. Give me a moment to compose myself.

Okay, so the tea. That’s why we’re all here, after all. I’m fairly certain I messed this cup up, so I’m going to leave the rating off and try again later.

Actually, I’m going to try again right now, because I can’t finish this cup. You can probably guess where this is going [nowhere good].

It’s a beautiful autumn day in Virginia. The temperature is moderate, the leaves have, for the most part, changed, and the buzz of leaf blowers is permeating throughout the neighborhood’s usual ambience. In digging through my box o’ samples, I thought that a tea named “Maple” would be fitting for today, especially since I am contemplating making breakfast for dinner tonight [picked up a tin of this earlier and I’m admittedly excited – http://bit.ly/c0eCd2 – Viva la Contessa!].

Cracking open the container, it does indeed smell of extract/alcohol as Auggy mentioned. And then…

You will probably not be surprised to learn that at one point during my childhood my mother washed my mouth out with soap. Can’t say I really blame her. I was a good kid for the most part, but if I was ever told to do something that I didn’t want to do [or I felt that I had been slighted by one of the many injustices done unto me by my brother] I could be quite manipulative. I knew how to push people’s buttons, I took great pleasure in doing it, and my mother hated it when I swore. I think you can get the gist of what occurred on the fateful soap day, but I will elaborate to say that I had recently learned a fantastically versatile four-letter word.

As a side note, it will also probably come at no surprise to any of you that the soap didn’t do one lick of good to reduce my vulgarity when it comes to the spoken [or written] word. Though I will say that I make an effort to be mindful about curbing my penchant towards obscenities here on Steepster.

When I took my first sip of this tea, that is what I thought of – the soap. It was bitter and kind of filmy and not pleasant tasting at all. For those of you who have NOT had soap in your mouth, perhaps you have drank something out of a glass that was not quite rinsed of detergent completely? Same idea, just intensify.

So there was no sweetness, no maple taste, no malty flavor I was hoping to get from the black tea. Just…soap. NOT FUN.

Funny thing is, the aftertaste on my breath was rather maple-y [this is an Auggy sent tea, so I figure I can use Auggy isms like -y words] and so I think I am going to tack this batch down to user error. Hopefully the next trial will be met with more success and less BLECHing and making of faces.

Okay, much better. Much, much better. I’m not sure whether this tea simply doesn’t play well with the higher temperature, the longer steep time, or both, but I figured it wasn’t worth wasting the sample on that so I reduced everything on all fronts [including using less tea]. What may have happened was an overcompensation that resulted in a relatively weak brew, but I have a little bit of it left so I’ll play with it later.

First things first, the hue of this tea is really colored like maple syrup. Not that I think that was necessarily on purpose or anything, but it’s a neat tie-through. It has a darting sweetness about it and a slippery, almost oily, mouth feel. There is a hint of malt in it, and when this combines with the, like Auggy said, not-quite-sugary sweetness, it makes for a nice carameled tone [as the description states]. There is quite a bit of watery taste surrounding everything, but I do believe that’s because I wimped out when I made this cup and I’m hoping to Goldilocks the last bit of my sample.

Again, like Auggy said, I’m not positive I would be able to say this tasted of maple syrup, exCEPT on the aftertaste. That is when this tea is most clearly maple for me, and that is when it is best.

For when the mood suits me, this tea could become something I want to keep around if I manage to nail a stronger flavor to it whence next I make it. The only thing that is keeping me from considering a purchase more seriously is, and this is not fault of the tea’s, that scene from Super Troopers where they’re chugging the syrup. Again, not the tea’s fault. And despite having watched that movie several times I still find occasions meow and then when I really just want some damn maple syrup. Meow I want to go watch that movie again. And I was thinking that I’d save the last of this tea for later, but I’m about to make pancakes and meow I’m thinking that I’m going to give this tea one last go with dinner. Three logs on the same tea in one day? If it goes down, I promise the last log will be short. Like one sentence short. Meow.

Picture or it didn’t happen. [Enjoy the syrupy color. It’s quite beautiful.] | http://bit.ly/9IuAcu

Addictive ≻ Delicious = (Maple Syrup + Pancakes) ≻ Tasty = Maple Syrup ≻ Good ≥ Maple Tea ≻ Just Okay ≻ Eh ≻ Retch ≻ Your Mom.

Just kidding. Your Mom ≻ You = Pretty Cool.

Show 2 more
Auggy
73

I was prepared to be disappointed with this tea because of how the dry leaves smell – there is a strong extract/alcohol smell plus a fair amount of calendula, which I am discovering I dislike because it makes my tongue tingle. But actually, this tea isn’t that bad. Once water hits it there is a maple smell to it, which is reassuring. And the taste, while not overly maple syrup-y, has a high, sweet taste that isn’t quite but almost a sugar-esque sweet. I’m not 100% sure I would have been able to peg this as maple if I hadn’t known that’s what the taste was but it’s close enough for hand grenades so whatever. The calendula tingle/taste was there but not too strong so I’m okay with it. This really isn’t an awesome tea but it’s good enough to drink and enjoy.

Hawkeye
79

Tea is pretty good, a little heavy on the sweet flavor – not smooth, but good flavors.