Today’s new start. I’m glad I finally broke in to my stash of Tealux teas, because they’re actually pretty good (in other words, a lot better than I was expecting). Sometimes I think I might actually have flavoured tea fatigue. Anyway, today is almost a Spring day, so I decided a white might finally be appropriate. I used 1.5tsp of leaf, and gave it 2.5 minutes in water cooled to around 180 degrees. The resulting liquor is a pale yellow-green, and smells remarkably accurately of butterscotch!
To taste, this is a slightly odder story. What I’m picking up on initially actually tastes more like coconut than butterscotch. It’s also really creamy and a little vanilla-like, and reminds me of buttercream cake frosting. I’m reminded more of butterscotch towards the end of the sip, once the coconutty flavour has faded a bit, and what’s left is sweet, smooth and buttery. It’s not butterscotch from the word go, though.
Based on this impression, I had another look at the bag. Apparently, this contains cinnamon, but I wouldn’t know it. It also contains peppercorns, but they do make themselves known in the aftertaste, after a couple of sips. A spicy warmth is building up at the back of my throat, and it’s not entirely pleasant or suited to my image of “butterscotch”. Hmm. Somehow, now I’ve detected the pepper, it’s suddenly all I can taste. Bad that.
My first couple of sips were really encouraging, but I think over the course of one cup, my enthusiasm for this tea has waned. It’s pleasant initially, but it’s not really butterscotch, and the pepper is just plain odd. Not a favourite for me.
