Dessert by Deb

There’s something in here that’s really interesting to me. I taste the bright orange along with the ginger and some other spice or baked element. I liked this sweetened with milk. This has become one of my favorite herbals from Deb for sure!

Steepster TTB 2025

This tastes like a generic black tea in flavour. I smell maple on the looseleaf, but I’m not getting any banana, maple, or pecan from the brew itself. I tried it twice (first steep 5 minutes with boiling water and a dash of soy milk – second steep 8 minutes almost boiling water with a dash of soy milk). There’s a tiny bit of nutty flavour and some tannins, the black itself is slightly malty but not enough for my liking. I do get a honey flavour like from the tea itself, but not as strongly as with Laoshan blacks.

This isn’t bad for a straight tea, but it does not deliver on the French toast flavour or banana at all.

Steepster TTB 2025

I was really excited to enjoy this as a latte this morning as I start to break into the caffinated teas. This one is mostly a tannic strong black tea with an aftertaste of blueberry. I steeped it a bit longer than instructed but added unsweetened soy milk. I can’t really make out anything almondly or like marzipan or any buttery pastry notes at all. I think this might be best with a touch of sweetener. I would have liked more dessert essence to give it that streusel pastry taste. If it labelled itself as a strong black tea with blueberry I would not have minded it one bit.

The primary flavor I taste is overripe banana. I also taste coconut. In some sips, the banana is a little too overripe for me. This is pretty good, but not one I would seek out again over 52teas banana blends. I feel like I’ve had my fill after a few cups.

Sipdown! Thanks to Cameron B. for sharing this with me a couple of years ago. Made the last of this as an oat milk latte with my breakfast today. It cooled more than usual, so that may have brought out more of the flavor. I don’t know about “cookie,” per se, but I do like the almond and ginger in here. The almond is more biscotti than marzipan (which, biscotti is a cookie, so I guess technically it’s not a misnomer?). The base is nice and malty, even through the oat milk. The ginger in here evokes ginger candy more than fresh ginger – it’s zingy but not sharp. Overall, this is probably the best version of this cup I’ve made. At least it took a great final bow!

Steepster TTB 2025

Drank this one on my final (!) day at my field placement/practicum — I’m sooo close to being done with my grad program! Just one more semester to go.

My hastily jotted notes indicate that this tea was a bit too sweet for me, but it did have a nice, jammy blueberry flavor to it. I wanted a little more cinnamon to really evoke the streusel element, and possibly a slightly stronger base. Not a bad dessert-y blend, though!

TTB 2025 – I am not a fan of earl greys, but I decided to try this one anyway, since the bergamot did not smell overly strong and I’ve enjoyed most of the other Dessert by Deb teas I’ve tried. I added a splish of oat milk, and the tea did taste like an earl grey donut with glaze probably would. It was enjoyable enough that I finished the whole mug despite the bergamot.

TTB 2025 – This one isn’t as flavorful as the other Dessert By Deb blends I’ve tried so far. I get a bit of banana with a hint of maple syrup, but I don’t get anything resembling french toast.

TTB 2025. I’m a fan of blueberries, so I was excited to try this one. I tasted the tea plain at first, and all I could taste was strong blueberry flavor. I added oat milk until I got the tea to my desired blueberry level, and the flavor became more like blueberries mixed with the creamy icing you might find on top of a streusel. I didn’t really get any streusel crumble in the taste, but it still made for a fun cup of tea.

TTB 2025. Yum! This tea definitely has a cookie-butterlike taste to it. I could taste the cinnamon, brown sugar, caramel, and maple. I tasted it without milk at first, and it was good on its own, but I added a splish of oat milk per the recommendation written on the pouch, and it enhanced this tea even more.

TTB 2025. Quick note because I have to head out but wanted to get this down. This is better than I expected! Mostly it’s a creamy coconut vanilla situation and that’s delightful.

TTB 2025. We have replenished our oat milk supplies, so I decided to give this blend a proper try. Unsurprisingly, I like it even better as a latte. The brisk base and tart bergamot are still very present, but smoothed out a bit by the oat milk. And the “glazed” part is amplified. Yummy.

TTB 2025. I made this and Deb’s Earl Grey Caramel Canelé at the same time to compare them. Unfortunately, thanks to a household miscommunication, we ran out of oat milk without me realizing it! I added honey instead, in an effort to help the flavors pop, but it’s not really the same. So no rating for this one unless/until I can make it as intended. I don’t see a listing for the Earl Grey Caramel Canelé. It’s not on Deb’s site anymore, either. This tasting note will be for both teas.
As expected, they seem to have the same base and bergamot flavor – brisk and citrusy, respectively. I’m not a huge fan of earl greys in general, but this is a tolerable take. The glazed donut is pretty good! I’m getting a bit of almond flavor and specifically the sugary glaze on a donut. I bet this would be great as a latte, unsurprisingly. The caramel canelé flavor doesn’t pop the same way. I’m just getting a bit of sweetness, and it’s hard to tell whether that’s from the flavoring or the honey. I think this one probably needs milk to be judged properly.
The real takeaway here is to always check your add-in supply before making the tea.

TTB 2025. Creamy coconut, sweet maple, hint of vanilla. I can see the “custard” in the creaminess and the vanilla. I like this!

TTB 2025. Made with oat milk. Tart blueberry, yes. Almond, in a marzipan-y sense, yes. Streusel? Not so much. A berry latte feels a little weird; not bad, just atypical.

Thank you Inkling for adding all these Dessert by Deb teas to the TTB for me! I’m excited about them. Made as an oat milk latte, this went down so quickly and easily. My first impression was a cinnamon note, but apparently there’s not actually any cinnamon in here so… shrug emoji? I’m getting a light banana (not as sweet as the 52teas banana) and a nice maple flavor on a sturdy base. The slightest of astringency at the end of the sip, which is to be expected. I’m not really getting a bread/pastry note. Perhaps that’s being obscured by the oat milk. A pretty delightful banana-maple-cinnamon situation even without that bread/pastry flavor.

2025 TTB. It’s me Inkling, I’m the rooibos lover. This one never quite hit home for me though. It’s not bad, just a little muddled as others have said. The overall vibe is “red berry rooibos.” The woody flavor of the rooibos is pretty noticeable. While I can get a bit of mango flavor if I really focus, it doesn’t pop. And even though there’s no hibiscus in here, it tastes like there’s too much hibiscus in here. So basically, the balance between the mango and raspberry is a bit off. I experimented with adding a bit of oat milk to the bottom half of my mug. That just gave it more of a creamsicle vibe, but didn’t really do anything to help distinguish the flavors.

I’m drinking this sweetened with milk, and I taste a lot of the maple flavor! It’s desserty and comforting. It tastes better at room temperature. Maple is the only flavor I notice, but I love maple, so I’m happy.

Sipdown! I like this one, but I won’t particularly miss it, you know? The raspberry and lychee flavors are very enjoyable – tart, sweet, and juicy. They don’t totally mesh with the base though, which is a bit too grassy and easily oversteeps into astringency. I found that it was good both hot and iced. Really, though, the key for me was adding a bit of brown sugar, which smoothed out the base and brought out the fruit flavors more.

I taste a good amount of almond along with a sort of sharp note that could be the lemon flavoring. I somewhat enjoyed my first few cups of this, tasting mostly that strong almond. But the sharp lemon flavoring plus the not great rooibos base ended up getting to me, so I passed the rest of the bag along.

2025 TTB #11

If this had been on a black tea base instead of rooibos, I almost certainly would have purchased it in my last Dessert by Deb order. I love both mango and raspberry and I’m not sure I’ve had a tea with both flavors before. Sadly, I really didn’t get both flavors in this blend. Hot, the rooibos base was pretty much all I tasted. As it cooled, some raspberry started to come through, but I really didn’t taste the mango at all. Kinda wishing I’d tried adding milk, as I’m curious how that might have changed the flavor. But either way, I don’t think this one is for me. Hopefully there’s a rooibos lover along the line who will enjoy it more!

2025 TTB #8

I thought about trying this one last time I ordered from Dessert by Deb, so I was excited to see it in the box! The package specifies to “enjoy with milk or as a latte” so I went ahead and added milk right away. The result was a creamy, almond-forward cuppa that didn’t seem to have much else going on. I really didn’t taste any lemon or anything that reminded me of pie. But on the plus side, I also didn’t get any of that nasty medicinal flavor that I find common with red rooibos!

This tastes too much like sour lemon. I’ve had delicious orange teas from Deb before, so I was confident I’d love this, but it isn’t really for me. The second time I had this, I gave it a shorter steep and didn’t dislike it as much. Still, the orange wasn’t juicy or bright, kind of just muddled and meh.

The main flavor I find is coconut that tastes to me like it’s on the edge. I shared this with my partner who never notices coconut being off, and he really enjoyed it! It’s desserty with a decently strong hit of spice. He thought this tasted really fruity for some reason.