Plum Deluxe

Advent tea!
This one is a boring cinnamon orange tea with not enough of either to overpower or make it an interesting cup. Good enough for a breakfast brew on a cold day, but not something I need in my cupboard.

Advent tea!
The first steep was creamy and the second steep was caramel. Not a bad tea, but not eggnog with nutmeg either.

I am doing the Plum Deluxe caffeine advent again this year. Day 1 was bergamot and it was ok, day 2 was jasmine and I didn’t finish the cup. Here is day three and it’s caramel and clove with a hint of smoke. A nicely balanced cup that disappeared quickly. I would consider adding this to an order, just because it’s not too clove heavy.

This is another tea shared with my by thereadersteacup! And she shared such an incredibly generous amount of it, too! Honestly, I can’t even tell you how big my smile was seeing this one, and it got even bigger smelling the dry leaf. Oh, I was drooling! I absolutely love root beer flavoured things, and this smells exactly like popping the cap off a bottle of Dad’s Old Fashioned Root Beer. If you’ve never tried that brand, it’s one of the best. Such a treat from my childhood!

Steeped up, the smell wafting off the cup was just as mouthwatering though the taste was more black tea forward with a strongly tannic bite to the sip followed by more of a malty, bready sort of note. I wish the sarsaparilla and the overall creamy “float-like” qualities were a little stronger, but it wasn’t as if they were missing. Just more of a backseat to the black tea. Frankly, that’s arguably how it should be. It’s just rough being such a root beer fan and getting drawn in by that heavenly dry leaf aroma. A little sweetener and maybe a short steep time would likely pull all of that root beer goodness more to the forefront.

2025 TTB tea

This is a tea I expected to like more than I did. I didn’t want to risk it being sour so I brewed it 3 minutes in hot water (~150 mL) and then topped it off with ~200 mL cold water. The cup is still super hot (I use cooler water at home but this work kettle is crazy fast and hot). It’s good and fruity. I can pick out distinctly blueberry, raspberry, and red fruit flavours. It isn’t as jumbled and meddled as some mixed fruit teas. The puerh doesn’t come through too much. Slightly sweet and woody but nothing like straight puerh. It’s good for a cup of flavoured tea but it doesn’t have a lot of actual tea flavour.

TTB! This was lightly appley and floral. The black base was very light, barely even noticeable. Hot, it tastes like nothing, but it was pretty enjoyable cold.

The main flavor here is green rooibos, and it’s a really nice one. I also taste some fruitiness that could be the bergamot. I wouldn’t necessarily pick this over other EGs or other green rooibos tea, but this was really quite decent cold with milk and sugar. One of my favorite teas from the TTB!

TTB sample! Never have I tasted a tea that I would describe as lotiony as strongly as with this tea. It was so lotiony that I gave the cup to someone else. That’s all I tasted.

TTB! The peach flavoring was a little chemically for me. It reminds me of maybe an Adagio tea I had years ago. With milk and sugar, it’s still drinkable and reminiscent of peach rings. Not bad, but not something I would seek out. It’s just a little too fake, and I don’t get any cream or much oolong.

April backlog and sip down

Steeping method: Western. 195F @ 3-minutes.

Tasting Notes: The honeybush takes the lead in the cup; however, it helps elevate the chocolate notes as it cools down. There’s a slight hint of the chocolate oranges I’d get in my stocking for Christmas when I was little. Very nostalgic.

Steepster 2025 TTB Tea

I REALLY enjoyed this sample. There is no way it woiuld be enough for 2 cups, but I used the whole thing (2.5g) and brewed it twice. The honeybush in the blend gave it a super honey-rich flavour with some oaty notes as well. It is very caramel-heavy with lots of sweetness. I get some nuttiness, but I would have expected this to be caramel vanilla instead of chestnut based on the flavour. I will be making a plum deluxe order next time this is in stock so that I can get more.

TTB! I surprisingly loved this tea. It’s supposed to be fig, but I really just tasted a candy-like, non-specific fruitiness plus some cinnamon. I drank it sweetened with milk, and it was really desserty and tasty. I wouldn’t mind more of this! The resteep was really nice too.

Steepster TTB 2025

The TTB is out the door and on its way to Canada, but I kept a small sample of this tea and am having it with breakfast today. Not in bed, alas — it’s the first day of my FINAL SEMESTER OF GRAD SCHOOL. I am experiencing a bit of ye olde senioritis, which will not affect the quality of my scholarship but will probably increase my grumpiness with respect to things like “doing readings” and “writing papers.”

Aaanyway. The hazelnut flavoring here is so pronounced and tasty, and it’s complemented well by the blackberry. The black base is very brisk and astringent, which honestly is exactly what I want in a breakfast blend.

I will say that the more I drink, the more I wish the hazelnut was just a smidge lighter and the blackberry a smidge stronger. The hazelnut lingers after the end of a sip in quite a powerful way!

Still, this is pretty dang tasty.

One of my favorites from this company. I make mine with sugar and cream and it reminds me of the lilac cordial filling from a local chocolatier

Advent Tea! Not sure what makes this Jolly or Fig, but the green is smooth. Mostly cinnamon, but some sweet fruity notes here too. Glad I got to try, but I like my cinnamon with other flavors.

Advent tea! My cup it too big this morning so this brewed kinda weak, but this is a nice black tea to start the day. The citrus note at the end is very subtle, similar to a bergamot note, but not so sharp. Don’t like it enough to purchase, but it was nice to try.

Advent tea! This is a strange combo, green and mango/papaya. Not sure where the abundance in the tea name comes from. This is just ok, glad I got to try but don’t need this in my cupboard

Advent tea! Sweet tea with a slight chocolate aftertaste. The puerh base makes it savory and salty. I would probably overleaf a cup, especially in the morning like I am drinking it now. That may bring the chocolate out? It is an easily drinkable cup and I would add it to an order.

Advent tea! This has an ok strawberry note, but it smells more like strawberry than it tastes like strawberry. The finish is astringent. Might make a nice iced tea, so I’m confused as to why it’s in a holiday advent. Not something I need to try again.

Last blend in the Plum Deluxe caffeine-free Hanukkah sampler! This smells so good while it’s steeping. The white chocolate, peppermint, and coconut scent just wafts at you alluringly. Those same notes translate into the flavor, too. With a splash of oat milk, it’s a perfect wintry dessert tea. Theme-wise, this is probably more of a Christmas or generic winter blend than a specifically Hanukkah blend, but it’s so tasty that I’m willing to forgive it. In general, I feel like this year’s Hanukkah sampler didn’t have any holiday-specific flavors/themes that I picked up on. But most of the blends were tasty, the price point is very reasonable ($12 for 16 packets, each with enough leaf to make 2 regular or 1 large mug), it’s packaged nicely, and I can see that they’re working to make this offering better every year. All of those things keep me coming back to this sampler, and I expect that I’ll be getting it again next year.

Advent tea! This is very lightly berry flavored green tea. Maybe it’s blueberry aside from any other berry? Whatever berry it is, it’s quite smooth and drinkable, a perfectly good afternoon cuppa. Not something I need in my cupboard, but glad I got to try.

Advent tea! This has a burnt toffee, sweet caramel vibe. I can even taste the pecan. I wish I had more of this tea and would switch it out for a few of the other ones in the advent. This reminds me a bit of OBTC pecan pie.

Boo, it’s already the 7th night of Hanukkah! At least I’ve been having fun with it – lots of latkes and sufganiyot, candle lighting, cute socks, my epic holiday playlist on repeat, family time, crafting, and presents. I just finished applying gloss to a Hanukkah repaint of a vintage Polly Pocket McDonald’s toy, so fingers crossed that works out well! This is the second to last tea in the Plum Deluxe caffeine-free Hanukkah sampler. Good news: it’s not hurting my stomach. Alas, it’s still an Earl Grey, which means lots of bergamot. It’s fine for an EG, but there’s too much bergamot for my tastes. I do like the creamy note from the vanilla and the base tea is nice enough. Hard to get past the bergamot of it all though.

Arbitrarily selected day 6 of the Plum Deluxe caffeine-free Hanukkah sampler. Who knew pear and chestnut would go well together? Even more surprising, I liked this better cold than hot. I think of chestnut as more of a hot-tea flavor but the fruity pear here seems to portal it into iced-tea territory.