Plum Deluxe

Fresh and bright cold brewed; would love to have available year-round. Admittedly finished it long enough ago that I don’t remember it well enough to comment better on flavor!

This is supposed to taste like fruit and bergamot, but I have to say that it’s quite ambiguous. I brewed it for less time than recommended (5 minutes is crazy) but still ended up with a little bit of harshness, which I smoothed out with some milk. So this tastes like a flavored black tea, but I would have no idea what flavor it’s supposed to be. It’s too bad because I used to mix my own blueberry EG, which I loved.

SIPDOWN (5)

Thank you White Antlers for this tea.

It won’t be my superfavourite tea to return, as Raspberry Truffle is something else than this tea delivers. It delivers both, raspberry as well truffle but differently than I would expect. The raspberry is rather reminding me artificial raspberry flavour from a vending machine raspberry flavoured tea which is a nice cuppa if nothing else is available and I don’t want to drink coffee from it. Truffle reminds me rather a milk chocolate bar. Overall it’s juicier than I would expect. Unfortunately not much of cocoa in this blend.

And as I disliked it before, and now I find it a bit above average, I would keep the rating a bit lower than usual.

Oh well, I have tried it again and although it was still pretty much raspberry; I certainly get more chocolate notes. It was reminding me though a milk chocolate bar, not a truffle at all.

It was pretty nice today, though the raspberry note was… as some previous raters said, bit on artificial side and I really didn’t liked that much.

But overall somehow better than last time. One last tea remaining in the pouch. I wonder when I will sip that down, as tomorrow Advent starts.

Song pairing (completely random): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGGWHWDspEs Placebo — Blind

I assume I have same pouch as derk, from White Antlers; thank you both. Drowning in tea right now (and Advent Calendar is coming to me as well).

The aroma is promising. I get raspberry (essence) and some chocolate.

I took two teaspoons for my bigger volume (400 ml). Steeped for 4 minutes maximum.

But though the result IS nice, though not what I have been expecting. I blame the age a bit maybe? It wasn’t chocolatey much. I have expected more bold base, but it was fine. It just wasn’t what I have been expecting. The raspberry was… maybe kind of artificial, but somehow enjoyable. Kind of juicy. Overall, I had feeling of some cake-flavour a bit or something.

This is a pretty decent chai. The main flavor is ginger. It’s not spicy, but the flavors are nice. It’s not super special, but it’s a quality chai. I enjoyed it without milk, but I liked it a little more with.

This came as a free sample in my most recent order. Unfortunately, it’s under a teaspoon, and since I only own giant mugs, I’m afraid I might have misjudged the amount of water necessary. I thought it tasted pretty decent, but I put it in the fridge overnight, and unfortunately, it was kind of weird tasting by morning. My first impression was that the flavoring was nice and rather accurate, but I wish I’d had more than a sip or two to go by!

Wow, am I in the minority here. The dry leaf smells decadent. I feel like this had no flavor, though, probably because the base teas are very light. This tasted mostly like raspberry essence, and light malt and tannins. Not much cocoa. For something called Cocoa Truffle, I would’ve expected more chocolate and body, both from the black tea and the puerh. Then again, they used a Ceylon black and those typically underwhelm me in blends.

A weird thing about this tea, and this happens sometimes with flavored teas like this one, is that the raspberry essence aggravated my lungs, like I could feel them tightening up. It’s not an allergic reaction. The best way to describe it is the feeling of inhaling a chemical irritant, like cleaning agents.

I want to love this one because the raspberry and cocoa aromas smelled so damn good but the liquor itself just didn’t have any oomph. And, yeah, the lung thing.

This tea is the perfect combination of juicy apricot and fresh lavender. I love how many blends from Plum Deluxe include lavender! This one is so good! So refreshing and lovely warm or cold. My ounce of this only made a few cups, and if their prices were more reasonable, I would certainly order more.

This flavor isn’t too special, sadly. It’s quite a light black tea with some indistinct fruitiness. Certainly not bad, it just didn’t really live up to its name or stand out in any way.

Hmm this reminds me of a cherry tea from Adagio that I didn’t enjoy. There’s just something about cherry flavoring that for some reason tastes chalky, artificial, and weird to me. I don’t taste any almond sadly. I enjoyed this tea a bit more in subsequent cups, though it was always too tart, and the only flavor I ever got from it was cherry.

The fruit flavor is quite light and pleasant. As usual, I’d prefer a different base, but it’s pretty nice. Lightly fruity and gentle.

This blend had maple as an ingredient, so I was really hopeful. Unfortunately, the flavor is only of plain black tea? And it’s a bit on the dry side, not really malty, deep, or special. Just an average plain black tea. Milk helped, but it was just so plain.

STTB

I finished this off because there wasn’t enough left (~0.5 tsp) after I removed my 1 tsp so I just used it all.

The oolong here is lightly roasty, but not strong by any means. There is some vague stone fruit flavours, however I didn’t get any distinctly mango flavours. It was quite subtle but still enjoyable. I didn’t find this very exciting – nothing remarkable – but still nice to try.

The apple flavor is quite delicate. I definitely see where this tea is going. Mild spices, but mostly just sweet apple. It’s really light and refreshing. This is the way I wish more apple teas could be!

The flavor here is mostly herbaceous sage. Definitely no sugar for this one. I had some veeeery sweet pancakes, and this was immediately the tea that I wanted to wash them down. Sage in tea can just be so refreshing! And there are other supporting ingredients in here, but I can’t tell what.

This has that same herbaceousness I’ve come to expect from butterfly pea flower. Most of the flavor is dominated by some light fruitiness combined with the slightly unpleasant butterfly pea. It’s okay, but not better than other teas of this variety. Most of the blend was flowers, and it could have been much more balanced. I wish it were just a little flower for the color while focusing more on the fruit flavor. The main fruit I taste is lemon.

The flavor is a little artificial, but I still enjoy it in most sips. I taste a nice fresh pear. I also taste some light spices that go very well with the pear. I also get some alcohol from the flavoring. It’s not my favorite pear tea, but it’s definitely grown on me since my first cup of it. The resteep is pretty decent too. I wish the spices were a little stronger, but they really are nice with the pear.

The flavor here is pretty mild. It’s definitely lightly orange and maybe a touch of spice. The resteep was pretty tasty as well. A light, gentle tea. I would have preferred bolder flavors, but this was nice. The sample didn’t have as much tea in it as other samples, so perhaps this was a little underleafed.

This tea came as a free sample in two different Plum Deluxe orders, so I steeped them both up today. The flavor is pretty nice. Light spices on a mild black tea. A little bit sweet and desserty. Not too appley, which I was fine with since I don’t love apple spice teas. I enjoyed this one much more than anticipated! Its rebrew randomly tasted like snickerdoodles! I’m not sure why I ended up with stronger spices in the resteep!

Yet another tea from Shae…and this may be my favorite of the bunch so far! Chocolate-flavored tea blends can be pretty hit and miss for me, but this one is absolutely delicious. Both the chocolate and raspberry flavors are coming through clearly and the base tea has a nice earthy richness that compliments the dark chocolate perfectly without any of the funkiness you sometimes get with puerh blends. It’s even better with a splash of milk!

This tea is unbelievably good. The coconut and lavender are both so bright and refreshing. I had this cold, and I savored each sip. If it weren’t so expensive, I would make pitchers and pitchers of it. It’s just so well-balanced and delicious. Its second steep is just as delicious as its first. The third cold steep gets a little tangy, but still tasty enough to drink. Definitely a favorite. Not chai at all though. Just coconut and lavender.

A refreshing and bright black tea that’s perfect for an iced summer treat. Highly recommend cold brewing for the excellent strawberry flavor!