Camellia Sinensis recently released a bunch of new flavoured tea blends which is, honestly, kind of weird behaviour for them. Like, they carry a few blends but they’re really much more well known for their straight/traditional teas and the amount they just released is more in a one week span than they’ve rolled out in the last three or four years combined. It’s curious…
Of course, I wanted to try all of them so I placed an order for all four newbies and one that was released maybe a year or so ago that I just hadn’t gotten around to trying. I was a bit frustrated because the day after my order the released one last new blend. I’m not going to go out of my way to order/visit the store again for the one tea, but just annoying that they didn’t cluster the launch together (the drops were less than a week apart). I’ll get to it eventually though, I’m sure!
But what about this tea!? Well, it’s also very curious. Mostly because the flavours in the ingredient list are ones I would certainly not typically associate with creme brulee. But sometimes flavour combine together in weird ways and are able to paint a flavour picture very different from how they taste in isolation. So, I went into the mug pretty open minded. With that said, am I tasting creme brulee? …eh…
Okay, here’s what it is like…
The black tea is full bodied and rich with an almost chocolate-like undertone to it. I appreciate that is has a strong fullness to it, without being really brisk and astringent because I don’t think those qualities would suit the sort of decadence that CS is leaning towards here. It’s also very creamy, but more in a pudding or flan-like way with a sort of light caramelization and vanilla note to it. You could argue that kind of describes the custard portion of a creme brulee, but it’s just striking me as in the right wheelhouse but different enough that I wouldn’t blindly jump to creme brulee. Maybe because it’s not a “pure” enough vanilla custard note or because it’s caramel-like but not pushed to the point of having that sharper, crisp burnt sugar taste.
And the peach. Yup, I totally taste that peach flavouring. It’s smooth and silky with some floral undertones but it is definitely peach. I’m less familiar with naranjilla, which is the other flavouring, so I don’t know how much of this soft, creamy and delicate fruity profile is also coming from that flavouring. I actually think it taste quite wonderful, but there’s not really anything about it that evokes creme brulee for me in the slightest. With the creaminess I’d almost think a Peach Creamsicle first.
So, overall, I think it’s a very interesting tea with a lovely delicate sweetness and a unique and appealing intersection of soft fruits and really creamy caramel. I really wish that CS had gone for a more ethereal name in the vain of some of their other teas like Moulin Rouge or One Night In Rio instead of something with such a literal flavour. I don’t think it’s set this blend up very well to meet the expectations the name they chose promises…
