Salted Caramel Lebkuchen

Free sample that came with my advent calendars. 1 mesh teabag in hottish water. I forgot about it for a while but the tea was still fairly weak so I steeped for longer. My water was not very hit since I do not have a kettle available.

This reminds me of a gingerbread cookie. I get lots of ginger, cinnamon, and a bit of nutmeg and clove. I don’t get much cookie flavour, unfortunately, but there is a hint of sweetness, nuttiness, and vanilla. I don’t taste the caramel strongly. I would have liked a lot more cookie and caramel notes.

TTB Review #5: I knew I’d like this one the moment I smelled it. 100% Christmastime vibes but I’m obsessed with those types of teas all year round. The apple, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, orange, and spices are all meant to be together in this exquisite blend. It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

2022 Bird & Blend Advent calendar Day #10

Since my last caramel tea was so terrible, I steeped up this one hoping to enjoy. I can see the fruit and ginger pieces in the tea bag. The bag smells lovely and the scent definitely carried over into my mug. I could sit here breathing in the lovely cinnamon, cloves, and citrus scents. I’m reminded of homemade cinnamon rolls. I’m pretty certain I’ve had lebkuchen once at Christmas time. So I can’t say it absolutely smells like lebkuchen but I would guess it’s pretty close.

The tea is pleasant. I do get the salted caramel. The spices (clove, cardamom, cinnamon) are there but not overpowering. I do get a rather salty aftertaste. I wish I had added a splash of milk but I got distracted while drinking this and it cooled before I got to the bottom of the mug.

This tea is one that I really, really want to love but there’s something off about the flavouring. The chunks of ginger, apple and orange peel make the blend look reassuringly chunky and fruity, and the tea smells of spiced caramel. Indeed, most cups are a lightly spiced black tea, not unpleasant but nothing remarkable. The problem is occasionally the tea has a very strange aftertaste. I can only assume this is a caramel flavouring to produce the smell. It’s not a tea I would discard, but after my tin is empty, I certainly won’t be repurchasing next Christmas!

Another sample, and a fun one. I definitely get a caramel scent from the cup, enough so that I was a bit afraid to actually drink it! It seemed like it would be overwhelmingly sweet and cloying.

Thankfully, the ginger is so strong it doesn’t really reach that point for me. It’s mostly ginger, with some other vague “fall spice” vibe going on, and a hint of sweetness & caramel. I don’t know that I get black tea from this at all – it surprised me this wasn’t a totally herbal blend. Tasty, though not necessarily one I need in the cupboard.

Bird & Blend Advent Calendar 2021: Day 13!

I’m never quite sure where gingerbread ends and lebkuchen begins! Regardless, the addition of salted caramel to either gingerbread or lebkuchen makes me chuckle… I feel like adding “salted caramel” to the title of any blend instantly gives it more cultural cachet (at least among some crowds).

Anyway, this blend has more of a buttery cookie vibe than a salted caramel vibe, but that’s OK. It plays well with the spice blend, which is nice and muted. (I often get a little bored by gingerbread flavors this time of year, just because they saturate everything.) The ginger is maybe a bit strong in some sips, but mostly I’m finding this pretty well balanced. I guess I wouldn’t mind a stronger black tea base; right now it just provides a bit of tannic dryness in the background.

Overall, I really like this one. The dry leaf smelled awfully strong, but the flavors are pleasant and balanced, not overwhelming at all. I could see myself snagging a bag of this in the future.

Sipdown!

So I overleafed this one this time to get a bit more oomph out of the base. But as I suspected, the spices are a bit too strong and drown everything else out. The ginger especially is very strong.

I wish they had added just a bit less of the dried spices here, as I really like the idea of this one. But I want more caramel goodness!

The first day of the Bird and Blend Advent Calendar for 2020 was a wonderful start indeed with this one – my only regret is that I put what was likely too much water for how much tea there was in the pouch and how long I steeped it. (I steeped according to the steep time suggested on the package, but without a water volume recommendation I hoped “more would be more”. It turned out far more likely that less would have been more – or a longer steep time! Lesson learned! I’ve been steeping the other teas in this release for about 7 minutes for 16 oz of water with much improved results!) Because of my fumble here, I found this a little “thin” (especially as I added a splash of milk) and not as potent as I believe it would have normally been – but I can see the potential in a more informed steep, and I believe my rating would have gone up to 90-95 if I had taken the proper care.

I’ve always been a little on the fence about Lebkuchen as a dessert – I like it, but I don’t love it. I’d more likely reach for a ginger molasses cookie when given the choice between them, but I enjoy them if they are available – it’s likely I wouldn’t head to the shops for them, however. But this tea really reminded me of them – enough that I wasn’t actually sure what Lebkuchen was – and guessed correctly what it was once I’d tasted the tea! (I’d had them, but never mentally hung on to what they were called.) I want to say I’d have loved it more if it’d been a touch more robust, but again, that likely came down to my steeping choices. I’d absolutely love to try this tea again, and wouldn’t scoff at adding it to my collection whatsoever. The flavour was so spot-on that I could picture the texture of Lebkuchen perfectly, and those sweet “caramelly” notes fit in perfectly.

I haven’t had Bird and Blend tea before, and I should add that I felt that there was more to experience in this tea – the tip of my tongue and the back of it had very different experiences, which was a delight of riches to encounter. I love a flavoured tea – I’m not much of one for classic, traditional, straight teas, so I thought I’d experienced a wealth of of what was on offer with regards to the flavoured variety. But this one really made me take a step back and think, “Maybe I have been misunderstanding what’s possible with flavoured teas.” The depth of flavours really was much more broad than my favourites at, say, Davids Tea have been. Nothing against them – I still love them, but I felt like Bird and Blend really might have some exciting treats in store for me that I hadn’t even thought to imagine. As of recording this tasting note, I’m now on Day 5 of their Advent calendar and I have to say I haven’t been disappointed once.

Day 2 of AJRimmer Advent

Today is the day for teas based on things I don’t think I’ve ever tried! LOL! I’m not sure what lebkuchen is. I’m getting a light caramel flavor, but I don’t get the salt part. There might be a hint of clove and cinnamon mingled with some fruit. Orange in the finish. The flavor is pretty light and I’m wondering if I should have over leafed it. Is that the trick with B&B that I’m missing?

B&B Advent 2021 Day 13

This one was lovely! The caramel is most of what I recall with hints of baked goods with the regular holiday spice blend of clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and sweetness.