Tamarind Pop

Sipdown! Thanks to tattooed_tea I’ve had this before as a sample from stacy but i was happy to revisit this again since it’s been a long time and i’ve had a chance to better understand my tastes. I’ve never have tamarind before but this is a really interesting tea. it’s woodsy and spicy and really flavourful.

Nothing like pouring water into the kettle to make tea, only to hear the sound of dozens of glass bottles being dropped into the recycling truck…NOT the sound you want while pouring water if you don’t want it on the floor, let me tell you.

I made this hot but I really think I’m gonna go steep some more and make some iced. I don’t think I’ve had anything tamarind in a really long time, and the only thing has been tamarind chutney. I at least think I have a general idea of what it tastes like before drinking this: sweet, tart, something I’d clearly like.

I added a bit of agave because I’m in the mood for it a bit sweeter, but I did take a couple sips beforehand. I like it even better this way, definitely reminiscent of soda! Super fruity with a nice tang to it, and it’s got the nice richness of vanilla caramel.

Even better…that iced steep should be made super concentrated and diluted with carbonated water! Trying that later.

Ok, couldn’t wait any longer to try it out. I steeped a teaspoon of tea in 2 oz of water, then added agave and 4 oz of seltzer water. I LOVE it. Somehow the maltiness of the tea is popping even more too along with the tamarind. There’s less of the creaminess to it, it feels like, but bumping up these flavors in exchange is worth it.

Thanks to Stacy of Butiki teas for sending me this free sample!

Hmm, my experience with tamarind has been somewhat limited but I’ve had it before with Indian food. It has a very fruity, slightly sour type of taste. This tea actually does have an almost fizzy quality on your tongue. I’m getting a bit of vanilla and not a lot of cacao, but that’s ok. The tamarind flavor here is so nice! A very unique and interesting tea, I’d like to try this iced someday too, I bet it would be really good that way! :)

I did try it with a little turbinado sugar and I think the extra sweetness helped to pull this together quite nicely. I say: YUM!

Made this one as a cold brew overnight. Tried it hot this morning. It is much, much stronger as a cold brew. The black tea is astringent. The tamarind is much stronger as a cold brew. Still get a taste of caramel and vanilla but much lighter. I think I prefer this one hot vs cold.

First time trying this iced – 3 tsp. leaf in my DAVIDs mason jar, boiled per blend parameters. Added 2 tsp. of turbinado sugar (so, less than my typical ratio of sweetener) and let it get nice and cold in the fridge.

This was sooo reminiscent of a cream soda when iced. I knew I should have put some carbonated water in it to make a tea pop, but as an iced tea it was still REALLY awesome. The notes of caramel and vanilla really stood out, and the sweetener added was just enough – I think if I had gone for my usual amount it would have been too cloying.

It’s not necessarily something I can drink with food though – this works much better as a nice, middle of the day treat by itself so you can really enjoy the flavoring.

Really really good – and I need to get over my hesitation with the tea soda thing because I know, with ‘pop’ in the name, that this would be GREAT served that way!

Thank you Stacy for this sample

Hmm, I have no idea what tamarind is. This tea was really good. I was eating some leftover cake with it, and the sweetness of the cake really made the flavour pop. It is nice and creamy, but I am really not sure how to describe it.

Good suggestion Alphakitty!

EDIT: Upon Stacy’s suggestion to add sugar, I added sugar to my resteep for 5 minutes. It turned out really good. Cuts the bitterness of the first steep without sugar. This does taste a little bit more familiar now, I have probably have had tamarind like Alphakitty suggested.

Thank you so much Shelley_Lorraine for sending me some of this tea in a swap!

I’ve always wanted to try this tea. My husband and I cook a lot of southeast asian food so I’m familiar with tamarind and a big fan of the flavor. Of course, the base tea pairs perfectly with the tamarind! Slightly malty and sweet. I don’t think it needs any sugar. This one is definitely going on my shopping list! :D

This one was originally from OMGsrsly. I’m sending the last few cups off to Heather today so I guess I should get around to trying some!

I love the sugary-sweet and malty aroma of this one. The main notes to me are vanilla, caramel, and cocoa, with a touch of astringent sharpness. Huh, I wasn’t expecting to like this one! I’m not sure I get tamarind, but I like the sharp burnt sugar notes and citrus rind that I do taste.

The experience reminds me of unsweetened dark chocolate. I should probably add a little sugar to see if I get something different but I’m too lazy, and I ’m ok with this as it is right now.

Edit: TeaEqualsBliss, and Cavocorax both mentioned Cream Soda- Yes! Especially as it cools. The tamarind is starting to come out too. Fun tea.

I don’t know what I did to this tea today but it tasted so different than my first attempt which was oh so yummy. I timed it but it almost tasted like I overstepped or something. I failed to get a lot of tamarind and then as it cooled it got bitter. Can’t figure out what I did. I know it’s good because I had it before. Anyway, I took the last of the sample from Dexter3657 and I am cold steeping it in a jar till tomorrow. We’ll see what happens.

Sip down semi-fail actually. I finished this off the other month but somehow never managed to write a note! To be honest, I think what happened was I kept giving it another chance, putting off writing a review, thinking that it would grow on me, but alas, it never did. From memory, there was definitely some slight astringency going on, and a vague sweetness, maybe sort of vanilla but not really. I’ve never had tamarind before so I can’t judge whether this tastes anything like it, but I’m sorry to say, Tamarind Pop always fell sort of flat for me.

But that said, I’m abstaining from rating it, and you might as well just ignore this very note. It’s more for myself reminding me that I once had some and it wasn’t my type. Sorry Tamarind Pop, you’re not my type.

But that’s cool, because a lot of Butiki’s other teas are. Wink!