Toasted Nut Brulee Oolong

I got suckered into the $10 off $20 sbux Teavana coupon, and bought 4 teas (spent $20! Super pleased with myself!).

This is the first one I decided to try. It’s OK. Yes, it’s nutty, but I taste the flavouring and there’s very little oolong. It might be contributing to the metallic taste, but I’m going to attribute that to the flavour.

Not one I’d get again, but it’s good enough for a caffeine boost at work tomorrow! Doesn’t need milk and sugar, but is somewhat improved by it.

Apparently I got sidetracked before I actually wrote the review yesterday.

I need to drink this again before I weigh in with an actual rating.

Like others have mentioned, this wasn’t very nutty or brulee-ish. The smell and the taste didn’t really match. I ignored it most of the time it was hot and actually enjoyed it more cooled off.

I’ll put more thought into this when I try it again.

Me and my love-hate relationship with cardamom… I actually quite like this tea. I gave it a super short steep time today, and I actually liked it better than the first time I gave it a shot. However, I am just not in love with cardamon in much of anything. Almost every tea I really have trouble liking has cardamom in it, I need to learn to avoid it or, such as with this tea, keep a close eye on the steep time.

Aside from the cardamon, I like this tea. It has a neat nutty but also spicy flavour. I don’t know how far I would go with promoting its virtues as an oolong though. It did not seem to have a ton of oolong leaf at all. However, as more of an herbal, nut based tea, it is a good cup to drink once in a while.

Rueful laugh and somewhat frustrated sigh This is the 12? tea that I’ve tried from Teavana, and like many of the others, cannot say I am a fan. I got this tea last week, on wednesday, but didn’t get around to making it til today. (Or rather, since I’m writing this at 5:00am, yesterday.) Now, as when I smelled it at the store….OMG it smells divine! and when I smelled it again as I was spooning it into my infuser, MMMMMmmm! When I poured the water in, it kind of smelled alittle odd, but not terrible. As my usual M.O. I automatically put in several packets worth of sugar in, before tasting it. Then tested it, while I still smelled nuttiness, all I could taste was cinnamon, and a very faint after taste of nuts. Which I am not a fan of. I prefer teas that are balanced in their flavors, if there is more then one. Cinnamon you have to be careful with as it can take over! So, while I will do my usual adjusting the temp and steeping time, but I suspect that this will not improve over time. If anyone can recommend a tea that would be a good match for this, preferably a herbal or non caffeine tea that maybe has some fruit in it? I am thinking a slightly intense fruity tea might make it at least an interesting drink that will help me get rid of the tea and help me feel that I havn’t wasted my moola. A note of complaint: I have an variable temp electric kettle, and it has an oolong setting, but the Teavana bag suggested that I use 195, but since I have no setting for that, I picked the one for 200, and when it came to a boil, I waited about 10 seconds then poured. Should I next try the Oolong setting (190.)? and I think it was steeped for 3 minutes, though did not keep as much of a check on the time as I should of.

Toasted Nut Brûlée Oolong is a very poorly named tea. I don’t hate this tea… it simply doesn’t taste a bit like the description. Well, that’s what I get for letting my nose determine my tea purchase. Toasted Nut Brûlée Oolong smells pretty damn amazing dry.

I brewed TNBO with double the tea measurement as advised by my fellow Steepsters. At first sip, there’s a very strong cardamom and cinnamon flavor. That moves to a smooth tea body but I’m hard pressed to detect much of an oolong in this tea period. To be honest, it tastes more like a mild chai than anything. The finish is but slightly nutty. Not terrible… but certainly not great either. Let’s hear it for just okay!

This tea looked like it was sitting in my cupboard waiting for me to enjoy tonight.
I found this tea very relaxing with just a slight taste of nut and spice tonight. As I continue my tea journey I like to come back to this tea (It is like a visit to an old friend).

When my wife and I were out and about on Saturday, we couldn’t resist dropping in at the Teavana store in the mall. Some of our visits are spent by just partaking of the wonderful free tea samples, followed by running out of the store quickly, before we succumb to the great smells and tastes and spend a lot of money. However, every now and then they catch us at a weak moment and we open our wallets. Such was the case on Saturday.

After the Teavana sales associate fanned the aroma of dry Toasted Nut Brulee oolong tea up my nose, I was ready to buy that sucker just to smell if I couldn’t drink it. It had an incredible sweet and nutty odor.

I opened the container of tea this morning and snorted it for several minutes before I snapped out of it and remembered that my purpose of opening it was to drink it. I followed Teavana’s directions and steeped the tea at 195 degrees for three minutes. The brewed color was a bright gold. Although still very pleasant, I found it interesting that the brewed aroma of the tea was quite different from its unbrewed state. The smell was still slightly nutty, but it had a strong cinnamon and fruit accent, almost like apple cider.

My first sip tasted like the brewed smell: a little nutty and a lot fruity like apple cider. The brew passed through my gullet very smoothly. There was no bitterness and a very sweet yet subtle aftertaste floated on my palate. Subsequent sips retained all of the same qualities.

I did like this tea. The brewed flavor, in my mind (and palate), didn’t match the unbrewed aroma, but the taste was sweet, smooth, full, fruity, and nutty. Since I require stronger black teas to kick-start my brain in the morning, I won’t be adding this blend to my breakfast rotation. However, I will be pulling this nice oolong out when friends visit for lunch, dinner, or just dessert.

Taken Plain.
It’s not toasty…
It’s not really nutty…
and it tastes nothing like a brulee.
This might be the worst named tea ever… wait I found it!
The only hint of flavors that resemble the name are in the initial wash of flavor. All of the middle and after taste is of fruit and spice which really reminds me of the old blend of Sweet Oolong revolution. It even has that same mildly bitter after taste. This tea is nice if a fun different way until the after taste hits and then I don’t like the flavor at all. The tail end of the flavor reminds me of when I was a kid and wanted to know what nutmeg by itself tastes like and my mouth got all drink and I felt like I needed to drink something.
So I’m going to go drink something else…

Brewed with a spoonful of sugar, per chrimabro ’s suggestion. (Thanks for the sample, Christina!)

I’m not sure what if anything the oolong brings to this. I would be perfect without it since I can’t taste it at all. I absolutely loved this. It was yummy, and rich, and sweet.

I’ll have to rebrew without sugar, or less, to see how it compares.

I’ve just had a sadly tealess week in Chicago, but now I’m with my tea-drinking friend in Boston and we’ve made a trip to Teavana, so the tea situation is greatly improved!

This is a nice tea, but just totally not what either of us were expecting from the description, or from the aroma. I was expecting something pretty sweet and smooth and maybe a bit nutty, but this tea is actually sort of spicy, with cinnamon being the overwhelming flavour of the taste and the aftertaste. Definitely a good tea to have around during the cooler weather.