Carrot Cake

I left this to steep while putting away dishes, and stopped to wonder who brought me a slice of carrot cake. It smells that good, even the cream cheese frosting is there. The spices and flavour are really good too.
Not as strong (maybe a longer steep next time), but that is a carrot cake in my tea mug, and it is fabulous.

My first tea from the Great Canadian Traveling Tea Box! It was so exciting to hear that the box had been delivered, I probably spent the first half hour after I got home from work opening bags and smelling all the different teas. But since it’s a work night I had to limit my choices to caffeine free options and this one caught my interest.

Dry this tea has a very strong scent profile, sweet with a bit of tang that reminds me of cream cheese frosting. I don’t get much in the way of carrot at this point but there are some deeper notes under all the artificial “cake” scent that could be the carrot. I can also detect some of the spices as well which try to break up some of the super sweet notes present in this tea.

The liquor is a deep red-orange and smells of sweet cream cheese icing and cake (a touch artificial.) I get a few carrot notes every once and a while but they got a bit lost in the rest of the aroma. There’s also a film present on the top of the liquid.

Flavor wise, I defiantly get cake when drinking this but not much on the carrot side of things. With the various spices involved it’s almost more of a spice cake than a carrot one; I get definite hits of cinnamon while the rest is a bit muddled but I find that there’s hints of nutmeg and clove. The mouth feel is rich and creamy which complements the cream cheese frosting flavor, though I do find it to be a bit artificial.

An interesting tea and I can see why people like it but like the few DT cake teas that I’ve tried… Its just not for me. If it wasn’t for the “cake” notes I would probably like this more but I just find myself unable to really enjoy the artificial flavoring.

This tea is so good! I made it as a latte and it was very reminiscent of the dessert. As happy as I am with this, I wish I would have made something with caffeine. I am trying my best to write a paper and study for finals tomorrow. Only two more weeks before graduation! Yay!! :-)

Augh, this was incredible. I loved it just plain, but I was having it too late in the day and was going to be up all night visiting the bathroom so I was like: ADD MILK AND BROWN SUGAR, DRINK FASTERRRR and oh, man. Sweet yumminess. This is a keeper. I have 1 more sample here from cavocorax and then I’ll be making a wibbly face and making an order… ;)

(Another Della Terra purchase from the recent sale. I picked up an ounce.)

Oh my goodness, in the bag and while steeping, this tea smells so delicious! I love carrot cake and sniffing the bag was like having the real thing sitting on my counter top. I used about 2.5 teaspoons for my 16 oz steeping mug and added sweetener.

I’ll admit, I was worried about this one. I was kind of expecting it not to live up to my expectations; however, it has impressed me! It tastes like carrot cake (including the cream cheese icing) and it’s caffeine free! One thing though, I really have to savor and drink the tea slowly, otherwise, the 2nd sip kinds of mutes out the first one (if that makes any sense).

In any case, during the next Della Terra sale, I’ll be ordering more of this!

This smells genuinely like carrot cake. And it actually tastes pretty much like it too! Definitely way better than the David’s tea one. I even taste the frosting! I like that this is a rooibos as well. Very good.

This is a really good one! I seriously can’t believe how realistic it tastes (much like Della Terra’s Oatmeal Raisin cookie). I like that it is a bit savory, but I still get the touch of cream cheese frosting and cake sweetness as well. I’m plowing through this one ounce sample!

Sipdown! (97/395)

Okay don’t judge me guys, but I may have had this sample in my cupboard from my swap with VariaTEA for around 4 years before finally sipping it down… My cupboard is just so huge that little baby samples like this often get lost amongst the others and I forget I have them for a while before they finally resurface. I’m fairly sure I had a cup of this when I first got it in the post, but that was so long ago now that I honestly don’t remember. There was just enough left for a big mug so that’s what I’m having this afternoon as I begin Mission Positivity. My wonderful boyfriend (his name is Ryan and we met the day before my birthday earlier in the year) has inspired me to take more control of my life and happiness, and drinking more tea and journaling it along with my life is just one of the ways I’m doing this. Anyway, please bear with me as I find my feet again and drink a lot of tea which has seen better days.

Luckily, this tea has held up amazingly well since I didn’t store it the best and have kept a hold of it for so long. I don’t remember what it was like when it was fresher, but the flavours are still present and I can’t imagine that much has been lost. Immediately when I poured the water over the tea, I got an incredible waft of vanilla cream cheese frosting, and knew that this was going to be delicious. There’s a back note of cinnamon to the scent, which becomes stronger and more cake-like the longer the tea is brewing. I left it brewing as I did laundry in the next room and several times had to stop what I was doing to take a big sniff because it smelled so good. The flavour is just as delicious. It’s sweet without being too much, bready and comforting. I feel like adding a pinch of sugar would have enhanced the dessert quality of the tea, but I’m drinking all my tea plain at the moment as I’ve just recommitted to Weight Watchers (another part of Mission Positivity). I don’t think the sugar is necessary, though – I definitely don’t feel like I’m missing out! The main body of the tea is rooibos-heavy, though not in an unpleasant way, with a touch of warming cinnamon and hint of vanilla. I actually think the rooibos is a very good choice for the base in this blend, as it adds a lovely honey note which meshes really nicely with the additional flavours. It feels thick and unctuous as a carrot cake should. The carrot cake spices and vanilla cream cheese flavours come out even more in the aftertaste, and it really does taste as though you’ve just eaten a piece of carrot cake! It’s one of my favourite desserts, and as a fan I have to say I’m very impressed with this tea.

It’s a shame that DT went out of business, because this tea could definitely replace dessert for me, especially with a touch of sugar, and that’s something I’m looking for at the moment especially as I’m trying to get to my goal weight and just be healthier in general. Still, it’s not like I’ll be off my no-buy any time soon, so at least I’m avoiding temptation…?

From what I can remember, this was a pretty popular blend from Della Terra prior to the ‘shut down’ they’re currently going through; I think it was on my wishlist for a while but I was never at the point where I was dying to try it.

However, when I recently participated in a group order from East Indies Tea Company, Della Terra’s supplier, I got a chance to nab an ounce of this blend I was still fairly curious about it – and an ounce is the perfect sample size to really get to play around with a flavoured tea like this so I was on board!

My first taste was hot in a timolino; I was expecting a move obvious ‘carrot’ flavour though I’m not sure why since the flavor carrot cake is in large part made up of the spices and the trademark cream cheese icing. The carrot I did taste was mellow and sweet though; kind of ‘carrot juice’ sweet but more subtle. I also tasted some lovely, gentle spice notes: cinnamon and nutmeg specifically. I like that sort of ‘warming’ spice flavour that doesn’t go as bold as most Chai, or which doesn’t incorporate ginger. Bleck; who needs ginger!? The rooibos base was present and tasted both peppery, which detracted from the blend, and a little like graham crumbs which in a way added to it even if ‘graham’ isn’t a traditional flavor related to carrot cake.

Now the cream cheese frosting: almost as crucial as the cake itself if not more to be perfectly honest…

I had high expectations because I’ve seen from other Della Terra/East Indies Tea Co. blends (namely Monkey Bread) that they can be very successful executing this flavour and so I expected that to be represented in this blend too. And I think it was. The aroma of the liquor (dry, steeping and steeped) was spot on cream cheese – the flavour a little milder, but still there. The “tang” of the cheese is there, and I can feel it on the sides of my tongue. Sure, I feel it everywhere but it lingers the longest there. It’s creamy too, but more muted.

I don’t know what exactly I expected overall – it wasn’t this, but even still I found this to be a pretty exceptional tea and I’m happy my curiosity drove me to try it.

Another one rescued from languishing in my stash. I think I bought this one about a year ago, and I just never got around to pulling it out. Now’s its chance!

I think it’s fair to say that I’m in love with this one even just having opened the bag. It smells so much like cream cheese icing and rich, spiced cake, it’s ridiculous! It reminds me most at this point of Della Terra’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake – it shares the same “cakey” scent. The thing I like most about the dry mix is actually the tiny caramac chips, although pieces of carrot and orange peel are also readily visible. I think it’s going to be a good one! I gave 1 tsp of leaf 3 minutes in boiling water. No additions. It filled the whole kitchen with the scent of carrot cake; a blissful 3 minute break from work.

Fortunately, I’m not wrong about this being a good one. It’s not often that a flavoured tea lives up to its scent, but this is one that definitely does. The initial flavour is spiced icing, with the cinnamon and orange coming through readily, along with a rich, almost tooth-tingling, sweetness. There’s a cream cheese aspect, too, which adds an almost cool, slightly sour tang right at the end of the sip. The “carrot cake” itself resides mainly in the mid sip, with a pleasant raisin note and a lovely smack of Della Terra “cake” flavouring. It’s a beautiful thing.

This one has a rooibos base, but it’s hard to tell under all of the flavouring. This makes for a delicious dessert tea – and a real dessert replacement, rather than the inspiration for a craving. This is one sample I’ll have no trouble polishing off!