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Dessert by Deb’s Maple Butter Shortbread

Maple Butter Shortbread by Dessert by Deb
Black Tea & Rooibos / Flavoured
$6.00 for 25g

Maple Butter Shortbread came as part of my November/December subscription box from Dessert by Deb.

First Impressions

In that familiar pale pink sealed, resealable pouch comes Maple Butter Shortbread. This is a blend from Dessert by Deb, another cookie-inspired blend that does contain rooibos. Now, I’ll preface the rest of the review with the fact that rooibos is not my favourite thing. I don’t go out of my way to seek out rooibos blends and I will not drink straight rooibos because I find it medicinal in flavour and aroma and I just don’t like it it (but if you love rooibos – that just means that there’s more available for you! Everyone wins!). The aroma of the blend is a nice blend of maple and vanilla, which reminds me of a baked good, but I do smell the rooibos blend. It does have that familiar medicinal quality. I don’t smell the black tea base, but that’s not too surprising given some of the other ingredients in the blend that can be more heavy.

Maple Butter Shortbread consists of all organic: black tea, maple syrup, Canadian maple, rooibos, vanilla, apple, palm sugar, and calendula petals. The ingredients are really pretty, and honestly it does photograph well. I quite appreciate the care in the blend. Vanilla isn’t an inexpensive ingredient to work with, and I always appreciate seeing it in a tea blend because it’s just one of those flavours/ingredients where the real deal is a lot better than artificial flavouring (yes, vanilla extract snob over here).

Preparation

Dessert by Deb recommends steeping Maple Butter Shortbread in 212°F (100°C) water for 4 to 6 minutes. I opted to follow the steeping recommendations and do an initial steep for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Maple Butter Shortbread steeps to a deep reddish orange (please excuse the bits of tea leaves, I was a bit haphazard when scooping the tea leaves into my infuser). It is very rooibos heavy in aroma, and I can smell the vanilla and maple – which definitely ‘screams’ this is a baked good to me. But the rooibos… It reminds me of medicine, earthy notes, slight sweetness… But mostly a medicinal quality to me. The black tea base lingers a bit in the background, but it isn’t as forward as I would have liked. The vanilla and maple are nice though, and this blend definitely has a nice amount of sweetness – also a nod to the palm sugar that’s present. It does remind me a lot of dessert, which is probably a good thing given that it’s called Maple Butter Shortbread.

A Second Cup?

I attempted a second steep of Maple Butter Shortbread, but found that the flavouring was mostly rooibos with hints of vanilla and maple. For me, personally, I wouldn’t have a second steep. If you’re a fan of rooibos, I would recommend a second steep.

My Overall Impression

I thought that Dessert by Deb’s Maple Butter Shortbread was just okay. I’m 100% confident that if I was any sort of rooibos fan/lover, I would have ranked this blend a lot higher. I’m quite open about not being the biggest fan of rooibos, and I only seem to appreciate it in blends that I can’t actually smell or taste the rooibos (which isn’t really appreciating it, is it?). So if you’re a fan of rooibos, I think you’ll like this one because it does remind me a lot of a dessert with the sweetness, the maple, and vanilla flavours. If you’re not a fan of rooibos, you might want to steer clear from this one since the rooibos is quite forward. Not for me, but I think it’d be one I would offer to someone who’s visiting and a fan of rooibos and wanting a dessert-style tea blend for sure.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

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DavidsTea’s Gyokuro Yamashiro

Gyokuro Yamashiro by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Straight
$22.98 for 50g

Gyokuro Yamashiro was sent to me by DavidsTea, a review was not requested by the company.

First Impressions

One of the ways to my heart is with some tea, and the DavidsTea team was very kind in reaching out to me and asking if I’d be interest in receiving a care package from them. Several other tea bloggers on Instagram also received one, and it looks like each of us received different teas! I had received Gyokuro Yamashiro, Anji Green, and Emerald Jade (previously written reviews linked!) – along with a Perfect Spoon and a glass Nordic Mug. Someone on the team definitely did some clever sleuthing though, to determine that I love green teas and I was pretty excited to dig into the box.

As always, Gyokuro Yamashiro came to me in a sealed, resealable silver pouch. There is that familiar colourful label on the front. As always – I still find the print is unfairly small in size, but the printing quality might have been sharpened up because it seems a bit crisper in comparison to some older packaging labels that I have at my house. Gyokuro is a form of green tea from Japan that is grown with the plants being shaded – so it is a form of sencha, but involves more labour in the growing process of it. The tea leaves are dark, short, flattened in appearance but an overall uniform shade of dark pine needle green. The leaves have a sweet grassy aroma to it, and it appears to be all leaf pieces, with minimal or no tea dust. Gyokuro Yamashiro consists of organic steamed green tea from Kagoshima, Japan with no other ingredients. As per the packaging label, this product is organic as standards in the USA and Canada.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Gyokuro Yamashiro in 80°C (175°F) water for 1 to 2 minutes. I opted to follow the steeping instructions and do an initial steep in a pre-warmed tea pot for 1 minute.

To pre-warm (or pre-heat) a teapot, pour hot water (plain) into the tea pot to allow the glass or ceramic tea pot to warm up. Then pour the water out, put in the tea leaves (in an infuser…?) and pour in the water for steeping the tea. This allows your tea pot to hold the tea at a warmer temperature for a longer period of time.

First Taste

Gyokuro Yamashiro steeps to be beautiful sunshine yellow colour. It’s vibrant – that’s the only way to describe the colour. The tea has a delicate flavour to it – lightly floral with a honey sweetness, grassy and ends off each sip with a buttery/creamy quality to it. Gyokuro Yamashiro has a slightly thickened mouthfeel to it with zero bitterness or astringency. It’s just a very pleasant cup of tea with all the flavours that I enjoy and would want to highlight to someone.

I would hazard a guess that Gyokuro Yamashiro might do even better with a cooler steeping temperature and even shorter steeping time, as a lot of green teas do. I’m definitely going to save some of this to do a cold steep with because I think it might be really good as an iced tea (when the weather warms up a bit more!).

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Gyokuro Yamashiro a total of seven times (eight steeps total with the same leaves). I used the same water temperature, and started off my first two resteeps at 1 minute each, and then added 30 seconds to each subsequent steep. The colour stayed that sunshine yellow for most of it, although waning at the end. The flavour remained true to the initial steep, although getting more buttery by the end. I would recommend resteeping Gyokuro Yamashiro to get all that flavour out of those leaves.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Gyokuro Yamashiro. I’m often a sucker for a good quality traditional/straight tea, and Gyokuro Yamashiro is no exception to the rule. The flavour is well-balanced, the leaves resteep well, and the tea just resteeps well. This is definitely one of the more expensive offerings from DavidsTea, and I’m really pleased that they decided to send a bag of this my way to try out. I know there are some people who are shy about trying more expensive teas (because why spend $23 on 50g of green tea when you could spend $10 or less on another green tea?) – but the difference in price is often a reflection of the quality and this tea makes up for the price tag by resteeping beautifully and making many cups of tea from the same leaves.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

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Dessert by Deb’s Minty Matcha Meringues

Minty Matcha Meringues by Dessert by Deb
Green Tea (Matcha) / Flavoured
$6.00 for 25g

Minty Matcha Meringues came as part of my November/December subscription box from Dessert by Deb.

First Impressions

Minty Matcha Meringues came to me in a lovely pale pink matte metallic sealed (and resealable!) pouch. Yes, this was from my November/December box, yes, it’s holiday-themed, and yes, I’m aware that it’s March in two days. That said, this cookie-inspired tea is still available on the Dessert by Deb website, if you’re wanting to give it a try. Nice colourful label – lets me know the important details (ingredients, steeping instructions, the recommendation to prepare as a latte), and is easy to read – my favourite type of product label.

Minty Matcha Meringue consists of organic: green tea, coconut, toasted coconut, peppermint and ceremonial matcha. So when I first opened the packaging, the first thing I smelled was the peppermint. This shouldn’t surprise anyone – mint is a very strong aroma. It’s very recognizable and just very capable of overpowering other ingredients. Then I smelled hints of coconut and the familiar grassy notes that could be attributed to either the green tea or the matcha. I just love how the matcha coats everything though, look at the coconut!

Preparation

Dessert by Deb recommends steeping Minty Matcha Meringues in 200°F (93°C) water for 4 to 5 minutes. I followed the steeping instructions and did an initial steep for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Minty Matcha Meringues doesn’t exactly look the prettiest when it’s steeped (see, below). It’s a bit of a murky yellow-green, there’s some oils floating on the top. Coconut naturally has oils in it, so the oils isn’t surprising, nor is it excessive like when you try to dissolve sprinkles or chocolates in a tisane or tea. The aroma of the tea is primarily mint, with some grassy undertones. I found the flavour to be a bit curious. I could definitely taste the peppermint, along with some of the coconut and some grassy and vegetal notes from the green tea and matcha combination. It doesn’t really scream meringues to me though, because I think of meringues as being very sweet and sugary and hurting my teeth. This… doesn’t. Which isn’t a bad thing. I do wish that the coconut flavour was more forward compared to the peppermint, but mint flavours are just always at risk of taking centre stage in comparison to other ingredients.

Since Dessert by Deb recommended having Minty Matcha Meringues as a tea latte, I had to give it a go. My general rule of thumb for creating a tea latte is to go with one third frothed milk to two thirds steeped tea. I also add sweetener to the tea portion of it. It does add a level of decadence to the tea (doesn’t improve the colour situation though, if anything it might make it worse). I did had some sweetener (vanilla agave syrup) and topped with frothed milk. It adds some creaminess, and the vanilla in the agave helps me think of it more of a baked good, which helps me think of meringues a bit more.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Minty Matcha Meringues, but found the flavour to fall a bit flat – I think a lot of the flavours that I enjoyed in the initial steep were just all used up in the initial steep (like the mint, the coconut, the matcha). I would recommend Minty Matcha Meringues for just one steep.

My Overall Impression

I liked Dessert by Deb’s Minty Matcha Meringues. There are aspects of this tea that I really enjoyed – the mint forwardness, the matcha undertones, the hints of coconut throughout – but it didn’t really make me think of meringue. It really needed some extra sweetener (and if you can get your hands on some vanilla syrup or vanilla agave, it really takes it over the top) to make me think of meringues since those are just sugary sweet and cavity-inducing desserts. I would recommend following Deb’s recommendation of turning this into a tea latte – it just makes it that much better and helps temper down how forward the peppermint is.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.