Tag: Subscription Box

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Dessert by Deb’s Lemon Sugar Cookie

Lemon Sugar Cookie by Dessert by Deb
Black Tea & Rooibos / Flavoured
$16.00 for 75g

Lemon Sugar Cookie is an exclusive blend for Dessert by Deb subscription subscribers and is available for purchase by subscribers only at this time.

First Impressions

Lemon Sugar Cookie is a black tea and rooibos blend that came to me as part of my subscription box. This blend is a subscriber exclusive, hence the labeling of The Tea Society Club. I find the exclusivity of tea blends to be a really neat treat for being a member. The blend comes in a pale pink pouch with a familiar and colourful label.

Lemon Sugar Cookie consists of organic: black tea, fair trade rooibos, lemon peel, vanilla, Canadian maple, and brown sugar. When I ripped open the packaging, the first thing I noticed was the citrus notes. The lemon is really bright and inviting and honestly smells like fresh lemon zest. The maple notes and brown sugar are blending well together in terms of fragrance, and it reminds me of baking. I can smell the rooibos base more than the black tea, which is unfortunate for me because rooibos just isn’t my favourite ingredient (to drink straight up). The vanilla is something I find that kind of lingers in the background, but it’s definitely present!

Preparation

Dessert by Deb recommends steeping Lemon Sugar Cookie in 100°C (212°F) water for 4 to 6 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep for 5 minutes, just going for middle of the road with the steeping time.

First Taste

Lemon Sugar Cookie steeps to nice golden orange. The aroma is a blend of lemon and vanilla. There’s some molasses notes that I find as well when smelling the tea. The flavour is interesting. I can taste the lemon, the sweetness from the brown sugar and maple notes, and I can taste the rooibos. It does have that medicinal quality that I don’t particularly like when it comes to rooibos, but the sweetness from the Canadian maple and brown sugar do a lot to overcome that it and to hide it, so I’m not offended by the flavour of the rooibos (who knew?). The blend steeps really smoothly, and I find that the vanilla notes really pop at the tail end of each sip.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Lemon Sugar Cookie once, adding an additional 30 seconds for the second steep with the same leaves. I found that rooibos base was really flavour forward, so if you’re a fan of rooibos, I would continue steeping the leaves knowing that a lot of the sweetness is gone. If you’re not a fan of rooibos, I’d stick to just the initial steep.

My Overall Impression

I liked Dessert by Deb’s Lemon Sugar Cookie. I found the flavour of the initial steep to be great – I found lemon, molasses-notes, a creamy quality from the vanilla, and enough sweetness to off-set the medicinal notes from rooibos. The blend of ingredients was really great to make me think of a lemon cookie and I think it’s a great representation of the name in the ingredients. I would have liked the black tea base to be more forward and easier to find in the flavour, but the brown sugar and Canadian maple do a great job of hiding things with that high level of sweetness (which I greatly enjoyed!).

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BRUU’s Subscription Box

Subscription Box by BRUU
3 x 14g teas (42g)
£10 + Shipping

BRUU has provided me with their Subscription Box for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

BRUU is a UK-based subscription box that offers a monthly shipment of three teas, a “discover” tea, and a surprise “gift” with each box. So this is what the box looks like – cardstock (could be recycled!), colourful tea-themed illustrations, and just looks like a fun package.

There were some cards on the inside – a highlight of Munnar, an Upper Surianalle Tea Estate and a small sample pouch of a tea from Munnar (in the Discover… bag). The free gift in this box that I received was a Double Choc protein bar from Tribe, along with some information about the company that included a coupon code. I do like chocolate, so this was a welcome surprise.

The teas themselves came in 14g pouches that are resealable, with tasting cards for each tea, and small golden clothespins – super cute presentation if you ask me! BRUU describes each box as being “tailored to your preferences”, which I think is pretty neat!

In the box I received was Royal Star (oolong & sencha blend), Caribbean Kiss (black tea & green tea blend), and Orange Ice Cream (fruit-based tisane).

Royal Star has a really bright and fruity aroma to it. It smells like candy. Royal Star consists of sencha, oolong, sunflower petals, cornflower petals, and currants.

Caribbean Kiss has some really strong citrus notes to it. It consists of green tea, black tea, lemongrass, carrot peel, pink peppercorns, pomelo slices, and flavouring.

Orange Ice Cream’s aroma matches the name the best. Orange Ice Cream has a great orange aroma that reminds me a lot of an orange creamsicle. Orange Ice Cream consists of apple pieces, sour apple pieces, freeze-dried whole cape gooseberries, spearmit, flavour, marigold blossoms, safflower petals. I’m just weirdly surprised at the lack of orange in the ingredient list!

From left to right: Royal Star, Caribbean Kiss, Orange Ice Cream.

Preparation

BRUU recommends steeping Royal Star in 80°C (176°F) for 2 minutes, Caribbean Kiss in 100°C (212°F) for 2 minutes and Orange Ice Cream in 100°C (212°F) for 10-12 minutes. I followed the steeping instructions almost perfectly – I used 79°C (175°F) water for Royal Star, and I had steeped Orange Ice Cream for 10 minutes.

First Taste

Royal Star smells a lot like the dry leaf – fruity and sweet! Surprisingly, it didn’t taste that way to me. Royal Star steeps to a dark orange-brown colour. It wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting (or hoping!) it would be since the dry leaf and steeped tea has a great fruity candy aroma to it and I had some great expectations. It does have a fruity flavour to it, with a touch of sweetness. There’s a mild astringency present mostly at the tail end of each sip, which isn’t too off-putting.

Caribbean Kiss steeps to a golden orange colour. There’s a strong citrus aroma, with peppercorn in the background. There’s a definitely sharp peppercorn flavour to this tea, with some creamy orange notes to it. It’s got a bit of a bite to it, thanks to the peppercorn. Having this one iced would probably be ideal to help tame those spice notes.

Orange Ice Cream steeps to a bright yellow – like sunshine. It smells just like the dry leaf, resembling an orange creamsicle. The flavour tastes like what I expected it to – orange, cream, vanilla notes.  It’s got a nice level of sweetness to it, and I think it would be excellent over ice.

From left to right: Royal Star, Caribbean Kiss, Orange Ice Cream.

A Second Cup?

I attempted resteeps of Royal Star and Caribbean Kiss, but found that the flavour wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. I think this has a lot to do with the ingredients that were just tapped out on flavour after the initial steeps.

From left to right: Royal Star, Caribbean Kiss, Orange Ice Cream.

My Overall Impression

I liked BRUU’s Subscription Box. I really like subscription boxes in general because I think it’s a great way to get exposure to teas that I might not otherwise try. The packaging is fun with the tea-themed illustrations, and I think the tasting cards and gold clothespins are just charming. The tea themselves aren’t really blends that I would have personally chosen for myself. I think at first glance, I was most excited for Royal Star as it was a sencha and oolong blend, and I ended up liking Orange Ice Cream the best because it basically tasted like dessert (and what’s not to love about that?). The protein bar will end up in my bag for a night shift snack for sure, and it’s always really fun to try new-to-me teas.

I’d definitely be curious about getting another box from BRUU because it’d just be fun to get to explore more of the teas that they have in their catalogue. The nice thing about the BRUU Subscription Box is that it isn’t overly expensive. It’s priced at £10 for a box (and if you prepay for more months, the price per month does go down), which could make for a nice little gift to yourself on a monthly basis.

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Dessert by Deb’s Butterscotch Jam Bars

Butterscotch Jam Bars by Dessert by Deb
Rooibos / Flavoured
$16.00 for 75g

Butterscotch Jam Bars is an exclusive blend for Dessert by Deb subscription subscribers and is available for purchase by subscribers only at this time.

First Impressions

Butterscotch Jam Bars is a rooibos blend that came in one of my subscription boxes, and it is a subscriber exclusive. This rooibos blend comes in a gold sealed, resealable pouch, with a colourful label across the front. I’m personally keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t smell or taste the rooibos because it’s not one of my favourite ingredients – I tend to find that rooibos reminds me of a medicinal flavour.

Butterscotch Jam Bars has a beautiful aroma to it – I can smell brown sugar, maple, raisins and vanilla. Surprise, I can’t smell the rooibos base at all. The brown sugar and vanilla notes make me think of a cake or pastry, which is nice and quite fitting considering the name of the blend is Butterscotch Jam Bars.

Butterscotch Jam Bars consists of organic: fair trade rooibos, vanilla, Canadian maple, elderberries, currants, raisins, hibiscus, brown sugar, honey bush, and cinnamon.

Preparation

Dessert by Deb recommends steeping Butterscotch Jam Bars in 100°C (212°F) water for 4 to 6 minutes. I followed the recommended steeping temperature and did an initial steep for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Butterscotch Jam Bars steeps to a nice orange colour with a bit of a pinkish hue to it, which I credit to the hibiscus, of course. There’s the aroma of vanilla and brown sugar, with hints of raisins in the background. I found the blend to be nicely sweet, with that brown sugar and maple in the mix. It definitely tastes like a dessert, and that it should be more of a guilty pleasure that it is given the flavour of the blend. It tastes like a cake, which is really scrumptious. The big bonus (for me!) is that I can’t taste the rooibos base itself, all I taste is vanilla, raisins, brown sugar, and the hint of maple in the background.

I really don’t think that it needs a sweetener, but if you do choose to add something, I would go with brown sugar or maple syrup to play up some of the flavours that exist in the blend.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Butterscotch Jam Bars, but found that the second steep was more rooibos and less dessert-like. Which means, if you’re a fan of rooibos, then steeping again is a great way to go.

My Overall Impression

I liked Dessert by Deb’s Butterscotch Jam Bars. I really appreciated the care into developing the flavours that shone through in the initial steep. The use of brown sugar and maple with the blend of elderberries, currants, and raisins, really helped to create the flavour of a baked good. The initial steep was definitely preferred by me over the resteep because I’m not a fan of rooibos. For those who do love rooibos though, I think you’ll get more enjoyment from resteeping it.

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