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Lady 0f Spaydes drank Caramel & Rum by Lupicia

41 tasting notes

I found my formal tasting notes!!!

I first tried this sometime right before Christmas with HistoryLaced. This was the day I believe that my boyfriend became the designated “Tea Boy” and HistoryLaced’s boyfriend became the “Ball Boy” (we make him fetch the ball when we knock it out of bounds during ping pong:) ).

Observation 1: This tea was steeped by my lovely boyfriend at boiling for 5 minutes as instructed. The dry leaves have a very fragrant aroma of rum. According to my notes, they smell like “the best rum ever!”

Observation 2: Naked: There is a beautiful orange color to this rooibos! The flavors remind me of butter rum candies, which are some of my favorite candies in the world, by the way.

Observation 3: With sugar, the taste is reminiscent of caramel.

Observation 4: Milk alone drastically detracts from the flavor of this rooibos.

Observation 5: Yummy with milk and sugar! Tastes the way I imagine Hot Buttered Rum or butterbeer to taste!

Overall: A pleasant rooibos, considering it was the 2nd rooibos I had ever had. I am impressed that my impression of this rooibos has not wavered much as my exposure to different types of teas and tisanes has continued to progress. I have noticed consistenly with Lupicia that my opinion of their blends only tend to increase over time as my palate is refined and I taste higher quality samples. Kudos to Lupicia for being friendly to the most novice and the more experienced!

Preparation

Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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2 comments

Terri HarpLady
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This will be a good one to add to my list of teas to drink on International Talk Like a Pirate Day next year!

Lady 0f Spaydes
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Hah! I always forget about that wonderful holiday. :P maybe ill try a tea grog variation with it. :0

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Comments

Terri HarpLady
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This will be a good one to add to my list of teas to drink on International Talk Like a Pirate Day next year!

Lady 0f Spaydes
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Hah! I always forget about that wonderful holiday. :P maybe ill try a tea grog variation with it. :0

Profile

Bio

A casual tea drinker since my childhood; I recently began to truly explore international tea culture in my search for the perfect tea ritual in my extremely hectic lifestyle. I am a young pantheist college student pursuing the science of medicine with a minor in bioethics (philosophy) and I firmly believe that having a ritual for relaxation and meditation is crucial to physical and emotional wellbeing. I recently hosted my first afternoon tea party and hope to assemble a routine arsenal of tea and literature enthusiasts to share my teatime. My tastes are international and I embrace styles and ideas of different cultures across the centuries. I look forward to tea and literary recommendations from you all!

So I know there is no proper way to truly gauge teas as the best or the worst, but like with education, a standardized rubric system is very important to communicate certain aspects of a quality before one has a chance to read in-depth reviews.

It is with this in mind that I strive to follow the proceeding guidelines and rubric:

1. I shall not provide a grade based upon an improperly brewed tea. This includes: experimental blending, scalded leaves, oversteeping/understeeping and insufficient amounts of leaves provided.

2. All rated teas must initially be steeped in accordance to the guidelines provided by the tea company. Addendum/reevaluation may occur if properly documented.

3. I shall try my very best to leave personal preference out of the scope of grading. However, I shall endeavor to be very clear of my opinion of the teas that I rate.

Grading Rubric
100 point scale:

- Clearly and concisely conveys the flavors of the artist’s intent with no supplemental explanation if the flavors are within the taster’s experience (20 points)
- Requires menial ingredient adjustment (i.e.: milk, sugar, stevia, etc.) to achieve the flavors intended by the artist. (15 points)
- Is completely consistent in flavor and quality from batch to batch. (15 points)
- Requires little to no adjustment to preparation (sans accounting for regional differences in altitude, airpressure, etc…) for a full flavored steeping (10 points)
- has a very high quality tea base that compliments the blend (note: does NOT require whole leaves)(10 points)
- Re-steeps at least two to three times strongly if able. (if bagged, re-steeps twice well) (10 points)
- Stores very well (No flavor diminishment when stored in a dark, cool and airtight space for short periods of time). If bagged, is packaged promoting optimal infusion, ease of use and freshness. (10 points)
- has a clear explanation of ingredients, allergens and preparation instructions. (5 points?)
- Is very well priced in relation to the quality of ingredients and quantity provided. (5 points)

Location

Los Angeles, CA, USA

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