BrutaliTeas

My first Brutaliteas review. I cracked up every time I see the title. Imagine a pear in a dark alley with a knife. Menacing yet amusing. I don’t usually do tea with any flavoring (I’ve been noticing some give me headaches) but I wanted to see what this tasted like. It is a swirling tornado of flavors. Rooibos hits first and then the caramel beats it to a pulp and completely takes over. I don’t really taste much of the pear though within the first minute of steeping it was a bit more pronounced. The white tea is too muted for my liking.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – December Theme: Holiday Teason Tea #19

additional notes: Finishing this one.  I love the vanilla pieces in it.  Not QUITE eggnog enough for me but a very tasty blend regardless. 
2021 sipdowns: 151
Other holiday teas: Angry Tea Room – advent Hot Nuts (20)

MEGGAAANOOGGG.  It certainly sounds metal.  The Amazing Race had a “megaleg” this year and that too sounded metal.  My first tea to try from Brutaliteas!! Thanks so much for sharing, AJRimmer! I love the concept of mixing music/movies with tea.   And I will happily try all the eggnog teas I can find..  This is an odd one – black tea mixed with rooibos.  I’d say it tastes like eggnog!  Mellow creaminess with a hint of cinnamon spice.  The wood flavor of the rooibos is more present than the black tea flavor somehow.  Not disappointing but not the perfect eggnog tea (though this seems impossible at this point. Tea isn’t eggnog.)
Other recent holiday teas:  B&B’s Jack Frost and Dammann Frere’s Noel Venice.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for full mug // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  just boiled // 4 minute steep

Advent Calendar Day 11

I was excited to see a pear-flavored tea today, as there don’t seem to be too many of those out there and I’ve really enjoyed some of the ones I’ve found (e.g. Trader Joe’s White Ginger Pear and The London Tea Room’s Mango Pear White). Interestingly, even though it isn’t listed in the ingredients list, the main thing I’m tasting in this tea is walnut! This is another one that I don’t know how to rate. It actually has a very pleasant smooth, nutty flavor that mingles well with the hay-like notes of the white tea and if the blend were called “toasted walnut” or something, I’d probably give it a high rating. But it’s apparently supposed to be a caramel pear tea and I don’t taste either of those flavors. So not going to rate this, but glad I got to try it!

Thanks to amandastory516 for this tea. I usually like rooibos/black tea mixes, so I was looking forward to this one. I have to say that it’s not too spectacular. The main flavor is the rooibos, which isn’t a particularly great rooibos. I really got no sense of anything at all eggnog. No spices or anything. Just a not that great rooibos flavor. It was a little better with milk.

Sadly another failure of a cup today. Not getting any pear or caramel. Just tastes like an old walnut. Not enjoyable.

Apparently I am doing a poor job of timing my steeps today as this one steeped for over 5 minutes the first time. A bit of a burnt taste to this over brew, but I stuck with it and tried a second steep that is a bit more butterscotch and caramel. Less burnt and more peanut brittle with a light lingering butterscotch after taste. Might need to try this with less leaf and a shorter steep time.

this is one of two teas that I purchased after the advent. this tea, I knew, would be so perfect as an iced tea for the summer and lo, it is. enjoyed iced with just a teeny bit of agave and some…slightly sad strawberries that have been in the fridge for too long sorry strawberries :(

I bet this would be equally good iced + strawberries in the tea, as opposed to eating them separate. it would probably also be tasty with lemonade as well, bc the lemon flavour, while nice, could be stronger. hmmmmm.

Honeydew flavors are very hit or miss. They’re either juicy and authentic tasting, or artificial and undrinkable (usually like an old Chapstick). This one hovered between the two ends of the spectrum, but definitely more towards the artificial tasting side of things. Can’t say I’ll be trying this one again.

Sadly, I don’t get the slightest bit of orange in this. The only flavor is the rooibos, and it’s not the tastiest of rooibos blends I’ve had. It’s just very boring and weak. No orange or cream. Such a bummer because I love creamsicle! Thanks anyway to amandastory516 for the share!

Advent day 18. Not bad for a rooibos. There is a nice sweetened spiced apple flavor. The apple is prominent in the sip, then changes to the scent of a red apple a bit more in the finish where the cinnamon and caramel come out. I’d drink this again.

Pretty good but not extraordinary for me. I could taste a bit of apricot, but it was far too muted. I didn’t care for the addition of hibiscus, with the apricot being so mild.

Advent day 17. I see lots of cloves in this, but it reminds me more of a spiced gingerbread cookie, especially with cream. I’m liking this one. Steeped it twice for maximum chaiage.

Advent day 16, Apricot for Destruction. Such an awesome name on a tea filled with hibiscus. :( I think I could taste apricot under the strong metallic taste that hib translates to, but the metal is just too distracting to know for sure. I love Guns n Roses and wanted to love a tea named in their honor. I feel like something way more caffeinated would be appropriate.

dvent day 15. It looked like a black tea so I steeped it at those parameters, but it came out a bit bitter and burnt. Adding some creamer mellowed out my mistake and brought out the blackberry flavors. They are nice, but subtle. I didn’t get a super strong bold flavors.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6Ho3fZgWzz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Advent day 15! Really enjoyed this! The blackberry is prominent, even over the bold black base. Pretty simple, but excellent nevertheless.

Advent day 12. This is the strangest root beer tea I’ve had! The others have usually been on a black base, while this is on a white base. It smells strongly of root beer, but has an additional green note after being steeped. It tastes similar on the sip to how it smells; root beer with a bit of green. The finish is totally rootbeer. It’s good, not amazing. Rootbeer is a hard flavor to translate to tea.

Advent day 13. Orange: check. Cream: check. Screams: lacking. The flavor is fun, but not amazing.

Advent day 5! I’m catching up on some reviews that I’ve fallen behind on. I didn’t realize this was a white tea (my bad), and stepped it a bit hotter and a bit longer than I generally would a white tea, but it actually came out wonderfully! It has a really distinct strawberry/raspberry compote flavor. It really tastes like a warm berry jam. The hibiscus isn’t too overwhelming. I really loved this one, and I’d actually repurchase it!

Advent day 11. This seems less like lemonade and more like a berry with lemon kind of mix. The ingredients say hibiscus, but it seems to be just the slightest touch of it to round out the tart part of the flavors, no fateful red hue in my cup. It’s a little more tart and less berry like as it cools. I’m feeling like it’s just okay.

Advent day 10! I’m not a huge coffee fan, so was happy to discover that this had a pretty muted coffee profile. I definitely picked up on some chocolate and cream notes along with the coffee. Added some oat milk and it rounded everything out nicely.

Advent day 10. I love tiramisu tea, so I was super excited to try this. When I steeped it up it seemed really strong. A few sips in a I decided it needed some cream to mellow it out a bit. It has the right level of coffee flavor and some chocolate, but those mostly show up in the finish. The sip is kind of plain. It’s like my tastebuds don’t know what to make of this tea until after I swallow. I feel like I’ve had tiramisu teas that tasted really good in the sip AND the finish. :/