Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

This has been a pleasant dessert tea… it doesn’t really taste like pumpkin or creme brulee to me, but I do like it. I mostly smell and taste the cocoa, on a sweet appley base. There are some nutty and toffee undertones, but the chocolate flavor dominates too much to read those as a caramel or burnt sugar note for me. It’s very sweet, but is nice for an evening sweet tooth craving. I also really enjoyed it as a latte with vanilla almond milk.

This is Day 7 of DavidsTea’s herbal advent calendar. The dry leaf smells very promisingly like caramel, but the brew doesn’t quite live up to the promise for me. Hot or cold, I don’t taste any pumpkin, and there’s an acidity that throws the whole balance of the tea off. Hot, it smells like butterscotch and tastes like apples, cream, and caramel. If it wasn’t for the acidity, I’d enjoy it. Not quite “pumpkin crème brûlée,” but still tasty. But that acidity really stops it from working. There’s enough leaf in the little jar to make several cups, and all of them had that same problem, so it’s not a question of having screwed up the brew on one cup. This particularly doesn’t work cold, unfortunately. It tastes like apple and butterscotch, which is already a flavor profile that works better hot than cold, but then the acidity gets much stronger and makes the whole thing hard to drink. DT’s butterscotch chai is just a much better take on a similar flavor profile.

Steep:
3 tsp
212°F
5 min
kati loose tea system 12oz

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: sweet, maybe some spice?
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet, pumpkin mousse
Flavor: sweet, squash
Body: Light
Liquor: translucent light yellow orange

Resteep:
weak, watery, but drinkable

Rating: 3/4 leaves

Leaf system:
1=Bleh! not again if it were free
2=Acceptable, if it were free or there were limited other tea options
3=I might purchase this tea from time to time, or select it while out
4=A staple in our cupboard from now on, I will purchase and keep purchasing

YouTube Review https://youtu.be/SiF5yNcO1yQ

TikTok Review https://www.tiktok.com/@circuitswan/video/7146012254650109226

Twitter https://twitter.com/CircuitSwan/status/1572761174923706368

Blog Post https://amazonv.blogspot.com/2022/09/davidstea-loose-leaf-herbal-tea-fruit.html

Statement of Sponsorship or Advertisement:
I purchased this product.

Disclaimer:
All my reviews are as unbiased as possible, whether I buy or receive free product. I accept no other compensation other than free product.

Pumpkin seems like one of those that’s so hard to get right. I haven’t been much into the pumpkin spice craze, despite liking pumpkin pies and breads and baked goods, because so little of it tastes like pumpkin. So I’m not surprised I get no pumpkin from this. Some spices that feel vaguely reminiscent of pumpkin pie, but mostly that strong artificial sweetness.

I drank this one yesterday. I steeped it, sipped it a couple times, thought “this isn’t very good” and went back to work. This lasted throughout the morning until the tea was cold, where a bit of fruitiness comes out. I got about halfway through before I decided to call it quits.

DAVIDsTEA caffeine free advent, day 7

Pleasant, but if you gave this to me in a blind taste test, “pumpkin” and “creme brulee” would not be my first, second, or fifteenth guesses.

(DavidsTea 171)

This sounded so good but I found it very disappointing. I’m really not sure what this tea tasted like, but it definitely wasn’t the creamy custard I expected from a creme brulee tea. I don’t hate it, but definitely fell very flat for me. This bag is a year old, but I felt the same the first time I tried it, too.

This one smells like DT unicorn fluff, which I didn’t like at all, but happily, the taste is different. The first time I made this, it was super thin, so I overleafed and oversteeped the next time…and it was still a little thin, but now also sort of sour. With milk and sugar, it tastes pretty good, but I’ve had better teas with this flavor profile. The rebrew is quite mild, but has enough flavor to be worth it. I have to say that this one isn’t at all like pumpkin and certainly not creme brulee. I’m disappointed because the name sounds delicious, but the flavor is pleasant enough that finishing it won’t be a problem.

Being a huge pumpkin lover, I had to try this tea. I had it in my basket when it first came out, but while I was waiting for the rest of the Halloween merch to drop (to be fair, it was a number of days I had it in my basket) it sold out. The cute skeleton gummy bear pouch had a sachet of it among the 5 seasonal teas, so I got that instead. I’m glad I went that route over the 2oz bag because I’m not sure I like it 2oz worth. There is a carob like scent to the tea once steeped. I get that they were going for creme brulee, but I’m not sure the flavor translates well to tea. There is a sweetness that bothers me slightly, like a non sugar source of sweetness. Not quite stevia. Monkfruit? It’s distracting and becomes more prominent now that my cup has cooled. I’m trying to think pumpkin as I sip this, but the closest I get to it is a creaminess. The finish is strange. Alternating a weird sweet sensation on my tongue with something more pleasant but vague. Super happy I got to try this, but I’m content with just this one cup.

If it wasn’t Autumn tea season before, it feels like it really is now – that change of season is coming and it’s coming fast. With it, of course, comes new and returning fall teas – mostly Chai, of course. In fact – I think this most recent collection is called the “Chai Collection” but not ALL the teas that launched are really Chai blends, some are just nice Autumn profiles…

Here’s the list of returning teas from this Friday’s drop:

- Chocolate Chili Chai
- Baked Apple Chai
- Chai Matcha
- Pumpkin Pie Matcha
- Guarana Chai

And of course Pumpkin Chai, but that launched earlier than everything else. There’s also this new tea as well as a new rooibos based chai called “Butterscotch Chai”.

First things first…

I adamantly refuse to call this a Chai blend in any regard; I’m not sure if it’s actually going to get marketed as one but because it launched with all of these other Chai profiles I worry some people might assume it’s a chai and I just need to (on a personal level) make sure that I’m really clear in saying that there isn’t any spice of any kind in the blend. Yes, that’s right, this is the RARE pumpkin tea without spices! Pumpkin fans, like myself, who don’t enjoy all those spices can rejoice – this year, we’ve got you covered!

I also like that it’s a herbal blend – I think that sometimes we box our herbals into only being these juicy fruit profiles and our rooibos into housing all the sweet/decadent profiles (when it comes to caffeine free options) so I’m happy to see that perception challenged a little bit. But, that said…

I don’t love this tea. I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s missing something to me and I struggle to put my finger on what exactly that is!? The flavour is pretty sweet and creamy with a nice light to medium type of pumpkin-y flavour – think the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard from Dairy Queen but without the pastry or the nutmeg?? It reminds me a little bit of the pumpkin in Monster Mash with the cream flavour that was used in White Peach, with a hint of the same very light apple-y note as well. Boost that creamy note with some white chocolate, and you get more of a Pumpkin White Chocolate or even Pumpkin Milkshake type of profile, in my own opinion. It’s nice – I wish the mouthfeel was a bit thicker to add to that custard-y quality that Creme Brulee has, and exaggerate the creaminess. Milk would likely go a long way in doing that…

Maybe what I feel like is missing is the “Creme Brulee” part of the tea!? Like, I definitely think this is sweet and creamy but an essential part of a Creme Brulee, in my mind, is that just barely bitter burnt sugar/hard crack sugar note that comes from the surface of the creme brulee – and that’s missing. It’s maybe just a little bit too sweet for my own tastes, without something to give it more depth like a bitter sugar note. I don’t know though, maybe that’s not it…

Anyway, while this isn’t my perfect pumpkin tea I do think it’s an interesting one so I of course look forwarding to reading reviews and thoughts from other tea drinkers and seeing where they land on it!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.