Caramel Chai Buttercream

The TTB has arrived! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #18

Got a caramel, got a chai, got no butter nor cream.

Fine chai, very mild and sweet (I am not used to teas with added sugar in the blends) and just right amount of star anise in my cup (there was whole, but I took two or three “shines” from it only).

Pretty fine, but for me a bit too sweet. Again, I don’t remember steeping paramters.

Sipdown! (28 | 343)

So the name of this one sounds delicious. Sadly, I don’t really get much of the caramel or buttercream aspects. There’s a touch of creaminess from the coconut maybe, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it buttercream. Mostly, this is a very anise-heavy chai. I basically just taste star anise with a touch of coconut and perhaps a hint of cinnamon.

It’s not awful or anything, as I do like anise, but definitely doesn’t fulfill the promise of the name.

I placed an order with Deb, as I wanted to buy some of her blends for gifts…of course I couldn’t resist buying myself a few new-to-me blends. This was one of them. It’s okay. Very very anise forward, so it’s more of a coconut anise chai?

So, uh, yesterday (apparently June 29) I was convinced that I had a solid 5 days left of June. At least 3. Clearly, I was very wrong. Not sure how this month managed to pass so quickly. (Oh yeah, two kids…)

Tried this tea today; the name sounds good but I remembered reading something in a note by Ros(?) that it contained star anise… and apparently I got a whole one in my cup. Unfortunately, I do not care for this spice, and as a result, did not much care for this tea. However, I might like it more either a) without an entire star anise in one cup, or b) as a latte. It wasn’t entirely objectionable, just too much of that particular licoricey flavour for me. Otherwise, it was a warmly spiced, somewhat creamy chai sort of flavour. Not sure I’d call it caramel, but maybe that flavour would emerge with less dominance from another.

Another Deb blend that I’m kind of on the fence about…

I wouldn’t normally get excited about this kind of Chai because I’ve had more than one caramel chai and they are usually underwhelming to me/not good enough to compensate for my general dislike of spiced blends. However, the buttercream inspiration intrigued me and seeing the star anise (a spice I do like_ made me feel better about the Chai part…

There’s this sort of savory dry leaf aroma that I found curious and a little off putting, but it doesn’t really translate to the taste so I’m gonna write that reservation off. Here’s the thing though, this really tastes heavily like anise and I enjoy that… but I feel like the mouth coating sweetness of the anise is supposed to be filling in for both the sweetness of the caramel and the buttercream because neither of those flavours were really present for me. Anise, as much as I do like it, is not the same as either caramel or buttercream. So there would need to be other distinct tasting notes in this blend for it to wholly win me over.

I loved this the first time around, but this cup tastes like chamomile. How strange. The spices are barely there too. I must not have gotten a good mix of everything in this scoop. It’s the last of the bag. I’d thought about ordering more when it becomes available. I might still do that, but hopefully a full bag will have more flavor.

Sipped this tea during a zoom meeting that required a little emotional support! This had a large chunk of star anise in it, so it was very chai-y and tasty. It does make me worry that other cups will be quite variable though.

It definitely has a sweet buttercream flavor. I can’t say I get much caramel specifically, so I would consider this more of a Buttercream Chai. Overall, it’s not bad, I just wish I got more caramel flavor