Pandan Chiffon

I was excited to make this because I really enjoy the crazy things from ETTE… but, there was no difference between this tea and a hojicha some cinnamon to it. I was really curious to see how roast and osmanthus would go together :/
Unsure what might been wrong with what I received; though I’m skeptical of floral and roast going well together.
Oh well.,still waiting to finish my ETTE off before I get some Peach Perfect (still eyeing it)

Revisiting this tea today whilst curled up in front of the TV. I repurchased this tea from Ette’s Black Friday sale for my sister. i gave her a cup of it when i first recieved this tea as part of a group buy a while ago. i remeber being quite fond of it then.

While the flavor has not stood up well to the ziploc baggie it was inside of, I can still get a very decent cup out of it. It’s as sweet as I remember, creamy, desserty and has hints of graham crackers. The houjicha is stronger, with it’s nutty goodness. I am surprised that this blend has lasted the neglect I have given it.

Oh yeah, it also goes great with pumpkin pie.

I’ve had this tea for a while, and I’ll admit upfront that it did not endear itself to me immediately. I think I was expecting a black tea instead of a green based on the look of the leaves and the color of the liquor, and my taste buds were feeling put out as a result. However, after months spent languishing in an unlabeled little baggie in the cupboard, I discovered it again and tried it anew, cold-brew style. Once I figured out what on earth it was, I realized I quite enjoyed it, and would commit to a tin of it in the future. I really love osmanthus in my oolongs, and it happens to compliment the cinnamon in this cup really well. It isn’t as toasty as one would expect from the leaf color, which is just as well, because I’m not a huge fan of overly roasted greens. Instead a light, breezy sweetness is coupled with cinnamon spice, to the point where I can practically feel it rolling across my tongue. It’s something like an apple pie reduction, minus the apple – if that even makes any sense, ugh. Word failure. There’s something distinctly pastry-like about it, but I’ve never had the titular dessert before, so maybe that’s why I’m grasping at straws here. Anyway, I’m really glad that I gave it a second try, even if it was mostly inadvertent on my part.

This is an interesting blend. thanks to beelicious for sending some my way. osmanthous and cinnamon..those are the first things i taste. There’s an element here that reminds me of cake but it’s not super sweet or strong. I am enjoying this quite a bit.

Recently I had the opportunity to take part in a group order from Ette Tea, a relatively new company based in Singapore. They only have six blends currently, but they all appear to be very well thought out and the range of diverse flavours is impressive. Being able to take advantage of buying smaller sample sizes was the nail in the coffin on what probably would’ve been an inevitable order anyway.

This isn’t one of the blends I was initially more excited about; but it smells very good! Quite sweet with cake like elements and a playful touch of spice. I’m definitely getting notes from the dry smell that remind me of caramel or lightly burnt sugar. Mmm! And, because this is one of the lighter blends I ended up with a lot more of it than any of the other samples so I’m taking advantage of trying this one in a different way than a lot of the people from our group order appear to have done; cold brewing! That is my go to, after all.

I’m surprised by how sweet this is; though I don’t necessarily know why. Every other run in I’ve had with ‘chiffon’, be it tea or in real life, is sweet so I should have expected as much from this even though it doesn’t have ingredients that necessarily go hand in hand with more dessert-like teas.

There’s a lot going on but it’s harmonious; I’m picking up sweeter top notes like caramel and vanilla and a pastry-like cinnamon (like cinnamon sugar, sort of) which together are reminding me of Stroopwafel! That’s definitely not what I was expecting to get from this blend but it’s wonderful. I’m also getting some light roasty notes from the hojicha, though not as dominant as I anticipated. They’re great support though and keep this tea from tasting too sweet. There’s also a sweet, starchy taste present: in part I think that’s what making me think of the “waffle” part of the stroopwafel flavour going on, but it also reminds me loosely of sweet potato.

The osmanthus is somewhere in the middle; not as strong as the sweeter notes but not as light as the roasty/potato notes either. It doesn’t tie in with the Stroopwafel thing I’ve got going on, but what it DOES do is really, really round this tea out and give it a lot of depth. My only complaint is that this left quite a bit of sediment/fannings in the bottom of my brewing vessel. But even then it’s not a huge deal with cold brews anyway.

For my first tea from Ette Tea I’m very impressed! If all the others are half as good and interesting as this one it’ll be one of the most successful tea orders I’ve ever made. Yeah, this definitely set the bar high for the others. I don’t know if that’s for better or worse. I really want to try actual Pandan Chiffon now! I don’t know if there’s anywhere in town to get it…

I need a hookup ASAP!

I’m not sure if I have experienced pandan before, but I have had chiffon teas that were amazing, so I really wanted to try some of this when I saw the group buy being organized. To me this looks and tastes like a light caramel hojicha. It is a little earthy, with low notes dominating the taste and caramel coming in on the aftertaste. I tried adding a little sugar towards the end of my cup and it really just knocked out the balance of this tea. It is now sweet, but I’m not getting the same depth of flavors that I was before. I added a little soy creamer to it and it took a few sips before I could taste anything past the creamer. Now I’m getting a creamy hojicha taste on the sip and something a little different on the aftersip. Maybe that is the pandan? Either way, it is nice and I think I prefer it plain, but unless this tea really grows on me while going through the sample I got, then it likely isn’t a rebuy or must have for me.

Ah, Ette Tea. Had to get in on the group buy, because the flavors sounded so amazing, even though I’m not drinking flavored teas much anymore!

I started with this one because it was lighter in caffeine and I had it later in the day. Steeped it at 180F for 2 minutes. It smells amazing! Tastes sweet, light, cake-like. I can get a hint of osmanthus and cinnamon if I think about it while sipping, although I probably wouldn’t know they were there if I hadn’t read about it. It does leave some sediment in the cup. The liquor is brown in color. Overall, it’s not as complex as I was hoping, but enjoyable. The sweet cake flavors lingers in my mouth. :) I think I might try this one steeped for 3 minutes next time.