Whenever I’m in Sweden in late spring or early summer, my foremost summer-is-really-here ritual is to have soft serve ice cream with sprinkles. I tend to favor the chocolate sprinkles, but every now and then I go crazy and pick the tutti frutti ones. This tea, in the bag, smells exactly like that – the first ice cream of the season. Thick with creamy vanilla and studded with refined sugar-powered sprinkles.
It smelled so ridiculously good, I really had to try it. I generally go for fruity, floral rooibos, and I’m kind of sick of that now, so I figured it might be time to graduate to those birthday cake-y ones everyone seems to be raving about.
I have to admit I really like this one, which, hilariously, makes me feel a little dirty. It’s so unabashedly artificial it’s sort of like the Texan Beauty Salon Makeover of teas. Flavor wise, it tastes exactly as it smells, it’s like a melted vanilla soft serve ice cream with sprinkles in a cup. Spun sugar seems all wrong – it’s doesn’t even come close to that level of cloying sweetness, and it has nothing of the slightly caramelized, burnt note of good, freshly made spun sugar.
It’s vanilla-sweet and delicious and will definitely make me more open to dessertier rooibos blends in the future.
[Sample from the second round of the EU Travelling Box, spring 2014.]
Boiling, 5 min