Tea Forte Advent Calendar: Day 1 - Caramel Nougat

 It's that time of year again!  December 1st means a new tea advent calendar - and I am hopeful that since I am already in better health heading into this December, that I will have a better chance of seeing the advent calendar all the way through this year.

For this year's calendar, I decided to go with the Tea Forte offering.

It's a wonderfully attractive package on the outside.  I think it was clever of them to echo the signature shape of their pyramid tea bags in the shape of the calendar.

Even the shape of the daily little perforated doors echo that tree/pyramid shape and I love it.

So then, day one is..... Caramel Nougat.  Interesting.  Right away, I know it's a black tea and not a tinsane, so that's nice!

Oh dear... the word confectionary has me worried.  Is this pre-sweetened?  A confectionery cup with the taste of sweet nougat.  The word sweet as well.... I am worried.  I'm not a fan of pre-sweetened tea, especially not in the morning.

I should mention that this year, I've chosen to do tea bags instead of loose leaf tea.  Do I still find loose leaf to prepare a superior cup?  Of course!  However, I'm just getting over a flu that lasted multiple weeks and my energy is LOW.  I'm still getting easily overwhelmed by little things and I'd rather put my energy into getting things done that fell to the wayside while I was under the weather.  So - tea bags instead of loose leaf - because when your spoons are low, ever little thing that can save even a TOUCH of energy and/or effort is a massive difference.

If you've never had Tea Forte brand tea before, this super tall and interesting pyramid shape tea bag is their signature.  It gives the tea room to expand which means they don't have to chop their tea leaves as small - so their tea bags give a taste closer to loose leaf than most tea bag teas.  Also, as you can see, they make a line of tea accessories such as pots and things specifically designed to accommodate and showcase their special tea bags - the little pot is a Tea Forte pot.

Black tea - so I did a 5 minute steep with boiling water - especially since there were no brewing instructions included with the calendar or inside the little tea bag box.

Once brewed, the tea wasn't very dark for a black tea - in fact, I found it rather golden in the cup.

The fragrance from the tea bag wasn't really strong enough to pass through the fabric scent of the bag itself.  However, the bouquet on the fresh cup was very pleasant.  The nose carries the caramel top note.

My first sip brough SUCH relief!  It is NOT pre-sweetened!  That having been said, it is odd how the bouquet plays tricks with my palate.  The mere fragrance of caramel makes my brain register a sweetness that my tongue doesn't taste.  It's pretty cool actually.

The flavor is pretty mild which is what I would expect from the color.  The tannin isn't too strong and all in all, it's a nice variation of a mild breakfast tea.  A nice way to start out.

I did decide that I wanted to see how such a mild, yet illusory sweet tea would hold up to creaming, so I added a capful of half and half.  My roommate is of the opinion that it NEEDS the cream as it makes the caramel really pop.  While he's right about the fact that the half and half really did make it taste like more like a creme caramel, it also brought out the tannins that were hiding more without the cream.  As a result, the creamed tea actually dried out my mouth more than without the cream - a strange sensation.

So - final thoughts:  Did I enjoy the cup?  Yes.  Would I go out and buy this blend/flavour on its own?  No, probably not.  It's just not interesting enough.

As a bonus this year, my Godmother gave me another advent calendar to pair with the tea calendar she knew was coming.  That's right!  She gave me the Walker's Shortbread advent calendar!  Yum! Yum!

It appears that there are only 6 varietals of shortbread in the calendar, but it means that each day we get to have a crap shoot to see if the shortbread pairs well with the tea of the day!

Today's shortbread was one of the 4 All-Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Rounds in the calendar. 

Prepare for the blasphemy - I am not a fan of chocolate chip cookies.  Shortbread makes them slightly better - but the fact remains that I simply don't like most chocolate chips.  The chips Walkers uses are... better than most!  I am pleasantly surprised.  I have been avoiding their chocolate chip shortbread for YEARS due to my prejudice against chocolate chips.  That having been said, I don't think the chocolate actually adds anything to the shortbread.

Does it pair well with today's tea?  OMG YES!  The butter in the shortbread balances the tannins and the chocolate makes that phantom illusion of sweetness from the caramel bouquet into ACTUAL sweetness without being TOO sweet.  Because I'm doing this in the morning, I'm glad the shortbread round was so small because paired with the tea, it tastes like a dessert and if the cookie had been any bigger I wouldn't have been able to finish.  The sweet builds you see - especially because of the chocolate.

I'm still not a chocolate chip fan - but this has made me realize that I don't need to actively avoid the Walker chocolate chip shortbread!