The Journal · Flavour
Pudding, without the pudding
Nine of our teas are named after desserts. Almost none of them contains the dessert. Here is how that actually works.
Turn over a pouch of Pecan Pie and read the ingredients. Green tea. Papaya. That is the list.
No pecans. No pastry. No brown sugar, no butter, nothing that has ever been near a pie. And yet it tastes like one. Toasted nut at the front, a sweetness that reads as brown sugar, and a clean finish that a real slice of pecan pie never manages.
That gap between the label and the cup is the most interesting thing about dessert tea, and almost nobody explains it.
The short answer
Dessert teas taste of dessert because of how the ingredients behave together, lifted by organic natural flavours, not because the dessert is in the pouch. THE DESSERTS BOX is £25 for five of them, 15g each, around fifteen cups per blend. A single tea is £7. There is no added sugar and no artificial sweetener in any of them.
How a tea tastes of something it does not contain
Flavour is not the same as ingredients. A green tea with papaya in it has a nutty, slightly sweet base to begin with. Add organic natural flavours on top and the combination lands somewhere your brain files under pecan pie, because that is what the profile adds up to.
Papaya is doing more work than it gets credit for. Dried, it carries a soft caramelised sweetness and a faint nuttiness. It appears in Pecan Pie, in Awe-Inspiring Almond and in Fanciful Fondants, and in each one it sits underneath a different story.
Flower petals do the rest. Calendula, marigold, safflower and sunflower contribute very little flavour and a great deal of body, a roundness in the mouth that reads as creaminess. Butter Popcorn is black tea, calendula petals and marigold petals. There is no corn in it and no butter. The petals make it feel buttery.
Where to start, £7 to £25
Single teas are £7 for 15g, about fifteen cups, up to £30 for 100g. Buy four, get the fifth free.
The nine, and what is actually in them
Read these as they are, not as the names suggest. Three are built on rooibos or green tea and sit at caffeine free or low. Four are black tea and will keep you up if you drink them at ten o'clock.
Name, base, and the real ingredient list
Green tea and papaya. Toasted nut at the front, brown sugar behind it, and a citrus lift at the end that keeps it from going heavy. The lightest thing in the range that still reads as a pudding.
Rooibos honeybush, mango, safflower petals, cranberry. No coffee, no cocoa, no mascarpone. The rooibos brings the rounded, slightly woody body and the rest builds the dessert on top of it. Drinkable at midnight.
Rooibos honeybush, papaya and almond. This one does contain the nut, so it is the exception, and the one to check before you hand it to somebody. Marzipan sweetness, honeyed base, nothing sharp.
Black tea, white tea and currants. Pear first, caramel through the middle, and the white tea softening what the black tea would otherwise make too brisk. The most composed of the nine.
The honest one. Cinnamon, star anise, cocoa beans, ginger, safflower and camomile are all genuinely in the pouch. It tastes of gingerbread because it is more or less made of gingerbread spices.
Green tea, calendula, safflower and actual maple syrup. The only sweetener in the range, and it is the real thing. Clean and light in a way maple has no business being.
Black tea, calendula petals, marigold petals. Deep buttery caramel at the front, vanilla rounding it off, and a strong enough base that it never tips into sickly. The most purely indulgent cup here.
Black tea, banana, and calendula, marigold and sunflower petals. Real banana, and the petals supply the creaminess the name promises. Also brews as an iced tea, which is where it is at its best.
Black tea, papaya, blackberry leaves, ginger, peach, calendula and marigold. Juicy rather than rich, with a ginger kick underneath. The one to pick if the others sound too sweet.
Tiramisu Time Travel is rooibos, mango, safflower and cranberry. The cake is a set piece. The tea is the point.
No added sugar, which is the part people get wrong
A tea that tastes of butter popcorn sounds like it must be loaded with something. None of the nine has added sugar or artificial sweetener. All nine are vegan and Kosher, and every one is Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Ethical Tea Partnership certified.
The sweetness you taste is the fruit, the petals and the organic natural flavours working together, which is why a cup of Butter Popcorn with nothing in it tastes sweet and a cup of builder's tea does not.
If you want it sweeter, that is what honey is for. Most people find they stop reaching for it after a week.
When to drink which
The caffeine is the deciding factor, not the flavour. Two of the nine are genuinely caffeine free, three are low, and four are medium. The names give you no clue which is which.
After dinner
Tiramisu Time Travel or Awe-Inspiring Almond. Both rooibos, both caffeine free, both rich enough to stand in for an actual pudding at nine in the evening.
Mid-afternoon, when you still have work to do
Butter Popcorn or Ginger Bread Bakery. Black tea, medium caffeine, and the sweetness does the job a biscuit would.
All day, without thinking about it
Mighty Maple or Pecan Pie. Green tea bases, low caffeine, light enough to drink four cups of.
Brewing, because dessert teas punish you for guessing
One heaped teaspoon per 200 to 260ml. The green ones want 85°C and three to seven minutes. The black ones want boiling water and three to seven. Pecan Pie takes five to ten, which is longer than you expect.
Leave a dessert tea too long and the sweetness turns flat rather than bitter, which is a harder failure to spot. Set a timer for the first cup and you will know where it sits.
Banana Split and Fanciful Fondants both cold brew. Extra teaspoon, cold water, four to twelve hours in the fridge, and you get something closer to a milkshake than a tea.
Questions we get
Do dessert teas contain sugar?
No. None of the nine has added sugar or artificial sweetener. The sweetness comes from the fruit, the flower petals and organic natural flavours. Mighty Maple contains real maple syrup as an ingredient rather than as an added sweetener.
Does Pecan Pie tea contain nuts?
No. Pecan Pie is green tea and papaya, with no nut ingredient at all. Awe-Inspiring Almond does contain almond, a tree nut, and is the only blend in this group that does. Always check the ingredient list on the product page before buying for somebody with an allergy.
Are dessert teas caffeine free?
Some are. Tiramisu Time Travel and Awe-Inspiring Almond are rooibos and naturally caffeine free. Pecan Pie, Mighty Maple and Caramel Pear Pudding are low. Butter Popcorn, Banana Split, Ginger Bread Bakery and Fanciful Fondants are black tea and medium. The name tells you nothing. The base does.
How does a tea taste like a dessert it does not contain?
The ingredients work in combination. A green tea and papaya base already carries nutty, caramelised notes, and organic natural flavours lift that into something the palate recognises as pecan pie. Flower petals add body that reads as creaminess without adding flavour.
What is in THE DESSERTS BOX?
Five blends: Chocolate Caramel Indulgence, Pecan Pie, Fanciful Fondants, Tiramisu Time Travel and Banana Split, at 15g each, about fifteen cups per blend, for £25.
Can you drink dessert tea in the evening?
Yes, if you pick a rooibos one. Tiramisu Time Travel and Awe-Inspiring Almond are caffeine free and are the two built for after dinner. The black tea blends are better before four o'clock.
Are dessert teas sweet enough without milk?
They are made to be drunk black. Milk flattens the fruit and the petals, which are the parts doing the work. Butter Popcorn and Caramel Pear Pudding take it best if you want to try.
Which dessert tea should I try first?
Butter Popcorn if you want the full effect, Pecan Pie if you want something you can drink all afternoon, Tiramisu Time Travel if it needs to be caffeine free. Or THE DESSERTS BOX at £25 and decide for yourself.
Five puddings, fifteen cups each, none of them actually a pudding.
Shop THE DESSERTS BOXOr browse the full range.
JoJo