Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey there Teacups! I’m back today with another Let’s Talk Tea post and this time around I’m going to be reviewing Forest Witch Teas – Merry BrandyBuck blend. A banoffee pecan pie inspired rooibos based blend from their Lord Of The Rings collection. As you all know I always say there is nowhere near enough banana blends out there right now so as soon as I saw that Mia had included this in the package that she sent I couldn’t have been any happier and I’m honestly shocked that I’ve managed to wait up until this point to try it. If this hadn’t been sent to me to review and I didn’t have to put into my plan for the year I would have opened this the day it got here and it probably would have only taken me a few days to get through the whole bag. But I had to be strong and wait until the time came for me to review it.Here’s what Forest Witch Teas founder Mia has to say about this blend over on the Forest Witch Tea website: ”Merry’s blend is a cup of red, red rooibos, banana, pecan, and sweetest butterscotch. I imagine Merry sipping on this tea, having a bit of a smoke of finest Shireling pipeweed while planning his next mischievous ruse.”

Ingredients: organic rooibos, organic banana, organic pecan, organic calendula, flavour

Tea Tasting Notes

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now you will have seen that I’ve been in awe of Mia and how she manages to make each blend she creates absolutely amazing so it won’t come as a surprise to you that she’s hit it out of the park again with this blend. I don’t have banoffe pie that often but when I do I thoroughly enjoy it, so when I saw that Mia had made a banoffee pie inspired blend I couldn’t have been happier. There really aren’t enough banana blends out there so I’m always so excited when new ones come through my door.

I find that most banana blends out there seem to have a rooibos base and honestly that doesn’t surprise me because the two pair so well together. The rooibos has a delicious nutty note to it and perfect natural sweetness and the banana pairs perfectly with that nutty note, a subtle vanilla and it’s also adds its own natural sweetness. When steeping this blend smelt just like freshly baked banana bread which made my mouth water and the rooibos was also quite strong in the aroma, and that’s honestly how it tastes too. I could pick out the pecan element but only as the blend cooled and only really in the aftertaste. The rooibos’ natural vanilla note does a great job of replicating the pastry and the crème element of this blend but it could do with something else to make it a little more creamy as when I think of banoffee pie I think of creaminess and butteriness and for me that aspect of this blend didn’t stand out enough but I could see what Mia was trying to do with this. It’s got quite a smooth mouthfeel which I expected as most rooibos blends do which made it such a pleasure to drink.

I haven’t yet tried this as a latte but I think I will do as soon as I possibly can because I think adding milk to this would give it that creaminess that it’s missing. I found it naturally sweet enough on its own so I didn’t need to add any kind of sweetener which is great as you all know I’m trying to cut down on using it. The thing about this blend is that it’s gets better the longer you steep it so I would recommend steeping it for as long as you possibly can to make sure all of its notes especially the banana can truly shine.

In the future I will be steeping this in my flask and letting it steep for as long as I can because it really is the best that way. Even though some of it’s elements could do with being a little stronger this blend is still delicious and I think it will make a delicious latte so I’m thankful Mia gave me the chance to try it.

Overall Teacup Rating: 5/5

If you want to find out more about Forest Witch Teas and purchase some of this blend for yourself, you can do both here. As always if you have any questions at all either stick them in the comments or send them to me on Twitter/Instagram @teaisawishblog and I’ll answer them all as soon as I can.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley

*The tea featured in this post was gifted to me for the purpose of this review. All opinions at my own and have not been paid for*