Cuppa Cakes Teas Lemon Chiffon, reviewed

A mug of coffee or tea is often the perfect thing to pair with a slice of cake, whether you baked your own or picked up your favorite flavor at your local bakery. I tend to think that you can’t go wrong with black tea or black coffee, but you can really get a better pairing by looking around at all the options out there. A good example are the Cuppa Cakes Teas, which are a relatively new collection from Republic of Tea. These teas are inspired by the flavors of baked goods and pair fantastically with them – though they’re good enough to be satisfying on their own, as well.

I bake a lot with lemon in the winter and spring, so the first tea that I reached for from this collection was Cuppa Cakes Teas Lemon Chiffon. It’s an herbal green rooibos tea inspired by “chiffon cake speckled with sweet coconut and topped with a creamy lemon icing” that is made with a blend of apple, lemongrass, lemon, vanilla and coconut flavors, as well as green rooibus tea. I initially thought that the tea might taste mostly of lemon, but it really does capture some of the flavor and smell of a light, lemon cake in a way that is very surprising! You can easily pick out the lemon, vanilla and coconut notes, even if you’re not an experienced tea-taster (though it helps to be a lover of lemon, vanilla and coconut baked goods), which means that this tea is one that should have wide appeal to anyone who likes these flavors. I really enjoyed it, both hot and as a very refreshing iced tea, and it was especially good when paired with lemon or vanilla baked goods. I highly recommend trying a slice of lemon pound cake with it.

If you are going to drink it on its own (perhaps in place of a slice of cake), I recommend brewing the tea a little bit stronger than recommended on the packaging and adding a little bit of sugar or honey to intensify its cake-like notes.