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Cinoi

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Cinoi drank Apple Pie a la mode by 52teas

Inspired(!) by Ricky, I went and brewed up a pot of this. I can definitely SMELL apple pie in the unsteeped leaves, they have the familiar black tea base and then what smells like cinnamon and vanilla to represent the “a la mode” and a faint odor of apples and sweetness which is probably the hint of brown sugar. This smells fantastic; both before steeping and as a brewed tea.

The brewing (hot with no additives) tastes like black tea with a hint, just ever so slightly, of apple. The predominant flavors are the cinnamon and vanilla with a sweetness from the brown sugar. All of the flavors are there, albeit very little in the case of the apple, they just need to be married a little differently.

I feel that a shorter brew time (to cut the amount of time to brew the black tea) and adding a little sweetener and milk will help bring this together to make apple pie a la mode.

Will try and repost!

2010-02-10 13:38:49 -0500

4 min 0 sec

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Cofftea 2010-02-10 14:43:02 -0500

I wonder how this would hold up in a tea float or tea latte float? That’d definitely give it an a la mode taste. You’d probably want to top it w/ a bit of extra cinnamon and nutmeg. But my concern is would the apple get lost in all that milkyness?

Ricky 2010-02-10 14:53:04 -0500

I’m tempted to transform this into a float like Frank suggested. I’d imagine it would taste pretty good like that. Might give it a shot a little later, enjoying some pu-erh right now.

I think it needs more apples. The apples are the best part of the apple pie. The second day I tried it, I had more apple pieces, so that made it significantly better than my first cup.

52teas 2010-02-10 15:25:09 -0500

You guys keep saying “float”. I can’t vouch for how it would taste as a float. What I was recommending was having it as a teashake (like milkshake, but with tea).

We do floats here at Zoomdweebie’s too, but they are generally better when you start with a tea soda and then add the ice cream.

Ricky 2010-02-10 15:41:45 -0500

Haha, I was interchanging tea + vanilla as a float. I mean floats are generally soda + ice cream, but swap the two… ahhh you get what I mean =P

Cofftea 2010-02-10 15:45:33 -0500

52teas, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be good- a tea float is just an unblended teashake. I’d suggest making this one flat though. Carbonated apple pie a la mode? Nah…

Cinoi 2010-02-10 16:29:55 -0500

I think that adding milk and sugar to make the shake like 52teas said is going to be fantastic, and Ricky, you’re right, it needs more apple, but they got the a la mode part right, I just think milk (like milk and apples) might help to brighten the flavor of the apples

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I am a sarcastic perfectionist, a computer nerd, a game geek, an avid reader, a gadget guru, a wine (and tea) enthusiast, and (in my spare time) a chemist.

As I mentioned, I am a chemist, research and development to be exact, so when evaluating tea, it is much like evaluating my products: I will find the flaws and do my very best to fix them because it is what I love to do. Along those lines, nothing is perfect, but can have perfect qualities, I will highlight those also.

I made a preliminary guide to my rating scale:
0-19 – Did not like anything about the tea, feel it cannot be saved without being reformulated.
20-40 – Did not like the tea, it can be saved with extreme amounts of tweaking (i.e., sugar, milk, honey and or blending with another tea)
41-60 – Neutral about the tea, it can be helped or hurt by additives or blends, varied temperatures and steep times
61-70 – Decent tea, needs a little bit of help to get it in the place I like it, but definitely not out of reach
71-80 – Quality tea, liked it, will try again
81-90 – Really enjoyed the tea, high quality, will continue to drink the tea, not looking for something better
91-100 – Loved the tea, will continue to brew and drink and spread the word about the tea to everyone