52teas

Backlog:

I wasn’t all that excited about this blend … but I ended up liking it a lot more than I expected to. I’m not a big fan of chamomile, but I do like it with honeybush. This is sweet, lightly fruity, and pleasant to sip.

Not my favorite from 52Teas but it’s nice.

Backlog:

I’m not usually all that excited when 52Teas announces a rooibos blend … although many of them that Frank has created I’ve really enjoyed. I guess there’s just some sort of automatic response to rooibos.

That said, this was a really tasty blend. The apple and cardamom make great flavoring for the nutty taste of the rooibos. A really good autumnal blend.

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This one is ok. I think I’ll like it more cold brewed or as an iced tea. That said, my kids love it. They were just about giddy to have it in their cups. Both of them said it tasted just like cotton candy. To me it just tasted like sweet tea. It does have a nice strong base tea that I appreciate. The Assam lends body and strength that helps balance out the sweetness. Thanks to VariaTEA’s generous swap I have plenty left, so I’ll keep playing around with this one.

So, this is a tea that I was actually on the fence about in regard to ordering it, purely because I feel as though I have a lot of caramel/maple type teas (especially black ones), and I thought that this might basically be that because of the “syrup” aspect of it. What pushed me to actually order it, though, was the fact that my roommate Tre expressed an interest in actually wanting to try this one out – something he very rarely does in regard to any of the teas I own (the exception being anything with coconut).

Actually, as I was preparing this (1 1/2 tsp. 10 oz. of boiling water, 2 min. 30 seconds) he asked me to make him something but said he didn’t care what. I was tempted to make him some of this because he has expressed an interest in trying it, but selfishly I didn’t want him to get to try it before I had had the chance to fully appreciate a cup of it, so instead he got a cup of DAVIDsTEA’s Salted Caramel (which actually smelled divine, so I might have a cup of that after this one).

Dry, the leaf definitely has a syrupy type of smell to it – although it’s not so much a true maple syrup smell (I’m Canadian and have grown up on real maple syrup, so I feel qualified to say this) as it is just a generic brand of bottled syrup smell. That’s perfectly fine though, bottled syrup is good too. There’s also a very “starchy” smell that I’m sure is intended to be the actual pancake, and lastly I get whiffs of butter: so this really does feel like a “Pancake Breakfast” with all the components there.

The smell of the liquor is butter and syrup.

Taste wise, I’m really enjoying the mug. It’s interesting because there is a defined butter taste along with the cakey/starchy pancake, which finishes with a rich syrup/black tea notes and a small bit of astringency (though nothing totally unpleasant). I kind of didn’t want there to be any really defined presence of the butter because I am the kind of person who never adds butter to anything (the exceptions being corn on the cob, and popcorn). Not toast, sandwiches, or (like in this instance) pancakes/waffles. I don’t find it necessary to those types of food – but it’s actually working with this tea and adding dimension to the taste. I mean, I do like other teas with buttery qualities so I shouldn’t be totally shocked – and yet I still am.

I imagine sweetened with some maple agave or maple sugar this would be brought to a whole new level, although it’s still exceptional plain. Hello new breakfast tea!

Wow this is exactly what I hoped it’d be, only with less mint. I taste mostly black tea and lime. There is a hint of mint in the aftertaste. Boo. I’m not a rum fan but love the combo of lime and mint. Damn I was really pulling for mint. Ah well, it’s still pretty tasty.
Now this was made hot, and the leaves were ctc (I ordered a bunch of the iced tea bags, fully intending to rip them apart, since I didn’t want to order bags full of the stuff)
Next time, I’ll def make this iced. I can really see it shining that way.
Also I’m not a huge fan of the base but it kinda works here!!

Backlog:

NICE! I really enjoyed this tea. The delicate qualities of the white tea work well with the strawberry, mint and bourbon flavors. There is a really pleasing balance: the mint is the strongest flavor but it doesn’t overpower, and the strawberry is both sweet and tart.

I prefer this iced to hot, but it was tasty hot too.

Just looked through my Steepster cupboard. I think I had a sipdown of this a while back. I remember enjoying it, but that’s about it.

Sipdown! (180)

So I have now finished up the sample Dexter3657 sent over and though it was an interesting tea to try, I am not too heartbroken that it is gone. This tea is sweet and pineapple-y but ends off with a smoky bacon note. Unique to try but not something I will really crave. Thank you Dexter for sharing with me. It was fun while it lasted :)

Last time I drank this I rated it 70 – that was MONTHS ago. Either my tastes have changes or this is a different batch, but I’m doing much better with this tonight.
Chocolatey, smokey, genmaicha – not really getting the marshmallow or the graham cracker. Even with that, this is making me happy tonight. Upping the rating a bit (still doesn’t get full marks re missing elements…)

yay for more tea that isn’t black today (though i suppose i DID have a couple..) This is another one that i quite enjoy though i do think that there have been blends that were WAY more my taste from frank in the past. That being said this is still tasty and still something i enjoy. I’m glad i got to try a blend from him that was award winning :)

I’m not a fan of puerh. So, it figures the surprise crowd-funding campaign blend would be a puerh. :P The dry leaf aroma is pure orange creamsicle. The brewed tea aroma is moldy oranges. Yep, moldy oranges. Ugh, I’m not so sure about this one.

First sip…it doesn’t taste like mold, thank God! The orange is very creamy and reminiscent of ice cream. In fact, this is probably the closest to actual ice cream that a tea has tasted for me. But I can’t get past that repellent aroma to enjoy it. This is another one that goes on the swap list!

ETA: My husband ended up finishing the cup. Clearly, he liked it just fine.

Oh no. Why did I buy this? This has Lapsang Souchong in it! Yuck.

The dry leaf aroma is really weird and not appetizing to my nose. It’s heavily spicy and then the smoke aroma comes in and mixes with the chocolate in a very unappetizing way. Luckily, the brewed tea aroma is significantly improved. It’s mostly chocolate chai now with a hint of smoke. Let’s hope that continues into the flavor.

Oh ugh. This is not my tea. Yuck, and this is not s’mores at all in my opinion. This tastes like black tea with spices and smoky Lapsang. No chocolate, no graham cracker, no marshmallow. Just black tea, spices, and SMOKE! I’m sorry 52teas. I should have read the ingredient list more carefully. I’m going to try and swap this ASAP.

so many teas to drink…i really do neglect the teas in my cupboard that aren’t blacks – someday i’ll need to either just stop buying them or make sure that at least once a week i drink them. Today is apparently that day. I have a full bag of this, and while i like it…i don’t love it. I am not usually in the mood for a green mint tea…however when i do drink it i’m always slightly pleasantly surprised because i forget there’s vanilla in here to soften the mint. I wish there was a little more of the vanilla flavour :) Likely not a repurchase ever but i’ll still like drinking this.

When I smelled the coconut in the bag, it was almost cloyingly sweet but I am happy to say that the sweetness in the cup is no where near as strong and that is a good thing. The cup has cooled quite a bit so this might not be the most accurate review of the hot tea flavor but when the tea is warm, I get a pastry-type mouthfeel that is definitely reminiscent of pie. There is a distinct sweetness throughout the sip but the coconut really shines at the end and lingers in the aftertaste. I am not getting the cream but that could be due to the tea having cooled already. Nevertheless, this is still a delicious cup of tea. And with this tried, I just have one more tea from the bestsellers sampler to try out!

The weather has caused a school-closure bookend… an unexpected four-day weekend, which is much better now that we have power! I did what grading I could, and have some online things I can do today, but I have been feeling a little stir-crazy. For some reason, this odd mix just sounded like the right way to go.

Teaware: 16oz travel mug
Measured dry: 2tsp
Temperature: Boiling
Steeping Time: 3min
Additives 4tsp raw sugar

Dry, this blend smells like those giant spherical suckers you can sometimes find in the checkout area of a craft store. That banana smell/flavor that’s so intensely sweet, creamy, and artificial that you wouldn’t even call it banana if the wrapper didn’t label it so.

That aroma follows through into the flavor as well, and each sip is like licking one of those suckers… with a bit of a coconut chaser. I’m having a difficult time picking out the tea at all, although there is some slight astringency to let me know it’s there.

Well, I felt like an odd tea this morning, and this definitely qualifies!

Backlog:

I have tried the Rootbeer Float honeybush, and I enjoyed that quite a bit, and I also liked the rootbeer iced tea from 52Teas too … and I liked that. But this is a whole different level of awesome because of the marshmallow root. It adds such a yummy fluffy taste to it that really enhances the “float” part of this treat in a teacup.

A really awesome tea. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of the teas that is included in the 12 days box. Since I subscribe, I didn’t order the box … but I do look forward to reading everyone’s posts!

Had this bare today. With maybe an 8th of a tsp of honey. A bit better than usual. Seems a longer steep time works. I’m surprised!

This was from the Zoomdweebies bestsellers sampler.

I am finally done the sampler. I am glad to have purchased it, being part of a kickstarter campaign and all, and also to have been able to try a bunch of new teas. But they are not teas I would have normally ordered, because I probably would not have liked them a whole lot anyway. So Hooray from trying them, and for also being done with them :)

I could have sworn that I have tried this one before from a swap, but I couldn’t quite remember if it was this exact one or not, and I couldn’t find a review from me hiding in all the other reviews.

This one is very similar to the blueberry zabaglione, except with strawberry. The strawberry is artificial tasting to me, but not in a bad way. Kind of like strawberry flavoured gum. I am finding the black base to be a bit bolder, slightly astringent. There is a strawberry taste, it is creamy. I am getting a slight bit of pastry taste.

I am wondering if I steeped this one too long as I am finding it quite a bit astringent which I don’t usually get with other 52 teas blends, but I steeped for the usual amount of time. Hmmm, who knows…

From the best sellers sampler pack.

This tea just seems to be not working for me. I really like the sampler pack to try a variety of popular teas, but I dislike that the sample sizes are fairly small so you don’t have much to experiment with.

Initially the tea is super strong black tea. As it cools the coconut becomes quite strong. To me it is very strongly dried, shredded coconut taste. It is creamy but I am not getting much of the cream pie out of this tea. I did add a bit of rock sugar.

Tea #4 from Another TTB
Red velvet? Not so much? Chocolate mate? Yes ma’am! While it didn’t to me resemble anything of the sort of a red velvet cake (me being a baker, I was really let down) but however is still a yummy cup. Like Stephanie said in her tasting note, it does remind me a lot of chocolate malted mate:) if you are looking for a delicious red velvet cup of tea I would recommend DAVIDsTEA! :)

Not an official review, just the first time I am trying this intriguing blend that CrowKettle sent me. Lots of pineapple smell…not much bacon aroma, which was fine, since I was eating a piece of bacon, while making this. There is just the slightest of salty aromas…definitely from the bacon bits.