52teas

I split an order of this and the other new V.I.T. with tattooed_tea, so we both ended up with 0.75 ounces of each tea. Thanks tattooed_tea!!! The dry leaf aroma is discernibly pomegranate. The brewed tea aroma is woodsy, dark oolong and smells exactly like salted peanut shells to me. Uh oh. Where’d the pomegranate go?

Hmmm…the taste is different than other dark oolongs I’ve tried, namely Formosa oolongs. And by different, I mean better. ;) I read the back story on this tea too, and it’s hard to believe that this tea is more valuable than gold. Who’s the crazy loon who spent over $1600 on 20g of this stuff? I mean, I think it tastes good, but no where near that good!

Luckily, that salty peanut shell aroma doesn’t make its way into the flavor. This is a medium to light-bodied cuppa with virtually no pomegranate flavor. Maybe I didn’t use enough leaf or I understeeped it? I can detect a tiny hint of fruitiness, but it almost tastes like a naturally occurring flavor rather than an added flavoring. And it’s definitely not a pomegranate specific taste. It’s more generically fruity to me.

I picked a couple extra pomegranate arils from the bag and added them to the second steep for 2 minutes. Hmm, sadly there’s still no pomegranate flavor. I triple-bagged it and stored it in a tin, so I’m not sure how it lost flavor. Oh well. It’s a good oolong, but it’s no more than that. It’s really too bad. I can imagine pomegranate being a nice complement to this.

Ahhhhh!!!!! French toast tea!!!!!!! I didn’t hesitate for a second to purchase this tea when I read the e-mail announcing it. I’m not sure if it’s just because I’m really hungry or what, but when I lifted the brewing basket from the steaming cup, I was assailed by a strong, authentic French toast aroma! Yum! The brewed tea aroma is spot on!

I first tried this tea a few days ago with skim milk and Truvia. I do NOT recommend milk with this tea. It squashes the flavors and creates a bland, heavy mouthfeel. Sans additions, this tastes like a buttery, cinnamon black tea. But with only a little sweetener, BAM! The flavors really meld and come to life, and now I’m drinking liquid French toast! If I owned any maple syrup, I’d definitely try that out as a sweetener. In fact, it might be worth a trip to the store just to see how it’d turn out. ;)

If I had to compare this to Pancake Breakfast, I’d say it’s heavier on the bread and lighter on the maple syrup. And of course, there’s the addition of cinnamon, which Pancake Breakfast doesn’t have. Mmmm! It’s hard to choose a favorite between pancakes and French toast, and I’d have a hard time picking a favorite between these two teas as well. They are both delicious in their own right!

Wow, my cup disappeared fast. That’s always a good indicator. This tea is hard to categorize because it’s not sweet enough to be a dessert tea. But it’s also not brisk enough to be a breakfast tea. For me, this is best as a late morning/mid-afternoon tea. Overall, this is deliciously yummy regardless of the time of day. Not quite as good as the real thing, but tea hardly ever is. :)

Finally tried this last night. I actually bought this with my second 52Teas order, just before last Christmas. I’m not sure why I held off. Maybe because I’d heard such great things and I didn’t want to be disappointed.

Let’s get one thing straight. I am not disappointed, because this is absolutely amazing. I was unsure about the scent at first. I could only really detect the honeybush, and maybe a faint whiff of chocolate. I left it sitting in the kitchen for 6 minutes or so, though, and when I came back things had definitely changed. I could smell strawberry, for starters. I added milk to this, because I couldn’t get my mind to think ice cream if it wasn’t some kind of creamy. That actually seemed to drown out the scent again, but I needn’t have feared.

I was seriously impressed by the first sip. The initial taste was quite strongly chocolatey, then the vanilla started to edge in, and then the strawberry emerged right at the end, carrying through into the aftertaste. Maybe because the milk contributed the creaminess I was looking for, but this tastes just like Neapolitan ice cream. It’s hot, but that doesn’t seem to matter somehow. The flavour is spot on. It’s almost uncanny.

I’m looking forward to this evening just so that I can drink it again. It’s going to be a really welcome addition to my summer pre-bedtime rotation, and I suspect there’ll be tears when it’s gone. I’d like to cold brew it, because part of me feels that ice cream should be cold. It’s so gorgeous hot, though, I’m almost tempted not to bother. I do have the SBT version of this, so perhaps I’ll break that out tomorrow. I’m almost done with the Razzleberry I’ve got at work, so I’ll need some more iced tea to keep me going tomorrow. Apparently we’re going to have a heatwave, but I’ll believe that when I see it.

I don’t think there’s anything left to say, other than “I really love this tea!” Amazing, amazing stuff.

This is a backlog from a few days ago.

I steeped this at a much lower temperature than I usually would at the recommendation of others. For some reason this stripped it of all flavor but the spices. The boyfriend smelled it and said “when did you get a new chai blend?” And he’s right. It tastes like chai. Which was all well and good, but I wanted french toast, dangit!

Alright – back to the drawing board…

Made this iced, per package directions, + 3 tbsp. sugar.

I got this for my boyfriend, as I don’t really like raspberry. I keep trying to entice him with flavored teas but he is just not biting. I shouldn’t be too surprised, though – he likes plain anything (ice cream, cheesecake, etc) over fun flavors.

I gave this a shot but it wasn’t to my tastes. He gave it a shot and it wasn’t to his either. But really, we are outliers and our opinions shouldn’t have any weight on the rating of this tea, so I’m not going to give it a number. It was quite raspberry so if that’s your thing, you should go for it!

I will say that the base was great, the perfect strength and balance of flavoring. And steeping instructions were perfect…. definitely follow them for the best iced tea, just sweeten to taste and you’re golden. Luckily I still have the rainbow sherbet iced tea to try – I have a feeling that I will be pretty happy with that one. :)

No notes yet.

This smells kinda chocolatey. The flavour is more coconut/ almond with hints of chocolate. (Not really an Almond Joy, but I don’t have one for the comparison, and it’s pretty close.)

I don’t think I’ve ever done a note for this one… Well it smells like dark chocolate. The flavor is smooth and surprisingly delicate. I’m getting the lovely black base and then dark chocolate notes that kind of linger. It’s one of the better chocolate teas I’ve tried. I wouldn’t call it double chocolate though… It kind of reminds me of a dark chocolate syrup you’d put on once cream. I think it’d be nice to add some chocolate chips to push it over to the double chocolate side.

Made this up last night, and I’ve been drinking it most of the day today in my too-hot reception area. It’s not even that warm outside, so I have no idea why the temparature gets up so much in here, but anyway.

I agree with Lala on this one. The intial smell is really like sour raspberry candies. Every time I get pick and mix, I go for some of those. The scent also reminded me a little bit of 52 Teas Raspberry Cream, which I loved, so it was almost bound to be a winner with me.

I brewed this according to the packet instructions. 2 cups of boiling water, and then topped up with cold to make just under 2 litres. I put it in the fridge overnight, and then decanted it into a bottle to bring to work this morning. I’d like to try cold brewing one of these at some point, but I went with both speed and tried and tested last night as it seemed the simplest thing to do!

To taste, this is much as I thought it would be. I get raspberry mainly, in both the scent and the initial flavour. There’s a slight tartness coming from somewhere, but it’s not overpowering. You can also taste the black tea, which has a slightly bitter bite to it. I suppose I was expecting that, given that it’s CTC, but it works quite well with the raspberry flavouring (which is quite sweet) in any case. I totally forgot to bring sugar with me, but I might have tried adding a bit to one of my cups if I’d remembered. There’s no harm done, though, because this is a perfectly palatable tea in its own right. I can’t really taste any blackberry, but that’s my only complaint, and a minor one at that.

I’ve got a few of the other flavours stashed away in my cupboard, so I’m looking forward to trying those now. I’ve appreciated being able to have my black tea cold today, though. Cold-brewed fruit and herbals weren’t quite doing it somehow, and I found myself feeling sleepy at around 3.00pm last week. Not so today! Clearly this is great stuff!

Thanks to Jackie T for passing some of this along. I almost bought some, but my common sense took over (but I still needed to at least try it!)

My verdict on it is that… it’s ok. It’s not what I was hoping for (delicious amazingness a la H&S’s SoHo Blend), but I am enjoying the cup. I can taste the chocolate, which is great and not fakey, but I’m not catching much in the way of almond or coconut. Perhaps it’s because I just drank H&S’s Royal Wedding tea, which prominently features both of those quite deliciously. One interesting thing that I’m noticing, though, is that the flavour is a bit reminiscent of 52teas’ Cashew Turtle! I don’t know if it’s the chocolate, or the nut… but I’m diggin’ it.

Hmmm… the more I drink, the more I’m falling for this tea. Bleh, figures. It’s just alike enough to Cashew Turtle, which I adored and am all out of, that it’s filling that niche for me. Sadness. I think I have another cup or cup and a half left, and will savour it…

No notes yet.

I received my packaged with all of my iced teas. I have a feeling that they’re going to go fast…. I thought I ruined this one because I oversteeped it by one minute and six seconds but it actually turned out ok. It starts with a strong black tea base and turns into a berry sweetness. It’s not overpowering in sweetness but it is just the right amount. It’s delicious and quite refreshing.

Thanks Kittena :)

The black base here was nicer than other 52Teas I’ve had. The banana was a bit too fake for my liking, though it certainly wasn’t bad. I could taste both the banana and cinnamon clearly. I’m just steeping for a second round now.

My tealog might not indicate it as I did a lot of re-steeping, but I drank a lot of tea today! I even managed to sneak this one in as a sipdown too. (157)

I have so much honeybush though. I feel like I need to get other bedtime options besides 20-30 honeybush and/or rooibos blends. :P

This is kinda like mild caramel, both in flavour and scent. Don’t really get any of the toffee popcorn, but maybe I should drink it with Doctor Who.

Mini sipdown. I have officially finished up the last of my first package of this one. I have an unopened package still sitting in my cupboard but i’m fairly certain that will just be tossed into my swap box for someone who really loves this tea. Because i don’t. Not even really kind of sort of. Frank’s blueberry zabaglione is better and even that one was not the blueberry pastry/dessert tea i was hoping for. It makes me sad…i had such high hopes for this one..

(on the plus side? I’m down to 210!! I could totally make it to 200 by next weekend…which would be a week early! go me!)

I got this in my swap with moraiwe. I’d been curious about this tea for some time – more because I couldn’t quite imagine what it might taste like than because I thought I’d love it, so it was awesome to be able to try it without having to shell out for two ounces.

This tea smells very fruity – in an artificial way that’s not entirely pleasant – both dry and steeped. However, it doesn’t taste like much. It’s slightly bitter, and I’m getting hardly anything in the way of blueberry, cream cheese, or danish. More than anything, I’m reminded of slightly oversteeped Lipton – the base is thoroughly standard and unimpressive. I can see how it might work reasonably well as a base for a blend with other strong flavors, but said strong flavors are sadly absent in this cup. There is a (faintly chemical-tasting) aftertaste that I can almost convince myself might be cream cheese. Almost.

I brewed it for five minutes, which may have been too long (although the instructions do say to steep for 4-5 minutes, so I feel justified in giving a rating based on this steep). I’ll try this one again with a shorter steep time, but I highly doubt it will become a favorite.

USPS said my order wasn’t coming till Monday so I was psyched to check my mail last night and find these already arrived!

First off I like that they come in bigger bags now, although I’m guessing the need to make the labels bigger played in that too. Over the seasons I was not drinking iced tea I lost my ability to carefully open the smaller packets these came in last year.

I did the usual steeping of the bag in 2 cups of water then transferring it to a pitcher filled with ice and cold water. I then put the bag in a quart of water to cold steep it for a second steep since getting 2 uses out of these bags is great.

I always think these taste better after chilling in the fridge overnight so I didn’t even try it last night, but it was definitely the first thing I did this morning. Straight out of the fridge there wasn’t much flavor, but as it warmed at room temperature, out came the pink lemonade flavor. You can definitely smell the cotton candy in here over any other flavors, but you don’t taste it. It does its job at just adding sweetness, which is great because sometimes the grapefruit seems a bit heavy, especially as it gets too warm.

When it’s right it tastes just like a mix of pink lemonade and iced tea, minus the it being super sweet. I’m sure if you do sweeten it, it’ll be even better, but I quite like it how it is.

Honestly this might become my favorite SBT already.

Huh, I didn’t log this one either. This one I was so excited about but unfortunately I just couldn’t keep it. If I kept the taste of what it should taste like in my mind it did taste like it. It just wasn’t the treat I thought it would be. At the store, there was a butterbeer soda – very sweet, creamy and butterscotchy…. I think I thought it’d taste like that. Like someone said, the rootbeer is strong and not like the normal rootbeer you might normally drink but the real, crafted ones. The bite was too strong on this one so the rest after I tried it hot and cold went out for swaps. I do hate licorice so that may have contributed. Oh well, I had good swaps!

S’mores Genmaicha. What should that taste like? I get the chocolate, I get the marshmallow, I get the toasty genmaicha, but I don’t think it adds up to s’mores. I don’t get anything that would even remotely be considered graham cracker. I really wish there was some of the smokey goodness that was in the maple bacon. In my world you burn marshmallows over a fire to make s’mores, this should have some of that smokiness to it. I’m having a hard time with the green tea too. I’m being harsh on this. It’s really not that bad, but not all that I had hoped for.
Thanks JackieT for this sample.

Thanks to momo for this one!

Really enjoyed this tea as I’m a fiend for strawberries. The strawberry taste was the most bold with a hint of maple syrup coming up the rear. I added some agave to this one and it brought out the flavours more. Can’t wait to fiddle around with this one more. I really want to try adding maple syrup to it to bring out the pancake flavour.

No notes yet.

Sipdown! 841. Hot/cold-brewed the last of this, and it’s much better this way, IMO. This tea is clearly meant to be cold; it tastes like bubble-gum/fruit punch.

So, guys… I think I may have “slipped a disc” in my back tonight flipping over a table (I wasn’t mad, I just screwed on the legs and was putting it upright!) Any suggestions on what to do? There’s intense pain in my lower back when I try to move, particularly bend down (and the longer I stand, the more my tailbone area starts to hurt too). I managed to take a couple ibuprofen and migrate bedding and my computer down to the couch (my bed’s on the floor, so I’m worried if I lie down I won’t be able to get back up). Currently lying on the couch… :/ This sucks.

I made this up the other day. It was good, but the Cotton Candy flavor every one raved about this one didn’t really come out that much. I mean it tasted sweet, but I wasn’t getting a cotton candy flavor. Maybe next time I will try to sweeten this with sugar instead of Light agave nectar. Anyone else have any suggestions?