52teas

Pass the Stash TTB 2.0

Another one from 52teas. I tend to enjoy honeybush blends when they’re done well, so I figured I’d give this a try. Supposedly there are cacao nibs in it, but I didn’t see any in my cup’s worth. Just looks like honeybush with flower petals in it. It smells kind of alcoholic, which is odd.

Meh, I wouldn’t really call this pumpkin brownie… There’s a bit of spiciness and maybe a small amount of pumpkin. I definitely don’t get any chocolate, but I guess that makes sense if I didn’t get any cacao nibs. To me, it just tastes like honeybush with a very light spice cake flavor. Not terrible, but not worth trying again.

It smells amazing! Yummy mint, coconut, and chocolate. Smells exactly like a Thin Mint cookie. Unfortunately the flavors don’t transform well into the tea itself. I can taste the chocolate and the base tea – quite a bold black tea, too – but not the mint and coconut, whether it’s piping hot or warm.

Pass the Stash TTB 2.0

This is the first tea I’ve tried from 52 Teas. Theirs flavors seem interesting, but it’s not something that’s high on my tea priority list. I’ve also never had a Darjeeling that I know of… Looks like black tea leaves with a bunch of pieces of dried orange peel. It smells very orangey in an orange peel oil sort of way – more sharp than sweet. I don’t know much about Darjeeling, but I’ve heard it needs to be steeped at a lower temperature, so I did 190 in lieu of my usual 200.

This tea is…interesting. The orange is very present, and it’s definitely that same sharper orange oil flavor. There’s a touch of sweet and creaminess from the vanilla. And the base is giving me this interesting herby spice flavor, similar to what I’ve tasted sometimes in some Yunnan teas. Fennel seed, maybe? It’s definitely a savory spice. Overall, I feel like the flavor combination of this tea wasn’t that well thought-out. This is definitely the wrong type of orange flavor to go with vanilla. A sweeter, more juicy orange would have worked better for a dreamsicle tea. Overall, I did like it, but I kept coming back to its shortcomings…

T&C TTB Rd 2

This one smells heavenly! I was salivating as I prepped the cup to steep…and then I burned my tongue because I was too excited about getting a taste. :/

In any case, this one brews up to a purplish-dark liquid that’s clearly influenced by the whole – and yes, they are WHOLE and huge – blueberries tossed into the blend. I wound up muting it somewhat with whole milk because I wanted to try and bring out the “cream cheese” notes, but even with that the black tea and blueberries definitely pushed their way to the front of the flavour profile.

With that said, this wasn’t a tea that really impressed me. It was good, yes, but not one that I would want to have again in the future.

Tea #8 from Pass the Stash box

Finally! After tasting teas that didn’t really do anything for me (they were fine, but didn’t really make me sit up and take notice)… this tea is making me sit up and take notice!

I’m shocked that it is a sencha…I thought I didn’t like sencha. I find the combination of the peach and cardamom to work very well together. I’ve always liked cardamom in chai, and it works with the peach, which needs a strong contrast. The peach tastes very good…peachy, without being overpowering. Very nicely done!

This smells just like pumpkin pie spice when it is dry – which to me is good. I dislike pumpkin pie immensely, but enjoy spicy chai and such. The flavor isn’t super pumpkin-y, which is good, but I find I don’t enjoy the spice in this as much as I would a chai. Good if you enjoy pumpkin pie, but not the best I’ve ever had. Beware oversteeping as this will get bitter.

GCTTB Rd 3:

I remembered enjoying this the first time I got the box so I pulled it out to try again. Second time around, I am less impressed. It tastes like a slightly floral honeybush. Meh. Now I know I am not really missing out. The rating will be dropped for this when I am by a computer because it certainly doesn’t deserve a 75

This is tea is surprisingly good with milk which is almost never the case with yerba mates. I think the base being a roasted mate rather than a green one makes the difference. The milk lessens the bite of the cayenne pepper somewhat much like drinking milk after eating something spice eases the heat I guess.

Sipdown! Yum! This one was great, and I am debating picking more up (although I really need to not buy more tea… Oh well!) Anyhow, I seemed to remember hearing good things about this flavour previously, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. Sweet candy raspberry, tasty black base that wasn’t too astringent with a 2-min infusion. Made a great iced tea to keep in the fridge and pour into a Timolino every morning. Sadly though, I live in a basement which is super humid, and the stupid tea bag went moldy before I got a second infusion :(

Sipdown! Yum; I did enjoy this one. Definitely candy banana flavour, with a nice solid base. Not a tea I would want again, but I’d certainly recommend it for anyone looking for a good banana flavoured iced tea.

Sipdown! Not a big fan, sadly. I preferred the other two SBTs I’ve drank recently (Monkey Fart and Razzleberry). This one just tastes kind of like a sweetish, flavoured black. Nothing special. I prefer the honeybush version; the flavour nuances of vanilla/chocolate/strawberry worked better with that base.

Haven’t had much time for tea since a friend has been in town all week. I have missed it! And I’ve missed being on this website. :P After tomorrow I should be posting more, I think. So in case any of you are wondering why I haven’t responded to any messages, that’s why. Not just trying to ignore you!
Anywho, bought this the other week from the wheezybee! Thought that it would be a lot stronger, according to everyone’s reviews…
But the black base is pretty obvious and the subtle hints of caramel and honey don’t hide it. It’s not horrible. But not as strong as I had hoped.
52Teas always seems to be hit or miss. Only found one that I really love so far. But I can’t say too much, I haven’t had tons of them to try yet.
Anywho, glad I tried this! One Day I’ll have to find a tea that legit tastes like candy corn. :P

HHTTB Round 3

This was the first one I pulled out of the humongous box that is this TTB. I really cannot even process how much tea there in it and how many options I can try in the next week or so.

This was delicious. Very refreshing and the melon is front and center. Definitely not as good as Butiki Cantaloupe and Cream, but I really enjoyed sipping this.

I made this iced, as I find I can usually taste fruit flavors more than when tea is hot. Still, no pomegranate flavor to be found. Tasty tea, but not for what it is.

Tea #5 from Pass the Stash box

Definitely liked this better as it cooled..it would make a great iced tea!

Very citrus, but not just orange or lemon…everything sort of combines together.

Sipdown no. 161 for the year 2014.

I tried this hot at least once, but alas, I appear not to have written a note about it. It was a while ago, but my recollection is that it was pleasantly fruity, with the fruit dominant over the tea flavor. The fruit is, I suppose, currant, though I think of currants as tasting raisin-y and this tastes more grape-y or perhaps a grape-cherry mix of some kind.

But I remembered reading somewhere that this was good iced (I think it was Angrboda whose note I’m remembering) so I decided to give this a try as a cold brew. Unfortunately, given the size of my preferred cold brew receptacle, that pretty much did away with all of what was left in the packet, and there wasn’t even quite enough to make me confident that this would brew well cold (because the leaves are so much bigger, I was planning to put in a couple more spoonfuls than usual).

Fortunately, it was enough, and it worked really nicely. I steeped this for probably longer than I should have, about 12 hours, but no bitterness. A really nice fruit flavor, and a little bit of a leafy white tea flavor in the background, which, thankfully, doesn’t have that dead plant thing going that white teas sometimes have.

I’m really sorry I don’t have any more of this. I’m rating it high because it’s one of the tastier cold brew experiences I’ve had. Very refreshing, very mellow, really hits the spot. And it wasn’t too shabby hot, either.

Now for the sad story. I have a mystery envelope in my Steepster mailbox. I think someone sent me a message then realized they sent to the wrong person and deleted it before I opened it in my mailbox. (I did see an email telling me the post had come but I was tied up and couldn’t get to it for a few days.) Somehow this had the effect of making a permanent red envelope with a one on it in my mailbox. I wrote to the Steepster overlords who suggested clearing my cache. I have just started using Google Chrome (I am still nervous about it, as in my book Google is the new Microsoft and I’m not too excited about their having information about what I do online but so many sites are now optimized for Chrome I finally gave up) so I went to clear my cache and when I did, Chrome suggested I browse incognito. Stupidly, I said yes, then couldn’t figure out how to get rid of that mode. I searched online and everything I read said you can’t get rid of it without editing the registry. Well, I was a crack at DOS, but I have never gotten along with Windows, so I wasn’t about to attempt that. I found a utility on CNET that claimed to remove incognito so I downloaded it. Guess what. Got rid of incognito but loaded me up with malware! Thirty minutes later I’m much better (thank you Malwarebytes, you’re my hero) but after all that I STILL HAVE THE RED ENVELOPE!

Sigh.

Yes, it does taste like root beer. Not sure why I would want to drink tea that tastes like root beer, but the grandkids liked it.

I like this one best cold brewed. I feel it has been so long since I had a good earl grey I have forgotten what bergamot taste like so I’m not sure if I notice any or not. I did not think it tasted like cheesecake until I had a slice from The Cheesecake Factory and it reminded of this tea so I guess somehow it does taste like cheesecake even though it reminds me of sweet flowers.

Sorry for all the notes lately I’m playing a game to allow myself to make a tea order this Sunday and another 5 days later. I would explain the rules but I keep changing them.

I cold brewed the rest of what I had left in a 2 qt mason jar. It was ok, I enjoyed the cantaloupe flavor but I did not notice any watermelon. I’m so sick of iced to tea right now that I’m sure that is influencing how I feel about this tea today.

I brewed it hot and chilled it. The tea was more present than when I cold brewed it and get more fruitiness. The fruity flavors remind me of zebra fruit strip gum unless my memory is off because it has been so long since I had the gum.

Thanks again for the sale, 52Teas and Marzipan for splitting the teas! Such a low rating with this one, but I think it needs to be slightly higher. Shou Mei white tea with plum flavor and lavender. Sounds good to me! I expected tons of lavender and no plum but it’s actually the opposite. I did see a few pieces of lavender in the teaspoon but the flavor is barely noticeable. There IS a sweet plum flavor that was reminded me of another tea and then I remembered it was the plum iced tea from 52Teas that I love! The flavor is subtle but it works with this shou mei. A lovely blend. I definitely suggest steeping it the way I steeped the first cup, as the white tea (or lavender) doesn’t get a chance to overpower the flavor.) I’ll enjoy the few teaspoons I have left!
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // 30 min after boiling // 45 sec steep
Steep #2 // 23 min after boiling // 2 min