52teas

This is the tea that’s currently in the fridge. I cold-brewed it overnight. It’s a yummy tea – I find that I tend to favor the various lime teas that SBT offers, with my preference being for the Lime Cola or the Lime Jello. But this one is good too.

The flavor isn’t as strong as I’d like it to be with the cold-brew, but it is still tasty. The resteeping (tonight before I go to bed, I’ll resteep the pouch hot-brew method) will be even better.

Backlog:

Really tasty. I could smell the apple pie as soon as I opened the pouch, and my mouth starts watering whenever I open this one (I’ve had it a few times since my original tasting note/review of this tea, found here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/04/29/apple-pie-keemun-52teas/ )

I like the way the smokiness of the keemun works with the notes of the apple pie to give it that fresh baked taste. My gramma’s apple pie never tasted smoky … but this doesn’t taste really smoky either … it just tastes crisp and inviting and very … autumnal. A really well-conceived blend.

Backlog:

OK, I’ve been slacking off again and now I’m really, really behind. (I’m imagining Sil is smiling.)

This is really yummy. Very fruity, banana and passion fruit work very well together. The Shou Mei is delicate but it doesn’t allow itself to be overpowered by the fruit notes. Soft, a little earthy and a little bit creamy, and these notes meld together with the fruit notes in a very pleasing way.

It’s almost smoothie-like.

Pass the Stash TTB 2.0

So far, I haven’t been terribly impressed with 52teas, but I figured I’d give this one a chance since I love both mango and vanilla. No fruit chunks or anything in here, just black tea and flavoring. It smells nice enough, vaguely fruity and vanilla-y. I steeped for 4 minutes.

Honestly, I’m fairly disappointed with this tea. The base itself is okay, although there’s a tiny bit of bitterness and some astringency, and I don’t feel like 4 minutes is oversteeping. I definitely get vanilla and cream out of it, but where’s the mango? There’s a vague fruity flavor in here, but it’s so mild compared to the other flavors and the base that I can barely taste it. Some sort of peaches and cream comparison maybe, but it’s way in the background.

I’m not sure if maybe the sample of this tea has lost some of its potency or what, because I saw that a lot of other reviewers mentioned juicy mango flavor. It is in a resealable bag, so I guess that could be the case. Either way, I’m not going to assign this a rating because I feel it would be unfair if I did get an older sample of it.

This reminded me so much of chai. It was yummy, but to me did not really embody the “cake” aspect of things. I imagine a little sweetener might solve that. I didn’t expect the green tea to play nearly as well with the flavors as it did, this is normally a flavor I would expect in a black tea, or maybe a nutty oolong.

Having this tea this morning, now that my traveling box has traveled on.

I am enjoying this tea, and would like to buy more of it…somewhere. I can really taste the blueberries and it tastes like a blueberry danish. It really does! I especially enjoy AFTER the sip, where I can still taste the blueberry danish, and it all comes together then…after the sip.

This bag is quickly coming to an end and I will miss it when it’s gone but I have some of the other marshmallow treats to satisfy my flavored genmaicha cravings. Well, those and Japon of course. Still, this has always produced a rich s’mores treat so I am sad that I have just one serving left.

So, I kind of forgot to take out the bag and cold steeped this for like 3 days so I was worried it’d be too strong. Also the flavor I guess had settled to the bottom and looked a bit cloudy but it was normal after I shook it up a little. Flavor wise it was ok, tasted like a mild almond milk. Not the most flavorful SBT… not one I’m going to rebuy I think.

This was my iced tea for work yesterday and today. It got the usual SBT treatment (3 mins in a quarter pint of boiling water, topped up to two litres with cold and into the fridge overnight). The dry bag smelt like a freshly opened bag of campino sweets, which was a real flashback from my childhood. I like strawberry things, so I was looking forward to bringing it out mid-morning.

It’s another awesome SBT, especially fridge cold. It has a wonderfully accurate strawberry flavour, and the custard/creme anglaise is also spot on. It’s somehow thick tasting, and very creamy, with a beautiful vanilla sweetness. The strawberry flavouring is also sweet, but the fruitiness it provides is enough to ensure this doesn’t become overwhelming.

I have a pouch of the normal 52 Teas version of this, which I picked up last time it was reblended. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m certainly looking forward to on the strength of the SBT version. This is an SBT I’d definitely repurchase. It’s like liquid dessert! Definitely enough to cheer up a dull day at work.

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.