6106 Tasting Notes
(DavidsTea 2022: 68)
B is for… Big Apple!
Ancient tea, doesn’t even have a date on it so that probably means it’s from 2013-ish? Despite that, the flavour is still present and actually not too bad – it does taste like a sort of candy apple, but there’s some bitterness (not from the tea) and artificial flavouring that I’m picking up too. A little odd. I’m enjoying this mostly from a reminiscent perspective, I think.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 139)
B is for… Blackberry Cheesecake!
Another one with no reviews except mine? This seems suspicious.
Really didn’t get much of anything while drinking it hot; trying to coax something out of it now and I think I can taste… the lemon verbena. And a hint of tang in the aftertaste (cheesecake). No blackberry to speak of, and the base is surprisingly absent. It’s not a bad tea, just… not a lot of flavour. Some creaminess, as well. Apparently I have three pouches of this so maybe I’ll be more successful another day.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 138)
B is for… Butter Pecan Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha!
(I’m doing a second day of “B” (and also of “C”), in case anyone’s wondering. Haha.)
It is strange that I’m the only person to have reviewed this. Anyhow, it’s a rather nice cup of marshmallow treat genmaicha, but I’m getting very little in the way of butter or pecan. In fact, until just a moment ago, I had not even tasted a whisper of either in the blend – but both just came across in the aftertaste as I finished my now-cold cup. It was yummy. But not enough to make me love this blend.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 137)
B is for… Bananas & Peanut Butter!
Smelled pretty strongly of rooibos (woody, medicinal) when I first brewed it, which was kind of offputting. Flavour is less rooibos-y, but really not getting anything in the way of bananas or peanut butter. Just a vaguely flavoured rooibos. It’s from 2 years ago; I don’t think I could taste banana/pb the first time I tried it either, but I’ll leave it unrated in the event that age is a factor here.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: already recorded)
B is for… Buttered Cinnamon Raisin Toast!
Review is for the April 2021 reblend. I’m getting some nice toastiness, and maybe a bit of raisin and cinnamon… it does indeed taste like cinnamon raisin toast, though I’m not convinced on the “buttered” aspect. I feel like this is fairly similar to the previous version I tried, perhaps a touch less smoky?
OK, so I think – I’m gonna have to do some kind of Alphabet series. It won’t be all in one box, but, like, at some point, start with A – and do the first five teas as the tea of the week (A – E) and then F – J for the next month, and so on. I don’t know when I will start it though. Maybe I’ll start it at the start of the new year 2023. That will give me nine whole months to either think about it or forget about it.
Also – this should taste a touch less smoky because I used less Lapsang Souchong than the first time I blended this. That was a purposeful act because I had a few complaints that it was too smoky the last time so I wanted to be a bit more cautious with the Lapsang Souchong this time.
Ah! I think the reduced smokiness was a good choice, as it blends better.
I think alphabet-themed boxes would be a blast. Aside from the reblends, it would mostly just take some creative naming of teas (maybe the usage of some unique base teas?!) I seem to like themed things… it just makes everything more fun. Haha.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 136)
B is for… Blood Orange Butterscotch!
Second try at this tea, and I still cannot get any butterscotch. I did an ace job of infusing today, though, so I just don’t think I’ll be able to coax those notes out. I did get citrus, in the orange realm (tbh, I don’t know what makes blood orange flavour different from regular orange), and definitely enjoyed the base tea. In fact, I was thinking that with a bunch of the 52teas black blends, even if the flavours wane or I have trouble finding them, it’s a still a good cup of tea because the base used was actually good – which is one of the things that makes 52teas different from companies who use stronger flavouring and cardboardy bases. I’d much rather be able to taste the tea itself.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 135)
B is for… Banana Pancakes!
Review is for the advent 2018 version; I appear to have three separate versions of this tea in my inventory – from approx May 2017, Jan 2020 (unopened), and this one. Luckily, despite the age, this tea is still quite tasty. Definite maple flavour, light banana; it was very pleasant to drink today.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 134)
B is for… Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish!
Review for the December 2019 reblend, which looks like it was part of the advent calendar. This was a tasty cup today – a bit lighter on the flavour than I’d have liked, but still a nice cup of creamy blueberry black tea. Didn’t really pick up on any tang of cream cheese.
(DavidsTea 2022: 67)
A is for… Apple Custard!
I’m being a little lazy on the sipdowns with this alphabet challenge so far; I’m thinking it’s going to be a little trickier to hit my sipdown count this month. Most of my 52teas are not sipdown-ready (sampler packets tend to have 4-6 cups’ worth, and I’ve only had many teas once or twice). So I’ll be peppering my days with teas from other companies, and hopefully keeping to the alphabet theme as much as I can! And, checking off the prompts from Mastress Alita’s challenge as well.
This one’s now a cup away from a sipdown; it was the only “A” tea I could find for DT, but then I remembered that I did the alphabet challenge with DT last year and the teas I drank were filed into a different box – one I was not looking in. I think I’ve had enough tea for today, anyhow. This one’s a nice one to end off with – creamy, appley, and no caffeine to keep me up too late, ha.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 133)
A is for… A Winter’s Treat!
Final “A” tea that I believe I own (from 52teas) and have not already sampled in 2022. Well… except for “A Tisket A Tasket”, which is one of my favourites and only has one cup left. I’m just not ready to sip it down today.
I really like this tea, although I find that especially in the second and third infusions, the cinnamon can become overwhelming in an unappealing way. The first cup, however, is just delicious creamy cinnamon banana oolong. Not too heavy on the banana. And reminds me of my favourite Banana Oolong (RIP) from DavidsTea.
