6106 Tasting Notes
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 126)
This tea also seems to have mellowed out a bit as it cooled/sat. Or, perhaps it’s my mouth that’s changed a bit and tasting things differently. Either way, I wish this had more blackberries and cream; the toastiness was a little overwhelming when I first tried it earlier, but that has calmed down and the berry flavour is now poking through, along with some creaminess. I think I prefer blackberry in e.g. Blackberry Custard Tart more, but this is a nice variation to keep things fresh.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 125)
Another one I guess I’d missed reviewing. I have enjoyed it previously and again now – it’s a vibrant mix of fruity flavours, punctuated with lovely orange, but none of the flavours are overly strong. It also tastes “sweet” and pop-like (to me), though I’m pretty sure there’s no sweetener in here. A tea I wish I had a bit more of!
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 124)
Lovely tea. Less blueberry and more lavender cream today. Also, interestingly, I didn’t enjoy it hot (not scalding)/freshly brewed as much as I just enjoyed finishing it off, cooled and a couple hours after brewing. Perhaps the flavours develop a bit as it sits? Or mellow? Either way, tasty.
I find that almost all my teas taste better after sitting out for a few hours!
Some I think taste just great or even better while still what I’d call “hot”, but I have noticed this in a lot of teas too. In particular, I’ve noticed astringency sometimes disappear. I wonder if certain tannins in tea dissipate in some manner with extended exposure to water, or if there’s some sort of chemical reaction occurring. Interesting stuff. In this case, I’m thinking that some of the lavender essential oils dissipated a bit, allowing the creamy, cakey flavours (and a bit of blueberry) to be more prominent.
(DavidsTea 2022: 65)
2022 Sipdown 67/365!
I laughed when I navigated to this tea’s page and saw my previous rating, because when I gave the leaves/tea a sniff as I was brewing it, I definitely regretted my decision to drink it tonight, as it just did not smell appealing. Taste-wise, I don’t know if it’s really a 40, but it really just is not the profile of white tea that I enjoy. I struggle to describe it, but there’s kind of a staleness to it that just doesn’t work for me, contrasted with an “aged” flavour that I find and thoroughly enjoy in other white teas. (Yes, I know, that’s a terrible description but I did say I struggle to describe it!) I really have no idea what might be at the heart of this difference, but I could probably figure it out if I cared enough to (but, I don’t).
Bumping rating up a bit, 40 is pretty harsh. It is not that bad.
(DavidsTea 2022: already recorded)
2022 Sipdown 66/365!
Mastress Alita’s Sipdown Challenge February 2022: Tea flavoured like a favourite snack food
As mentioned elsewhere, chocolate is a favourite snack food of mine, and surprisingly I had a bit of trouble locating such a tea to sip down (ok, I didn’t try that hard), so having a second round of this one! In great news though, it clears out another old bag and now I can open my new package (if I want to, haha). This cup is a touch mintier than I’d prefer, but it’s still quite pleasant and chocolatey.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 122)
2022 Sipdown 65/365!
I stick by my original comments. I really enjoy this tea – there’s clearly more to it than just a great base tea – some spicing and creaminess – but creme brulee would not be what comes to mind. Don’t really care though, I just care that it tastes good. (Also, this is another technical sipdown; I have a large unopened packet of this one as well.)
In other news, there were 3 notable developments/revelations in my tea-related life today:
1) No surprise here, just discovered a bunch more 52teas packages in the stash of teas I had rescued from the work mouse (I keep them apart from the rest in case they were possibly contaminated, and there is much handwashing involved). Did not realize quite how many were there, but a few of my questions on where teas ended up have been answered. I’ll have to properly inventory later.
2) Last night, I was reviewing my 52teas list, and my goodness I swear that half of them start with the letters B or C! Out of interest, I am looking at the exact numbers right now – there are 325 entries on my spreadsheet right now (yes, some duplicates) and 46 of them start with B (6 dupes), while 56 start with C (3 dupes)! Combined, I believe that’s about 31% of my 52teas stash, which is… crazy.
3) My beloved stainless steel variable temp Black & Decker electric kettle…. is leaking. The lid closure mechanism had kicked the bucket sometime last year, so it has been held closed by a fork (when I bother), and there seems to be something a little wonky with the temp gauge on occasion, but both of these issues I could work around. I had been noticing water around the base for a while, and blamed careless pouring… But today, I caught the leak in action. It’s not significant enough to prevent usage yet, but it’s probably only going to get worse, and I’m not sure there’s a boiling-safe way to fix it. The leak is coming from one of the (plastic) windows. Sigh. So, looking for recommendations on favourite stainless steel (or glass), digital variable temp electric kettles. I don’t actually use the variable temp ability, but I do really love knowing the temp of the water in the kettle before I pour it.
Ugh, kettle issues are the worst, and the denial is real. :) I use a cheap plastic non-variable-temperature kettle I got at Home Hardware, so sadly, I can’t help you. Could you just buy another one of the kettles you already have?
I don’t think this particular model exists anymore :( However, I’d buy it again if I found it! I haven’t really done much searching at this point as the denial has (clearly) been very real. And continues to be – honestly, I’m probably going to use this kettle until one of the windows pops out while it’s boiling, and then I’ll be sorry. Haha.
*My husband would prefer I did not use the kettle until such an occurrence, so there will have to be a balance…
Sorry to hear about your kettle. I absolutely love my Breville One-Touch – which is actually a tea maker and not a kettle, but I use it at least 40 percent of the time as a variable temp kettle.
And I had a good laugh about the B/C thing. B … probably a good number of them are Banana? (Just a guess – I have a thing for banana teas) C – I don’t know if there is a particular fruit that I tend to lean toward that is C – ah! Coconut is probably definitely one of them. Another favorite fruit. And possibly Cream/Creme – another flavor profile I am fond of. Last year when everyone was doing the alphabet teas – I contemplated doing something like that where every week, I do the next letter of the alphabet. I might still do that at some point. :)
I’ve had really bad luck with Breville kettles. I had the variable temp steel with plastic window one in 2013 that had to be sent in for warranty repair in 2017 and bought my first glass IQ kettle while waiting for the repair. The glass one had to be replaced a year later in 2018 and it’s starting to act up now 4 years later. They aren’t cheap to be going through so fast.
I would definitely agree that a large part of the “B” is from Banana, but I don’t think the C is exclusive to 52Teas – at work in our tea lab, out of every letter, the “C” section is the most packed as well.
Dustin – good to know, that’s really unfortunate! If I buy anything expensive I’ll definitely have to pay attention to reviews. This one was close to $100 at the time, I believe, but it has served me well. It’s at least 5 years old; I’m not sure exactly when it was purchased.
@Dustin – I’m sorry you had so many troubles with your Breville appliances. I will say that Breville has exceptional customer service. When I first bought my one-touch, I broke the glass kettle after 4 years, and I wanted to simply buy another glass kettle (but they do not sell just the glass kettle replacements) so I happened to call the customer service hotline. I called after hours, so they called me the next business day and offered a refurbished replacement unit (the full unit) if I sent them the base I had from my first unit – they even paid for shipping of the base. I don’t know if they do that for everyone, I’m sure they do not, but they were so kind to me. A year later when I (sadly) broke the replacement kettle, I called them to see if they could offer me a deal, and they offered me a discount on a brand new unit – which I’m still using now. And it’s still working perfectly, some six or seven (?) years later.
My Krups is still going, and my Cuisinart got a window leak after several years. It was so handy that I did buy another. I have a gooseneck Breville for gong fu and so far so good, but it is not used as often. The leaky is still here in the event if another breakdown, because it only leaks when filled over a liter.
52Teas & Roswell Strange –
So yes, a bunch of the Bs are banana! 10 (2 dupes), in fact, 11 if you include Banoffee Breakfast Blend. The other big ones are blackberry (6, 2 dupes), blueberry (7), and other variants on the berry theme (Berried Treasure, Berry Wonderful Root Beer, Boo-Berry Cotton Candy).
C is definitely heavy on coconut (11), and also has a good dose of Cranberry (6, 8 if you include Crangerine Salad and Crisp Cranberry Soda). Aside from those, it’s more of a mixed bag – Caramel (4), Cherry (4), Chocolate (4). Only 2 cream/creme (this tea, and Creme Brulee Beignet).
It looks like the trend is similar in my tea collections from other companies (DavidsTea, A Quarter to Tea) – maybe there are just more flavour-oriented words that begin with those letters! Interesting to note!
I didn’t even think about cranberry! I should have because I’m trying to think of a cranberry tea to create that would be suitable for spring. :)
Expand the “c” list even more. Make custard, crepe and creme de leche teas (with cranberry) :)
Ha! I did use my previous kettle until the plastic window popped out! Now I have one without a window, I have to look inside to see how much water, I figured I drink so much tea I didn’t need any plastic in it. The Secura double walled kettle is not variable temp, but I like it a lot. At least I know I won’t burn anything by touching the outside of the kettle.
When my first Breville kettle went out it was still under the warranty period and they replaced it for free. The glass one touch was past the warranty time frame and there was a $69 fee for repair. Extra bases were sold separately for $50, but they were out of stock. They also didn’t get back to my original customer service inquiry until I emailed them again 2 weeks later. So one experience with good service and one with bad service. I probably should have bought a different brand at that point, but I really liked the kettle.
(DavidsTea 2022: 64)
An interesting tea. Sweet, creamy, a little fruity. It tastes pretty artificial but probably is meant to be that way; it works, though. Not a tea I’d have often but it’s a nice treat on occasion.
(DavidsTea 2022: 63)
Tasty sweet mocha-esque flavour. Looks like it’s supposed to be a good tea to latte, so I should try that with the new pouch I got recently when it went on clearance. This review is for an older pouch from 2019, with only another cup or so left.
