Hot Buttered Banana Bread

1 tsp. to 8 oz water.
This was right on for scent out of the package – the bananas were overwhelming (I can see where people thought they smelled like runts) but it also smelled nutty, which is a combination I often associate with banana bread. The liqour is a light yellowish brown at this steep time. The steeped tea smells…bready. Wow!

The first sip tastes just like banana bread out of the oven! My mom used to make it all the time when I was little and her recipe tasted just like this! I did add 1 tsp. of honey (I would do this to banana bread if it was warm, too, so I tried this for accuracy as well as to sweeten) and now I am in love.

Amazing…going to see how a second steep goes…

ETA- the second steep, when done for around 10-12 minutes, still manages to give off a banana flavor, though fainter than the first go round. Man, this is good. I never manage to drink tea this fast!

Mmmm this smells so delish! It is a bit lighter on the banana than Monkey Fart and you can smell the butter as well as walnuts! Yummy!

After the steep, all I can really smell is the bananas maybe a hint of walnut but that could be because I just want to smell that, the whole house smells like bananas :)
It is a pretty light amber color for a black tea.

The first sip, I was confused, the smell is so strong but the taste not so much?!?! The first sip is a pretty mellow black tea with hints of bananas. I take another sip and sure enough you can taste the banana and it is juicy, as well as hints of something else, I think it is the butter or walnuts, whatever it is it tastes good!

This is a really mellow tea, the flavors blend together really nicely and you can taste the tea which sometimes gets lost in the flavors but not this one! After letting it cool a bit the flavors are more prominent and I really,really really like it. I think that I really enjoy a bananas in my tea, maybe Frank could do a banana creme pie flavor!

Full Disclosure: I hate bananas. I hate how they smell, I hate how they taste, I hate how they’re squishy… the list goes on and on. Occasionally, they’re pretty good caramelized in brown sugar… with lots of other stuff (like oatmeal) involved. I’m not sure why I “forgot” that this tea had banana in it… perhaps because I was really looking forward to the “hot” “buttered” and “bread” part of it. Which is really too bad, because i didn’t get anything out of this tea except banana.

The banana reminds me of the flavored fruit shaped candy you could get from 25 cents out of a machine at the grocery store and various other places. I wasn’t a fan of the banana ones, and I’m really not a fan of the flavor in this tea. I don’t get anything buttery or bread-y about it, and there isn’t even a strong black tea base (ok, I didn’t exactly expect to find one, but when I drank the tea, that was probably the first thing I noticed). I’m going to try it with milk, maybe some sugar, to see if it changes my opinion of this tea.

Thanks to LiberTea for passing on a sample!

Yum. Not quite as yum as the Pancake Breakfast from this morning, but pretty close. It smells wonderful in the pouch, and had a pronounced aroma while brewing as well, which was lovely. I’m more likely with most teas to notice the smell on the pour rather than the brew. So I had a nice four minutes of banana bread scent. The tea itself is wonderful, I think the walnut gives it less of a smoothness than I was expecting, but it wasn’t unpleasant. I definitely get banana, but not the butter flavor that others seem to get. Its very good. I really seriously cannot wait to try other 52teas. Strawberry Zabaglione, I have my eye on you!

Experience buying from @Ashley: I bought this tea from Ashley when she was selling all of her tea. I received the tea quickly through the mail and my package was filled with many surprises. Thank you Ashley!

Age of leaf: bought sometime in October, brewed up mid-November.

Packaging: 52Teas packaging is very professional: small silver zip locked bags with a clear front that has a 3” X 3” label on it which has the name of the tea, an ingredient list, and an expertly created picture of the food item that the tea replicates.

Appearance and aroma of dry leaf: CTC leaf with bits of banana; smells just like banana bread, incredible!

_Brewing guidelines: two tsp. dry tea for 16 ounces of water. I used a metal basket strainer inside a ceramic 16 oz. cup, such that I put a lid over the top to keep the heat in. Cup was warmed before steeping. Stevia added.
…………….1st: slightly off the boil, 2’
…………….2nd: near boiling, 4’
…………….3rd: boiling, 6’
…………….4th: boiling, 10’

Aroma of tea liquor: Spot on banana bread!

Flavor of tea liquor: hard to get the HBBB flavor on the first steeping when still hot, but when cooled I could totally taste it. Good flavor up through three steepings.

Aroma of wet leaf: I believe the aroma here was the same as with the liquor itself: spot on!

Overall: I do have to admit that I am not a big banana flavored person, and that is why I didn’t rate this tea as high I have a few other teas of Franks. Having said that, this one’s still a keeper, especially if you love banana bread as there is clearly banana bread flavor swimming around all over in this cup! Next time I will have to search for the butter, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all it I can find it doing the breaststroke right next to the banana bread. Right as I was in the middle of writing this up, I went to Steepster to verify something about the description of the tea, and I glanced at the number of ratings and at the overall rating of the tea itself (which I try not to do before I review and rate a tea); I noticed that there are lots of reviews, and the tea has a high rating. Wow. I may be a little tough on my ratings, but I am certainly with the crowd on the reviews on this one. You rock, Frank!

It is minus 2 degrees outside and this tea is perfect – so comforting with the walnut, banana and butter flavors.