Pancake Breakfast Black Tea

Received this as a sample from Teasuce. I’m a little picky when it comes to flavored black teas. I like this, but I really don’t get the pancake from it,just maple syrup. I drank this with some pancakes and still it just did not do it for me. Its a nice treat, but not something I would buy.

I had my doubts about this one, and between that and my fear of it, I left this one as my last 52teas tea to try from my order. I had no idea what to expect, and so it was with trepidation I sipped tonight.

My first sips were of a roasted flavour with a slight sweetness. Curious I added a dash of sugar, and there, in the aftertaste notes, was most definitely pancake. Pancakes cooked much more well done that I have the preference for, but definitely an identifiable pancake taste.

Not sure yet if I actually like the tea or not, but it does fulfill its name. I think I’ll need another pot or two to decide if I actually like it or not, though.

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!

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: smallish pieces of black tea, with a few marigold petals mixed in. I really like the aroma: sweet, almost syrupy, and somewhat like grilled flour: pancakes!

Brewing guidelines: 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: near boiling, 2’
…………….2nd: nearer to boiling, 4’
…………….3rd: boiling, 6’
…………….4th: boiling, 8’

Color and aroma of tea liquor_: ~_This time through I did not record these. Maybe next time.~

Flavor of tea liquor: at first not much different than any other black tea, then, the flavors started to come out of hiding (see below).

Overall: I think this is the first of Frank’s teas that caught my eye in the line up of the best rated teas in Steepster. I couldn’t believe that the image of the pancakes could seriously be replicated in a tea. Well, now I’m a believer. With the first steeping, it started out as just another flavored tea to me, nothing really stood out about it. But as I began to take more time searching for the syrup and the pancake in the tea, it finally came out to say, “Hello!” It’s strange, but it wasn’t until the third steeping that I could actually taste the maple syrup, maybe in part, because I allowed it too cool before I finished it. I could taste the syrup and the pancake—-although mildly—-even on the forth steeping. The next time I try this tea I will be looking for the flavors in the earlier steepings, and try it cooled, too. This is probably my favorite of the three 52Teas I have tried so far. I look forward to brewing this one up again. Frank _{(if you ever stumble upon this review)}, I have to say that I am impressed. And I look forward to trying your other teas, too.

SO I made this tea and a cup of maple bacon to go with my breakfast of eggo waffles and super-good quality bacon (the kind from the butcher, not from the grocery store). I guess I shared with my boyfriend to (sigh) so I’ll include his review as well!

This tea is so full of flavour. I really get the sense of a fluffy thick pancake smothered in butter with maple syrup. I enhanced my experience with a brown sugar whipped cream and a tiny bit of maple syrup, but it didn’t need it at all. It just upped the ante from awesome to amazing :) I’m finding I like to have additions in 52 teas, now that I’ve tried all of them from my order. For me, that is not a bag thing in any sense of the word. That’s why I have my milk frother – when winter comes and it’s -47, I make lattes/london fogs out of EVERYTHING. aaaaand I finally found my favorite vanilla syrup for that purpose (… vanilla nesquick :D CLASSY!)

Mike’s review: I like it cus it tastes like pancakes and it’s nice and sweet and yummy. And it doesn’t even taste like hot water.

This was the afternoon tea of yesterday. I brewed a pot for my daughter’s friends, and we all tried it. Love that you could taste the maple and buttery flavors. It was great sweetened, and we added a little milk. I am holding off on rating until I can brew like normal, so it is more an apples to apples comparison. But we all had fun at our little tea party.

And we have a winner! This stuff is freakin’ awesome. It really does taste like pancakes, buttery maple syrup get you out of bed on a Saturday morning pancakes! Frank, how about this one for the North American Tea Championship this year?

This is a nice tea. I’m not sure that I am tasting everything that everyone else is tasting. I get a black tea flavor followed by a little tiny bit of pancake flavor in the after-sip. I wanted more. But, like some others have said, I am witholding my rating until I can try it again and adjust how I brewed it. Suggestions welcome.

~1.7 tsp/12 oz/boiling/3 min/sweetened with a little agave nectar.

I came home sick from work today to find that my first 52teas order had arrived! I contemplated waiting until my stuffy nose had cleared, but finally decided I couldn’t wait any longer & brewed up a cup of this.

Ooooo, the smell is buttery & definitely pancakes! The flavour is equally as tasty- rich & syrupy & positively yummy. I was worried the black tea would be astringent but it isn’t at all. I added some sugar & a splash of milk because I was in definite need of an extra comforting cup! The pancake flavour is more subdued on the second steep, but the tea is still smooth & tasty.

Glad I took a chance on this one!

Another offering from the 12 Days of X-mas Sampler (I’ll get through it…eventually) although I also have a full pouch of this tea in my cupboard that I haven’t opened yet.

When I first tried this tea plain I wasn’t terribly impressed, but what a difference adding a little bit of milk and/or sweetner makes! It really does bring out the flavour of the pancakes and I can taste a little bit of maple syrup too. It’s a great treat to have with my breakfast.

I’m not sure how to feel about this tea… The smell is heavenly, like sweet maple cake. The taste is another story. The black tea is too strong for the delicate flavors, and the sweet flavor isn’t helped at all by the bitter notes. I wanted to love this, and I’m just not sure I can.

So my first cup of this was terrible. I must have oversteeped it too long or something because it was really bitter and tasted of maple and this odd flat wooden flavour like bad pipe tobacco that I really didn’t like. So I tried again.

The dry leaves smell strongly of maple and a little bit like rum to me. I made the second cup with a shorter steeping time and a bit more sugar (a rounded teaspoon rather than a level one) and a splash of milk because I like to with black teas.

On to the taste: I don’t pick up much of a ‘pancake’ taste, but it is definitely mapley and buttery and sweet and quite good. There’s still an odd ‘wooden’ taste in the background but it’s not so strong that I can’t overlook it. All in all, this is a very interesting tea, but it will probably go into my ever-increasing swap list.

backlog from yesterday after work. I tried to pay close attention to the smell and taste of this tea so I could write it up today. When I smell it, I don’t get that same pancake maple smell that everyone else seems to get. It smells like raw pizza dough to me, no vanilla or tasty sweetness that comes with pancakes.

I also don’t taste the maple syrup. Brewed, the tea smells bland to me. I don’t hate this tea, I like it…but not as pancakes. As a simple black tea. It looks like I probably just got some from a less flavorful batch, because these reviews are amazing. I’m not going to put a number rating for this one, but I don’t get the syrupy pancake taste that I so wanted.

Since our clocks went back yesterday and we gained an extra hour (for those of us in the UK) it meant that this morning I thought I was up late when in actual fact I awoke at a fairly reasonable time. So that gives me the perfect advantage to try this well acclaimed tea.

The smell of this whilst raw is that of dark syrup (like maple syrup) and it has a bit of sweetness to note. Not much more to it than the sweet syrup fragrance, just a slight bitterness and strength of the black tea.

Now this has been brewed it smells much sweeter and much more maple syrup like. The bitterness has gone which could be due to the splash of milk I have added.

I had to drink half a cup of this to determine it’s flavours truly, again the maple syrup is there which is darkly sweet and the milk adds a creaminess to it which I could mistake for something perhaps slightly bready (like pancakes). It’s extremely subtle in the pancake factor and if anything else this is more maple syrup tea than pancake tea but I suppose when people have maple syrup they think of pancakes. I will try this next time with half a spoon of sugar and see if that changes the flavours.

This is nice and it is the sort of thing I could drink every morning for a nice ‘pick me up’ but as far as it goes I had to really stretch to find the pancake in both smell and taste.

So to sum it all up: Pancake tea = no. Maple syrup tea = yes. Tasty? = Yes.

EDIT: I have tried a second cup this morning and added a sweetener to see what difference if any it would make. There is admittedly more of a pancake flavour now with a touch of butter. The maple syrup is much sweeter now but still manageable (as I prefer things to be not overly sweet). It’s still more syrup tea than pancake but this is still a lovely blend.

I really enjoy this tea in the mornings at work, it has a sweet maple smell pouring out with it from the bag into my cup. The tea liquor doesn’t mimic a pancake, but it has exactly the amount of flavoring I would want and has real artificial taste. It’s a little buttery with a hint of doughy at the end, overall strong black taste, fair astringency, is a wonderful caffine wake me up. This will be a regular tea for me, finally a replacement for my calorie laden morning coffee!

oh. my. god. It’s like a cup of pancakes. The liquor smells even better than the leaves (and believe me I have spent many times just putting my nose into the bag of this)! Tastes like real maple, and then the buttery finish is absolutely amazing. Nothing about it even tastes artificial, I love it.

Almost as good as eating real pancakes, maybe. Maybe it’s a lot better because I always have water on hand, and there’s no chance of burning this in a pan!

While hot I wasn’t totally impressed, but once cooled to room temperature the flavor and aroma REALLY shined. I know that’s how most stuff goes, but this one should really be allowed to cool down a bit after steeping to fully appreciate the flavor and aroma. Totally representing of the name in every aspect! Yummy. Glad this was reblended and I got to try it out! The base is also nice, it’s not too bold or bitter and it doesn’t overpower the buttery, syrupy, pancake flavors. Great breakfast tea.

Serious backlog here! I am sipping on this at this very moment! So, incredibly, perfect. This was my very first purchase from 52 teas and it won’t be my last! The buttery flavor really came through on this blend. It tastes sweet enough for me to not add anything and it has so many layers of flavor! I could drink this every morning, forever! A++ flavor!
edit
I have to say that I’ve been steeping my tea a little differently and I just did this one today and its flavor is always a knock-out. I think that this is something that I should have ordered 2+ of!

Today’s discussion on tea latte inspired me to try with my first Pancake Breakfast tasting. My darling makes me a cappuccino, sized to fit in a little espresso cup and I used the leftover milk foam. Mmm deliciousness. I love the syrupy pancake batter scent but brewed up, I taste honey. Great way to get effect of sweetness without adding anything more.
Does not resteep well but that is expected for this type of tea.

The moment has finally arrived. I finally received my very first 52teas order. The two-week wait nearly killed me. I’ve been daydreaming about pancake-flavoured tea ever since I knew this existed.

The dry leaf reminds me of maple syrup. Steeped, the aroma is still maple single note, although after a couple minutes, I swear I caught a whiff of butter. Did that just happen?

The first sip: mild and again, maple syrup. No pancakes! But perhaps I should let this steep a little longer next time. After the fourth sip, this is reminding me more specifically of the maple candies I bought here in Canada right before moving to Sweden. Just a little something to remind me of home. But I actually kind of like this better because the black tea complements the sweetness of the maple very well and creates a nice balance.

You know what? As this is starting to cool off a bit, I can detect the subtlest trait of pancake. If a pancake had feet, it would have one foot in the door.

So, I steeped this in a frothy water-and-milk mixture today, and it was way better than steeped in regular water. Sweet and creamy, like a breakfast tea, with butter and maple notes. I haven’t had good luck with 52teas so far but this one is pretty good