SBT: Cotton Candy

I don’t make much iced tea. This became ever more apparent as I tried to brew up this new teabag from 52teas’ spin-off brand, Southern Boy Teas.

The instructions say to steep the teabag in 16 oz of water. I had to look up what 16 oz was, and it turns out it’s 2 cups. Okay, now what do I have in the house that can hold this gigantic teabag and 2 cups of water and is preferably made out of glass, not plastic? Searching…searching…mixing bowl? I guess that’ll work. I suppose this is why people have teapots.

Now I just have to measure 2 cups…AHHHHH!!!! Okay, the mixing bowl idea was not a great one. I just spilled boiling hot water on my foot. *Sigh. I was smart enough to put a dishwashing glove on my hand, so that was protected. Damn you, cute peep toe shoes!! There’s also quite a bit of water on my counter…ugh.

I’m okay. No permanent damage. Now I need something to pull this gigantic teabag out of the bowl…hmm…searching…grilling tongs? And now all I need is a pitcher. I have one of those! But it’s made out of flimsy plastic and there’s no lid…hmm, that’s okay. I’ll just make a lid out of plastic wrap and a rubber band.

Jeez, this is a lot of work! And I made quite a mess too. I do not recommend that you follow my brewing strategy. This barely worked out. I was able to pour the steeped tea from the mixing bowl into the pitcher without further incident. Now I just have to wait a couple hours for the tea to cool in the fridge.

Finally, I can try it! I carefully poured myself a glass and added ice. First sip…oooh wow! This is cotton candy all right! Yum! Super delicious! Totally worth burning my foot for! :P I wanted to add a little sweetener ‘cause I’m a sweet tooth addict. I think I added a little too much so I balanced it out with more tea. :D This is sooo good, but it honestly doesn’t even need the added sugar. It’s definitely sweeter now, but the cotton candy flavor was just as apparent without it, if not more so. Delish!!

I’ve had a couple of glasses of this iced tea today (cold-brewed), and it is very yum. I must admit that I do prefer the original cotton candy, but this Southern Boy version is good too. Interestingly, I notice a chocolate-y tone to this toward the finish. Sweet, cotton candy-ish, and then caramel and chocolate. Quite a treat.

Frank, if you’re reading this … now would be a good time for one of those blow-out type of specials that you occasionally offer. How about like 40% off orders over $80. (see, I’m going to have to resubscribe within the next couple of weeks or so) If you do, I’ll add more of the Southern Boy teas to my subscription. :)

Anyway, this is very refreshing and delicious. Better than any soda!

Our AC is on the fritz and I think this tea is keeping me sane. It is just an amazing iced tea. A perfect rich tea and then you get that cotton candy finish, and it just makes you happy. Does me anyway. The teabags make it easy too. I just put the teabag in my 2quart pitcher, pour in a bit of boiling water from my tea kettle, and three minutes later, top it off with cool water and pluck the tea bag out for round two later. (Second steep is just as awesome as the first.

My brother actually decided he wanted a glass of this! It’s kind of hilarious though because he said it tasted bitter at first, and I know it is not bitter at all. And he wanted a lot of agave in it…jeez.

I gave some to my grandma too and she said it tasted like cherry.

This probably isn’t my favorite, I prefer the regular 52teas Cotton Candy. But it’s still good, I just like the stronger cotton candy flavor. This one has more of a caramelized sugar aftertaste to it than cotton candy to me, and agave doesn’t make it pop like it does to the bubblegum SBT.

That’s not to say I won’t drink this up anyway, it’s still an awesome flavor, especially since I had no idea my brother would ever touch iced tea hahaha.

This tea is quite amazing. It’s also kind of strange. Let me explain.

Missy made a batch of this in one of our 64 oz Takeya pitchers (which I’ve highly recommended elsewhere, and will recommend again!) yesterday. The normal method of brewing it hot for three minutes in a pitcher full of hot water, adding some sugar, and tossing it in the fridge. Today, we drink!

I take a drink of it today, and WOW does it taste like cotton candy! Not just sugar, but honest to goodness spun sugar, with a little bit of caramelized sugar flavor in there. Behind that, way in the distance, I could taste a little bit of the tea base.

However, once it warmed up a smidge, still well under room temperature, but no longer fridge cold, the cotton candy toned down a bit and that smooth tea base had a chance to shine a little more. I don’t know if that trend would continue the warmer it got, and I never really tried the Cotton Candy black tea.

So anyway, that’s what I’d say. If you want super-in-your-face cotton candy flavor, do yourself a favor and put a mug in the freezer, and pour this tea into it. If you want a more melded experience with the black tea, pour it into a normal cup and wait until it’s ~50 degrees before you drink (anecdotal, made up number based on the fact that my fridge sits at about 40 degrees).

And that’s in Fahrenheit! So no getting confused and heating your iced tea to a sweaty 50 centigrade, blech!

Arrived home today to 3 boxes of tea. With more stuff on the way. Oy vey. I suppose I could have mentioned earlier that I am (sadly) back at home now. :(

Anyways, one such box was from 52teas, because I splurged and went for the grab bag sale, and picked up some additional SBT tea bags so I could try almost all of the flavours (the rest were purchased a while back and are en route from Amanda! And I say almost all, because I have zero interest in RadioactiviTEA :P)

Figured I’d give this one a shot tonight, seeing as it’s the only one I bought two of, based on the rave reviews.

Brewed one giant teabag up in 2 cups of water in a pyrex measuring cup at approx. boiling for 3 minutes. So my “concentrate” needs to be diluted 1 part tea:3 parts water. I tried a bit tonight (probably the wrong proportion), and I must say that I’m definitely getting more cotton candy flavour (even lukewarm) than I got with the actual tea. It smells like spun sugar. It tastes like spun sugar. Delicious strawberry spun sugar. With a nice black tea background that’s neither bitter nor astringent. Nor too strong. This is truly a treat. I can see myself drinking through this rather quickly. I think the cup I made for myself might have been about a 1:3 mix, so I might stick with that instead of 1:4.

I stuck the teabag in the fridge so I can give it a second round tomorrow, because 2 bags is probably not enough to have purchased…

ETA: Had some more today and inexplicably didn’t like it as much. Must be a mood/tastebud thing. How annoying.

Today was unseasonably warm. I took my son to the park, and I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and no jacket. In December! Anyway, when we got home I wanted something cold to drink. I had made this earlier in the day, (iced tea has become my replacement for Diet Coke) so I poured myself a glass and YUM. The cotton candy flavor is great. I did sweeten the tea with a touch of sugar to bring the flavor out more. Both of my kids tried it, and they loved it. This is a tea I would love to serve at a summer cookout. For now though I will be happy drinking a glass while I watch the lights on my Christmas tree twinkle.

I did a little dance when I opened this one up. It smells SO sweet and sugary and a bit caramelized and just so much like cotton candy! And the scent filled up my kitchen. So I knew this was going to be good. I’m the only one in my house who drinks iced tea on a regular basis, so I didn’t want to make a full pitcher. That, and I wanted to be able to make this goodness last as long as possible! So I cheated and tore open the tea bag, poured the leaf into another container, and will be making this by the cup instead.

I also cheated by trying this hot for the first time, instead of iced! After smelling the dry leaf I knew I wouldn’t be able to wait for it to chill or cold brew. So I added a bit of milk, a touch of cream, and some sugar to my cup. Mmmm, it still smells so strongly of cotton candy after steeping! And it tastes divine. Strong black tea base followed by a smooth hit of cotton candy. It’s definitely pink cotton candy rather than blue (blue’s my favourite!) but I can overlook that due to this tea’s impossible yumminess. In comparison to the 52teas version, I find the flavouring to be a bit stronger in this one, and definitely pink cotton candy, whereas I found the other to have more of a generic cotton candy taste. I would happily drink either of them, and while they are definitely different, it would be hard to choose a favourite! Can’t wait to try it iced, as it’s supposed to be.

I used to thinking of iced tea as being fruit flavoured so cotton candy struck me as a bit of an odd choice for this style of tea. None the less it seems to work pretty well. The spun sugar cotton candy flavour was a bit on the subtle side but adding a tablespoon or so of agave nectar to the jug helped bring it out.

Another awesome iced tea from 52 teas! It tastes perfect and refreshing.