Pumpkin Pie Flavored Black

For those of you who are interested in the Soccer World Cup (I am not really, but the boyfriend is a soccer fanatic, which means that I get an Ecuador Jersey and watch all the games with him…), yesterday Ecuador played against Argentina. Argentina has Messi playing for them. Ecuador has Valencia playing for us. Ecuador sorta got devoured by Argentina… 4 to 0. Yeah, we were terrible on the field yesterday. Soccer is the most popular sport here, so, in other words, today we have an entire country depressed. On a positive note, I decided to start my day with something delicious. This!

I love, love, adore Pumpkin Pie. It is on my top 5 list of desserts… So, after loveing the Pumpkin Cheesecake blend I had to try this. It isn’t quite as delicious as that one, but still very, very good.

The dry leaves actually do smell like pumpkin and the spices are just right, I even get some creaminess. The dark leaves with yellow petals are perfectly appropriate for the fall motif. I sniffed and sniffed… Why isn’t it November? I could use some real pumpkin pie right now…

Brewed it smells like cinnamon and nutmeg with a hint of clove. Pumpkin and condensed milk hanging out in the background. Mouth watering…

It tastes pretty good, it is just a tiny bit lacking in the creaminess. I get the pumpkin and the spices, but I get no creamy deliciousness. It is a tiny bit astringent. Of course all of this can be fixed by adding latte mix or milk, but I rather have it plain.

All in all I really enjoy it, but it doesn’t live up to Pumpkin Cheesecake which actually is creamy and delicious. I am surprised a lot of people don’t really like it. I really enjoyed it! : )

A lot has been changing quickly, my lovelies!

(1) I have more tea than I know what to do with (Golden Moon sampler, Harney & Sons tins, two series from Damn Fine Tea), and t-bags are the love of my life.

(2) Got that internship at a big NYC museum that I thought I’d failed miserably at? Herp a derp?!

(3) Still am too upfront for most men in this modern age or will become an old maid; both are distinct possibilities.

But, to the tea. I have had this tea sitting around since mid-winter, and still haven’t said a word. The first few weeks, I was a bit enamored; and found it quite comforting in soggy, dreadfully, miserably snowy and chilly Ohio. But as the days become warmer, I think my heart has changed a bit. Captures the pumpkin, but not quite the spice or baked creaminess. More watery than I remember, and not particularly strong even when I use more than the proper serving. Gets a bit bitter without sugar, and I recommend trying it with half and half. Or put a pie in the oven.

Backlog:

OK so it surprised me that I hadn’t tried this tea from 52Teas since I’ve tried just about everything that Frank has created for at least the last couple of years (with the exception of the dog and kitty teas and possibly one or two of the peanut butter teas), and when I saw that this one was maybe going to be removed from the “permanent” collection, I wanted to try it before it disappeared.

I’ve tried a lot of Frank’s Pumpkin blends, and enjoyed most of them (can’t think of one right off hand that I’ve disliked). And I like this one too. I know that some people had their issues with this blend, but for me, I tasted pumpkin pie, and I was loving it! Sweet, pumpkin-y, with just the right amount of spice. A splash of milk gives it a nice creamy note that is really yummy.

Does anyone else hoard pumpkin tea so they can enjoy it all year round? Well this is the last pots worth of Pumpkin Pie tea from 5 Teas that I have at home with a few cups worth left at work (for emergencies). I still have some of the caramel pumpkin pie tea left which I prefer but that still leaves me a little sad to say goodbye to the original.

I was also sure I did a review for this but Steepster tells me otherwise. Shame on me, my mistake. I can put that right.

In raw form this tea has small cinnamon stick pieces amongst the black tea leaves and it has a wonderful thick, earthy pumpkin scent. Smelling it takes me back to Halloween.

Once steeped this dark red brown liquid has a cinnamon pumpkin aroma that warms my soul by just smelling it’s warmth.

Imagine a slice of pumpkin pie sprinkled with cinnamon on top and that is pretty much what this tastes like. It’s dark and rich with little sweetness but enough and a large cinnamon kick adding a warm spiciness. A little of this tea goes a long way in essence of flavour and if anything were to receive negative marks it would be the mouth drying after taste.

Certainly not something to drink to quench ones thirst but more to indulge in a late Autumn feast. Like a time machine that can change your surroundings by the click of a kettle and submersion into hot water.

another tea that hits the target!! I think “wow” is going to become that word I associate with 52Teas. The Wayne’s World throwback. Hey, do ya think they “drank” alota tea? ;P
This is a reallllllly good tea. It’s pumpkin pie in a cup!!! and just the way I love my chai teas— I’m very particular in chai, and don’t indulge often… but when I do, this is what I want. I never would have associated pumpkin (ok I know this is not an official chai but it certainly fits my bill for one!) with a traditional chai tea but it makes sense… I mean, the pie and chai borrow from the same spice rack. (hehe, I’m a poet)
I love how it lends that smooth pumpkin flavour, but balances it out so perfectly with the kick of nutmeg n friends.
With some sugar (really brings out the flavour) and milk, this could seriously stave me away from the oh-so tasty real thing.
Thank you Jenn for sharing!!!

YIPPIEEEEEE! I BOUGHT A STEEPSTER SELECT ITEM! Now that that’s out of my system here’s the confession. I haven’t got the first clue what pumpkin tastes like. Or smells like. Or anything. Pumpkin pie even less. In Denmark we get little bitty pumpkiny things for decoration in variating colours and shapes and big ones that people make pumpkin lanterns out of. It’s not something we really eat a whole lot of.

Therefore I’m not particularly concerned when everybody seems to complain about their various pumpkin pie teas not tasting all that much like pumpkin. Because… I wouldn’t know anyway. After the vanilla date debacle this probably ought to worry me a bit. I mean, what if it turns out I don’t like pumpkins at all?

Well, the smell of the leaves is sort of dark. It’s a dark smell. I can find the cinnamon but mostly it’s dominated by this other smell that I don’t know how to describe. Kind of spicey but not. Sweet but not. I’m reminded a bit of fennel which I suspect I shouldn’t, but it’s the closest I can get to a description.

It brews up a sort of dark golden. A bit like a dark liquid honey. The aroma is a bit like the loose leaves, but the tea itself is shining through, making the whole thing sweeter, less spicy (but not) and less of the fennel.

Okay, I oversteeped this a bit, I think. It’s got a very notable astringency like Indian black teas tend to get if you overdo it. I can’t figure out how to rate it because of this, as it’s difficult for me to look away from it.

I’m not going to give it a rating yet. I think I’ve ruined this pot. sigh Oh poot!

Dry, this blend smells very strongly of cinnamon, but once brewed it mellows out a bit. Definitely reminiscent of the pumpkin pie I baked last night! I added 1/2 packet sugar in the raw, and 2 tsp milk, which further melded the flavors into something like pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top. Mmm. Maybe I will try it again tonight with some actual pie!

Happy Thanksgiving, Steepsters!

My first sniff of the dried leaves smelled just like canned pumpkin with a little additional spice. But sniffs after that were more… pumpkin cider. And then more of a sweet chai. I’m missing the sweet bit that I had on the first sniff. All brewed up, I get more pie spice still, but the pumpkin is back a little. I’m expecting this to be very chai-like.

The taste isn’t a strong as I expected actually and after I swallow, a few pauses later I get an expanding taste of the tea base. Also a little warm spiciness is left on my tongue. There is also a distinctly different spice taste at the front. So each sip goes sweet spice, warm spice, nothing, spicy spice, pause, pause, pause, tea. Honestly, it’s the nothing that’s throwing me off. I can’t seem to taste anything when I hold the tea in my mouth. Even swishing it around, all I taste is just a spice aftertaste. Once I swallow, I get more spice but when the tea is in my mouth, I just get the post-warmth aftertaste. It’s really really weird.

I’m wondering if the sweet taste I get at the beginning is pumpkin. Or maybe the nothing taste is really pumpkin. Either way though, it’s overpowered by the spice when I sip so I just can’t get my tastebuds to it. But it’s weird because none of the tastes seem to blend. They are all separate. Standing there independently, not glancing at or even acknowledging the other tastes there.

With half a cup left, I put a little sugar in to see if that helps any. I’ve probably put too much sugar (maybe a quarter teaspoon) so I imagine at the very least this will be sweet now… And sugar did it no favors. Sure, now there is an underlying sweetness that attempts to mush the uncooperative tastes together but having that added sweetness makes the spice and the tea flavor at the end show up as bitter. Yes, I added sugar and I taste bitterness now.

Okay, before sugar, this cup was weird. After sugar, this cup is unpleasant. But I’m going to rate this on the better of the two tastes and go with the unsweetened cup. Which means instead of being gross, this cup was just… confusing.

I must be ready for Fall. This tea sounded so good today. Thank you to Jenn for the opportunity to try this one!

I definitely get the spice, the pumpkin is light and creamy. The tea base is satisfying. All in all, a great tea for Fall. The aroma is wonderful, and it tastes good, too!

24 oz teapot, 4 tsp tea, freshly boiled water, 4 minutes. Lightly sweetened.

Thank you Jenn for this sample, yo! You rule school goil.

Hmm, so I wasn’t a big fan of this tea :(
However I will give it credit, I totally tasted crust! Yummy graham crust. And that was cool.

However, it was a bit too spicy/astringent and not pumpkin-y enough for me, even thought I bet I wouldn’t be saying this if I wasn’t so hooked on Pumpkin chai by DT.

I AM however, really looking forward to the pumpkin cheesecake and pancake blend, I think those will hit the spot for me a little more.

In other news: HELP!
Could someone give me some hints on how to brew 52teas black teas a little better? Every one I have tried has been delish with cream/sugar, but too astringent just by itself. I want to be able to experience the subtle notes of flavours like cheesecake, pumpkin, etc.. but I feel like I’m doing it wrong. In some cases I see people describing flavours I can’t taste no matter how hard I try – Help?
Right now I’m brewing one teaspoon with freshly boiled water for 3-4 min. Cooler water maybe? Less steeping time? Thanks in advance friends!

This has a hint of pumpkin flavor. I was hoping the spices would be stronger, like a pumpkin spice or pumpkin chai, but that’s not what it is marketed as. It is a very warming drink. Halfway through the cup I added a tablespoon of pumpkin spice coffeemate and made more of a tea latte. Maybe a dash of cinnamon would be a nice final touch. This will be a good winter drink, the mellow warmth from the spices will be appreciated with cooler weather.

Got this from Lariel in a swap, thank you!

I’ve had a lot of pumpkin teas, as I’m sure a lot of you also have. I love pumpkin chai from DAVIDs, I love Chocolate Pumpkin Pie and Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie from Della Terra…I don’t love this pumpkin. I see that it’s also a chai, but I just don’t taste ANY pumpkin, just chai spices and clove. I don’t smell pumpkin either. I personally wouldn’t order it, but I’m stoked I got to try it because otherwise I would have thought every time I was on the website “should I get it? nahh I’ll just wait.”

Backlog from Monday—

This tea smells very strongly of spices. I’m not getting any pumpkin from the smell.
Once steeped up I find much of the same in smell & taste. Just a lot of spices & no pumpkin. I did get a pumpkin pie flavour at the end of a sip here & there, but it is not predominent. I find the spices very over powering.

Just waiting for this to cool down enough to drink :D Pretty tasty I’m not sure which I like more the red leaf tea matcha or this one… hmmmm.. I’ll have to think about it :D

I had a cup of this for breakfast. It had a very nice true pumpkin flavor with a nice clovey taste, but it was just very light. The dry leaves definitely smell stronger than the tea tastes, and I just wish it had a more bold flavor. Still a nice cup, though. Thanks Ninavampi!

-Dry blend has medium size black tea leaves with pieces of cinnamon and clove.
-Dry leaves smell strongly of cloves. Tea liquor aroma is of warm cloves and cinnamon.
-Tea liquor is a clear orange brown color.
-Warm pumpkin pie flavor with a subtle cinnamon finish.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Good tea. Subdued flavor of real pumpkin pie.

I love pumpkin, we have covered this, pumpkin pie is one of my favorite pies, and tea is one of my favorite drinks, so how could the combination possibly go wrong? Well, let me tell you.

This tea was decent, it was aromatic, smelled like real pumpkin as dry leaves and steeped tea. Now, anyone that has cooked/baked or done pretty much anything with real pumpkin knows just how bitter pumpkin can be. This unfortunately was all over the tea. It was a strong (and unfortunately bitter) pumpkin flavor with an inkling of cinnamon. The cinnamon flavor was almost completely lost instead of being complimentary and the bitterness of the pumpkin prevailed in flavor.

This tea was taken hot with sugar, perhaps more sugar and/or milk would have helped to mellow the bitterness and help blend the tea together more. Oh well, next time.

Overall, I do not think the tea was bad, it was quite good actually, it just missed “pumpkin pie” mark. It did hit “pumpkin” dead-on. Alas, my pumpkin tea search has ended, but the pumpkin pie tea search continues.

Right. At this point, Adagio has whipped my pumpkin pie tea expectations into a frenzy, so I am going to put a caveat on this rating in that it is extremely likely to change after I experiment a little bit more with this tea.

When I think pumpkin pie, I think rich, thick, and creamy, with sweet buttery crust. Does this tea live up to that? No, it does not. But it DOES have a discernible pumpkin taste, and given that achieving that seems to be notoriously difficult in the world of tea flavors, I must give it props.

The first time I tried this, I was pretty disappointed because it was kind of bitter, but the water was a teensy bit hotter [like 205] and I had let it sit a little bit longer [4:45 ish] so that could account for it. I also tried adding milk to it that first time, but it drowned out any flavor I was able to get out of it, so I steered clear of it on the second go round. The second time it still had some bitterness to it, but the pumpkin flavor was much more apparent. It reminded me of a pumpkin soup I had at a restaurant one time, though not nearly as creamy.

I might try to fix this up chai style eventually, but let’s be honest, that probably won’t happen for a while because I have too much other tea I want to get at. I also think that before I can truly appreciate a pumpkin flavored tea I need to work at scaling down my expectations. Actually, you know what? I’m going to leave the rating off of it this time and save that for when I’ve spent some quality time with this one. I’m feeling distracted at the moment and not solid enough on my opinion of this to rate it definitively.

I finally get to try 52 Teas Pumpkin flavored black. Very excited. Took a break from cleaning my room and I am enjoying every warm sip.

This is some seriously good pumpkin tea. In my top 3 pumpkin teas, much better than Twining pumpkin chai and a close second to David’s Tea Pumpkin Chai. It tastes a little more like pumpkin pie spices than pumpkin but it still tastes like pumpkin which is what makes it so awesome. I had it with a little brown sugar and a dash of cream.

Getting to the bottom of the cup, that was fast. I wonder how the leaves stand up to a second brewing.

Now I gotta try Frank’s other pumpkin teas. I have his Earl Black coming in the mail and can’t wait.

Mike: “It tastes like cardboard. It should be called cardboard spice.”

Not sure what the others thought of it.

^{Brewed in Big Glass Teapot}

Definitely getting the pumpkin here…but not the pie. There’s some spices, and a hint of sweet, but the pie comes across more in the scent than in the taste. There’s a slight bitterness to it, but it’s almost more of a blandness that really surprises me. I can smell the cinnamon, but not taste it.

Added brown sugar and milk to the second cup. Tastes like…brown sugar and milk, with some tea thrown in. Pumpkin is gone now.

Small sad.