Buttered Cinnamon Raisin Toast Flavored Black Tea

This tea flippin terrifies me. I can’t stand the taste of anything burnt and snow bud tastes very buttery to me… but it seemed to be calling to me… taunting me really… "Come on, you know you just have to try me!

The aroma of the raw leaf is sweet, raisiny. But there’s also a cinnamon toast aspect to it. Yes, not just cinnamon red hots. This REALLY surprised me because cinnamon can be a very selfish, demanding, bratty flavor, but this definitely has a fresh baked bread aspect to it. No butter though.

The liquor is a slightly red brown color and the aroma is that of the raw leaf except for the addition of a fairly strong black tea base.

Ok, this does not taste like a cup of burnt melted butter… YAY! Black tea- check. Raisn- check. Cinnamon- check. Toast- more in the texture than the taste, but it is there. Now for the butter… I can’t fathom butter in a tea so I’m having a hard time identifying it… or even deciding if I can identify it… but I think I detect it in the texture along w/ the toast…

Anybody to read my tasting notes knows that flavored teas are a pretty touch-and-go thing for me. I’m very picky about the authenticity and strength of things; it doesn’t take much to turn me off of them. 52teas.com scared the bejeebers out of me when I first saw it, but I had pretty resounding success with quite a few blends from that site, and I suppose I’m getting more adventurous, because the recent Select deal saw me taking the opportunity to order EIGHT bags from Frank on the cheap — stuff I thought I might not otherwise get, just to try it. Plus, it’s always nice to support a small business owner!

I didn’t realize zoomdweebies was such a huge site, either, until I went poking around. Gonna have to explore that more later for sure!

Reading tasting notes about Frank’s tea always makes me curious about shelf dates. Hey Frank! If you’re ever in the mood (for whatever crazy reason) to give yourself even more work, some blended-on dates might be handy.

The reason I mention this is because I think the flavor profile of these flavored, blended teas probably shifts across a spectrum the longer they sit on the shelf. Some of the tasting notes for this, people mentioned smelling butter when they opened it, or cinnamon. I got neither — the dry leaf smelled pretty much exclusively like raisins, and raisin seems pretty likely to increase its presence over time. I worried it would be like the raisin oolong (which I have, and which is actually a decent tea — it sets out to accomplish ‘raisin tea’ and achieves it with flying colors, it’s just a flavor that I, personally, tend to want only intermittently).

The cup as it’s steeping smells more like what I was hoping for — still mostly raisin, but there’s a nice shot of some spicy cinnamon in there to flesh things out now, too. Mmm, yes. The longer it sits the more I like the way it smells!

I’ve noticed that Frank’s black teas have a mild astringency that I might not care for in a plain leaf tea, but which really works to the benefit of the flavored teas I’ve tried. It seems to tighten up the flavors a little bit, at least for me — make them seem a bit more crisp.

Now that things have cooled off, I can state with authority that you ought to let the cup cool a bit. The flavors have come into line, everything seems to have smoothed out and gotten more balanced. Really a big fan of the smell coming out of my cup.

So glad I ordered this one. :) It’ll probably disappear fast!

On to the next one!

Whoa! This has a strong grape/raisin flavor. As it cools, and if I close my eyes, I can sort of taste raisin toast. Honestly, no raisin toast tastes as raisin-y as this tea. Does this mean I don’t like it? No. I had 2 cups last nite and 2 cups this AM. So, would rank this as a winner…..

Mmm, such a nice morning tea when I’m not rushing around. I don’t really eat breakfast as such most days, and well, today I woke up at 11, so I may as well wait an hour and just have lunch. This tea screams “breakfast” so much, though, that I really feel as if I HAVE had some.

It’s a little more buttery today than the first time I tried it, which was freaking me out a bit at first, but I’ve gotten used it now. The raisin is stronger as well, I think. The only problem I have with this tea is that it does leave me feeling a bit thirsty – kind of like I need to rinse out the butter taste from my mouth, but I guess that’s just going to happen with a tea this substantial.

LiberTEAs spoiled me!!!

When I saw this I KNEW I was crazy enough to try it.

When I was scrolling thru the reviews again I said to myself ‘okay…everyone seems to like it…what’s the deal-E-O?" Then it happened. 2 low, low, low reviews. It doesn’t scare me! Bring it on!!!

One thing that made me laugh while reading the 52 teas description about the butter flavoring was…OH MY GOSH…I’m going to drink butter? Then I just chuckled it off…

YUP! It smells like Cinnamon Raisin Toast, indeed. I am unable to smell the butter tho. BUT…I don’t slap on much butter – if any – while eating toast – so…maybe it’s the same case scenario!?

YUP! I can taste the black tea, the toast, the cinnamon (thankfully it’s not over the top), and the raisin. It’s hard to taste the butter but just as it starts to travel down my esophagus I can taste a hint of it, I guess.

As for the toast part…the more I drink this – the more I can taste the toast as an after taste.

This is a neat little creation and I appreciate the fact that it’s different. It’s surprisingly good and am glad you can still taste the black tea. To me…it makes a true flavored black tea that way.

Very Fun!

I started my day with this tea – and I only have enough for one more pot of it! It is one that will definitely be missed, I loved the buttery flavor of this tea, as well as how the other flavors came together… sweet cinnamon (not spicy), slightly toasty black tea, raisin, and butter, I can taste them all. YUM!

But, I suppose all good things must come to an end (something I am learning this week as I watched the final episodes of both Lost and 24 – two of my favorite shows) :(

I chose as my dessert tea tonight because I haven’t had it in awhile. I’ve amassed so many teas to sample since I first got this that it has fallen to the wayside. Poor neglected tea!

This is still yummy, but the overall flavor seems thinner and less robust than I remember. The cinnamon seems to have eaten up the raisin-y plummy taste! But that’s okay—I love cinnamon.

I may need to double up on the leaf next time to get more of the “raisin toast” flavor.

Okay so I’ve now had this tea three times. I waited awhile to review it as I thought maybe this is the kinda tea blend that will grow on me. Sadly no it’s not growing on me I do enjoy the smell of the dry leaf but once steeped I don’t get raisin I get fig or plum? On my last sip I do get a little crisp toasty flavor so while I don’t get the butter flavor which maybe a good thing. I don’t totally hate this tea I can see while people do enjoy this tea and I think that the flavors are there I just prefer a stronger range of flavors in my tea. Unless I’m having a green or white tea of course. I’ll rate this one high up there for being spot on flavor wise but it is not something I personally would reorder.

My hubby and son say this tea smells just like Honduran tamales. Which would make since since one of the ingredients in a Honduran tamale is raisins. I know your thinking raisins in a tamale(?) LOL all I can say is it’s a tropical thing! You’d have to taste to understand.

What the hell, this tastes EXACTLY like buttered cinnamon raisin toast! So much so that its actually blowing my mind (and its taking all my restraint not to type this tasting note entirely in caps). Did 52teas make cinnamon raisin bread, toast it, butter it then cut it into tiny tea-leaf-shaped bits?!? Either that or magic are they only reasonable explanations for the bang-on flavour of this tea.
The aroma of buttered cinnamon raisin toast was present in the dry leaves, with the resulting brewed tea being a bit more buttered-raisin on the nose and first sip, the cinnamon-toast comes through on the aftertaste. Its even more perfect if you add a splash of milk!

This was my first tea from this company (they were awesome enough to give shipping to New Zealand a go) and it will definitely not be my last. Gah, I still can’t get over how amazing this tea is!

The smell of this one is exactly like Buttered Cinnamon Raisin Toast! I was so impressed. I steeped this, threw in a bit of sugar, and sat down to work on some Sociology work. The smell is mostly cinnamon. The taste, however, is wonderful! It tastes like cinnamon and raisins, with a little smoothness that suggests butter. Wow! I really, really like this one. 52teas is 5 for 5!

I don’t know I am really not tasting this. It tastes funny. I will try again and hope I can bump this up. I had such high hopes.:-(

Needed to wake up this morning. Brewed up a huge cup of this, infused hot, four minutes, added four rocks of sugar and a tablespoon of half and half.

The aroma of the tea is toasty, a little bitter raisin smell, with a hint of cinnamon. The flavors all blend very nicely: creamy, slightly sweet, cinnamon, raisins, toasty black tea. Absolutely wonderful.

52teas has done a remarkably consistent job of producing new flavor blends that are characterized by strong, true, vivid, lively flavor. They are a real antidote to the many insipid teas out there.

The smell of the dry leaves blew me away. There’s no way that a person could distinguish this odor from a good Cinnamon Raisin bread toasted, with butter. And the taste carried through. Truly delicious, I could almost feel the toast crumbs at the side of my mouth.

I must commend 52teas for having a plethora of ingenuity when it comes to envisioning teas. They like big, bold, true tastes and I’ve yet to encounter one of their teas that had a hint of “false” or “synthetic” flavor. Their teas are consistently satisfying, rich, hearty blends that sometimes break my heart with their purity! (In a good way). Their base blacks are very high quality; strong, friendly, and adaptable.

I think you owe it to yourself to visit their web page and see what they have that grabs your attention. I have become so addicted to the weekly delivery of what promises to be an amazing tea experience, that I signed up for the 6 month subscription.
No affiliation….

I have tried this tea black and with sugar and milk. It is great both ways. The sugar and milk were nice, but it’s sweet enough on its own. The flavors are strong and true and were not overwhelmed in the least by the milk or the sugar. Excellent concoction.