Banana Nut Bread

I used about 2 tsp and steeped for 10 minutes – I didn’t experience the flavourlessness (not a word :P ) that other people have experienced!

I did however make the mistake of adding agave which made it waaay too sweet – it’s perfectly sweet on its own from the banana! I loved that the banana bits swelled and plumped up – I think they gave a lot of true banana bread flavour and I liked that.

Mike likes banana bread with chocolate chips, so he suggests blending it with a chocolate tea, or adding chocolate chips right into the mix!

I steeped this for 10 minutes based on other reviews here. I did test it at 5 minutes and it was fairly weak.

The brew is a nice light yellow. I noticed that there is some oil on the surface that I am guessing is from the oil in the nuts (or I hope so anyway). That is kinda weird.

So, anyway, I don’t usually go nuts for a banana flavoured tea. There have only been 2 that I liked so far. This ok, but it does taste a little artificial.

Not sure if I will stock this once my 20g sample is gone or not.

EDIT: I can also see why some people have said to use a t-sac for this one. It does leave a pretty gross mess in the infuser.

Classic impulse buy. I don’t even like banana-flavoured stuff that much, but come on, this has dates!

The dry mixture smells good, mostly like banana chips. Steeped, the tea smells like roasted mate. I’m one of those freaks who gets banana out of roasted mate. To my nose, this is a stronger, more obviously banana aroma.

The taste reminds me of roasted mate too. I should conduct an experiment sometime involving brewing this and Chocolate Rocket side-by-side, and see how similar these banana-like flavours truly are to me. This is also quite sweet. I can’t imagine adding anything to this. There is a hint of nuts but it’s not as strong as I had hoped.

Not bad, but I’d rather just eat some banana chips.

Wow, heavy tisane.

For reference, the 25g of Forever Nuts bag I got is as full as the 50g bag of Banana Nut Bread. So, this better not be too delicious as it can’t make that many cups.

I had an amazing smoothie for lunch that was PURELY fruit. It was amazing. I said that. Anyway all I want right now for some reason is fruit and I figured this might be a good thing to try for something different, since I loaded my smoothie with berries.

It’s pretty good, although I don’t get fully reminded of bread, it does have the right flavors.

I wish I saw the note to use a t-sac, oh man pulling the infuser out…nasty.

Huge thank you to Invader Zim for this tea. I love banana bread — so I’m really excited to taste DavidsTea’s version.

The first thing I notice is the incredibly sweet flavor. It reminds me a little bit of Forever Nuts only less tart. The rest of the taste is mainly banana. I like that the banana tastes a little bit nutty — not like the banana runts flavor I find in so many teas. I don’t taste anything that resembles bread.. but more of the bananas and nuts that someone would find as the actual ingredients.

This tea is sweet, nutty and has a little bit of a strange aftertaste. It’s almost sour? I don’t think that I would purchase more of this tea, but I’m glad that I was able to try a cup. It’s a little too strange for me.

So I did a Bad Thing again today, and stopped in at DavidsTea after hitting the gym… because there were ~9 or so teas I hadn’t tried and was dying to! Soooo now I have six cups of tea sitting here to review (!!!!) and they’re all cold, because I got distracted by an hour long phone call with the boy! Hazards of longish-distance dating, I suppose! Good thing I like cold tea.

This one’s first up, and the only one I intentionally bought more than 10g of, because it’s so heavy. The aroma of the dry tea reminds me quite a bit of DT’s Carrot Cake (which I didn’t mind, unlike many people), so it’s kind of sweet-ish and nutty, and if I sniff hard I can pick out banana.

I would like to sincerely thank those people who’s tasting notes I read beforehand who warned me not to use a difficult-to-clean infuser basket because wow, does this tea ever make a sticky mess! I used my ForLife all-metal filter, which is so much easier to clean than my Finum baskets. This tea brews up to quite a light colour, which I wasn’t really expecting, and the aroma is kind of banana-y (although it’s cold, so that might be unfair).

The flavour is quite sweet, nutty, and definitely banana-y. It’s also quite smooth (I’d attribute that to the banana) and if I try, I can imagine that I’m drinking a liquefied piece of banana bread. So overall, I think this tea is pretty successful! Unfortunately (well, kind of fortunately, I suppose!), I’m not the biggest fan of banana bread, so although I’m enjoying this cup, it’s not a tea I’d purchase again. I’ll enjoy the second cup that the rest of my 20g gives me (I was heavy on the leaf and made a larger-than-8oz cup). Also, I am getting just a bit of a chemically flavour from the tea. Not too strong, and not uncommon, but it is there.

Hmmm
I had high hopes for this one, but alas… no

It is just a light yellow banana type liquid. I am not getting anything “bready” from this concoction. Might need to steep the rest of it with some actual tea. It’s a bit better with some brown sugar but overall, not that great IMO. I much prefer the banana oolong. So far I am not overly impressed with the fall collection.

I got this in a swap from Sare, thank you!
The dry notes definitely smell like banana. But raisins in banana bread? I actually prefer my banana bread nutless. My Nanny makes the best banana bread.

The steeped notes smell bananaie, cake like and buttery. It even brewed up to look like melted butter. I allowed this to steep extra long because it was so light in colour.

This is really good. It’s like a piece of fresh banana bread with butter that has melted on it. It’s a little sweet for my liking, in the way of teas (which is weird, because I have a major sweet tooth), this almost rivals my Nanny’s banana bread and that’s definitely saying something.

Ick, there’s a yucky scum, powdery layer on the bottom.

I actually wanted to try my banana matcha which also came today (I got four packages in total today) but I knew the caffeine would probably keep me up.

This tea is pretty light in colour and the flavour is mild as well, but with each sip, you can still catch that amazing dry smell as well. It is kinda messy in my steeper so I think I will follow the advice o a fellow Steepsterite and sac it. It wasn’t too bad in the steeper but I can see how it might make it hard to clean in some infusers.

I think that I might get the special tin of this. It’s not amazing, but it is pretty good, and also (and this is important) is a nice comforting and cozy yet caffeine free tea that I can drink later in the evenings without fear of being kept awake potentially. Right now I have amaretto and orange blossom as my hot caffeine free teas, and some tof the herbals that I find are better iced as well…so this really does have a place in that evening comfort hot tea realm.

Wondering what the reusability of the steeped fruits is say in yogurt or oatmeal.

Can’t wait to see more reviews on this and see what people think.

From my Fall Collection sampler.

I was rather surprised by how little “tea” the 25g pouch contained…I scooped out 2 heaping tsp, then decided just to dump the whole thing into Chloe and make a 3 cup pot. So, little disappointed that I won’t get a second chance at brewing it if I messed this up, but one more sample of tea down, right?

Okay, so it does taste like banana nut bread. It does. Very banana-y, not too terribly much on the bread part, but definitely the nuts. Not the sweetness, no, but I’m sure that would be fixed with a little brown sugar…

Oh, sweet baby jeebus.

ETA: Whatever you do, put it in a tsac or other disposable steeping device!! You will have to wash, really, truly wash whatever you steep it in otherwise.

I got this as a sample in my last David’s order. Based on Steepster recommendations, I went for the upper end of the spectrum, steeping for about 8 minutes.

It’s still a very light flavored tea. There’s some sweetness from the banana. I fortunately don’t get too much of the nuts in here. It’s kind of banana flavored.

All in all, a “meh” tea. Nothing special. it was good for a cup but it’s not something I particularly want to have again. Or to clean out of my strainer. I missed the advice to use a T-sac. Now there’s just a big lump of mush in my ingenuiTEA.

I noticed that my sample didn’t contain any of the banana chips depicted in the online image, so perhaps that might be why mine lacked the banana taste that I was anticipating? Or is this normal? In any case, my sample is very nut intensive, which isn’t the best fit for my taste. Other not-so-great points about this tisane: I had to use my entire sample in one go and there is a slight oil film on this tea, which I find a little unappetizing. Overall not a bad tea, just not one that best suits my taste.

Another from this weekend. It was a sample from my recent order (odd considering I ordered the Fall Collection). This really did smell like banana nut bread as a dry leaf and while steeping. But sadly it didn’t taste like much when I drank it. Then again I did make it at work..so I won’t rate it until I can make it again at home.

This doesn’t even really qualify as a tisane- it’s trail mix! It’s made of huge pieces of dates, raisins, dried banana chips and nut bits. This may also be one of the most expensive products I’ve rated here on Steepster so far. A 25g pouch was only enough for 2 modest cups.

The fragrance was sweet and nutty. There was only one banana chip in the pouch, so that didn’t contribute much. The dates really stood out.

Once prepared, this made a drink that was essentially a fruit soup. The liquid was a light muddy brown. With the nuts floating in it, you don’t want to look at it too long.

The taste wasn’t too bad. The dates were sweet and the slight oil from the nuts gave it a bit of creaminess. There was a very faint note of banana, but I would have liked it much stronger.

Overall, I was a little disappointed with this one. The flavor wasn’t as balanced or deep as I would like and it was a bit expensive. I guess it was fun to try it once but I won’t be reordering.

Now I was a little surprised that this tisane barely changed the color of my hot water…and was therefore afraid it would just taste like hot water. I was also afraid that it would have that artifical dried pineapple kind of taste that I find some company’s banana teas do. NOPE, this is freaking awesome.

It smells like its hot in the oven, and it tastes a little less like the breadiness that I smell and more like the warm toasty banana-ness I want! My non tea drinking boyfriend again liked a tea! He didn’t want a full cup of it, but he also had real banana cream pie so it’s probably not comparable to him.

I love this, but I’m bummed at how little of my tin it fills when I empty my two 50 gram bags into it. Guess I’ll just have to buy more!

Oh my goodness. I’m definitely ordering this one before it goes away. I’m ordering LOTS. The smell, my god, the smell was divine. Banana bread, spot on. Both the dry tisane and the brew were luscious. This was yesterday’s after work tea, my relax and decompress tea. I needed it, mainly because I wore new shoes which on the walk from my car to my work building rubbed blisters on my toes. And then I had to wear them whenever I got up to go anywhere from my desk. And then I had to walk back to the car at the end of the day. I needed all the TLC I could get when six p.m. rolled around. This tea delivered.

I’m finding that between the Toasted Marshmallow tea and this tea, I might be relaxing my stance against sweeteners in tea. This one had raisins in it, which gave the tea a bit of sweetness, but wasn’t bad, as it (and I really hate to admit this) did bring out the flavor a bit. It was harmonious, like banana nut bread. It made the flavor truer. I’m finding, on consideration of the issue, that my stance on sweeteners may need some revising. Maybe I won’t automatically write off a tea because it has a touch of sugar, or stevia, or raisins, or marshmallows (when I think about what these flavoring elements actually mean to the sweetness and taste of the tea). What an earth shattering realization. Few things have been more constant in my life than my revulsion for sweetened tea.

Prepared 3 t in 750 ml water, at boiling, for 7 minutes.

Unlike many other fans, I’m a new sipper to this one and was excited since I know it was a front runner in the back from the dead contest last year (speaking of, anyone know if they’re doing that again this year? It was great!)

Anyways, I used half of my 10g sample of this in a perfect mug. Since it was an herbal with no hibiscus in it, I treated it similar to forever nuts and just let the stuff sit while I puttered around for a while. I guess it was about 10-15 minutes of a steep but have no clue for sure.

The flavour was lovely, and I can definitely see how it deserves its name. It is definitely a sweet tea, however, so if you aren’t a fan of naturally sweet flavours you may want to steer away from this one. Since I love sweets, and am trying to cut them out of my diet, this tea is definitely one I’ll be getting more of. I just wish it didn’t take so much to make a good cup since it is heavy.

Kristin sent me a sample of this and I tried it two nights ago, but I forgot to log it. The scent of this tea is just like warm, fresh out of the oven banana nut bread. Heavier on the nuts in the aroma than I could pick out in the taste, but the banana was definitely there. There was a bit of raisiny flavor and light spices mixed in. I added a bit of honey after the first few sips to sweeten it up and see if the banana came out more. This was enjoyable, thank you for the sample, Kristin!

Thanks jessiwrites for sending me this to cross off my list :)

My first sips are quite enjoyable. Mostly nutty with a hint of banana. There is a bit of a strange aftertaste. Not aversive, but strange.

I could see this being quite delicious with some sweetening, but I’ll pass on that since it’s good as it too.

I’ll be at my halfway point for exams today! Once the afternoon rolls around I’ll have 3 down, 3 to go. Yes!

Update April 18/13: I just wrote my 4th exam, just two to go now.

I cold brewed this overnight last night to see what would happen. I’d say I like it about equal to the hot version. It doesn’t necessarily taste the same, I’d just drink it either way happily. It has a much more banana scent and taste here, and that bizarre sweet-like aftertaste is slightly stronger in the cold version. It’s as though the cold just made the tastes pop out.

I was craving something sweet tonight and as soon as I saw my little sample packet of David’s Banana Nut Bread I knew that this was exactly what I wanted. The smell from the open packet made me think instantly of something salty and sweet (almost like a chocolate covered pretzel), and I got really excited. After steeping, the tea liquor was really, really pale in the cup (almost clear) and I got a little nervous. The initial flavor was more like that heavy bread taste than bananas or nuts, but as it cooled it became sweeter and more nutty. Once I added in sweetener and the banana flavor came out I became completely satisfied. This is a pretty good tea, maybe not one I would have every day but I may buy some just to keep in my stash for nights like this where I’m craving something sweet without all of the calories (or caffeine!)

-Dry blend is made up of pieces of dried fruits and nuts. Fruits plump up in water.
-Dry blend smells salty-sweet and nutty. Tea liquor smells like warm nuts.
-Tea liquor is almost clear, with a pale yellow tint.
-Bready flavor with a nutty finish. Sweetener brings out more of the banana flavor.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. Lightly flavored. Initial taste is more of bread than bananas, but sweetener brings out a nice banana finish.