52Teas Send Message

This is the tea of the week for December 13. It was inspired by a Ukrainian candy – there are several different fruit flavors of the candy (not sure if it’s a brand name or if it is just the name of the type of candy) but the first one that I tried and adored – was the apricot. The candy tasted of apricot & chewy, buttery caramel/toffee.

My thoughts after trying the candy was “I need to make a tea with this kind of flavor profile.” And so I did.

The black base is strong, but tastes really nice with the notes of apricot and the hints of caramel. YUM!

The 8th Tea of Christmas! I was really happy that this tea won a spot in this year’s box, a little surprised too – because it’s been a few years since I last reblended it (I think the one and only time I reblended it was for the start-up Kickstarter rewards.)

So, I just reread the tasting note that I wrote 9 years ago for this tea (back when Frank first blended it) and it mentioned that I was drinking the tea at almost 7 pm – because I had gone back to bed after getting my “little one” off to school so my day started a little late. That little one that I got off to school is now in college. Wow.

Anyway, this tea: sweet, creamy & tasty mango. I wish I could somehow nail my favorite mango ice cream (that would be Baskin Robbins Triple Mango Ice Cream. If you happen to find the tea in your local Baskin Robbins, try it!) I just haven’t been able to find a way to nail that flavor – without overwhelming the black tea base. Maybe if I try it on a different base – anyway – until I do find a way to replicate the flavor of my beloved Triple Mango Ice Cream – I find this tea to be very satisfying!

I was inspired by the idea of a traditional English Christmas Pudding (dessert? In this case, I was thinking along the lines of a dense, fruit filled spice cake) & traditional American Pudding (you know, like a custard). I took these two ideas & put them into one tea. You get the fruit notes of date, figs & a hint of orange, you get some spice notes & you get a creamy, custardy note. It’s really tasty & as I mentioned in my description of this tea, this is the tea I’m putting out for Santa this year. (Because FYI: Santa prefers tea to milk. Anything contrary to this fact that you may have heard is propaganda spread by the dairy industry. That said, this tea does make a pretty nice latte & I’ve not been paid by the dairy industry to say that.)

I really love how this tea turned out. It has a lovely combination of fig, date & orange notes with just the right spice note. Slightly creamy. Slightly cake-y. Just – TASTY!

The 7th Tea of Christmas! I’m happy to be enjoying this tea again. It’s been a while since I last reblended it (Holiday Box 2018). I love this blend.

I definitely prefer our green tea blend as a green tea base versus Chinese Sencha, although sometimes, Chinese Sencha does work well & I think it would have worked well with this particular blend since Chinese Sencha has a natural creaminess to it – so it would have worked well with the custard-y notes. Maybe sometime, I’ll try it like that. I do recall that when it came time to first create this blend, I was kind of “anti Chinese Sencha” because I felt like that was the only green tea base that Frank used (it wasn’t – he did occasionally use a different base but it would usually be a VIT blend & that was something I wanted to change . . . & I did! So, that’s why this blend ended up with the Chun Mee & Gunpowder base.

Probably more than you wanted to know about why I used this base.

Anyway, this is tasty: sweet, creamy, custard-y notes with a delightful berry note. I love the berry tingle at the finish – it lingers. Very tasty, indeed.

As I sip this – there is one pouch of it left. The subscriptions have already been shipped out & most people should receive their boxes tomorrow (according to tracking information) – so I hope I’ll be seeing more reviews of this tea.

I am in love with this blend. The sweet, custard-y, creaminess of the eggnog notes with the tart cranberry & the hint of bittersweet notes from the nutmeg are so delightful. The Chinese Sencha works well with this blend. It’s a very harmonious, flavorful cuppa.

The 6th Tea of Christmas – this time around, I made a few adjustments to the recipe out of necessity – because when I ordered the essence to create this tea, it would seem that I placed the order for pecan essence rather than walnut. So, this tea has been flavored with pecan essence (still nut free!) rather than walnut. To be honest – I think I like it better with the pecan. But maybe that’s because that’s what is right in front of me. I’m sure that had I managed to order the right stuff, I would be sitting here typing that the tea tastes delicious the way it is & it would not have crossed my mind for pecan to even come into the conversation.

Perhaps I will need to reblend this again sometime in the next year or so – with walnut flavoring. We’ll see.

Anyway, I love this tea. I’ve missed it – the last time I blended this – I think it was for the Kickstarter contributor rewards – so it’s been a while. I love the buttery notes, I love the nuttiness, I love the smooth flavor of the black teas & of course, I love the banana.

YUM!

It’s the 5th Tea of Christmas! After my supplier gave me a sample of the Singbulli Oolong, I knew I had to have some of it. I know that there’s some debate on whether or not a “Darjeeling” can be an “Oolong” and/or vice versa. I personally do not care if you choose to call this an Oolong or a Darjeeling (or both). But my supplier calls it a Singbulli Oolong so I’m going with that.

And whatever you choose to call it – it’s delicious.

The flavor of the tea – without any flavoring – it’s crisp, lightly sweet & fruity (similar to a Darjeeling) with a slightly thick & creamy texture (similar to an Oolong) so my first two thoughts when it came to blending the tea was that a fruit note would be nice – as would be a creamy flavor (possibly a nutty flavor) – so I brought both of these ideas together with this blend.

The cranberries are tart & tangy – but that tart edge is softened from the chestnut notes. I love the creaminess of this tea, as well as the light, fruity notes. It’s really a lovely combination of flavors – I wasn’t sure exactly how it would turn out when I first blended it but I absolutely loved it at first sip – I didn’t even need to tweak this or anything else – it was perfect right after it’s first cure.

I only wish I had ordered more of the tea at the time – because there are extremely limited quantities of this blend! I suspect this one will go quickly.

The 4th Tea of Christmas! I love this tea & I was so happy when it won a spot in this year’s box. It’s one of the teas from my first year as the mad tea artist for 52Teas – so I’m so happy that it’s back!

I am enjoying the combination of rich, satisfying black teas with the bright, sweet tangerine & the fluffy creaminess of the marshmallow. It all melds together very nicely in one sip.

Just a note for those of you keeping track of the teas that you’ll want to order from the 12 Teas of Christmas box, these teas will be put on the website on the 28th of December. For those of you who ordered the box, you get first dibs & can email me/DM me between December 25 – 28.

I’m a little bit behind on posting this – the 3rd Tea of Christmas – yesterday was a pretty busy day. We got all the subscriptions out (not trying to jinx it, but I might be getting caught up – finally!) plus ran quite a few errands – which isn’t fun to do because everyone else is out doing their holiday shopping. So, by the time I got home, I was too tired to even get my Breville brewing – so I just curled up under my blankie and went to sleep.

Since this is a caffeine-free blend, I decided to hold off until now to drink it – because I need caffeine in the morning.

But this is a lovely tea for right now & maybe I’m a little biased when it comes to this tea but I think even Walter Bishop would approve.

Today’s tea in the 12 Teas of Christmas countdown is a caffeine-free tea and right now, I need caffeine!

Lemme just say, when it’s chilly outside, there are few things more comforting than wrapping my hands around my mug when it’s full of hot tea! So right now, I get comfort – and caffeine!

I blended this tea because: a) I wanted another pear tea this year; and b) I wanted another ginger tea this year. The pecan notes are a bonus. (Mostly because I bought pecan essence when I meant to order walnut essence – but that’s another story entirely) I really enjoy how this blend came together. The pecan notes are forward, but the pear and ginger are present and bring their own flavor to the cup in a really lovely way. It’s sweet & nutty with just a little bit of zesty warmth from the ginger. Of the three flavors, I find that the ginger is the softest note, but it develops as I continue to sip.

A tasty, chilly weather inspired cuppa that’s perfect for this morning!