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Sipdown of my Butter Pecan Black Tea sample!

I don’t love this tea as much as some others from this brand, but this is one SERIOUSLY comforting cup of tea. I am going to miss it.

From the 52Teas reboot.

This is one that I put off drinking for awhile. In general, I am not a fan of any melons, except watermelon, so the melon in the tea had me a little hesitant.

That said, on my first steep of this, I was rushed out the door after making it and didn’t get to drink it until i came back, a few hours later. So, it was cold.

And it was one of the most refreshing teas I have ever drunk! The cucumber helps with that a lot, of course. I was afraid I would be getting way too much melon in it, but the melon adds just a hint of sweetness, not overpowering at all. The spice is nice and subtle too, just a tiny bit of heat in the background that contrasts with the cucumber and melon. It’s an excellent tea for a hot summer day (well, I’m in Texas, so technically, that could be just about any day of the year), and I’m very glad I gave it a try, even if it did take me forever. I may need to get myself a larger size of this one.

Steep #2: I wasn’t sure how the cucumber and melon bits would hold up to a resteep the next day, so I tried it. It’s nice. This time, the tea is lukewarm, since I didn’t leave it siting out for three hours before drinking it. The cucumber and melon are still present, though they aren’t quite as strong as they were yesterday. The bite is still subtle, but a little more present, today – I’m identifying it a little more distinctly as ginger or peppercorn, but I’m leaning towards ginger. It’s still very nice, and I think the heat helps the spices stand out a little more – I think they got a little muted in the cooldown yesterday. I think the cold tea upped the refreshing factor, though.

This is actually my second time having this tea. From the first, I remember a light, sweet maple flavor edged by the “nuts” (in this case, the sunflower seeds. which i ate afterwards).

I heated the water to about 203 degrees, and am letting it steep for four minutes, as per the instructions.

Dry, the leaves give off a very pleasant maple scent that whets my appetite. Tea-petite? (I’m feeling a little silly this morning.) And it’s actually been six minutes, so let’s see if I can drink the tea yet.

I can suck it through my teeth, but can’t quite “drink” yet. That first sip came close to burning my tongue, but didn’t quite make it there. But, that gorgeous maple swishes across my taste buds again, sweet and complex. I’m still getting hints of the “almond” but it’s not an in-your-face flavor. It’s more like it rounds out the edges of the maple, giving it more complexity.

A few minutes later….

Ok, that’s drinkable now without burning my tongue. At this point, the sunflower seeds are coming out swinging, relegating the maple to to sweeten the background. Still nice, and I’m glad the maple hasn’t disappeared yet. I think I preferred the maple in the forefront, though. The nuts in the foreground give the tea a tinge of bitterness. It’s not unpleasant, but I liked it a little better the other way.

Probably about the only thing that keeps me from ordering a large of this one is that I now have way too much tea for the space I’ve got, and I really need to finish some of it. (Not that that always stops meChocolateRoseTruffleI’mlookingatyou.) I’m not sure whether I’ll miss this tea when it’s gone, but I’m sure going to enjoy it while I’ve got it.

Didn’t really check the temperature or steeping time today. I overslept, and was a little too tired to think about those details. This pouch sort of jumped out at me, so i went for it. Put the water to heat for about a minute forty, and put about a teaspoon of tea into the tea ball, and let it steep. Some time later (maybe about 15-20 minutes or so), I took a sip. It was still warm, but not hot.

The tea tasted beautiful.

It reminded me of green chai, really, even though there was nothing but the tea leaves in this, I think. I don’t know, maybe there was a bit of mint in there. That’s what it tastes like, anyway. No sweetness, but a little bit of tingle like from mint.

I love it. I’m going to have to steep this a few times today, too.

Ok, this is one of the most perfect cups of teas I’ve had. I made this yesterday, but ended up steeping it three times. Rather than have the chocolate filtered, I plucked the chips out of the filter and put them straight in my cup.

The recommendations suggest a heaping teaspoon per 12 oz. I had about 10 oz of water, so left off the “heaping.”

I think because the chocolate chips were in the bottom on my cup, the sweetness was a little more concentrated towards the bottom of the cup. Most of the cup was subtly sweet and beautifully floral. Then, as I got to the bottom of the cup, the sweetness gets a bit stronger, but still beautiful. One of the best cups of comfort I’ve had in awhile.

One the second and third steep, I increased the steeping time to 3 and 4 minutes, respectively.

I have to admit, I’m not the biggest fan of pineapple in general, but I wanted to see if the marshmallow in this made any difference to me (after all, I do seem to enjoy pina coladas despite the pineappleyness – so apparently I don’t mind it in certain combinations).

I can taste the pineapple, and I can taste the marshmallow. I do particularly like the marshmallow flavor – it reminds me of cereal marshmallows, still crisp and dry, though soaking in milk. Very nice. I don’t mind the pineapple, either. But somewhere between the two, I’m getting a very soapy flavor (I’ve gotten that from one other tea before, though at the moment, I’m blanking out on the brand – it was a coconut rum tea, I think – though the soap flavor was a lot stronger on that one).

I get the feeling that this particular tea may just not be for me. I definitely appreciate the marshmallow flavor when I get it, but that’s the main draw of this one for me, and there’s so many others I like better. I’m not going to make a recommendation on this one, though, since someone who does like pineapple might have a very different experience.

Mmmmm, this came out beautifully this time. At first taste, each sip is primarily tea and nuts, but the buttery sweet banana bread comes out as the tea lingers on my tongue. It’s almost over too soon as the tea slides down. It’s still subtle, but I’m definitely getting all the flavors this time.

Now that the weather’s finally getting a bit colder (that sounds like I’ve been waiting for that – I’m still a summer girl, though), this cup of hot tea is perfect for getting me to wake up in the morning, with a sweet, but not too sweet breakfast. It warms me through, where the cold wants to put me to sleep.

I did actually follow the brewing instructions this time (although, it did cool down a lot longer than 5-8 minutes before I drank it.. The tea was a much lighter color than I’d expected.

The banana is strong with this one. For that matter, so is the bitter. They clash, but at the same time, I’m kind of enjoying it. I… don’t really know what to think of this one. I like the banana, and I like the Tie Guan Yin… I just keep going back and forth on whether I like them together. It’s almost like I have two cups of tea, and I’m alternating taking sips from each one, and letting them mingle in my mouth. They’re just not coming together.

Note, if I take a giant gulp, rather than sipping at it, I actually get a more balanced flavor. In fact, the longer I drink this tea, the more I like it!

I think I’m going to try a second brewing at a slightly lower temperature, see if I can bring out the sweeter side of the Tie Guan Yin. I think that would go better with the banana.