A sample from VariaTEA. I was curious to try this one, as I’ve not come across many peanut butter teas before. I used 1 tsp of leaf, in 170 degree water for 2.5 minutes.
To taste, this is initially a pretty standard genmaicha blend. Smooth, relatively sweet/grassy green tea, accompanied by a deep toasty flavour. There’s a touch of creamy marshmallow towards the end of the sip, but it really is only a touch. There might be a slight nuttiness in the aftertaste, but I’m not 100% certain on that. The toasted rice/green tea combination also comes across as slightly nutty-tasting, so I may just be confusing one with the other. There’s certainly nothing that makes me think of peanuts, or peanut butter, per se.
While this is a tasty blend if you like genmaicha, and the marshmallow flavour is pleasing, I’m inevitably a little disappointed by the lack of “peanut butter”. I suppose it’s not possible to like everything, but I think it’s fair to say that my love of 52 Teas is starting to wane. The last few I’ve tried just haven’t remotely lived up to the promise of their names, and that’s disappointing.
I have the same problem with some of their teas, for example their cheesecake teas have always been lost on me. Though this last year Frank’s blends have not been great in general.