52teas

TTB26 round… 3? idk. YAY TEA! This box was a nice way to cut into the mess that is currently happening. It’s not terrible, and I know I shouldn’t complain because there are people suffering far worse afflictions when it comes to plants anyway…. Like tea farmers and those caterpillars… But gnat invasion in house plants… ugh… And my chocolate sapote now have hundreds of soil mites. Fine for outside but I will have to bring them in at some point and … yeah no thank you.
Anyway… I don’t really do flavored tea anymore but this just sounded interesting. I also do highly enjoy rooibos. Both kinds. This one is…. Okay. The rooibos flavor is nice but I think they fight each other a bit too much. But then you mix in the cherries and it gets a little cough syrupy. The pineapple reminds me of that sugar coated stuff.

I don’t love lime teas, so this isn’t my favorite. I’m having it sweetened cold, and it’s not bad, it’s just a little fake limey for me. Limeade is a good description for this one!

This tastes super floral, but also like grapes or berries. I removed most of the rose petals since I’m not a rose fan, and that made the level of floral flavor okay for me. It tastes pretty nice cold with sugar and milk. Black tea is a good base for this.

The black tea is quite hearty, almost bitter, but not quite. The vanilla definitely comes through too. This one tastes straightforward, but high quality for sure!

Traveling Tea Box Tea #33
I snagged some last servings from the teabox before it moved along, so I could save room (and also drink them at a later time.)  Excited to try this one!  Sprinkles!  Chai!  Cake!   Really, I probably like sprinkles in my tea more then in my cake or ice cream —  they are just annoyingly crunchy in something I have to eat, but not if I have to DRINK sprinkles… I am sure they add a bit of sweetness here.  Otherwise, this is a solid chai from 52Teas, with a deep enough black tea for my tastes.  I see that there is a bit of honeybush here, which is a genius move on Anne’s part, as I bet it somehow adds to the cake effect.  However, I didn’t taste obvious CAKE here, but to be fair, this is now a three year old blend.  The second steep really just seems like a traditional, non-cake chai.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling //  2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5-6 min

I’ve had a million chocolate mint teas over the years, and this is definitely one of the better ones! There’s no murkiness. There’s a good ratio of chocolate to mint. I’m drinking it cold with milk and sugar, and it’s lovely. Not special enough to seek out, but enjoyable!

This really does taste custardy! It’s gentle and nice! As it sits, I taste more of the fruity flavor and the base tea. I especially enjoy this cold with milk and sugar. It’s so desserty!

Sipdown 14 – 2026

Logging the sip down

The strongest flavor I taste is honey. Everything combines to taste pretty sophisticated and nice. I taste the floral element, and if I’m concentrating, I can even see some cakiness! This is a nice one!

Hmm this one is sometimes murky for me, like the cherry is fighting with the other flavors. I wanted it to be light and bubbly, but the cherry is too medicinal, and the red rooibos only accentuates that. I wish I tasted pineapple!

This tastes like cantaloupe and honey and delicious cinnamon. It’s complex and well-rounded and so good!! I like it best cold with milk and sugar. I could really drink this every day!

I forgot to check what was special about this blend, but it just seems like a nice classic EG creme. Apparently it has cranberry? I wish I could taste that. Good resteep and tasty EG though!

This tastes like a fruity black tea, and I could see it being fig. It could be even more distinct, but I thought the flavor was really interesting and pleasant!

TTB. Made this with soy milk and a dab of honey. Lightly spicy, mostly cloves and cinnamon. A little heavy on the clove, though I might have just gotten too much clove in this particular scoop. Kind of a birthday-cake creaminess, but I’d like that element to be stronger. Not bad, but not my favorite 52teas blend.

I don’t particularly love the Starbucks drink that I think this tea is inspired by. The individual components are tasty, but I just don’t think the sweet, bright cherry notes of the cold foam go very well with the spices. I wondered if I might feel the same about this tea, but it’s a lot more harmonious to me. That said, it is kind of giving more of a Doctor Pepper or Cherry Cola profile rather than a chai. I suppose both of those sodas are technically spiced, so it makes sense. But there’s where my brain kept going as I sipped this. The only thing I don’t really love is how much sediment makes it into the cup. It makes for a bit of a muddy liquor, and those last few sips have some grit to them because of it…

TTB. I saw CrowKettle’s note and followed their lead in steeping at a lower temp. I went with 205f but accidentally left it to steep for 7 minutes (d’oh). Added a splash of oat milk. The result was very creamy, with an on-point cheesecake flavor and fairly mild chai spices (mostly clove). I didn’t really detect a pumpkin flavor here. This was an easy drinker but not particularly distinctive – could be because the leaf is on the older side, I screwed up the brew, etc. Glad I got to try it though!

Apples and peanut butter was one of my favourite afterschool snacks as a kid, and I think there’s something just super playful and fun about taking that and making it into a tea. I’m definitely going to need to revisit this because I 100% got that sweet, crisp taste of freshly sliced apples but I don’t really recall tasting the peanut butter side that strongly? It was still a really nice cup of tea though! I had another of Anne’s apple blends (a white tea) not too long ago and I was really impressed with how the apple taste came off in that one too. It’s just so juicy and authentic feeling.

52teas advent calendar – day 8

Finished this off during the workday and utterly failed to take notes. Here’s what I remember: I liked this best with a splash of oat milk and a dab of honey, and it was a fun EG blend but not my favorite. (But also I don’t generally love EGs so take that with a grain of salt)

52teas advent calendar – day 5

Ok, I think this tea is at a disadvantage because I’ve had a good number of 52teas blends, especially genmaichas and holiday blends, and am measuring against those. The eggnog oolong (last year?) was just a better match for the eggnog flavors than a genmaicha is. Somehow this reads more like a vanilla genmaicha than particularly eggnog-y. Still good! Just not my favorite version of this flavoring.

It’s hard to go wrong with a mint chocolate blend, and this one feels quite classic. On the sweeter side with a lingering chocolate note that makes me think a bit of chocolate liqueur over a more “authentic” cocoa note, but not in a way that is unpleasant. Its sweetness matches the expectation that I get from the comparison to mint chocolate ice cream from the image here on Steepster, and the mint is strong enough to stand up to it. A little cooling in the finish. Just well-rounded feeling!

Steeped this one up near the end of last week. The chestnut notes with the oolong totally slap, but it’s really that golden beeswax sort of honey note that I REALLY love in this blend. Can’t get enough of it – and I’ve discovered that tacking on a few extra minutes of steep time really bring out that flavour!

I like Anne’s other chestnut blends but I don’t know if I’ve ever been wowed by any of them. To be fair, I’m not sure if I’ve ever properly been wowed by any chestnut tea. This one, however, might be my favourite to have crossed paths with. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I really, really like the honey flavouring that Anne uses in her teas though. It’s smooth, sweet and just a bit creamy with an undertone that really makes me think of beeswax candles. I think it perfectly suites the deeper, toasty and mineral notes of the chestnut and the oolong in this blend!