52teas

The flavor is mostly a pleasant rooibos, but I get some strawberry in there too. It’s good warm or cold with sugar and milk. It doesn’t really remind me of a milkshake, but it’s probably the best strawberry rooibos I’ve had. The flavors go together really nicely. I had a quite milky last cold resteep of this and finally saw the milkshake idea. This is another one I wouldn’t mind a bigger bag of.

Made this earlier and I didn’t pay super close attention but remember chocolate.

Sipdown 48

Coldbrew. I enjoyed this more hot. Tot much peach detectable when coldbrewed.

Using this for the prompt “an African tea” (for the honeybush base).

I’ve never had a kumquat, so I don’t really have any knowledge to compare the flavor to… but what I got was a citrusy flavor that was also slightly melony? Like a cross between an orange and honeydew, with a touch of citric sharpness. The honeybush itself was very smooth for me… Usually I get strong peppery notes from it, but there were none this time, instead it was quite woody with a cinnamon sort of edge to it.

A nice cuppa on a (surprising!) rainy evening. I have hardly touched a hot cup of tea in weeks, as coldbrew season has fallen upon me, and it was warm and comforting and hit the spot as I provided my lap as a heated bed for the Chiya cat.

So I have decided to renew my quarterly subscription for 52 teas. I have really enjoyed what I have gotten so far and I think 15 g for me is enough to enjoy a tea but also not be struggling to keep up and sip it down. :) Plus, lots of variety and delicious blends.

Preparation: Western
Tasting note: First opening the bag of the tea, it smelled very lemonade-y which was a nice surprise. Sipping it after it has cooled down, it is a pretty mild green. It has a light bit of citrus but not enough to be considered strongly tart or pithy.

The tea with the marshmallow root is pretty soft and pillowy. It’s not strong or malty or anything, just sort of a mild background presence. There’s a bit of a citrus flavor, but it’s not too tart. This one is best overleafed. The marshmallow is a really nice note. I could imagine this as a citrus cupcake. I was neutral toward this one at first, but I’m glad I waited to review it until I’d had the chance to try it a second time.

Another tea pouch I finished off in May but failed to log in real time. I don’t recall much about this tea except that it last about three days in my posession. I love raspberries, especially when they’re paired with vanilla and multi-note black tea blend like seen here.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge, June 2022: An iced/cold brew tea

I only ever cold steeped this in the fridge for 5-8 hours. First batch was more astringent and collard greens than I generally like it but the second batch I’m currently finishing off balanced the veggies with a good dose of canned peach and dry ginger notes. Not a large amount of heat to the ginger but its zesty earthiness is pleasant enough.

As always, the canned peaches take me down memory lane.

Very refreshing, although there isn’t much need for refreshments here right now. The Northwest Coast is deeply committed to a wet spring and mild temperatures this year. Overcast a few days before Summer Solstice. Hope it doesn’t rain for my upcoming six day camp/hike next week, but it probably will.

Not in alphabetical order of company to try unopened tea but my second cup of the day always seems to be a green tea. Plus, I have accrued a small stash of 52 tea bags over the last few months from the subscription box and need to catch up on.

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: Yummm! This is a delight. The maple hits just right with this tea and it reminds me of french toast and maple syrup but I could see a Maple Rice coconut pudding too. No additional sweeteners or milks needed, I like this one exactly as it comes. :) I will be sad to see this one go, I think.

I taste a lot of banana, but absolutely no snickerdoodle. The person I shared this with suggested that this should be called Banana Sugar Cookie due to the total lack of spices. That doesn’t mean this isn’t good – I’m still enjoying this fresh green banana flavor, which pairs well with the black tea. However, a more caramelized or ripe banana paired with snickerdoodle spices sounds far more delicious. I see other reviews mention cinnamon, and I finished my packet of this and never tasted any, weirdly.

I cold-brewed this overnight, and it’s so good!

I think I’ll post this as May’s “Lemon Tea” from the scavenger hunt. I love the way the cranberry and lemon play together in this one. It’s pleasantly tart, but not so much that it causes me to pucker. Really refreshing.

2022 reblend (and sad sipdown)

It’s good. I think I like it more than Banana Genmaicha but then I love generous coconut during the late spring and summer months. Simply a nice balance of smooth, creamy (approaching velvety) and tropical flavours on top of a toasted rice profile.

Edit – the thing I particularly love about this is the touch of matcha present. Gives the blend that extra fancy “omph.”

I taste a lot of fruitiness, but I don’t really get any ice cream element. It’s a softer sort of black tea, not adding too much. The mango flavor is pretty strong, but I end up feeling pretty neutral to it combined with the black tea. I guess I wish there were more going on here rather than just a mild fruity black tea.

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 19
From Emilie!

I’m behind on my tasting notes, but I wanted to drop in and leave a note about this tea since I’m currently having a cup with breakfast. I’m really surprised at how so like a mango the dry blend smells. I can’t say that I’ve ever had mango ice cream, but I do really like mango sticky rice and that’s the first thing that came to mind. I did add cream but still no ice cream flavors are jumping out at me. Not too concerned about it though, as this is a delicious cup of strong black tea that making my morning much more pleasant by the minute.

This for an “Orange Tea” on this month’s scavenger Hunt prompt. I recently came across a box of teas that I had stashed away – so this one has been hiding from me for a few years (in this case, few = almost five). I’m pleased to say that the flavor is still pleasant & strong. I was a little worried because it’s been a while – but since the package was sealed, I kept my fingers crossed and am happy it’s still a tasty tea.

Nice orange flavor, pleasant chocolate notes. This was exactly what I wanted from a chocolate orange tea. The red rooibos works nice with this flavor combination.

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 291)

Noticed some plumminess as it cooled, but neglected to note anything else.

Sidenote, I am irritatingly missing a handful of 52teas that I know I have somewhere. Gotta find them so I can finish my challenge. I think I have around 25 unique blends left, plus a few reblend odds and ends that I’ll also hit if the packet is already opened.

(52teas (Anne) 2022: already recorded)

Counting this v.3 as already recorded since I already drank v.2 this year. Sadly, I have very little recollection of what I thought of this tea (I’m a bit behind on tasting notes; we’ve had a flock of visitors over the past couple weeks!) but I think I may like v.2 more. Will have to write more later!

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 284)

This was just fantastic recently – perfect amount of smokiness, maple sweetness, and just light spicing. No need for milk or sweetener, it was great just plain. I’d maybe like a touch more spicing, but perhaps that would ruin the blend? Not sure. Also, resteeps were excellent. Apparently I’ve been craving a smoky tea and didn’t know it.

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 283)

Delicious. Flavours were delivered as promised; a nice maple-coconut combo that worked well with the genmaicha.

I don’t think I made it clear (or at least, I don’t think I did) in my last tasting note that I’m combining the scavenger hunts for May & June in June – because I really didn’t have a lot of time to do many tasting notes in May. So, it may seem like I’m writing a lot more tasting notes this time (or – or I INTEND to do so) but it’s really a combination of two months in one.

Anyway, this tea is from this month’s list of scavenger hunt prompts: A tea smoothie. And while this isn’t technically a smoothie – it is the first of my “smoothie series” (with another to come this month!) so I’m going to say it qualifies. This is a blend that combines sweet Chinese Sencha with tangerines, strawberries & bananas, plus a hint of a “tangy creaminess” recipe of essences that I came up with to taste a bit like the yogurt (or Kefir) that I use for smoothies when I make them. (I usually use Kefir.)

I probably say this way more than I should, but this is one of my favorites that I’ve made this spring. It’s so tasty. You get the smoothness from the green tea base – together with my Kefir recipe of essences that provide a really lovely sweet yet tangy background for the flavors of strawberry, banana & tangerine. It’s sweet, fruity, bright and so refreshing.

It appears I drank this ages ago but had hoped I was mistaken. After rummaging through all the cupboards a half dozen times I must conclude that I drank it all up within the week it arrived (despite my best efforts).

My memory is hazy on the details, but I recall cold brewing it a lot and mentally dubbing it “the perfect sequel to Anne’s Pineapple Sencha” – which I also enjoyed very much. Have I mentioned I love Japanese sencha? There’s not enough flavoured teas using the base and it turns out that pineapple and/or coconut work very well to convey a mood (marine + tropical fruits = beach life).

On my recent trip to Puerto Vallarta I’d be inspired by this tea to drink many cocktails sharing the name (not usually my tropical cocktail of choice; I’m in a committed relationship with mai tais). The vacation (and drinks) were well received, but I think I prefer Japanese Sencha ever so slightly.

I absolutely love this tea. As I mentioned in the tea description, my mom asked me to make a tea that tastes like the tea she would have as a child. Her grandmother would make her black tea flavored with some spices (my mom called it gramma’s “witches” brew) and then sweetened with peach preserves (rather than sugar).

So, I decided to make a tea inspired by that memory for a mother’s day gift for my mom. I chose a Fujian black tea that had a natural peachy flavor to it so I thought it would be a perfect base for this blend. It is such a lovely black tea – smooth and sweet. A really nice afternoon tea. Pleasantly warm spices & a sweet peach note. I love it!

I finally was able to get some photos taken & uploaded – including the picture for this tea. I realize that my website was becoming more “photo not available” than actual photos of tea – so that’s been fixed – not completely YET but some of the teas now have photos! yay! The problem is that I’m a terrible photographer, so I need to bug my youngest daughter (who is a really good photographer) to take pics for me and she isn’t always available to do so.

Anyway, this tea! I’m going to also categorize this as one of the June prompts “a tea that reminds me of myself” – and while this tea doesn’t fully encompass me – because I named it after me, I’m gonna use it as this prompt for the June Scavenger Hunt too.

This tea started out as a vanilla/marshmallow tea that I would have called the Scottish Marshmallow because it’s crafted with one of my favorite bases – the Scottish Breakfast Blend – to which I added vanilla bean & marshmallow root. But after taste testing, it just needed something else. And the first thing that came to mind is coconut. Because – coconut is one of my favorite things to add to a tea. So, I added coconut & was so happy & excited by the result. This is so delicious!

The black tea is so rich & flavorful & invigorating. This is not a tea to drink later in the day because it’s got some gusto to it. The vanilla & marshmallow add a nice sweetness & creaminess that compliments the coconut perfectly – but it’s the coconut that’s the real star here! A LOVELY coconut note to it.

And also, coconut – I’m pretty much “coconuts” – that is to say crazy – so the prompt of a tea that reminds me of myself – fits.