52teas

The words “bright” and “dessert” were tossed around a few times when talking about this tea. Plus the flavors are fairly consistent even when disaster strikes and this tea is left to cool right down. So in my books, this tea is a winner.

Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/12/02/lemon-lime-meringue-kukicha-green-tea-from-52teas/

Still sick; seem to be losing my sense of taste even more so than I was before…

This one was a free sample with my last 52Teas order; it’s not something I would have ever picked for myself because it’s basically Chai at its core which is not my typical thing. However, I’ll try anything once and I always appreciate it when vendors include free samples for me to try. As long as Anne never tosses in a mushroom tea, we should be all good!

I could barely smell the dry aroma of this one, so it wasn’t a promising start. I faintly got the sense of oranges. I could see a lot of star anise pieces though which actually did make me excited for the blend because I do really enjoy star anise. Taste wise though, this was pretty flat. Like, I know my brother likes to make fun of my love of tea because ‘it all just tastes like water’ – and normally I strongly disagree with him. This one really did just taste like water though. Of course, I know that’s because I’m sick and can’t really taste much of anything…

I thought maybe Chai would be something that could cut through all the haze of being sick, but nope. I’ll give this one a better, honest try when I’m feeling well.

All of the flavours here are accounted for: maple, caramelized pears, baked goodness with a touch of cinnamon.

Day 12 of attempting no caffeine after three. Today the cutoff was 5—gah! Not an easy thing in my world.

I tried to make it last, but I polished this one off in no time. I guess it’s strawberry lemonade season?

The basil was a nice touch to this refreshingly juicy tea- it came out a little more strongly when I steeped it in hot water, as opposed to overnight steeping it in cold water, but it didn’t dominate like basil is want to do. Although, if it ever did become too much I likely wouldn’t have noticed since cooking with basil is a current trend at this house (may the little herb growing in garden survive a month longer and grow some new, less chewed, leaves).

Anyways, this one was neat. Would order again.

This was part of 52Teas the 12 Days of Tea. I had a cup of it hot in December and I remember not liking it as well as I’d hoped. I decided to try this one iced. Still not my favorite. There is nothing wrong with it. It isn’t bitter or astringent , but I think the flavor profile is better as a hot cup.

I definitely did not follow the directions that 52teas had for brewing this one. I used one heaping teaspoon. Not sure if that is around the 5 grams that they suggest. I also didn’t steep the first cup for eight minutes (only three). I’m definitely a fan of anything chocolate marshmallow! Usually, I can notice much more marshmallow in 52Teas blends. There is some here but maybe it blends in with the other creamy ingredients like these big ole white chocolate chips. Those definitely add an element that says ‘ice cream’. If I had to name this one just going by taste, I’d probably name it ‘Rocky Road’ too, so I guess the name is accurate. I’d probably never get bored with chocolate marshmallow teas anyway!

Day eight of not drinking caffeine after three. Nope, not working out all that well. I may stop drinking caffeine at about five which is still far better than my previous seven or eight o’clock. Baby steps.

Shopping in my stash and came across this delight.

The plan is to get out for a brief or long walk, depending on my health that day, first thing. And so I did, with this with me. And then, I spilled half the carry mug in my bag—-boo!

Bright pineapple and sweet mango. Possibly a wee bit of tartness from the strawberry. The oolong comes through all floral and lovely. Another winner.

One thing I really appreciate about 52Teas blends is the range of flavours, without a pattern of sweetening things to death like some other blenders. This mix is sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. The flavours come through as natural, with the tea base peeking through. A good balance, yet again.

Day seven of the no caffeine after three venture and fourth day that I continued to drink caffeinated tea after three. Oh well, I am more aware of the time cutoff now than I was before and I will likely be able to limit caffeinated tea to some extent, so there’s that.

Another plus is that I have hauled out the herbals and the tisanes, so they are more readily available than before. This, of course, means that I am discovering yet another forgotten aspect of my cupboard.

This one is ancient but delicious. The orange and the cardamon work nicely together. The pistachio flavour is a vague notion, possibly supported by the earthiness of the honeybush.

Day six of attempting to stop caffeine consumption from 3 pm onwards. Nope. Didn’t happen today either. Currently, it’s a tie at three days, yes, and three days, no.

First cup of this so far, so I am still making up my mind. I am not smitten with it. Yet.

To be continued.

Hooray for another pear tea!

I was actually surprised that this one wasn’t more spiced; definitely a stronger pear than spice taste overall in my opinion. I mean, definitely still had notes of cinnamon, allspice, and ginger but the pear was so bright, sweet and juicy that I hardly noticed them. Instead I just enjoyed that yummy aspect of the profile. One of those very rare green teas AND chai teas that I am completely on board with/have zero qualms about.

Though, worth throwing out there that even though I LOVED this one I did make one weird observation – alongside those juicy, sweet pear notes there was almost this creeping, undertone note of under ripe banana!? It was weird, but tasty!

I like this one a lot. Robust, savoury, and very slightly sweet. The hearty and earthy green tea base blend is one of my favourites: a base of fair-trade, rainforest alliance certified Satemwa estate green teas (OP1 & Zomba Steamed). The pumpkin adds beautifully to the meatiness of the base. The addition of pineapple here is inspired. The spice somehow disappears and that is just fine by me as well.

What I most like here is that the additions make the teas shine. Well done!

Another flavoured 52Teas Genmaicha blend! You can never have too many of those.

The dry leaf for this one smells quite nice; very sweet and robust with distinct notes of almond/amaretto and maraschino cherry. It actually surprised me a little bit how distinct the two notes were/are – I had sort of theorized that they’d sort of merge together into one very strong almond/marzipan/amaretto or cherry note given how similar the two profiles are…

Taste wise it’s not as strong/robust as the dry leaf smells, but the distinctness of both the almond and cherry does still come through. The almond seems stronger to me, possibly because the roasted quality/toasted rice notes sort of emphasize its nuttiness. You know, a roasted nut sort of flavour quality overall, with softer cherry undertones. It’s very smooth, and I’m enjoying it a lot. I mean, I expected to like it even if I thought it would be one strong, single note flavour – and I like it just as much as anticipated, the profile is just not exactly what I’d expected.

I snagged a sample of this when I saw that Anne had brought back the old LiberTEAS Breakfast In Bed blend. Couldn’t just let that go by! But this tea was calling my name, too. Couldn’t resist the combination of two of my favorite things — earl grey and cake. Somehow, after years of orders from 52Teas, this is my first earl grey of theirs ever.

I’m charmed by the cute blue and white star sprinkles mixed in. Same colors as the blue cornflowers that have come to signify an earl grey. However, at first, I wasn’t sold on the bergamot they used. It smelled kind of like sunscreen to me, so I was wary.

But the flavor was much different than expected! It reminds me so much of a creamcicle! The bergamot is so smooth and citrusy. It tastes like a vanilla cupcake with orange marmalade icing. Also, the black tea base they used is hearty and solid. I can actually taste it over the added flavors. I always appreciate that 52Teas doesn’t use lame, low grade Ceylons to make their flavored teas. They use nice black teas and let them lend their notes to the flavor.

Anyway, this is lovely and I’ll be having it again at breakfast.

I went to see one of my Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners the other day— possibly the same one who suggested that I stop drinking tea altogether. Clearly, my response to that suggestion was nope, not going to happen.

This visit was about a new issue. The suggestion this time was to stop drinking caffeine at or before three. As opposed to approximately seven. Ok, not ideal but possibly do-able. At least as a health experiment. For a limited period of time. Just to see what will happen.

With this in mind, I’ve been slowly beginning to wrap my head around the concept while hunting a few non-caffeinated options down for the moment that I am psychologically prepared to follow these instructions. The moment arrived.

This tea is delicious. My spoon of leaf contained about three cranberries and that dense cranberry flavour permeated each sip. I steeped low and slow to escape the rooibos woodiness and that worked out nicely. The cranberry shines with a slight bit of citrus flavouring the tartness. The apple sweetens and softens the sip. And the gently cinnamon spiced honeybush and rooibos trails behind suggestive of sweet crumble pastry. Beautiful.

If I have to relax with the caffeine from three o’clock onwards, blends like this are going to make this challenging project a lot easier.

“Banana Cream Pie without the pie crust” lives up to expectations. Good times.

Steep Count: 2

Due to the nature of the bai mu dan and my brain, I taste something kind of like a blueberry milkshake on the second steep. The banana has toned it back a little from the first steep, letting the tea base (fruity flowers) and vanilla cream flavouring shine (hence blueberries and milkshake).

drinking more of this tonight and I just don’t want to be without it. soooooo I ordered all of the tasters Anne currently has available on the site (only 7 but still). now I feel a little better! just a wonderful delicious any-time-of-day tea. I don’t need to say any more, I embarrassed myself enough in my last review.

omgosh. I need more of this all of this send me everything that’s left please all of it I need it now. THIS IS SO DELICIOUS. Bananas! Vanilla bean! Creamy white tea! such great quality white tea too. my only leeetle thing is that honestly the banana could be even stronger. as banana as possible. but the white tea is also beautiful so what do I know. WHY UNIVERSE WHY IS THIS LE WHYYYYYY the tea gods are clearly unhappy with me

uh VariaTEA…i forgot to save some of this so you could try it. I actually finished this up over last week’s insanity at work but forgot to take it out of my cupboard. My bad. That being said, this was one of my go to teas last week even if it was sort of more like a white tea with slight banana to me rather than a creamy banana tea…if that makes sense. That being said, totally fine with that being the case given that it’s nice to actually be able to taste the tea in white tea blends :)

Final Count: 15