52teas

TTB! I taste the spice, but no cheesecake. It’s nice, but I wish I could taste cheesecake! It looks like it’s a few years old, so maybe there used to be cheesy flavor. Still a pleasant chai, but not extraordinary.

Maybe it’s the grey in the name, but this is one I tend to reach for when the sky is overcast. The whole blend has a mellow, gentle sort of quality to it. As I was scooping the tea from the pouch, I saw at least one generous piece of vanilla and something that I thought was fruit, but since there isn’t any fruit here, it must have been a piece of burnt sugar candy. Everything about this blend is mellow: the black tea, the bergamot, the vanilla. It’s like a cotton candy fluffy earl cloud. But not TOO sweet. Two great steeps.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 minute steep

Sipdown #27

Focusing on sipdowns as I prepare for the advent onslaught! And actually writing a note for this one, because apparently I didn’t review it during last year’s 52teas advent. (Or was it the 2023 advent…?)

I really love the fluffy, soft profile of Graveyard Mist, and Holiday Mist is a nice play on it. It’s funny because I don’t know that the additional fruity note screams “mandarin” to me — it’s more a generically tropical flavor, in my opinion. But it’s super tasty and bright. I think I still prefer Graveyard Mist, but this is a fun alternative!

I started getting out my holiday teas, and was excited to see enough of this for 2 more cups. Honestly, wish I had more because this cup is delicious. The roasted flavor has come out more with age, and it’s reminding me of getting roasted chestnuts on the streets in Paris on Christmas Eve (that was a great trip).

I’d prefer this with a different base, but fruity spiced teas aren’t really my thing regardless. With milk and sugar, it’s decent, but I wouldn’t choose this over other spiced teas or other fruity teas.

The first steeping of this was really nice! Mid and base notes, creamy coconut. I had a hard time waiting the recommended 10 minutes for it to cool, but I think it was the right choice. I drank it down pretty quickly. The second steeping I forgot about and I don’t know if it was because of that or that it’s a one steep type of tea, but the second cup was lacking. First cup FTW!

The banana flavoring here is candy-like, but I don’t mind. I like this best cold with almond milk. Sometimes, the banana is so tasty and perfect. Other times, I feel more medium about this one. I never noticed any chocolate, but I enjoyed the honeybush base.

52Teas has a real way with autumnal blends. Since that’s my favorite season, too, I really enjoy their ‘take’ on the season! This packet got lost in the back of my cabinet, so when the 2025 Sipdown Challenge was issued, I found it in the box of packeted teas unfortunately overlooked for some time.
While not as strong as it would have been when newer, I found this tea redolent of the best of autumn: yes, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg of course, but the pumpkin was still discernible, welcome! Too many PSLs, both coffees and teas, have all the spices, but fail to include real pumpkin. That’s not the case here!
I hope this tea will be reissued, as it’s a lovely blend.

I don’t notice cookies specifically, but I enjoy the spices in this blend! It’s well-balanced and tasty with sugar and milk. I liked it best cold!

Lots of cinnamon in this, but not the spicy kind, but the baked kind. I get a hint of sweetness which must be the maple. I think I can pick out the fruit, but it’s blended in so well with the other flavors that it’s hard to pick out on it’s own. This is a nice evening cup and I’m delighted that it’s on a honeybush base!

This was desserty and nice with milk and sugar! I liked it best cold, but I never could tell that it was supposed to be gingerbread or coffeecake specifically. It was tasty though!

I’m so intrigued with flavored Houjichas! This has a definite butter rum flavor to it. I feel like the roastiness of the houjicha sits in the background as more of a base. I’m not super familiar with the taste of kukicha, so I can’t say what that is adding. I’m enjoying this cup quite quickly! I like!

This is a little salty and pleasant. The base goes well with the chocolate, which tastes a little alcohol-y, but not too bad. This was pleasant cold, though not my favorite sort of thing.

I’m drinking this tea cold, and it’s super smooth. I taste some fruitiness and a medium flavor that could be the donut. It’s missing the acidity that would make me think apple cider specifically, but I really don’t mind. It tastes good! The resteep is fruity and bright. I don’t even really taste the black base, just delicious fruit.

I bought this a few months ago.  Had to stock up on some marshmallow root teas. :)  This isn’t WOWing me as I thought it would, as I have dearly loved almost all other banana teas from 52Teas.  I do love that this seems more like green underripe banana in the flavor, as that is when I tolerate bananas best.  Though that is probably just the green tea making me feel like this is a more underripe banana.   The green tea though…. it is very finely chopped… or very crushed or both. And I can’t really tell if there is matcha in this or if it is just the very tiny green tea “leaves”. hmm.  No green tea from 52Teas has been like this before.   And it has happened every time I steep this up, so it isn’t a matter of not mixing the bag.  I think it is the very small green tea leaf that is making this seem like there is hardly any banana or marshmallow flavor here… at least much less flavoring than in usual 52Teas blends.  And I made SURE to get a piece of banana in the infuser.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 34 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 36 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

edited to add: I looked at the Steepster description and it looks like this blend IS made with matcha genmaicha.

The maple flavor is delicious, as always with the pancake blends. I also enjoy the added desserty flavors. The pumpkin is nice! This may be my favorite pancake blend yet! The resteep is wonderful as well.

This is really warming and nice! I feel like I taste pumpkin and a bit of spice, though I wouldn’t have said caramel. I can also taste the oolong and appreciate it, even though I’m not usually an oolong lover. This could definitely have more caramel, but I think the flavors that are there are quite tasty.

The black tea is really nice and high quality. The vanilla is the perfect accompaniment. This one is straightforward, but not at all boring. I wouldn’t mind a reblend of this one!

Sipdown 31 – 2025

Made the last cup hot, but I prefer this iced. Hopefully it returns at some point.

Sample Sipdown

July 24 Sipdown Prompt – International Self-Care Day: drink a calming cup in quietness

I have had this for a while and hadn’t tried it because I am usually drinking tea with Ashman in the evening and I didn’t realize how big this sample is. It fit the prompt so nicely that I decided to stay up late and try it. I have enough to drink it cold again tomorrow and if there is a big difference I will come back and note that in an edit.

This smells so good. I really enjoy green rooibos as a base for flavored teas, even though I dislike red rooibos. The citrus aroma is fresh and bright. There is a lot of chamomile aroma and the lavender is light.

Drinking the tea, I noticed a rich mouthfeel and sweetness from the marshmallow root. The chamomile is a little stronger in the taste than it was in the aroma of the dry leaves but the other flavors make it so interesting and so much better than plain chamomile, which I like fine but I like chamomile better with other flavors accompanying.

I like this blend better than Mother’s Day from Harney and Sons, which is a citrus chamomile tea. I looked it up on 52teas site and it is not currently available.

I’m sorry this packet got buried in the back of my tea shelves for so long. In the midst of doing a sip-down of my oldest teas from about 8 years ago (hey! they were favorites it was hard to let go!), it seemed like my 52Teas packets from “only” 2 or 3 years ago wouldn’t have sufferered as badly.
Well, Lemon Dream Herbal Tisane would have probably stayed fresher if I hadn’t been so curious to smell it when I first got it. Even though I squashed as much air as possible from its packet, of course it dried out faster than if I’d never opened it.
Still, there’s a quality of dreaminess to these 52Teas blends that elusively slips past my ability to describe it. Besides the obvious lemon flavors, and the unique sweetness that natural marshmallow plant evokes, there’s a quality I find I can’t name, even though I went through the entire Steepster list of flavors and scents.
This is where I found “sweet”, “grassy”, “beeswax” for its lightness, “custard”, “orchid”, “vanilla”, and even a little “soap”. When I dip my nose into the empty packet and inhale, there’s an odd sweetness that reminds me of my grade school in summer. I cannot define that odor. That’s what I mean by the dreaminess of the 52Teas I’ve tried and enjoyed. They put me into a mood that’s not quite nostalgic, since I don’t remember my school actually smelling like this. But there’s a quality between the flavors that’s just…evocative. Perhaps it’s the marshmallow plant. The natural mallow itself is much more subtle than the candy made from it.
For whatever reason, I always seem to find my imagination piqued in trying to describe 52Teas! Did I enjoy my Lemon Dream? Yes. But I bet I would have had a more insightful review if I’d drunk this tea sooner. For that I’m sorry. Worth another try sometime in the future!

How is this a sipdown and I never made a tasting note for it until now?! Tastes exactly like the name says. Nice cinnamon kick. I haven’t gotten around to making suggestions for 12 teas of Christmas and this would be a great option for that – going to go comment on that post now!

TTB 2025
This is sweet without being overly sweet, nicely spiced, and very drinkable. There does seem to be a lot going on, and I wish I could taste the pumpkin and pear more. It’s very smooth and both cups disappeared quickly this morning. Thanks for adding it to the box.

Sample sipdown. Made this as a latte. It makes me think more of an apple chai than an apple cider donut per se. Apple, cinnamon, and what tastes like clove even though there isn’t actually any clove in here. This would be super cozy for fall.