52teas

Good tea…spicy yet sweet (although I always do sweeten my teas). I wanted to go to my drive-thru coffee shop this morning and get the Caramelizer, which is WAAAAY too many calories, so I thought I would substitute this tea instead.

Not quite the same thing, but I do love the caramel/vanilla addition to spicy chai.

Not bad. I like chai, and this one is a little different than the ones I already have. Not raving about it, but it is going to be drank quite a bit.

Catching up on the 12 Days of Christmas (um…after Valentine’s Day, I guess. Lol.). Anyway, I’m trying the Butter Rum today. The other reviews of this tea mentioned it tasting like a Butterscotch Lifesaver, and that’s pretty on the mark with this.

Backlog:

Yummy!

This was a tea I was excited to try … Tiramisu Oolong? Um … yes please!

The Oolong has a rich and toasty flavor that accentuates the flavoring nicely. I can taste the rum, the coffee notes, and the vanilla notes. The marshmallow adds a bit of “fluffy” to the taste. I do wish I tasted more chocolate. But, then, when do I ever wish the opposite? I can’t think of a time when I thought “gee, this tea could use less chocolate.” I don’t think I’ve ever actually said that about a tea. I don’t think I ever will either. Chocolate … well, one can never have too much, can they?

I liked this one. Quite good.

Thanks to the mahvelous MissB for noticing that this was on my wishlist and including some in my order.

All I’m getting out of this is cinnamon. Just… cinnamon. Not unpleasant, but one-note. I tried adding brown rock sugar to coax out some creaminess. It didn’t work. This is a nice basic cinnamon tea but nothing special for me.

sipdown

From the LiberTEAS sampler I bought a while back

I should preface this with the admission that I’ve never tried Gooey Butter Cake, despite having visited St Louis a few times…so I happen to have no frame of reference for the flavour.

With that said, though, this is a delightfully lemony black tea that satiates both my desire for a little caffeine and a spot of sweetness. The lemon note lingers wonderfully at the end of each sip, followed by that slight astringency that rides alongside most black teas that are worth their mettle.

It’s not what I was expecting, but I’m oddly enchanted by this tasty little sample. I’d definitely enjoy getting my hands on it again, given half a chance. :)

Oh, and it holds up REALLY well to multiple steeps. I think I got a solid 3 cups out of it before the lemon flavour started to fade and I decided to give up on the leaves.

Sipdown! I’m not quite as keen on this the second time around as I was the first—something about the cacao nibs, probably, because they’re not quite bitter but they’re approaching it. I still think the marshmallow/cream flavor is perfect here and it’s a good approximation of tiramisu in a mug. Mom loved this, but unfortunately it’s gone. Maybe if 52 Teas reblends it before the holidays I’ll surprise her with it—this was a rare rave review from her!

Ooh, I like this. It’s much more subtle than I expected, with a nice green oolong base and a gentle creamy flavor and mouthfeel on top of it. There’s a little bit of espresso to it and an aftertaste like cookies—all the flavors are just as they should be. The cream flavor especially is just perfect. I might experiment with a higher temperature to see if I can tease out some bolder flavors, but this is delicious!

Thank you Sil! I am always quite impressed when you can taste something other than Frank’s black base and you certainly can with this tea. There is a hint of dark chocolate and caramel but what I really taste is the cashews…nutty, delicious cashews. I am glad I got to try this one, though I don’t think I would get more in the future as there are other teas I would reach for first.

Sipdown no. 93 of the year 2014.

I have to settle on a rating that’s lower than I was prepared to give yesterday.

The bulk of this rating reflects the amazing ability of this tea to conjure that for which it is named. On that score, as I said before, it gets something like a 90+.

However, it’s easy, through preparation, to get it somewhat off, and when that happens it heads for a chemicaly flavor that sits like a rock in my stomach. Even when it is prepared well and tastes like its name without the chemical overtones, I’ve concluded that it’s just not a flavor I really want to drink in my tea.

Today I steeped this one at boiling and tacked on 30 seconds, steeping for a full 5 minutes.

This may be the sweet spot for this tea. Not chemical-y, and the very strong butter flavor I got before is somewhat milder. More raisin is coming through, and somehow the combination of the buttery and raisiny, even without a separately identifiable cinnamon flavor, is evoking the toast very nicely today.

I have to bump it up just a bit. I think I have one more pot left before sipdown. I hope by then I’ll have figured this out enough to zero in on a final rating.

I’m finding that my expectation that the novelty of this would wear off soon is coming to pass. I’m actively working on sipping it down, now.

I think I’m learning that in general I don’t do well with unusual flavors, except, perhaps, in rooibos blends or if they’re fruity concoctions. The non-fruity ones sit too heavily. I’m obviously not counting in this things like chocolate and nut flavors per se. Just things that are meant to conjure a completely different food rather than a flavor or two.

Fortunately, the BF likes it, which will make the sipping down go twice as fast.

Preparing with boiling water as directed seems to keep the “butter” from turning chemical-y, so that’s good to know. I saw some pieces of cinnamon in the blend I steeped this morning, but I’m still not getting a lot of cinnamon.

Though I stand by my assessment that this lives up to its name, the way it has been hitting me the last couple of days makes it difficult for me to justify leaving it at a rating of 82.

It should get very high technical marks for evoking this flavor (a 90 or so) but for me, anyway, the more I drink it, the less I enjoy it.

Docking some points.

Something about the aroma of this today is hitting me wrong. It’s kind of chemical-y.

Chemical-y, then jasmine-y. That’s the floral note from yesterday? Jasmine? I think so. Interestingly, I think that’s what is responsible for the butter and part of the toast aroma and flavor as well. The raisin also seems to have a floral quality to it.

Fortunately, the tea doesn’t seem to be hitting me wrong. Often when an aroma isn’t quite hitting it off with me, that means the tea won’t be kind to my stomach, but so far so good. I just had a chicken breast sandwich for lunch which may be helping.

I steeped this at less than boiling today to see what that might do. I wonder whether the temperature accounts for the difference in aroma.

I am tempted to sprinkle cinnamon into this as I’m still getting less cinnamon than any other flavor. I am getting mostly butter and toast today. No. 2, however, gave it a sniff and said, “Mmmm raisiny.” So I suppose it is just me.

No. 1 is at a sleepover, no. 2 and I just finished watching March of the Penguins, and I realized I hadn’t had any tea yet today! No breakfast really either, just a bit of fruit. The BF is responsible for this pick. I thought he’d go for the Maple Bacon, but this was his vote.

I can definitely smell the raisins in the packet, and something like buttered toast too.

After steeping the aroma is unbelievable—exactly like buttered cinnamon raisin toast! I’m not sure how 52 Teas accomplished this but I suspect it wasn’t straightforward. I detect a floral note underlying the aroma. The tea is a clear reddishy-orangy-brown, so the raisins, cinnamon and whatever else is in here to give this flavor isn’t clouding up the works.

Now, understanding that this is one of my elderly 52 Teas collection and that I had apparently tasted it before because the packet was opened, though ziplocked (it seems I didn’t write a note about it when I last tasted it), I’ll say this—I taste toast, I taste butter. I taste just enough raisin and cinnamon so that it isn’t plain buttered toast. Of all the flavors, I probably get the cinnamon the least, which is surprising. And I am not really tasting the tea, except through the floral note mentioned earlier. But you don’t really drink a tea like this for the tea, do you?

I have to give it high marks for living up to its name so well. I could use a touch more cinnamon, but who is to say whether there was more when this was fresh? The fact that it has held most of its unusual flavor merits points, too. The only downside, and the reason I didn’t rate it higher, is that there’s an aspect to the flavor that makes me worry that the novelty will wear off really fast with this one. There’s a fine line with the floral note between conjuring the buttered cinnamon raisin toast experience and something artificial tasting.

The BF says: “I like it!”

I asked whether he tasted buttered cinnamon raisin toast.

“I don’t know, but I like it!”

.

I don’t recall if I’ve ever had a Zabaglione. I grew up in and around NYC, and I’ve been to my share of Italian restaurants, bakeries, and cafés, but I always tended to order things like tiramisu and cannoli, or occasionally tartufo. But this tea was delicious. I’d really like it if the creamy custard flavors were more pronounced, but maybe it wouldn’t be as true to the taste of the dessert this was created to emulate. This would be a tea I’d gladly reorder.

This is very good. It would be just amazing with some soy milk and sweetener. The lemon zest flavor is pretty strong, which I happen to really like. The chai spices are relatively subtle. I don’t know what else to say about this one.

From the LiberTEAS sampler I bought a while back

This smells like childhood! Well…the good parts, anyway. :)

Both dry and post-steep it smelled just like those orange push-ups you’d buy out of the gas station freezer bins…not exactly a real orange, but definitely not in a bad way.

One sip in it tastes exactly like those little frozen treats – you can actually taste the orange layered in with the cream and the pu-erh blends seamlessly in behind; a little bit of sugar on top of the tea and it just tastes all kinds of perfect.

This tea is absolutely amazing, truly, and I think it’ll be even more delicious once it cools down a bit and mellows out…not sure if I can wait that long, though, as I keep stealing sips.

I almost love this tea…I’m beginning to think that a flavoring that 52teas uses isn’t working for me. This one and Candy Corn have both left me with a dry feeling in the very back of my nose that is similar to what happens after you get a strong whiff of perfume (that happens to other people, right?) Maybe it’s just a coincidence or maybe I’m coming down with a cold. I’ll have to revisit them in a few weeks to see if this persists. I’m waiting to rate this until then.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Wednesday, April 28th: National Superhero Day Tea #2

Not quite a superhero, and also proves that I might like things that border on anti-heroes… another of my favorites is Witcher!  I have only seen the show, not read the books, but the show is great.   And a good time to open my second Frank’s pouch of Witches Brew Chai.  A solid chai – though really I’m not seeing many spices here!  It’s mostly black tea.  Less smoky with age, but that’s fine with me.

Additional notes: Sipping down ONE of my pouches of this one today. This is Frank’s blend but Anne rated it 100 so I wonder if it was every reblended? I’m one of the few who actually likes this smoky chai. haha. And also enjoying Bird & Blend’s always delicious Pumpkin Pie Chai today. Super chai day! I even got to sit outside and read today before it started raining: Melmoth the Wanderer (seems Halloween enough). Always need chai on those days sitting out enjoying that lovely autumn leaf aroma. Both delicious cups.
Happy Halloweeeeen everyone!

I couldn’t resist a smoky chai! The chai blends from 52Teas are usually very nice. This is! This one in particular has big chunks of star anise and cumin! But this tea is so sweet, how could it be a witches’ brew? I actually prefer more smokiness to my smoky teas, but this is a light, sweet smoky. The smoke it just noticeable enough not to scare away those who usually might not like smoky teas. It adds depth to the blend. It’s the perfect smoky tea to try anyway. The chai spices are nice of course!

I’ve been through a few pouches of this tea and am having my very last cup right now. Even though I’m a little bit less enthusiastic about this tea than before, it’s still pretty tasty. I wish that more creamy milkshake flavor were in this tea, but it is a nice strawberry and honeybush blend. Now I’ve got to track down another yummy milkshake rooibos or honeybush blend!

Before I sipped this tea, I thought that it was going to be nearly identical to Strawberry Pie Honeybush only without the cinnamon. I wanted to love the Strawberry Pie blend, but the cinnamon and other flavors made it a bit too sharp. That tea also left a bad taste in my mouth.

This one is much more smooth. I feel like I can finally concentrate on the beautiful strawberry and the honeybush background. I don’t think that there is much milkshake flavor here, but the strawberry and honeybush combination is lovely without cinnamon. It’s a rather simple and light tea – not too spectacular, but pleasant. I can see myself going through this pouch quickly! Might have another cup tonight.