52teas

Finished this one off yesterday? I’m with variaTEA….I don’t really need pancake teas in my life. It was nice to try this again and see if my opinion had changed…but it hasn’t. A good tea…true to name, just not a flavour I need in my life :)

About falling asleep in my chair ATM. Another great tea from the 12 days of Christmas swap! Tanks to tattooed tea as I’ve been interested in trying this for a while now. It’s maple….it’s batter…it’s pancake….even cold this reminds me of breakfast… So fait accomplis!

I used 1 tablespoon for 375 ml of water.

The banana flavour tastes only very mildly artificial. The genmaicha flavour is very well balanced with the banana. Genmaicha has a sweet roasted flavour. I don’t feel that the two flavours compliment each other the best.

As the tea cools, I’m feeling like the flavours are melding together. I’m getting a banana-rice crispies taste. The banana is fading a bit into the background.

I’m not getting a very strong cheesecake flavour but there is a tang and heaviness in the flavour.

As the tea cools further I’m detecting a distinct creaminess.

Thank you to Indigobloom for sharing this with me!

It feels like every time I drink this, I raise the rating a tad.

I managed to let my newest package of this tea sit for a while to cure, and it was totally worth the wait. After eyeballing it for the past month or so and resisting the urge to rip it open and smash my face in it, today was the day. My Dad was visiting, so I decided against strapping the package to my face like a feedbag. It smells heavenly!

This is one of those teas that you do not want to oversteep, so I stayed focused (a small feat for my short attention span) thankfully the smell of the tea is enough to keep my interest. Distraction …distraction… my life is like a Sesame Street episode…a series of related clips that loop back to each other. Today’s log was brought to you by –the letter- Tea!

I wish there was a perfume that smelled like this…ugh! so good…

…Hey I just read online that if you add good quality vodka you can make your own perfume out of tea. Has anyone tried this? It sounds like fun.

Whew, what a busy week. Last Sunday, my hubby and I did a second viewing of a house, and have now put in an accepted offer on the home. We’re in the process of completing the slew of conditions of the sale. Yesterday we did the home inspection. We followed the inspector for the full 3.5 hours. He did a thorough job, and the house came up with positive feedback especially for its age. Immediately after this, we had a contractor come in to look at the home to ensure that we can do the extension that we are hoping for within our budget. We’re hoping to get the feedback for this tomorrow. My fingers are crossed in hopes that everything will go well.

I put this tea in my travel mug to accompany me that day. It was the only thing I had to eat/drink until dinnertime, and it somehow held me over without getting that lightheaded feeling. Hopefully it proves to be my good luck tea.

I’m not sure if the pouch I’m using is from a different batch than the 12 days of tea Christmas sample, but it tastes different to me: a touch more subtle. Don’t get me wrong, this batch also has plenty of flavor (as I’ve come to know and love of 52teas blends), it’s just doesn’t taste quite as bold as my Christmas sample. This pouch isn’t much older than the Christmas sample either, maybe just a couple of months older. Hmmm…Maybe I’m imagining it?

Oh well, whether I’m imagining it or not, both are delicious, and make me want to buy more, More MORE! mwahahaha! (That’s my evil villain laugh, in case you were wondering)

I have less than half of my pouch remaining, but I can’t honestly justify buying more tea because I got so much tea for Christmas (not to mention the last 52teas order I still have on the way). Even so, I can’t seem to stop myself from regularly perusing the 52teas site.

Had a cup of this with my Dad as my last black tea of the year. Creamy and tasty ~we both love it. Have a great New Year everyone!

I finished the last bit of this from my 12days of tea packet this morning. Thankfully I have more of it from a previous order. I love the caramel scent that emanates from this tea, both dry and brewed. This is one of the few black teas that made it on my full size order list despite my caffeine sensitivity. SLURP! Mmm…Good stuff!

I’m not sure what it is, but this tea has evaded me tealogging it, over, and over, and over again. I bought a full 2 oz. bag months ago and I finished about half of it without making a single mention on Steepster. When I opened my 12 days of tea packet yesterday morning and that sweet caramel scent wafted out at me, it was unmistakable. I thought THIS is the day that I would finally get it done and I vowed to finally log this tea before the day’s end.

Alas, the day ended….sans tealog. Boooooo…to me!

So here’s a my long overdue backlog

I have to be picky with the black teas that are in my cupboard, because I’m sensitive to caffeine, and can only drink them in the morning, and I don’t want a cupboard full of teas that I can rarely drink. I’m so happy that I selected this one to be one of the “chosen ones”. Sweet, and rich tasting, I love drinking it black, but I keep wanting to try it as a latte.

Nummy!

Brewed this up for Tea Club this afternoon. I steeped for about 5 minutes because I forgot about it… :) It wasn’t bitter, though. It was definitely strong. But it stood up well to the addition of milk. I added sugar to my cup before tasting and I wish I hadn’t. It was very sweet so I wonder if the chai itself was sweet to start with.

Very caramel-y. And I certainly got a hit of black pepper. It wasn’t the Tea Club’s favorite, but it got overall good reviews.

Thanks for the sample, Liberteas!

On paper, I think this tea sounds like it should be as delectable as chewing on toothpaste. In reality I love this creamy spearmint tea; it’s also a 52Teas classic with an apt name. I’m so grateful that it’s part of “D’s Teas”, and that I picked up a little pouch with my last order; my throat is thankful too. It’s always a comfort during trying times.

Going through my past tasting notes, I noticed they’re almost entirely for Frank’s run (minus one from six years ago.. that may be Anne’s reblend). Time to switch that up! I do love going back and seeing how my feelings towards this tea morphed from skepticism to love and “security blanket-like” affection though. 9+ years of this tea in my life.. it’s been with me through dismal rentals and ailing grandmothers and I appreciate it to bits.

It’s been a few years since I’ve tried this tea and it still goes places I love. Needless to say, I like this reblend. I would’ve never pegged myself for someone who loves minty marshmallows.

Today has not been the best. The power cut out in the kitchen and bathroom last night in this crummy basement, and my roommate and I don’t have access to the power box. It sucks because I just bought groceries and it doesn’t look like our landlord is going to respond anytime soon (another five days). At least the rent is somewhat cheap, I guess.

I think my roommate and I are going to get a portable gas stove in an attempt to cook our meat, rice, and kimchi before it goes bad. It will be a feast of sorts, which could be fun. The new carton of milk also needs to go- a perfect excuse to have a lot of chai tea (it’s going to be an unhealthy night).

I’m finishing off the rest of this today and I think I will miss it a bit. I started off not liking the samples from 52teas but there is something comforting in all that marshmallow root and flavoring. They’ll forever remind me of Christmas and relaxing, full-power times.

Day six (half way through!!)

I’ve been thinking that most of these packets smell like bubblegum and I thought this tea was a bubblegum blend from the aroma, but it must be the marshmallow root ingredient.

Minty things are a hit and miss for me. I love eating whole mint leaves most of all but candied mints are items I’d rather pass up. Mint is also something I don’t seek out unless I’m feeling under the weather or I want something to clean my palate. I undoubtedly have preconceived biases towards this spearmint gum tea.

I made this tea almost an hour ago but I left it take a call from my Grandma. I haven’t seen her in a month so I’m excited to be able to visit her soon. That call was probably the best thing for this, now warm, tea.

It has a lovely fresh spongy texture, like dew covered moss. The spearmint and green leaves aren’t too extreme with only mild nippy greenness. The creamy vanilla bubblegum flavours, from the marshmallow root, are what draw the attention. I’m so glad this isn’t dominantly mint- merely a “mist” of it! There’s only a little bit of that crusty clean flossy feel. The result is a very mellow but moist, cozy tea that I’m very pleased to be able to enjoy on this cold, damp evening.

I had this as a sample from the Christmas calendar and it reminds me of the cotton candy suckers :D

Spoiler Alert!!!

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me a mug full of … Graveyard Mist tea.

This was on my must try list from 52 Teas and I am extremely thrilled to be trying it. Green tea + spearmint (my favourite mint) = magic in my opinion and that is why it was on my list.

Smell wise once brewed it’s very spearminty and refreshing in a sweet way. It also tastes that way too: sweet, minty and a little vegetal. Any fan of mint would like this blend. The blend as a whole is somewhat smoky/misty in a strange yet satisfying way, possibly because it’s not overly minty but is lighter than you would expect.

I love it :D

52teas 12 Teas of Christmas – December 15

I absolutely love breakfast. It is by far my favourite meal of the day; something that I sometimes fall asleep looking forward to. I don’t like breakfast when it consists of little but sugary stuff, or something I have to gobble on the go (which happens far too often for my liking) – no, I need breakfast to be large and hearty and full of fat and protein for the rest of the day.

Eggs. Eggs are just about my favourite food in the world. Cheese. Toast. Bacon, which is pretty much the only part of a pig I will eat. Okay, maybe ham sometimes. Turkey and chicken. (What? Those are totally breakfast foods.) Hash browns. Tons of spice! Salsa. Cream, especially over eggs. Pancakes, with butter and fruit and syrup. Oatmeal, with whatever crazy things mixed in that you can think of. Cups of milk and fruit juice. Aaaaand…tea, of course! Usually black tea, but I will make wild exceptions.

I am not, however, the sort of person who makes “breakfast smoothies,” although I do like smoothies. Too much fruit, I guess, and not enough meat or eggs. Oh, and most people think of a breakfast smoothie as something containing a banana, and I am not supposed to eat bananas. In fact, that is the reason I did not order this tea when it was first released – I noted that the ingredients included banana. Granted, I’ve never been clear on how problematic banana might be when it’s steeped, given that no one explained to me exactly how my allergies could be triggered by bananas, just “don’t eat them.” So I’ve avoided teas with banana for a while now, just to be safe.

More recently, I’ve finally, tentatively, tried tiny amounts of tea with banana and worked up to full cups, and determined that I don’t seem to get any kind of reaction to steeped bananas. Cool.

So I’ve had a few cups of this now, and really quite like it. I’ve also taken it to work, and made it into an actual tea smoothie with mango and coconut puree, and that was awesome.

There’s quite a bit of leaf in this little packet, since it’s honeybush; I might be underleafing it some and compensating with the steep time, but I’ve gotten 3 cups of it so far and there’s maybe one or two more cups left. The smell of it is quite sweet, and really overpowering; it reminds me a lot of what Rainbow Sherbet did to my kitchen. I let this cool down because I have it with (what else?) breakfast, so it’s usually not that hot by the time I get to it. But that’s fine, because smoothie, right?

The first time I had it, it was sort of sweet and fruity in a non-specific way…but I didn’t steep it more than a few minutes. This time I gave it several minutes, and that seems to have changed the taste profile considerably. The strongest flavour that comes through here now is definitely banana, which is strikingly weird to me simply because of how long it’s been since I actually had banana.

Underneath that, the flavour that is suddenly coming out more is actually honeybush, not the other fruit. I’m not entirely certain if I like that; something about honeybush is a little weird to me. Combined with the other fruit, there’s almost a bubblegum aftertaste that reminds me of stuff dentists put in your mouth.

Still, it’s pretty good. My impression of it on various cups has ranged from “quite good,” to “awesome,” so I almost think it’s one I’d want to experiment with and maybe I should get a bag of the re-blend while I still can.

Oh, and I just tried adding a drop of cream to the last of this cup. That brings out the smoothie experience a lot, since it adds that smoothie creaminess, which is lacking in the flavour alone.