52teas

Ugg, I’m drinking lots of tea today to make up for lost tea times over the week and totally paying for it with many bathroom trips! However, I need to massively damage my “haven’t tried” pile as the tin barely closes! Figure I should drink this one, MTG, first as it is taking the most room!

DRY: sweet, malty and toasty smell. Lots on interesting bits in this tea: brown rice, big popcorn and weird white chunky bits (marshmallow root?). Theres a weird smell that reminds me of Sun Cloud Mist whatever it’s called also from 52 teas.. must be that root.

STEEPED: Toasty rice smell coming from a light green tea.

TASTE: Slightly sweet and malty taste that is like marshmallow. Then, theres a bite of grassy green tea mixed with toasty rice (classic genmaicha taste).

Sweetened, well.. it tastes sweeter lol! It does taste closer to rice crispies squares here, especially in aftertaste! I think I like MTG unsweetened to enjoy the genmaicha but the sweetener did move it closer to the treats.

COMMENTS: Very tasty! I quite enjoyed how this tea came out! Unique flavoring with the marshmallow sweetness!
However, it doesn’t taste like my rice crispy treats since I add vanilla to mine (Shhhhh!!! My secret ingredient!) – but I’ll fix that in a future cup as I have some vanilla beans leftovers hanging around.

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 227)

Made a latte with this, but it wasn’t great. I don’t think the remaining flavours here could hold up to the milk and my lacking tastebuds due to a cold.

Similar thoughts as the last time I reviewed this. The base is actually quite yummy, especially when steeped carefully, but caramel and pumpkin are fairly absent. However, I’m not sad about enjoying this tea for the base alone!

Yep, this is just not working for me the same way that the Frank version did. It never had enough flavour for me, and continues to be fairly bland. There’s just a hint to let you know that it’s something other than a plain black tea, and it’s certainly ok to drink, but it’s just not the same. Oh well! Adjusting rating from 91 (Frank version) to 72 (Anne version).

This looks to be the first time I’m reviewing the Anne version of this tea. Unfortunately, I’m not nearly as big a fan of it. I’m just not picking up much in the way of flavouring at all, though the base is nice enough (bit astringent, I oversteeped). I believe I felt this same way when I first purchased it, as well, so it’s not age that’s the factor here.

I’ll let my previous rating stand for now, and will try this again in a more controlled manner (measuring tea, paying attention to infusion time) to see if I can improve it, but it’s sadly just not as good. (I believe there was a caramel/“sweet” flavouring that Frank used to use in many blends that is not used in Anne’s blends. Or it’s from a different source. Or something, as this is a recurring thing I’ve noticed.)

Sipdown…!!!! :( :( :(

Used up the last of this today plus a bit of Cashew Turtle (3:1, as I didn’t have enough of this one for my thermos). The resulting combination is unsurprisingly mostly CPC with maybe a hint of extra caramelly flavour. Tasty enough that it’s almost gone. (I used the “add a bit of cold water to the thermos” trick this morning, and was able to drink my tea at my 8:30am meeting after steeping it around 7:55! Score! Of course, the Laoshan Black to which I did not add cold water is still too hot to even attempt to drink…)

So anyhow, I have to drink 15 teas today in order to hit 1200 and make an average of 100 tasting notes/month since my Jan 29 2012 Steepster inauguration… mission accepted. (Can one die of tea overconsumption?!)

Another travel mug favourite nearly gone! 1 mug’s worth left (plus I think I still have a cup’s worth in my 12 Days of Tea). I’ll be sad to see this one go :(

Sigh. This one’s nearly gone now! I predict it to be my first 52teas full-packet sipdown. Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha I’m trying to save a bit more. Anyways, travel mugged some of this on Thursday to take to the boy’s second soccer game. Definitely needed the tea, what with getting an hour of sleep before my flight and a three hour nap before heading to his first game. It was good as always, although I let it cool down waaayyy too much before putting it in my mug, so it was very lukewarm.

12 Days of Tea #5!

Ahh, Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake. Yep, opened this packet and immediately knew what it was! And it definitely did not fail to impress. SO delicious. So very, very delicious. Made me want to pick up a packet of the inevitable re-blend, but no more tea…. no more tea…

Another delicious mug of this yesterday. Thanks so much to Sil for figuring out that 2.5 minute steeps are what make 52teas taste delicious!

I’m getting close to a sipdown with this one! While I do like it, and it has been a faithful companion to work many times, I don’t think I’ll miss it too terribly much. Cashew Turtle, on the other hand, is one sipdown I am utterly dreading :(

Yummy Timolino-full of this last night while watching the boyfriend’s soccer game and chatting to another player’s wife. Delicious!

Woah! Steeped this for only 2.5 minutes today as per Sil’s recommendation, and wow does it ever make a difference! I’m mostly tasting caramelly flavours, but no astringency or anything! Possibly the best cup/Timolino of this I’ve made yet! Puts a bright spot in a day that has otherwise been less than awesome.

Apparently I overleafed today, as this was pretty astringent for me today (though lovely flavour beneath the astringency). Buuuut it was in my Timolino, and I had nothing else to eat/drink, so down it went. :D

I think, though, that I am going to not re-purchase this one. As good as it is, I have a ton of other flavoured blacks to take to work for the time being!

Yeeaaah, definitely made a second cup of this one tonight. Not a re-infusion though; the leaves did not have much aroma at all after the first infusion, so I just threw them out. I may try a second infusion of this set simply for curiousity tomorrow, if I have time.

The aroma is of a very caramelly, lightly spiced pumpkin pie. I don’t get pumpkin itself per se, but the spicing is right, which leads to the mental association. Flavourwise, it’s a just slightly bitter, light base, with that same spicy aftertaste, and an encompassing caramel flavour. Pretty tasty. I’d like to try it with sugar, but it’s pretty delicious without. Still no cheesecake flavour, but I’ve come to not really expect that anymore.

My order finally arrived!!! Made this one and threw it in the Timolino for work. It’s suffering a touch from thermos syndrome, but heck yes this is amazing! Pumpkin tea-wise I don’t think it beats out Della Terra or DavidsTea, but it’s caramel and cheesecake, not just pumpkin spice. Admittedly can’t taste cheesecake, but I have to assume it’s creating a bit of creaminess. The tea base here is also lighter than I expected, but it’s working really well! A definite winner. Better notes when not on my phone and in a rush to get things done.

Frank, I suggest you remove Pumpkin Pie Black from the permanent collection, and replace it with this one!!

Okay, this is extremely good.
I was a bit wary of the honeybush because I’ve never had it before but don’t really love rooibos that much. In this tea, the base isn’t all that apparent and what is there just adds a nice sweetness and depth.
The aroma of the dry leaf had me a little nervous. It smelled good, but more like ginger ale (sweet and gingery) than cinnamon rolls. Once I brewed it up it smelled more like one would expect a cinnamon roll tea to smell. It also had a really pretty clear liquor.
I had this sweetened and it was a very warm tea. There really are all the components of a cinnamon bun here! I didn’t expect frosting, but I got it! I also got sweet dough and cinnamon.
It’s got real warmth to it. The mister, who isn’t really big on tea but agreed to a mug of this, loved it as well. His comment was “this tastes like it’s meant to have a bit of whiskey in it”. He’s right, I actually got a somewhat boozy vibe from it too. It would likely be fantastic with a bit of alcohol, but we don’t really drink.
It tastes like sitting next to the fire in a big blanket. It’s very warm and comforting and I would repurchase this.

I received this in a swap from willworkfortea, thanks. It’s been on my shopping list for a while, but has now 3 times failed to be in an order, what was I waiting for?

The dry notes don’t smell much like anything other than a black tea, as it first begins to steep I do get some coconut smell, but after a total steep time it looses all the smell and smells like a black tea. :(

The taste is a nice smooth black tea, followed by a bit of cream & DELICIOUS coconut. This is the coconut tea I have been looking for. It’s also got that toasted coconut taste to it. I have the urge to buy some coconut milk to add to this. Oh yes, that would be so decadent.

Additional notes: I sipped the last of this sample last night that Momo kindly sent a while back. The flavor was definitely there after 40 seconds! I’m not sure if it was more or less than the last time I had it.. don’t remember. But I sure wish I had more of it. Definite apricot with a nice creaminess standing in for the cheesecake.

thanks again Amanda for allowing me to try so many of samples of 52Teas! I swear the other day I thought of a caramel apricot cheesecake. I never had that particular dessert before but it sounded good (I must have been hungry). Then I remembered I had this tea! SO I had to try it… Sadly, this one doesn’t have the caramel. From what fell into my infuser, there was at least one apricot chunk. The white tea lends a nice base for these flavors. Definite identifiable apricot, certainly a nice fragrance too. The cheesecake flavor is more of a cream flavor, but it is more present here than in other cheesecake teas I’ve tried from 52Teas. Overall, this is great. But I’d really rather like to have the actual cheesecake I envisioned!

So. I expected to be able to review a bunch of samples today and yesterday. My plan for my day off yesterday and today was to sit down happily with some tea and play my new copy of old-skool Riven.

That did not happen.

You see – work before play – I decided to first update some Ops forms I created for work and print off more. We absolutely need some for Tuesday. Which was the point when I discovered that the ENTIRE Microsoft Office Suite had mysteriously vanished from our computer.

My sister – in a stunningly self-centered move – uninstalled it because of a minor, annoying, Word-related prompt that appears at start-up. (This is left over from a tech-stupid, failed attempt on our part to install a more complete language pack to Windows.) My sister – who is disabled and does not work or go to school, unlike the rest of the family – somehow decided, “No one uses this, anyway,” and deleted Word, Excel, Powerpoint…

So I spent all of yesterday trying to System Restore and whatnot to fix it. De nada. We are now stuck with no working word processing/spreadsheet programs except crappy free ones. So unless we can borrow old installation discs off someone, we will probably need a new computer. Like we can afford that. Oh, and in the process of trying to fix that, I temporarily couldn’t get Riven to work, either. What a day. I had to vent, guys.

But my 52teas order came today! That’s such an improvement over yesterday, seriously. Just that. Huge improvement.

I decided to try this one first. When I cracked open the bag, wow, what a great smell! It’s very lemon-y on top, but there’s definitely something like butter and cake underneath that. Very promising.

I steeped this up – about 12oz worth with a scant teaspoon of rock sugar – and…the taste is…the taste is… Hmm. Um.

I’m not sure what this tastes like. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to taste like. Does cake taste like this? It’s pleasant enough, but I don’t get “cake.” It’s quite lemon-y.

Overall, it’s pleasant, but I wasn’t sure what to think of it. There’s a quality to it that’s almost like a tiny bit of sourness or astringency, and a tiny note of bitterness. I decided to add just a touch more sugar (white sugar, so that it would dissolve) and some milk. My instinct was that the milk would mellow this one out.

Wow! Did the milk ever help! I’m not so sure about the sugar because I can really taste it; but mellowed with milk, the better notes of this tea really shine through. It’s got a nice balance of lemon and sweet to it. I definitely think I taste something closer to “cake” at the bottom of the sip now (not the back, mind you, the bottom, let’s be specific here), but…damn that white sugar! Seems to be killing things. Man, why did I ever put this nasty stuff in my tea?! Never again, I swear. I’ll just suffer through it not being as sweet! Blech!

VERY nice with a bit of sugar and milk, anyway. Definitely has a “comfort food” factor to it, a good gaming tea!

Additional notes: I think I’ve had three different batches of this tea (samples & a very cheap entire pouch!) This cup is from the Bestsellers Batch. The leaves look less black than my questionably aged pouch. The leaves here look like they are a bit more brown in color. I also don’t see any blueberries.. but it may be too small of a sample or I’m just not seeing them like last time. I used one flat teaspoon since the heaping teaspoon last time seemed too much.

Steep #1 // ten minutes after boiling // 2 min 15 seconds
I wanted to try an entirely different steep parameters. Maybe if I can find the perfect steep for ONE of 52Teas it will be easier to find the perfect steep for them all. This one is VERY good on flavor. It SEEMS the same as the other batches I’ve had. The black tea stays very hidden and light this time around, which is fine, since the blueberry flavor is so nice. It’s like the sweet gooey blueberry part of a danish! I’d say this steep was closer to being perfect.

Steep #2 // 10 min after boiling // 2 1/2 min steep
Another lovely cup with awesome flavor. I’m surprised there is this much blueberry left.

I just love Steepster. Not only is it my “tea brain” where I can look back at specific times I’ve steeped things, but I can compare notes with everyone else who has steeped the same tea to get that perfect cup!