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I’ve been camping since friday morning and I just got back today, and it feels good to be home. I enjoy camping for the most part, but for some reason my family just loves the campground with the beaten down trailers and pink lawn flamingoes, and the tattered rebel flags wavin’ proud while old toothless men sit around drinking bud light and blasting country music. I’m not being judgemental, that’s just not my scene.
I had to listen to one too many conversations about how terrible a president Obama is, how he’s “a foreigner and a muslim and he should be assasinated” and things of that nature. All this has left me in a bad mood. One of the most resounding sentences that I heard come out of someone’s mouth was “Now I ain’t racist or nothin’, but I just don’t think that an african-american or a muslim should be running this country”. WOW. Sometimes I just have my mind blown by just how bigoted and mean and misled and racist some people can be. So yeah, I’m really glad to be home.
Anyway, on to the tea. I definitely am starting to see what Liberteas said about letting this tea sit for a little bit. I’m already starting to notice a creaminess coming out that was totally absent before, it’s not quite cheesecake but it’s good. Along with that, the bergamot is starting to mellow out and taste a little more natural. I better enjoy my stash while I can because my tea budget just went out the window after I bought my girlfriend a very expensive piece of jewelry for her 18th birthday. I’ll enjoy this stuff while I have it.
Oh, I guess I’m the first person to log this blend – huzzah! Thanks for the fast shipping Frank. :D
I was a little leery of this because cherry flavored things so often taste like cough medicine to me, but I do like gunpowder teas quite a lot.
I steeped this for around 3 minutes at 180F. The almond here goes great with the vegetal and slightly assertive nature of the gunpowder tea. The cherry is mild and reminds me more of sour cherries than sweet ones. No cough syrup here thankfully!
I’m not sure this blend is for everyone, you would have to like gunpowder tea quite a lot since it overpowers the other flavors just a little bit. Not my absolute favorite from 52 Teas, but still very creative and tasty. How about a banana almond gunpowder?? :)
Preparation
The dry notes are strictly Cotton Candy, with a hint of a strange smell I can’t place. Once steeped & hot it smells like a black tea with a hint of cotton candy. I added a bit of honey, because it is black & I felt it would be too bitter without. Once iced it tasted like cotton candy with a slight black tea taste. As it eventually reached room temperature again it became a little too bitter to enjoy.
Overall I really enjoyed this tea iced, but don’t think I would like it hot. To me certain teas should just be enjoyed either iced or hot. Some work both ways.
(52teas (Frank) 2022: 7)
Another of the misplaced teas, although I hadn’t realized this one was missing. It’s a generically fruity, slightly creamy green at this point. Really not bad, but I should probably just designate it for iced tea to get it used up. I’ll don’t see myself drinking the remaining 10+ cups when I have so many other options.
Sooooo my trusty meat thermometer that I use for measuring water temperature requires a new battery. Sigh. It was only a matter of time. Of course, as I type this, it occurs to me that I have a second thermometer somewhere, that was also working recently… Either way, this one was steeped at some temperature below boiling, but I haven’t the faintest idea what it might have been. Kept the infusion time low to hopefully counteract a possible temperature misjudgment.
I was kind of excited to get this tea in my grab bag, as it’s something I was interested in trying, but wouldn’t have purchased myself. The smell of the dry tea is vaguely fruity, and I think I saw a piece of marshmallow root??
I’m happy to say that I’m experiencing zero bitterness, and zero astringency, so I didn’t mess up the infusion! Initially, I’m not tasting too much beyond the green tea (a bit seaweedy, yum) and a vague fruitiness, but I swear there’s an aftertaste of what seems to initially be peach, then more strongly apricot. Yup, this is confirmed with sip #2. Definitely apricot. In fact, the most strong apricot I have ever tasted in a tea blend! Frank – make another apricot blend, because this flavouring is seriously yummy! I will admit that it’s only in the aftertaste, and not particularly strong, but it tastes like yummy dried apricot (I don’t remember seeing a chunk in my infuser, but there could be one). I will cherish my one delicious apricotty cup, since I know the rest are unlikely to be the same. SIGH.
Also, I used a generous 1.5tsp of tea for an 8oz. cup, as I usually find 1 tsp not to be enough.
Anyways, this kitchen sink thing is a super cool idea. I’d be down for trying a kitchen sink black or white too… Giving this a high rating because a) it’s good (one of the better flavoured greens I’ve tried!), and b) it’s a novel idea!
Preparation
So, not only did I order this from 52teas, I also received it in my grab bag, so I’m really hoping to like it since I have 4 whole ounces to finish off.
Dry, it smells much like Malted ChocoMate to me, but with the kick of cayenne which, like it did to Alphakitty, burnt my nostrils when I stupidly sniffed the tea. Which I did despite reading her tasting note. Sigh.
Steeped, it still smells very much like MCM. Clearly the roasted mate, the flavour of which I do enjoy. Unfortunately, it tasted much like plain roasted mate plus some spiciness to me, which resulted in the addition of a bunch of maple syrup (that’s just what I had right there) in order to make it drinkable. The second infusion is pretty similar; although I think I could get through it without sweetener, I’m not sure I will or want to.
I’m not sure whether I’m missing the chocolate here for some reason, or if it’s just blending in too much, but I’m kind of disappointed with this blend. I liked Malted ChocoMate much better, and since I have something like 8 oz. of it, I really can’t see myself picking this one to drink over it. I wouldn’t even be likely to drink this one just for the spicy kick, because Mayan Chocolate Chai is my tea of choice for that situation, because it is utterly amazing. Bleh. I guess sometimes there are just tea misses.
Preparation
As that is too bad. I got this one in my grab bag as well. Now I think that I might not like it either. I am not that big of fan of spicy things :(
Uh oh :(
Glad I listened to my gut here. Sorry you don’t like it, though.
Hrmmm. I’d be willing to trade some teas to get at least two ounces of that off your hands.
… are you serious?! I would be more than happy to send it to you.
This is my first tasting of my grab bags!
Dry leaf smells like wine but not very sweet.
Hot: no astringency, strong grape flavour.
Iced: this is where it shines! The grape comes out a little stronger with some dryness that might be associated with wine (it almost makes your mouth pucker, but not in a bad way). I also seem to be getting a tad of current flavour, but maybe that is just me. I wouldn’t have associated this tea with wine if it wasn’t called that, but I think it is a great tea nonetheless.
Preparation
At first sip, I thought, oh I can only taste mate, not chocolate, but even before that sip was over BAM chocolate appeared (guess I just gotta be patient!) Now, with every sip I am enjoying the intertwining flavors of mate and chocolate. I got this as a sample from Amy oh (THANK YOU!) so it was just labeled chocomate. I knew there was something different about the chocolate flavor but it wasn’t until I looked it up on here that the malt part clicked.
I also love that this is a mate because I’m hoping for good caffeine out of it! Now that I love it, with my luck, it’s never going to exist again!
Thank you, Frank, for making my morning after a night of bad sleep a million times better, and thank you amy for giving me enough for another pot sometime :)
Preparation
Meh. Another one for the rehoming pile. As rooibos blends go, it’s perfectly fine, but it’s just not a tea I see myself finishing off happily.
This was sent to me unexpectedly by Jillian. Thanks!
The dry tea smells deliciously chocolatey; I’m not getting much banana. A chocolate rooibos sounds just fantastic though, so that’s hardly a problem!
The tea is quite strong, because I used 2 tsp since I figured this was an old blend. Initially, I do taste a wave of chocolatey-banana flavour. Kind of a banana chip sort of taste, to me. This fades into a light sort of cocoa-y flavour, and then the rooibos takes over, which I don’t like. I think this would be much better with a honeybush base, but oh well. I don’t think it will be all that difficult for me to finish, although I have acquired a huge number of rooibos/honeybush blends lately, which is somewhat unexpected (but not really). Oh well!
Thanks for the sample, Jillian :)
Preparation
Sipdown! 829.
Thanks to momo for a sample of this one (although I ended up getting my own entire packet in a grab bag, bleu). Anyhow, this has more flavour than what I remember from my own bag, and although I am getting some figgy flavours that remind me of a few DavidsTeas with figs (e.g. Forbidden Fruit), I’m not a fan. I can taste the rooibos, and I don’t really like it, nor do I particularly care for the flavour combination, apparently. Ah well!
Preparation
This initially smelled a bit play-doughy to me, like some other not-great teas have smelled in the past. My cooled cup from last night tastes much the same, blech. The re-steep is moderately better, but still not very tasty to me. I wonder if it’s an age thing?
Anyways, I’ll try this again sometime and see if it improves. Perhaps I just don’t like dates in tea?? At least the rooibos isn’t particularly medicinal…
Preparation
This is another tea I nabbed during the grab bag sale. Not one I would have picked myself, but I don’t have any rooibos chais to my knowledge, so it can hopefully fill that void?!
For whatever reason, this one smells an awful lot like Cinnamon Roll Honeybush initially. So much so that by aroma, I mixed the cups up. The only thing that got me to put them in the right order was remembering that I steeped this one last, and used a smaller cup (that I had to wash) for it. So yes, the aroma is cinnamony and chai-like, but not a great deal different from CRH.
The flavour is definitely not of a cinnamon bun, and it does taste chai-y, but it’s not overly strong. No medicinal rooibos flavour though, which is a big plus, so as a caffeine-free chai, it works for me. I’ll try brewing it a bit stronger next time though.
Probably not a tea I’d pick up again, but it will be a nice addition to the evening tea rotation (since I need to get to sleep earlier, and cutting out late night caffeine is probably a good idea whether or not I feel like it makes a huge difference).
ETA: Second infusion good; more cinnamony, and a bit light. This is a good spiced tea, I must say. I wish I’d had it when I was with my aunt, because I think she’d like it, so I could just pawn it off on her…
Preparation
Frank version of the tea (was this reblended?)
Iced this and yet again, confirmed my lack of enjoyment of cinnamon in iced tea. Just not a big fan. It’s alright, but it’s been in the fridge a couple days now, so I clearly don’t like it as much as the others that I finished off within 24h.
Last tea from yesterday! I don’t know why I picked two cinnamon teas after saying I’m no longer a huge fan of that flavour, but that’s what I happened to do. I can’t ever remember what teas I have available over at the boy’s house, but I guess these three caught my eye.
Anyhow, I think I may now prefer this one cold-brewed – it just wasn’t doing it for me hot yesterday, but I have fond memories from this past summer of guzzling icy cold cups of it. So, I think I’ll leave the rest of the packet for that. I have about an ounce left now…. so maybe 3-4 giant mugs of cold-brew? Yum.
Flavors: Cinnamon
Preparation
Cold-brew! Paired it with a cinnamon bun (ahahaha), and it was pretty good. I really just needed a tasty cold beverage to go along with it… (and preferably calorie-free, given the abundance of calories in the cinnamon bun…)
Preparation
Sipdown! 826. Thanks to momo for a sample of this one :)
Since I received my own packet of this shortly after requesting a sample, I didn’t end up getting to this sample baggie until now… probably a year later. Oops. Concerned that this may not have aged well, I decided to hot/cold-brew it – BEST IDEA EVER. It was absolutely delicious. It took on a bit of a chai-ish flavour (52teas’ characteristic chai flavour, which I love), and was way better than I expected a cinnamon tea to taste cold. I felt like I was tasting the cinnamon bun frosting, kind of like with the French Toast tea – it seems that some of the flavourings come out better when the tea is chilled. Makes me want to try all my other 52teas cold!
Anyhow, I’d highly recommend a cold-brew of this one if you have some…. it’s pretty darn delicious. I’m starting to think that honeybush + chilling = winner (as long as the tea is good to begin with). Yum!
Preparation
Took the cue from Sil yesterday, and brewed some of this delight up tonight! Didn’t catch quite all the cinnamon bun nuances as I did last time, but I wasn’t looking for them, I was just drinking and enjoying! Definitely in the ranks of favourite night time honeybush, although with some of those sickly sweet ones (DT’s Birthday Cake, or any company’s caramel chunk-infused rooibos). Yum.
Preparation
This one is on my list to try, especially now that Autumn is here :)
Somehow, this on is just sooo comforting before bed!
Yeah… really quite tasty. It’s much like a cinnamon-y chai sort of flavour. And if you like this one and like strawberries, Strawberry Pie Honeybush is fantastic as well! In fact, I think I’m going to go brew some up right now…
lol, I really enjoyed the Strawberry Pie one as well, but this one is sooo much better IMO!
My initial thought when opening this package (first one I’m reviewing from the grab bag sale), was that it seems to have the same sort of spicing as Strawberry Pie honeybush! That’s exciting, since I quite like that one. It keeps that same sort of cinnamony smells throughout the infusion too, which made me quite happy although slightly worried that it was going to taste like Strawberry Pie minus the strawberry. Luckily, I am wrong.
The flavour of this one is absolutely delicious, and rather unexpected! Yes, there’s the same cinnamon of SP, but I definitely tasted some delicious cream cheese icing on top of a warm doughy cinnamon bun. Divine. And the best part? I’m not having to imagine a single one of these flavours. This literally tastes like a liquified cinnamon bun. How on earth did the bun flavour get in here?!
Anyways, wow. Incredibly high marks for this one! I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a blend quite so amazingly true to its name! The only problem I’m having is that instead of satisfying a craving, this has created a massive one. All I want to do is eat a giant warm cinnamon bun right now. I may in fact look up recipes tomorrow because of it.
ETA: Second infusion mostly just tastes of cinnamon, not really at all like cinnamon bun. That’s ok, though, I need more teas that only last through one infusion! :D
while camping can be fun if your with friends and if your campsite has an indoor bathroom instead of an outhouse :D There will sadly always be judgemental people in the world, it’s part of being human. All we can do is our best to be tolerant, understanding, and when all else fails remember you can always wear headphones :D or if online hit an ignore button :D
When you say to let it sit, do you mean let the tea age and flavors meld in the pouch before you open it, or let the cup sit and cool a little? I have heard people say to let custom blends age, so when I got my Butterbeer, I didn’t open it for thee weeks. Now THAT was hard! :)
Let the flavors meld a little bit, although letting the cup cool defiitely helps as well. Yeah, I devoured my butterbeer in a matter of a week. It was very hard to resist, especially after smelling it. And I have very little self-control when it comes to waiting to try a new tea, it just gets me so excited. :)
Wow! When My hubby and I go camping, we go out into the mountains (no campgrounds for us) we make sure we have no cell reception and usually never see another human the entire time.
We sleep outside and cook over a fire.
As I describe this it sounds more like a episode of Survivor than a Vacation;)
But, at least we only have to listen to our own conversation around the campfire.
I am glad you had this tea to come home too:)
That’s the way I like to do it too. :)
When I lived in Oregon we would just find a nice isolated spot in the mountains and pitch a tent, or just lay outside on a sleeping bag. But here in Pennsylvania it’s actually ILLEGAL to just set up camp in the woods, you can only camp in a campground. It’s ridiculous.
Really? Illegal!?
Here in Idaho, if someone tried to pass that law, everyone would be rolling on the ground with laughter.
Yep, it’s insane. So you’re in Idaho huh? If you like the mountains you should take a trip up to the Sisters area in Oregon, beautiful place.
I do love the mountains, and I agree the Sisters area is lovely:)
I’ve camped in the mountains in British Columbia, Canada when I was a lot younger. It was pretty fun but could be really cold at night :D
Now… I ain’t racist or nothin’ … (LOL! Just kidding, I just felt I needed to start the comment with that!) Personally, I love Obama… he’s been the best president since President Clinton. :)
I am glad that you’re getting more out of this tea now!!!
British Columbia is at the top of my list of places I want to visit.
I love BC. Its so lovely.
When we camp in the mountains, Helena, it has got down to the 20’s.
We were so happy that we brought our doggies with because we were all snuggled together and warm:)
If I let my dog sleep with me she might push me out of the bed/sleeping blanket. A link for more info on English Mastiffs if your curious
http://www.canadasguidetodogs.com/mastiff.htm
I saw a billboard on my way to North Carolina that said “LOSING HOPE? VOTE REPUBLICAN” and I was just like ….what. This is also a county with an active KKK group who wants to adopt a highway. Ah, the middle of nowhere.
Mountains. Solitude. Quiet. Fresh air. Can I come, wherever it is?
Lol, I bet she would not share the bed well.
What Beautiful dogs!
I have fostered a couple Mastiff mixes and just love their personalities:)
they are very good natured :D it’s really funny to see them playing with chihuahuas or other small critters. There are some cute videos on youtube. I saw one where the mastiff was watching a silly siberian kitten. Another one was where the mastiff was giving the kiteen a tongue bath sooo cute!
That is why you skip the campground and find a beach somewhere to set up camp on! .. or a lake.. or wilderness… somewhere where you can’t find people having those narrow-minded conversations
oooh a beach with nice white sand and some good cold tea :D
I mean, if a sentence starts with “I ain’t a racist…” I mean, the fact that that has to act as a qualifier for what is to follow kinda says something about a person.