52teas

Another wonderful day in terms of Doggies getting along! Yay! In terms of work, on the other hand, it has been long and intense. Thankfully it is now over and I am free to enjoy my tea and my dogs!

I settled down with a cup of this, the 7th tea of the 12 days of Christmas from 52teas!

I was happy to try this blend. The other cheesecake tea from 52teas that I have tried (pumpkin cheesecake) I loved, so this was exciting to say the least. The smell of the leaves was oddly fruity with a coconutty aroma hanging out in your nostrils. The shredded coconut looked tasty and beautiful in the honeybush.

I steeped it the smell was all coconut. It reminded me slightly of sunblock, which is supposed to smell like coconut, so I guess this is a good thing. First sip unsweetened was smooth and creamy, sweetened the creaminess was even more notorious and the coconut shown through even stronger than before. The coconut in this blend doesn’t taste artificial, in fact, it is the the most realistic coconut flavor I have ever tasted in a tea!

My only issue with this tea is that I got 0 cheesecake flavor… Oh well… Still really enjoyable though!

I really enjoyed this cup of tea, but personally, I feel that the wonderful flavors may stand out more with a black tea base! : )

I was very excited when today’s christmas sampler revealed this little number. I was even more enticed when I caught a whiff of the creamy vanilla scent. However, with all this anticipation, I must admit I was a little let down. It was a little too astringent for my liking, a sort of bitterness I could not get over. The vanilla flavor was nice, so I broke down and did something I hardly ever do. I added a pinch of sugar and some almond milk. It seemed blasphemous to contaminate the tea with these accoutrements, but after a cup it just seemed too underwhelming without anything, plus I enjoyed it so much more!

Bottom line: When it comes to vanilla-y flavored black teas I’d stick with Paris by Harney and Sons (even though it only has a hint of vanilla) I think it’s more satisfyingly vanilla than this.

52teas 12 Days of Christmas Sampler 2011 – Day 7

Uh oh. A honeybush blend. I knew this was coming, but I’m still not very prepared. It’s not one of my favorites. In fact, it’s probably my second to last least favorite. Rooibos claims the gold medal though.

Anyway, this is pretty honeybush-y. I’m getting strong, sweet cough syrup. There might be a little coconut in there, but mostly it’s just unpleasant to me.

I’m not a very good commentator for this blend. If you’re deciding whether or not to buy this particular tea, don’t base your decision off my review. I can’t really say anything nice about honeybush. It’s not for me. So, look to other Steepsterites for descriptions of how this really tastes because they’ll be more reliable sources.

Ok! Finally did a better steep of this tea, and it was so much much much better than the last time.. it tastes like hot cross buns to me and I love it!! I literally forced a sip to all my friends because they just had to try it,, loved it..

I’m not going to rate this yet, oh I really am stupid.. it went all wrong!! I made a fresh pot and waited to put the loose tea inside, so I went about downstairs and decided to eat some food and completely forgot about my tea!! So I ran upstairs and threw the tea in the pot… unfortunately, it wasnt even brewing.. saaaaddd… major failure!! I will make this again, PROPERLY.

OK, what the heck?! This cuppa from the 12 Days of Christmas blend from 52Teas tastes entirely different than the blend from months ago. Did my tastes change?!

Now I taste much more of the vanilla and cream goodness described by other teaists. I also let it steep for the length of the cup so more of that delicious vanilla flavor could be enjoyed.

Previously unrated. Now, highly rated. Bizarre!

I’m not sure about this one, honestly. Yes, it’s uber vanilla – which I always like – but there is a hint of flavor there I don’t care for. Now it’s possible that it’s an ice-creamy flavor. Since I can’t eat ice cream, whenever I taste anything like it my body imagines what will happen when I do eat ice cream (serious, serious chest, throat and mouth pain). So maybe that bias is constricting my enjoyment. But I don’t think I can really enjoy it. So I’m not going to rate it, I don’t think it would be fair to rate it.

I think I’ll sell it on tea trade so I can try to make some $$ back for my tea budget this month!

52teas 12 Days of Christmas Sampler 2011 – Day 6

YESSS!!!!!! I’m super excited that I get to try this one! It went out of stock before I even discovered 52teas. Just looking at the picture makes my mouth water.

The dominant flavor is buttery sencha. I’m not getting a genmaicha flavor. The toasted rice would have to be a lot stronger, and for that there would have to be a lot more rice.

The sencha does give a sweet, sugary, buttery, baked confection taste. If I try really hard, I can connect the taste to marshmallow Rice Krispie treats. But I’m not sure how much of that is actually in the tea versus what I want to be in the tea.

Regardless, it’s definitely yummy!! A sweet green tea to calm my nerves after a stressful work day. This is so good, I even forgot what bitter tastes like. It’s nowhere to be found here. The more I sip this, the more I love it! I just might have to buy a pouch of this too. :)

So, I steeped this in a frothy water-and-milk mixture today, and it was way better than steeped in regular water. Sweet and creamy, like a breakfast tea, with butter and maple notes. I haven’t had good luck with 52teas so far but this one is pretty good

Finishing up the last bit of this. I’m getting much more cardamom and cinnamon this time. The peanut butter is very, very faint—just a hint of nuttiness in the background.

Still smells absolutely delicious.

I would love this as a perfume—seriously! :)

Spicy—bordering on savory. At the forefront, I can taste the cinnamon, cardamon, cloves and plenty of pepper—but the peanut butter not as much. There’s an interesting nuttiness and something delicious and “Christmassy”—like gingerbread.

I love the intense spicy-sweet-savory aroma. And as this cools down, I’m detecting the saltiness of chunky peanut butter spread—yummy!

Pretty fun to drink. I like this. :)

Somehow I missed this one the other day. Opened it and put it in a small bag. But didn’t try it. But seeing that today’s tea is a coconut tea (allergic), I will back peddle and opted for this one instead. The dry leaf smells just like a carton of sherbet! Not usually my favorite dessert, but as a tea? Well that’s a horse of a different color. This smells super amazing as it steeps, like candy in my cup. The taste is just yummy! :) Yet another hit from Frank!

Just finished this after a night at work…I immediately had to try it again. It’s really comforting with a mellow flavor. The layers of lemon take center stage ahead of the cinnamon-which is how I like it. It has the perfect amount of tartness.
I bet this tea will be great during the winter months coming home from a snowy wet day and even iced for the summer. All in all it’s a great tea….it’s opening my taste for white teas

Delicious! Today (although it’s only Monday) was my Friday, since I have the next two days off. Usually that makes for an especially long and tedious day, however, this was the perfect tea to energize me and calm my nerves with it’s perfectly-balanced sweet demeanor. It cheered me up and allowed me make it through! It has a toasted quality that I assume is because of the Genmaicha, and the marshmallows complement divinely. A most intriguing concoction and wonderful addition to the 12 days of christmas lineup! So far they’ve all been a hit!

I finally got my 12 Days of X-mas parcel today (not Frank’s fault, Canada Post is always slow this time of year – I should have ordered sooner) so I’ve got a fair bit of catching up to do.

This is wonderful tea to start it on, however. I actually have an unopened pouch of this one that I purchase earlier, but that didn’t make me any less excited about trying this tea when I saw what it was. I was dubious at first about how much marshmallow flavour the tea would actually have – sure it’s got marshmallow root bits, but to anyone who’s ever had plain marshmallow root tea (good for coughs) there’s not really much resemblance between it and the sweet, fluffy, corn syrup-based confections we’re used to in this modern day and age.

All my doubts fled though, when I opened the pouch, I swear if I ddn’t know any better I was smelling freshly-made rice krispie squares. And it carried over nicely to the flavour as well. I’m surprised that there’s no sugar added to this tea because it’s plenty sweet without me adding anything to it (not that I’d sweetened a green tea, but you get the idea). What a wonderful treat.

Today has been a good day. My very jealous dog seems to have finally decided that she was going to get along with my new puppy! After a week of continuous supervision dealing with outbursts of nipping and growling, today, finally, they started playing as if nothing had ever happened. They played and played and I smiled and smiled as my boyfriend giggled with me as if we were kids. So happy!

To celebrate this happy turn on events, I had the 6th of the 12 days of Christmas teas! This particular one I had been curious about for a long time. I am not a fan of Genmaicha , so I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t like it just because it would remind me of it. On the other hand, I really love rice crispy treats… So I was thrilled to get to try it!

As soon as I opened the packet I smelled sweet, not quite marshmallow but yummy and promising. I was expecting to see real marshmallows, not marshmallow root. Sad but not terrible.

The brew was a very light golden green that smell like marshmallow treats with a suspicious hint of cupcake. All in all I was still very excited about it. I sweetened it with generous amounts of brown sugar.

All of my high expectations were sadly not exceeded by the flavor. I sipped and sipped and all I got was sweet genmaicha with a hint of marshmallow. It still smelled amazing, enough so that anyone who walked into the room asked what smelled so great, but the taste just wasn’t as spectacular as the smell.

I really thought that this was going to be one of my favorites, but I guess my disliking genmaicha got in the way. I did enjoy it, but it didn’t live up to what I had prepared myself for. It was enjoyable and a good companion to my happy, warm, fuzzy joy of seeing my two doggy girls get along! : )

I missed this one the first time around. So I was thrilled to find it in my 12 Teas of Christmas box today! It smelled just like marshmallow treats….so much so that my husband thought I made some. :) I don’t know how Frank does it, but I’m glad he does. This one was spot on marshmallow treat for me. All the flavors were there and it was a total win! I need more…I mean I would like more please! :)

First Try! (with salt and cooler brew temp)

How I got my brew on…
Brew amount: 1 level teaspoon to approx. 8 oz. of water
Brew temp: 200°f (definitely getting a new kettle after the holidays have passed)
Brew length: Approx. 5 minutes (forgot to set the timer but kept an eye on the clock)
Added: A pinch of salt, after first sip

Smells like…
In the bag: Nothing at all. I opened the bag, sniffed, and smelled nada. Very strange.
In the cup: A faint buttery note but no popcorn :(

Tastes like:
Without salt: Black tea with a far-away whisper of butter.
With salt: Holy cow. Butter galore. A little too much butter for my taste. Slightly fruity black tea base.
Aftertaste: Faint (in this case I mean almost non-existent) popcorn

Second Try! (with sugar, hotter brew temp)

How I got my brew on…
Brew amount: 1 heaping teaspoon to 8 oz. water
Brew temp: 210°f (took a lot of work to get my poor kettle to boil water to this temp!)
Brew length: 5 minutes
Added: Sugar and a pinch of salt.

Smells like…
Corn pops cereal! Yummy.

Tastes like…
With sugar: Black tea with a hint of butter. No popcorn to be found.
With sugar and a pinch of salt: Black tea with a hint of salty butter.
Aftertaste: Salt and butter, with a hint of popcorn. Wow. Finally! :D

Note:
The color was light and somewhat yellow for a black tea. Does this have something to do with flavorings? Or perhaps the blend of black teas used?

Overall…
A nice novelty but not one that I would drink on a regular basis and I’m not sure I’ll keep this one around.

So, life has been weird and I’ve been away from Steepster for what feels like ages. I miss my Steepster tea-eeps and I don’t care how odd that sounds. I actually think about you guys when I go about my day, and I hate that I haven’t connected with some of you in so long.

In fact, life has been so consuming that I completely lost track of time and I forgot about my 52teas 12 Day of Christmas sampler! I’m way behind in my sampling but I’m very, very, very glad that I opened today’s tea. I was unable to try Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha when it first came out. The original blend had marshmallows in it instead of marshmallow root, so it wasn’t vegan and therefore off the table for me to try. WELL, now it is vegan and I can’t overstate how excited I was to finally try this blend. I love this tea! It’s sweet, creamy, and utterly delicious. I hope that Frank offers this blend for individual sale because I’ll buy it by the case.

52teas 12 Days of Christmas Sampler 2011 – Day 4

This is probably the most spot on 52teas blend I’ve tried. The dry leaves smell so sugary and fruity that I can’t possibly wait to brew this!

All three flavors are distinctly present in both the dry leaf aroma and the brewed tea taste. I’m in love with the orange, and the raspberry is a nice compliment. My least favorite is the lime. It’s not that it’s badly flavored. I think limes are probably just my least favorite of these fruits.

Anyway, I added a little sweetener and skim milk and now I am definitely drinking rainbow sherbet!!! Incredible! Everyone needs to go buy a pouch of this because it’s a miracle Frank re-blended it for Christmas. You do not want to miss out on this one!

This tea is delish, but I’m not getting enough marshmallow for me.
If I could find a source for mini marshmallows (the real mini kind) and add them in myself, I totally would. The marshmallow root isn’t really doing it for me :(

I’m not getting a lot of genmaicha flavour either though. I’m more getting a texture, a sort of thick but creamy texture that is a bit sweet.

I’m still thankful this one was in the sampler though :)