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“I am having an increadibly tough month. I am one of the co-organizers of Ruta de las Iglesias. It is a 10km race that goes through the colonial down town of Quito. While I love doing it, it is a...” Read full tasting note
“I really do quite like this one cold brewed with a little sweetner. After tonight’s giant mugs i have just enough for one more cup of this before it’s out of the cupboard. May not get to any...” Read full tasting note
“Oh this is good. I cold steeped it overnight and I couldn’t wait for later in the day to try it out. I love the new black tea base, I taste it first and foremost and I really like it. I’ll have to...” Read full tasting note
“12 Days of Tea #1! Also, 1000th tasting note! Wooooooooo!!!!!! Last time I tried this tea as a sample, it was not great. I couldn’t really taste the cotton candy. This time however? WOAH!...” Read full tasting note
This week’s tea of the week is a real gem. I am enjoying a big icy stein of it as I write this. I’m sure it’s good hot too, but as an iced tea, it’s amazing. A friend of the family is over visiting and he insists it’s “like a carnival in your mouth.”
I’m having a hard time trying to come up with words to describe the aroma and flavor, except that it tastes like cotton candy–which is basically spun sugar that has been a bit caramelized in the process.
This week, we are also testing a new black tea base which is a blend of Chinese, Assam, and Darjeeling black teas. I’m quite enjoying the depth of the blend even with the very strong and captivating cotton candy flavor dancing on my tastebuds, there is still a rich and complex black tea base that is definitely present.
This is a tea you’re not going to want to miss out on, particularly if you want an awesome iced tea that’s sure to garner appreciative remarks from whomever you serve it to.
Incidentally, we have more iced tea blends coming in the near future. I’m working out the final packaging details, but I believe we are going to be dividing it up into actual teabags that yield two-quarts of iced tea! Stay tuned for those.
Our Tea of the Week for the week of May 14, 2012
At 52teas.com, you will find unique, hand-blended artisan loose leaf teas: a new limited edition creation every week of the year. We pride ourselves on offering truly unique, one-of-a-kind tea blends that you won’t find anywhere else.
Thanks to tattooed_tea for the generous sample of this goodness!
As soon as I opened my swap package I was hit in the face with a delicious cotton candy scent. Yum! It smelled even better when I opened the bag itself; sweet, creamy spun sugar! I was so excited to try it.
I did a hot steep for four mins and then stuck it right in the fridge. Most of the reviews I had read said that the cotton candy flavour comes out more as it cools, so I figured I might as well try it iced for my first cup.
I tried it straight first, but ended up adding the tiniest bit of agave. That really brought the sweetness out and made it perfect! The first thing I tasted was the smooth black tea base, followed by the unmistakeable cotton candy-ness. It’s tasty and refreshing, but I wish the flavouring were a little stronger. Especially because the hint of it that I got was so so good.
I had been wanting to try this for so long, I’m really glad I finally got to! Cotton candy is my favourite flavour and it’s really bang on in this. I wish it were still available, I’d like to be able to have it on hand for cravings! Next I’m going to give it a try hot with milk and sugar and see how that compares.
Thanks Sil! This one smells pretty great. I had enough for two brews: one hot and one cold. The hot tea was enjoyable. It had q nice cotton candy sweetness to it. But the cold brew is where it’s at. The flavor comes out a bit more. The black tea base is the dominant flavor and the sweet cotton candy lingers in the after taste. It’s quite delicious :)
So Christmas came in January this year, because the wonderful Kasumi sent me her 12 Days of Christmas along with so many other wonderful samples that I’m dying of excitement and I want to try everything all in one go. But I’m being a good girl and starting with Day 1, which is Cotton Candy Black Tea.
Dry, it smells exactly like cotton candy! Yummmm.
Brewed and tasted hot, it’s quite sweet, but not that sickly cloying sweet you get with a lot of flavoured black teas that use too much stevia right in the leaves. (I prefer to add my own stevia if needed — definitely don’t with this!)
As it cools down a smidge the sweetness has mellowed a bit. I love it~
First tea in the 12 Days of X-mas sample pack. I missed out on this tea during its initial run so it made a nice treat to come home too after a grueling shift at work. It really does taste like cotton candy especially as the tea cools off and it’s sweet enough naturally that there’s no sugar required. I also noticed an interesting undertone that reminds me a bit of caramel.
A good start to what are sure to be twelve awesome days! ;)
Lucky Charms marshmallows in a cup! I nearly fainted when trying this. My addiction to Lucky Charms marshmallows makes life rough; whenever I see a box of LC I have to run for the hills or otherwise buy 20 boxes and fish out the marshmallows. But thanks to Frank and this ingenious blend, I can get my fix at home in a cup. You have saved my life, 52 teas ;)
(good for 2 steeps, wonderful hot and iced)
Ok my new favorite tea company has to be 52 Teas. Frank, I wish all tea companies had your flavoring flare. As silly and gimmicky as Cotton Candy Tea sounds, it desearves much respect and praise. A fantastic black base and real cotton candy flavor. Wonderful. Thank you LiberTEAS for adding this to the pack I bought from you.
Sample I recieved in a swap. Backlogging this tasting from yesterday, and making the rest of this tea right now. Addition comments not a part of yesterdays tasting will be at the end under “Update”. This one came from Alphakitty. Sipdown!!
Dry: This shoots me right back to when I was a kid. We went to a couple of fairs every year and I was always getting cotton candy and fried dough (Oooh. Now I’m thinking fried dough tea!). This smells like pink cotton candy (and also a little like Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum…hmmm); sweet and fun (yes, you can smell fun).
Brewed: A little of the black tea base has seeped into the scent, but it’s still incredibly sweet and cotton candy smelling!
Taste: Hmmm. I don’t know if this is traslating for me in the taste. I’m getting a rooibos flavor, which is totally strange! Maybe the tea sample picked up on another sample in the package? I am getting a slight sweetness, and it does taste faintly of cotton candy. The aftertaste is definately cotton candy (yay). I am picking up the black tea base, too, and it’s slightly astringent. I think I’m going to wait for this one to cool down a bit, and take it from there.
-Once cooled down, this tea definately gets better. The astringency is gone, and the cotton candy, sweet flavor picks up. The aftertaste is still the most cotton candy-esque, but I’m digging this one cold. Next brew I’m going to add sugar and see if that helps it hot.
UPDATE: Sugar is definately a friend of this one. It brings the cotton candy flavor out to a good level, so long as you don’t add too much. I’m still slightly getting that strange rooibos-like taste (maybe my taste-buds are just translating something in this tea into rooibos) but it isn’t as powerful. The black tea base is nice and subtle (no astringency). I’m liking this one a lot more today.
Overall, not bad. I don’t think it’s a favorite, but it was pretty good. Thank you, Alphakitty, for sending this one my way. I’m glad I got to taste it! =)
UPDATE #2: I put what I had left from this past steeping in the fridge for a bit – the cotton candy/sweet flavor really popped after that. Changing this from a 74 rating to a 78 to reflect this nice change.
I think this is definitely better cool—I don’t care for it much hot but iced it’s one of my faves!
I threw what I had left in the fridge for a bit, and the flavors really popped after that. Rivising the rating a little to reflect the change. Thanks again for sharing this!
Frank you’ve done it again. I was sad when I missed out on the first run(s) of this but the money simply wasn’t there.
Since this was the “1st tea of Christmas” i opened the pouch and took a deep wiff before I looked to see what it was. It smelled exactly like if you added my favorite perfume to tea (bpals Boo—Eerie billows of spun sugar, fluttering white cotton, and sheets of cream). I wasn’t quite sure how well this would translate to tea but I have faith in Frank so I brewed it
up and took a sip. Heven.
I loved his boo-berry cotton candy and I’m all ready rationing it so it’s not surprise. It isn’t perfumy tasting at all like some flavored teas are. It’s sweet and fluffy. The black tea base is delicious. I don’t know if I’ve had any of Franks black tea blends since he switched but regardless I aprove. It would be a good tea even without the flavoring.
Excuse me while I go refill my cup…
I am drinking this iced. I steeped it for 3 minutes with water 195°-200°F and then put the pitcher in the refrigerator overnight. I used similar steeping parameters that I’ve come to like for other 52Teas products, but given the new base, I may experiment with that for future steepings.
This tea tastes really good. The base is really bright and smooth with a touch of astringency. I definitely taste some fruity Darjeeling in there. I thought the dry leaf smell was a little off-putting (unusual for 52Teas), but once brewed it was entirely enticing. The main flavor is a sweet, bright black tea with an amazing caramelized sugar aftertaste.
As for rating this tea, I swing from thinking it’s good to amazingly great depending on my mood.
