Bananas Foster

This is our 5th Tea of Christmas! Every year for our holiday poll, quite a few banana teas are nominated and of those – several win enough votes to win their way into the box. However, I want to maintain a variety of tea flavors within the box (I probably could do a banana box with as many banana teas we have blended and how many of those have been requested as a reblend.) So I choose the one tea that received the most votes.

And that would be this tea.

I did tweak the recipe slightly this time around – and I added a teensy bit of Lapsang Souchong. I did this after the initial taste test and I realized that it kind of tasted a little “flat” – like it needed something. This may be because I’ve recently had some bananas foster (the dessert) and the deep caramelization that came from the flambe of the brown sugar was something that I wanted in this tea and I think that the addition of the Lapsang Souchong accomplished this.

It smells a lot smokier than it actually tastes – especially after some cool time – where the smoke melds together with the rum & caramel. I really like how these flavors fuse together in the sip so – as CrowKettle mentioned in her post – this tea definitely does benefit from some cool time.

5th Tea of Christmas 2022

Taken with milk. While still piping hot, this tea is all smoky rum and burnt sugar notes; the banana and any sense of sweetness is strangely absent, except in a vague savoury plantain kind of way.

However, when the tea becomes lukewarm (after around 20min) the profile does a 180. Caramelized banana pops out while the smoke and rum fade into the background -becoming more of a hot buttered spiced rum. Now that’s more like it!

I’m not tasting any banana or anything suggesting the bananas foster dessert, but this is to me a good cinnamon black tea.

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 4

Yum! This was a perfect pick-me-up on this grey winter day. Lots of creamy banana goodness with hints of rum and cinnamon. I’m picky about cinnamon in tea, as it can often be overwhelming, but this blend nails it!

One good thing about taking a much needed technology break is tasting new teas from a swap 100% blind.

This one is from the lovely and generous VariaTEA.

Tried this black and then with a dot of half and half to add a cream element which here is lacking. Both ways, cinnamon comes up front. Prefer it black. I find this blend thin on flavour. It is ok, but it doesn’t hold a candle to 52Teas Banana Pudding Black, which I adore. Here, banana is missing entirely despite a banana chip in my leaf.

Thank you, VariaTEA, for letting me try this one.

Backlog

This is a pretty delightful tea altogether. I’ve had a couple of Bananas Foster teas in the past; however, this was the first non-herbal/non-artificial version of the blend that I’ve had and enjoyed. I really thought that the vanilla, cinnamon, and black tea base (malt) really came out more than the banana notes; which I must say, isn’t a bad thing. I’ve had Bananas Foster’s that have had artificially flavored bananas which made the tea unsettling. Fortunately, 52Teas can make a good Bananas Foster that leaves you satisfied.

I’m drinking the “old” 52 Teas version of this tea, which I unearthed from my stash this weekend. I bought this one because I love bananas, and I really loved 52 Teas Banana Pudding Black back when that was released. I think I was trying to get some of that amazingness back in my life, but I think my cupboard must have snowballed by then and that’s how it is that I’m actually just getting around to trying it now.

I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk. The initial flavour is very heavy on the cinnamon, and actually reminds me a lot of Cinnamon Roll Honeybush, at least to begin with. The banana and vanilla emerge in the mid-sip, although they’re by no means as prominent as the cinnamon. Hot, there’s a degree of astringency, although it’s not so bad that I can’t overlook it. Just a little of the chalky dry-mouth feeling. This one actually seems like a better prospect once it’s cooled. The banana becomes a little stronger, and the cinnamon seems to mellow out. There’s more of a creaminess, too, although I suspect my full-fat milk is helping that along! One thing I will say is that, for once, the banana doesn’t strike me as particularly candy-like. If anything, it’s putting me in mind of underripe green bananas – and the astringency is definitely playing up that effect (you know how underripe bananas can be a little floury and dry-tasting? Exactly.) Candy banana would have been more at home here, and I know for certain that I’ve never said that in a tasting note before.

I enjoyed my cup, even though it’s not quite as banana-centric as I’d have liked. It’s also not particularly sweet, so I might try a little crystal sugar next time and see if that helps to perk things up a bit. I like the cinnamon/vanilla combination, and it works well with what banana flavour there is, but I think a stronger banana flavour would have resulted in a much better balanced cup.

This is a 52 Teas reblend, so I’ll just tack my tasting note onto the existing tea.

I’ve had this twice now. There’s a bit too much cinnamon in it for my taste, and, unfortunately, I don’t get a lot of boozy flavor. It’s pleasant, but it isn’t one of my favorites.

Looks like this one is a reblend of a loved classic. Sadly, I never tried that one, and I’ve never had bananas foster, AND I have a cold currently, so this probably isn’t the most helpful of reviews. Oops!

This tea definitely has banana flavor, which makes me really happy! I am always saying banana teas don’t have enough banana, so this is a nice change. I actually kind of want this banana flavor in an oolong.
The banana is at the front of the sip, and right after that is some tartness. Should that be there? I’m not sure. It could also be a product of less than optimal brewing conditions on my part, or my cold interfering with flavor.
There’s also a creaminess, that makes me want to say whipped cream? vanilla ice cream? something along those lines.

I like this tea, but honestly it just makes me want a banana cream pie oolong. Does that exist? I wouldn’t be surprised if 52teas has already tackled that one

Edit: I didn’t realize I had already reviewed this and lamented the lack of banana flavor. It’s amazing what time/ different brewing parameters/ etc can do!

I received this sample from KalieBoo! Thank you!

I have heard some wonderful things about 52 teas banana flavoring, but I have never been brave enough to purchase an entire 2oz of black tea because their black tea seems to be hit or miss with me. This one was a hit! I think it also helped that I brewed this with a lower temperature and a shorter steep time. This was really yummy this morning. I got the banana, I got a nice base in the background, I also got a hint of the cinnamon or some spice which was blended very nicely into the mix. If I ever crossed paths with this tea again I wouldn’t turn it down.