Banana Pudding Black Tea

Day 3 of 52 Teas 12 days of Christmas.

The dry tea smells like…banana flavoured penicillin…yuck. Ha ha. There are pieces of dried banana in the blend so that is exciting.

The brewed tea is actually not terrible, even for someone who is definitely not a banana fan. Initially it tastes like unripened bananas. As it cools, it does morph into what I recall, distantly, banana pudding tastes like. It is a thick, sweet, artificially tasting banana flavour. It is creamy. Every once in a while I feel like I get hints of creamy vanilla or caramel. There may be some nuttiness in there, pistachio or almond.

I am still not a banana lover but I have to admit this tea is not as bad as I thought it would be. I most likely won’t finish the little sample pack though.

It was such a lovely weekend; such a shame I had to get up and get ready for work this morning. The winds were really howling in the middle of the night, and I woke to a fairly chilled room and only wanted to burrow further under the covers and make the world go away. But alas, that was not to be. Such is the story of my life.

So I chose this tea to have in place of breakfast, because we’re sort of out of inspiring breakfast options. So a strongly flavoured black that happens to also taste like banana medicine fit the bill perfectly. I’m a little worried that this tea doesn’t keep nearly as well, although admittedly it’s still only in its original foil packet, but I found the flavours a touch muted this morning. I maintain that a three minute steep is the way to go to extract all the flavour possible while keeping the sometimes finicky base at bay.

A great first cup, that’s for sure.

I bought a whole pouch of this from QueenOfTarts! thanks so much! One that I’ve really wanted to try! I love the big ole banana pieces and coconut flakes in this blend! As I’m sipping, I realized that this is like their Banana Coconut Cream Pie Hojicha… but I only had a sample of that one and it was one of my favorites. So this blend is the same as that, just with a black base instead of hojicha. I can live with that! I don’t think this is the assam black base that they use though… I would have liked the assam with this better. Not sure what this is otherwise. But I love this blend anyway. Nice creamy banana and coconut! Not fake tasting at all… this is like the best banana and coconut flavor that a tea can have. Both sharing the stage equally! I’m just worried since I don’t see enough banana pieces to go around for the entire pouch (and I’m sad that two big pieces of banana fell into this steep.. less banana for the other steeps!) Just like I thought there should be at least 20 pieces of candy corn in the candy corn tea pouches (one for each steep… but it’s not like I counted them!) This is at the top of my 52Teas list but assam how I wish you were here!

Drank this last Sunday…then left it behind…and I can’t go get it back just yet. Sigh. It was my Monaco Grand Prix red flag tea because I needed something to do to at least keep me awake.

I still have some of the banana coconut pie houjicha and I can definitely smell a similarity, this one’s less heavy on the coconut…I mean I hardly knew there was even coconut in here until seeing the description and other notes. It definitely just comes off as a pudding creaminess.

As it cooled I liked it a bit less, though I think maybe just a touch of a sweetener would be perrrrrfect.

The banana flavor was of course awesome. I don’t think there’s a banana type of 52teas that I don’t like. It sometimes does have that candy taste, but in this one it was all around perfect. It reminded me a lot of this Banana Puddin’ popsicle from King of Pops I had a couple months ago…that makes me think this would definitely be a great iced tea too. Once I can get the packet back.

Thanks moraiwe!

from the traveling tea box!
my first 52teas attempt after my failures back in christmas 2012.
what’s cool is that i don’t even like banana flavored things and i do actually like this!
but it is SUPER mild. jsyk
52teas may be falling back into my good graces.

Many of you know I HATE BANANAS! But I have been try to TRY and at least consume them in some way lately. I thought I would finally try this one. I will say this – I HATE THE AROMA…but…that is ONLY because I HATE Bananas!

The black tea base is on the lighter note. The Banana flavors are present but also the pudding aspect is there. Because of the pudding likeness the banana seems more tolerable. I’m not saying I LOVE it but it’s certainly better than eating a banana straight-up so for that reason only I give it props!

Not too shabby – and that’s coming from someone who hate ’nanners

After getting more than a good handful of other 52 Teas black blends under my belt since I’ve first tried this one, I was all ready to change up the steeping parameters to reflect what I learned, and found that because I’d brewed this at work the first time, the water temp was pretty much perfect the first time (195ish).

In any case, I really enjoy this. And so does Not-so-fond-of-banana-desserts-Fiance.

It’s still creamy, and flavorful, sweet, banana-flavored (in the same way that Jello pudding is, though) cup. There’s a definite coconut note chilling in the sip, and a little bit of vanilla. And at the lower temperatures, the black base stays smooth and doesn’t overwhelm the flavors (which are amazing).

This is still one of my favorite banana teas.

My order in which I split the 2 VITs with Charoma arrived today, the delivery guy nearly gave me a heart attack today.

It smells very banana in the dry leaves with a hint of coconut that leads to a creamy scent. This definitely smells like pudding & not just banana.
This is so delicious. I used a touch less leaves than normal & did a 3 min-ish steep.
So much banana pudding. YUMMY!
This would make a fabulous iced latte, just need a recipe!
Just the deliciousness I needed today!

This is delicious. The flavor is true to the name. I think I would prefer it if it were slightly sweeter, maybe if there was a small amount on nutmeg sprinkled on the banana pudding, or maybe some caramel sauce. Pretty tasty, though. Thanks, Eva for giving me the opportunity to try this!

FIRST NOTE WOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Ok when I saw this tea I had to grab it. I love Franks banana flavor and it has coconut? YESTH!!!

Ok the dry leaf smells exactly like banana pudding. It’s a really strong sent too. Very sweet and creamy, with a lot a banana and a hint of coconut. The brew smells just as good as well.

Ok one thing I have noticed is that Franks banana flavor doesn’t come out when it is hot. I mostly tasted sweet black tea. But hey, you eat banana pudding cold right? So after I put a nice bit of lite agave nectar in my cup and left it in the freezer to get cold……. it was perfect. Supper sweet and pudding like. I loved the hints of coconut as well. The black tea base is good as well with a nice light malty flavor and little astringency. I bet this would do great as a late’.

Overall it is a very good tea and definitely taste like banana pudding. The only down side is that it isn’t as good warm, but that is fine with me.idea pops in head I SHOULD EAT VANILLA WAFERS WITH THIS!!!!

Specifics

Pot: Porcelain
Water: 8oz per steep
Leaf: 1.5 tsp (5 grams)
Steep Time: 2:45 minuets; 3:00 minuets
Sweetener: a good small spoon full per 8 oz

Combined two steepings in one cup.