Gingerbread Coffeecake

So I have to caveat this tasting note with the fact that any tea that contains ginger, cinnamon or a combination thereof, I am a sucker for. Add to the mix that this is a 52teas blend and I know I am in for a treat and will buy insane quantities of it. This is no exception to this rule. The choice of green tea base is very smart as the strong pungent base holds up against the bold ginger and cinnamon spices in the blend. What you end up with is a wonderfully balanced tea that tastes like liquid gingerbread – and I mean the REAL gingerbread flavor. If you enjoy spice teas this will be one you will continue to go back to as you will appreciate it more with each subsequent cup.

52Teas 12 Teas of Christmas: Day 1

Logging from yesterday, when this countdown began!

I feel like it’s pretty rare to have this flavor profile on a green base! It lets the deep, baked gingerbread flavor stand out a little more by contrast against the brighter green base.

I didn’t get a ton of cake-y vibes, but the gingerbread is definitely there. A fun start to the countdown!

For the 1st Tea of Christmas . . .

Before I get into my tasting notes for this tea, I want to address my tardiness in getting out this year’s box & sincerely apologize to all of my loyal customers who have been there for me. I am sorry that I wasn’t able to get the box out as early as I would have liked to. I have been dealing with a chronic case of cellulitis on both legs which has been extraordinarily painful – thus making it nearly impossible for me to stand for prolonged periods of time, which is absolutely essential when I’m working! If I can’t stand at the table & blend & package the tea – I’m pretty much – well, I probably shouldn’t use that word.

So, that’s what I’ve been dealing with for the past 5 months or so & it’s gotten worse as time passed. Many doctor visits, emergency room visits & many bottles of various medications & pain meds later – I do see the light at the end of the tunnel with this – but I’m still very limited with the amount of time that I can spend working at the job I love so much. It will get better, but as my doctor tells me, it will take a lot of time. This isn’t something that a magical pill or shot can cure, time & proper management is key & part of that management includes getting the rest when my pain demands it.

So I sincerely apologize to all of you who expected to receive the box so much earlier than you did. I am relieved that all of my US customers managed to receive the box prior to the countdown date of today, and to my Canadian customers, I do apologize – I did not get the information about the Canadian postal service strike until a day or two after I had sent off the packages to you guys & I don’t know the status of your shipments as the tracking system has not updated since the end of November. I don’t know if this is because things on the Canadian side just haven’t been updating or if it’s because the Canadian postal service just hasn’t accepted the packages from the USPS due to the strike activity. If I had been aware of the postal strike, I would have instead shipped using an alternative shipping service, but, as I said, I didn’t receive notice of the strike until after the packages were already in the custody of the USPS. My heartfelt apologies for that.

NOW! On to this tea . . .

I was actually quite surprised by not only the request to add this tea onto the poll this year, but also that it won by an astronomical number of votes! Not that I disliked this tea when Frank originally blended it way back in 2013 (in the summer of 2013 at that!) but just that it was one that had not been requested ever before in the near 10 years that I’ve been doing this thing!

Wow, can you believe that? It’s nearly 10 years now since I took over!

Anyway – this tea is really quite lovely. Since it has been more than 11 years since I last tried this tea, I can’t offer you a very accurate comparison of the two teas, since all I have is my previous tasting note/review of this tea. What I can say is that in my SororiTEA Sisters review of this tea, I mentioned that I liked this one better than the Gingerbread Chai – which says A LOT to me because I really LOVED the Gingerbread Chai & I can comfortably say that it was one of my top 5 chai blends from Frank’s era.

I loved the way this recreation of that tea turned out. It’s pleasantly sweet yet warmly spiced. Beautifully buttery & cake-y, just like you want from a cinnamon-y coffeecake with just the right note of ginger. It really is a perfect way to kick off this countdown! (And thanks to those of you who voted for this one!)

I apologize for this rather lengthy tasting note with my status update – I just wanted to let you guys know that I haven’t just been shirking off my duties as a Mad Tea Artist . . . & if you’re still reading this after all that ^ – thanks for hanging in there with me! Have a great weekend!

Also – the BUY NOW button will not take you to this tea, but to a “similar” tea from Adagio (which probably isn’t all that similar to me at all, except that they both have ‘GINGERBREAD’ in the title.) There are more quantities of this tea available & they will be made available to those that ordered the 12 Teas of Christmas box after the 25th & to everyone on the website after the 28th of December. Thanks again!

Backlog and sipdown.

Not the greatest. Had to drown this tea in milk and honey to make it drinkable?? Am v sorry.

I’m not sure I like this base for this tea. The flavors are quite heavy, and while they are pretty accurate (right down to the icing!), it overpowers the green and I can’t taste it all that well. This has a strong molasses flavor that’s almost burnt, with some icing and spice. It definitely does taste like a pastry. This is personal preference at work, but with flavored teas I usually prefer them if I can taste the base, so this one is not my favorite.

From the Here’s Hoping TTB, Round 4

Well… I didn’t look it up before I brewed it, and it was in the flavored blacks bag so I brewed it as a black. I didn’t really make the realization until I was emptying out my teaball. Even the dry leaf looked like black tea, but the wet leaf is green.

So 212F for 3 minutes, and surprisingly not entirely bitter. When greens are brewed like this some of them gain that utterly baffling in-between phase where it’s like a green, but like a black. It does taste a little burnt, but clearly that’s my fault.

It smells like a cross between a chocolate chip cookie base and a gingerbread cookie base. There’s too much vanilla and cream notes for me to think of it as purely gingerbread, but maybe that’s where the ‘coffeecake’ bit comes in.

I sure would like a recipe for gingerbread coffeecake. That sounds lovely.
The smell of this tea is also making me sleepy… interesting.

HHTTB

52 blacks and I don’t get along so well and I kinda think this one isn’t an exception. I can taste a little ginger on the sip and in the long lingering aftertaste I get some coffee, but there isn’t much in the middle. I’m sure there is likely something spectacular that others can taste, but not me. :(

This reminded me so much of chai. It was yummy, but to me did not really embody the “cake” aspect of things. I imagine a little sweetener might solve that. I didn’t expect the green tea to play nearly as well with the flavors as it did, this is normally a flavor I would expect in a black tea, or maybe a nutty oolong.

I was hoping for a variation on the Gingerbread Chai from a year or so back, and this didn’t quite deliver. It doesn’t have the spiciness of the chai. However, the sweet coffee cake flavor is delightfully apparent when the tea is not oversteeped, and there is a hint of spiciness. I recommend adding a little brown sugar — maybe next time I’ll be adventurous and try molasses. I would definitely recommend green tea steeping temps for this one (175F) to bring out the delicate flavors.