313 Tasting Notes
I just added this tea to the website – it’s one of the most recent reblends! There are very limited quantities remaining of this one though!
Anyway – I absolutely love this tea. It’s a little different from my previous reblend of this tea. I used my blend of Yunnan & Assam teas, but it still turned out amazing. I really love this as a cold-brew. I made it into a boba tea, complete with brown sugar boba & a salted cheese topping! YUM!
So, I am WAY out of order with these countdowns, but does it really matter? I’m behind, you guys all know that.
Good news: my legs are pretty much healed up (my cellulitis!) The skin is really delicate still, though – but at least I don’t have to go to the wound care clinic any more. Going twice a week every week was a bit trying on the soul. I still get bouts of pain with it, I’m still not able to stand very long on my legs, but, they’re definitely way better than they were a couple of months ago.
Anyway – this tea! I love this tea. I don’t work with currants very often, mostly because availability of the fruit is not a consistent thing. But I do enjoy the few times that I have worked with currants – including this! It’s tart, but not too tart. It’s sweet, but not too sweet. There is a lovely creamy tone to the tea. It’s smooth & delicious. Something I could easily drink all day long.
I just updated the inventory for this particular tea, so it will no longer appear as sold out – until – well – it sells out again. :) Grab some while it’s here!
Edited to add: this resteeps well! The second steep is even better than the first infusion!
Countdown To Catching Up – Tea 2
This is one of my faves from my recent blends. It’s warm & cozy without being too spicy – making it the perfect cuppa for yesterday – maybe not today, but I’ll just transport myself to yesterday in my head since I was out adulting yesterday (aka running errands: grocery shopping, doctor appointments, – you know, all that less than fun stuff that still has to be done & I didn’t really have the time to sit down with a lovely cuppa.)
This tea is also incredibly tasty, so even though it’s not “that” season any longer & we are quickly moving into Spring, this is still so good that I’m going to be enjoying it well into spring.
The black tea base is nice & smooth, the spices are warm & inviting & this makes a fantastic latte if you wanna go that way with it, but I’m currently sipping it hot, no dairy & just a little bit of sugar to bring out the spices a little more. There are notes of maple here – while blending it, I decided that if I were having an actual gingerbread scone, that instead of clotted cream, perhaps some maple butter would be more appropriate & that little bit of maple really elevates the flavor of this cup.
I don’t rate my own teas, but if I were to rate this, I’d probably give it an 89. Yeah, not a perfect score & that’s just fine with me. This tea isn’t perfect, but, I also don’t know what else I would have done to make it better. A delightful, delicious tea that brings a smile to my face every time I sip it.
I cold=brewed this overnight and I was actually worried that I ended up cold-brewing a bit too long because rather than it just being overnight, it ended up being more than 24 hours. Yikes!
But, surprisingly, it’s not bitter. The black tea tastes smooth. Surprisingly smooth, given the circumstances. The cherry & almond are nice together. It’s a favorite flavor combo from my early tea drinking days, in fact, my first company [LiberTEAS] also had Cherry Almond flavor – a black tea – sans the “cola” part, and it was definitely one of my favorite offerings from LiberTEAS.
Anyway, I like this. It’s definitely better as a cold-brew than when I drank it hot during the taste testing phase – even when over-brewed.
Countdown To Catching Up – Tea 7
I am so behind on posting these, my apologies to anyone who might be waiting for me to add these teas to the database!
Anyway, this tea is amazing. As I mentioned in the description, I can’t believe I didn’t think of creating a Chai Spiced Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha sooner than I did! I love chai blends & I love our classic Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha, it seems only natural to bring these two together – but honestly, I didn’t even think on it for a moment until I came across a recipe for a chai spiced rice krispy treat & finally the lightbulb appeared!
I’m glad I finally did happen upon that recipe, because this tea is amazingly good. My personal preferences for a chai blend is for a black tea base, but it works so well with the classic marshmallow treat genmaicha! The spices are strong enough to be present within every sip, but the marshmallow notes shine through too! YUM!
Countdown to Catching Up – Tea 8!
This is a reblend from Frank’s era of teas . . . Hey! with my last anniversary, I think I surpassed Frank’s time as a chief zoomdweebie of tea. (That’s what he called himself, the chief zoomdweebie. As for me, I’m sure you’re aware that I refer to myself as the Mad Tea Artist of 52Teas!) I’m pretty sure he held on to 52Teas for 7 years, and in June, we celebrated our 8th year. So, yeah! That happened. Yay for me & 52Teas!
Anyway – I don’t know if Frank was ever as behind on crafting his teas as I am now. I do know that it takes me a bit longer than it did Frank because I think he would package the teas immediately after blending them rather than allowing them time to cure. I allow them to cure before I test them – I do this because I have found throughout my journey as a tea blender that a tea blended today will taste different 3 weeks from now than it does today. I want to give the teas time to cure so that i can test the true flavor of the tea that YOU will taste when you open the pouch, rather than what I would taste immediately upon blending.
Anyway – that’s part of the reason it takes me longer to get a tea out to you than it did Frank – in case you’re wondering.
So, let’s talk about this tea. Frank crafted this back in 2011 (I think). I didn’t have the recipe of this tea due to a computer crash, so, I kind of winged it – using my best guestimate on the recipe that Frank would have used. The tea is a little different: Frank used a black tea blend of Nilgiri & Assam, while I used a blend of Yunnan & Assam. Frank also did not include any dried pumpkin bits in his tea blend – and I used freeze-dried pumpkin as well as pumpkin seeds – which, I’m not sure how it would have impacted the flavor overall, as most addition of fruit does not really impact the flavor tremendously, but I like the way it looks when there are fruit bits (is pumpkin a fruit or a veggie – I know it’s a gourd, but is it classified as a fruit or a veg?)
So, there are definite differences between the two blends, and if I had to choose between them, I think I like mine more, if no other reason than my own ego. LoL
Nice pumpkin-y flavor, that starchy, pancake-y flavor that we all love from the pancake breakfast blend, plus a drizzle of maple-y syrup goodness. YUM!
Wow, can’t believe Frank was only in charge for seven years?!? That was a lot of tea in seven years. Congrats on eight years!
I like that you “cure” the tea blends. My mother always said that iced tea should be made a day ahead so it could “meld”, and she was right. Most same day iced sweet tea tastes like restaurant tea at first, and the character can be completely different the next day. I would love to have an understanding of how that works! With the dry leaves it makes sense that aromatics would saturate or dissipate. Maybe it is a similar process.
@tea-sipper – thank you! Yeah, when I look back, it seems like those 7 years was a lot longer! But he started 52Teas back in 2008 & left it to me in 2015. So, yeah, 7 years. Sometimes, most of the time, it’s hard for me to believe it’s been 8 years for me – almost 9!
@ashmanra – the cure is something I learned about before I ever really seriously started blending teas. I looked for anything – everything! – I could find about how to flavor teas myself, because I wanted a specific tea that I couldn’t find anywhere. I wanted a tea similar to one I had tried in California at one point – and I couldn’t find anything that was similar, so I set out to blend it myself. It was quite a process to find/learn how to do it myself, it was mostly through trial and error. It’s not like they have a “tea blending/flavoring for dummies” book, or really – any kind of book at the time. It’s been a long time since I got started, so maybe they have something now, but at the time, nothing!
Congrats on 8 years! I find that your descriptions and steeping recommendations are typically very reliable, which is probably in part because you are curing your teas. So I’m glad you do!
@Kaylee – thank you. I also taste test every tea several times & write my tasting notes/descriptions as I do. I’m also very mindful of how I brew each tea for the tasting notes – I didn’t used to measure everything out very carefully (including the amount of water) until I started doing the 52Teas thing, I would eyeball everything back then, but now, I want to be accurate, because while that accuracy wasn’t that important to me before, it IS important to other tea drinkers, so I want to be careful for my customers. I want my experiences with any tea to be as similar to those who will purchase the tea – so that they can be at ease with what they buy. Even the teas that I have crafted many, many times by this point (like the original pancake breakfast or graveyard mist, for example) – I measure accurately & taste test them every single time because I don’t want to take a chance that I could have a random bad batch. I love my teas too much for that to happen. :)
Congrats on eight years!
@Kelmishka – thank you!
Countdown to Catching Up – Tea 9!
I know I say this a LOT – but I absolutely LOVE how this tea turned out. It’s so very peachy! I think a better name for this would be gramma’s peach cobbler filling because it tastes a lot more like her gently spiced peach cobbler filling than it does a peach “cake” – which is what I understand a Kuchen is supposed to be, although to be perfectly honest, I’ve never actually tried a Peach Kuchen. I happened to stumble across a recipe for such a thing and it sounded delicious. Truth be told – I think I’m better at working out recipes for a tea blend than I am baking, so rather than trying to bake a Peach Kuchen, I thought I might just create a tea based off the recipe I found – and this is the result. (I think next summer, I might have my youngest try her hand at crafting a Peach Kuchen for me.)
Anyway, this tea is delicious. It has a lot of peach flavor, notes of cinnamon & ginger, as well as a hint of cake-y & custard-y flavors in the background. But the real star of this is the peach, peach is what I taste first & peach is what is there, proudly – throughout the sip. So good!
Countdown to Catching Up – Tea 10 (Counting down from 10 to 1!)
As I’ve mentioned previously – I’m very behind on getting teas out due to my cellulitis. An update on that: My legs are definitely getting better. They are healing, and they don’t hurt nearly as much as they did even last week. About 12 days ago, we were really worried that the infection had gotten worse, but after another round of antibiotics, they seem to be (finally) working & things are improving. Fingers crossed that this continues!
Anyway, because I was way too outraged & embarrassed at how behind I really was, I decided rather than call this a tea of the week (because I don’t even want to admit what month this is from to myself, much less anyone else!) I decided to call it a countdown to catching up! I figure by the time I’ve completed this countdown, I’ll still be a bit behind, but at least it will be a more manageable & easier thing to admit to!
But – anyway – this wonderful caffeine-free tea! Let’s talk about it! It tastes like someone liquified one of my cranberry oatmeal cookies! It’s wonderfully warm & inviting with the flavors of cinnamon, ginger & nutmeg. The cranberry brightens the cup a bit. The oatmeal notes are not overwhelming – but they’re there – enough to say – yep, this tastes like an oatmeal cookie!
Lately, I’ve been finding that most of my tisanes, I prefer cold-brewed. But this is best served hot. I like it with a drizzle of honey – but it’s also quite nice with a teensy bit of brown sugar to bring out that cookie element just a bit more. It’s also good without any sweetener, as I’ve had it several times without, but, I find that the cookie-ish flavors pop just a bit more with a sweetener of some sort.
So glad to hear that you are getting better! Praying for continued healing and return of full strength and health!
@ashmanra – thank you. I appreciate it. It has been a very long, long & difficult journey with this – a lot longer than I would have ever imagined. I’m just really glad I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now. Thanks again!
The 12th Tea of Christmas!
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and to those who do not, Happy Holidays! I wish everyone a very happy & healthy new year!
So, this tea! Today, I brewed it a little strong so that I could go latte with it, because I was in the mood for something creamy. I really enjoy this chai, there is a rich, roasted chestnut flavor (thanks not only to the vegan & nut-free chestnut flavor but also the touch of Lapsang Souchong in the blend) & a really nice blend of warm spices. The black tea blend is rich & flavorful even though it’s a latte.
This one makes a really nice latte, I do recommend brewing it strong though (using extra leaf to do so rather than steeping it longer) so that the flavors are not masked by the presence of the dairy.
The 12 Teas countdown is over, but tomorrow, I think I’ll start counting down the 10 teas to getting caught up! :)
The 11th Tea of Christmas . . .
Since I just reblended this one last year, I was a little surprised when this won the overwhelming number of votes for the Genmaicha tea of the box this year. But, I’m also glad, because it’s a really nice version of our Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha.
I love the crisp flavor of the peppermint & how well it pairs with the creamy, soft notes of the fluffy marshmallow & vanilla. The roasty-toasty genmaicha offers such a pleasing contrast to the other flavors of the cup.
I’ve already finished this pot, so I guess I should go on and make tea #12!
