52Teas Send Message

On the Third Day of Christmas . . . Of the four new teas that I created for the 12 Teas of Christmas, this is one of my four favorites. (Yeah, that’s what I said.) Seriously, though, I love this tea. Yummy gingerbread notes – plenty of spice! – and notes of pancake, as well as notes of maple-y goodness. So good!

On The Second Day of Christmas . . . Of the various green teas that were on the poll this year, two won out most of the votes. This and one other that you’ll find later on in this countdown. I’m not at all disappointed with that result, because I love this tea and I’m so happy that others love it too.

Sweet, toasty flavor from the green tea and yummy banana with sweet, creamy marshmallow flavor. So good – really, what could be better than this? A wonderful way to spend my tea break this afternoon!

On The First Day of Christmas . . . of the teas that won enough votes to make it into the 12 Teas of Christmas box, this tea received the fewest votes – just enough to earn its way into the box. It actually tied with one other black tea – the Mayan Chocolate Chai blend which ended up being the featured reblend for this past November. Because I wasn’t sure which I should feature in the holiday box and which I should blend as a featured reblend, I just reblended both at the same time and told myself that I’d let my tastebuds decide when it comes time to do the taste test.

And in a sense, that’s exactly what happened. When it came time to do the taste test for each tea, this one was ready to roll – and the Mayan Chocolate Chai needed a bit more tweaking before I was ready to release it.

I really like this chai. I find it’s a different tasting chai depending upon the temperature of the tea. When it’s still quite hot, you get a nice hit of spices and some vanilla. Some caramel too, but the caramel isn’t as strong as it is as the tea cools. The more the tea cools, the stronger the caramel (and vanilla) become.

Either hot or cold, it’s really quite nice and comforting.

PS: You might notice on my blog I refer to this blend as “Caramel Vanilla Chai v.2” – the “v.2” is because this is bit different than the original. Specifically, the original version of this tea (Frank’s version) was a fairly fine ground chai. This also utilizes a CTC blend of black teas, but the leaf size is definitely larger than I recall the ground leaves were in the original. But, I didn’t label this tea as a v.2. And, I figured in an effort to eliminate confusion, I wouldn’t add a whole new listing with the v.2.

This was the “Featured Reblend/Bonus” tea for October of this year. It wasn’t exactly a reblend because while both Frank and I (as LiberTEAS) had crafted apple green teas, they weren’t quite like this one so this is a new tea, but not necessarily an entirely new concept. And since Washington is known for its apples, I figured it was the perfect tea to include with our “I Love The Pacific Northwest” theme.

I really like this tea. It is a combination of both Fuji & Granny Smith apples so you get a little bit of the sweetness from the Fuji and the tartness from the Granny Smith in every sip. The green tea is our combination of Gunpowder and Chun Mee and it seems to provide a nice base here.

Nice, crisp apple-y flavor with a smooth, sweet and slightly grassy background from the green tea.

But what I can tell you is this: I am the featured teamaker of the Amoda Tea Subscription Box for December – and what I am tasting at this very moment is one of the teas that I crafted for the Caffeinated box.

And it is yummy!

I’m very excited about this collection that I crafted for Amoda – I worked with Lu Ann @ Amoda (she curates the boxes for Amoda!) and she helped me determine which teas I’d craft for their box. It was a lot of fun to come up with these teas – and I think you guys are gonna love ’em!

This is the tea of the week for October 14 & I’m sipping on it right now. I cold-brewed it overnight and it is SO GOOD cold brewed! It’s good – you know – brewed traditionally (hot) but the flavors really come to life when the tea cools a bit (whether hot brewed or cold brewed, I tend to prefer this one when it’s cold. Good hot – awesome cold.)

For those of you unfamiliar with Salt & Straw – it’s a really unique ice cream joint that makes handcrafted ice cream using not-so-ordinary flavors. Like Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper … or Pear & Bleu Cheese – which are two of my go-to flavors on the rare occasion that I do go there. But if you’re in the Portland area (I know there are some Southern California locations too!) be sure to check to see if they have any limited edition flavors (like chocolate caramel potato chip cupcake – yes. It’s a real thing.)

Anyway, my go to is usually a scoop each of the two aforementioned flavors – strawberry honey balsamic with black pepper and pear & bleu cheese. These two taste amazing together.

So I decided to go with that as an inspiration – using some of these flavors and reimagining the others. I started with Chinese Sencha for it’s creamy, buttery taste and texture and added some Green Rooibos for a little bit of lightness and to enhance the fruity flavors of the blend. Then I added strawberries & pears. Instead of honey balsamic, I added honey essence & brandy essence. Instead of bleu cheese I added cheesecake essence.

I love the result. It is sweet, fruity, creamy, and there’s just a hint of pepper and brandy. A bit of tang from the cream cheese. A really unique and interesting set of flavors that just – work. I love this.

Another tea from last month. This tea is so good. This morning, I’m able to taste more of the smoky/roasted notes from the Lapsang Souchong, and I like the way this plays with the plum-y flavor as well as the maple and cinnamon notes. As I continue to sip, the roasted flavors start to meld with the other flavors to create a very harmonious taste.

It’s really wonderful: It’s sweet, it’s savory, it has a really nice depth of flavor to it. Perfect for autumn.

This is one of last month’s teas – I cold-brewed it overnight to enjoy today. It’s a different drink when cold-brewed, in my opinion. The green tea becomes a bit more prominent here, reminding me a bit of a gyokuro. I am still getting the fruit notes which add a nice dimension to the overall cup but what struck me most was the notes of green tea I am getting.

Fortunately, those green tea notes play well with the notes of sweet and tart that I get from the variety of fruits in this blend and I also find myself able to pick out the different flavors as I continue to sip on this. The coconut is a bit more prominent in a hot cuppa – here, it becomes more of a tropical note, sweet and creamy for sure but not quite as strongly, definitively coconut to me as it was with the hot taste test. The pineapple is sweet and just a little bit tangy – and that tanginess is accentuated with the presence of the lime which is definitely more prominent in the cold-brew versus the hot-brew. The blueberry comes through at first as more of that berry tingle towards the end of the sip and into the aftertaste, but as I continue to sip, the blueberry comes forward a bit more.

It’s a really nice composition. I didn’t sweeten this pitcher of tea but I’d imagine that a bit of sugar would bring out the fruit notes a bit more. Me, I like it just the way it is.

I turned this into a latte and put it in my thermos for this morning’s tea. I have had to restructure my sleeping schedule (which I have, to date, failed to do) because Amethyst needs me to help getting her son (my beautiful, sweet, adorable grandson!) to school (she has early morning classes). So, since I need to be awake for at least another couple of hours, I am hoping that this caffeine boost will help that (and hopefully won’t keep me awake much longer than that).

This makes a fabulous latte. It tastes great non-latte too – in fact, I have to admit that I do prefer it non-latte, but that’s become true of almost every single tea in the past few years (before I even took over the 52Teas thing). That said – it is really nice as a latte too.

I love this golden Bi Luo Chun – it has a natural chocolate-y note going on and hints of caramel too, so I knew that it would be the ideal base for this caramel-cream chocolate blend. And this blend makes a really nice, comforting cup that is also encouraging a wakefulness that I need at the moment.