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This tea just isn’t doing it for me I’m afraid. I wish it had more vanilla and less rose in the flavour profile because as it is now it tastes far too sweet and perfumed for my tastes. The white tea base doesn’t look like it’s the best quality either, as the leaves are distinctly brown rather than any shade of white or green like I would expect. Eh, so I’ve turned into a bit of a tea-snob – so sue me. ;)

This tea will join the others ones I’ve set aside to trade/give away. If anyone wants it, please pm me.

Of the three flavoured matchas from 52Teas that I’ve had the chance to try, I think this one is my favorite. It really does smell like Banana Runts for one thing and it carries over to the flavour more than the other matchas. I’d liken it more to banana-flavoured candies (minus the sweetness) than I would to the actual banana fruit. The matcha base is a bit too grassy for me to love this tea but I certainly like it.

Another offering that came to me from the Travelling Teabox (has it made it back to Angrboda yet?). There’s obviously bits of cinnamon bark in this tea even though it isn’t listed as one of the ingredients. It seems like a pretty standard chai in most respects so I’m not sure what’s ‘voudou’ about it (I couldn’t find any pins stabbed into it). ;)

For an ingredient the company didn’t even bother listing the cinnamon is quite prominent in the taste and smell of this tea. I find I’m missing the cardamom which is an essential part of any chai in my opinion. It tastes nice enough with some milk, but altogether I found it to be a fairly average chai.

It tastes quite like a mild Yunnan black, it has that same malty characteristic, though it lacks the smokey, tannic undertones a Yunnan usually has. The aftertaste has a touch of fruity sweetness and there are also hints of cocoa here and there. It’s an interesting, complex tea that’s expressed in nuances rather than bold, out-there flavours.

Oooh man, I was right – this blend makes an absolutely awesome traditional-style chai tea. I followed this recipe on Chai Wallah’s website (halved to make only one cup of chai): http://www.chai-wallah.com/makingchai.html

The result was creamy, delicately spiced, with just the right amount of sweetness. I found that it also really brought out the vanilla flavour. I really should make chai like this more often as it’s totally worth the extra effort.

I followed the advice from my last cuppa and tried the tea with with a touch a maple syrup which I found really did bring out the maple flavour. I also added a pinch of salt to see if that would enhance the bacon flavour at all, but found it didn’t really make much of a difference to my tastebuds. So yeah, maple and bacon. :D

I tried to make my bag of this last as long as I could, but the problem with tea is that it doesn’t keep very well for a longer period of time. I really enjoyed this blend and found that it makes a nice iced tea aswell as being absolutely mouth-watering hot with a bit of agave nectar and milk (yes milk!). I can only hope that Frank chooses to reblend this one at some time in the future because I’ll miss it.

I steeped the tea a bit longer this time and now I’m getting the flavour of the spices more strongly, especially the ginger and cardamom aswell as a hint of spicy black pepper. This is definitely NOT a chai I’d add milk to as it’s far too light and would only be ruined by it I suspect. Maybe a little bit of honey might enhance the fruit flavours though – something to try next time.

I’ve noticed that this matcha blend has lots of lumps in it – hard lumps too, I had to apply a considerable amount of pressure with my fingers to break them up. I wonder if that’s the blending process or if that’s the fault of the matcha base itself?

Anyways, I used approximately 1 tsp of matcha in 8oz of hot water. It’s a touch on the watery side still, but managed to get good matcha flavour. However the apple is harder to find and honestly, if I didn’t know that it was supposed to be apple-flavoured I would have taken it for plain matcha. There’s a little bit of flavour in the aftertaste, but it’s faint. Maybe next time I’ll try with less water and maybe a lower temperature.

Yum, this tea smells like blueberry pie filling, and all those huge blueberries that are mixed in with the tea are a great touch. It’s a very fruity, blueberry-ish tasting tea as well; the cream cheese is a bit hard to find but I’m tasting in in the back of my mouth particularly after the tea has had time to cool off a little bit. I bet adding milk would bring it out more, so I’ll have to try it that way next time. But I’m really liking this tea even as is, I’m glad I was able to finally get my hands on it thanks to Rachel.