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Genmaicha ain’t my jam. Popped rice I can do. Toasted/roasted rice I cannot. I took one sip of this tea and tossed it. It had really nice coconut flavor, but I couldn’t get past the taste and smell of rice.

Here we go with the spiced blends…or so I thought.

Y’see, I’m not usually big on spices in my tea. Seeing the word cinnamon in an ingredient listing for tea blends usually make me cringe. So, as an avid Christmas cookie baker, the minute I scratched the cute hologram sticker and saw the word “snickerdoodle” I was already trying to figure out how to get through just one cuppa. I’ve been trying to avoid the 52teas website until after I try a tea because I don’t want to psych myself out because of certain ingredients, so I had no idea there was anything other than cinnamon in the tea until I opened the pouch. It was like a chorus of heavenly hosts was singing above me as I stood in the break room at work to prepare my tea. Vanilla, there’s vanilla. Thank you, sweet baby Jesus.

This is actually a really nice blend. 52teas offers some of my favorite black tea blends because their bases are so flavorful without all the astringency. My first cuppa was enjoyed hot and straight, and it was really quite a pleasant morning cuppa. The cinnamon wasn’t overpowering, which is a rare feat as far as I’m concerned. The lovely fragrant vanilla (I believe it was actual vanilla bean) tempered the cinnamon very nicely. I didn’t get a ton of cookie or baked good flavor in my cuppa, but I’m okay with that. I’m going to use what’s left of my sample bag to make eggnog lattes this weekend. :P

This is easily my favorite of the first four teas in 52teas 12 days of Christmas sampler.

Red rooibos is not my friend, but green rooibos and I get on just fine. This tea is a lovely combination of tart lemon-lime and tart, but sweet, cranberry. The rooibos also adds a bit of sweetness to the cuppa. I’ve been trying these teas hot and straight, which is wholly unlike me because I love sweet iced tea, and I was completely blown away by this tea from the very first sip.

I’m looking forward to enjoying the rest of my sample bag iced in the next few days. I bet it’d make an outrageous tea pop. Before I’d even finished my cuppa, I’d already set an alarm on my phone to remind me to place an order when the teas are added to the website because it has easily become one of my top 5 flavored green rooibos blends.

What a delicious way to start the 12 days of Christmas. The sencha was very mild which allowed a beautiful pear note to come through. There was just a hint of berry in my cuppa, but it paired so nicely with the pear. The partridgeberry offered a bit of tartness to contrast the sweet freeze-dried pears. I love a good pear tea, and I’m so pleased this one did not disappoint.

This is a 52 Teas reblend, so I’ll just tack my tasting note onto the existing tea.

I’ve had this twice now. There’s a bit too much cinnamon in it for my taste, and, unfortunately, I don’t get a lot of boozy flavor. It’s pleasant, but it isn’t one of my favorites.

I cold-steeped a few teaspoons over the weekend. I think it was the promise of papaya that prompted me to add this blend to my pick ‘n mix. I’m not a fan of Earl Grey blends and, once again, I’m not getting much (read: any) papaya or lime in my cold-steep either. Bummer.

I cold-steeped the remainder of my taster bag yesterday. While the tea is very refreshing and has very subtle fruit flavor, it’s not a tea I’ll miss. Pineapple and watermelon are notes that generally don’t jive with my palate, but I don’t mind them in this blend. It’s light but pleasant. It sounded too good to pass up, so I’m happy I gave it a go. I think I’m happier that I don’t love it because I don’t think it’s available anymore.

I used up the last of my sample pack this past weekend. I steeped the tea and then used the tea to cook a small portion of steel cut oats. Yum. What a comforting, chocolaty, slightly spiced bowl of deliciousness. I don’t know that I’ll miss it over the next few months because it’s blazing hot outside, but I might repurchase it when the weather starts to cool down at the tail end of fall.

I threw a few teaspoons of this into my Hario filter-in cold-brew bottle on Sunday, put it in the fridge, and forgot about it until last night (Wednesday). The flavor hadn’t gone off and the tea wasn’t bitter at all. It had such lovely light butterscotch and coconut notes. I drank the entire 750 ml with dinner. :P It was really yummy. I might cold-steep black teas more often.

Ugh. The black tea blends that 52Teas have released lately have just been killer. This tea has been my go-to on most weekday mornings over the past week or so. I haven’t tried it iced/cold yet, but I really like it hot (slightly sweetened). The citrus and the marshmallow pair so nicely.

The only downside to 52Teas is that every blend is essentially limited edition, so you have to fall in love with a blend really quickly and hope that there’s still enough available online to stock up.