52teas

This reminds me of other delicious fruity 52teas green teas. The base is so smooth with not a hint of bitterness. The fruitiness is fresh and authentic. This one is simple, but it’s another reminder why I almost only ever get my green teas from 52teas. Every sip is so pillowy and delicious. So refreshing cold.

Sipdown, surprisingly! This arrived only a few weeks ago but I blew through it. Partly that’s because I prioritized drinking it since it contains coconut. Mostly it’s because this is delicious. I kept meaning to try it as a latte but never got around to it. It doesn’t really need it though. This is just roasty, creamy, soft, sweet goodness. Vaguely reminiscent of macaroons. Yum.

2024 Sipdown Challenge | November | Cookie Monster’s Birthday: You know what to do!

Yeah, yeah, it’s not November 2, but who cares when the tea is so perfect for the prompt?!

After nearly a year of being very demure, very mindful when it comes to buying tea, my restraint has officially gone out the window! So now I’m cramming new teas into my tea cupboard and realizing I need a better storage solution.

As I was putting together my homemade advent for the swap, I had a lil brainstorm and decided to pull a bunch of seasonally appropriate teas from my stash, put them in a basket, and leave said basket out by my tea/coffee corner where I can’t miss it.

This approach is helping me (1) get into the seasonal/festive spirit, and (2) be intentional about sipping through my stash! Usually it’s out of sight, out of mind, and I have to go digging through my entire stash to find something that appeals in the moment, which means I often just default to the daily drinkers and old standbys. But now, I have a carefully curated basket of seasonally appropriate blends ready for me.

All to say that this tea made it into the holiday basket, and I finished it up yesterday evening. I never quite got a hit of that iconic buttery sugar cookie flavor when drinking it, but I enjoyed the playful sprinkles and the mild sweetness. And, yes, now I want real sugar cookies. :)

2024 sipdown count: 41

Sample sipdown! A sample of this was included with my latest 52teas order – thank you!

There was enough leaf to make two mugs, so I just made two back-to-back in order to finish it off. This is a really easy drinker. The lime is just the right level of tart, with the mango sweetness coming in at the back of the sip. Honestly, I can’t really taste the green rooibos much at all, I’m really just getting those two fruity flavors. Great way to stay hydrated… come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I forgot to drink actual caffeinated tea today!

The first time I had this, it was a bit too smoky for me. The second time, I gave it a shorter steep than recommended, which was much better. Then I could taste some fruitiness like rhubarb or strawberry along with the smoky base. But the smoke was much milder and supported the flavor profile well. It was quite pleasant with milk and sugar.

This has so much rose in it that I assumed I would hate it. But Anne really knows what she’s doing! This is actually really nice! Granted, I did dodge as many rose petals as I could. I’m drinking this cold, and it’s a bit floral, but that background of black tea is so high quality and nice that I’m not even bothered. It all mixes super nicely with some sugar and milk.

I get a mostly rummy, marshmallowy flavor on top of the roasted flavor of the hojicha.

Anne very kindly gave me a sample of this in a small order I recently placed. Definitely cola! Very mild cherry and almond.

So tasty. Bergamot is light and balanced nicely with the custardy flavor.

Earl grey isn’t generally my favorite, but I usually love the 52Teas earl grey blends. This is no exception. The slight creamy, custardy flavor of the creme brûlée combined with the bergamot is delicious.

Super tasty! The marshmallow is really subtle, and the strawberry has a nice balance of tangy and sweet. Very easy to drink.

Ugh, I had too much leaf for one mug and not enough for two, so I made a giant mug instead and this ended up being an unexpected sipdown. On the up side, I did get two steeps out of it. I’m a huge fan of 52teas’ marshmallow flavor. It doesn’t disappoint here, either. The combo of creamy marshmallow + sweetness + roasty hojicha makes this a really cozy fall blend. I fell asleep drinking my second mug and it tasted great as an iced tea in the morning, too.

This is the exact type of tea that I love. It’s so soft and marshmallowy. I distinctly taste the banana and the berry. It all combines so beautifully. The banana is a fresh green type of banana. The berry is fresh too. The green tea is super smooth. I vote for more fluff teas! It’s so refreshing cold.

I taste a lot of coconut here combined with the green tea. It’s not my favorite sort of flavor profile, but it’s decently well done. I would have preferred it with black tea or with something fruitier. As it is, it’s a little plain for my preferences.

This is reminiscent of eggnog, though a little subtle. Maybe I should have brewed it in oat milk for the creaminess. Ah well, it is quite good and refreshing as a cold brew. Thanks, 52teas! It’s a good time of year to drink it, feels festive.

Originally made this plain/unsweetened and it really needed some creaminess or a touch of sweetness. Ended up adding some honey and frothed oat milk….but it was too much oat milk and drowned out the flavor. So, complete user error in making this tea.

This didn’t taste like a lot warm. Cold with milk and sugar, it was somewhat cookie-like. Sugar cookies have never been my thing, but this definitely gets points for similarity! I do wish there were more spices or flavors going on, but that’s just the nature of sugar cookies. They’re sugar flavored.

I pulled this out some time at the beginning of summer and am now close to finishing it off when it is more seasonally appropriate. I wouldn’t say “pumpkin” is really where my mind goes when I drink it, but despite that, I really enjoy it! It reminds me of the “Honey Apple Cider Green Tea” from 52Teas that I had earlier this year. It has this strong apple note that comes off with a very fresh feeling on the green rooibos base, and the allspice is very nice. The aftertaste does sort of give me something squash-adjacent if I really focus on it. It’s nice hot and plain, but Anne’s suggestion of a little honey is nice, too.

I taste a cooked banana flavor that’s complemented well by the honeybush. Though I’m not sure I taste toffee specifically, there’s something pleasantly desserty in there! Good with milk and sugar. My recent cups of this haven’t been as tasty. I mostly notice the slightly peppery honeybush, which isn’t bad at all, but I miss the other flavors.

This tastes strongly of coconut. It’s pretty refreshing cold! I may also get a bit of acidity from the pineapple, in a good way. There’s not too much distinct fruitiness though. It’s best steeped 3 minutes or a little shorter. To me, the recommended time leads to some bitterness. I tried my final cup of this with some milk, which seemed to complement the flavor profile well. It’s not my favorite sort of flavor profile, but it was nice!

Sipdown 62 – 2024

Another unfortunate victim of age. This has also lost a lot of its flavor, but a touch of cinnamon and clove still remains. A good reminder to enjoy tea fresh and not try to hoard it.

After taking photos of this tea last night, I decided that I’d cold-brew some of the tea to try it out. Up until now, I’ve only tried it hot brewed (I chilled some of the hot brew to taste it cold too so that I’d have an idea of how this was as an iced tea). After trying this now as a cold-brew, I think I may have to retract my original tasting note that’s found on my website, because this is even better cold-brewed than hot brewed. The vanilla & black tea blend is smoother, the cantaloupe sweeter & the raspberries brighter. It’s just a totally different experience cold-brewed.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love this as a hot brew, but if you’re going to ask me now how I’d recommend serving this one, it’s cold-brew all the way! So very good!

With milk and sugar, this is pretty tasty! The mint isn’t as crisp as sometimes, but I can definitely tell that it’s a candy cane type of mint specifically. It’s really fun, though 52teas has better mint teas. And the chocolate is mild, but nice. The resteep was really pleasant. I really came to enjoy this one, especially the rich quality of the black tea.

I find the base to be the strongest flavor here. It’s a little plantlike for me, but not bad. On top of that, I taste a hint of desserty flavor, but it’s not very distinct. This certainly doesn’t taste bad, but the flavoring could have been a lot stronger.