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GOOD EVENING STEEPSTER and my Sweet People!
In A Moment Like This I needed a happy tea. Tonight is the night of the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, which is something I try to watch every year. Most years I don’t like most of the songs much, but that doesn’t matter. It’s fun anyway. Even if our song is usually crap. This year we’ve got one of the better songs we’ve had in years, so it’s not bad.
For this purpose I needed the Drip Drop of a happy fun tea. One that could really Shine.
And this is the one. It’s so happy and with a certain Je Ne Sais Quoi. Butterflies and Siren calls and what not. It’s not a Thunder And Lightening tea at all but it’s still not really a tea that’s in any danger of being Lost And Forgotten. At least not in my household it’s not.
Well. Thunder And Lightening. Not normally anyway. Steeping has Run Away from me tonight so it’s a bit overdone. BUT I’m also armed with chocolate and fruit so I’m not completely Playing With Fire here.
With a good tea and a fun European traditional contest, Life Looks Better In Spring and That Sounds Good To Me.
If you want to know more about the Eurovision Song Contest, you can visit the official site here http://www.eurovision.tv/page/home where you can hear all the songs and watch the show live.
Me, I like our song this year which is somewhat unusual (most of the time I’m mildly ashamed of what we send), but I still don’t think we stand much chance of winning. I’m crossing my fingers for Iceland this year, because I think they have an awesome song and the woman singing it is gorgeous, I think.
This is me, Sharing The Moment
ETA: Germany will be hosting next year’s event. Denmark finished fourth, which wasn’t bad. Good night.
Here’s one I’ve forgotten to post about!
I bought it back around my birthday when I got a free shipping coupon from 52teas. I was already in the initial stages of Cupboard Lockdown at the time, but I thought it would be rude not to take advantage. Or something. Yeah. looks shifty Hands up anybody who believed that statement. Anybody? No? crickets
Okay, so I just really wanted to take advantage of said gift. Besides it gave me an excuse to buy the black currant white and it made me discover the tropical explosion white (!!!).
My favoured flavour when it comes to fruit flavoured teas tend to be berry flavours. Raspberry oolong, black currant white, that sort of thing. So naturally when browsing the selection, this one rather appealed to me. I actually chose the black currant white first, then this and then dithered a bit on the tropical white for a while. That makes it so strange that I fell so utterly for the tropical one and more or less forgot this one.
But here it is! At last! After the longest introduction in the history of the world ever! Anybody still with me here?
There’s an odd sort of aroma to this cup. It’s green, definitely, and with a semi-tart-y note to it, which must be the berries. I can’t pick out either berry individually, but I can sort of recognise it as a combination.
Also there’s a funny almost-note which reminds me quite strongly of chamomile. Odd that… It seems so out of place! And it’s not even really there. I mean when I’m actually smelling the tea, I don’t get the chamomile. But the moment I take the cup away from my nose, there’s a whiff of ‘hey, chamomile!’
It’s really a shame that I’d forgotten this one, because it’s really nice! It has a fresh sort of flavour to it. Green tea often has that not-mint mint-ness on the swallow which gives it a refreshing sort of quality and the berries in this one is adding to the freshness. It’s not at all sour like the smell of the berries and it’s very very summerly.
If you are like me and tend to gravitate towards berries in your flavoured teas, then I would definitely recommend that you tried this one. This is a hit.
Desserty. For me, it is a must have with 1/2 and 1/2 or milk. It seems sweet enough for me that I don’t need to add sugar. It is good, but almost too rich and special to drink very often. I mostly have it at night after dinner as it is a bit much first thing in the AM.
de-cupboarding :(
delicious chocolaty banana treat after dinner
1000ml, 7 tsp, 212, 7 minutes, 1 tsp german rock sugar
Preparation
Good gravy! You must be bouncing after 7tsp of tea!!!
…That would be an entire ounce of Mayan Chocolate Chai!
it’s rooibos, and only about 4 mugs worth, so no caffeine bunch just a nice yummy drink while working on inputting receipts on the pc
Oh yeah duh. OK I really knew that I just had an idiot moment lol. That’s still a crap load of rooibos and the equivelent amazes me.
Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp
Water: 500ml filtered water at 212°
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL (Herbal, Strong)
Steep Time: 5 minutes
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: rooibos woody, chocolate, banana
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet chocolate, hints of banana, hints of woody rooibos
Flavor: banana, rooibos
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: sweet woody
Liquor: dark orange-brown
MilitiaJim hates banana that isn’t a plain real fresh banana. It didn’t find this offensive.
I on the other hand love it as a sweet dessert treat late night tea!
Post-Steep Additives: a bit of German rock sugar, really makes it a nice treat!
images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/05/52teas-loose-leaf-rooibos-tea-chelseas.html
Preparation
Okay, even though I dislike rooibos, I have to try this one. Such high accolades from you means it has to be good!! :)
lol-i guess i am a picky one!
It has a strong rooibos undertone, so if you really don’t like rooibos it is probably not for you – on the other hand it isn’t rooibossy. (disclaimer: i like rooibos!)
LOL! I love rooibossy — it’s the perfect term :D
Upping my rating of this because I have decided that I really like it. It’s delicious. Bright and pineapply and coladay and great iced AND hot. As I mentioned in my review of the pina colada green, I am so impressed that I like this without liking either pineapple or pina coladas, but as a tea it just works for me. I think it’s the perfect balance of sweet, but not sugary-sweet, and coconutty without being oily. While I don’t get rum, per se, I don’t know that I miss it. Such a yummy treat. I have a huge mug full right now.
Preparation
So it turns out that while I might not like pineapple to snack on, I do like it in tea. Or rather, I like fruit+ coconut. This particular 52teas blend tastes mostly coconutty, but it really smells like a pina colada, with a bit of rum in the background. I like that the fruitiness of this is sort of quiet, and I can really see this one growing on me a bunch as I enjoy the rest of the sample kindly gifted to me by Meghann. I may be tempted to throw this one into my next 52 teas order, but we’ll see how my next few cups go.
Preparation
Try steeping it longer maybe – and like most honeybush blends it’s excellent sweetened.
Ooo, you make that one sound good.
I’m going to try a longer steep just to see how it goes. I think I may end up wishing that the fruitiness stood out more, so I’ll see if that helps.
Another one of my favorite teas from 52Teas. If Chocolate Banana Rooibos is my favorite, I would have to say that this one comes in a close second. I love it.
And… an interesting side note, every time I brew this tea (or even happen across it as I sort through my stash to find a tea to brew) I hear that song “Knights in White Satin” from the Moody Blues playing in my head. I realize that the song is WHITE SATIN and not Black Satin, but tell my head that. LOL I love that song – so mysterious and beautiful…
And this tea is so good. The licorice flavor is the BEST of any other licorice flavored tea I’ve tasted (a close second would be Golden Moon’s White Licorice, which is also quite special to me because my favorite ice cream flavor is Tillamook’s White Licorice…but I digress) The cinnamon is not a sweet cinnamon, rather than a spicy-hot type cinnamon flavor, and the sweetness of the cinnamon cuts through some of the sharper notes of the licorice perfectly.
An AWESOME tea!
Preparation
OOoh…licorice flavored ice cream…
Lori: It’s awesome awesome AWESOME! But the only place I’ve ever found it is at the Tillamook dairy in Tillamook OR… we visit that area about once a year or so, so whenever we visit, I make a point to make a trip to the dairy for ice cream! A once a year treat! LOL
I totally agree, this one is really good. I like it with a bit of milk too.
(Also, I’m pretty sure it’s nights in white satin, but now I’m getting mental images of knights wearing satin on top of their plate armor and everything, so I think I like your version best!)
LOL! Angroboda, you’re probably right, it probably is Nights in White Satin… I guess the romantic artist in me sort of envisions KNIGHTS when I hear this song. And… when I drink this tea…
Thank you Ricky for this sample and for being a very patient swap buddy :)
I love the smell of the strawberries in this mix…it’s like strawberry milk or strawberry ice cream. Yum. Unfortunately, my matcha is a little affected by the smell/taste of some of the other teas in the box, so I’m not sure how much of the mellowed, milky flavor is from the matcha itself and how much is from the other yummy teas Ricky sent me. :)
This matcha, like 52teas Mandarin Matcha, has a kind of strange sharp, sour note. I’m not sure why…I assumed in the case of the Mandarin Matcha it was the acidity of the orange, but the same sourness is in this matcha as well. Maybe its a preservative or a flavoring thing? Or just the quality of the matcha itself? Who knows, but it’s keeping me from really loving this.
Preparation
I’m thinking this is one I will have to try at some point! :)
The sharpness in this one put me off. I haven’t craved it since my second attempt which was mildly better than the first.
@Shanti: I notice the tart note as well. I attribute it to the combination of the fruit and matcha… since matcha has kind of a different sweetness than does either of these fruits, maybe the matcha brings out more of the tart of the fruit? I don’t know for sure, but I was just kind of thinking that was why… sort of like when you eat a chocolate cupcake and then drink orange juice… the orange juice tastes a bit sour after eating the sweet cupcake. :)
I thought it might be that as well, but it’s the same strange tartness in both the mandarin matcha and the strawberry matcha, and to me it doesn’t seem to be connected to the “fruit” flavor very much. I’m guessing it’s a preservative or something.
This is actually the third time I’ve had this. It was one of the teas I got in Doulton’s gift, and it was one of the two that I picked myself. I like genmaichas and I’m not sure what the ’malted’ness was supposed to be like. Also I couldn’t figure out what the glass of milk had to do with anything. Lexitus tried to offer an explanation using wikipedia and small words, but I’m still pretty much blank as to the glass of milk.
I gather it’s a special kind of milk that tastes malt-y. This is the sort of thing that can’t really wrap my head around. Why would you do that to milk? What’s wrong with milk-flavoured milk? Milk tastes lovely the way it is! You foreigners do some odd things to perfectly fine milk, I have to say. See in Denmark we have chocolate milk and a variety milk milks with different fat percentages. The end. (And of course a range of various yoghurt products) We get by fine on that. I’m sure you lot are all OMG O.O at this, like the time I revealed to the a bunch of americans over on LJ that in Denmark we don’t have condensed milk either except for possibly industrial kitchens and such. It’s just not something we use.
Anyway, so yeah. The point of this is that malt-y milk is a really weird concept for me. One thing is unnecessary flavour in milk, but malt and milk? I’m sorry, it just strikes me as a somewhat bizarre combination. I can’t imagine that at all.
So I was curious. Against my better judgement yes, but still curious.
I can certainly smell the malt when I open the pouch. It’s overwhelming! And frankly, it smells like molasses. Which is something I associate with horse food. Looking at the leaves themselves, it looks like what we’ve got is one part green tea and two parts puffed rice. Erm… shouldn’t it have been the other way around, balance wise? I mean I want tea with puffed rice. I don’t want puffed rice extract garnished with tea. (And smelling of horse food) So not a lot of points on aroma and look of leaves here.
This being my third cup out of three different sessions so I’m pretty sure I’ve got a consistent flavour out of it, and as one would have guessed from leaf appearance, I’ve got rice flavour like whoa.
And that’s pretty much it, really. Rice, rice, rice, rice, rice, rice. And then on the swallow a hint of sencha and a little maltyness which thankfully isn’t reminding me of horse food. That much.
I like genmaichas. But this is way too rice-y and I’m still not getting what the glass of milk has to do with anything. Is there supposed to be milk flavour in here too somewhere? If so, I’m not finding it.
I can’t really decide if I kind of like this, if I like it enough for it to be drinkable, or if I don’t like it at all. It’s definitely not something I would invest in or something I would ask for another time. I think I’ll go with drinkable on this one and that’s it.
On the upside I’ve used almost all of what Doulton sent me just to get this far, so I won’t have to struggle through a lot of it or find someone else to pass it on to. But I’ll probably add some more sencha to what I do have left, so it isn’t so rice-rice-rice-rice-rice-y.
I’m quite disappointed that I didn’t like it more than this. The majority of others who have posted about it thought it was all kinds of awesome, and I’m feeling a little left out that I can’t find the awesomeness. Maybe it’s a cultural thing, me not being used to this whacky milk flavour? I’m sure we have super-common food products in Denmark that you lot would find bizarre too.
The glass of milk might be a reference to malted milkshakes, which were really popular in the 50s and I suppose still today, although I’ve never tried one. :)
I don’t think it’s just you. I tried it twice to give it a fair shake, and my bag of it, almost full, is currently sitting on my counter alongside a few others that I just don’t like. I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve liked several of the offerings from 52teas (since flavored tea isn’t really my thing) — some of them are fantastic — but I find this one pretty unpleasant. To each their own!
Oh, and Horlicks! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malted_milk
I am amused/intrigued/fascinated by the cultural taste difference issues you describe from time to time. Do they market Whoppers chocolate covered malt balls over there? That’s the closest taste similarity I can come up with for this tea.
Gmathis, never heard of those. If they do, it’s under a different name.
yummmmmm whoppers!
I don’t know how much more help I can be to this, but, I love malted milkshakes. Basically, I think that the milk reference comes from “malted milk” which is a product that is available here in the US, and people can add a scoop of it to their milkshakes to make it thicker and give it a unique texture – sort of like adding a little bit of grain to a milkshake. Malted milk is called malted milk because it is made of a mixture that includes grains and milk which is evaporated into a powder form – which is how we can purchase it here in the states.
As I said, I love malted milkshakes, and when I do happen to indulge in a milkshake when I’m out to eat, I usually order a malted milkshake. It just gives it a more interesting consistency, and it’s more filling and satisfying. YUMMMM!
Haha, this made me giggle. I’m a big regular milk fan too (though I’ve had orange milk that is tasty and my grandma used to sweeten her coffee with condensed milk with was sorta weird but tasty).
LiberTEAS, thank you for that explanation! I’ve only recently started to understand what malt even tastes like and was totally at see with malted milkshakes and the like. So thanks!
At least now I know that the honey note in Assams is supposed to be the malt-y note. But I still think it’s more like honey, so I’ll stick to (Hee! Sticky honey!) calling it a honey note.
You might look at our original post for this tea (http://www.52teas.com/2009/11/23/11-23-09-malted-genmaicha/), we posted some good information about malted milk there. Sorry you didn’t like this one, but like you said, “to each their own”. I’ve come to the conclusion that seeking universal love by creating amazing tea blends is a wild goose chase. There is definitely a reason behind the saying “not my cup of tea”. Everyone has different tastes.
I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s a cultural thing, so I’ll be staying away from anything ‘malted’ in the future. Just like I know to steer clear of anything with peanut butter. (I don’t ‘get’ peanut butter either. It’s available easily enough over here, I just don’t understand why people would eat it. An ex-boyfriend of mine (sorta) once brought me these peanutbutter filled chocolate-y (HAH! I’m not sure that even had enough cocoa contents in it to qualify as chocolate according to danish rules) things and started feeding them to me before I knew what was going on. Urgh!!!)
The tropical white, though! That’s one with a big NOM factor for me! And tropical fruit doesn’t normally get that sort of response from me. I think I’m just more of a fruit-person.
Also, that link redirects to http://www.52teas.com/2009/03/29/032909-sundae1888s-mayan-chocolate-chai/ for some reason! O.o
(if you’re trying to influence me, then sorry it won’t work. I don’t care much for chai or things with chili in it)
Also, EPIPHANY!!!!
OMG now I get that line from that Grease song! gotta be going to that malt shop in the sky
The comments on this post make me smile :)
Also, my mind has just been blown. HOW CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE GLORY OF PEANUT BUTTER?!!1 ;) It’s soooo good. You have to have try a peanut butter and nutella sandwich at some point. Or a peanut butter and honey sandwich. Or a peanut butter cup. Or Reeses Pieces. Or peanut butter pie. Mmmmm. The trick is to heat up the peanut butter a little before or after spreading it on your bread :)
Uhm… because it’s all dry and not nice? It’s like a mouthful of cement. Blergh, you may keep it. I don’t want my nutella or my honey contaminated.
No, marmite. Marmite, that’s the good stuff! (unfortunately we can’t get that in danish shops)
Oh, for a slab of peanut butter pie! (My favorite is a clone of traditional American pecan pie, rather than the frozen/creamy PB pie variety.)
Oooh, you’ve been eating the wrong peanut butter then :) it should be somewhat thick and maybe a little sticky, but not dry! It’s creamy and sweet and salty and crunchy and mmmmmmm.
I mean dry the way nuts, peanuts included, are dry, not dry-dry. I don’t really care much for nuts on their own either. It’s like I never quite finish chewing even when they’re reduced to dust. In cooking or with (proper!) chocolate around them, nuts are fine. But not alone.
I am COMPLETELY baffled by the redirection of that link. It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. I’m pretty sure the Internet gremlins are to blame. Anyway, if you want to read the information we provided on malt, I guess you will have to search our site for malt and click on the Malted Genmaicha post. It actually does have an interesting history: Malted milk was orginally developed by a pharmacist as a nutritionally fortified milk to be used as baby formula, but then it became famous as a confectionary ingredient.
Likewise, peanut butter, was originally (in the form we currently think of as peanut butter) created in the 1890s as a means to provide toothless patients with protein.
My all time favorite sandwich, by the way, is peanut butter on toast with sizzling hot bacon. Mmmmm.
Hmmm…. peanut butter and bacon tea?
OMG, do iiiiiiit!
Okay after reading all this I am hungry! Malted Milkshakes totally rock BTW. :)
If you remove the end ) on the link it works properly.
So if you stick ) to the end of a link it’ll randomly choose a different page for you. Interesting… O.o
Yeah, not really sure why that works, but it does! Yay for the interwebs!
It’s a bit like the “I’m feeling lucky” button on Google. :p
(go to Google, search “Find Chuck Norris” and use the lucky button)
Ha! That’s awesome!
I like peanut butter, but, I don’t like it enough to try a peanut butter tea. Something about peanut butter and tea together just makes my tummy get all squeamish and just… eww. I have been quite liberal, I think, in weird tea blends – I tried the bacon tea (very good, especially with a pinch of salt), I tried some rather weird concoctions (most of them have been Frank’s), but, I just… cannot try peanut butter tea. That’s where I draw the line.
Same…the idea of peanut butter chai made me feel squeamish. I actually am not a huge fan of peanut butter itself, but it manages to redeem itself every once in a while :)
I’ve found myself craving this tea. This is the first green tea I’ve ever craved. I actually opted for a mug of this over a mug of my usual strong black tea in the morning.
I have played around with the steeping parameters, and found I like it best around 170F for 2:30. I haven’t gotten the purplish green cloud of color I had the first time around, but I think my water was hotter than I intended that day. I’m happy to have a whole bag of this tea to enjoy.
Preparation
Thanks, Frank & 52teas for shipping so quickly. I received this tea two days after I ordered it! Amazing! I just haven’t been able to review it until today.
The dry leaves are quite large and long sencha leaves. The scent of the dry leaves is a bit tart and quite blueberry like. Once brewed the aroma is more mellow, berry and almost a little floral with a light tartness. The liquor is quite darker than I imagined. It’s almost as if a blue/purple food coloring was added lightly to the green tea. I haven’t brewed a sencha before, so I’m not sure if this is the leaves or something to do with the flavoring. I’m loving the smell of this!
I have no words to describe elderberry with, but the flavor reminds me a bit of the brightness of fresh, ripe blueberries. The elderberries really compliment the flavor of the sencha. The sencha is very strong, but the flavors blend, the mesh so well, it is a wonderful dance on my tongue. I’m really enjoying this.
I did brew it on the higher end of the temperature range, 180F, for 2:30 minutes. I think I will try this at 170F and 160F to see how it compares. I think the length of the steep is just right, as I’m not tasting any astringency.
Nice work 52teas! I’m loving this blend.
Preparation
Another sample from Ricky—I was looking forward to this after reading all the glowing comments. Prepared with milk and sugar as recommended, and it is—just MEH—a bit of chocolate flavor, a hint of chocolate aroma. I’m glad to have tried it, but I won’t be repeating the experience once the sample is gone.
Preparation
Yummm—Maraschino Cherries! There’s a fine line between maraschino cherries and cherry cough syrup and I’m happy to say that the cherry-ness in this tastes like pure maraschino cherries—which I love because it reminds me of Shirley Temple drinks and childhood. :)
I do taste pineapple, sugar and a hint of cake. This is kind of like a canned fruit salad. It’s sweet and candy-like but not cloying. I wish there were more of a cake-y taste but I’m enjoying this a lot—it’s great as a dessert tea. It’s almost like Pineapple Ambrosia but without the marshmallow fluff.
I detect no pipe tobacco-ness or woodiness like I would with a rooibos. Honeybush is great! :)
Preparation
finishing off the last that I have of this lovely tisane! It will be missed. It is so good!
Here is my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2010/06/11/pineapple-upside-down-cake-from-52teas/
Another tea I’ve been eagerly awaiting the time when my taste buds were back in action so that I could try it.
Yum! This is really really good. The honeybush proves to be an excellent base for the flavors here. I can taste the cake flavor which is rich and buttery tasting, I can taste the pineapple, and I can even taste a little bit of the maraschino cherry. I can even detect the caramel-y brown sugar… yum!
Preparation
Sounds delicious! I haven’t opened mine yet—I should soon!
Yes, you should! It’s so good. I’m writing my review of it for TRB now…
As I am drinking this, I have decided that I should up the numeric rating a bit, because… it gets better as I make my way down the cup! The flavors really meld together so well.
Yum! So good. To make a good thing even better, I added a little bit of Dark Chocolate Breve Creme to this. Now, I have chocolate coconut cream pie in my teacup…
This was the 3rd Tea of Christmas … you can read my review here:
http://sororiteasisters.com/2010/12/16/on-the-3rd-day-of-christmas-from-52teas/
Delish! I dug this out of my stash the other day because I sent some to a friend, and after packaging that up, I realized I was down to just 2 cups worth of this tea! But that’s OK… I’ve so much tea in my stash that it is a time to celebrate when I get to the bottom of a package. Tea should be enjoyed, not hoarded (that’s what I keep telling myself, hopefully it will sink in soon).
Anyway… this is really one of 52Teas best. It is sweet and creamy and coconut-y. I like that I am getting the cream pie in there too … although, I would like to get just a touch of Frank’s BUTTER flavor that he does so well in this… because I think it would really lend a defining note to the “crust” part of the pie. I guess that is the only thing I’d change about this!
Hey, Frank, if you’re reading this (and I know that you are!) … I am still eagerly awaiting my Tomato, Basil and Black Pepper Green Tea Blend.
Preparation
I haven’t forgotten the tomato basil blend. I actually requested some materials for that from my supplier and they sent me everything I asked for BUT that, so I will have to bug them again soon.
Cool!
yay! I’m interested in that blend too!
Yes this coconut blend is really nice….
YUM!
I’m having coconut cream pie for breakfast!
This morning, I added a little more leaf to my smart brewer – there are so many huge chunks of coconut in the blend that it’s important to adjust the amount of leaf you use accordingly since the coconut doesn’t really add much in the way of flavor to the finished product, but I sure do love the way it looks! It gets my mouth watering before the tea begins to steep!
An extra teaspoon is just about right for my smart brewer (my smart brewer brews about 16 oz. of finished product, which is equal to about 2 “cups” of tea. So I usually add two heaping teaspoons to my smart brewer. For this tea, I add 3).
This tea is fantastic. It is one that really MUST be served latte to get the most from it, this time though, I didn’t get out the frother… so my cup looks a bit like coffee with cream – but it TASTES like a decadent, creamy, delicious dessert! Delightful!
My grandpa called raspberry jam razzle-dazzle berry when I was a kid. This tea makes me think of that.
Oh Eurovision! You crack me up. I remember being underwhelmed by Poland’s song this year. Have to check out the finalists though.
I haven’t been blogging about it this year. For the last couple of years I’ve had posts with little comments on each song, but I haven’t done that this year for a number of reasons. I can’t even remember Poland’s song. I don’t believe it made it to the finals either.
What a fantastic note! All the song titles were wonderfully woven in and enjoyed. :)
It should probably be noted that the songs I used weren’t used for my specific favoritism. They were just the ones I could work with. (And OMG Germany has a great and super-happy song too!)
Edited with results. For the sake of completion and all.