Southern Boy Iced Teas

2021 Sipdown 121/365!

Unfortunately can’t rate this one as it’s just too old… there really wasn’t any flavour to it at this point, despite the teabag being unopened – but it did have that characteristic Frank 52teas black tea base flavour. Just, nothing else to it really.

Sipdown (548)!

Cold brewed a pitcher of this to share with the fam. The smell of the dry leaf is quite nice; very sweet and citrus heavy. It’s an old tea, so I was excited that it still smelled so fresh! Taste wise, this is smooth and delicious with a strong lime flavour. It’s enjoyable; but other than tasting like lime I don’t really get any cheesecake at all. Could just be a side effect of how old this one is.

Regardless, thanks Starfevre! We don’t have air conditioning and it’s REALLY fucking hot, so any iced or cold brewed tea is a life saver right now…

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – June Tea #3: – An iced/cold brew tea

I want to get a few more of these June prompts done before I switch to July… probably not all of the prompts though! Good to the last drop.  The flavor is spot on even now.  Amazing.  Distinct notes of mostly strawberry, vanilla and chocolate.  Will miss it, but apparently I have a last pouch somewhere around here!  Awesome.  Will raise the rating from 83 because of its accuracy.
2022 sipdowns: 72

I expected no flavor at all from this… it is ancient. It is old old even for one of Frank’s blends. It’s the old black unresealable packaging! I didn’t ice this one, I steeped up a teaspoon hot. And the flavor is still DELICIOUS. I could taste the chocolate and definitely the sweet strawberry. Probably not the vanilla, but it probably wasn’t really there in the first place. I’m loving the chocolate and strawberry though. I’m so surprised and pleased at how much flavor this has!

There is a touch of citrus (lime leaf, lime zest), but not much else in the way of fruity flavours. It has lost flavour over the years, however it wasn’t a bad cup. Generically fruity, some citrus, and a green tea base. The base was tannic, astringent, but not undrinkable.

It was time to finish this off. The strawberry is fairly artificial, the base is a bit bitter, but can be balanced by adding milk. It makes an ok iced tea and it’s ok hot as a latte, but it is far from outstanding.

I am pretty disappointed with this one. First of all, I didn’t follow instructions because I wanted this hot (did not ice). Second of all, I only used ~1.5 tsp of leaf in 500 mL hot water. ~3 minutes steep (I didn’t count). The tea was so bitter I couldn’t drink it. I dumped out half and added cold water, but it remains very bitter and astringent. The strawberry flavouring is artificial, but I do not mind. The zabaglione flavor gives a custard note to the brew, but that doesn’t add enough creaminess.

I have no sweetener or milk, but I think next time I will opt for milk and sugar (or at least milk). Might try it iced, but I fear it will be bitter no matter how it is steeped.

How was it necessary to add this to the database?! Anyway, I’ve always been aware of this tea and I always wanted to try it. So thanks Starfevre for supplying! There were two of these iced tea bags in the package Starfevre sent over, though each had a different packaging so I assumed they were different “harvests” or Frank mixed the blends at different times. So I was interested to see if these two “harvests” were different at all. I tried hot steeping a teaspoon from each package on different days (and saving the rest for later). Sadly, they both taste the same but both just taste like black tea now. So some teas do age, even in nice packaging (no rating from me). This must be the most faded tea ever. This doesn’t taste fantastic, but it’s still caffeine. But I’m sure I would have loved this when it was fresh!

Today’s work SBT, prepared the usual way. It’s also the most disappointing SBT I’ve tried in a while, because I can’t really taste much in the way of peach, cobbler, or ice cream (the package says a la mode even though the listing doesn’t…) If I concentrate, I can taste tinned peaches, or rather, the syrup that they’re usually preserved in. The flavour really is that light and insubstantial. There’s no vanilla to suggest ice cream, no creaminess, and nothing buttery, biscuitty, or even pastry-like to make me think cobbler. The main flavour is sweet black tea, with only the very, very mildest hint of peach. This makes me sad, because I had high hopes for this one.

Today’s work SBT, prepared the usual way. I’ve pretty much always enjoyed 52Teas cola blends, and this one’s no exception. I can taste cola (off-brand, reminiscent of cola bottles), and I can taste cherry (sweet, fruity, not at all medicinal). It’s not effervescent (obviously), but there is something about it that’s coming across as “carbonation”, and it’s not just my imagination. Trust me. I don’t actually have that much of an imagination. The standard black tea base is there in the background, but it’s not too intrusive, and it doesn’t overpower the flavourings. It’s smooth, lightly malty, not at all bitter or astringent. I’ll go with LiberTeas and say it’s like someone poured flat cherry cola into a mug that already contained tea dregs, because that’s pretty much what it’s like. Doesn’t sound too appealing, but actually, it’s really pleasant on a sticky late-summer day.

I’m sad that there’s no more SBT in the world.

But there’s plenty still in my cupboard, so I’m still smiling for now.

Today’s work SBT, prepared the usual way. Blackberry and blueberry? I can’t actually remember what this is supposed to be, because I bought it so long ago and then hoarded it, but I can definitely taste the blueberry. The blackberry is more of a mystery to me, and it’s really no more than a background flavour if I’m honest. The blueberry is so strong, everything else (including the black base, amazingly) just seems to be getting lost. I’m not complaining about the strength of flavour, though, because that’s what I (used to?) love most about SBTs. It’s good to find one that exceeds expectations again, even if it’s a little one-note and not quite as billed. It’s refreshing, wonderfully blueberry, great on a hot day like today. Impressed.

With sugar, this tastes like sweet strawberries and cream, with a hint of flaky pastry hanging out in the background. Yum!

Oh. My. Goodness.

I only bought one? Heading over to SBT to buy more now!

Strawberry. Real strawberry. Like you cut up strawberries, added sugar, let them sit a while and then puréed them and poured them in a glass of sweet tea. Somebody please stop me from drinking the whole gallon at once…

ETA: Alas! Out of stock! Weeping sounds…

This wasn’t as good iced as it was hot. It’s very very tannic iced and it loses most of the other flavors, I might be able to taste a little bit of the pumpkin that I couldn’t taste before but it definitely isn’t nearly as good as it was hot.

I’ll admit, I cheated and had this hot instead of iced.

Fairly good, it definitely has some creamy notes and is fairly tannic but I can’t taste any pumpkin. Definitely par for the course for my tastes in flavored tea but I wish it had more of the pumpkin flavor in it to make it stick out more.

Highly underwhelming, overly tannic, with a chocolate finish and a whisp of any pumpkin or spice notes.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Wednesday, September 8th: National Ampersand Day Tea #2

I forgot that this IS a true sipdown… not sure how it escaped my sipdown list, but there it goes, down the gullet.  Great flavor for such an old tea. (any flavor is surprising here, really.) And definitely a flavor combo that Anne should use, if it hasn’t already been used anyway!
2021 sipdowns: 121

I’m hot steeping this one, so I broke open the teabag to parcel out a teaspoon. I like having cantaloupe teas on hot days, but the other 52Teas I’ve had with cantaloupe is better but that one was really really tasty. First of all, the green tea is scary tiny. I expect bitter, but if it’s steeped under a minute, it isn’t astringent at all (even if so many of the leaves escape the infuser and end up at the bottom of the cup.) It’s a solid green with equal parts berry and cantaloupe flavors. But I feel like either flavor could be stronger.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // 30 minutes after boiling // 45 second steep
Steep #2 // 30 min a.b. // 45 second steep

I was surprised to end up loving this – when it was breweing, it wasn’t particularly fragrant. But as I take a sip I am really impressed. It does taste very ricey, of course, and the marshmallow flavor is strong. I always add a tablespoon of honey to my pitchers of iced tea, just to give a hint of extra sweetness per cup. It works really well with this blend. I never would have thought I would love icing a flavor like this, but it is one I would reach for over many of my fruity blends.

I am always on the hunt for great teas to enjoy at work, especially during the summer days. Nothing really depresses you more than to look out a window and see how nice the weather is and know that you are stuck at your desk. We have a really nice deck off of one of our conference rooms and I eat my lunches out there occasionally, but its not the same. Summer time is my favorite time of the year. It is about the only time of the year where I am not freezing (I am one of those that is constantly cold). This tea reminds me of summer and enjoying fresh fruit with my family. My 80 year old grandpa is still an old school farmer and we love his cantaloupe. It is so good.

Anyway, here is the full review, Happy Monday all!

http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/04/13/cantaloupe-berries-green-tea-southern-boy-teas/

After my adventure with the razzleberry last week-ish, I decided to let this one air out a bit before I stuck it in water, possibly too much. If I’d had to guess at the flavour, I would not have picked cake batter. That’s not to say that this isn’t a good tea or a good iced tea, because it is. Tasty, thirst quenching, definite black tea flavour. But the sweetness in it didn’t bring anything specific to mind for me, even when I was looking for it.

Sipdown! (23/288)

I will make it to 100 notes before my 1st Steepster-versary if it kills me.

I had this a while back, and hadn’t realised it was still in my cupboard unreviewed, so please forgive the patchy note. Luckily, these teabags make a beastly amount of tea, so I’ve drank it enough times to remember what it tasted like!

Being a poor little English girl, I had no idea what a creamsicle was, and therefore no frame of reference towards the accuracy of the flavours. However, my dad’s favourite ice lolly is one which is plain orange on the outside, and with ice cream in the middle. I take it that this is a similar deal? So that’s what I’m going with. If that it what it’s supposed to taste like, then it’s not too bad a job. The tea base is definitely dominant, and the Orange and vanilla flavours kind of play around in the background. I added four spoons of brown sugar to this while it was still hot, but the tea still ended up tasting bitter to me. Maybe I put too much hot water in, or left the teabag too long? I think I will cold steep the next time I make a batch of iced tea.

I have a bit of a confession to make – I drank most of this hot. My flat is a basement flat, so it’s pretty cold most of the time, and especially in winter in the north of England, it’s not the best time to drink iced tea. Apart from that, though, each time I poured myself a glass, the bitterness made me want to add milk. I tried doing that iced at first, but to me, iced tea with milk in it is just weird! So I almost always ended up warming it up in the microwave… So I know I didn’t drink it properly, but honestly, the milk brought out the vanilla more and somehow the flavours shone through a lot more when hot than when cold.

Currently, there’s a large batch of Lime Cola SBT in my fridge, which I’m much happier to drink cold. I was also fine with the butterbeer SBT iced. I don’t know what it is, but something about this tea just screams to me “I should be hot!!”

Backlog:

OK, so this was one of those flavors from Frank that I just wasn’t too sure about.

Oh, sure, I love cake batter as much as the next person, but in a tea? I wasn’t convinced that this was a good idea. But I still had to try it because it was just too weird not to. Or maybe it wasn’t so weird that I wouldn’t try it.

This really does taste like cake batter. Sweet, creamy, buttery. Fortunately it doesn’t have the texture of cake batter because well, that would be a little too weird.

I like that I do taste a strong cake batter flavor but I also taste black tea.

This one might be my favorite flavor so far.