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“I am having an increadibly tough month. I am one of the co-organizers of Ruta de las Iglesias. It is a 10km race that goes through the colonial down town of Quito. While I love doing it, it is a...” Read full tasting note
“I really do quite like this one cold brewed with a little sweetner. After tonight’s giant mugs i have just enough for one more cup of this before it’s out of the cupboard. May not get to any...” Read full tasting note
“Oh this is good. I cold steeped it overnight and I couldn’t wait for later in the day to try it out. I love the new black tea base, I taste it first and foremost and I really like it. I’ll have to...” Read full tasting note
“12 Days of Tea #1! Also, 1000th tasting note! Wooooooooo!!!!!! Last time I tried this tea as a sample, it was not great. I couldn’t really taste the cotton candy. This time however? WOAH!...” Read full tasting note
This week’s tea of the week is a real gem. I am enjoying a big icy stein of it as I write this. I’m sure it’s good hot too, but as an iced tea, it’s amazing. A friend of the family is over visiting and he insists it’s “like a carnival in your mouth.”
I’m having a hard time trying to come up with words to describe the aroma and flavor, except that it tastes like cotton candy–which is basically spun sugar that has been a bit caramelized in the process.
This week, we are also testing a new black tea base which is a blend of Chinese, Assam, and Darjeeling black teas. I’m quite enjoying the depth of the blend even with the very strong and captivating cotton candy flavor dancing on my tastebuds, there is still a rich and complex black tea base that is definitely present.
This is a tea you’re not going to want to miss out on, particularly if you want an awesome iced tea that’s sure to garner appreciative remarks from whomever you serve it to.
Incidentally, we have more iced tea blends coming in the near future. I’m working out the final packaging details, but I believe we are going to be dividing it up into actual teabags that yield two-quarts of iced tea! Stay tuned for those.
Our Tea of the Week for the week of May 14, 2012
At 52teas.com, you will find unique, hand-blended artisan loose leaf teas: a new limited edition creation every week of the year. We pride ourselves on offering truly unique, one-of-a-kind tea blends that you won’t find anywhere else.
I am having an increadibly tough month. I am one of the co-organizers of Ruta de las Iglesias. It is a 10km race that goes through the colonial down town of Quito. While I love doing it, it is a real challenge. It is our 8th edition and we have 8000 people already signed up for it. The hardest part of all of the organizing and work involved is working along with someone who is also in charge and many times has clashing ideas. I am exhausted… Emotionally, physically, and all other was possible. I can’t wait to the race day to arrive (for it to be a success again, I hope!) and get on with my relatively more normal life!
So, on to the tea… I haven’t had this one in a while. I had it tonight slightly sweetened with rock sugar and a snicker-doodle just for good measure (I have lost too much weight from all the stress…).
Delicious! I really tasted the sugary goodness of cotton candy. I sipped it while watching Sherlock and cuddling with my little Sencha (for those who don’t know her, she is my French Bulldog!). What a great night! While it is late, and I only have a few more minutes before I have to retreat to bed, this tea hit the spot. I think the key to making a good vs a spectacular cup of this tea is getting the sweetener to tea ratio correct. Tonight, I got it just right! Liquid Cotton Candy!
Please forgive my rambling which will probably continue until the 18th of August, the race date. I know that I can count on all of you fellow tea lovers for support during this crazy time and hopefully not go completely crazy! :)
I really do quite like this one cold brewed with a little sweetner. After tonight’s giant mugs i have just enough for one more cup of this before it’s out of the cupboard. May not get to any sipdowns today BUT i am at least well on my way to being able to do a bunch in a row of single cups heh
This is like sweet, cooled liquid cotton candy in a mug. Tasty!
Oh this is good. I cold steeped it overnight and I couldn’t wait for later in the day to try it out.
I love the new black tea base, I taste it first and foremost and I really like it. I’ll have to give it a try hot too. But I can taste the Darjeeling in there, and it does have a nice depth that the old base lacked.
And then after you’re like, this is really is a good blend of black teas…boom, your taste buds are hit with cotton candy flavors. And there’s really no other way to describe it. It’s like you just put some fluffy pink cotton candy in your mouth.
I’m going to wait a week or two more before I have it again, because if it’s this good now I can’t wait to taste it when the flavors have had a bit more time together first.
Good point on letting it meld more! If I can keep from drinking it before its gone and before its fully melded! :)
Best of luck trying, I already want to go make more!
I’ve waited a month! Can I drink more now please?? :P I just love this tea! I’m voting for the permanent collection!
Me too!!!!
Me three!
12 Days of Tea #1! Also, 1000th tasting note! Wooooooooo!!!!!!
Last time I tried this tea as a sample, it was not great. I couldn’t really taste the cotton candy. This time however? WOAH! Delicious!! So anyone who wants to try this tea – now is a great time to buy a reblend, because it’s fantastic. All pink cotton candy flavouring with a nice black base. I’m so tempted to pick this one up, but I think I’ll hold off due to having too much tea already.
One note: I didn’t even attempt to re-steep this, as all the aroma was gone after the first infusion, and usually once that happens, the second infusion is mediocre at best.
I think this is where i’m going to struggle. To pick up reblends on decent sounding teas or not. Especially since there’s a chance that there won’t be any left by say day 5 of day 1, so grouping up orders may prove difficult.
Congrats on 1000! That is awesome.
OMG 1000!!! that’s bonkers! amaaaaazeballs!
also… sheeeeesh on 1000…i’m at 600. We need to plan January get together!
Wow, Congrats on 1000! I have yet to reach 200!
Congratulations on 1k!
1000th?! Holy Mary Mother of God! You certainly do love tea. :P Congrats my friend! :D
Also, I think this one does re-blend extremely well. Better than most 52teas’ in my opinion.
Today was my first day back at work/at the new job. Everyone was super nice and I ran into so many people that I worked with in years past, which made it an even easier transition. I took a travel mug full of this tea to work with me along with a thermos full which I stashed in my purse for refills. It’s a lovely balance of tea and cotton candy flavor. It’s yummy, but like many black teas I don’t always find them thirst quenching when the weather heats up (I suppose it’s the caffeine?). Nonetheless, drinking this today, I just couldn’t help but smile all day. I think I’m going to have to get another thermos and travel mug though. My mug is starting to feel like its giving way, and I need another thermos to fill with tea and to keep me smiling even longer.
Iced latte makes this. Just creamy, fluffy sugar goodness.
I wonder what the difference is between this and the Southern Boy Cotton Candy Iced Tea. CTC?
The base tea is the only difference. The 52teas version uses our black tea blend base of Chinese and Indian teas (Assam and Darjeeling), the SBT version for iced teas uses an organic Nilgiri BOPFS base.
thanks for letting us know frank!
I had wondered that myself, thanks for asking CrowKettle, and for answering Frank.
Thanks for the information, Frank!
The different bases do make a big difference for me personally. I love the 52teas version hot and don’t think it’s that great cold. Whereas the SBT version is perfect iced and I really enjoy it. I also prefer the 52teas version sweetened and the SBT version unsweetened.
When I sent majority of this package off to Veronica, I decided to save a few tsps just to make sure my initial dislike was not just a fluke. So this afternoon I grabbed out my packet and brewed up a cup. This time around I get the faintest bit of what could be called cotton candy if I stretch my imagination and concentrate but realistically it is just a sweet black tea and not much else. I am glad it went to a home where it has been given far more love than I ever could. As for the last tsp, I am opening up the swap to Roswell Strange (yet again as I may have added stuff last night at 3 am when I couldn’t sleep :O) so that she can give it a try.
Oh Gosh, I get the feeling this swap is gonna be huge!
It fits in a bubble envelop still, I have not reached the point where I need to put it in a box. However, it is definitely the biggest swap yet. And I think recently I have had a tad bit of a panic over the surplus of teas I own so I am sending some of that your way :P
Your’s is in a bubble envelope right now too, but I think it’s the biggest bubble envelope I’ve sent (anyone) yet…
I am quite fearful of my cupboard exploding. I keep thinking about the packages on the way and between my few orders, this swap, and a package from MissB (who is ever so sneaky with adding tea), I worry what that number might be.
**Yours(?) Oh gosh, I’ve been out of school too long – I can’t remember my grammar anymore… I’m trying to do some sipdowns today: I’d rather not get over 200.
haha I am very conflicted over what I should drink. I don’t know if I should be diving into my samples box, drinking teas from swaps, going for sipdowns, or drinking older teas (not that any of them are THAT old since I only got into teas in August but still). I keep leaning towards sipdowns just because I keep trying to control my stash haha.
Right now I’ve got samples that are close to sipdown size, some of my oldest teas (mostly DAVIDsTEA blends), and the 2 Butiki teas from my BF order I’ve yet to try out of my closet – and I’m kind of rotating between those things. I was hoping I could make Orange Matcha a sipdown today, but I still have a little left. I was tempted to add it to your package, but I’ve already sealed the bubble envelope up since the little strip was coming off :(
haha I decided to recycle an envelop I got in an old swap (mostly because I didn’t have one large enough at home and it is always so frustrating to have to package everything up at the post office. People look at you funny when you have a giant pile of teas :P. Anyways, in order to seal it up, I used a whole bunch of duct tape and then I keep reopening it and resealing it with another strip of tape to ensure it stays closed when it travels. So I will apologize in advance for the surplus of tape. However, speaking from experience, it is actually quite easy to peel away and open when you want to.
I have a small(ish) stack or regular envelopes and then a second of various sized bubble envelopes so I can package everything here at home instead of doing the awkward at the post office thing. The one I used for this swap was the biggest size I had.
Alternate! 1 sipdown, 1 older tea, 1 tea you like. :) Keeping everything in rotation is a good idea. I’m focusing on samples right now though because stuff keeps falling out of the box onto the floor.
hahaha mine is quickly getting to be that full too. Although my bag of swaps is also exploding. I guess just reaching for whatever appeals to me at the time is a good way to go about it.
All my tins or bags of tea which are large enough to stand upright are kept in our living closet sorted by tea types (grouped, basically) with the exception of the 20 or so teas I have in the kitchen on rotation. I then have a drawer with is filled with samples I immediately or quickly want to get to. All Matcha is kept in the freezer. Everything else (samples, small bags of tea, etc.) are kept in huge ziploc bags labelled by tea type (Black, White, Herbal, etc.). I then have a spreadsheet on my laptop which organizes things by company and then, within company, tea type. Next to that information is something like: “Tin”, “No Tin”, “Sample”. If it’s in a tin, I know it’s in the closet, same with “No Tin”. If it says sample, I know the look for it in the immediate sample drawer or one of the labelled tea type bags. With this system, I’ve never ‘lost’ a tea :)
Oh, and all my Tea Bags are kept in a special chest from my Grandmother (it has about 10 perfectly tea bag shaped compartments) in the kitchen…
haha Roswell Strange, you are so organized. I have all my teas on the floor surrounding my staircase. Some are in a large box which is my sample box, some are in a bag which is the swap box, ones from swaps are kept in the original package they came in and all those packages are sitting in a huge teavana back on top of my tins of teavana teas. There are some teas stored in tins on my kitchen counter (those are mine and my roommates favourites). I also have a spreadsheet where the teas are sorted by company and highlighted in different colors based on type. Also I list where (who) each tea comes from, who I sent the teas to, and if I would buy the tea again. On that spread sheet, I also include tasting notes so I can quickly see why I would/would not restock them. Also, last night I made a separate list of all my caffeine free teas so I can quickly decide what I want to have in the evenings/at night.
Yeah, the tea types in my spreadsheet are done by colour too (I use DAVIDsTEA colour system because all my tins are DAVIDsTEA tins that match tea based on the colour). I also have a system in the spreadsheet to know whether I’d restock: N/A (Haven’t tried yet), No Restock, Restock, and Unsure. I should mark who teas came from in swaps, but I don’t. Usually I can remember…
How much to do you guys charge for setting up and data entering onto one of those fancy spread sheets?
Dex, I would happily make a spreadsheet for you. Granted I can’t fill in the origins of your teas or tasting notes or stuff like that but I can use your cupboard as a guide and organize them by company and color code by type :)
I was just about to offer to do the same thing! Honestly, it doesn’t take long to do so I wouldn’t at all mind helping :)
LOL Thanks guys, really I was kidding. I would never be disciplined enough to keep it updated. I was just in awe that both of you actually keep that kind of data.
My mom used to be a bookkeeper and so I kinda grew up with spreadsheets. I think it is more habit than anything :P
Similarly, my Mom was a secretary for years before she quit to return to school and get her Masters so as soon as I started having to use Microsoft Word or Excel for school she taught me how to do everything properly according to MLA Style Guides and things like that – though tea is the first time I’ve ever used a spreadsheet practically outside of school :P
I work accounting, I look at spread sheets all day. I can appreciate how awesome it would be to keep my tea organized, but it would end up being too much like work. Respect you guys for keeping yours up to date.
Alright – I really did NOT want to love this tea. I mean first of all its limited which it should not be. This should go into the permanent stash ASAP!
I need to get more of this. MORE MORE MORE.
Okay so seriously. It is better cooled. I have not had it cold brew yet – its in the fridge now. But I do like it more when I let it cool some. More of the flavors come out.
It is not overly sweet either so if you are thinking it would be TOO Sweet for you – its not.
So I started with my cup hot of course, took a sip and thought, nice black base. Good call Frank. Then another sip and thought, hummm pretty good but not a POW flavor, then another sip and just kept sipping. Somewhere toward sip 7 or 8 the tea was cooler. Then it was like BAM oh yeah! I re-steeped – got to cup 4 before the flavor was gone.
Made another cup.
Yummm a rific!
Then another cup.
Three steeps today each with three re-steeps and now a cold brew in the fridge.
I need MORE of this tea!
Wow. That’s awesome. I’m so glad you are enjoying it.
Enjoying it!?!? I’m about to start snorting it! Frank seriously don’t run out of this. I just got Pot of Gold from you – I have to make more money now to buy more of this! Auuuggggg
You’re killing me
LOL I have so many teas I still want to get that I don’t already have too! You have two I want, I don’t have my almond cookie from Joy’s … and frank keeps putting out things like this. Do you think when I die they would bury me in tea?
This is making me wish I had some of this to try. It sounds like it would be a fantastic iced tea!
I will know tomorrow :) Will post the cold brew findings!
I might have just broken my “no more buying tea” rule because of this review. I need a good iced tea, and if you can get 3 re-steeps out of it I’m sold!
If you don’t like it I will buy it from you after payday! :) How is that for a deal? :)
Just be sure to increase time with each steep. I think I did 3 minutes then 4 then 5
I hate you for liking this tea and posting a good review. Hate hate hate. I am not allowed to buy more!
But I LOVE you! MUWHAhHAHA
I’m going to bet that if you liked it hot, you’re going to LOVE it iced. Not sure about cold-brewing, but hot brewed, then chilled and served over ice, this is hard to beat.
“I mean first of all its limited which it should not be. This should go into the permanent stash ASAP!”
I knoooooow. moans Frank, if you have too many permanent ones, can we hold a vote on which one to kick off the island?
I second this!
Thank you tattooed_tea for this sample!
The black base is the first thing I taste, and it is delicious. As I am sipping, I am getting more of a strawberry sugar taste. In the aftertaste, I can definitely get the cotton candy association.
Next, I have to try this iced.
52teas 12 Days of Christmas Sampler 2012 – Day 1
Woot!!!! There couldn’t be a better tea to kick off this year’s 12 Teas of Christmas!! I LOVE this tea!! It’s the best tea on the planet! As soon as I opened the pouch, I was greeted by a sugary, floral, familiar aroma. YES! I feel like I just hit the jackpot. Ka-ching! I let my kitty smell the pouch and he didn’t seem to want to stop. :) So cute. If kitty approves, I do too!
When it was finished brewing, I added a little bit of Truvia and skim milk. Mmmmm, this is just as delicious as I remember! It re-steeps wonderfully too. Better than any other 52teas’ blend. I just tried Red Leaf Tea’s Cotton Candy Matcha for the first time last night. It’s fantastic, but this tea is better. ;) This has a much more recognizable cotton candy flavor. It’s also a stronger flavoring, which I prefer. It overwhelms the tea in a perfectly delectable way.
This tea deserves three cheers for awesomeness! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip HOORAY!!! Thanks, Frank! And happy holidays to everyone!
The tea will help you muddle through it all :D A 10k race does sound like a lot of fun :)
Wow—what a project! I have a little poster (with a teacup on it, of course) near my desk at work that has no caption, just initials: KPO. Keep Plodding On. A Winston Churchill slogan, so I hear. Keep plodding, but do take care of yourself with quiet moments and cups of good tea.
Good luck! Do you run, or just organize? :) I hope everything goes smoothly!
Thanks everyone! :)
@Skulleigh- This one I organize, it is imposible to run it when I have to be aware of everything that is happening! But other races I run. :)
Wow! That is incredible! When you get stressed out, just take a few deep breaths (or scream… you know, whatever works)!
Hang in there! It will be over before you know it!
Chin up my friend. I’m sure your race will be spectacular. :D
Aww keep it up! It’s so admirable that you are helping organizing such a huge event.
Thanks everyone!!!! You are all amazing help in keeping my chin up through all of this hard work!