Raspberry Cream

operation 52 tea is back on! This was my first 52 tea from this morning and this is another one i’ll be sad when it’s gone. I really like this one from frank though i really should try it as a cold brew one of these days before the pouch is gone.

The powder room renos are coming along slowly but surely. I put the last coat of paint on the ceiling yesterday, and I was looking forward to getting that first coat onto the walls this morning (That first coat of color is always exciting to me), when I realized that my painting clothes were in the wash. I debated ruining another set of clothes (I inevitably get paint on myself) but I decided to wash my laundry and check out steepster in the meantime. :D

I could have sworn that I already posted a tealog for this? Hmmm….must have dreamt it. It’s just as well because it tastes even better now that I’ve left it to cure for a little longer. The raspberry flavor reminds me of a raspberry ice cream rather than a straight up raspberry. It’s smooth without any tartness, nor any of those annoying seeds that somehow lodge between my front teeth without my knowledge for like half a day…then I finally look in the mirror and do a double-take…and try to remember all the people who I’ve talked to since I ate raspberries…

Sorry…back to the tea! When I made this, I didn’t let the water hit the boiling point and I steeped it according to color (rather than time) as I find sometimes 52teas steep a little stronger and therefore require much less steep time. This is perfect in my books as it means more subsequent steeps. I have a feeling this will also make a lovely full-bodied iced tea…mmmm…it’s really delicious hot though.

Received my monthly tea package from Frank a few days ago and decided to try some out this morning. I think I’ll be mailing 3 of the 4 out without even tasting them first, but for one I don’t like any of the ingredients, for another I am pretty sure I won’t like it either, and the 3rd I’m allergic to. So there’s that. But then there is this tea.

The smell when you open the package is amazing. It smells so good! I need a candle with this smell so I can scent my whole room with it. I could sit here huffing this tea for a long time, but I won’t because that would be weird looking.

The smell dies down as it is brewed and the liquid tea has some smell, but the black tea in the smell is more prominent than the raspberry or cream now. And the taste, divine! Ah, this is raspberry and cream…or anything and cream really, done right. The raspberry flavour is definitely the ‘natural’ flavour it says on the package because it seriously does taste like an actual raspberry! A raspberry candy in my drink because I added sugar to bring out the taste and boy it did! The cream is creamy and I made it even more creamy by adding milk and I think this tea is really good with milk and sugar. It would probably be good iced as well, for those who like iced tea. I have never met an iced tea that I have liked so I tend to stay out of that. But anyway, this tea is really really good and I’m now off to Frank’s website to see if there are any left.

Sipdown! This had really been one of the best 52teas blends I’ve tried so far. It’s just divinely creamy, fruity deliciousness. I’m seriously regretting only getting one bag of this, because I know I’m really going to miss it now it’s gone. Great work, Frank!

Surprised this one doesn’t have any notes yet! I mean raspberry & cream, what is not to love. Dry the leaves remind me a lot of another tea, the smell is so familiar but I can’t place it. How bothersome! I think it might actually be Adagio’s Ripe for Romance, which is strange because that is raspberry and chocolate.

Anyway, this tea is scrumptious. I made it iced with some cream just to bump up the creamy notes, though I tried it first sans-cream and, yes, it’s very creamy! Not like vanilla, but a smoother and less sweet cream element. The raspberry is bright and fruity, one of the best raspberry flavored blends I’ve tried. That seems to be a finnicky flavor, but it’s perfect here!

On a side note, I totally spazzed and missed my 400th tasting note (which funnily enough was another 52teas blend, Genmaichai). The same thing happened to me with #300, I am terrible at keeping track of this stuff.. So I dub this my honorary 400th!

Yum my 52 teas order arrived yesterday, so I am having this one as a latte this morning. It is quite delicious. Raspberry is one of my favorite flavours, and the creamy background that comes out when you steep it works really well. I wish this one wasn’t sold out :(

Backlog:

Yummy!

I know I’ve said this before, but I am really glad that 52Teas revamped it’s black tea base when it did (at least a year ago now), because I really like the black tea base now. Before, it was always kind of iffy. Sometimes the base really worked, other times, not so much. This is much smoother and richer, while at the same time keeping that robust flavor.

And it’s a good base for the flavors of raspberry and cream. The malty notes of the black tea meld nicely with the sweet, creamy notes. I did find myself wanting a little more creamy notes in this … it was a little too light on the vanilla cream taste in my opinion. The raspberry is sweet and just the right amount of tart.

However, the cream notes really POP once the tea cools a bit. This one is tasty iced!

Another sample from Alphakitty!
Going to brew the rest of this one soon and write up proper notes. As of now I’d just be going off of memory (I was busy and didn’t write down any notes). For now, I will just say that I really enjoyed this one. May be my favorite 52teas so far. Sweet (just a tad of that raspberry tartness), creamy, and nicely balanced. The raspberry really stood out (and in a non artificial way, too!), which I was hoping for!

Well, this is certainly successfully as a raspberry tea. The flavour in here is unmistakably raspberry – strong raspberry, at that. Almost candied raspberry or something, because it’s certainly not as tart as actual raspberries (I am thankful for this, however.) Sadly, I’m really not tasting any cream. Perhaps there’s a bit of softness to the raspberry flavour that wouldn’t be there otherwise, but I guess I was hoping for a more noticeable creaminess. I suppose I could achieve that myself with milk or something?

A 2-minute infusion kept the black base in check here, so it works fairly well. I think I prefer this with a black base over generic green sencha base, as well. Overall, I don’t really see the hype around this one, as to me it isn’t anything overly special, but it’s certainly not bad! Better than a few other blends I’ve tried recently.

Thanks Scheherazade for sending this lovely tea :)

I’m a little wary of 52Teas black teas considering I haven’t been amazed by them, but this tea is quite delicious. The raspberry flavour is clear and the tartness is almost an afterthought. There’s also a definite creaminess to it. The raspberry flavour becomes even more evident as the tea cools.