Gingerbread House Genmaicha

Thanks for this one, Starfevre! I thought I’d toss up a holiday tea I haven’t written a note for yet… I’ll be starting my (older) Angry Tea Room advent calendar tomorrow so that will probably take up most of my tea choices for the month. (Who am I kidding, it’s multiple teas a day for me.) This is one of Frank’s blends. Now some tasting notes say this one wasn’t so tasty while it was fresh and tasted like plain genmaicha. I’d have to agree years and years later. The flavor is barely like a genmaicha, barely any marshmallow, and I’m only tasting wisps of mint here and there. But the description of the tea sounds so promising (throwing an entire gingerbread house in a tea?!) If there is one thing I’ve always appreciated from 52Teas all these years, other than their honeybush blends, is THE GENMAICHA BLENDS WITH ACTUAL MARSHMALLOW ROOT. I love those blends. It’s a type of flavor profile I really crave once in a while. There is a reason Marshmallow Treat has always been so popular!

Cold Brew Sipdown (142)!

I think this one came from VariaTEA?

Mostly, this tasted like your typical cold brewed/iced Genmaicha: which is to say it was a lovely, softer roasty flavour profile. I quite like cold brewed Genmaicha and Hojicha. However, since this is a flavoured Genmaicha I definitely wanted a bit more of that gingerbread flavour. It was kind of noticeable at the tail of the sip, but only faintly.

So, you know, not bad but not great. I guess average?

As some of you know I have been off tea recently but on Wednesday, my dad finally brought me my teas from the 52teas kickstarter campaign and over the past few days I found myself wanting to try them. Unfortunately, Saturday was my sister’s engagement party (that’s not the unfortunate part), so the past week has been a bit of a whirlwind of busyness.

Then yesterday there was a death in the family so tea obviously was not on my mind. However, what was on my mind was calling in to work to let them know I was dealing with this loss, so this morning I called in and rather than approving the three days of bereavement leave I asked for, they told me the schedule was really tight and that they would see what they could do, and call me back. Seriously. I told them my grandfather passed away and they basically told me that it was too hard to accommodate me and I may have to come in. They even gave me a song and a dance about missing work for his funeral!!! Like are you kidding me?!? And it’s not like I am a manager or anything like that…I am an office supplies associate at Staples. Needless to say I am pissed with the way this had been handled. Oh, and they still haven’t called me back and my shift starts in 15 minutes. Well, I am at home, with my family, where I should be and if that’s an issue they can just write me up. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable.

Anyways, in my severely pissed off mood, I decided I needed something to calm down and so in order to clear my head, I took the time to focus on brewing up a mug of this. Genmaichas have always been a favourite of mine with a special spot in my heart for those made by 52teas. Sipping on this particular one, I’m getting a lot of the toasted rice goodness that I love while the base stays mild and in the background. Meanwhile, I am also getting a combination of cream and spice/ginger that reminds me of the iced part of a gingerbread cookie. The flavoring is not the headliner that I hoped it would be but it’s definitely there hiding behind the rice. One just has to look a little bit harder to find it. Nonetheless, I am pleased and focusing on something other than my frustration has proved to be rather helpful. Also, a great start for the new 52teas!

Roswell Strange, I will have to remember to grab samples of all the teas for you :)

This is disappointing. This tastes like genmaicha and…that’s it. There’s a minuscule bit of mint, but I mean a very tiny amount. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to taste like…this is just a cup of genmaicha. :( I bought this from the 52teas clearance sale but it appears to be a tea that was in the 2014 Christmas box. So maybe it’s just old and that’s why it’s practically flavorless? It’s a great concept that is very poorly executed. Sadly, I’ll have to look elsewhere for gingerbread house flavor. As an unflavored genmaicha, it’s about a 70. But since that’s not what it was advertised as, it gets a 49 and a frowny face. :(

I really don’t want to rate this one because I have drank over 50 cups of genmaicha in the last month as I tried to work on my blends… my genmaicha tasting is now all funky…

I had my eye on this tea but unfortunately I wasn’t able to purchase any before it sold out. However thanks to Marzipan I have another shot at this blend. I like many of Frank’s genmaicha blends and this one isn’t bad – but it’s not really gingerbread. The ‘ginger’ part is there certainly giving the tea a nice bit of heat, but it’s lacking the other key flavours of the molasses and the allspice that give gingerbread its signature flavour.

Final tea from the 12 Teas of Christmas 2014 box.

I was hoping to end the box on a high note, but sadly that was not the case. I’m not loving Frank’s green tea base (and green isn’t my favourite in any case) and ginger is one of my most hated flavours. So really, this tea was never going to be for me.

My first cup was surprisingly alright. Toasty rice flavour pairs quite nicely with the ginger to turn it more into a ‘gingerbread’ kind of flavour, it turns out, but the base went bitter quickly. I had another cup today to refresh my memory prior to writing up the note, and oddly I got a super strong cola smell from it. It was more ‘cola bottle sweet’ than actual cola drink, but it was unmistakably cola nonetheless. The cola translates into the flavour, too. This time around, all I could taste was cheap cola bottle, and didn’t get any gingerbread at all. There was a hint of popped rice in the background, and the base was just as bitter as before even though I was extremely gentle with it.

I’m starting to wonder if there’s something off with Frank’s ginger flavouring or ginger pieces as I’ve noticed this misplaced cola note with several of his teas now, and ginger seems to be the connecting thread – this, ginger pumpkin cheesecake, and witches’ brew chai. Odd. Has anyone else experienced this?

This was very gingery, not so toasty popcorny to me. It was very flavorful and not bitter, but unfortunately ginger is not a flavor I really like, particularly not as a main taste. People who like it will love this though.

52teas’ 12 Teas of Christmas Day 12! (Drank Dec. 12)
Well, unfortunately my guessing game was ruined for this one, because I read what it was in the list of December teas. Which kind of sucked. Anyways, it was clearly a genmaicha, and smelled like ginger once the packet was open, so kind of a no-brainer.

Anyways, I completely flubbed the steeping of this one, so may have to give it a second shot before rating. The first time, I let the water cool to 126C before I noticed I hadn’t put the leaves in; the second time, the water cooled to 170C but I just put the basket in anyways… and then proceeded to leave it for 10 minutes. Whoops. Sipping… and yes, this will constitute a failed attempt. Tons of toasty rice flavour, some ginger, and BITTER. Which, really… 10 minutes? If it hadn’t gone bitter, I would have been concerned that there was no actual tea in there.

The aroma is definitely nicer than the flavour, being kind of creamy-gingery, so here’s hoping all the badness is 100% user error. Follow-up note probably coming within the next… two months. Haha.

(Note: I couldn’t add any info about this tea, and the name may be slightly off, because the 52teas’ website is currently appearing to be infected by malware.)