Similar tea available.
“First, I’d like to wish all the moms, moms-to-be & moms to fur babies a very happy Mother’s Day! I didn’t do the scavenger hunt prompts last month because a) last month was pretty crazy for me,...” Read full tasting note
“The weather here has been frustratingly fickle lately… there will be beautiful clear, brisk days in the 50s that are just screaming, “Spring is coming!” and then suddenly we’ll be dumped on with...” Read full tasting note
“I brewed this right away when it first came in my subscription, and really didn’t care for it. I found it tasted like sticks and slightly of cinnamon. I was almost going to give it away, but...” Read full tasting note
“Like a warm cinnamon pastry kind of vibe but with a caramel and gentle red fruit sort of undertone. Tastes like the way I’d expect fossilized amber to taste based on its visual. There was something...” Read full tasting note
Tea of the Week for October 1, 2018!
This tea marks the first tea for the month of October and the first tea in our collection of our first themed month which is – of course! – Harry Potter! I am a Harry Potter nerd, I’ve read each of the books at least 2 times (some of them, many more times than just 2) and I’ve watched all the movies countless times so it only makes sense to me to designate the first of our themed month program as Harry Potter Month!
The Firebolt broom was a significant object in the Harry Potter series as it was an anonymous Christmas gift (after his Nimbus 2000 was destroyed by the Whomping Willow) – from his godfather Sirius Black. No doubt it was a pretty sweet ride!
The tea base is a Wild Arbor Assamica grown in the Yunnan province – and it’s appearance is actually what inspired me to create this blend and call it “Firebolt.” When I first saw the leaf, my immediate thought was that the leaves looked like the bristles of a broom. Not the modern brooms with the plastic bristles or even one of the old corn bristle brooms like my gramma used to have – but one of those cool witch-y brooms with the brown, twig-like bristles (as well as the bristles on the Firebolt).
The Wild Arbor Assamica tea has a natural warmth (slight peppery tone) and has a sweet flavor with notes of roasted cacao and hints of flower. This profile seemed to lend itself well to the caramel and cream essence that I added to the tea (because, as I mentioned above, the Firebolt is a pretty sweet ride!) and to enhance those peppery notes, I added a little bit of Ceylon cinnamon (to give this firebolt some FIRE). But I wouldn’t say that this is a spicy-hot cinnamon blend, I didn’t want it to be – I wanted this to be more sweet than spicy – but there is enough cinnamon in there to offer a pleasing heat to the cup.
An awesome autumnal tea!
ingredients: black tea
organic ingredients: cinnamon, calendula petals & natural flavors
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.
First, I’d like to wish all the moms, moms-to-be & moms to fur babies a very happy Mother’s Day!
I didn’t do the scavenger hunt prompts last month because a) last month was pretty crazy for me, and b) several of the scavenger hunt prompts for April didn’t actually fit for my particular “cupboard” (my cupboard is much, much larger than a cupboard) so I decided to forgo the scavenger hunt last month. But I’m excited to play along this month.
Also, I would like to add that the “buy now” button on this tea goes to the caramel tea for adagio tea – and that tea is NOTHING like this tea. I don’t even have to try adagio’s caramel blend to know it’s nothing like this tea and it really irritates me that my teas have buttons on them that lead them to adagio’s site – I’m sorry, but I am of the belief that my teas are infinitely better than theirs. Maybe it’s ego, but, it irritates me.
Now that I’m finished with that rant – this tea is a “geeky tea” for May’s scavenger hunt. I created this tea originally as a Harry Potter inspired blend so I think it definitely qualifies. The base of this tea is a Yunnan grown Wild Arbor Assamica – which has a natural caramel-y taste & the caramel essence plays well to those notes. The cinnamon is soft & warming but not overly spicy. It’s cozy & comforting. I love the way the two flavors play together. This tea isn’t quite gone yet – but I now have a one-pot measurement less of these leaves – and this tea went really nicely with the horchata cream filled donut that I just devoured. (Voodoo donuts, I have a difficult time passing that place – and this time I couldn’t resist it). YUM!
The weather here has been frustratingly fickle lately… there will be beautiful clear, brisk days in the 50s that are just screaming, “Spring is coming!” and then suddenly we’ll be dumped on with snow for several days before the pattern continues. Waking up to a thin and frosty white blanket outside this morning, I found myself craving black tea, perhaps a chai…
So I pulled out this old packet from 2018 and am using it for the sipdown prompt “woman-owned company.” The dry leaf smells like a sweet cinnamon custard, which is very pleasant. The steeped cup has a sort of smoky/peppery undertone, with a sweeter honey/caramel and cinnamon aromas.
Mmm… this base tea is delicious! In addition to that smoky/peppery undertone, I’m getting a cherry compote fruitiness. The cinnamon, while smelling quite sweet, is actually on the more savory/woody side… it isn’t spicy, but is very pleasantly warming on the back of my throat. A little honey/caramel sweetness comes through on the sip and smooths some of the edges.
Such a satisfying tea on an unseasonably cold morning!
Flavors: Caramel, Cherry, Cinnamon, Fruity, Honey, Pepper, Smoke, Spices, Wood
I brewed this right away when it first came in my subscription, and really didn’t care for it. I found it tasted like sticks and slightly of cinnamon. I was almost going to give it away, but decided to try again with the remaining bit I had left. What a difference a month makes! It’s a lovely soft cinnamon, with tasty caramel notes. Very sad it’s actually sold out now. I’m actually finding that many 52Teas blends benefit from a rest of a month or more. I always get so excited when my subscription comes in, but the flavors definitely need time to develop.
Like a warm cinnamon pastry kind of vibe but with a caramel and gentle red fruit sort of undertone. Tastes like the way I’d expect fossilized amber to taste based on its visual. There was something so stupidly familiar as I was drinking this and I just had the biggest feeling of deja vu, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
How are there no notes for this?!
When I first looked at this tea yesterday, I wasn’t super stoked to try it. It looked, at a quick glance, like a cinnamon black. Bleh. But then I remembered that I’d had a similar thought until reading Anne’s description of it, which made me order it. So, I lazily opened the package and instantly was much more interested in trying this tea – it looked like the sticks/straw on the end of a broomstick! So cool! (I believe this is mentioned in the description, but I had forgotten). But the novelty of a tea base I hadn’t tried before wasn’t the only thing – it also smelled really tasty! Cinnamon-spiced but creamy/caramelly. Actually, quite similar in profile (scent and flavour) to the AQ2T blend I’d just had (Eggnog Cheesecake) – but also unique. And really tasty! Definitely far from just a cinnamon black. It reminded me a little of Butiki’s nutmeg black tea, I think, although that one was quite sensitive to oversteeping.
Anyhow, quite delicious, and I’m looking forward to drinking the rest of this tea.
interesting. I didn’t get it specifically because i’m tired of cinnamon in teas. Sad that i didn’t get any now, but maybe variaTEA will let me sneak a taste of hers lol
Did I order this?! If so, you’re welcome to try it
oh…haha you totally didn’t. i was getting confused with 12 days of christmas. this was the HP month…which we didn’t do
I think we should make a case for this to be reblended. Had I picked up more than a sample size, I’d have enough to share around, but I’m already sending a sample in Roswell Strange’s direction! This was actually the tea I wanted to pick up more of, but I see it has now sold out :(
I totally don’t need more tea….though there are alr1dy a few more teas I want from Anne and i JUST ordered….
(I should have said sorry – not sorry – because I’m not even sorry that my teas are infinitely better than adagio’s.)
I think most of us on Steepster are using “cupboard” for our teas sarcastically. :D
My “cupboard” is a 12-compartment “cube” shelf just outside the kitchen… >_> (Though I do have one cupboard actually IN the kitchen filled with teabag boxes, pouches of matcha, and teaware, so at least some actual “cupboard” is in use, heh.)
My cupboard consists of four shelves in the kitchen, one two tier Chippendale wall shelf in the living room, one large stock pot in a drawer filled with shu, one box, one basket, and a small chest in the kitchen, as well as a little cabinet space for tea bags. I was so embarrassed when a student saw my twelve tins of Harney in the living room and said, “Wow, you really do have a lot of tea!” And then I took her in the kitchen…oof.
Well, I have an entire studio – full of tea – so there’s that. Other than that, I have 2 dozen plus one (yes, 25) large tins (2 kilo size tins) full of smaller pouches & containers of tea in the kitchen. Plus a shelf in a kitchen cabinet. Plus – a full counter space dedicated to my tea steeping (here, you’ll find my one touch brewer as well as a few smaller tins (in other words, not 2 kilo size) with smaller pouches tucked inside. So, yeah, I have some tea. Not enough because I would argue – just how much tea is enough tea? I say that the words “enough” and “tea” do not go together in one sentence unless the sentence is something like: I don’t have enough tea. That works. But if it’s something like my S/O would say: You have enough tea – that sentence just does not make sense. It’s like he’s speaking a completely different language.
@derk: Yep – nearly all of my teas have links to them to go to Adagio. It really irritates me. I have written to them to ask them to simply take the ‘buy now’ buttons off my pages, but they have failed to respond.
Not impressed about that Buy Now nonsense… although I’ve never used it as I didn’t think it really worked properly at any point.
My “cupboard” is a 3×4 ikea cube shelf in the living room, plus an upright bookcase in the kitchen, plus some misc boxes/baskets that don’t quite fit. Lol. I don’t have a cupboard big enough to house all my tea…
I’m happy to hear that other people have similar struggles with their tea storage. Other people in my family (read: people who do not enjoy teas as much as I do) find it odd that I have “so much tea”.
Yay! Thank you so much, derk! There are many! I won’t try to bombard you with them – but there are many so I will be in touch! Thank you so much!
Derk: that is AWESOME that you can do that! If Adagio did those links on purpose, I am very disappointed in them. That is my nice way of saying what I almost typed…
@derk – I have another one – I attempted to PM you but I guess because you don’t follow me – I am not able to PM you yet. It is for the Pancake Breakfast which is my biggest seller, so it’s important to me to change that one: http://steepster.com/teas/52teas/19081-pancake-breakfast-black-tea