Chestnut Praline Green Tea

Next packet of old holiday tea!

The dry leaf has a very strong nutty aroma! Smells a bit more like hazelnuts than chestnut on my nose (but then, I’m not a very versed person on chestnut… I don’t think I’ve ever had one?) but it is a welcome scent none-the-less.

Steeped 3g in 350ml 175F water for 2 minutes. Steeped, I still get that same lovely nutty/hazelnut-esque aroma from the cup, but I actually get the praline in aroma, as well. There is a sweet smell leaning toward caramel.

Love the taste! I think this might be my favorite of the “packets of old 52Teas Advent teas” I’ve tried yet, after Sticky Fig Oolong. The base tea has a natural nuttiness to it, and I think the flavor is leaning more strongly that way than the vegetal/smoky notes due to the added nutty flavoring. I get a bit of a mineral/earthy note in the background, and maybe a very subtle touch of smoke from the Gunpowder, but not enough to bother me… gives the sweet nuts a slight roastiness. The caramel sweetness pops at the end of the sip.

These flavors are just meshing together in the right way for me. Yum!

I like the praline element of this but chestnut isn’t my thing so into the swap box with this. It definitely has potential for people that enjoy these flavors but I have too much tea and know I won’t reach for this.

Last year, Annie and TreeGal sent me a handful each of the 52Teas advent teas.  I’m extremely grateful to you both!  Thanks so much.  I’ve been revisiting them recently.  I think this is the last one that I didn’t write a tasting note for so here it is.  The green tea looks like gunpowder? The description mentions that and Chun Mee.   There is a nuttiness to the blend, despite me not knowing what either chestnut or praline should taste like.  I actually had to look up what praline is – ground nuts mixed with sugar and used as fillings for sweets.  Sounds delicious.  I wish there was more of that here.  In the second steep, it tastes mostly like green, like the gunpowder overpowered the flavor.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 33 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 25 minutes after boiling  // 3 minute steep 
2019 Sipdowns: 84 (one pouch!)

From the dry leaf, there is a strong chestnut smell and taste. There is something that seems desserty, but not distinctly praline IMO.

I was pretty disappointed in the brewed tea. It has an edge of bitterness, even though I used cooler water and overleafed/short steep time. I find this quite off putting, since it is one of the most important factors in my scoring of teas. I added some milk and sugar, which brought out the praline flavour a bit but the bitterness is still there. Overall this blend is heavily nutty, but fails to deliver on the praline flavour. I would have liked this blend to have no bitterness and much more natural sweetness or at least some creamy/thick flavours. The praline is present if you coax it out, but I think it could have been much improved by some caramel/creamy/sweet notes. The chestnut flavour is spot-on, though.

Yet another 52teas blend. I’ve really been ordering from them pretty often, at least twice a month, and it shows. Their thing about once a tea runs out, you can’t get it anymore is basically making me feel like I MUST order from them instead of my other sites because those other sites the tea is much more available. It’s kind of annoying actually. I am just waiting for a time when I don’t feel compelled to have a 52teas order so I can actually order some high end tea from YS. Now that the early spring stuff is coming out the desire for a YS order is only increasing. Oh well. Maybe next month.
Anyway, this tea smells worrisome in the package. It smells almost like licorice which I HATE in tea. So I was hesitant to brew this one up. But in the end I did anyway.
Western Style, 2 min, 170 F, 1 tsp, 12 oz
The taste is… Well thankfully it doesn’t taste like licorice. I’m definitely getting that green tea vegetal flavor, but there is also a distinct nuttiness to it as well. I didn’t put sweetener in this one as I felt it would ruin it. I’ve never had chestnuts or pralines before so I can’t tell you if the flavor is that or not. But I’m totally getting nuts. It’s somewhat of an odd combination and kinda reminds me of if you put nuts in salad. I like it, but at the same time, I don’t. It’s not bad tea at all, it’s just not my favorite flavor profile. Which is weird because I love nuts. I love nutty coffee. I am just not sure I like nutty tea is all.

9th Day of Christmas Teas

The trick with this one is to let it cool for a bit to get rid of the green blend’s more abrasive vegetal tendencies. Once that’s been done away with you have stellar chestnut praline tea, with a hint of vegetal smoke from the gunpowder/chunmee blend. I dig this but would also love to see how the flavouring would play off a more buttery or nutty green (probably just craving a good dragonwell or similar right now so I should probably drink the old one that’s wilting in the back of the cupboard).

Another one from the 2018 12 teas of Christmas. Unfortunately, I reaaallly oversteeped it so if there was any chestnut/praline it wasn’t detectable :(

9th tea of Christmas

because I woke up very early yesterday morning and started crying, I decided to make this tea and not only does it straight up smell heavenly, it is comfort in a goddamn cup. it has a really beautiful brown sugar-y taste, it reminds me of a brittle that my grandma made (it was legendary, but I’m not really sure what kind of brittle it was).