Spumoni Green Tea

The name Spumoni makes me think of Louie Prima. He sings about it in Banana Split For My Baby, which is the only reference I have of Spumoni. It’s an Italian ice cream flavor is my guess. In this tea I’m getting rich cherry, maybe a touch of almond with some basey notes that I can’t quite pin. Green tea seems like a strange choice to me for this with the deep flavors added, but maybe it’s a better reflection of Spumoni than I’m aware of. So far it seems like a nice tea, something fun to try, but not take home and introduce to the family.
In the mean time I’ll be keeping my eye out for Spumoni ice cream to try. Maybe in San Francisco’s North Beach? That seems like a good area to hunt for it.

Wow, have I really not posted a tasting note in over two years? The shame would be more crippling if I weren’t currently so tired. You know what might fix that problem? That’s right, friends, the answer is always tea.

This has become something of a staple in my household, and is definitely one of my favorite flavored teas among A Quarter to Tea’s selection. Please note that I made the rookie mistake of offering it to my sister once, and now must live with her hounding me for a taste whenever tea-related chatter comes up. Don’t repeat my mistakes.

I’ve always been something of a spumoni devotee, and it’s clear that time hasn’t allowed my heart to stray from its stance. This tea is everything I love about the ice cream version, just condensed into a single sip and less prone to melting. There’s a very nutty flavor profile, rounded out with cherry notes that are surprisingly not artificial. (I mention this in part because some of AQtT’s cherry-flavored teas leave an unpleasant film in my mouth. Maybe this one is just more understated?). I think the coconut flakes are what sell me on the imitation game this blend is playing with the ice cream, though. Creamy, but not too sweet, and with the added, salty pop of whole pistachios, it’s really just comfort in a cup for me. Doesn’t hurt that this blend is beautiful to look at, with its deep green leaves and the big chunks of dried cherry and nuts. I never really bought into the whole ‘we eat with our eyes first’ deal, but I think this tea deserves to be appreciated on multiple fronts all the same.

Yesss.

Equal parts nutty, fruity, and creamy, this tea is cherry, pistachio, chocolate, coco-vanilla ice cream goodness. The finish is pure spumoni.

I typically hate marine green teas with a passion, am skeptical when it comes to chocolate and cherry flavouring, and don’t care for spumoni.. yet this just works somehow. Colour me impressed.

Definitely oversteeped this one. It’s marzipan-y sweet, but any other flavour is hidden by astringency. Probably won’t be my favourite even when properly steeped, though.

Absolutely fab!

And it’s a sipdown!

#long time ago internet hiatus sipdown

Much better this time now that i didn’t steep it for too long. Spumoni is still not one of my favourite flavours, so this isn’t a tea for me in terms of keeping it in my cupboard, but i DO find this to be a pretty good capture of spumoni. If that was what you were looking for, i’d for sure recommend this tea :) thanks dexter!

Yep – I love this one. It’s amazing. I’ve drank it a few times now and I’m finding that it’s better with a bit more leaf and some sweetener really makes the flavors pop. I’ve been adding more sweet than I normally would but it’s just soooooo good with the extra sweetener. This might not work for those that don’t like their teas sweet, but for me this works really well.
3 tsp in my Davids Perfect Mug – 85C – 3 min and add some sweet – hug your mug

Spumoni ice cream is hard to find in my neck of the woods, let alone good spumoni. I am delighted to finally get to experience a tea that is supposed to taste like the dessert!

It was smart to pair it with a green base. The dry leaf is creamy pistachio to the max. The flavour, however, is playing tricks on me. Initially, I thought I tasted banana, and then I thought that was a possibility because all of the little baggies from my sample pack were placed in a larger paper bag, and thought perhaps that this was sitting a little too close to the Banana Split sample. But as this cools, this is definitely pistachio, followed by chocolate. Perhaps the cocoa nibs are playing a role in screwing with my mind on the whole banana thing because the cocoa flavour reminds me of DAVIDsTEA’s Banana Split rooibos, which has cocoa nibs in it, I believe. Even the tea smells a little like banana ice cream, but luckily, yep, as I take a sip, there it is. Pistachio ice cream, folks.

For me, cherry is the dominant note here, with the pistachio/almond flavors singing a very nice backup. I can’t pick up on the coconut, but the base is a great match for this, present but unobtrusive.

p.s. Ate the cherry out of this one too once I was done steeping. Seriously, I hope people are not throwing the cherries out with the used tea leaves, they taste amazing.

Finally a Spumoni tea! I’ve been waiting for one and suggesting it for years and finally we have one!

This green is was very heavy on the pistachio flavor, then cherry, followed by a hint of chocolate. The blend was nice and creamy and the cherry tasted pretty natural. Very good, especially if you love pistachio!

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/spumoni-green-tea-and-mexican-hot-chocolate-from-a-quarter-to-tea-tea-review/