Blackberry Maple Waffle

First, I have to raise my cup to the lovely Indigobloom who is enjoying her last day at a crappy job today. Here’s to new beginings :)

Oh, golly. I have a huge tea-crush on The NecessiTeas, and I’ve yet to try a tea created by Ms. Linsey that isn’t rave worthy. Blackberry Maple Waffle will receive my first lukewarm review. This is a good quality flavored black tea, but I don’t get any maple or waffle flavor from it. The blackberry essence shines in this tea for sure and I guess that’s reason enough to like it. I just had my heart set on a true Blackberry Maple Waffle breakfast experience… I didn’t get that.

Backlogging: I received this a few weeks back when I ordered some heat sealed bags from The NecessiTeas. Sadly it ended up in my box of samples. This is the box I try to pick at least two samples from a day. Well, I finally grabbed this one last week. I have to say the dry leaves smelled awesome! Just like maple covered waffles. The hot tea was equally awesome. So much so that my non tea drinking neighbor next door tried to snag my cup when I stopped over to visit her at lunch! There was a nice mix of the blackberry, maple, and waffle flavors and they all worked really well with one another. No one flavor was stealing the show. I might have to order this one in the future.

Waffle cone pieces. That’s a unique ingredient. Can’t say I would have ever thought to use that in tea. Plus one for ingenuity. The wet aroma is kinda meh but it also smells like it may have been tainted by another tea. I can taste the waffle cone pieces but not really the blackberry. I used to love waffles with blackberry syrup until I found the syrup brand I was using was basically sugar… This tea is decent. An interesting idea but overall just kind of blah.

Thanks to amandastory516 for letting me try this! I definitely taste the berry and some sweetness, but no maple or waffle specifically. I don’t love the black tea that they used – I feel like it could be richer/tastier. With milk, it made a pretty decent cup. It’s generically desserty, but good.

Sipdown 77-2021
Made the last cup of this for my partner and had a sip. Not a favorite, and not one I would repurchase. Not sure the waffle cone pieces really add anything to the flavor. Mostly maple, with a bit of a generic berry flavor.

Yesyesyes I LOVE this one! Having only drank it once before this sample from VariaTEA (thank you!) got lost in amongst my stash until I went on the hunt for a blackberry tea and stumbled across it again. The scent of the dry leaf is absolutely intoxicating, and it only gets better as the tea brews. Huge chunks of waffle and whole blackberries make it visually stunning, too, and the whole experience is rounded out by the incredible flavour. Even after following the recommended steeping parameters of 5 minutes at almost boiling, there is very little astringency and the black base comes across as very smooth with a honey-like sweetness that really compliments the blackberry note which is strongest overall. The maple is noticeable throughout the sip too, and the fluffy golden waffle comes in at the end, which surprised me. I didn’t add any milk this time, as I was enjoying the bright juicy blackberry notes too much, but I did add a drop of maple syrup and it amped up the waffle comparison by a notch. I just about guzzled my entire mug down, and am about to go and resteep the leaves even though I had planned to move on to another tea next! I think this is the only tea I’ve tried from The NecessiTeas, and it was an excellent introduction. I’ve added it to my wishlist already, checked out The NecessiTeas website to make sure they ship to the UK (they do!) and might be eyeing up a few blends I want to try once this comes back into stock and I’ve got through a sufficient chunk of my current teas.

This gives me Butiki’s-little-sister vibes, which is very exciting.

ETA: The base doesn’t hold up to a second steep, but that’s okay. The blackberry has faded too so now it’s like eating a jam donut.

Tea Swap Sample Sipdown of the Day! (2)

This swap sample comes from VariaTEA. The name was too tempting to pass up!

Unfortunately, I’m not getting a whole lot out of this tea. There is a nice bit of tart raspberry/blackberry flavor, but otherwise it tastes a little chalky? And I’m definitely not getting maple or waffles. The base tea is mellow with light musty and woody notes.

Ah well, they can’t all be winners! ;)

Withholding a rating since I’m not sure how old the tea is.

A delicious sipdown with milk, and not a lotto say about it since I wrote a proper review last week. Lots of rich black tea tannins, some blackberry, some honey and graham cracker.

Thanks for this, VariaTEA.

And it’s a belatedly posted sipdown!

#long time ago internet hiatus sipdown

NOMS. Sample from VariaTEA i like this one! I’m not sure i’m really feeling the whole waffle vibe, but the blackberry/maple flavouring is really tasty.