Countdown to Catching Up – Tea 8!
This is a reblend from Frank’s era of teas . . . Hey! with my last anniversary, I think I surpassed Frank’s time as a chief zoomdweebie of tea. (That’s what he called himself, the chief zoomdweebie. As for me, I’m sure you’re aware that I refer to myself as the Mad Tea Artist of 52Teas!) I’m pretty sure he held on to 52Teas for 7 years, and in June, we celebrated our 8th year. So, yeah! That happened. Yay for me & 52Teas!
Anyway – I don’t know if Frank was ever as behind on crafting his teas as I am now. I do know that it takes me a bit longer than it did Frank because I think he would package the teas immediately after blending them rather than allowing them time to cure. I allow them to cure before I test them – I do this because I have found throughout my journey as a tea blender that a tea blended today will taste different 3 weeks from now than it does today. I want to give the teas time to cure so that i can test the true flavor of the tea that YOU will taste when you open the pouch, rather than what I would taste immediately upon blending.
Anyway – that’s part of the reason it takes me longer to get a tea out to you than it did Frank – in case you’re wondering.
So, let’s talk about this tea. Frank crafted this back in 2011 (I think). I didn’t have the recipe of this tea due to a computer crash, so, I kind of winged it – using my best guestimate on the recipe that Frank would have used. The tea is a little different: Frank used a black tea blend of Nilgiri & Assam, while I used a blend of Yunnan & Assam. Frank also did not include any dried pumpkin bits in his tea blend – and I used freeze-dried pumpkin as well as pumpkin seeds – which, I’m not sure how it would have impacted the flavor overall, as most addition of fruit does not really impact the flavor tremendously, but I like the way it looks when there are fruit bits (is pumpkin a fruit or a veggie – I know it’s a gourd, but is it classified as a fruit or a veg?)
So, there are definite differences between the two blends, and if I had to choose between them, I think I like mine more, if no other reason than my own ego. LoL
Nice pumpkin-y flavor, that starchy, pancake-y flavor that we all love from the pancake breakfast blend, plus a drizzle of maple-y syrup goodness. YUM!
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Wow, can’t believe Frank was only in charge for seven years?!? That was a lot of tea in seven years. Congrats on eight years!
I like that you “cure” the tea blends. My mother always said that iced tea should be made a day ahead so it could “meld”, and she was right. Most same day iced sweet tea tastes like restaurant tea at first, and the character can be completely different the next day. I would love to have an understanding of how that works! With the dry leaves it makes sense that aromatics would saturate or dissipate. Maybe it is a similar process.
@tea-sipper – thank you! Yeah, when I look back, it seems like those 7 years was a lot longer! But he started 52Teas back in 2008 & left it to me in 2015. So, yeah, 7 years. Sometimes, most of the time, it’s hard for me to believe it’s been 8 years for me – almost 9!
@ashmanra – the cure is something I learned about before I ever really seriously started blending teas. I looked for anything – everything! – I could find about how to flavor teas myself, because I wanted a specific tea that I couldn’t find anywhere. I wanted a tea similar to one I had tried in California at one point – and I couldn’t find anything that was similar, so I set out to blend it myself. It was quite a process to find/learn how to do it myself, it was mostly through trial and error. It’s not like they have a “tea blending/flavoring for dummies” book, or really – any kind of book at the time. It’s been a long time since I got started, so maybe they have something now, but at the time, nothing!
Congrats on 8 years! I find that your descriptions and steeping recommendations are typically very reliable, which is probably in part because you are curing your teas. So I’m glad you do!
@Kaylee – thank you. I also taste test every tea several times & write my tasting notes/descriptions as I do. I’m also very mindful of how I brew each tea for the tasting notes – I didn’t used to measure everything out very carefully (including the amount of water) until I started doing the 52Teas thing, I would eyeball everything back then, but now, I want to be accurate, because while that accuracy wasn’t that important to me before, it IS important to other tea drinkers, so I want to be careful for my customers. I want my experiences with any tea to be as similar to those who will purchase the tea – so that they can be at ease with what they buy. Even the teas that I have crafted many, many times by this point (like the original pancake breakfast or graveyard mist, for example) – I measure accurately & taste test them every single time because I don’t want to take a chance that I could have a random bad batch. I love my teas too much for that to happen. :)
Congrats on eight years!
@Kelmishka – thank you!
Wow, can’t believe Frank was only in charge for seven years?!? That was a lot of tea in seven years. Congrats on eight years!
I like that you “cure” the tea blends. My mother always said that iced tea should be made a day ahead so it could “meld”, and she was right. Most same day iced sweet tea tastes like restaurant tea at first, and the character can be completely different the next day. I would love to have an understanding of how that works! With the dry leaves it makes sense that aromatics would saturate or dissipate. Maybe it is a similar process.
@tea-sipper – thank you! Yeah, when I look back, it seems like those 7 years was a lot longer! But he started 52Teas back in 2008 & left it to me in 2015. So, yeah, 7 years. Sometimes, most of the time, it’s hard for me to believe it’s been 8 years for me – almost 9!
@ashmanra – the cure is something I learned about before I ever really seriously started blending teas. I looked for anything – everything! – I could find about how to flavor teas myself, because I wanted a specific tea that I couldn’t find anywhere. I wanted a tea similar to one I had tried in California at one point – and I couldn’t find anything that was similar, so I set out to blend it myself. It was quite a process to find/learn how to do it myself, it was mostly through trial and error. It’s not like they have a “tea blending/flavoring for dummies” book, or really – any kind of book at the time. It’s been a long time since I got started, so maybe they have something now, but at the time, nothing!
Congrats on 8 years! I find that your descriptions and steeping recommendations are typically very reliable, which is probably in part because you are curing your teas. So I’m glad you do!
@Kaylee – thank you. I also taste test every tea several times & write my tasting notes/descriptions as I do. I’m also very mindful of how I brew each tea for the tasting notes – I didn’t used to measure everything out very carefully (including the amount of water) until I started doing the 52Teas thing, I would eyeball everything back then, but now, I want to be accurate, because while that accuracy wasn’t that important to me before, it IS important to other tea drinkers, so I want to be careful for my customers. I want my experiences with any tea to be as similar to those who will purchase the tea – so that they can be at ease with what they buy. Even the teas that I have crafted many, many times by this point (like the original pancake breakfast or graveyard mist, for example) – I measure accurately & taste test them every single time because I don’t want to take a chance that I could have a random bad batch. I love my teas too much for that to happen. :)
Congrats on eight years!
@Kelmishka – thank you!