I found a full, unopened bag of this at the back of one of my tea storage containers.
I was not happy to see it. I barely got through the maple bacon version, which was the nail in the coffin of my moratorium on teas that are supposed to taste like food (unless the food is pie, cake, cookie or some other pastry). Something about teas that are supposed to taste like food throws my equilibrium off balance and makes my stomach turn.
The kids, on the other hand, were like: BACON TEA! WOW! YAY! WANT! (What is it about bacon? I don’t get it, personally.) They wanted some last night but I said not until this morning because caffeine.
They reminded me this morning, so I made some. But since I have an appointment later today that I’m nervous enough about without a stomach ache, I did not plan to partake.
Kid no. 1 said it smelled like bacon. Smelled good.
Kid no. 2 said it smelled like smoke.
Kid no. 1 said it tasted awful and he couldn’t drink it.
Kid no. 2 said it tasted like smoke. And he couldn’t drink it.
I will say that the smell in the package had a salty meatiness that, when I went ahead and tasted despite my better judgment, was pretty much not present in the taste. This is both good and bad. Good because it doesn’t make me think of bacon, which avoids the food problem. Bad because I don’t think it tastes like bacon, which is what it claims to be. Unless you eat your bacon burnt and charred.
It tastes like a very smoky lapsang. Smoky and ashy. Like ash tray ashy.
I like some lapsangs, but generally the ones I like aren’t heavy on ash. They have some tea flavor, some woodiness at least.
So, on the one hand, I can tolerate it better than the maple bacon, which is good news. It may mean I can actually get through the bag. On the other hand, I judge these types of teas on how true they are to their named flavors, and I have to ding this one hard on that score.
Flavors: Ash, Smoke
I never have understood the bacon craze either….ew