52teas

I taste the cherry without it coming off as medicinal, which is nice. The base reminds me a bit of bark, but in a good way. It was all too mildly flavored for my preferences though. The second time I had this, I didn’t really taste any cherry.

Countdown To Catching Up – Tea 6

This is one of my faves from my recent blends. It’s warm & cozy without being too spicy – making it the perfect cuppa for yesterday – maybe not today, but I’ll just transport myself to yesterday in my head since I was out adulting yesterday (aka running errands: grocery shopping, doctor appointments, – you know, all that less than fun stuff that still has to be done & I didn’t really have the time to sit down with a lovely cuppa.)

This tea is also incredibly tasty, so even though it’s not “that” season any longer & we are quickly moving into Spring, this is still so good that I’m going to be enjoying it well into spring.

The black tea base is nice & smooth, the spices are warm & inviting & this makes a fantastic latte if you wanna go that way with it, but I’m currently sipping it hot, no dairy & just a little bit of sugar to bring out the spices a little more. There are notes of maple here – while blending it, I decided that if I were having an actual gingerbread scone, that instead of clotted cream, perhaps some maple butter would be more appropriate & that little bit of maple really elevates the flavor of this cup.

I don’t rate my own teas, but if I were to rate this, I’d probably give it an 89. Yeah, not a perfect score & that’s just fine with me. This tea isn’t perfect, but, I also don’t know what else I would have done to make it better. A delightful, delicious tea that brings a smile to my face every time I sip it.

So I drank this one yesterday at work. We had some pretty freaking intense snow storms over the weekend, even by Canadian standards, and so a lot of the city was “snowed in” and working from home. I, however, left my laptop at the office over the weekend so I was kind of forced to come in. I was so cold when I got in that the first thing I wanted to do was just drink a gallon of chai. I settled for the mug, though…

I have to say that I think I agree a lot with Kaylee. I really enjoyed this tea, but I didn’t really get distinct notes of chestnut and the overall sweet brown and molasses-y sort of flavour with the spices (the cinnamon/ginger in particular) really made me think of gingerbread. Gingerbread with a bit of a peppery kick to the finish, perhaps. It was exactly the warming, aromatic flavour I was looking for though!

I’m curious to taste it again in the future to see if slightly different context brings out more of those nuttier flavours for me. But even if it doesn’t, I still think this is a really rich and well balanced chai profile regardless.

This has Earl grey vibes. It’s a little lemony and creamy. It goes well with milk and sweetener. I think it tastes best cold. The final time I had it, I mostly noticed spices that hadn’t been present in the rest of the cups – I guess they had all settled to the bottom! I never noticed the strawberry.

I had no idea what to expect for this one. The flavor was mostly slightly celery-ish chamomile plus a hit of ginger. Plain, I didn’t love the combination. Sweetened with milk, it was better, though not great. I considered adding flavoring syrup since it was a little plain.

I cold=brewed this overnight and I was actually worried that I ended up cold-brewing a bit too long because rather than it just being overnight, it ended up being more than 24 hours. Yikes!

But, surprisingly, it’s not bitter. The black tea tastes smooth. Surprisingly smooth, given the circumstances. The cherry & almond are nice together. It’s a favorite flavor combo from my early tea drinking days, in fact, my first company [LiberTEAS] also had Cherry Almond flavor – a black tea – sans the “cola” part, and it was definitely one of my favorite offerings from LiberTEAS.

Anyway, I like this. It’s definitely better as a cold-brew than when I drank it hot during the taste testing phase – even when over-brewed.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2025 Tea #3 – February 14 – International Book Giving Day – have a cuppa and enjoy a nice read!

A blustery yet sunny day.  The perfect day to READ. (Like I need an excuse to read, or a prompt in order to read. hah.) I am currently attempting to read maybe seven or eight books in a row for the Morning News Tournament of Books that begins on March 6th. That’s my mention of the Tournament for this year.  I decided this tea was the perfect tea for the day – Chai but super cozy!  Cozy because it’s toasty!  I had to stock up on a couple of 52Teas marshmallow treat blends when I saw them.  I am occasionally on the lookout for them and a Chai marshmallow treat is definitely my sort of tea.  It’s good stuff!  A nice balance of sweetness, spice and the classic flavor of genmaicha.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  30 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

Now that I have NOT mistakenly thrown this tea into the infuser with another tea, I can write a proper tasting note.  This blend sounded intriguing, so I just HAD to buy a sample of it.  Mango and coconut!  Such an abundance of these fruits are in the blend itself — huge pieces of coconut.  Huge cubes of mango.   I wanted the starchiness of these fruits to shine.  Sadly, not much starch in the mug.  Really, the fruits here somehow mostly tasted like apple to me (though there is no apple in the blend and no apple flavoring).  If I had to guess what tea I was drinking, I would almost guess it was Simpson & Vail’s Apple Cinnamon French Toast blend —almost exactly.   That was surprising!  A good flavored tea, but not really what I was expecting, as 52Teas flavoring is usually very on point.
Steep #1 //  1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minute steep

I was intrigued when I noticed cantaloupe in the ingredients for this one. When I opened the bag, I was hit with the scent of fresh cantaloupe, which was very promising. The flavor leans more toward the cantaloupe as well, despite raspberry being in the name. I really don’t mind because raspberry teas have historically been some of my less favorite ones from 52teas, and I almost never see cantaloupe teas. I drank this cold with sugar and a splash of milk, and it’s so fresh tasting and lovely. I have some cantaloupe juice that I made in the fridge, and this might be even nicer than that. The resteep was incredible too. I vote for more cantaloupe teas! The second time I had this, I tasted more black tea and less fruitiness. It was still lovely, but I wasn’t as wild for it as the first time.

Sipdown

A delicious Earl Grey cream style tea with rich flavor. All the quality you expect from 52teas.
So glad to have tried it!

I was inspired to open this by amandastory516’s tasting notes! I got it for Christmas but hadn’t tried it yet, as Ashman doesn’t enjoy bergamot and I have been tea with him quite a lot. Today I have breakfast and lunch both on my own, so it is a great time to have it, and I had it at both meals.

I am picky about my Earl Grey type teas. I don’t like fake bergamot or bergamot ln a lemony or thin base, like a high grown Ceylon. My preference is Keemun or another hearty black tea base that can be tasted and isn’t obliterated by the flavorings.

This one, happily, is what I hoped it would be! The aroma is unmistakeable bergamot, but not sharp enough to burn your nose hairs out. The creme brulee part is soooo smooth.

Drinking it, I think the cream part comes first. It is rich and full and feels quite luxurious. The creamy feel and taste are followed by bergamot, not at all weak but not overpowering, either. Having made it twice, I will say that even with my disinclination to overly strong bergamot, I liked the pot I leafed more heavily best. I did try it as separate steeps and also with a first and second steep combined. Both were very good.

If you like Earl Grey, London Fogs, and such, you will be doing yourself a favor to try this.

I’m not a lover of lime flavoring, so I find myself watering this one down. The green rooibos base is lovely, and this makes a nice cold resteep. The first steep is refreshing and fruity, but I wish I could taste the mango over that strong lime.

This is similar to many other 52teas honeybush blends, but it’s lovely. I taste a bit of pear, but more of the usual spice blend. It’s nice with sugar and milk, but since it’s similar to other blends, I don’t feel the need to buy extra. The resteep is nice too!

Sipdown

There are lots of dried apple cubes in the rich brown tea leaves and pretty calendula petals, with an aroma of apple and spices, including cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla.

The base is really nice for pairing with food and is malty with slight briskness, which indicates that it could handle milk and sugar if you wish. We drank ours plain. There is a bright tangy spark that evokes the cider aspect of the blend. It really delivers the taste that the name advertises!

Another from this past winter’s countdown that I was very excited to try!

Personally I love a good POG juice or smoothie, though when I realized this wasn’t the more traditional combination of fruits (pineapple or passionfruit, orange, and guava) I actually got more excited because I think this is so dang clever and creative! Plus, the trio of flavours are so complimentary. Spiced orange is a classic, pomegranate and orange is just really juicy and fresh, and I think spiced pomegranate is a slept on sort of iteration of a mulled wine type profile.

I think the flavours totally deliver and though the ginger could maybe be stronger I think you can clearly taste all three flavours. It’s bright but has depth and warmth from that spice inclusion, and I love the natural sweetness level of those fruits. I think it does everything Anne wanted it to!

The first time I had this, it didn’t taste like much, so I made sure to try it overleafed the next time. I left it in the fridge overnight and added milk and sugar. Now I taste a lot of lavender on quite a decent black base. I also taste a nice, fresh blueberry. I don’t notice much lemon. This is really refreshing and enjoyable! The resteep is strong too!

I taste a lot of coconut as well as a touch of fruitness. The black tea is high quality, but this unfortunately turned out a bit bland/light in flavor for me. My opinion didn’t change after having it three times.

Another from my recent order.  This blend sold me on VANILLA and this sold me on YUNNAN.  Yes and yes.  It definitely tastes like a tea that I would guess is Yunnan if I didn’t already know it was Yunnan.   It has Yunnan flavor notes.  Do I know what those are? no.  (I will say, the Yunnan leaf looks smaller than the huge Yunnan leaf in the Eggnog Yunnan blend, but that blend was YEARS ago anyway… so not really sure why I’m mentioning it here…)  I like that there is a variety of vanilla ingredients here: flavoring, vanilla beans and vanilla crystals.  I don’t think the cane sugar makes it overly sweet at all (I really just see an occasional vanilla crystal in the blend anyway).  It’s also not overboard on vanilla. I will say the second steep was probably a little too much at four minutes — the black tea became a little harsher for whatever vanilla remained on the leaves. I would probably stick with a three minute second steep next time.
Steep #1 // 1 1/3 teaspoons for a full mug // 19 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

Of all the brand new teas in this past winter’s countdown, this was the one I was most eager to try and I’m happy to say that it lived up to my excitement. I love the little burst of fleeting sweet and bright fruit in the initial sip before you taste a more distinct and very equally balanced mix of candied lemon and jammy raspberry. Sometimes I feel like raspberry can be hard to convey because it so easily comes off as generic red fruit, but I really love the raspberry flavour in this tea and I think it’s quite clearly raspberry.

The black tea is pretty full bodied and malty with a bit of briskness to it that suits both flavours well. I could actually see this being quite a good iced tea or cold brew because of that. I wish I got a bit more of the “linzer” element, but as this cooled I felt like the backend of the sip had a little more of a buttery or almost shortbread-like finish that reinforced that inspiration for me.

After a few bumps in the road (thank you Canada Post strike), my 52teas countdown arrived this week so I’ve been enjoying diving into the teas this weekend! At this point I’m just going to sip them in any order I want instead of following the countdown, and I started with this one because I was just craving something sweet but warming and it felt like it would fit the bill! I have to say that I think the snowflake sprinkles are cute, but aesthetics aside there isn’t a whole lot about this blend that makes me think of cookies. That said, I love how full bodied it is and the mix of spices is the PERFECT combination for a super iconic and wintery feeling chai. The clove and allspice in particular? Oh baby. Not too much cinnamon or ginger either, which I feel like could have made this a little too earthy and drying. So, for a sweeter chai, I think it’s very nice even if it doesn’t quite convey cookie to me.

Countdown To Catching Up – Tea 7

I am so behind on posting these, my apologies to anyone who might be waiting for me to add these teas to the database!

Anyway, this tea is amazing. As I mentioned in the description, I can’t believe I didn’t think of creating a Chai Spiced Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha sooner than I did! I love chai blends & I love our classic Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha, it seems only natural to bring these two together – but honestly, I didn’t even think on it for a moment until I came across a recipe for a chai spiced rice krispy treat & finally the lightbulb appeared!

I’m glad I finally did happen upon that recipe, because this tea is amazingly good. My personal preferences for a chai blend is for a black tea base, but it works so well with the classic marshmallow treat genmaicha! The spices are strong enough to be present within every sip, but the marshmallow notes shine through too! YUM!

Lime flavoring and I don’t get along. It just tastes like cleaner to me. I don’t taste much else other than that cleaner flavor and some slightly peppery honeybush. Possibly there’s some creaminess, but I’m drinking it with milk to try to bring out the cheesecake vibes. I drank the whole cup, but I’ll likely pass along the rest of the bag.

I don’t like alcohol, so I’m relieved it doesn’t taste too much like that. The base is also a little strong, almost like green tea, but I guess green rooibos has a similar vibe. I drank the whole package without forming too strong an opinion. I guess I thought the base overshadowed the flavors this time. I would have liked more strawberry or bubbliness.

There’s something in here that I don’t love. It doesn’t taste quite like celery, but celery adjacent. I also taste some light fruitiness. Plain, this was really too boring. With milk, this was pretty drinkable. I could taste a bit of fruit, but it was mild.