52teas

Another sample from Azzrian!

Dry, there wasn’t a ton of smell to this tea, but once steeped, holy strawberries! It smells ridiculously delicious!

And the taste?? Equally delicious. Fruity strawberry backed by black tea. I have no idea what ‘zabaglione’ is though. The only thing I’m not much caring for is the astringency I’m getting from the black tea. It’s a little overwhelming; perhaps I should try a 3 minute infusion instead.

So although delicious, it hasn’t hit the ranks of Mayan Chocolate Chai yet… I think that might be difficult!

ETA: As the tea cooled, I liked it more – some more fruitiness and creaminess came out. Yum! However, the second steep is pretty weak. Probably wouldn’t bother a second time unless I was really in the mood (or perhaps if the first infusion was only 3 minutes, the second would be better).

(52teas (Anne) 2022: already recorded)

Review for the Dec 2019 reblend (newly opened!). I was very pleased with it – sweet, heat, chocolate, and it definitely reminded me of Frank’s version. Delicious! I think I drank it without milk, even though I’d initially planned to.

(52teas (Frank) 2022: 6)
2022 Sipdown 26/365!

Yep, took the plunge and finished off the last of this. It tasted a touch stale, but oh so familiar and good. There’s some sort of… chocolate malty flavour that Frank used (I believe it’s also in the chocolate mate he did, of which I have…. a lot left…) I like it, and haven’t tasted it in teas from anywhere else. Too bad.

2021 Sipdown 124/365!

I figured that this tea was from Dec 2015 (I have… about 4? different pouches of this, from various reblendings). Opted to go with an eggnog latte, and it worked out nicely to temper the spice that came out at the bottom of the bag. Can’t really say that I tasted too much else, but it was good.

Almost gone! :( One cup remains of my Frank version of this tea. It is not as potent as it once was, but still packs a pretty good punch. We were out of milk today, so I used condensed milk instead, along with maple syrup, and drank it rather quickly…

I know I have a couple pouches of the Anne version of this; I should pull one out for a comparison while I still have the chance.

On the 21st day of December, my tea advent calendar gave to me… this spicy, delicious gem!

Another tea I had long forgotten about, but used to love. Turns out it’s still delicious. I didn’t have it with milk and honey, as I should have, but it was still rich and spicy. I’m down to the last cup or two… sad times!

This review is for the new 52teas reblend of this tea. I may still have some of the old version left somewhere, but it’s hard to say.

Anyhow – first impression of the dry leaf was not what I was hoping for. It smells spicy/spiced, but not really like chai. It took me a while to figure out that cayenne pepper is probably what it smells like (maybe a touch of smoke too?)

Brewed up – again, the smell is just spice. While this is of course important for this tea, I’m missing the chai elements. I sampled some unaltered, and still am feeling like some of the “chai” spices (cardamom, ginger, etc.) are not as prominent as I would like – but the cayenne is bang on! Spicy and mouth burny but not too much – so that makes me happy!

I added some milk and sugar (that’s what I used to do to the old version) and I think I can taste the chai spices more, along with the cayenne. Still missing the smoke and chocolate aspects though (but I don’t really recall the chocolate being noticeable in the original).

Overall: I liked the original better, because the mix of cayenne/smoke/chai spices was amazing, and I feel like the chai spices are too subtle here, as is the smoke. The cayenne is perfect though, and with milk, I’m pretty happy with the tea, but I think it could use a bit of tweaking to be more like the original (also – the original was a CTC, which maybe gave it a bit of a different flavour profile?) Rating: 75

Mmmmmmm, super spicy tonight! Love it!

Drank a delicious giant mugful of this last Friday. It was so, so spicy and delicious! This remains one of my top-ranked chais, for sure!

Ha, I’m a terrible tealogger sometimes. Forgot I brewed this up all nice and delicious with milk and sugar last night. I was working on a presentation until the wee hours of the morning, and it was deliciously indulgent. With that presentation completed, I’m now working on #2 which is to be given tomorrow morning. Yay for committee meetings… Anyways, I had two tasty cups of it (but forgot to reduce the water for the second cup to make it better. Sad sad.)

Backlog from Saturday: Sometimes, I forget how delicious this tea is. And then I have some, and it’s pretty much the best chai ever, with milk and sugar. Mmmm. Lasted for three infusions this time!!

Haven’t had this since sometime in July, when I gifted the remainder of my packet to my aunt, who quite liked it! Wanted a flavourful black (i.e. caffeinated) tea tonight, and a chai sounded perfect! Brewed up quite strong, with some milk and maple syrup (I have got to find some other sweetener… this is an expensive use for maple syrup, and the flavour is mostly lost!) Absolutely wonderful for in the lab (I mean, uh, sipping outside the lab door, in the hallway, because it’s against the rules to have food or drink in the lab…). Spicy, and strong (and sweet) and fabulous! I don’t even notice the smokiness anymore, but I’m sure I’d miss it if it wasn’t there! One of the best chais I’ve ever had, for sure!

Haven’t had this in far too long, and my aunt is big into chai, so I hoped this one would be a hit, and I was right!! Everyone loved it, and loved the spicy kick. Project give away tea met with some success, as she liked it enough that I offered her the rest of the package (which she happily took). Will have to send some for my mom too, as she enjoyed it as well. This one is so good :)

Chanced across a mention of this tea this evening and instantly wanted some.

Decided to only use a little less than 1.5 tsp today, and I think it needed more. Boo. Not enough body, not enough spice. Perhaps I also should have shaken up the packet for a bit more cayenne. The almond milk is probably also not helping. Sigh!

Ok, with 2 tsp sugar and putting the infuser basket back in for another minute or so, it’s much better. Still think I need to use more tea though. This could get expensive.

Read Indigobloom ’s tasting note on this one tonight and had to dive into my new package. Mmmm, well worthwhile. Used up some cream I had in the fridge instead of milk, plus lots of sweetener. Divine. Three good infusions :)

Gave my roommate the 2oz. package I bought in my last order since I now have 4oz. on the way. She brewed some up tonight, and there was a cup’s worth leftover, so I nabbed it :D Apparently oversweetened it a touch tonight (tastes rather caramelly), but it’s tasty and spicy. Here’s hoping it doesn’t give me heartburn.

HOLY CRAP. My throat is on fire! I just drank an unsweetened/milk-free sip of the tea and it’s ridiculousy spicy. Definitely need MILK. And SUGAR. (It did taste good though, once I got past the megaspice). Apparently 1.5 tsp might be a little much for one cup. Wowza.

This is such a good chai though. SO good.

(Thanks Azzrian – still working on the sample you gave me! Even though I have my own whole package now :D)

ETA: Added milk and agave and it’s still sooooo spicy! Throat burning! Haha but I like it. I just really love this flavour combination.

Seriously, as if this Friday could get any better, I poked my head out of my front door early this evening and what was waiting there but my swap from Azzrian!! Apparently we had a hailstorm today, and I think the poor little guy might have sat on the step through it, but no harm done!

Anyways, I’m super stoked because a) now I get to try more 52teas before placing my order tonight, and b) my tastebuds are no longer angry with me!

So this one is from Azzrian – I wanted to try it and possibly buy it for my roomie, who loves chais and cayenne! So naturally, we shared it together this evening :)

Can’t remember what the dry tea smelled like, and too lazy to go fetch the bag… so I’ll write about that later. Roommate thought the tea smelled like “Gramma”. Which is not an insult :P

Steeped, it definitely smells like a chai. A strong chai. Which is great! It smells a bit different from a traditional chai too, which I like.

So we first tried the tea straight… and woah. It’s weird, NOT what I expected. Chai, but with a deep smokey flavour, and a huge cayenne finish. Super spicy! To be honest, both of us weren’t keen on it at this point – it was just a bit weird, and really strong. Of course, I was disappointed as I thought my roommate would like it :( I thought it was alright, but probably wouldn’t pick it myself. I’m not sure I’m picking up the chocolate, either.

I try not to drink teas with milk/sugar, but due to the strength of this one, I figured it would be worth a shot! So a bit of milk and maybe 3/4 of a teaspoon later…. YES! So much better! The somewhat off-putting smokiness is tamed by the milk and sugar, and now it tastes like a lovely twist on chai! The roommate also approved, and as we drank it, it totally grew on us…. enough that it will definitely be part of tonight’s order!

I tried re-steeping it in a smaller amount of water, and got a lovely second cup out of it too. I’m actually drinking this one straight – I think I’ve now become accustomed to the taste and am really enjoying the spicy hit at the end. It also might be a bit weaker at this point. So not only does it hold up well to milk and sugar, I now find it tasty on its own too!

So a huge thank-you to Azzrian for this sample, which arrived at just the perfect time! I am so sold on 52teas right now…. (and SO excited to try all the other 52teas samples from Amanda, Azzrian, and LiberTEAS – there must be nearly 30 between them!)

(52teas (Frank) 2022: 8)
2022 Sipdown 35/365!

Oops, I think my Frank count is off by 1… I’ll have to go back and adjust later.

Anyhow, finished off the last of this – a sample from LiberTEAS waaaaaay waaaaaay back 10 years or so ago when I began my tea journey. Believe it or not, it’s still pretty darn good. Not too complicated – it’s honeybush and banana, and it tastes like there are some supporting flavours too like cream or caramel. It’s really quite enjoyable and definitely a big throwback.

So, this one definitely spent a bit too long in a plastic baggie. I’ve now decided that any teas packed in crappy packaging are the only ones I’m allowed to drink for a while. Which means swap samples and teas from Teaopia, etc. Anyways, there’s definitely still banana in here, both in aroma and flavour (which makes me think that there’s even less strawberry in Walter Bishop than I thought, since my tastebuds clearly aren’t completely busted), but the tea tastes kind of stale, which I definitely didn’t notice originally. Ah well, there’s now only about a cup’s worth left, so hopefully I can make short work of it some evening!

Boy has Canada Post ever been good to me this week! Samples from Design A Tea, Teavivre, and Den’s Tea, my swap package from Amanda, and now my awesomely huge box of samples from LiberTEAS!!! I figure I shouldn’t have to buy tea for about 5 years now (and there are still things on the way! Oy vey. Talk about things getting out of hand fast…)

A big thanks to LiberTEAS for this sample – one of the 52teas on my list to try-before-I-buy!

I was expecting chunks of dried banana in the tea (like DavidsTea’s Banana Oolong), and was surprised not to see any… but upon opening the bag it is clear that they’re in there! Or… something is! The banana aroma is sweet and delicious – it actually smells like a real, ripe banana. Awesome!

Once steeped, that lovely banana aroma is still there, and quite strong too!

Wow, tastes like hot banana in a cup. There’s a hint of something else there too, perhaps it’s something from the honeybush? Almost… a mintiness? I’m not sure. But it’s good! And very smooth and delicious. Also, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to give me heartburn, which was another of yesterday’s big problems, and the reason I opted to go with a caffeine-free not-really-tea this morning.

Quite impressed with this tea, I must say. So glad I got to try it! Thanks again LiberTEAS!

ETA: Second steep is pretty good too, but that’s as far as I went, since the wet honeybush no longer had much smell.

Love this tea! Honeybush is one of the only teas that I like flavored now. This tea delivers, when you open the bag you get the strawberry and chocolate right off the bat. I almost never add cream or sugar, but I added a little and it was like drinking ice cream. Satisfies the sweet tooth. :)

I am drinking the last little bit of this. I am really sad that it is gone… It was a really enjoyable fruity blend. Once again, thanks for sharing Angrboda!

This time around I feel like I tasted both the orange and the strawberry! The strawberry during the sip and the orange as the aftertaste. I taste a tiny bit of something buttery, which must be there to represent the scone part of this tea. The scent still reminds me a whole lot of 52teas sherbet, which is a good thing. It is delightfully fruity. There is a tiny little kick from the black tea at the end of each sip that makes this tea delicious. All in all, a great way to start my day!

I read my first note on this tea before I wrote this one and remembered pretty much exactly what was going on in my life at the time. It made me smile! For those who are wondering (from my previous post on this tea where I talk about opening a new store), the store is up and running! While it isn’’t the huge success I wanted it to be, it is still doing really well! : ) Thanks everyone for the encouragement you gave me while I was working on it! It really is great to have a Steepster family to lean on!

It took me forever to get around to trying this sample. It was kindly sent to me by generous Angrboda. Thanks so much! 

Today I had a long and exhausting day of work. We are opening a new retail store For our company, and dealing with all of the publicity and making sure everything is in order is wearing me out. I am both very nervous and excited about it. It is the first store that is opened by mostly my efforts and responsibilities so I want it to go really well. To calm my nerves and be able to enjoy what is left of the night before I go to bed, I made myself a nice big cup of this!  

The scent is very orange charged. I didn’t find any strawberry or scone in the dry tea scent, still it was very pleasant. The scent reminded me a lot of some fruity orange Tic-Tacs that we have in Ecuador. 

Once brewed, the liquor was a dark burgundy color and gave of a sweet orange scent that smelled like orange cake fresh out of the oven. Unsweetened it was smooth and orangey with just a bite of astringency. Sweetened it tasted like orange cake, with enough orange flavor, but non of the tartness. I never really got the strawberry, but the baked good part of it was somewhere in the background.

Overall it was very enjoyable. It reminded me a lot of 52teas rainbow sherbet tea, which I love, so this is a good thing! Too bad I only have a sample (though it is quite generous) of this! I will miss it when it is gone!