Man Teas

Sipdown no. 178. Backlogging from before the trip over the last few days.

In a word, yay.

Today I tried a suggestion from Evol Ving Ness to put maple syrup in this. I put about a teaspoon of syrup in the cup after steeping at boiling five minutes.

Between the experimentation with steeping parameters and the syrup, I have to say there was some improvement! The syrup seemed to tame the smoke somewhat and gave its own separate flavor which made the taste marginally better. The BF didn’t notice a difference, but I did. Then again, he didn’t find this almost intolerable from the beginning whereas I did, so it’s evening out some.

It’s still a pretty bad match for me, though. I’ll be plugging away toward sipdown with all due haste.

More bacony today in both scent and taste, less so in taste than in scent. It’s not a mouth full of ash today as it was yesterday in any case. Perhaps it’s because I used 212F water instead of 205?

Not enough improvement in either the overall experience or the smoky bacon flavor department to merit revisiting the rating, though. This is now in my sip down as fast as possible pile.

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.

We bought this tea for a friend who is a bacon fiend, and of course had to try some for ourselves, too. It’s tasty enough but it’s more of a novel-tea than anything else. I drink it once in awhile but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy it again.

This cup smells really good, like cinnamon on a deep base. Very comforting and reminds me of being bundled up inside during winter. It’s the end of August and still hot as hell here in Texas, so I think I’m wishfully projecting a bit!

First few sips were a little bitter with a nice spicy warmth. I steeped it on the concentrated side so I could add cream or ice and I chose to go with cream. The cream knocks out the bitterness and I assume mellows out the spice a little, but not by much. I’m left with a mild burning in my mouth and I do love a good burn! I’m really not picking up much chocolate. This bag is on the older side and the 52teas flavors don’t seem to hold up well over time, so I’m guessing that is what is going on with the absent chocolate. I’m not taken by it.

Pretty sure this is one of the original blends (before it was called Man Teas, it was 52 Teas, in it’s first incarnation). Regardless, over ever opened the bag for swaps at people’s requests, thought it was high time I tried it.

Uh… so… dry this smells okay. Smokey? Steeped this is just plain gross. Granular, fake chocolate (like, really fake, bad chocolate), something fake smoke-ish, and then well, none of the goodness that is bacon.

Nope, not doing this one again. Five or so sips and it’s gone.

I don’t get it. It’s an “okay” black tea. I can taste a subtle sweetness which I assume is the chocolate. Truthfully, to me, it isn’t very chocolate or bacon-y in flavour. Perhaps I got an older pouch, or my taste buds are just a bit off. I’m not quite sure what went wrong, but I can say with surety that I won’t seek it out again.

Just sipped down the rest of my sample of this from Janelle ‘s mystery box sale a while back. I thought it was a sipdown, but after consulting my spreadsheet it looks like I have some more of this somewhere courtesy of Miss B! I’m glad, because I’d really like to try this with maple syrup as a sweetener. I was distracted when I drank this, but I don’t remember getting much bacon flavour. It was mainly a plain daytime black tea, with a faint bacon aftertaste like I’d eaten a packet of bacon rashers a while ago and they were lingering. Part of me is disappointed that the bacon wasn’t stronger, but part of me is really glad. Maple syrup and bacon is still such a weird combination to me, I’m not sure I’m ready to add tea to the mix!

This one came out pretty bitter and harsh for me… So I iced it and added juice to it. Much better. I don’t think I could drink it straight up, just didn’t taste good.

My 52 Teas order came today, so my sweetie and I made this one up as our evening tea.

I don’t know if this batch was different from the sample I got from Dexter or just fresher or if my sweetie prepared it quite differently from the way I made it before, but wow. The maple and bacon flavours were bold today! Awesome. Such a unique tea.

Sipped down the last of my sample from Dexter.

I didn’t taste as much complexity or distinct bacon this time around, but I still quite enjoyed this cup. Sad to see this one go, and I may well restock at some point in the future. I probably should have added salt like last time.

Oh wow, I’m surprised by how good this is. The black tea is the dominant flavour, but there’s distinctive smokey, sweet bacon flavours there.

I tried it straight and it was good. I added half a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt and it’s even better.

Thank you Dexter, for this sample!

Sipdown! A lovely CTC tea — wonderfully strong and malty. I’m glad I picked up a pouch when I had the chance, because it’s got me through a good few difficult days at work! A very drinkable, everyday kind of tea.

This is one robust tea! I made a cup for myself on Sunday afternoon to try and galvanise myself for the week of work ahead. I was feeling pretty stressed at the prospect, and so a strong, plain, dependable tea was just the ticket.

I gave 1 tsp of leaf 3 minutes in boiling water, and added a splash of milk. I was expecting a fairly generic black CTC, but this actually tastes remarkably distinctive. It’s malty with a slight edge of sweetness, a touch of honey, and a little baked bread. I’m going to say rye bread, because it’s a dark kind of taste. There’s a tiny bit of astringency in the aftertaste, but it’s actually reasonably pleasant. To be fair, I was expecting it in a tea so strong.

I do want to try this with cream at some point, because I think that would really turn it into something special. Maybe a little sugar, on occasion, although it’s malty enough to not really need that. This is a straightforward, easy drinking tea, but it’s also flavourful and delicious. I confess myself very pleasantly surprised! This may become my go-to “stress” tea.

Whew – This one tastes like you licked the wall of a smokehouse. To me, I smell bacon amidst the smoke, but it is nearly ALL smoke. And upon sipping it, I really only taste smoke. I LOVE bacon, LOVE smoky flavor, and I think I could have loved this if it tasted more like bacon with a hint of smoke. But the smoke flavor overwhelms to the point where I could barely drink half a cup of this. All points go to creativity though.

Recommended for people who truly cannot get enough smoke flavor. But more likely, this would be better for cooking with to give smokey flavor to other things. I am going to give that a try to use up the rest of the sample.

Sad. I’m not getting much bacon to this – just a little bit of maple. Definitely NOT enough maple. I should try again with a longer steep!

Thanks MissB for letting me try it.

Great Canadian Travelling Tea Box (pt.1)
I drank this tea on October 6th…. really was not a fave of mine. I Don’t even think that I really even finished a whole cup… could not withstand it :p.

Dry leaf: Black tea leaves with imitation bacon bits. The scent is a very heavy and smoky scent, it was like being in a smokehouse infused into the leaves. I would describe it as very pungent.
Steeped: Super pungent in the sense of the smoky scent, I found it smelled like armpits. I tried a few sips and was grossed out. Yuckkk.

This tea honestly smells like breakfast to me. Maple syrup, smoky bacon, and black tea :) I haven’t had this tea in a while so I added a pinch of salt to help the bacon. This is definitely a delicious cup! Maple and bacon are both present! Although I do wish there was a bit more bacon to it ;)

This is an interesting tea. I was expecting more bacon flavor but it’s more sweet than anything. Not even really maple sweetness just a sweet black tea sweetness. I tried adding a pinch of salt to bring out the bacon flavor but no luck with that. I will have to keep experimenting with this one.

For whatever reason, I always reach for this tea when I don’t know what I want to drink. Then I put it down again. I don’t really like lapsang souchong anyway, and this is savory in a way I don’t usually want on a day-to-day basis. It’s way outside the zone of what I usually like in tea.

That said, it’s good. It smells like a mix of woodsmoke and meat when brewed, and it’s not overpoweringly smoky the way most lapsangs I’ve tried are. There’s just enough bacon, and I feel like if there were much more it would get unbalanced and strange. I’m still undecided on whether I’d buy it again, but I enjoyed sipping it down.

I was wary of this one based on my previous experiences with Lapsang Souchong, but this actually works for me. That pine smoke flavor is there, but it’s accented with an aftertaste of bacon. What does bacon in tea taste like, you might wonder? A little salty, a little meaty, a little smoky, and definitely believable as what it’s supposed to be. It’s not one I can picture myself reaching for often (I have to be in a certain mood to want savory teas anyway), but it’s an unusual cup that’s overall pretty good!

Sipdown no. 99 of the year 2014.

This has been a difficult sipdown because the flavor of this tea, while incredibly maple bacon, isn’t for me.

If I didn’t think this had done a stellar job of living up to its name, my rating would definitely be in the orange face range.

Bye Maple Bacon. Thanks for your role in helping to refine my understanding of my own tastes.

ETA: No. 2 asked to try it and liked it, so I didn’t even have to finish the sipdown. Yay!

We’re now one pot away from sipdown and the BF has announced he’s had enough of this which puts a bit of a crimp in my planning. Looks like I’ll have to take up the banner alone.

I can do this. This sucker is going down tomorrow.

It will not be missed, but it will have been enjoyed before it got to be too much and I’ll be forever thankful for the learning experience. I now know that most “food” teas (except for pastries and other dessert type fare) are not for me.