The NecessiTeas
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Sipdown (213)!
Made this one iced at DT today; I actually had brought it with the plan to drink it hot on shift but the store was so hot today that all I could bring myself to make was iced teas. It was actually really tasty though! At first I found it almost unpleasantly brisk, but after a couple sips I settled into the flavour and really appreciated the nuances of each element.
I expected a richer blackberry, but instead this is fairly mellow and creeps in the background a bit; it’s sweet but not overly and is very natural. I’d describe it primarily as the taste of a blackberry that’s just not quite ripe yet, but right on the cusp. What was surprisingly strong to me was the maple which was present in the top of the sip alongside the brisker, bold malty black base. The finish was vanilla and dry cinnamon. Overall the drink was just a hint astringent.
A pump of agave probably wouldn’t have hurt to brighten it up/draw out the blackberry but I generally try to avoid sweetener where I can and this wasn’t bad. Just throwing the idea out there for anyone who might find this not quite sweet enough.
Overall though I think this does do a really nice, solid job of recreating the taste of waffles with maple syrup and blackberries – just in a way where the tea itself isn’t lost in the flavours. It took a while, but I ended up finishing it off quite enamored with it.
Thanks VariaTEA!
Cold Brew Sipdown (214)!
Thanks for the sample VariaTEA!
This is a really interesting blend; I fully expected strong coconut notes and hints of lime but it’s more like the other way around? Very strong, bold lime notes especially in the top and mid sip. It’s bright, sweet, juicy and all kinds of tangy! I’m enjoying it a lot. The coconut kicks in during the finish, and is quite buttery actually. Lime and coconut is a pretty solid pairing overall; and it works here mostly. The thing that is kind of disconnected is the butteryness of the coconut – it’s strange next to the tangyness of the lime. Still, it’s nice overall! Probably not something I’d revisit though.
Sipdown (211)!
Thanks for the sample VariaTEA!
So, this pretty well does taste exactly like an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, complete with light cinnamon pastry notes and vanilla notes. Is it a good thing that it’s so accurate? Eh, debatable. I’d probably enjoy it a lot more of I liked raisins. I’ve come around to them a lot since first joining steepster and even enjoy raisin notes in my black teas (Darjeeling/Keemun specifically) quite a bit now BUT I’m a long, long way from appreciating them in real life and I think the fact this reminded me so strongly of ‘real life’ raisins and not ‘raisin notes’ in tea was what made it somewhat conflicting.
I still enjoyed it a lot overall, especially the soft cinnamon notes and really subtle pithy lemon undertones – but couldn’t completely get into it.
Literally the new definition in the teadictionary – ‘variatea’ – when one drinks a lot of different types of tea, even to the point of drinking tea they might not like.
Sipdown (214)!
Thank you for the tea VariaTEA! This was a really fun one.
- Made in gravity steeper
- Used a blue gumball in my tea leaf; the orange one is in the leaf I added to the GCTTB
- Dry leaf smelled like bubblegum and bananas
- Steeped up a weird, cloudy bright green hue (not a natural “tea green”)
- Initial taste is candy sweetness
- Definitely tastes like bubblegum, but the bulk/dollar store type of gum
- It is fun though; gotta give it that
- And the green base is JUST present enough (grassy)
- Overall, I’m not mad at it and would call it just slightly above average
- But you have to buy into the fact it’s bubblegum w. real bubble and will taste artificial
“Calling all fans of citrus, vanilla, and sugar! Come on, come all, to this lemon-meringue delight! So sweet that if it weren’t a tea, your teeth would fall out and your waistline would be DESTROYED!”
The entire post is carnival-barker style at: http://sororiteasisters.com/2016/12/11/limoncello-from-the-necessiteas-a-hand-blended-treat/
Mayan Hot Cocoa. So spice? Well, there definitely is cinnamon here but between the cinnamon, the marshmallow, and the sugar, this is far too cloying. Especially when you consider there is no heat to balance it out. It is not bad per se but it also isn’t mayan hot cocoa if you ask me.
Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/10/04/mayan-hot-cocoa-from-the-necessiteas/
I’m always taken aback by just how sweet this tea is. I made it as a latte and though there are spices rattling around, the sugar and marshmallows are just too much. One or the other would have been nice but together its overwhelming. It’s a nice enough tea but I am ropping the rating from 75 just a bit.
I made a latte with this and underleafed this so it is made for a weird drink. There is a sweet milk chocolate flavor, then there is milk, and then astringent spice. I have had this before and it was good but today it is diluted to a point of being not so great. Oh well.
Latte Sipdown (400)
This was fun while it lasted but I think this is good bye. It was nice to try but by the end of the tin it felt like I was drinking it to finish it as opposed to drinking it for enjoyment.
Got a flat tire today so I was sad and wanted something less sad so I made this as a chocolate milk latte in hopes of drowning out all those times as a kid when I saw oatmeal raisin and hoped they were oatmeal chocolate chip and they weren’t. It’s still raisin heavy but not bad. Plus the combination of heavy cinnamon and chocolate gives this a Mexican got chocolate vibe akin to the chocolate tea DAVIDs used to carry whose name I can’t recall.
Merry Christmas Steepster! Today I made my own version of cookies and milk by cold steeping this tea in milk. Honestly it is very weird because the raisin is really shining here and between that and the cinnamon, it almost has an alcohol quality to it. Strange but good.
Made this as a chocolate milk latte and yet it still just tastes like oatmeal raisin tea. It may be a touch creamier and a little bit chocolatey but more than anything else, it tastes like the oatmeal raisin cookie tea.
Well this has cooled quite a great deal but it still captures the taste of an oatmeal raisin cookie…heavy on the raisin and with a great deal of cinnamon. The brew has an awesome fresh-baked cookie scent. All in all, its pretty tasty and though I wouldn’t mind slightly less cinnamon, I am pleased.
I drank it black and tbh I think the cinnamon came out more since it cooled. I imagine it would be more balanced if it were hotter.
R is for…Root Beer Float
I decided to ice this one. I also set it up to cold brew, which I will have later.
I made this in my iced tea press and for some reason when I use the press for rooibos and honeybush blends, as opposed to fruit tisanes, the liquid comes up the sides of the press. Not sure why that is specifically with rooibos and honeybush, just a curious thing. Also, because of it, I am now wearing some of this iced tea since the liquid from the sides likes to spill out while I attempt to get the iced tea from the center.
I have been making this as a latte in the past and honestly this iced cup is the first time its really screamed root beer for me. It’s got a lot of those classic root beer sasparilla notes. Following that, I am getting a touch of pepper from the honeybush base tea. I could do without that but thankfully it is not the strongest note present. On the other hand, I wish there was more to the “float” element, since I am not getting much here.
Made this as an iced latte this time but didn’t mess up the amounts. The weird thing is it is still sort of meh and I blame the NecessiTea’s version of Butterbeer since that is much more root beer flavor than this. Perhaps I should try that as an iced latte and have this one plain.
ETA: This gets better as I keep drinking.
Yay! I’m glad you liked this one.