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Mastress Alita drank Tea and Scones by 52teas

1255 tasting notes

Trick or Treat! I decided to switch things up for my Doctor Who episode viewing today and instead of making English Breakfast, make something else that was decidedly a bit British, but also fit with my October dessert theme… Afternoon Tea in a tea, Tea & Scones!

The dry leaf smells incredibly sweet and fruity, with a very strong raisin aroma and a little honey sweet. I steeped 3.5g of tea leaf (removing the raisins and orange peel from the weight and adding them back in afterwards) for three minutes in 16 oz. of 205F water. I nursed my little teapot throughout the episode while munching on McVities biscuits… mmm!

The brewed tea was a nice reddish hue, and had a strong grapey aroma from the raisins, very sweet and fruity like the dry leaf. This was a very sweet tea! It had a strong flavor of raisins, very juicy and a honeyed sort of sweet, with a grape note that was more natural that I typically find in teas (whenever I taste grape it is always that “Kool-Aid” sort of grape flavor rather than actual grapes). There was a very subtle raisin bread/oat note to the base of the tea, which reminded me a lot more of grapenuts cereal than scones, since I didn’t really pick up on any buttery notes. There was a very subtle hint of citrus right at the finish, which I think may have had a lot more to do with the base leaf than the added orange, since there wasn’t much of a distinct orange flavor; the sweet raisin flavor was very dominant. The tea also brewed quite smooth; the sweetness meant there was no room for any bitterness from the black base and I didn’t notice much, if any, astringency lingering after the sip.

It was nice, but definitely a very sweet cuppa. I think this may be the sweetest tea I’ve tried for my Treat or Treat October that wasn’t a chocolate tea!

Flavors: Bread, Citrus, Fruity, Grapes, Honey, Oats, Raisins, Smooth, Sweet

Preparation

205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 g 16 OZ / 470 ML

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Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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