So here’s the thing…normally I buy the smallest size possible because I have so much tea already that I just want a taste. However, sometimes a tea just sounds so appealing or gets such great reviews, I spring for more. In the case of this smokey banana/toffee tea, I was intrigued and decided to split a 90g tin with Sil. Then the reviews came out and I was hesitant. Then I cracked the seal and this smells so disgustingly like smoked raw meat that I honestly had to be talked into trying this. Seriously, people had to hype me up to give this a go.
Thankfully the steeped tea, which I underleafed, smells like like raw meat and more like smoke, which is easier to handle. Tastewise, it is earthy (I guess that’s the “damp peat”) with a sweet note. There is no distinctive flavor which could be a result of the underleafing but given the flavors others have gotten, I can’t say I am sad about that. The smoke comes in a little at the end which combined with the general earthiness of this tea, it kind of seems a bit gamey. I added milk which maybe brought out some more of those supposed toffee notes but didn’t lessen that game flavor and caramel meat is not recommended. Realistically, this is not as bad as I expected, especially given the dry smell of the leaf. Alas, not as bad is still pretty bad and even though this didn’t turn out as terrible as I thought, I think this is going in the swap box. It just isn’t worth it to keep a tea around that I literally have to prepare myself to drink, not when I have over 300 other teas that need my attention.
Preparation
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I’m excited to try it now hahaha
It’s too bad they didn’t scrap the umami “truffle/meat/olive oil” flavour and focus entirely on the smoky caramelized banana, which is actually really nice when it peeps through the meat smoke.
This tea may work well in cooking?
This tea isn’t worth the effort. For the $7, I spent, I don’t think it is worth it to force myself to drink the tea when I could be enjoying one of my other hundreds of teas.
No, life is too short for tea that isn’t working (and lingers in your mouth and kitchen for hours after it was steeped and consumed).
Oy!
Blech!
I’m excited to try it now hahaha
It’s too bad they didn’t scrap the umami “truffle/meat/olive oil” flavour and focus entirely on the smoky caramelized banana, which is actually really nice when it peeps through the meat smoke.
This tea may work well in cooking?
This tea isn’t worth the effort. For the $7, I spent, I don’t think it is worth it to force myself to drink the tea when I could be enjoying one of my other hundreds of teas.
No, life is too short for tea that isn’t working (and lingers in your mouth and kitchen for hours after it was steeped and consumed).
Oy!
Blech!