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“sigh Sad to say that I’m sipping this sample from Missy and Dylan down… this was a pretty tasty tea! I think it may have lost a bit of flavour during “storage”, but it’s still quite good, with...” Read full tasting note
“I hot brewed more of this last night for iced tea today… and this morning, my package from Amazon arrived, so tonight I’ll cold-brew one of Frank’s new teas (probably go with the rainbow sherbet...” Read full tasting note
“Oh dear. I don’t like ginger… It has even been decided long ago that I probably shouldn’t even bother trying ginger ale. There have been a few teas in the box that I didn’t much like, but this is...” Read full tasting note
“It’s 5:00 and in lieu of a drink I’m having some of this, decided to steep it and then pour it over ice in a tall glass. It’s just missing the bubbles. :)” Read full tasting note
My grandfather loved to mix cocktails. It was a generational thing, I imagine, but when I was a kid he had (in my grandparents house) a full private bar stocked with everything he needed to mix highballs, martinis and all kinds of wondrous (to my young mind) beverages that I knew nothing about. I used to spend hours examining his collection of souvenir swizzle sticks. (I don’t guess they do it any more, but he had tons of plastic, wooden and glass swizzle sticks imprinted with the names of hotels and bars from all over the world. They were all a bit different, not just in shape size and color, but some of them were really interesting with landmarks or figures incorporated into the design.)
Anyway, I guess I was just a bit too enamored of his adult world of cocktails maybe, and grandpa, not wanting to leave me out, starting making a drink for me: Ginger ale with a fat maraschino cherry in it, and just a touch of the liquid from the jar that held the maraschino cherries. I’ve been a ginger ale addict ever since.
Ginger ale actually has a bit of lemon or lime (or both) in it as well as the ginger which gives it that extra warmth and spice. I considered a few different lemon/lime options before deciding that our ginger ale should have ginger and bergamot. The base tea had to be light enough to really let the bergamot and ginger shine, so I opted for our light and delicious Bai Mu Dan white tea.
So, without further delay or reminiscences, here is our premium Bai Mu Dan white tea, blended with real ginger and natural bergamot and ginger flavors. Enjoy!
Our new Tea of the Week for the week of February 7th, 2011
At 52teas.com, you will find unique, hand-blended artisan loose leaf teas: a new limited edition creation every week of the year. We pride ourselves on offering truly unique, one-of-a-kind tea blends that you won’t find anywhere else.
sigh Sad to say that I’m sipping this sample from Missy and Dylan down… this was a pretty tasty tea! I think it may have lost a bit of flavour during “storage”, but it’s still quite good, with light citrus and a hint of ginger.
Sipped down six teas “tonight” – feels like a bit of progress!
I hot brewed more of this last night for iced tea today… and this morning, my package from Amazon arrived, so tonight I’ll cold-brew one of Frank’s new teas (probably go with the rainbow sherbet again since that’s the only one I got 2 of, and I wanted to experiment before I went with cold-brewing the others).
Anyway… this is light, refreshing and delicious. Yummy.
yay your cold brew pitcher came!
Yes… I’m actually much happier with it than I thought I would be. It’s nothing fancy and it’s not necessarily intended for tea (it doesn’t have any fancy infuser gadgetry or anything) but that’s part of what I like about it. All of the glass brewing pitchers with the infuser gadgets attached were either made of plastic or were so costly that I couldn’t justify the cost of it. I don’t drink that much iced tea – in the warm weather like now, I drink a half a gallon of iced tea a day, but, in cooler weather, I don’t drink it at all, so that would mean about a half a year of no use. I’m not spending 50+ on a pitcher when I won’t be using it regularly. I could easily justify the $250 I spent on my breville tea maker because that is something that I do use five to ten times a day, every single day… but not $50 for something I’d use for brewing a half gallon of tea every day for one and a half seasons out of the year.
This is the one I got: http://www.amazon.com/Bormioli-Rocco-Frigoverre-Hermetic-4-Ounce/dp/B0000DE9B5/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1341880799&sr=1-3&keywords=iced+tea I like the way it closes. It screws closed and has a gasket type seal, so I won’t have to worry about accidental spills.
Thank you for that link! I just added one to my cart! I am going to be making some home brewed Kumbucha (sp?) here soon and need a couple large sized containers with good sealing lids! This should do it!
You’re very welcome. I’ve had it less than a day and I’m really quite impressed with it thus far. The lid seals really well, so I do think it would be good for your kombucha.
Oh dear. I don’t like ginger… It has even been decided long ago that I probably shouldn’t even bother trying ginger ale. There have been a few teas in the box that I didn’t much like, but this is the first one where I’ve thought from the start that I didn’t think I would like it. I’ve been sceptical of some others, yes, but haven’t expected something outright unpleasant. But here we go, then. In for a penny, in for a pound and all that.
It smells ginger-y, but also sweeter than I had expected. Not as stabby on the nose. I suspect that’s the white tea shining through.
Okay, not more procrastinating. Here we go.
Yes, it’s ginger-y and not really very pleasant for me, but it could have been a lot worse. Just like with the aroma, it feels a bit mellowed out by the white tea. Or the ale-y bit, I don’t know.
Still though. Ginger. I’ll just stop here, I think, because ginger. Sorry. It’s just… Ginger.
you would have hated what I did to cider last night….i jug cider, 5 freshly cut ginger ‘coins’, 1pint blueberries, and 2 stems rosemary….yummy on a cold day…but not your speed if you don’t like ginger… :)
Leave out the ginger, and it would have been a lot more interesting to me. :) Rosemary strikes me as the odd one out there, though.
rosemary in apple cider is awesome…and so is the addition of seasonal cranberries
Do you serve it warm or cold? I have heard that some people take it hot, but that idea is foreign to me. It’s largely a summer-y drink here.
I do not hate ginger (not fresh ginger at least) but this also did not quite work for me.
cider is usually a autumn beverage, mulled with spices…..I personally have never been a great fan…then a number of years ago I was reading a cook book from a Buddhist temple and they suggested :
take 1/2 gal of favorite cider, bring to a simmer, drop 1 6" peice of fresh rosemary, take off heat, cover, and steep for 4-6 minutes. I usually cover the top of the liquid with fresh in-season cranberries (which once covered will pop and rupture transforming it into a crimson brew). You then remove the rosemary and serve warm/hot.
How different! In Denmark it’s usually served chilled and straight. I’ll have to try your method one of these days. Only, you know, without the ginger. :)
I love cider…warm, I prefer it to be spiced (I sometimes pop some chai in mine) but cold I just like it as is. Apply juice-y. : )
an often overlooked fact: the difference between apple juice and cider is merely filtration….so cold cider would seem to me like basically unfiltered apple juice….of which, I’m not a fan….but thank you for sharing your insight…I would love to visit Denmark….nordic climates suit me :)
I have wondered what the difference would be…I was thinking perhaps additives/sweeteners, but it’s always hard to compare local fresh cider to canned apple juice. : )
I feel really bitchy (sorry) to point this out, but I think the difference between cider and apple juice is the same as the difference between wine and grape juice – fermentation transforming sugar molecules into alcohol molecules. Filtration does eventually come into it, but it needs to ferment first. Just like grape juice needs to ferment to became wine (though tea fermentation is, I believe a different chemical process and should be called oxidation instead). You can not filter apple juice into cider, though juice might naturally ferment, specially if fresh. I am just mentioning this in case it saves anybody some disappointment in case they were going to try it, nevermind me otherwise.
Yes, the definition in Denmark is definitely what Cteresa says. Cider has a (small) alcohol content. Juice does not.
Does that mean, though, that above recipe should be made with cider or juice? I’m thinking with cider the alcohol would all just bubble away anyway.
while this is true…it is important to note…traditional apple cider is a seasonally consumed beverage as it is non-filtered and this allows for a natural fermentation to take place as well as a natural development of carbination…however, modern pasturization often kills this process and renders it alchohol free and so technically it is considered cider if it is non-filtered (in the US) and unsweetened. Apple juice is sweetened and filtered and pasturized/homogenized. The recipe can use either tradional apple cider (fermented and unfiltered) or modern (unfiltered/pasturized/non-fermented). Its the active pulp and natural bacteria in unfiltered ‘cider’ that allows for the fermentation to take place. Modern food sanitation is really such a messed up thing.
Might be a regional thing – I do not think you can sell “cider” in the EU which has no alcohol contents, I had never heard of non alcoholic-cider before. Though there is actually something “champagne” for kids which is bubbly apple juice without alcohol, but I do not think they can call it cider.
For a Canadian perspective, there is hard cider (alcoholic) and also “regular” cider which is available at grocery stores and markets, alcohol free.
Same in America, at least where I live. hard cider has alcohol, cider does not. I love a good, fresh cider, cold or hot.
Yes ^ Hard cider is delish! And cider of the non alcoholic variety is more often that not enjoyed hot and mulled with spices (in my home anyways), and I go for the hard cider cold in the summer. yum.
Round these parts (mediterranean to baltic, atlantic to black sea, I guess) cider has got to be “hard” to be cider o, that is alcoholic (or somebody would feel cheated!). Chocolate has got to have a minimum ammount of cocoa solids. Water bottlers are not allowed to put on packaging that it is “diet water”. A bunch of stuff has to be from a certain location and follow some rules to be called something, It is a little bit contro-freak-ish, but I got to confess I like it. I am used to it.
What Cteresa said. It’s the same here. If you try to sell something as ‘cider’ and it doesn’t have a small alcohol content, it’s false advertising and illegal. In the same way it’s SO illegal to sell something as juice if it contains alcohol. It’s all in the name of quality control and consumer trust and whatnot.
It’s interesting to me that cider is solely a term for an alcoholic drinking EU. All alcohol has it’s percentage listed in Canada but there are a couple of products (cider, lemonade) that have both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties.
I think if you ever mentioned the possibility of non alcoholic cider in some parts of Europe (Brittany, or any side of the Basque country) you might get murdered (or at least totally snubbed and ignore and maybe somebody would spit on your food behind your back). If the Eu allowed that, chances are the French and Spanish would rise in revolt.
(but seriously, proper labelling of foodstuffs and protected origins, like Champagne or Port or Parma Ham, are really important things in EU legislation)
and just to add, we do take alcohol very seriously on this continent :p
Not to mention feta cheese.
and just to add, we do take alcohol very seriously on this continent :p
Which is why it’s not cider if it’s not alcoholic. There must be no doubt as to whether something is alcoholic or not. You can’t sell Bacardi Breezers as ‘soda’ either no matter how fizzy, fruity and synthetic it is.
It’s totally just a difference of terms in Canada, not an improper labeling issue. haha just wanted to throw that in there :)
Same here. Cider is cider and hard cider is hard cider, not to be confused with moonshine, of course. ;)
This is the funniest thread ever! I concur that in America, cider is non-alcoholic. Alcoholic cider does exist as “hard cider.” But cider by itself, not so much. Also, I’ve found that cider is almost always served hot. I’m not sure of the fermentation process or whatnot, but I think of it as cider is hot, spiced, apple juice.
I have saved the ones I am most afraid of for last (from last year’s 12 Teas of Christmas) – Ginger Ale White tea, Pancake Breakfast and Buttered Popcorn. The thought of them makes my tummy go queasy. White tea makes me nauseous and the other two just sound revolting in tea form. I won’t even eat buttered popcorn jelly bellies! Anyway, obviously this sample has been kicking around a while so take this with a grain of salt.
The dry aroma is reminiscent of dill pickle popcorn seasoning. Wait a minute, what? Yep. Dill pickle seasoning. Weiiiird. I found this sample to be smaller than the others so I am pushing it to get two cups. Hopefully I have enough in there to make a well flavoured cup. Steeped in a T-Sac for about four minutes, this is lacking in flavor. Thinking I should have just used the whole sample rather than trying to get two cups.
Steeped aroma is non-existent, maybe a whiff of something tea-like. That’s pushing it though. The flavour is a smidge of ginger followed by sweet white tea. So far it’s not upsetting my tummy, but it’s not doing anything good for me. Not much of a taste or smell so it’s hard to judge. For me, this is not a winner but I am not a fan of white tea as it is, so it would be harder to win me over. I think a bit more ginger strength would really help here – the best ginger ales are potently ginger with less sugar, at least for me! : ) I can drink this, but mostly just for the merits of a warm drink on a cool day. The windchill this morning was -18!!
EDIT to add that this one only gets worse as it cools. While I did over-steep it a bit in my attempt to couch some flavours out I am just getting some over-powering lower quality bai mu dan. My leaves were pretty broken up and I am getting some bitterness from that, which is not my thing.
Second EDIT: Bergamot. Of course. That’s what’s making it so dusty and dry. I can barely get a hint of it, so my sample must really have suffered from the passing of time.
Finally getting around to rating this one. I think this is the third time I’ve had it now, and I’m just getting around to reviewing it. Just poor timing on my part, methinks.
The scent of this brewing is heavenly, but it’s a more warming scent than an overpowering one. Mint, you walk into a room and go ‘Wow, it smells minty in here!’ This, you walk in, give a soft sigh, and think ’wow, it sure does smell pleasant in here". I have no idea whether that distinction makes any sense whatsoever.
Then you take a drink, and this sweet, ginger elixir just glides over your tongue. Its a soft, sweet ginger flavor, as opposed to a spicier, peppery ginger. It has very little bite to it, which I think compliments the sweetness of the bai mu dan. After the initial sweetness, the bergamot flavor begins to sort of… blossom, for lack of a better term. I definitely taste the ginger and the white tea first. But by the end of the sip, the bergamot feels much stronger than at first. It rounds off the sweetness very well. This is just an extremely pleasant cup of tea, it is so darned tasty.
This really makes me wonder why I don’t see any ginger flavored Earl Grey’s around. The combination is so perfect in this tea.
I got lucky here too. I almost missed out on this tea, and if it wasn’t for Frank having the free white tea sale, I would have. This was kind of a throw-away. I wasn’t expecting to like it… and it’s so, so good. He was nice enough to put a double package back up on the website for me to buy more, as well. I figure I’m probably going to end up buying one of these a paycheck until he runs out.
Maybe I should lower the rating until I can buy it all… hrmm…
Did I miss something? I don’t think that there is bergamot in this.
There is :)
I copied this from the description on 52teas.
So, without further delay or reminiscences, here is our premium Bai Mu Dan white tea, blended with real ginger and natural bergamot and ginger flavors.
I could very well be wrong, but I always thought that ginger ale had ginger and some sort of citrus in it too, so, yeah, I put bergamot in it. I’m happy you are enjoying it.
I am enjoying it, quite a bit. It’s a very tasty combination. Well done sir :)
Now if you could just keep it in your permanent collection under the name earl grey…
Oh, cool. I love this tea also… I just managed to totally miss that it was bergamot. It tasted citrus-y to me, but not particularly bergamot-y. Ah well…. it is a delicious tea, indeed.
I think now I am going to have to order more of this tea … especially since Summer is coming up and this one was one of my faves iced.
Yeah, I bet this is quite tasty iced. Hrmmm…
I loved it too. I hope Frank considers adding this to the perm collection. Pleeeeeze?
I think he’d have to sell out before he added it to permanent, but maybe I’m wrong. I really haven’t been around long enough to track the movements ;)
he sold out of it when it was first introduced … this is the revived batch from the 12 Days of Christmas.
It seems most people don’t like Ginger Ale unless in a mixed drink or when they are sick…and if they drink when they are sick – it seems it’s better when it’s going a little flat, eh!?
Well…being born and raised in and around Buffalo we were a hop-skip from Ontario Canada and I drank quite a bit of Canadian Dry by choice whether or not I was sick. I enjoyed it. And YES it seemed to go a little flat a little quicker than other carbonated beverages but it was ok because it was still good! I still consumed!
This flavored white reminds me of that Good Ole Canadian Dry going a little flat. And that’s what I like about it!
Brings back memories, Frank, thanks, yet again!!!!
I actually love flat ginger ale POP! lol :) and now that I think about it, I drink it all the time when I visit my grandparents in Brockport, NY…
Tea and ginger good for the soul
Gingerale is my favourite pop. Maybe it’s a Canadian think? Canada Dry is good… :)
@Stampinlynn – Soooooo glad you finally signed up at Steepster – now get loggin’!!!!
@Uniquity – I think so! :) Woooot!
Canada Dry rocks. They’re now using real ginger, too, making the pop a bit cloudier but also even yummier.
Ahem … back to tea … I’d love to try this one.
I don’t drink soda, but this past Christmas, I had some ginger ale. Hadn’t had that in ages. Ever since, I’ve been addicted. And I’m quickly finding out that it is not at every store! WTH???
This tea sounds like something that could do in a pinch for me!
It smells fizzy! and sounds fizzy when I pull the basket out of the tea! It even tastes a bit fizzy! How is it doing that???
Thank you Amy Oh, for this fantastic sample!
I’m not really a fan of soda, partly because it’s too sweet and partly because the bubbles hurt my stomach. But I am a fan of ginger and white tea. And this blend is neither sweet or bubbly so how can we go wrong, right? Right. This tea is super tasty!
This has a bit of a medicinal flavor to it, but that’s because dried ginger tends to taste that way to me. Fortunately, this blend has enough other stuff going on that I barely notice it. The white tea is mild yet refreshing. It provides a good base for the bergamot and light ginger flavor. I’m also detecting something creamy or vanilla-y. It’s not really a replica of ginger ale, but it is good! Call it a White Ginger Grey if you want. It’s tasty and that’s all that matters.
It should perhaps be noted that I cold brewed this for at least 24 hours. Maybe longer. I had 3 other cold brews going on and this one was neglected for a while. It probably would have been fine with even a shorter cold brew. But not that I’ve tasted it, the pot is going to go fast!
This one is fantastic.
if you liked that and you want to try something else, I had a wholesale client whose husband had part of his lower intestines bisected and she had seen a Dr. Oz plug about pu erh teas and called me to see if I had any ginger/pu erh blends. I told her I would be happy to mix something up for her to help his recovery, but I also recommended that she add a bit of white tea to help the digestive healing. The blend is called Starburst Tummy Tonic (through Staufs Coffee Roasters) and is a blend of shou pu erh (2009), organic Bai Mudan, and organic shreaded ginger. Cold brewed it comes out like ginger ale without the carbonation.
I got three samples of these in Rachel – IHeartTeas sale. Sadly, it is probably the 52Teas blend I would like the least since it is both a white tea and ginger. But on tasting, the flavor could have been worse! The white tea isn’t one of those fuzzy leaves that makes me dislike white teas more than any other. It’s a nice fresh white tea that helps the ginger ale flavor. It isn’t strict ginger though… I think there is something here that makes it taste more like ginger ale. A bit sweet and fruity, though I’m not sure where that is coming from. So this blend isn’t terrible, especially for one who dislikes white teas and ginger. But it certainly isn’t my favorite from 52Teas. Just not my thing I guess.
I wish I’d bought this one so I could mix it with bubbly water!