Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal Black Tea

I think that my taste buds are back. I can taste all the elements in this tea, and they don’t seem like they’re buffered at all. I can taste the maple and the brown sugar, and even the oatmeal … there is a creaminess to the cup that comes from the malty tones of the Assam in the blend. I can even taste the slight fruit notes to the tea as well. If they’re not 100%, I’d say that they’re certainly well on their way … and doing much better than they were a week ago, or even a day ago!

Finishing off the last that I had of this tea … I enjoyed it while I had it!

I got this in the recent grab bag special.

This is a really neat tea with the oatmeal in the blend. Something so unique. The black base I find to be a little bit sharp, but it gives a good kick.

Upon the first few sips, I didn’t get much taste for some reason. As I continued sipping, the maple and brown sugar started to appear with the oatmeal in the last part of the sip and the aftertaste.

Somehow, this does feel like “it sticks to your ribs” like in the description, almost like if fills you up. I am glad that I like this because I have a whole bag!

Sipdown! 67/365

This is a sample sipdown; I believe I have a partial packet elsewhere as well. Both, I believe, are from the Frank era (uncertain if this has ever been reblended by Anne).

Anyhow, this is pretty light in flavour. I admittedly just ate a biscotti so probably don’t have the freshest mouth for tasting subtle flavours, but there’s really not much there, if anything. My recollection is that I could never get out of this tea quite what others did, although I’d have to review my tasting note(s), as it could just be that my more recent experiences have been bland, and it was much better previously. Oh well, bye to this sample for now; the writing on the baggie is familiar but I can’t place who it was actually from, so hopefully I thanked them previously.

ETA: Hilarious. I reviewed this one 3 months ago (that would have been from the original packet I have floating around somewhere), and said the same thing about being uncertain if it had been reblended. Anne responded to say that it had not been. Also, sounds like this tea maybe just didn’t hold up too well with age, since both the sample and original are pretty bland.

Once again, a tea that I have opted to drink multiple times before writing about. Oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfast foods. My expectations were super high, so in order to have my expectations influence the tasting note over my actual perception of the tea, waiting on it seemed to be the best idea. I have had this tea with breakfast for the past few weeks and finally feel like I can write about it objectively.

The leaves are decently large and have oatmeal flakes mixed in with them. It looks like a tea lovers trailmix of sorts… The scent is very subtle. If I am not thinking directly of oatmeal and maple it just smells of black tea that is generically sweet.

Steeped the brew is dark brown and full smelling. It is a rich black tea. The black tea flavor (“assamish”) shines through pleasantly. There is a tenuous maple flavor that is in the end of every sip, adding to the sweetness of it. I found it more evident when sweetened. Also, perhaps my favorite part of this tea, is that it has a “texture” to it. It feels thick and rich, almost like the texture of a tomato soup. Of course, the texture is an illusion, the tea is not actually thickset. I think it is the flavor that makes your mouth think twice about what it is feeling/tasting.

I really enjoy this tea. It is one of the most interesting “feeling” teas that I have had in a while. It is a perfect hardy tea to have with breakfast. My only peeve is that it could use more maple and perhaps a touch of cinnamon. But all in all, I am a happy tea sipper!

On a side note, today is vacation in Ecuador! Hooray!!! Tea, boyfriend, doggy day!!!! : )

Thank you Momo for sending a sample of this one in your sale a while ago. I recently discovered that maple & brown sugar oatmeal is DELICIOUS and has much less sugar than I assumed it would… less than half of the typical yogurt even. I knew I had this tea waiting to be tried, so a few days later, here goes. Sadly, I would never after a billion guesses think this is maple & brown sugar oatmeal. Maybe it is because my samples have been in tiny sample bags all in one bigger ziplock bag… maybe they have melded together. There is a sweetness to the tea, but that is about it. No maple, no brown sugar, no oatmeal. I brewed it for three/four minutes, not really boiling, so I don’t think I oversteeped. Maybe it should have been boiling. I really wish the instructions would be listed on the steepster descriptions, or at least on the 52Teas bag, since the picture is almost always on steepster and sometimes I can read it from the picture. Overall, this is a good tea, but not if you’re judging it from the description. I’d say this is the least accurate flavor profile in a 52Teas blend that I’ve tried.

This is one of the teas we got in that evil grab bag promotion. I think Frank is out to get us! It is such a conundrum to see all those interesting teas and know there is a good chance that one bag is it.

For me, maple and brown sugar are present in equal portions. The oatmeal comes in right after and seems to add some texture to the tea. It’s quite interesting. This comes from some one who refuses to eat cooked oatmeal. It just looks gross. Dry/raw I can eat it by the handful. The tea feels bold or robust, like some thing I would drink if I wanted a wake up tea. I feel like I’m having dressed up oatmeal with a cup of tea. I’m glad we got a grab bag this was an interesting experience.

Today I was hit with tea tragedy! Before I get into the gritty details, this sample is from LiberTEAS though I have a sneaking suspicion it was sent to me by someone else as well. Swap confusion! Anyway, I only have enough for 2 cups of this, which is important to my tragic tale.

So, I left some leaves in my IngenuiTEA for a few days… I’ve been drinking only iced/bagged tea and totally forgot about them. It smelled really gross and though I rinsed it multiple times with boiling water the funky smell was not leaving. I don’t like to use soap on any of my tea ware, but I kind of had to in this situation. I used a teeny bit and rinsed it for 10 solid minutes, getting every corner. There was no soap left, I was sure of it! It didn’t even smell faintly of soap! I was wrong, horribly horribly wrong.

I poured the water over the leaves for this tea and SOAP BUBBLES. I panicked and skimmed them off the top, hoping for the best. But alas, soapy tea. It’s actually almost drinkable, and I think it’s honestly a mental block more than a taste issue because you can’t taste soap. But I know it’s there! A shame, since this tea smells divine and in the sip I took there was a lot of maple and brown sugar flavor. I only have one try left with this blend, hopefully it works out better next time.

I finally solved the mystery of my travel mug, but I still think I’d rather have a different style. I don’t like sticking my nose into this weird…nose space area in order to take a drink. However it now doesn’t spill everywhere AND it opens! Maybe smashing it with a hammer was all it needed.

This was my chosen tea for this grumpy looking day. I wish I had thought to sweeten it but I was nearly late as is thanks to a massive traffic jam (accident too maybe? still have no idea) and I had to go one station north. It was definitely lacking the maple, but that’s okay…it made up for it in brown sugar.

Stayed warm all afternoon, tasted amazing, and I think it really doesn’t have that oatmeal flavor to it anymore, and I kind of like it better. It seems less heavy to drink.

Also just picked up my first CSA box! I got a soup and salad one that’s probably overpriced but whatever. Problem is, they didn’t include the recipes like it said so I’m kind of stuck on how cilantro, 4 pounds of sweet potatoes, and a couple oranges becomes soup. If anyone has a recipe for sweet potato soup that they swear by, let me know! I hope I can make it work with what I have on hand, don’t worry about the cilantro or orange aspects.

Uhhhhm. Hmmm. This is different! Not what I was expecting, but I can certainly see how this tea lends itself to “oatmeal”.
Bare, I was not a huge fan at all. At three minutes my cup was very light and fresh tasting, with a mellow serving of spice on the side. Not exactly reminiscent of the 52teas black base I’ve come to know.
Milk and a dash of sugar really helped it along though, making it more oatmeal like. I’ll bet this lost some flavouring in transit, because while I can see where it’s going, there is something missing that I can’t quite put my finger on.
Also, it grew a tiny bit on me as the cup cooled, or perhaps that’s as I drank it? initially I was considering a 67 rating…

Thank you Kittenna for a sample of this tea. I’m going to have to go with overly unimpressed. Now, there was some discussion as to whether this loses it’s flavour quickly and i hope that’s the case for the sake of this tea. This is pretty much a sweet cup of water. Ah well, at least I was able to try this lol