Bananas Foster

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Banana, Smoke, Sweet, Astringent, Drying, Malty, Burnt Sugar, Butter, Caramelized Sugar, Cinnamon, Earthy, Malt, Rum, Creamy, Vanilla, Earth
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Southern Boy Teas
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 30 sec 12 oz / 357 ml

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65 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Well, this is tasting note #500 for me. I figured since #400 was from 52teas, make #500 also! Since I think partially if it wasn’t for finding out about the amazing creations of Frank, I probably...” Read full tasting note
  • “Sadly, it pains me to write this note. I guess I shouldn’t have had the high expectations that I did, though. So many people have written their ravings over this tea and I love bananas and so I...” Read full tasting note
    60
  • “Good morning Steepster— It is foggy and gloomy over here, but what else is new? This is San Francisco! Maybe this tea seems like a strange choice for the morning time, but it actually goes well...” Read full tasting note
    89
  • “Sipdown of this sample from old! I’m trying to see if I love it enough to buy it and man oh man this is GOOD. This one is another irresistible reblend! I had to try it again to see if I love it as...” Read full tasting note
    95

From 52teas

Here’s a flavored black tea you can really sink your teeth into. Made with our new, improved black tea base, freeze dried bananas, organic cinnamon and the essences of banana, vanilla, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and a touch of rum. This tea is a real treat. Just don’t try to flambe it.

Our Tea of the Week for the Week of July 9, 2012

About 52teas View company

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.

65 Tasting Notes

303 tasting notes

This is our 5th Tea of Christmas! Every year for our holiday poll, quite a few banana teas are nominated and of those – several win enough votes to win their way into the box. However, I want to maintain a variety of tea flavors within the box (I probably could do a banana box with as many banana teas we have blended and how many of those have been requested as a reblend.) So I choose the one tea that received the most votes.

And that would be this tea.

I did tweak the recipe slightly this time around – and I added a teensy bit of Lapsang Souchong. I did this after the initial taste test and I realized that it kind of tasted a little “flat” – like it needed something. This may be because I’ve recently had some bananas foster (the dessert) and the deep caramelization that came from the flambe of the brown sugar was something that I wanted in this tea and I think that the addition of the Lapsang Souchong accomplished this.

It smells a lot smokier than it actually tastes – especially after some cool time – where the smoke melds together with the rum & caramel. I really like how these flavors fuse together in the sip so – as CrowKettle mentioned in her post – this tea definitely does benefit from some cool time.

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1445 tasting notes

5th Tea of Christmas 2022

Taken with milk. While still piping hot, this tea is all smoky rum and burnt sugar notes; the banana and any sense of sweetness is strangely absent, except in a vague savoury plantain kind of way.

However, when the tea becomes lukewarm (after around 20min) the profile does a 180. Caramelized banana pops out while the smoke and rum fade into the background -becoming more of a hot buttered spiced rum. Now that’s more like it!

Flavors: Banana, Burnt Sugar, Butter, Caramelized Sugar, Cinnamon, Earthy, Malt, Rum, Smoke

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 30 sec
ashmanra

I have never had plantain. Tea has made me try so many new foods. Maybe that should be something I shoot for in the new year – trying more new foods.

Crowkettle

Mm, plantains are one of my favourite kinds of starchy side! I see them more as “platanos fritos” but they pop up in a lot of culinary traditions. https://www.laylita.com/recipes/fried-ripe-plantains-or-platanos-fritos/

Getting into tea, specifically the greener teas, taught me appreciate vegetables. I hated cucumbers before acquiring a taste for silver needle :)

Michelle

Target makes a decent salted plantain chip

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2171 tasting notes

I’m not tasting any banana or anything suggesting the bananas foster dessert, but this is to me a good cinnamon black tea.

Flavors: Cinnamon

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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90
984 tasting notes

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 4

Yum! This was a perfect pick-me-up on this grey winter day. Lots of creamy banana goodness with hints of rum and cinnamon. I’m picky about cinnamon in tea, as it can often be overwhelming, but this blend nails it!

Flavors: Cinnamon, Creamy, Rum, Vanilla

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Shae

I haven’t tried this one yet but it sounds amazing!

Inkling

It’s definitely a good one! Thanks for sharing.

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70
1403 tasting notes

One good thing about taking a much needed technology break is tasting new teas from a swap 100% blind.

This one is from the lovely and generous VariaTEA.

Tried this black and then with a dot of half and half to add a cream element which here is lacking. Both ways, cinnamon comes up front. Prefer it black. I find this blend thin on flavour. It is ok, but it doesn’t hold a candle to 52Teas Banana Pudding Black, which I adore. Here, banana is missing entirely despite a banana chip in my leaf.

I’ve never had Bananas Foster as a dessert, but this tea doesn’t come all that close to my understanding of what the dessert is supposed to be. Keep in mind that I am not a big fan of cinnamon, so I might be biased. Sorry.

Thank you, VariaTEA, for letting me try this one.

Flavors: Cinnamon

Preparation
1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Fjellrev

Was wondering where you’ve been! It’s nice to take a break, for sure.

Autistic Goblin

Nothing wrong with a break every now and then. Welcome back though because you know we miss you :D

Evol Ving Ness

Away from technology and loving it, BUT drinking tons of tea and making notes about it, even. Miss y’all too.

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80
400 tasting notes

Backlog

This is a pretty delightful tea altogether. I’ve had a couple of Bananas Foster teas in the past; however, this was the first non-herbal/non-artificial version of the blend that I’ve had and enjoyed. I really thought that the vanilla, cinnamon, and black tea base (malt) really came out more than the banana notes; which I must say, isn’t a bad thing. I’ve had Bananas Foster’s that have had artificially flavored bananas which made the tea unsettling. Fortunately, 52Teas can make a good Bananas Foster that leaves you satisfied.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Malt, Vanilla

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60
2238 tasting notes

I’m drinking the “old” 52 Teas version of this tea, which I unearthed from my stash this weekend. I bought this one because I love bananas, and I really loved 52 Teas Banana Pudding Black back when that was released. I think I was trying to get some of that amazingness back in my life, but I think my cupboard must have snowballed by then and that’s how it is that I’m actually just getting around to trying it now.

I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk. The initial flavour is very heavy on the cinnamon, and actually reminds me a lot of Cinnamon Roll Honeybush, at least to begin with. The banana and vanilla emerge in the mid-sip, although they’re by no means as prominent as the cinnamon. Hot, there’s a degree of astringency, although it’s not so bad that I can’t overlook it. Just a little of the chalky dry-mouth feeling. This one actually seems like a better prospect once it’s cooled. The banana becomes a little stronger, and the cinnamon seems to mellow out. There’s more of a creaminess, too, although I suspect my full-fat milk is helping that along! One thing I will say is that, for once, the banana doesn’t strike me as particularly candy-like. If anything, it’s putting me in mind of underripe green bananas – and the astringency is definitely playing up that effect (you know how underripe bananas can be a little floury and dry-tasting? Exactly.) Candy banana would have been more at home here, and I know for certain that I’ve never said that in a tasting note before.

I enjoyed my cup, even though it’s not quite as banana-centric as I’d have liked. It’s also not particularly sweet, so I might try a little crystal sugar next time and see if that helps to perk things up a bit. I like the cinnamon/vanilla combination, and it works well with what banana flavour there is, but I think a stronger banana flavour would have resulted in a much better balanced cup.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp

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308 tasting notes

This is a 52 Teas reblend, so I’ll just tack my tasting note onto the existing tea.

I’ve had this twice now. There’s a bit too much cinnamon in it for my taste, and, unfortunately, I don’t get a lot of boozy flavor. It’s pleasant, but it isn’t one of my favorites.

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83
448 tasting notes

Looks like this one is a reblend of a loved classic. Sadly, I never tried that one, and I’ve never had bananas foster, AND I have a cold currently, so this probably isn’t the most helpful of reviews. Oops!

This tea definitely has banana flavor, which makes me really happy! I am always saying banana teas don’t have enough banana, so this is a nice change. I actually kind of want this banana flavor in an oolong.
The banana is at the front of the sip, and right after that is some tartness. Should that be there? I’m not sure. It could also be a product of less than optimal brewing conditions on my part, or my cold interfering with flavor.
There’s also a creaminess, that makes me want to say whipped cream? vanilla ice cream? something along those lines.

I like this tea, but honestly it just makes me want a banana cream pie oolong. Does that exist? I wouldn’t be surprised if 52teas has already tackled that one

Edit: I didn’t realize I had already reviewed this and lamented the lack of banana flavor. It’s amazing what time/ different brewing parameters/ etc can do!

LiberTEAS

I did a Banana Oolong. Frank did a Coconut Banana Cream Pie Houjicha. But a Banana Cream Pie Oolong sounds pretty wonderful. I may have to take that into consideration.

tea-sipper

YES that was one of my favorites of Frank’s blends. Butiki had a nice banana oolong too.

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80
694 tasting notes

I received this sample from KalieBoo! Thank you!

I have heard some wonderful things about 52 teas banana flavoring, but I have never been brave enough to purchase an entire 2oz of black tea because their black tea seems to be hit or miss with me. This one was a hit! I think it also helped that I brewed this with a lower temperature and a shorter steep time. This was really yummy this morning. I got the banana, I got a nice base in the background, I also got a hint of the cinnamon or some spice which was blended very nicely into the mix. If I ever crossed paths with this tea again I wouldn’t turn it down.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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