Peach Cardamom

How does this have almost no notes after being released for a month?! I just got mine and I had to try it right away based on the smell! I love love LOVE cardamom in non-chai teas—I mean I like it in chai too, but it really does shine on its own. Peach seems an unusual combo, but it really works!

I actually made this one for my dad, he always likes when I make him blends he’s never tried before. He was in the mood for something fruity so I picked this one! Mm, it smells so good brewing!

Peach can be a love it or hate it flavor for me—I hate even slightly fake peach and I often get “over-peached” where I get tired of the flavor after like 3 sips. But sometimes I am really in the mood for it! Thankfully this is not a fake or overdone peach, it’s quite subtle—in fact it’s not even super evident as peach in the cup. Very mellow and summer-y tasting, like super ripe peaches that you’d use for a pie.

The cardamom is what really makes this though. Earthy and strong, it tempers the peach and makes it into something totally different. I’m not surprised that this combo works so well, peach goes fantastically with strong spices (look at all the peach & ginger teas!). Cardamom is the best pairing I’ve tried with peach by far: better than ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, any other fruit. It’s just… perfect. These two were meant to be together!

And the base! It adds a really nice, vegetal background. The 3 ingredients are all so different but Frank worked his magic. This is so great! If you were on the fence, get this—you won’t regret it! Unless, you know, you don’t like peach/cardamom/green tea.

Tried this out cold brew and it’s alright as a cold brew with a little sugar added to it. I’m still more disappointed than excited by most of the recent blends from frank so it might be time for a break or to just try and pick some up when it’s a 4 way split OR through trades…‘cause the newest it calling out to me. Anyway, this isn’t terrible as a cold brew. I’ll have to compare it to the lupicia peach and see which i like better in a comparison :)

Another tea Sil & I picked up and split… I’m hoping that this goes better than the other 52teas I’ve had lately.

The aroma from the package, and of the brewed cup is kind of a fakey peach. I apparently have difficulty picking up cardamom, so am not smelling it here, but I’m sure it’s around. Perhaps I’ll do a better job when I taste it.

Ah yes, I think I’m picking it up in the flavour. Mmm… I’m actually enjoying this one. There’s something very… unripe fruit, unripe peach, about the flavour, and there’s just enough cardamom to be picked up. There’s a sort of creamy flavour in the aftertaste that I’m enjoying. I’m finding that I’m noticing the cardamom most prominently at the very beginning of the sip, right when I’m inhaling in the hot steam (yes… I’m drinking this one hot!) The green tea isn’t overly noticeable, but I think if it was, it might not work here terribly well.

Glad this one worked out… high hopes for the other one I have sitting on the counter atm…

I prefer non-flavored green teas, but when I go to my parents I like to dink flavored green teas because their water is so terribly hard, even filtered. So, I decided to try this one since I know 52teas does a magnificent job with flavors, the price isn’t too much, they taste great with my parents water, and the flavors always sound intriguing. The only thing I don’t like about 52teas is that their teas for the most part are very limited.

Anyways, this tea I really liked. You can taste all the flavors from the sencha, to the peach, to the cardamom. None of the flavors over power any of the others. I found this tea to be sweet, earthy, smooth, almost creamy. The cardamom really goes well with the peach and the peach goes really well with the sencha. Then again, I am biased toward sencha. The cardamom does not remind me of chai in this either, in case that was holding anyone back. Also, the peach does not taste fake in any way, shape, taste, or form. Definitely a good flavored tea no matter how terrible your water may be!

Backlog:

I really, really like this one! I love the way the peach and the cardamom work together. The peach tastes like a sweet, juicy peach, the cardamom adds just enough warmth to the cup, and the green tea is sweet and creamy.

Really, really good.

From the LiberTEAS sampler I bought a while back

Dry, this tea is delightful – it smells gently peachy with a grassy undertone that I really found appealing.

I steeped it at 1.5tsp for my 12oz mug (since I think the form is still rounding tea amounts down) at about 180 (I had to guess since my kettle has a 175 and an 185 setting); post-steep the tea itself had opened up nicely and gave off a mouthwatering peach aroma.

I can be hit-or-miss with peach – if it’s artificial and badly done it’s a total turn off – but this smells like the ripe peaches we used to make cobbler out of. Even unsweetened I couldn’t wait to taste this one. :D

One drink in and, oddly enough, the peach flavour doesn’t rush to the forefront on this one – it primarily tastes like a quality green tea with some VERY subtle peach/fruity notes. I’m actually a little disappointed since I was hoping for a very peachy tea…and I’m actually not getting much of the cardamom, either.

So had I not known what I was drinking I would’ve been quite pleased, but as a peach/cardamom tea I feel like this one is slightly off-mark. It smells amazing and tastes quite good, but I’m not sure I’d buy this one for myself.

I brewed this with near boiling water for just over 1 minute. I used a generous amount of tea (approximately 1.5 tsp) for my 8oz of water.

The taste is sweet and juicy. Between the green tea and peach flavoring, it is really sweet. There is a component of soft cardamom, which is more detectable in the aftertaste than as a main flavor. The tea is really smooth with no bitterness and only a touch of astringency. Everything about this tea is soft, light, and pleasant.

Generally speaking I haven’t encountered a Peach flavored tea I liked … until now. True to 52Teas high standards, this tea has a perfect balance of sweet peach flavor that is paired wonderfully with a spicy backdrop of Cardamom that is pulled together by a Chinese sencha base. The is peach flavoring is a natural one which I adore since I find the artificial stuff simply awful. The genius to this tea is the Cardamom and Chinese sencha pairing as it reminded me of my favorite childhood treat of Szilvásgombóc (for non eastern Europeans it’s basically a dessert dumpling) with a mature twist. As the Cardamom is a predominate flavor you do have to appreciate and enjoy this spice otherwise this won’t be the tea for you – BUT if you are a fan, then you are in for a treat.

I haven’t had too many green teas, and this is my first Sencha tea. I really like both cardamom and peach, and so was looking forward to trying this sample. (Thanks to Starfevre.) The smell of the dry leaves in the package is divine.

The steeped tea is really nice — I can pick up mainly peach (a really good, sweet-tart-fruit taste), against a background of wonderfully complex… again, words fail me. I don’t know what Sencha alone tastes like, so maybe it’s mainly that — green and herby and a slight whiff of cardamom. I think I get the cardamom mainly in the aftertaste — something mildly aromatic — along with the aftertaste of peach. Yumm!

I first tasted it with added sugar. There’s a bit of astringency which I didn’t like and I tried to quell it with some warm skim milk, but I’m not sure that was a good idea. Maybe next time I’ll try steeping at 170, and add sugar but no milk. Although as I’m reaching the bottom of the big 16oz mug, and as it cools a bit, I like it better and better. Yum!

Used 2-1/4 tsp for 16oz mug. Steeped at 177F for 2 min 15 sec. Added sugar and skim milk.

Another blend I get to try from the 52Teas grab bags. There was a big piece of peach in my scoop… along with the green tea and cardamom. I used 1 1/2 teaspoons because of the big peach piece. Sadly, the cardamom overwhelms most of the peach and green tea but I think this was a great idea for a blend. I would love to taste more peach but I’m glad it isn’t the fakey peach flavor. All the tasting notes for this blend are years old but I just received my pouch of this a few months ago. A reblend that no one wrote tasting notes for?
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoon for a full mug// 30 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 25 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep