Cotton Candy White Tea

Huge thanks to akgrowngirl for sharing this with me!

I’m missing something with this tea. What am I missing? I’m getting zero cotton candy anything, and I suspect there’s some sort of strawberry flavoring in here, because my lips are burning. Huh? I’ll wait for it to cool, since Steepsterites seem to think that’s the best way to drink this, however as it stands.. I’m about ready to dump it. :(

Guys…I think I may have a problem.

See, it all started with this tea. Frank just HAD to blend another cotton candy tea. Don’t you know I’m broke, Frank? But I allowed myself this one little bag because I know it’s going to be awesome. Well, that’s how it starts right? Next thing I know, I’m buying two more packages of this one, three of the SBT iced teas, Turtle Cheesecake Black Tea, and the S’mores Chai re-blend. What have I done??! Oh jeez. I just can’t help myself!! Do they have a Teaophile Anonymous? ‘Cause I think I need to go.

Why did this tea have to be so good??? My initial reaction upon sniffing the dry leaf was, “Hmm, this is a weird chicken.” The dry leaf aroma is weird. The brewed tea aroma is weird. The taste? A little weird. LOL! The aftertaste is sweet, melt-in-your-mouth, spun sugar! But while the tea is on the tongue, it’s mostly white tea with some added component I can’t quite describe. The aftertaste is perfect cotton candy though.

The second steep for 3 minutes was really tasty too. The cornflower is more apparent, while the cotton candy flavor is softer. And the white base is simply beautiful! This is heaven in a cup. No bitterness or astringency at all! I probably do like the black base better, but not by much. Let’s face it, Frank could add cotton candy to just about anything and I’d drink it.

I also find that I can drink this tea like water. It goes down super smooth, and I can imagine this being divine iced. I’m really sad each pouch has only an ounce. It seems like very little tea. (Thus, the spontaneous shopping spree on the 52teas website to buy a couple more bags). Y’all better hurry up and purchase this before there’s none left! And at the rate I’m shopping…that’s very little time indeed.

Backlog:

YUM! So good. I think I like this one better than black tea version and the iced tea version. The lighter base allows the cotton candy flavors to come through really deliciously.

It’s sweet and deliciously candy-like but I don’t find it cloying.

One of Frank’s best.

I was excited to see 52 Teas came out with another cotton candy tea – this time in white tea, yay! I am quite fond of white tea.

Drank hot, I found the cotton candy flavoring pretty subtle. I think if I had this tea without knowing what it was, I would of picked it as a white with a bit of sugar in it but not cotton candy. Adding additional sweetener helped pick out the sugaryness in the blend.

However, once I tried Cotton Candy White iced – I found it! Liquid, sugary spun sweet! Pretty cool! I like it, and it totally filled my sugar cravings. I wish there was a little more to it, maybe a berry flavoring or something, but overall a pretty neat blend that I will only drink iced.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2013/09/05/cotton-candy-white-tea-from-52-teas-tea-review/
(picture evidence of massive cotton candy)

I steeped 1.5 tsp at 85 degrees for 3.5 minutes. It was really good, sweet kinda strawberry and a little hint of the white tea. I will have to try a shorter steep next time. I am going to hold off my rating until then

Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp
Water: ml at 180°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: berry, sweet, hint vegetal
Steeped Tea Smell:sweet berry, hints floral and vegetal
Flavor: vegetal, sweet, floral at the end of the sip
Body: Light
Aftertaste: sweet berries
Liquor: translucent light honey yellow brown

Post-Steep Additives:
raw sugar
slightly more berry

Rating: 2/4 leaves

blog http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2013/09/52teas-loose-leaf-white-tea-cotton.html

I had my parents over for the weekend and my dad chose this as the tea he wanted to try so I had some with him as I hadn’t tried it yet either. When I took my first sip sans sweetener I told my dad I had ruined it as there wasn’t much flavour and it was a tad vegetal. But he asked to try a sip and he said he liked it so I poured both our cups. I added agave to mine as I always do and that seemed to improve the flavour. But as the cup cooled, something magical happened. This tea is amazing. It’s a very subtle flavour, I usually like mine strong, but it totally works. It’s mostly sweet with a hint of cotton candy. Love it.

For National Eat Your Vegetables Day.

A strange choice for today’s sipdown theme, but I took a browse through some of my teas and found this one on Steepster with a note that it tasted vegetal the last time I tried it. I don’t get that flavor/note this time around, but I don’t get cotton candy either. I know someone out there is probably getting tired of me complaining about how white teas taste like old sink water – you want to take them off my hands???

Note: This is an older tea and I’m averse to white teas in general, so this is most definitely not the tea’s fault.

Teabox Tuesday! This is my last old 52Teas sample from the Discovery Teabox, so thank you to Skysamurai for organizing and all participants for sharing! This one is a 2013 blend, so I’m not expecting much regarding flavor considering the age. Honestly, I’ll just be happy to have a warmer mug of tea after sipping on tepid tea all morning…

Brewed up, it smells like a berry bubblegum. And my first sip is giving me that impression, as well. I’m getting a sweet berry flavor, like strawberry or raspberry candy, and definitely a strong bubblegum flavor, with a sort of floral presense… maybe a very subtle hint of rose, and fairly sweet, but the end of the sip turns a bit vegetal with a hint of bitterness; not an unpleasant bitterness, it reminds me of when I was a kid and used to pull up dandelions and chew on the white roots. Did anyone else ever do that, or was I just a weird kid?

So I wouldn’t say that Cotton Candy is really my impression, but there is still a lot of flavor in this tea considering the age, and I am enjoy the sort of sweet berry/bubblegum flavor I am getting. And I’d love seeing more teas going the bubblegum/cotton candy route. It may be a weird choice for a flavor profile, but I really like them.

Discovery Tea box – Tea #10
I’m fairly certain this is the older version… and it tasted like it. Not very good. But I also probably didn’t steep it ideally. This is just a ‘I drank it’ note. I’m sure it was much better originally.