Anne’s blend
From our 2018 12Teas of Christmas Box!
This is one of the final teas (tisanes) that Frank crafted during his time with 52Teas and I have a wee confession – I hadn’t tried it until a day or two before I blended this batch. I had the tea in my stash – but it was still sealed … never opened! At the time when I received this tea in my subscription package, I was preparing to take over 52Teas: testing samples from my wholesale sources, setting up the website and blending teas. I was so busy back then I was running around like a crazy woman with her hair on fire and to be honest, I really didn’t have time to sit back and enjoy a cuppa. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed most of the samples that I was sent by my wholesale sources, and I definitely was enjoying the teas that I was blending and then taste testing – but I didn’t have any time left to sit back and enjoy a cuppa that wasn’t directly related to taking over the operations of 52Teas.
So I stashed this tea away in my tea cupboard and – forgot about it! Yes, I forgot about this blend completely until someone mentioned that they’d like this tea to be reblended as part of this year’s 12 Teas of Christmas box. So a few weeks ago, I dug out that pouch and tried it out before I attempted to reblend it – so that I could get a fairly good idea of what I was going to do with this blend.
And as I sit here now, sipping on the results of that blending session, I must say that I’m a little bit impressed with myself. I often worry that I’m just not good enough to be a tea blender – but it’s times like now that I realize that I AM good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, I’m worthy of my self-appointed title of “Mad Tea Artist” because this is REALLY GOOD. It’s sweet, caramel-y, with a nice cinnamon note and a bread-y note that tastes a lot like … well, it tastes like freshly-baked monkey bread!
Frank’s original description for this tisane went like this:
Oooey, gooey, caramel monkey bread is something I have a serious weakness for, and yet, can’t afford to spend my Weight Watcher’s points on. So instead, I made a rooibos blend that tastes like caramel monkey bread! It’s caffeine-free, delicious hot or iced, and best of all: zero points. =)
Since I just tasted Frank’s original blend a few weeks ago, I can say that this tastes pretty much like the original. This might have a little more cinnamon to it, then again, the cinnamon from the original could be weakened a bit from age. This might have a wee bit more caramel flavor to it – again – age could be a factor.
This tisane is organic, it’s naturally caffeine-free, VEGAN, gluten-free and allergen-free – and it’s OH so yummy!
organic ingredients: rooibos, cinnamon, calendula petals & natural flavors
