Gourmet Root Beer

The Great Un-Steepstering of 2020 Review #8 (08/16/20)

I just buckled and made a large 52Teas order, so I really need to get through some of my oldest packages! But we are in another heat wave and I have this one and Ginger Cola from 2017, and I prefer soda pop-themed teas iced. Prepared 7.5g steeped in 2 cups 205F water for 3 minutes, which was added to 2 cups cold water, then left in the fridge to get nice and chilled.

The dry leaf, warmed steeped tea, and used leaf all smelled so delectably of root beer. The aroma on my cold water bottle is lovely, I can pick up the licoricey-aromas of the anise and licorice root, and sarsaparilla, and something a bit sweet/creamy as well… though I did sweeten this tea (I don’t normally, but to heighten the pop factor, I added a bit of liquid sweetener to the iced tea).

The flavor is quite nice… the black tea base is actually not entirely overpowered with flavors, as I’m getting a sort of malty/raisin bready flavor in the background. I’m really digging the anise and licorice root notes, which are leaning more in the direction of sharp spice (perhaps because of the clove, though I’m not picking up a distinct clove flavor) rather than sticky sweetness. The sarsaparilla creates this nice root beer-flavored base with that sweet, somewhat licorice/minty flavor, and while I often can’t taste vanilla added to teas, I am tasting it here; perhaps the sweetener I added is bringing that note to the forefront.

It is a nice iced tea, but one I pretty much knew going in I was going to enjoy. I really love root beer teas, and the flavors of sarsaparilla and the “licorice herbs.” I have enough leaf to do one more quart after I finish off this batch, and will probably prepare it the same, including the sweetener. Super tasty and refreshing, tastes just like uncarbonated root beer!

Mmm, root beer. This tea is the perfect example of why I love root beer so much. I’ve loved it as a kid but could never figure out why other than the sarsaparilla. I thought that was all it had going for it, but it wasn’t until I tried a gourmet root beer later on (and not just the Hires, MUG, A&W, etc) that was not only root beer in stereo, but allowed me to taste other things in there too. Holy shit, there’s wintergreen in root beer traditionally? And star anise too? And clove? That’s what really made me understand why it’s the bomb, because
I love these things too. So blah blah blah, this tea is all that too. I can taste the star anise, a touch of sweet licorice root, star anise, cloves, and even vanilla. Not the wintergreen as much as the gourmet root beer I had for that first time, but still, this tea reminds me of good root beer! So Anne, you really nailed it here creating a tea that reflects a gourmet root beer.

I’ve only had this hot, without any additives so far but I’m curious to see what it would taste like with milk for a root beer float vibe, and of course, iced. Now that I have more room in my freezer, I popped in my ice cube tray and am looking forward to trying that out soon.

I love this tea. Taste was right on. I am thrilled I took a chance on this flavor. I prepared it exactly as directed on the package. I went back to website and it’s gone. So glad I snagged a sample. Noms. (*This now is now under the correct tea)

this was my treat for today since i knew i was getting together with VariaTEA to swap a few teas. Well that is to say i was giving her a couple and she was giving me a metric ton. Which, as odd as it seems is kinda win win for both of us. I don’t feel guilty because i was still able to share a few things with her that she didn’t have, and she didn’t pick up an INSANE amount of teas as she’s still working on getting her cupboard under control. While i got teas to keep me amused and she got to make me help her drink her cupboard down haha.

This was a nice treat for work – still loving it though i DO vastly prefer it as a latte. And i love my ginger cola more than this one even though this one is awesomesauce too.

Revisiting this one because root beer teas are amazing, and I had a craving. Nothing super different, apart from this being a particularly delicious cup with a strong anise/root beer combo very much coming through in the taste. Even my coworkers commented on how accurate the root beer flavour was!

(Best when allowed to cool a little bit before drinking.)

This is this week’s tea of the week and I absolutely love it!

My inspiration behind this tea is one of those really ultra-expensive, small-town small-company type of bottled root beers that unless you live near the actual ‘small company’ – you can’t always find the root beer locally. Since I live probably 2 or 3 thousand miles from the company, the only place locally I can find this root beer is at BevMo which is a fairly new establishment here in Washington (last few years). Before that, I would have to purchase this particular root beer online to have it shipped across the country (and not inexpensively, either).

When I was first approached seriously by Frank to take over 52Teas, one of the first things that I did was sit down and start creating a list of tea flavor ideas. I kind of told myself that if I couldn’t come up with enough tea ideas to fill a full year (52 teas) – then I shouldn’t do it. I needed to see if I had the mind to do what I would need to do. The idea for this tea was born out of that 48 hour ‘brainstorming’ session. I decided I wanted to create a tea that paid tribute to the amazing root beer that I so loved.

And I think I love this tea more than I love that root beer. Not only because – TEA – but also because this is so very much like that root beer – but I also get to control the amount of sugar I put into it (probably a fraction of what is used to craft that root beer) and also it seems a lot more reasonable for me to brew up a pitcher of tea and stash it in the fridge than it is to go to BevMo and buy the root beer for nearly three bucks a 12 ounce bottle.

Anyway – yes, we’ve made root beer teas before. We’ve also made butter beer tea. This is different from those because you’ll also get hints of clove, star anise and wintergreen that tease the taste buds as you sip. Oh, so lovely!