Gourmet Root Beer

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Black Teas, Calendula Petals, Licorice Root, Organic Cloves, Organic Natural Flavors (Vegan), Organic Vanilla Beans, Sarsaparilla, Star Anise Bits
Flavors
Bread, Licorice, Malt, Raisins, Sarsaparilla, Smooth, Spices, Sweet, Vanilla, Anise, Root Beer
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
High
Certification
Organic, Vegan
Edit tea info Last updated by PlutoCow
Average preparation
Iced 3 min, 0 sec 7 g 32 oz / 946 ml

Currently unavailable

We don't know when or if this item will be available.

From Our Community

1 Image

2 Want it Want it

2 Own it Own it

22 Tasting Notes View all

  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    90
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    85
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    86
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    83

From 52teas

Tea of the Week for July 10, 2017!

I had the idea for this tea way back before we took over 52Teas. I’m not sure if I shared the idea with Frank – I know that I was in his email pretty much every week or so with new ideas for tea and I’m also pretty sure that he got to the point where he was irritated every time that he saw my name pop up in his email yet again.

Once upon a time, I subscribed to a ‘foodie’ type of subscription, appropriately named “Foodzie.” Foodzie has since been sold to another company and the subscription service seems to have fallen by the wayside. I’ve since tried a few other foodie subscription services – my favorite (Knoshy) seems to have also disappeared. [insert frown-y face here.] Anyway, Foodzie and the other subscription services would send me a box every month and each box would be filled with ‘gourmet’ treats crafted by small companies. One month, I received a bottle of root beer and it was the best tasting root beer I’ve ever tasted.

There was the normal ‘root beer-ish’ sort of flavor to it (or would that be sarsaparilla?) but as this was no usual root beer – there was a whole lot more to it than just the typical root beer notes. It had some really unique, amazing layers of flavor that I had never experienced in a root beer before. I tasted hints of wintergreen, clove and anise in the bubbly bottle of root beer. It was SO GOOD.

So, being as mad about tea as I am, I was certain that this root beer needed to be recreated into a tea. So when the time came that I was to take over 52Teas, one of the very first tea I put on my ‘list’ of teas to create was this one. Now, it took me a while to get to actually crafting it – but I think it’s been well worth the wait.

I started with a base of black teas from China and India (Yunnan, Assam, Ceylon and Fujian) and added some sarsaparilla root, cloves, star anise, a hint of wintergreen and natural flavors to recreate the root beer of my dreams – only better – because it’s a tea.

This is one I recommend drinking as an iced tea – because let’s face it – root beer is tastier when it’s ice cold!

organic ingredients: black teas, sarsaparilla root, licorice root, cloves, star anise, vanilla bean, calendula petals and natural flavors

ingredients: black teas

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.

22 Tasting Notes

90
1216 tasting notes

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!

Flavors: Bread, Licorice, Malt, Raisins, Sarsaparilla, Smooth, Spices, Sweet, Vanilla

Preparation
Iced 3 min, 0 sec 7 g 32 OZ / 946 ML

Add a Comment

Please keep things friendly and .

85
1792 tasting notes

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.

Add a Comment

Please keep things friendly and .

86
78 tasting notes

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)

Flavors: Anise, Licorice, Root Beer, Vanilla

Add a Comment

Please keep things friendly and .

83
15006 tasting notes

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.

Jlvintagelove

it’s nice to have local tea buddies…

Sil

yep. we’ve had some good times!

Add a Comment

Please keep things friendly and .

81
15575 tasting notes

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.)

tea-sipper

I had a root beer tea craving today too… maybe I should steep some up…

Add a Comment

Please keep things friendly and .

277 tasting notes

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!

Add a Comment

Please keep things friendly and .