Buttered Cinnamon Raisin Toast Black Tea

I have to say, this tastes EXACTLY like buttered cinnamon raisin toast. It is truly delicious. I can see now that we are going to have to reblend it. We have it out as our tea of the day today at our brick and mortar shop, Zoomdweebie’s and everyone is LOVING it. Best comment so far: "Gnarly! That really tastes like buttered cinnamon raisin toast! How did you do that?"

So what’d I think?

Well firstly the brewed aroma reminds me of leaf litter, but that’s not to say it’s unpleasant .. It’s ‘earthy’, maybe even a little ‘moldy’ to my nose .. And it does taste predominantly like (light smokey) burnt toast to me, though the Cinnamon/Nutmeg/Baking Spice comes through loud and clear too .. The butter is more subtle, yet still but obvious .. Raisins, hmm I dunno? But like everyone else has said the combined blend really does taste exactly like it sounds!

This was another sample I got off Rachel and I’m really grateful for the opportunity to try it without investing in a whole pouch as I’m not sure it’s ‘my cup of tea’ .. And to put that in perspective Cinnamon Raisin bread/toast isn’t something I would eat either ..

That said I’m on my third cup, and will happily have a fourth just to finish it off :)

edited to add I think I prefer this more as it cools off ..

Ok, I don’t have a Valentine, I got myself the Valentine sampler for myself, that’s ok, right? Actually, I got two of them! I started off with this tea. I’ve been wanting a way to try 52 teas, but not buy the entire 2 oz bag. So this deal was perfect! This sampler should stay, since it’s a great way to try teas without forking for a whole pack! Now I see why others say this place could hurt your bank account.

I love my chardonnays buttery. And I love the buttery tea of certain green and oolong teas. But this tea has the actual taste of butter! Love it! I can’t eat bread anymore, but this tea allows me to still have it in a way. 52teas is my answer for my gluten cravings, yay!

I made it was cream and sugar, but was great naked, too. I love the small hint of toastiness. Raisin was nicely there, and I am not always a fan of raisins. I would of liked more cinnamon, but I’ll probably add more when I brew it next. I wonder how this tea would taste if made with houjicha, though it’s great the way it is.

Opened the packet and smelled butter! I expected more of a cinnamon smell, but then, I make cinnamon toast very heavy on the cinnamon. Brewed it up, and this time the smell was raisins. I added just a touch of sweetener. (I also add sugar to cinnamon toast…) The taste was interesting. I tasted the butter and the raisins when I sipped, but the toast and cinnamon came through with the aftertaste. I liked it.

Thanks to the amazing Kittena for a sample of Buttered Cinnamon Raisin Toast (BCRT)!

I got lots of samples to try out, yay! That’ll keep me busy drinking tea and not eating snacks! But out of my pile, this tea screamed at me – I think it was me writing down all the suggested steep times for the samples and I saw the picture of that buttery piece of toast and was all “YUMMMM”!

DRY: slightly sweet? Wasn’t much of a strong smell for me.

STEEPED: Reddy brown colour, zingy cinnamon scent.

TASTE: black tea base, a blast of cinnamony spice and aftertaste of raisin. The more I drink, the more raisiny BCRT gets. Slight bitterness.
Sweetened with plain rock sugar, I find the butteryness comes out but the cinnamon blast goes down. I think if I get more of this tea, I’d use less sweetener.

COMMENTS: Very yummy! I am the bitter tea police, but the slight bitterness worked well here, brought out the raisin, if that makes any sense. And Mmmm buttery teas! I’m a sucker for buttery or creamy!

I really want to like this one. But… so far it’s not doing it for me. I’m so sad about it. It’s ok, but I am not getting much flavor from it. It’s a nice black tea with something. I don’t taste butter, I don’t taste toast, I might taste something slightly raisiny, and maybe there is a touch of cinnamon. Is it possible that the re-blend is not as good??

Maybe my mistake is that I actually had buttered cinnamon raisin toast last week from freshly homemade cinnamon swirl raisin bread? The flavors are fresh in my head.

The dried leaves smell like pez (in case you don’t know what I am talking about – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pez). And I am getting the pez flavor in the finish when I am drinking it.

Update – it’s definitely better with some soy creamer, but the flavor profile didn’t really change much.

Update 2 – .. and down the drain. Bleah. Can’t finish it.

It sounded like an odd flavor, but what the heck. And the shipping was very speedy! I opened the envelope and the scent was coming through the bag… I drooled. It smelled EXACTLY like buttered cinnamon raisin toast! I have no idea how they did that, but it’s amazing.

Put a wee bit in a T-sac and used my Chinese cup with the lid to keep all that lovely scented tea steam in… I am in love with this tea. The tea base itself is an incredibly smooth and mellow black tea that brews a dark chocolatey-liquor quickly. I let the sips sit in my mouth before slowly swallowing so I can enjoy the hint of cinnamon, the over-note of the raisins (both of which you can actually see in the bag), and the totally yummy hints of butter all the way through. This beat things like hot buttered rum or apple cider by MILES. I really find myself feeling all comfy and warm with this tea. Bravo, gentlemen, I can’t wait to try something else by this line. In a few days. After I’ve gotten all I can out of this pouch.

(NOTE: second steeping of the same T-Sac for a few minutes longer equalled another great cup of pretty close to the same strength. I may try a third this time.)

I am not going to rate this tea because I absolutely hate raisins and I feel I can not give this tea a fair rating due to the raisins. This was part of the 12 Teas of Christmas Sampler I am glad I had the chance to try a small amount of it and think it would be great for someone who likes cinnamon raisin toast.

The concept of this tea really weirded me out at first. I tend toward the purer, non-flavoured teas, so to try something this extremely abnormal is definitely new.
I steeped it exactly as the directions on the site directed.
The smell is reminiscent of burned raisins…not a good sign as I do not like my toast crisped. Then I pick up hints of cinnamon.
The taste was hard to describe. I guess it kind of tastes like buttered cinnamon raisin toast…kind of…
It is not bad by any means, but I was a bit disappointed. The aftertaste hits the mark better than when one is drinking the tea.

It was a sad, sad day when my Cinnamon Raisin Toast tea ran out. Happily, I did get more in the recent reblending.

What can i say? This is, without a doubt, one of the smoothest, most well balanced flavored teas I have ever had. I only wish I could keep on drinking it without dreading the day it will run out again.