Buttered Cinnamon Raisin Toast Black Tea

I just opened my bag of this tea and I’m already on my second cup. There’s all sorts of interesting alchemy happening in there.

Opening the bag, you’re first hit with smoke and cinnamon. The smokiness quickly dissipates and you have a pleasantly scented cinnamon tea. Keeping my nose in the bag, I next picked up on the raisin and, I have no idea how they do it, there is a very subtle note of toast! There’s something else too. There’s a slight heaviness, for lack of something more descriptive, that my brain translated to “butter.” If I was unaware of the tea’s name, however, I’d never make this connection in a million years. Visually, this is a really appealing tea.

In the prepared tea, the cinnamon wins out on each sip but it’s not overpowering. You get an occasional tart fruitiness from the raisin and everything else just hangs out in the backgroud to support the main characters.

I tried adding a touch of sweetener on the second steep to see if I could bring out more of the raisin. I used agave and its maltiness actually enhanced the toast flavor and brightened the fruit as well. The second cup is as far as I would push this tea. There are too many subtle flavors that would be washed out after this point.

To strain a metaphor, there was “magic” in this cup. It’s a really odd combination but it simply works.

It’s growing on me. I’m getting the raisins the most but, I’m getting hardly any cinnamon or toast.
If you put milk and sugar in it it is much better. I think that was my problem the first time around.

Hm. This is pretty good, but not amazing. I get hints of butter and cinnamon and I can see where the smoky tea is going. I don’t get much raisin, but maybe a hint of sweetness. It’s tasty and interesting and I love the concept, but I suppose I wouldn’t say I get cinnamon raisin toast from it. I actually get the buttered cinnamon raisin toast a lot more from the scent than from the taste. I will have to try it again, maybe brewed stronger, as it would be nice to get a cinnamon toast fix without having to eat the bread! Yum.

Tried this one again this morning. BLECH! I don’t know if the tea went back or something… but this cuppa was just short of awful. I guess even geniuses like Frank can have a dud sometime. Or maybe it was sitting around too long before Little Mew Brew sold it to me? Buyer beware if that’s the case! I hate to waste tea but I don’t even think I’d want to swap this one. BLECH! Wish I could get a refund!

I’m not positive how I feel about this tea. It’s got a certain smell to it (almost an old smell?). Although I just ordered a black from 52 teas that also has a hint of this same smell.
The smell is still there after steeping & comes through in the taste as well, although not as strong as the scent, thankfully.
I get the cinnamon & a hint of raisins. I think I am almost getting a toast smell, but no butter.
It’s quite good. Buttered Cinnamon Raisin bread is one of my fav breakfast treats. This tea doesn’t quite substitute for it, but pretty close.

I just got this in the mail with another 52teas blend, and decided the try the one that smelled less good first. I found that this smelled mostly of raisins when I opened it up. I smell reminded me a bit of old leather as well, very comforting and mild.

I brewed it up, and the smell and flavour still reminded me mostly of raisins and leather until about a third of the way through the cup. I added no milk or sugar (though I plan to try this tea with varying “dressings” to find its stride. The tea is dry on the tongue, and as it cools slightly, the “toast” flavour begins to come out. Not at all unpleasant, quite enjoyable actually, but I’m thinking it needs some flavour enhancers to come into its own. This is actually hitting the spot that has been wanting a mild black tea these past few days.

I’m a little disappointed that I’m not getting the exact indistinguishable flavour that people have commented on, but it’s a tasty and comfortable tea. I’m looking forward to trying it a few other ways. I wonder how they sample it in the store.

Too strange not to try! The flavor is surprisingly accurate, with no one aspect overpowering the others. Except for the butter – that’s not really present, that I noticed.

It even holds up quite well to a second steeping as well. The flavors were a little bit less strong, but still quite tasty.

Like a few other reviewers, I mostly taste grape from this tea. I also taste the base, which isn’t my favorite sort of black tea. I get a little of something else that approaches breadiness, maybe like a whole wheat bread, if anything. I find this concept really interesting, but the flavor doesn’t really turn out clearly. It does taste high quality, just not quite right.

Sipdown

I had to go back to my previous notes to see what I thought about it before. I apparently liked it at the time. I noted that it was buttery and had strong raisin notes. Maybe I did something with this last cup. I used 195F water, steeped 3 minutes, and sipped. I tasted raisins, but the tea was a bit bitter. I left the cup to cool down, while reading, but when I went back to the tea, it was extremely bitter.

I’ll pass giving it a rating on the account that I liked the first cup, but this last cup wasn’t for me. I haven’t had it too long, so I don’t think it went bad or anything.

Here’s a confounding tea. The smell of it in bag and just brewed is just utterly confusing. Warm, sweet-smelling, woodsy, perfume, even some near medicinal notes. There are barely recognizable elements that intrigue the nose, make you curious to try it, but with a hunch you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Yet drinking it, slightly sweetened, it is thoroughly enjoyable even though I have no more of a clue as to what I am drinking. As if all the ingredients have merged to provide me with the distinctive cup. The tasting notes sited above seem contradictory and yet are all perfectly on point after tasting this tea. A delicious quandary of a cup!