Spiced Rum Raisin Cake

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 53)

Grapey and a bit astringent, not really much spice to speak of – but the tea is also now cold. It’s not bad, though.

Brewed this up as my work thermos tea today.

Initially, the flavor was very strongly grape… very sweet and a bit syrupy and candy-like. As the tea cooled, more of the spice notes came forward… namely cinnamon, but now I’m getting a sort of mixed ginger/clove flavor popping toward the end of the sip. As the tea cools down and more spice notes come forward, the strong grape flavor does tone down a bit and the combination on the bready black base does give cinnamon raisin bread vibes.

It’s nice, but I also really like grape-flavored teas. I think I liked 52Teas’ “Tea and Scones” tea better, which was a similar profile but had a more natural grape/raisin taste than I’m getting now. This is still a pleasant tea, especially once the tea has cooled and the spices have settled. It just takes a long time for my tea to reach that ideal temperature in the work thermos!

Plain, there’s too much bitterness, and the raisin sort of hits me wrong – it’s pretty grapey, which feels weird in a black tea to me. With milk, the flavors are smoothed over and I find myself enjoying it a little more. Raisin-y black teas aren’t really my thing, but it seems like this tea does a pretty good job at emulating what it’s supposed to. As it cools, it gets even more grapey, which I’m not loving.

52Teas Countdown- Day 1
This reminds me very much of another 52Teas blend, and I can’t seem to put my finger on which one. Perhaps the Creme Brûlée Bu Lang?
I’m not really getting a raisin/dried fruit flavor, instead it’s a fresh, sweet grape. No spice or cake notes either.

52 Teas 12 Teas of Christmas – Day 1

I have been opening this and my Geek + Tea calendars up on the same days as Roswell Strange. However, she prewarned that she would be writing notes and I definitely did not. So I have been writing notes and saving them in a word doc to be posted on the days they are meant to be posted. I was then confused if I should start posting yesterday or today. I figured I would go with today to be safe.

I liked this one well enough, but this isn’t a flavor combination that speaks to me that much. Also, while I can definitely see where Anne was going with this one, the raisin comes off a lot more muscatel than I anticipated. It’s something about how the rum notes, which are nice, play off the rum that have that effect. I also do not really get cake at all.

Sipdown (1288)!

Can’t help be feel a little responsible for the current “Steepster Freeze”, even though that’s not rational at all. I definitely watched it freeze in real time though, as I was working on tasting notes a few days ago – that was pretty crazy…

A bit to my surprise, I like this a lot more as a cold brew than I did hot. It’s definitely still pretty grape-y, but the grape is more of a “raisin” grape (just on the sweet side) than that super juicy ‘purple grape drank’ flavour I got from the hot cup I had back during advent season. I felt like I got more rum flavour as well, and that was welcome to me. The spices come through, with the ginger being most noticable. I didn’t love this one when I first tried but, but I really enjoyed it made this way.

Gonna bump my rating up just a bit.