Spumoni Green Tea

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – July Tea #7 -A tea flavored like your favorite ice cream

Another sipdown I have been dreading.  I have never had spumoni, so it can’t be a favorite ice cream, but this tea WAS a favorite. I miss this shop! Of course I don’t know if this tasted like spumoni, but the flavors here mingled amazingly.  Even steeping it up this final time.  The flavors are still very nuanced and balanced, and I completely forgot there was even coconut here, as it isn’t ruining this.  Three glorious steeps to send this to tea heaven.  Yesterday while thinking of this prompt, I DID drink 52Teas Chocolate Marshmallow Spicier chai.  I would say most ice cream is my favorite, I don’t really have a preference,  but Chocolate Marshmallow might just slightly edge out the other flavors IMO.  But the chocolate marshmallow tea itself was not close to a sipdown, so I’m counting this spumoni tea, simply because it is an actual ice cream flavor.  I bet I’d love spumoni if I had it anyway!
2022 sipdowns:  87

Tart cherry start with a smooth chocolate pistachio finish. This tea is yummy. A great way to conclude my day.

Used whole sample in 7 ounces. Bad idea. Steeping it for 30 seconds. Good idea. Letting it steep another 30 seconds. Stupid idea. Drinking half, then adding more water. Great idea.

Consensus: it really tastes like liquid hot spumoni. The pistachio and the sencha are the most dominant-which is good because whenever I ate spumoni, I would ONLY eat the pistachio first, inching every morsel of green without touching the strawberry or chocolate. Then I would move on to the strawberry, and then I relaxed a little bit more with the chocolate. I was really OCD as a child.

Okay, back to the tea. The coconut provides the creamy background that the tea really needs. The cocoa nibs are great-shadowed but ever known and ever present. Strawberry perfectly compliments everything else and puts a smile on my face. Steep two at 40 seconds is coconut and pistachio Sencha with cocoa. My only complaints in taste is the astringency, which I can avoid If I steep it lighter.

Unfortunately, I do have one larger complaint and that is the packaging. I could smell every tea through the bag and I’m not sure for how long they would keep their flavors, which is why I’m drinking all of them now. I could be wrong and hope that I am wrong. I also REALLY need to steep these teas lighter. Thankfully, I have enough of the Cherry Latte to figure that out with.

I’m so glad the the taste matched the smell entirely, which is why I’m rating this higher than the others I’ve had so far. I do need to try this again. Spumoni is one of my favorites after all, and so is Sencha.

Happy Friday Tea People! We had our first freeze last night, and you know, I was going to talk about how the weather is turning cool and that makes me happy…but I can’t, more important things!! Dropfleet Commander’s Kickstarter just went live and ughhhhhhh, the Scourge ships are so pretty. In an eerie Mass Effect Reaper and creepy brain-slug kinda way…which you all know at this point is totally my thing. I love my Scourge, problem is I barely get the time (and money) to play Dropzone Commander and Malifaux, so the last thing I need is another game…but I really want those ships! When this goes to stores I am so going to get a few Scourge ships, paint them all Bio-Mech, and love them forever, because I am such a nerd.

Ok, deep breaths, no more spazzing out over gaming, time to relax with tea. So, tea, today’s tea is from A Quarter To Tea, an awesome Etsy shop that decided to offer some Steepster peeps samples for review, and you know me, I want to try all the teas! I was sent three, and then of course waffled over which to try first…and the one based on one of my favorite ice creams ever won. Presenting Spumoni Green Tea, a blend of Chinese green tea, Organic Sencha, raw pistachios, organic cacao nibs, montamorey cherries, flakes of coconut, yeah they use pistachios! It is a well known fact that my favorite ice creams all contain pistachio, it is a tie between plain ol’ pistachio, Spumoni, and Kulfi…but ice cream and I don’t get along too well, hurts my teeth…so being able to have that flavor is just such an awesome thing. Now, before I forget, A Quarter To Tea was awesome and is offering my readers a 10% off any purchase over $5 before December 15th, just use the code GEEKERY10 for discount goodness. The aroma of the tea is yummy, a triple threat of pistachio nuttiness, cherry sweetness (with a hint of tart) and cocoa richness, yep it smells like Spumoni! Mix in some coconut for creaminess and a slightly toasty note at the finish and you have a tasty smelling tea.

Into my handy steeping apparatus the leaves and fun little bits go for steeping! The aroma wafting out from the steeper is very nutty, coconut and pistachio notes are drifting my way and it is making my mouth water…I have a weakness for nuttiness, seriously I have an industrial sized container of cashews at my desk, I am like a squirrel. There are also notes of cocoa and cherries with a gentle sweetness to the leaves. The liquid is nutty and sweet, leaning more towards nutty than cocoa or cherry.

Moment of truth, will the tea live up to the ice cream hype? In truth, yes! It is like drinking a warm glass of Spumoni, of course there is a moment of disconnect as your brain is trying to understand the taste, temperature, and texture…it is really fun. The mouthfeel is smooth and creamy, a little oily from the coconut, but luckily the coconut is light enough that it is not super oily, just a lightness coating the mouth. The taste starts out with coconut and pistachio, nutty and gently sweet, it then moves on to a blend of cocoa and cherry, both rich and sweet. There is a nutty aftertaste that lingers for a bit, overall this tea is mild, not a kick in the face, gentle sweetness and flavors that blend really well.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-quarter-to-tea-spumoni-green-tea-tea.html