Shanie O Maniac Send Message

Sipdown!

So I had about two and a half sessions of this left. I decided to make the rest into a whole pot. So I threw it all into the brevelle and off we went.

This one was pleasing. I did get the peach flavor from it, but I don’t recall nearly as much white tea flavor as I would have liked. Basically it was just a mild peach tea. I did use sweetener with it to bring out the peach, as without it, the peach is very bland and not at all the nice nectary flavor I love.

I would probably get this again. It made for a nice cuppa and I’m kinda sad that I used it all up in one go. Recommended.

Ok, I have to admit, the first cup of this I underleafed AND understeeped. And it was awful. It was, as they say, like making love in a canoe, if you get my drift. So the next steep I intentionally overleafed and oversteeped to compensate. It is much better this way. Even without adding any sweetener, I’m getting a very nice flavor here. It’s a mild fig/raisin flavor with a black tea base. Adding a sweetener (for SCIENCE) and it brings out the fruitiness a bit more. The fig isn’t as strong as I would like it to be though. I was hoping for the full on newton with this, but instead, I get a mild, reserved fig flavor. It’s definitely not “bad” so to speak, but it isn’t living up to its full potential and that’s unfortunate.

Just a quickie review of this, I really don’t know what she was going for with this tea. When tasted plain, it almost has the flavor of one of those specialty blend coffees? Like a maple bacon flavored coffee drink? It’s hard to say. With sweetener added, the best way I can describe it is if you put a pancake and bacon breakfast in a blender and hit PUREE and then drank the result. It’s kinda weird. Not horrible so to speak, but just strange. I’m honestly trying to decide if I like this or not, and I’m having trouble. I think i do? Maybe? This one is just out there. I’ll give it a rec for anyone aching to try something truly different. But for people who are conservative about their tea choices, I would probably stay away from this one.

Ok, I made a rather large 52 Teas order, and Anne was kind enough to include a single serve sample of this in the package
Just a quickie review, this tea is OK. I would have liked it MUCH better without the anise. I find licorice flavor of any sort (black licorice that is) revolting and when it shows up in my tea I have to drown it in sweetener just to make it palatable. That is what happened here with each steeping requiring THREE splendas just so I could drink it. However, with the three splendas it was actually not too bad. I got the basic gist of the tea. I’ve never had mulled wine, so I can only guess that it what it tastes like. All in all, not a fan of this one, but I have had much much worse.

Ok, another one from yesterday’s box! This one I was gonna wait till tomorrow’s breakfast, but that TOTALLY isn’t happening.

Brewed western style 212F/2tsp/2:30min/12oz

Taste is… wow that is definitely creamy! I know this is meant to be taken with sweetener, but it really is very creamy without any. But, since sweetener was intended, sweetener we shall add! MMMM now THAT is tasty. It’s still really creamy, but the added sweetener really brings out the brûlée/custard flavor. Uh oh… I may need a large of this. This is mighty good. This is the third tea I’ve tried of this batch, (although only the second I wrote up,) and by far the best. I would compare the taste to a previous 52teas blend the “caramel monkey bread rooibos”, just without the woody rooibos flavor. I do believe I’m out of that one so I will have to get a bunch of this one to hold me over till we get a reblend of the Monkey Bread. Great Job on this one!

So this just came in the mail today as part of my 52 teas box. I was immediately excited as I love peaches and I love peaches and cream even more. Upon opening the package I immediately noticed the sweet peach smell and the actual pieces of peach in it. So I set about brewing it up. 1.5min/175f/2tsp/12oz

Taste is… ok not what I was expecting. It’s got a background sweetness and I can definitely taste the peach. But the flavors are conflicting. I grabbed a splenda in case I wanted to try adding that and I think I do. Well, with the splenda, the “peaches and cream” flavor really comes out, but I still feel as though it is conflicting with the genmaicha. It’s like this tea is trying to be two opposite things at once – sweet-light-fluffy and roasty-vegetal-buttery at the same time. It isn’t really working for me. It’s drinkable, but the conflicting flavors really are confusing my senses. I don’t think I will be getting more of this after all, unless it really starts to grow on me quickly.

Just throwing up an additional note to this.

Please, PLEASE don’t oversteep this. I was feeling adventurous and brewed up a whole pot. However, using only 3 tsp for the entire pot (I was making it in the Brevelle), I thought I would intentionally oversteep a bit to pad out the flavor.

Don’t. Just… DON’T.

The blackberry gets tart quickly. I took a sip and instantly my mouth puckered. It was salvageable with a bit of splenda, which thankfully didn’t completely ruin the tea, only tempered the tart. But yeah, don’t oversteep this. It’s too good to ruin it like that. Learn from my fail and DON’T DO IT!

This is a one off Sample provided to me by Mandala. I really don’t know what to expect with this tea though.
I brewed it 212F/2:30/12oz I don’t know how much was in the sample though but I used up the entire thing.
This one has an interesting flavor to it. I’m getting tobacco, cherry, and a bit of metallic flavor. Also there is some amount of Malt and Bitterness to it as well for the black tea itself. It’s certainly not a bad tea. It just has a different flavor to it. Good tea though. I’ll give it a rec.