Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Here’s a flavored black tea you can really sink your teeth into. Made with our new, improved black tea base, freeze dried bananas, organic cinnamon and the essences of banana, vanilla, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and a touch of rum. This tea is a real treat. Just don’t try to flambe it.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was when 52Teas announced their Bananas Foster blend. I LOVE bananas foster! Definitely one of my top three desserts. Creme Brulee narrowly edges bananas foster out as the winner there … and come to think of it … Hey Frank… a creme brulee tea would be really amazing, don’t you think? Maybe a chocolate raspberry creme brulee. Dark Chocolate, Raspberry, creamy custard taste, with some bits of sugar brittle in the mix … YUM … my mouth is beginning to water from just thinking about such a tea.
(If you’re wondering… cupcake would be my #3 dessert. But not just any cupcake. I want a fresh, delicious, fluffy cupcake … preferably from Sweetest Thing, which is my favorite cupcake place that I’ve tried thus far)
OK… but, today I’m talking about bananas foster. Specifically this Bananas Foster flavored black tea from 52Teas. And… how amazing is this? It is so good, people! I think even if you happened to be someone who did not like bananas (I know that my SororiTea Sister, TeaEqualsBliss, does not like bananas), I think you would enjoy this tea, because really, it’s not all about banana.
In fact, banana isn’t really the strongest flavor that I taste. I taste the black tea – the good, solid tasting black tea blend that forms the base of this tea. It tastes rich and delicious, with a dry astringency that builds slowly. It is a flavorful black tea that would be delicious on its own, but, is made even more tasty with the addition of cinnamon, banana and the other flavors.
The cinnamon is the next noticeable flavor, but even though it is a strong cinnamon note, it isn’t an overwhelming one. At the start, the cinnamon is at its strongest, those first couple of sips when the tea is at its hottest, I noticed cinnamon but very little of anything else. It wasn’t a hot or spicy cinnamon, it was a smooth, sweet kind of cinnamon note, and if I really focused on what I was tasting, I’d taste the vanilla and banana softening the cinnamon, and I’d taste the hints of rum and butter in there too.
The cinnamon doesn’t overpower the flavors, it doesn’t overpower the tea. And once the tea cools slightly (still hot, just not quite so hot), I notice the cinnamon beginning to meld in a really beautiful way with the flavor of sweet banana and a creamy vanilla note, as well as the other flavors of this decadent dessert tea.
I taste notes of butter and sugar here that hints toward an overall caramel taste. It doesn’t taste syrupy or overly sweet the way some caramel flavors can taste. Instead, the taste sort of gives a nod to a caramel-like note that is harmonious with the other flavors. The rum is similar to the butter and sugar notes in that it doesn’t taste like it’s obviously rum. Instead, it’s more like an insinuation of it. It doesn’t attempt to inundate the taste buds, instead, it tantalizes them with hints of flavor. The caramel-y rum notes seem to emerge a bit more as the tea has cooled a bit, but, even as this happens, I notice that the tea does not become all about these flavors. Even when different flavors begin to reveal themselves, a certain balanced harmony remains.
And that really sort of summarizes what this tea is about for me: harmony. It isn’t a “knock you over the head with flavor” kind of tea – even when the cinnamon is at its strongest at the beginning, and I think in this case that’s a good thing. Since there are so many different elements to the dessert, but all flavors manage a very harmonious bite that features every element; this tea that was inspired by the dessert needed to be equally as enigmatic with its delivery and it is. I taste all the notes, and they come together in a very delicious way without one flavor overpowering the cup.
Another amazing tea from the Willy Wonka of Teas: Frank from 52Teas!
