My mom has been on a french toast kick lately. Seriously, if a loaf of bread is still in the cupboard after a few days all we here is “you know, I could make a french toast casserole with this!” We are not sure what inspired this since she does not even eat french toast but here we are, up to our eyeballs in everything french toast. So as we compared how different breads altered the taste of the casserole she is now so found of making, I got to thinking about all the french toast teas I tried. With so many options out there, the question remains, which french toast tea reigns supreme? So I grabbed the two french toast teas I currently have stocked and got to prepping.
The companies: 52 Teas vs. The NecessiTeas. 52 Teas has been a long time favorite of mine that has only gotten better since taken over by Sororitea Sisters’ very own LiberTeas. I know that might sound biased but I have felt this way long before I started writing for Sororitea Sisters and I am sure I will feel this way for a million years to come. The NecessiTeas, on the other hand, is new to my cupboard but I don’t think I have come across a blend yet that I am not wowed by. So, these two companies are both loved by me which means this French Toast showdown is bound to be a fun one.
The names: 52 Tea’s went simple and straight to the point when they named their blend “French Toast Black Tea”. The NecessiTeas also didn’t beat around the bush when it came to naming their tea given they called it “Cinnamon French Toast”. I suppose it would depend how you feel about cinnamon when it comes to deciding which tea name is more appealing. As for me, I clearly was drawn in by both names seeing as I purchased both blends.
The ingredients: 52 Tea’s combines the organic ingredients of black tea, cinnamon, calendula petals and natural flavors to create their french toast while The NecessiTeas opted for black tea, cinnamon, marigold petals, brown sugar, and natural and organic flavors. So for those that don’t particularly like their teas pre-sweetened, 52 Teas might be the one you reach for. As for me, I don’t mind when a company adds real sugar if it helps create a flavor (on the other hand, I very much mind when they add artificial sweeteners that have a horrible aftertaste – luckily that is not the case for either of these teas).
The scent: So weirdly enough, the 52 Teas blend, the one that doesn’t have “cinnamon” in the title, smells more strongly of cinnamon while The NecessiTeas captures the scent of the egg mixture you’d batter your french toast in. You also get notes of the brown sugar bits within the tea. Both smell amazing but I think the NecessiTeas captured my nose just a touch more.
Finally, the taste: 52 Tea’s is a more subtle french toast flavor. The cinnamon note is on the top of the tea while the egg mixture is a bit more timid and hiding underneath. The black base contributes a nice maltiness though and a bit of a maple syrup flavor. The NecessiTeas is a bit more in-your-face. The egg mixture is right there at the forefront with a cinnamon sugar taste trailing right behind it. The black base here mostly just serves as a foundation, supporting the other flavors as opposed to contributing anything of its own. So, which tastes better of the two? I am going to go with the answer my roommate used to give me when I asked her to compare things and say “they’re different”. I would not rate one above the other because both deliver on what they promise but in very unique and different ways. The 52 Teas blend is more refined while I would describe the NecessiTeas as being a fun blend (in light of the flavor punch).
So, though I may not have crowned a clear winner, I think it is fair to say that anyone would be happy with either of these blends if they are looking for a french toast tea. The one thing the NecessiTeas has going for it over 52 Teas is that their french toast blend is currently stocked and available on their website. That’s not to say that the 52 Teas option won’t be reblended in the future so keep an eye out for that and happy drinking!
Here’s the scoop!
Where to Buy: 52Teas & The NecessiTeas
On the 9th Day of Christmas 52Teas Sent To Me. . .
I’m not going to lie, we are on the 9th Dy of this amazing promotion and I’m quiet sad! We are almost done. I’ve loved this daily special treat and it honestly did make the countdown to the holidays.
So if you are following along, scratch off your 9th Tea sticker and lets uncover the surprise!
Coconut Cream Pie Black Tea
EEEKKK!!!! I’m am so excited! I think this is a reblend that I missed the first go around so this is super exciting. (FYI, I’m writing this review while drinking the tea). While my water is prepping I can’t keep my nose out of the pouch. This blend smells like a heavy calorie dessert that needs to be devoured instantly and that is exactly what I plan to do with this tea.
Rich creamy pudding like notes of coconut swirl the palette as a lovely rich sweetness that I think is possibly vanilla (?) that really sets this coconut based tea apart from others. I can’t put my finger on it but I also am getting a slight graham cracker like feel.
An amazing treat for sure and one that is curving this sweet tooth I’ve got. What I almost love more than the flavor of this tea is the texture and feel you get from it. There is such a lush decadence with every sip. This tea is one of those that you hoard like a mad fiend and are not open to sharing with anybody.
Highly recommended and if you have a chance to get your hands on some, do! You’ll be like me. . .sitting in the corner, unwillingly to share the amazing tea! It really is dessert in a cuppa at it’s finest!
Here is the official description and Mad Musings for this tea.
Coconut Cream Pie Black Tea!
Tea Description: I was pretty excited when people asked that this tea be included in the vote for the 2016 12 Teas of Christmas, and even happier when this tea turned out to be one of the top vote getters. This has been one of the more memorable 52Teas blends for me – I love coconut! – so I was really happy to have the opportunity to reblend it.
The original description of this tea said:
Our Coconut Cream Pie flavored black tea has been one of our bestsellers here at Zoomdweebie’s since we opened. In addition to the pouches of this tea that we’ve sold, we sell a LOT of beverages made from this tea, in particular, this is probably our all time bestselling iced tea latte, one sip of which has led people to exclaim, “That’s like coconut cream pie in a glass!” I’ve also been frequently challenged on our assertion that our tea lattes are all fat-free, particularly with this tea.
It is simply so decadent, so wonderfully sweet and satisfying, that people cannot believe that we didn’t just liquefy a slice of coconut cream pie and serve it to them in a glass.
For the 52teas version of this tea, we are adding some honking-big flakes of unsweetened coconut to our premium black tea blend along with coconut and vanilla flavors.
So, obviously, I needed to change up the recipe somewhat because the black tea that I use is different from the ones utilized by Frank. I started with my black tea base of organic Indian and Chinese teas. I did use some “honking-big flakes of unsweetened coconut” as well as some vanilla beans and calendula petals.
This is very coconut-y, very creamy and oh-so-yummy! It’s been a while since I’ve had some of Frank’s version of this tea, but I’d say that I did pretty well with this blend! If my review of this tea is any indication – I think my black tea might be a bit stronger than the original version – but the other flavors are on point!
organic ingredients: black teas, coconut, calendula petals, vanilla beans and natural flavors.
So yummy!
As I said in the description, it’s been a long while since I’ve had some of Frank’s version of this tea. But, I have to say that I’m loving my recreation of this blend! The black tea is a good, solid black tea flavor – robust enough to get your day off to a strong start if you decided you wanted a little bit of coconut cream pie for breakfast. (Try this as a latte – seriously – it’s so darned tasty!)
The coconut is strong with this tea! It’s smooth and creamy. Sweet! I can taste that creamy custard-y filling of the coconut cream pie – and I even get an occasional note of pastry to this. The pastry is more of a distant flavor – but really, I don’t want to tweak with this and change the flavors because it’s really awesome the way it is. I don’t want to sacrifice any of the yummy coconut and custard flavors to bring out the pastry more. I guess, for me what it came down to was this question: When you eat pie, do you eat it for the crust or for the filling?
The filling wins every time! Oh sure, I want a tasty crust too, but I can’t remember eating the crust and leaving the filling of any pie – while I can remember doing the opposite as a kid!
Anyway – I’m really happy with this – I hope those of you who were fans of the original blend are just as happy with my recreation of it!
To brew: Use a rounded teaspoon of tea (give it a good shake before you measure it to redistribute any ingredients. There is vanilla bean in this blend – and they will settle to the bottom!) to 12 ounces of boiling water. Let steep for 2 1/2 minutes. Strain and cool for 10 minutes. Enjoy!
No sugar needed for this (unless you want it!) I found it plenty sweet and satisfying without! But you will want to try it as a latte because it becomes even more decadent!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Flavored Tea
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
This tea is no longer available but these are!
On the 8th Day of Christmas 52Teas Sent To Me (Spoilers!)
Continuing with our 12 Days of Christmas countdown, today I was excited to scratch off the label and see a flavored green tea. So if you are following along and don’t want to be spoiled on what today’s tea is, you might want to stop reading here. You’ve been warned 🙂
The 8th Day of Christmas Tea is. . . ..Buttered Spiced Rum Green Tea.
Today was a day where I drank a lot of black teas so to see a green tea was such a great change of pace. This tea had all of the aroma of a typical chai with a soft overlaying sweet layer. Steeped up per the parameters indicated on the back of the pouch, I let the tea cool for the 5 minutes recommended and took my first sip.
As much spice as I picked up from the dry leaf, I was happy to see that the spices weren’t overpowering and the tea itself had an incredibly lovely sweet touch. I’m assuming that is the Buttered Rum part coming to play. The green tea base just adds to the sweet buttery feel that this tea really exudes.
All in all, a wonderful tea that reminds you of a chai without having those strong chai flavors. Basically a chai for non chai drinkers like myself. I love the fact that the tea base is green tea too. Just calms those spices down so they don’t smack you in the face at the beginning of every sip.
Here is the official tea description and Mad Musings. I write my review before looking at the official description.
Tea Description: Hot Buttered Rum is a traditional winter drink – something that will help warm you up when it’s cold outside. As I’ve often mentioned, I’m not much of a drinker of alcohol – tea is my drink of choice – but I still enjoy the idea of a warm, soothing cup of hot buttered rum – so I decided to create a tea that brought those flavors to life while still enjoying my favorite drink.
I chose a buttery Chinese Sencha as my base because I felt that the natural buttery tones of the tea would highlight the ‘buttered’ part of the buttered rum. Then I added a few spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. The spices aren’t overwhelming because I wanted a gentle, warm spice flavor but not something that would overpower the flavors of creamy butter and rum. A couple of the recipes that I found online for Hot Buttered Spiced Rum called for orange zest – instead, I added some dried orange segments. The orange flavor is delicate here, just a touch of orange to brighten the cup. As I already mentioned, my goal was to highlight the buttered rum flavor so I didn’t want those flavors overwhelmed by other profiles in this blend.
The result is a gentle, warm, soothing beverage. Something that makes me want to curl up next to a crackling fire and read a good book. This one’s really nice!
organic ingredients: green tea, oranges, cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice, nutmeg and natural flavors.
This one required a little bit of tweaking for me to get it just the way I wanted it. The first time I tested it, I wasn’t getting enough of a buttered rum flavor. Oh, I could taste them, but they seemed to be lurking somewhere in the distance. The second time I tested it, the buttered rum flavor was a little more dominant which made me happy, but I wasn’t getting enough from the spices. So I added a few more spices to the blend before I tested it for the third time.
Now that’s the stuff!
I managed to get a nice balance between butter and rum here – and it ends up tasting a lot more like the candies (you know, the popular candies with the hole in the middle?) – like, imagine if you were to liquefy the candies and add that liquid to a cup of green tea – yeah, that’s the flavor I’m getting here. I haven’t really had a hot buttered rum recently (I seem to remember being offered a sip of the drink once when I was young but it either: a) not memorable, or; b) I was either drunk or well on my way to getting there so I don’t remember what it tasted like. I was a bit more of a drinker in my youth than I am today.
The orange is delicate but it develops as I continue to sip. Now that I’m more than halfway finished with my cup, I’m picking up on just a little more orange. Still not a dominant flavor – it’s still much more there than it was at the start and I also notice a hint of tangy citrus lingering on my palate in the aftertaste.
The spices are not strong – this isn’t meant to taste like a chai – but they’re definitely there.
Overall, I think that this drink comes together really nicely. It’s warm and cozy – like something you might want to sip after coming in from the snow. Something soothing and calming and really pleasant.
To brew: Give the pouch a gentle shake to make sure that the spices are incorporated throughout the blend. I used a rounded teaspoon – with Chinese Sencha, it might be easier to use a regular teaspoon from the cutlery drawer rather than one of those ‘perfect’ teaspoons because the leaves are long and spear-like and they don’t fit very well in that perfect teaspoon measuring spoon. Steep in 12 ounces of hot water (heated to 180°F) and let steep for 2 1/2 minutes. Strain and let cool for about 5 minutes. Enjoy.
I personally think that this tea is better hot rather than cold so don’t let it cool too long! Also, a small dollop of honey will accentuate the spices in a very pleasant way so I highly recommend it!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Flavored Green Tea
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below to see what is.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
On the 7th Day of Christmas 52Teas Sent To Me (Spoilers). . .
We are on the 7th day of Christmas in the 12 Teas of Christmas and I am having a blast! If you took advantage of this awesome promotion, I’m sure you are just as pleased as I am.
So get your tea pouch out and scratch to your heart’s content and let’s reveal today’s tea of the day. . .
Marshmallow Assam
I want to say this tea is a reblend but I can’t say that with 100% certainty. Regardless, this tea was exactly what I needed. It’s been a little stressful with the holidays and a few other things going on, so I was excited to relax with a properly made tea latte for the evening.
Eggnog Lattes are amazing. They give the flavor of the tea such a wonderful texture and feel. I just love it. All you have to do is take eggnog (alcoholic or non-alcoholic), froth the mixture and then top your tea off. Add a dash of cinnamon or whip topping and you have yourself an amazing decadent beverage to relax to.
Costco sells an amazingly rich Eggnog that already has rum in it and every year my hubby and I enjoy a bottle during the holidays. All I had to do was brew up the tea to the pouch specifications while frothing up my eggnog with a touch of almond milk in my Breville Frother. Once everything was ready to go I added the topping to my tea and sat down to enjoy.
The tea itself was delicious ( I did have a cup without the added topping), but combined with the eggnog- this tea became something amazing all together. Rich notes of a black tea contrasted that sweet tang of eggnog and the spices while the marshmallow added a creamy note and sweetness. Seriously amazing and my cup was empty in no time at all.
Like I said I did enjoy this tea on its own. What I found was that the marshmallow wasn’t as strong as I would like and the black tea was a bit more dominating. Probably on a different day, this tea would be exactly spot on because all of the flavors were there but today with the weather the way it is (Cold, Snowy, and Icy), the Eggnog Latte was hitting the spot.
I’m going to take the rest of my pouch and cold brew. I have a feeling this tea will be perfect as a glorious cold brew.
Here is the official description of the tea and the Mad Musings behind the creation. I do not look at the official description until after my review.
Marshmallow Assam!
Tea Description: I was happy to reblend this tea – not only because it is a fairly simple tea to
reconstruct but also because it’s quite delicious! This tea was released shortly before we took over
52Teas and I think the timing of its release didn’t allow me the time to review it for the SororiTea Sisters
blog before taking over. So this is – I believe – my first time reviewing the tea!
Frank described this tea like this:
I thought it would be fun to pair a rich bold Assam tea with marshmallow root and organic marshmallow
flavors. This is sweet, soothing, and delicious. What I remember liking so much about the original blend – and about this re-blended version as well -is that the natural malty flavors of the Assam paired so nicely with the sweet, fluffy notes of marshmallow. I didn’t stray from the recipe a great deal – because why? The only real difference here is that the Assam I use is from a different supplier – as is the marshmallow root. This tea makes for a delightful breakfast tea – it’s sweet and comforting yet rich and robust with the gusto to get you up and at ’em!
organic ingredients: black tea, marshmallow root & natural flavors.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Flavored Black Tea
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
This tea is not available but these teas are.
On the 6th Day of Christmas 52Teas Sent To Me. . . (Spoilers)
Cue the music! On the 6th Day of Christmas, 52Teas Sent to Me. . . .(Scratch off your sticker)
Wnter Cabin Chai Black Tea
Today’s weather is frigid cold. Like you go outside for a second and you are already regretting it. So today’s tea -Winter Cabin Chai Black Tea is perfect.
I brewed up a the entire pouch because the whole family loves chai lattes and this tea just sounded like it wanted to become a latte. First whiff of the dry leaf, I wasn’t sure if this would be a tea for me. I hoped so because this was also a tea that was offered in this month’s 52Teas Subscription Box. I had my fingers crossed!
Brewed up and allowed to cool while I frothed the milk, the gorgeous spicy aromas filled the kitchen. Typically I’m not a chai fan but today it sounded good and boy did this tea hit the spot.
Topped with froth milk, this chai delivers on a flavor that I instantly devoured. Rich robust clover flavors, hint of maybe ginger here and there along with cardamom, mixed with a soft cinnamon note and topped with the frothed almond milk. . . this latte had it all! I think there is even a smoky flavor so I’m wondering if a lapsang was used. Very well done and one I’ not sure I’d grab for often but on really cold days like today, these flavors are hitting the spot!!
Here is the official description and Mad Musings about this tea. As I have done with all of the teas, I write my review before the description and Mad Musings come out.
Winter Cabin Chai!
Tea Description: I’m not exactly sure how to explain my inspiration behind this tea except to say that I wanted to create something that evoked thoughts of a little cabin out in the woods during a winter snowstorm. Inside the cabin, it’s warm and toasty, there’s a fire cracking in the fireplace and you’re – yes you! Not me, I’d prefer no snowstorm please. Since I’m the one writing the story, you’ll be the character in the story, m-kay? You’re curled up in front of the fireplace, wrapped in a warm, fuzzy blanket and you’re roasting marshmallows. I wanted a chai that captured that story. I wanted something warm and spicy but also sweet and toasty. Something that hints of slightly charred marshmallows while still letting you know that it’s a chai you’re sipping. I wanted the spices to be in the forefront but not so aggressive that the delightful roasted marshmallow flavor is overpowered. And I think I’ve accomplished what I set out to do – try it yourself and see if you agree!
organic ingredients: black teas, honeybush, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, clove, black pepper, nutmeg,
marshmallow root, vanilla bean and natural flavors.