Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tisane Description:
Organic, caffeine-free honeybush blended with real freeze-dried granny smith and red delicious apples, cinnamon chips and organic flavors.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Learn more about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Please check out my campaign to take over 52Teas here! Please help me keep 52Teas alive and kicking out those teas every week!
Taster’s Review:
It seems that this fall season, Zoomdweebies is embracing the apple! There have been several apple-y flavors released this year. That’s OK with me, because I’ve been enjoying them!
For this review, I decided to try something a little different with the brewing process. I steeped it in my Breville One-Touch (nothing different about that) but instead of going with 500ml of water, I went with 750ml of water and poured the whole pouch (1/2 ounce) of tisane into the basket of my Breville. The reason for this is that when I was measuring out the 3 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket, I noticed that there was about a scoop left of the tisane (maybe a little more than 1 scoop, like a heaping scoop). So, I decided to to ahead and add a little more water to the jug and use the whole pouch. I set the parameters for 195°F and 10 minutes steep time.
The result is a tasty pot of caffeine-free tisane! Two very large mugs full to the brim of cinnamon apple-y goodness. Before I took my first sip, I set my Breville One-Touch to “keep warm” so that I could have another hot cup of yummy, but shortly afterward, I thought that I’d like to try it iced. So, I poured the rest of the tea into a lidded cup so that I could refrigerate it.
This blend is a really delightful combination of flavors: the sweet apple notes with just a hint of tartness toward the finish, the zesty, warm notes of cinnamon and the honeyed nutty flavors of the honeybush. It’s pleasantly sweet – no need for additions with this one – so if you’re one who typically adds sweetener before you taste it, I would recommend trying this one before you add anything to it. If you like your drinks sweet, a dollop of honey would be a nice addition.
Served warm, I find it to be somewhat hot apple cider-like and I really liked that. It also makes a refreshing cold drink, although I found that as it cooled, I could taste a slight chemical note from the flavoring. It’s very slight and it was not as apparent to me when I drank the hot tea.
I enjoyed this, but not quite as much as I enjoyed some of the other apple offerings this season from Zoomdweebies.
Pumpkin Apple Banana Bread Black Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
I don’t know about you, but that just makes my mouth water just reading the name of this tea. This tea has premium black teas, freeze-dried apples and bananas, marigold petals and organic flavors. I think this one is going to be a big hit, so don’t miss out.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn more about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
So this is the second or third tea that I’ve had since 52Teas changed the size of their tea. They used to offer their unique blends in 2 ounce sizes unless it was a white tea or a specialty tea base, and in those cases, it was closer to 1 to 1 1/2 ounce. Now the teas are sold in 1/2 ounce pouches, and I’ve got to tell you that I like it a lot better this way.
As I’ve said on more than one occasion, I’m a “taster.” I like to taste new-to-me teas. (She who tastes the most tea wins!) And I fall in love with a lot of teas, but if I’m going to limit myself to just those teas, then I don’t taste as many new-to-me teas and to be honest, I enjoy falling in love more than I enjoy staying in love. I’m a romantic like that. So, smaller sizes for teas enables me to fall in love with more teas with less commitment. That’s my kind of tea relationship. It’s kind of like having a harem, only with tea. Does that make me a tea slut? A tea-izer?
Anyway, that was probably more than you wanted to know about my relationships with tea. Let’s get on with this review, shall we?
Pumpkin Apple Banana Bread flavored Black Tea. Not your average tea blend. Then again, that’s what I’ve come to love about 52Teas – they often color outside the lines and create blends that are intriguingly different. Something that piques my interest because it’s just so wacky and unusual.
So my interest was definitely piqued with this blend. My first sip or two, though, was a little less than spectacular. To be honest, it tasted like plain black tea. I worried that maybe I was coming down with something and my taste buds are out of whack. So I waited for a few minutes to give the tea time to cool, hoping that the flavors would pop.
Yep! This is a tea that benefits greatly with some cooling time so that the flavors have time to develop. Those first few sips, when this tea was still piping hot, I found the flavors to be somewhat muddied. But after about five minutes cool time, the flavors started to come into focus! Bam!
And Yay! My taste buds appear to be in working order.
There is a lot going on in this cup: there’s a lot of different flavors to experience. The sip starts out with a hint of apple-y sweetness. A moment later, I taste notes of banana. By mid-sip, I pick up on notes of pumpkin. This is a true medley of these three flavors.
I don’t taste a lot of “bread” or the cake-y quick bread flavor that I’d taste if I were biting into a piece of banana bread. This is more about the fruits and pumpkin than it is about the “bread.” But I do taste hints of a cinnamon-y type note that accents the pumpkin (and the apple and banana, for that matter!) quite nicely. And as I continue to sip, I start to taste flavors that might be “bread-like” or at least “buttery” that make my palate believe that maybe, just maybe the cake-y/bread-y flavors are actually there.
And I’m also enjoying the black tea base. The description doesn’t tell me what types of black teas 52Teas is using now (I know that they were thinking of changing their base at one point), but I like the smoothness of this base. It’s a flavorful tea and I’m not getting any astringency or bitterness from it. Nice!
To brew this tea, I used my Breville One-Touch. I measured out 2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket and added 500ml of water to the jug and set the parameters as follows: 205°F for 2 1/2 minutes. Allow the tea to cool at least 5 minutes before you start sipping – your taste buds will thank you for it!
Overall, a tasty blend. I’d like a little more of that cakey-bready-buttery flavor that I’ve enjoyed with other “bread/cake” type of blends from 52Teas, but I do like that I’m tasting the pumpkin, apple and banana flavors clearly.
Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal DiviniTEA from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong (Darjeeling)
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
This is a VERY special blend of white-tipped formosa oolong, Darjeeling Wonder Tea (a special oolong from the Darjeeling region), cinnamon, rolled oats, freeze-dried apple bits and organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh yum. Frank does it again.
He delivers exactly what he promised. This tastes just like Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal … actually, as I sip this, I’m not really thinking of a bowl of oatmeal, but more of an apple crisp with an oatmeal crumble topping. Mmm!
When I scooped out a bamboo scoop of the leaves to put into the basket of my Kati tumbler, I saw a HUGE dried apple chunk. This is not your average little dried apple diced chunk that you’ll find in other tea blends. This is about the size of a single square on the “regular” sized Rubik’s Cube. As in, this was bigger than the average dried apple bit.
And because this apple chunk took up half of the bamboo scoop, I decided I needed more tea in the basket. So I measured out another 1/2 a scoop of the tea and put that into the basket. Then I poured heated water (180°F) over the tea. I gave it a quick 15 second rinse, discarded the liquid, and then steeped the leaves for 3 minutes.
And as I said at the start – yum. Like serious yum.
The apple and Oolong are a perfect pairing, I think. Having tried (and enjoyed) a couple of other apple flavored teas this season from Zoomdweebies, I think that this may be their best apple tea yet. Like I said, the apple and the Oolong seem to just work together. The Oolong allows the more delicate flavors of the apple to really shine through while the apple doesn’t obscure the Oolong notes. I love that Frank used a Darjeeling Oolong in this. I love the crispness of the Oolong base here – it seems to accentuate the crisp, apple-y flavors.
And I like that I taste the other flavors too. The cinnamon is strong without being overly assertive. It enhances the apple and gives the cup a hint of spice to go with the sweet. I can taste the oatmeal notes. I even taste a hint of brown sugar (and this would be really tasty if you sweetened it with a pinch of brown sugar to highlight those brown sugar-y notes).
This tea should really make you happy that autumn is here. That is assuming, of course, that you weren’t already just as pleased as apple oatmeal that it’s here.
A really tasty blend that resteeps really well. The second infusion tasted very much like the first! I’m betting this is really good iced too. I like it warm though, it seems to add to the cozy, comforting thoughts that a bowl of apple oatmeal inspires.
Apple Harvest Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
If this doesn’t put you in the mood for fall, I can’t help you. This awesome iced tea is a blend of organic southern Indian black teas and organic red delicious and granny smith apple flavors. It’s a bit sweet, a bit tart and all refreshing.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve been drinking this periodically throughout the day, and when I was pouring past the half-way point of the pitcher of tea, I realized that I better sit down and write about it before I have an empty pitcher of tea and no tea left to write about!
That is to say, it’s tasty. I like that it’s sweet but not cloying. When I focus on what I taste, I can recognize the apple notes. When I’m casually sipping, I don’t immediately notice that “hey, I’m drinking an apple tea.” I just notice that “hey, this tastes really good.” But then when I reach the bottom of the glass of tea, my last gulp is very obviously apple.
The apple notes and the black tea notes work together extremely well. The black tea tastes smoother. It’s a medium-bodied black tea base that’s very pleasant to drink. It has a certain “invigorating” quality to it without being even the slightest bit aggressive, bitter or astringent. It is smooth and silky and very refreshing.
The apple tastes sweet and there’s just enough tartness to the apple to add a balancing contrast to the flavor. It’s not an overly flavored tea – this is a tea first and an apple-y tasting tea second.
I have to admit that when this tea was announced on the week of October 13, I wasn’t all that excited about it. I mean, it sounded good and if I wasn’t already a subscriber, I probably would have ordered the tea to try it. But, was I dancing the happy dance over the idea of Apple Harvest Iced Tea? No, no I wasn’t. But now, I’m dancing that happy dance. Because this tea is really good! I ended up liking this much more than I thought I would. Yum!
White Chai from The Persimmon Tree
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where To Buy: The Persimmon Tree
Tea Description:
Our white chai is perfectly blended with white tea, chai spices, lemongrass, coconut, fruit pieces and peppercorn for a delicious bold taste. It comprises sweetness from the fruit pieces fused with a bold kick from chai spices and peppercorn.
Learn more about this chai here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! OK, so take everything you know about chai and throw it out the window, because this will challenge your thoughts on what chai should be! This is a deliciously different chai!
After reading the above description, my first thought is that this tea has a lot going on. But everything is nicely represented in this cup. I’m not getting too much of anything and it all works together surprisingly well.
Because it’s crafted using a white tea base, the flavors are kept to that level. That is to say that the flavors here are blended skillfully so that the delicate flavors of the white tea are not overpowered. And yes, I can taste the white tea! It’s got a fresh, light, airy taste with hints of a hay-like flavor. It’s subtle, yes, but the other flavors of this cup are also kept on a subtle level so that the white tea doesn’t get lost in the mix.
And that’s not to say that the “chai” here is a mild chai, either. This chai has some kick to it! The ginger is zesty, the cinnamon is well-defined but not overdone. The cardamom and clove and pink peppercorn offer warmth. The “usual chai ingredients” have been utilized here (along with pink peppercorn which is not what I’d classify as a “usual ingredient.”)
With another tea type used as a base, the level of spices used this blend would probably seem a bit on the mellow side, but when combined with a white tea, it becomes rather invigorating and bold!
Then you get the fruit flavors: coconut, pineapple, apple and lemongrass. Yeah, I know lemongrass isn’t technically a “fruit,” but because it adds a nice, lemon-lime-ish flavor to a tea, I’m calling it a ‘fruit flavor’ for the purposes of this review. These sweet fruity notes add a touch of tropical flavor to the cup which is quite enjoyable.
I find myself especially appreciating the coconut because it adds a touch of “creamy” to the cup and because this is a white tea, I didn’t want to go latte with this chai. But I do still like a touch of creamy to most chai blends, it just seems to make it taste a little more indulgent. I like that the coconut adds a little bit of that “latte” creaminess to the cup without overwhelming the blend.
It’s a very unique spin on the traditional chai, one that I enjoyed quite a bit!
To brew: I used my Kati Tumbler (I prefer not to steep chai blends in my Breville because the spices impart their essence in the tea maker that are difficult to remove without soaking in baking soda) and put 1 1/2 bamboo scoops into the basket (remember, I like to use a little extra leaf with a chai as well as with a white tea!) and added 12 ounces of water heated to 170°F. I steeped it for 3 1/2 minutes. Perfection!