Foggy Coconut blend was inspired by a coffee shop London Fog. First you need to know what a London Fog is, if you don’t know already! There may be variations but usually a London Fog is made with Earl Grey tea, lots of milk, and some vanilla and sugar, sometimes brown sugar.
The creator of this blend was ordering her London Fog with coconut milk instead of cow’s milk and loved the creamy coconut flavor. Hence, Foggy Coconut came into being.
When I served this tea, the reaction was instant. “Wow! I smell coconut!” And yes, that is the first you notice about this tea. Fortunately, we were all coconut lovers drinking it!
I love that you can still TASTE THE TEA, as a lot of flavored teas major on the flavors so much that the tea itself gets lost. This blend uses Assam and Yunnan tea that can stand up to plenty of flavors without going into hiding.
As for the bergamot, (which haters love to call blergamot) it is very refined. It comes through almost as a fruitiness rather than as edgy harsh citrus. I think the vanilla softens it wonderfully.
I drank this with no additions, but if you wanted to make a London Fog with it you could. You don’t need to, though, as all the flavors we look for in London Fog are right here. It is creamy and sweet, and the coconut lends it the full body usually provided by milk – dairy or otherwise – in a London Fog.
This was a delightful afternoon tea, and I will definitely be serving it again.
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Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below for teas that are.
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Orange Fluff/The NecessiTeas
This is one of three NecessiTeas I won in an Instagram giveaway about a year back. I was really excited to try it and yet for some reason I have not gotten around to doing so until now.
My plan was to make it hot but the package itself recommended making this iced. So I prepared it both ways, steeping both the hot and iced tea in 175F water for 3 minutes. The iced tea just got poured over ice.
The hot tea, which is not particularly hot anymore, is really quite good. The green tea was fragrant after steeping which made me worried this would taste like grass but my fear was obviously unwarranted because the flavor of the hot tea is more akin to the scent of the dry leaf, which is basically like a delicious creamsicle, except more marshmallow than vanilla. There is just so much bright and candy-like orange flavor mixed with fluffy and sweet marshmallow goodness. I personally haven’t tried an Orange Delight, the inspiration of this tea, but now I know I want to because this is delicious!
The iced tea, on the other hand, is not as much to my tastes. I find the green tea base comes out a lot more at the expense of the marshmallow flavor. Personally, I am not a fan of green tea so for me, this is a step down from the hot cup. The orange flavor still comes through strongly, but without the marshmallow it is more dull and in line with the fruit. So this iced tea is more an orange green tea and the hot tea is more Orange Fluff, a more sweet/candied flavor.
Personally I will be enjoying the rest of my 2 ozs of this tea hot because despite the company recommendations, I think that is the way to go. This is yet another successful NecessiTeas blend that I would recommend and will for sure be sharing with friends. It’s a good one, and I am especially impressed given it is almost a year old and still packs a flavor punch.
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Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
Description
This tea is currently not available but click below for teas that are.
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Gingerbread Brulee/52Teas
I found a super simple recipe to make tea infused hot chocolates and I have been making them since. 10/10 would recommend this recipe by Savvy Eats which can be found here.
I have tried this with A Quarter to Tea’s Sticky Toffee Bread Pudding, Bird and Blend’s Monkey Chops and this time I am using 52 Tea’s Gingerbread Brulee. Each time has been delicious and distinctly flavored by the tea.
You start by cold brewing 1-1.5 teaspoons of tea in 1 cup of milk. The recipe says to do this for 20 minutes which I followed the first time and had a flavorful drink. Since then, I have set the cold brew up earlier so it steeps for longer just so I can get more flavor (usually I leave it cold brewing anywhere between an hour and 6 hours). It probably isn’t necessary for it to sit that long but it makes me happy. I also usually double the recipe, using 3 teaspoons of tea for 16 ounces of milk.
When the milk is done cold brewing I get to preparing the drink on the stove. If I doubled the milk, as I did with this hot chocolate, I also double the recommended cacao powder and chocolate chips, but still only use the one tablespoon of sugar. I tend to use either a 1:1 mixture of semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips, or just milk chocolate chips. I have salted caramel chips that I think I will try one time just to change things up but this particular hot chocolate was made with all milk chocolate chips because that was what was most easily accessible.
Now that I am drinking this hot chocolate, I think all milk chocolate chips was the right way to go. This tea is so true to gingerbread but the kind you’d make at home that isn’t overly processed or sweet. That means it is heavy on the ginger and has a richness from the molasses. That depth is balanced nicely by the sweet and creamy milk chocolate, a balance that might have been tilted more to bitter if there was semi-sweet chocolate in the mix. Not that that would have been particularly bad, just more adult and sometimes you just like the nostalgia of a sweeter, creamier hot chocolate. And nostalgic this is because it essentially tastes like I made gingerbread cookies and then let one just melt into my hot chocolate. So. Good!
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Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
This tea is not available but click below for blends that are.
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Raspberry Almond Coffee/A Quarter To Tea. . .
I think that of all the new teas I have in my “to review” box, I was most excited about this one. I am not a coffee drinker but I was so excited about the white tea, the raspberry, and the almond, that I was willing to compromise on that last flavor note of its title!
I need not have have worried, though. There is really no coffee flavor in this. The roasty flavor is coming from houjicha, a Japanese green tea that is roasted in ceramic vessels until the leaves change from green to brown or reddish brown, taking out any grassy or sour taste and replacing it with a dark, roasty goodness that is lower in caffeine than the starting product.
The first aroma when I sniff the dry leaves is ALMOND, and it is such a boozy scent that I felt it was full-on amaretto. Next is the fruit, then finally the very lightest hint of roasted leaves that makes up the coffee-like component here.
In the cup, again almond dominates, which is okay by me because I love the stuff. It is mixed with the sweet and summery raspberry flavor, and at first I think there is no coffee flavor or even roasted flavor at all. The more I drink and the longer I drink, the houjicha flavor builds and lingers, mixing beautifully with the sweet and boozy almond flavor.
I even tried this one cold and unsweetened, and guess what? It is still awesome, and I think if you are after the coffee (or houjicha) flavor, you will love it as an iced tea because I feel that the houjicha comes forward just a bit more than when it is served hot.
Another winner in my book from A Quarter To Tea!
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Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: A Quarter To Tea
Description
This tea is sold out but click below to learn more about this blend and others!
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Blackberry Custard Tart Green Tea/52Teas. . . . .
I have seen a lot of praise for 52 Teas banana flavoring. There is also a lot of amazement over the 52 Teas coconut, which never seems to go bad no matter how old it gets. What you don’t hear a lot about is the 52 Teas blackberry flavor, which is a shame because it is awesome!
I had a cup of 52 Teas’ Blackberry Dumpling tea not too long ago and it was delicious. However, I had only a one-serving sample so after finishing that mug I was left with a blackberry tea void…until I remembered that this tea, Blackberry Custard Tart Green Tea, was part of the most recent 12 Teas of Christmas box.
While green tea is not typically my favorite, I am still smiling as I sip this because, like Blackberry Dumpling, the blackberry flavor is once again the super delicious star of the mug. There is the faintest vegetal note from the base but mostly it highlights the fresh and juicy flavors of the blackberry. I am not getting too much custard or tart but it is there, light and subtle and adding just a twinge of creaminess. Probably also keeping things on the sweeter side.
52 Teas just nails some flavors and blackberry is one of their more underrated skills. This is yet another delicious blackberry beverage, even if it doesn’t quite capture its namesake.
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Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below for blends that are.