Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Design a Tea
About Design a Tea:
Design a Tea brings choice to the marketplace. The simple concept of offering choices is the number one difference between Design a Tea and other artisan tea blending companies. Who doesn’t like choices in life? The feeling of creating and personalizing a product you order. We want consumers that deal with us to know they are dealing with a caring company. Caring, in that we hand package each order, and we pride ourselves on customer service.
Learn more about designing your own tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Design a Tea has a free sample offer, which allows you to design your own tea flavor and try it out … free! All you pay is $1 postage. I figured I’d give it a shot. The two flavors that I created were My Pacific Northwest Blend (Apple Hazelnut Green Tea) and this one. When I tasted the Apple Hazelnut Tea, I felt that the flavors were a little more subtle than I would have liked. Something that I learned as a tea artist is that the flavors need time to “cure,” and I think that the subtle flavor had a little something to do with the fact that I tried it as soon as I received it!
With this tea, I decided to hold off on it and try it at least three weeks after I received it. Now, it’s actually closer to two months later, so I think I’m safe!
And I’m really glad I waited! This is really a tasty combination. The black tea is delicious. It has a certain boldness to it without being overpowering. It is rich and pleasant tasting.
And the flavors are good and strong this time around! I taste the maple (yum) and the zabaglione. It tastes creamy and sweet.
It was fun designing my own tea with Design a Tea, and I’m really thrilled with how this one turned out. I like it so much that I may just end up getting a full-sized package of this tea.
Custard-Filled Maple Long John Honeybush from 52Teas
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tisane Description:
Continuing our tradition of bringing you guilty-pleasure baked goods in tea form, here’s our take on a custard-filled maple long john (one of my personal guilty-pleasures). Sweet, caffeine-free honeybush blended with marigold petals and natural flavors. Sweet, maple-y, bake-y goodness in a guilt-free, caffeine-free and 100% vegan treat!
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
This is one that I’ve really been looking forward to. I love maple bars, and while I’m sure that I’ve had a custard-filled maple long john before, it hasn’t been recently. Maple bars are easy to find, I usually find them in my grocery store bakery. But custard-filled maple long johns, are not quite so easy to find unless I happen to visit an actual donut shop, and I try to avoid those, as I cannot resist temptation when it’s right there in front of me, you know what I mean?
But, a Custard-Filled Maple Long John flavored tisane is another thing altogether. This will – I hope! – allow me to enjoy the flavor of one those “irresistible temptations” without feeling guilty. Which is why I had been so looking forward to trying this!
Mmm! This is really yummy. My first couple of sips – while it was still quite hot – were a bit more like a “deconstructed” custard-filled maple long john more than the entirety of the treat: I could taste each flavor but they didn’t really come together as seamlessly as I would have liked. But after allowing this to cool for a few minutes (about five minutes or so … it’s still hot but not steaming hot) I notice the flavors start to come together in a lip-smacking, delicious way.
THIS TASTES LIKE A CUSTARD-FILLED MAPLE LONG JOHN!
Frank, you did it again. This is absolutely amazing. Of course, I guess anyone COULD create this flavor. All they’d need to do is drop a custard-filled maple long john into a blender, add some brewed honeybush and blend it until it’s completely liquid. But then, why go through all that trouble (and mess), when you can just as easily brew a cup of this for that same goodness!
Roasted Maple from Shanti Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea
Tea Description:
We have several maple offerings however this is one of our favourites, combining the natural soft nuttiness of kukicha with maple essences yields an incredibly flavorful, sweet, soft, and fresh profile. One of our most popular maple blends.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’m always eager to try a new flavored kukicha tea because there really aren’t that many out there. I’ve managed to find a few, but, really, they don’t seem to be as popular as a flavored Ceylon or Sencha. And that’s a shame, because the natural toasty notes of kukicha meld so beautifully with some flavors … like maple, for example!
This Roasted Maple Kukicha Tea from Shanti Tea is unbelievably good. The roasty-toasty, nutty taste of the kukicha marries beautifully with the sweet, delicious maple flavor to create a very seamless flavor that is positively scrumptious! It is warm and delicious, a perfect autumnal treat … and while I realize that it is now spring, I still LONG for my favorite season and this tea allows me to enjoy autumn even though spring is here.
This tea has a natural sweetness to it and it really doesn’t need additions of any kind. It is sweet enough so sugar or other sweeteners just aren’t needed (but if you want to amplify the maple flavors, try a drop or two of real maple syrup) and I think that milk would overwhelm the delicious flavors (although if you’re envisioning a maple and cream treat, you might infuse this at double or triple strength to make a latte).
As I write this review, I discovered that this tea is currently sold out. I do hope that they will be restocking this one soon, because it is a WINNER! I love this!
Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal Flavored Black Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
I’m a picky eater. My wife and mother can attest to this. It’s not that I’m trying to be difficult really, but somehow I just wound up that way. Oatmeal is one of those things that, as a kid, made my stomach turn. It SMELLED amazing, but the texture and the appearance of it just ruined me for it. As an adult now, knowing more specifically what the gloppy stuff is, I don’t think I would have such an issue with oatmeal. I’m thinking I might just have to give it another try one of these days.
In the meantime, I’ve been working on this week’s tea of the week–a maple and brown sugar oatmeal flavored TEA! I’m actually enjoying a hot cup of the fruit of my labor right now, and it’s delicious!
My wife, bless her heart, made me some oatmeal scotchies for my birthday tomorrow, and they are an awesome companion to this tea, believe me. With rolled oats and natural flavors including oatmeal, maple and brown sugar, this is a tea that will “stick to your ribs” as my mother used to say of oatmeal. (Probably another reason I didn’t want any–why would you tell a kid that? It sounds horrible and painful.)
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I know I’ve said this before concerning at least one or two of 52Teas’ unusual blends, but, I really had my doubts about this one. I mean, I enjoy oatmeal (even though maple and brown sugar oatmeal isn’t my favorite, I prefer cinnamon and cranberries in my oatmeal), but I wasn’t so sure I wanted an oatmeal tea.
Nevertheless, I wasn’t going to shy away from trying it. The first time I brewed it, it didn’t turn out so great. I find that with this one, how I brewed it was crucial to a good turn out. Of course, that’s true of many teas, isn’t it? It’s just that this one needed a little different brewing than what I’d normally brew a black tea to achieve a successful cup. Using my Breville, I steeped this tea for three minutes (instead of the customary 2 1/2) at 200°F … and wow! This really does taste like Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal! Only… it’s tea!
The maple is the strongest note, and I can’t say that I’m disappointed by that, since I love maple and I’ve really been on a maple kick lately. The brown sugar is almost as strong, but not quite. One might think that means this is an overly sweet tea, but I don’t think it is. The black tea base comes in to give it some balance, and the oatmeal is more of a lingering background note.
This has a pleasantly robust flavor with just enough sweetness, and it also has a satisfying kind of flavor to it that is homey and comforting … not unlike a bowl of steaming oatmeal, made with love by mom.
Another unusual tea flavor done amazingly well by 52Teas!
Cookies N’ Cream Tea from Still Water Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Still Water Tea
Tea Description:
Scrumptuous flavours of maple, honey, cream and chocolate take your cookie experience to the next level!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a tea that benefits greatly from waiting a couple of minutes after brewing to allow the tea to cool slightly before you start drinking it. The first couple of sips – while still piping hot – tasted a bit off, almost artificial. But now that the tea has cooled just slightly – it’s still hot, but not fresh from the teapot hot! – it is much tastier.
This is an interesting combination of flavors. It is a very sweet tea, but then again, with a name like Cookies N’ Cream, you know what you’re getting yourself in for, right? You kind of expect it to be sweet. And if the name doesn’t convince you, reading the description: “maple, honey, cream and chocolate …” yeah, that should do it. This is a sweet, decadent dessert tea.
The sip starts out with a hint of chocolate, and the chocolate flavor develops over the course of the sip. The honey notes weave their way in and out of the sip, and the cream is more of an undercurrent of flavor … off in the background, providing a pleasing creamy note all the while. The maple was a little difficult to detect at first, but by mid-cup it is almost as strong as the chocolate flavor.
The black tea is in there too, although it is a mellower flavor. It provides a pleasing backdrop, however, it does seem a little outdone by the strength of the flavors. On the plus side, though, there is only a mild astringency so it doesn’t interfere with the enjoyment of the flavors.
Overall, it’s a very pleasant cup of tea. Makes a nice latte, too!