Day 6!
It’s not Christmas morning yet but today’s tea is a great blend to have at breakfast: Banana Pancakes Black Tea. Put your nose in the bag, and you’ll see that the tea smells like your favorite diner or breakfast restaurant, with plenty of maple syrup flavor and a whiff of sliced banana.
Brewed, there is a pleasant starchiness in the black tea that suits the natural starchiness of the banana and adds to the pancake feeling. The maple and banana flavor combination reminds me of banana nut muffins or banana bread. This is a fun, sweet blend on its own but it would also go great with a few mulling spices for a banana chai, or with some coconut milk or nut milk for an almost banana nut cereal taste.
I’m always a fan if banana teas, so I was more than happy to go bananas over this brew!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
52teas
Description:
I don’t think it’s any big secret that I love banana teas. So when I go a couple of months without releasing a banana tea – I really start to miss them. And it seems like it’s been quite some time since I’ve done a pancake tea (actually, I haven’t done a pancake tea since the famous Pancake Breakfast tea which I reblended back in January of last year.) So, I’m thinking – why not bring these two flavors together in one tea?
I started with a fantastic blend of black teas from China: an Assamica from the JingMai Mountains, a Fujian Black and a Yunnan Gold. Then I added some bananas along with pancake and maple essence. But don’t worry, it’s vegan and gluten free – and depending upon how you serve it, its also sugar- and fat-free!
Take a sip on this and experience a stack of banana-filled pancakes dripping with maple syrup! Yummy!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Potato Pancakes & Applesauce Green Tea (Holiday Series: Hanukkah) from Butiki Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
Our Potato Pancakes & Applesauce tea pairs our buttery Organic Huangshan Mao Feng with generous potato pieces and crisp apple chips. Plain, this tea is thick with potato notes up front followed by apple and cinnamon notes with some buttery notes that peak through at the end. As the tea is repeatedly sipped the buttery quality will become more apparent. The weighty body adds to both the potato and applesauce feel. Since this tea is on the lighter side, we recommend drinking this tea at a warmer temperature. For stronger potato notes we recommend adding a very small amount of salt; however, this may diminish the applesauce notes. For a sweeter applesauce, we recommend adding a tiny bit of sugar; however, this may reduce the potato notes.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! This Potato Pancakes & Applesauce Green Tea from Butiki Teas (part of their holiday series in observation of Hanukkah) has to be one of the most unique tasting teas I’ve yet to encounter! I figured it would be when I requested a sample of it with my order, however, I still find myself in AWE of how truly unusual this tea is. Unusual, yes. Unique, certainly. But it’s also really good!
I can’t say that I’ve ever tasted the combination of potato pancakes and applesauce before. I’ve had these two foods separately, but never together. Until now, that is, as I sip this tea. And I really can taste both the potato and the apple in this. Yes, that’s weird, but it’s weird in the yummiest way imaginable.
The green tea base is light and smooth. I note no bitterness or astringency here. Just a crisp taste. It doesn’t even taste overly vegetative or grassy. Really, the strongest “vegetable” note that I taste here is that of the potato, and that tastes somewhat thick and starchy. It’s not a heavy flavor though. I suppose if I wanted the potato to taste stronger, I could have added a pinch of salt like the above description suggests, however, I didn’t want to obscure the apple notes so I decided to go without salt or sweetener here and just experience this tea without additions.
There is a buttery creaminess to this as well, and this melds beautifully with the potato. The apple is delicate and sweet. The cinnamon accentuates the apple nicely without bombarding the blend with a strong cinnamon presence. The cinnamon is added at just the right amount here, because it doesn’t taste distinctly “cinnamon-y” … instead, it makes the apple taste like applesauce, which is exactly what I think Stacy at Butiki Teas was going for (since the name of the tea is Potato Pancakes & Applesauce).
I love it when I find a tea like this: one that delivers exactly what is promised in the name, even if the name seems a little crazy! And yes, the idea of a green tea that tastes of potato pancake and applesauce does sound a little crazy (maybe even more than a little crazy), but again, that’s a crazy in a very delicious way.
Well done!
Potato Pancakes and Applesauce from Butiki Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
Our Potato Pancakes & Applesauce tea pairs our buttery Organic Huangshan Mao Feng with generous potato pieces and crisp apple chips. Plain, this tea is thick with potato notes up front followed by apple and cinnamon notes with some buttery notes that peak through at the end. As the tea is repeatedly sipped the buttery quality will become more apparent. The weighty body adds to both the potato and applesauce feel. Since this tea is on the lighter side, we recommend drinking this tea at a warmer temperature. For stronger potato notes we recommend adding a very small amount of salt; however, this may diminish the applesauce notes. For a sweeter applesauce, we recommend adding a tiny bit of sugar; however, this may reduce the potato notes.
Ingredients: Organic Huangshan Mao Feng, Freeze-Dried Potatoes, Organic Saigon Cinnamon, Organic Cinnamon Apple Chips (Organic Apple, Organic Cinnamon), Natural Organic Flavoring (vegan)
Recommended Brew Time: 4 minutes
Recommended Amount: 1 tablespoon of tea for 8oz of water
Recommended Temperature: 180 F
Learn more about this tea here. (scroll down in green tea section to find this specific tea)
Taster’s Review:
Potato Pancakes and Applesauce form Butiki Teas brings back memories of my childhood. My grandmother would make us kids potato cakes often and I loved them. I have since tried to recreate them myself but I can never get that really yummy dark fried coating on them the way my grandmother could. Perhaps it is because she cooked in a very well aged cast iron skillet. Or maybe it was that she used lard or something I do not use myself. Whatever the case, this tea brings back those fond memories of days gone by and leaves me with a happy and content feeling.
The potatoes and apple pieces in this tea are plentiful to say the least! I kept thinking I needed to shake my bag up to get the bits mixed in but after finally dumping the entire package into a bowl I realized, there really is just that much apple and potato pieces in here! What a delight because often in tea blends with bits and pieces you find far too few of those special morsels and have to elect to only have a piece or two, here or there, in your steep. Not here, here you get so many bits and pieces of organic goodness you won’t be let down!
The taste of this tea is so real to its namesake that you can taste the starch coming off of the potatoes! The apple chunks are so yummy with the right amount of sweet cinnamon upon them. This is not a highly concentrated cinnamon tea however, the cinnamon is quite subtle in the background. The apple pieces taste more like bits from a caramel apple.
I will confess, I ate all the bits and pieces – more like chunks – right out of the steeping basket after my second steep and they were still bursting with flavors!
As I write this review, my cup is empty, and I am tempted to go for another round of steeps with this tea. I want to keep sipping it all day long but I do fear running out of it far too soon if I do so! I have to restrain myself from this one and allow it to at least have a home with me for a week perhaps, maybe two.
This is a definite reorder!
I love the use of Organic Huangshan Mao Feng, I feel that it really compliments this blend with its sweet and buttery nature and its already obvious potato note.
You can also order Huangshan Mao Feng in its unblended from on the Butiki Teas website.
Pumpkin Pancake Breakfast from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Product Description:
After creating our Pumpkin Cheesecake blend last week, I was bitten by the pumpkin bug, and reminded of the delicious pumpkin pancakes my wife likes to make. As popular as our pancake breakfast tea is, I thought this could be just as popular–a Pumpkin Pancake Breakfast tea.
Here is the essence of pumpkin pancakes, drizzled in warm maple syrup and topped with a touch of fresh creamy butter. (To our vegan friends, I assure you this is still 100% Vegan, and we only use natural flavors–something of a miracle, if you ask me, but a delicious miracle.)
Taster’s Review:
As I sit here typing, this tea is in my mug which is placed right in front of me… and the aroma wafting out of the mug is irresistible. It smells so good that my taste buds seem to be focusing all their powers to make my hands stop typing and start sipping.
And … YUM! Yes, of course, yum. This is 52Teas we’re talking about. Frank is the “Willy Wonka of Teas.” I am sure that he’s working on some fantastic blend that is a 3 course meal all in itself.
But in the meantime, I’m blown away by this Pumpkin Pancake Breakfast tea. It really delivers what it promises: the flavors of pumpkin, pancake, butter and maple syrup are all there. Yummy! Plus, of course, I can taste the flavor of rich black tea.
The black tea base that Frank uses is a blend of Nilgiri and Assam teas, and it provides a very solid backdrop for the unusual blends that Frank dreams up. However, I have noticed that with some of the blends – more so than with others – it comes across as slightly bitter. And that is the case with this tea, so I recommend caution when brewing it, start out with just 2 minutes (or 2 minutes 15 seconds) and adjust according to your own taste. I brewed this cup at 2 1/2 minutes, and I think it could benefit with a little less time. It is still very flavorful, and I’m not getting much bitterness here, but, I can sense that if I steeped it even 15 seconds longer I would have a bitter cup.
As it is, though, it is rich and flavorful without being too bitter. Next time, though, I think I shall brew it for just 2 minutes.
I enjoyed my cup straight up and found that it is pleasantly sweet on its own. I then tried it with a little sprinkling of turbinado sugar and found that this brought out some of the maple-y tones a bit more which was nice. I think next time I try it, I shall try a drizzle of pure maple syrup and see how delightful that turns out!
At the time of this writing, this blend is sold out. I hope Frank does decide to reblend it for those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to try it, because this would make the PERFECT tea to serve with breakfast on Thanksgiving morning!
Pancake Breakfast Black Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Product Description:
I’m tempted to start this post with, “You’re not going to believe what we did this week!” But we’ve created enough unique, one-of-a-kind blends, that I imagine our unique-ness is getting rather ho-hum.
But seriously? Who else would bring you a PANCAKE BREAKFAST tea? With the essence of hot, buttery, maple-syruped pancakes infused through our premium black teas (a bit heavier on the breakfast teas this week). Who else, really?
Taster’s Review:
Well, it’s Sunday, and Sunday means pancakes! Well, it used to mean pancakes. I fear I have slacked off when it comes to fixing the big Sunday morning breakfast. But, as I sip this tea, I am not missing that stack of fluffy pancakes in the least.
The first flavor I notice is the maple. Sweet, rich maple. About mid-sip, a creamy, buttery taste comes through, while a bake-y, cake-y undertone continues to develop. The sip finishes with a satisfying sweetness. This tea has all the elements of a stack of golden brown pancakes topped with melted butter and real maple syrup except for the carbs and calories!
The black tea base is the 52Teas standard base of Nilgiri and Assam teas, and it seems to compliment the sweet pancake-ish, buttery, maple-y flavors perfectly. The flavor of the tea is strong and comes through well but without becoming too aggressive. There is some astringency to this cup but no bitterness.
This is a tea I prefer hot. I also prefer to eat my pancakes while they are hot. Some sweetener is nice here, as I find it brings out some of the more delicate flavors. I chose to sweeten this with turbinado sugar today as I like the way the molasses-y notes meld with the overall cup; however, if you really want to amplify the maple notes, try a drizzle of real maple syrup in this. YUM! I haven’t tried adding milk to this but I suspect it would take this addition well.
Definitely one of my favorites from 52Teas (I say that a lot, don’t I?), and apparently, I’m not the only one who enjoys this one, as it sold out in record time after the first blending, and it has been re-blended several times since, and each re-blended batch has sold out. I recommend joining the 52Teas mailing list (if you haven’t already) and watch for the next re-blending announcement so you can get some of this for yourself! You won’t be disappointed!