Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
What’s better than eating a tub of cookie dough? Drinking an awesome organic iced tea with accents of organic cookie dough flavors and zero calories!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
So, I was really excited to learn about this tea! Cookie Dough iced tea? Yum!
But I was a little skeptical too, because I wondered how well the idea of cookie dough would translate to an iced tea. But if anyone could do it, Frank at Zoomdweebies could do it!
And this is really tasty. It took a few sips of the tea for my palate to get used to the idea that it was drinking cookie dough. But once those flavors developed on my palate, I really found it difficult to stop sipping! I’m on my third glass of this tea now, and it’s almost gone!
It’s sweet and I taste the buttery flavors of the dough. I also taste hints of a brown sugar like sweetness and hints of chocolate. These flavors meld nicely with the brisk flavor of the black tea base.
To brew: I used the hot brew method (I usually do with iced teas that I’m going to be reviewing because I feel that this is the best way to get the flavor from the tea so that I can offer the best and “most accurate” review I can.) I heated 1 quart of water to boiling and then steeped the large tea pouch for 2 minutes. I poured the hot tea into my favorite tea pitcher and then repeated the process, heating another quart of water to boiling and resteeping the pouch for 2 1/2 minutes. Then I combined both quarts of tea in my pitcher and I let the temperature drop to room temperature before stashing it in the fridge.
It is a sweet iced tea so I’d advise caution if you are one who sweetens the whole pitcher of tea as you’re making it. Maybe either go a little lighter on the sweetener or better yet, don’t sweeten it and maybe make a simple sugar syrup to sweeten it if you decide it needs a little something. I didn’t sweeten this at all and it tastes great served unsweetened.
A really yummy iced tea. Now, I’m looking forward to the “hot tea” version of this from 52Teas! (That’s your cue, Frank.)
Spicier Chai Blend from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Looking for a chai with a little extra ZING? You’ve found it! We crafted this warming chai with extra ginger and cinnamon, plenty of anise seed, peppercorns and even a touch of red pepper flakes. It’s not super spicy like they cayenne pepper blends we’ve created, but it will do a great job of warming your bones.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn more about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
The name of this chai made me go hmm. – Spicier Chai – Spicier than what? But after I took my first sip, I got it. I understood.
Because…
Wow! “Spicier” is right!
And to answer the question: it’s spicier than your average chai. And it might even be spicier than the average spicy chai. Frank (Chief Zoomdweebie at 52Teas) didn’t skimp on the spices in this chai.
And I’m LOVING it! This is the way chai should be.
Oh sure, I’ve loved many a mild chai. But, in my heart of hearts, I like my spices robust and zesty, and to call this Spicier chai “robust and zesty” would be an understatement. This takes robust and zesty to the extreme! This is sure to warm you up after a day out in the snow. (Or the cold, biting rain like we experience here in the Pacific Northwest.) This will warm you up – starting on the inside and that heat will radiate outward. And I like it like that.
There is a good amount of ginger to this, and that, along with some black pepper and red pepper flake is what is providing the heat. But I’m glad that there is more to this chai than just ginger and pepper! I am getting a nice cinnamon-y backdrop and a pleasant anise flavor. The snappy-sweet licorice flavor from the anise contrasts nicely with the peppery flavors. The cardamom and clove work together with the cinnamon to create a cohesive “chai” flavor rather than something that tastes like it’s all peppery/gingery heat.
I think that’s what I like best about this chai is that it’s not a one-note kind of chai. I am tasting a masala blend here, not just one or two spices.
Yes, I do taste the black tea too. I have to say that it does get a little lost in the spices here, but the black tea is strong enough to offer a background of black tea flavor. I’m not drinking an infusion of spices. I’m drinking black tea and spices and that is evident in the flavor. The nuances of the black tea are difficult to discern. I’m not tasting “delicate floral notes in the background” or “notes of fruit” within the layers of flavor. I taste SPICE and I taste black tea. And really, that’s good enough for me because the spice is bold and strong and that’s what makes this a seriously good chai.
If you’re one who tastes a chai and thinks, “Hey, where is the spice?” or if you’re one who thinks that the average chai is just a little on the tame side, you really should try this chai! This chai has some bite!
Cinnamon Apple Honeybush from 52Teas
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.
Cotton Candy Honeybush Iced Tea From Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Our cotton candy iced teas have been a big hit, so I decided we really should have a caffeine-free, honeybush version.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I love the cotton candy teas that Zoomdweebies creates. So I was confident that I’d enjoy this one too.
And I do.
I way, way oversteeped this – but because it’s a honeybush blend, I wasn’t worried. When I say “way, way oversteeped” what I mean is that I infused 1 quart of water with the sachet for over 30 minutes.
I forgot to set my timer and I stepped away and then I looked at the clock a half an hour later and remembered that I had this tea steeping! Yikes!
But again, no worries. And no bitterness. Honeybush just doesn’t get bitter. The same is true of rooibos. However, I’ve found that if you use too hot of water to steep either one, the leaves may impart a funky, sour wood kind of flavor that I don’t really enjoy. But since I heated the water to 195°F rather than boiling, I didn’t have to worry about that funky flavor either.
The sweet, sugary cotton candy flavor is strong and I like it with the honeybush base. The lightly sweet flavor of the honeybush highlights the sweet candy notes. I don’t taste a strong nutty or woodsy note from the honeybush. I taste some background flavors of the honeybush, but it doesn’t overpower the fluffy notes of cotton candy.
This flavor works really well with the honeybush, in fact, I think that I might prefer the honeybush base to either the black tea or the green tea versions of cotton candy iced teas from Southern Boy Teas!
Another yummy iced tea. Very refreshing!
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.