Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Gunpowder and Hyson Green Teas
Where to Buy: 52 Teas
Tea Description:
Just in time for Halloween! We’ve blended Young Hyson and Gunpowder green teas, freeze-dried blueberries and organic flavors to create the most amazing blueberry cotton candy flavored green tea EVER. I will NOT be able to reblend this one right now, as this used up the last of my green teas for the moment, so don’t miss out!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Anyone who knows me knows that I love 52 Teas cotton candy blend, I also love blueberry tea, so this was a no brainer when it came out! I snatched up my bag in a heart beat and I am so glad that I did. As I write this review I see that there is one more bag to be claimed and I’m strongly considering grabbing it!
When I first scooped out my tea to put in my strainer I noticed the HUGE plump numerous blueberries in the blend! I literally said out loud “Holy Blueberries!” I shook up the bag a little to make sure that the blueberries had not all somehow miraculously risen to the top of my bag defeating gravity, but alas, that was not the case. This bag is stuffed fully of luscious blueberries through and through!
So I steep…. the cup is a deep chocolate color, very unexpected with two kinds of green tea however the sweet blueberries have done their job painting the brew.
I do feel that this tea needs a little more time for the flavors to develop and mingle with each other. I do detect the cotton candy flavor I am familiar with in the 52 Teas Cotton Candy blend and of course the blueberries which I am familiar with from 52 Teas Blueberry Zabaglione blend. Yet as Frank, master blender of 52 Teas does create a new tea each and every week, sometimes some of the blends do need a little maturing time. This is one of those yet I can absolutely taste the prospect in this one and I know it is going to be a good one! So the question remains, do I grab up that last bag or do I let someone else grab it, showing my generous side? I know once these flavors have fully developed I am going to be kicking myself, but I think I am going to let someone else get in on the fun here and restrain myself from another order. It is getting close to the holidays after all … but just wait for it … I am sure in a couple of weeks I when this tea is all gone I will be saying BOO-HISS!
Cotton Candy Matcha from Red Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green (Matcha)
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Cotton Candy Matcha’s sugary flavor makes the perfect sweet snack for any dull day. This is because, this supremely sweet flavor is ideal for those who love all sweet things and relish their uplifting quality. The sheer variety of Cotton Candy Matcha makes it an instant favorite for those who want to sample the sweet delights that can be enjoyed by their palates. This is an excellent flavor for occasions of the young and young at heart who want to enliven their taste buds with something pleasurable.
Learn more about this Cotton Candy Flavored Matcha here.
Taster’s Review:
Well, as you all know by now, I’ve been on a Matcha kick! And I’ve also been really enjoying the rewards of it – I’m more energetic and alert as a result! I’ve been drinking at least one bowlful of Matcha every day – you know, kind of like the oat cereal challenge that you see on television, only a bowlful of Matcha instead of a bowlful of oats – and I’ve been more energized throughout the day, able to get more stuff done! I feel less sluggish and more ALIVE!
And really, a big part of the thanks for this is Red Leaf Tea and their Matcha Incentive program. I keep earning rewards for my thoughts on each of the Matcha I try, and this means, more money with which to buy … more Matcha… which when I drink it and write about it, I earn more rewards! It’s WONDERFUL!
This Cotton Candy Matcha was ordered with my “default settings” – I usually order a small sized (30 gram) package – and this is really quite a lot of Matcha! – with the basic/starter Matcha and distinctive flavoring (which costs a little extra, but really so worth the extra expense). You also have the option to order it in a tin or in a mylar pouch, and I always choose the pouch. The pouch is not resealable, but, that’s OK because I have a lot of tins at my disposal. If you do not, though, you really need to think about how you’re going to store the Matcha and it might be worthwhile for you to order it in the tin.
The taste is amazing. It tastes like it should be sold out of one of those little food carts at the carnival! It tastes just like Matcha and Cotton Candy, in one bowl. All that’s missing is the fluffy, cottony texture of the cotton candy, as well as that little bit of sugary crunch … but really, I’m willing to trade that in for the health benefits of Matcha!
The Matcha tastes very much like what I expect from Matcha: vegetative notes, a slight buttery taste beneath that distinct bittersweet Matcha taste, although with the cotton candy flavor the emphasis here is on the sweet, with only hints of bitterness that offer a little bit of contrast. The cotton candy tastes – well, like cotton candy! Sweet – like cooked sugar, with a slight caramel note to it. It has a light fruitiness to it, just like a typical “unflavored” pink cotton candy would have. I think Walter would prefer blue cotton candy (yeah, I’m a Fringe nerd), but, I think he’d still enjoy this.
Really, there’s not a lot more that I can say about this Matcha except for YUM!
Cotton Candy Black Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
This week’s tea of the week is a real gem. I am enjoying a big icy stein of it as I write this. I’m sure it’s good hot too, but as an iced tea, it’s amazing. A friend of the family is over visiting and he insists it’s “like a carnival in your mouth.”
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is the first tea blended with 52Teas new black tea base. As some of my more frequent readers may be aware, the previous black tea base used in 52Teas’ blends has sometimes come across as somewhat harsh with astringency and even sometimes bitter, depending upon the flavors with which it was blended. Some flavors worked very well with the previous base, others did not.
I even had to come up with my own set of steeping parameters for that base: 200°F for 2 minutes in my Breville. Now, you might think that 12 degrees hotter water shouldn’t make all that much difference, but in the case of the previous black tea base used by 52Teas, it certainly did.
Anyway, all of that matters not. This review is about the NEW black tea base that 52Teas has crafted, as well as the first tea of the week that it was used to create: Cotton Candy flavored Black Tea! YUM!
I love cotton candy. It is definitely one of my favorite amusement park treats, and one of those things that stirs up happy memories from my childhood. It’s one of those treats that really needs to be made fresh, because the packaged stuff that is readily available now in grocery stores and such just doesn’t taste the same. So I was THRILLED about the idea of cotton candy flavored tea. And if anyone could pull off this flavor in just the right way, Frank from 52Teas could.
And he did! This tastes like cotton candy. Or rather, it tastes like someone dropped some cotton candy into my cup of delicious, fine-quality black tea and allowed the goodness of the cotton candy to become one with the tea. Because, although I do taste cotton candy, what really stands out to me with this blend is not the flavoring, but how well the flavoring has become assimilated into the black tea base.
This tea offers such a seamless taste. And I think that the new black tea base has as much to do with that as the flavor does. The black tea base here is good and strong, providing a very solid background of flavor that is rich and robust. It has a malty tone, as well as a freshly-baked-goods kind of taste to it, and together with the flavors of cotton candy, it is very pleasantly sweet with a hint of caramel-y goodness to it.
But more than that, this tea is not aggressively astringent or harsh the way that 52Teas previous base sometimes was. It doesn’t have the bitterness of the previous base, which was also present occasionally and was especially noticeable if I had brewed it at boiling water instead of the aforementioned 200°F. This does have a slight drying astringency toward the tail, but it is nothing compared to what was previously experienced with the previous blend, and anyone who has tried the previously released flavors probably knows just what I’m talking about.
Now, I’m not saying that the previous blend was bad … I quite enjoyed it in many different blends. I just happen to think that this one is so much better. That one was good, this one is really good! And this particular blend – Cotton Candy – is amazingly delicious. A must try from the 52Teas collection!
