Breakfast in Bed

Homemade Advent Calendar from AJRimmer: Day 19

A cozy floral tea! I actually didn’t get a ton of rose in my cup and, frankly, I could’ve done with more! I probably didn’t shake/mix the blend well enough, and I think I was pretty distracted while drinking this one. Glad there’s another cup’s worth in the bag!

This has so much rose in it that I assumed I would hate it. But Anne really knows what she’s doing! This is actually really nice! Granted, I did dodge as many rose petals as I could. I’m drinking this cold, and it’s a bit floral, but that background of black tea is so high quality and nice that I’m not even bothered. It all mixes super nicely with some sugar and milk.

So, for my “Tea that I would happily drink everyday” from the Steepster Scavenger Hunt, I decided to go with this tea. It is one of my all-time favorite teas. I have been blending this tea for well over fifteen years now – I started blending it back when I was still blending & selling teas as LiberTEAS & I’ve reblended it as the Mad Tea Artist of 52Teas at least three times. To brew this tea tonight, I had to open my very last pouch that I have of this tea – so, I may need to reblend this one within the next year or so because I can’t be without it too long otherwise I miss it.

This is a blend of black teas (including a rose congou), rose petals and buds, cinnamon & vanilla beans. A fairly simple combination, to be sure, but it’s one that works so beautifully. Tonight, I’m having it as a latte – and it’s delightful as a latte. It’s delightful straight. It’s delightful iced. It’s one of those teas that makes me happy when I drink it.

I could happily drink this every day.

So, while looking for a tea to use for the January sipdown prompt “bean flavor notes,” I have discovered that I already sipped down all my Chinese greens last year (which always have a savory “mixed bean” sort of taste to me). So I’m going outside the box on this one and have grabbed this 2018 tea that has vanilla bean in the ingredients!

I love rose black teas and I think this may be my last one in my stash before I’ve sipped all those down, too. The dry leaf has such a lovely sweet floral rose smell… it reminds me of the “Rose Vanilla Chai” by Tea Chai Te that I sipped down a few months ago, but without the cardamom/clove spiciness.

The scent of the steeped tea cooling in my cup is so fragrant and soothing. There is sort of a warm bready/citrusy background aroma from the base, with a really sweet aroma that somehow reminds me of sugar cookies or bubblegum from the scents of the vanilla and floral rose combined.

Lovely! Such a comforting flavor profile. The black tea is medium-bodied and a little citrusy, with goes very nicely with the rose. Those rose is the dominating aroma and flavor. I don’t find it perfumy, but I’m also a big fan of rose; I imagine those that are more sensitive to it would find this too strong/perfumy. For me, it’s just the right balance of a nice, strong rose flavor before it becomes overwhelming. The vanilla doesn’t come out super strongly, but I can certainly taste it… it sort of adds a sweet cream or “sugared rose dessert” vibe to the tea.

Very happy with this afternoon cuppa.

Not a fan, didn’t expect to be. I just don’t care for rose in tea. That said, the rest of the tea is lovely and has no astringency, and the rose isn’t super strong, so it’s definitely drinkable for me. Also, I continually mistake it for a caramelly/vanilla black so will probably end up drinking the rest totally by accident.

Advent Calendar Day 18

Although I love the concept of this tea (someone bringing me breakfast in bed with a rose on the tray), I wasn’t a fan of the actual flavor. Cinnamon and rose are both ingredients that I don’t usually love and having them together in one tea is definitely not for me!

When I picked this out it was because the dry aroma of warm pastry style cinnamon and fresh rose was intriguing to me, but the moment the hot water hit the leaves all I was smelling was a sweet medley of vanilla custard and roses with only a hint of cinnamon. I’m not complaining; as I sipped the tea I found the silky smooth floral notes and hint of cream really relaxing and stress relieving and the more subtle cinnamon undertones added a layer of warmth and dimension to this tea.

Quite an interesting blend! I can taste all of the components, with the cinnamon being the most distinct.

I just loved the idea of this one… though I didn’t drink this with breakfast in bed. More like helping my dad with speech (he has been improving after last year’s stroke.. he keeps working at it which is great. Somehow he mostly misses the what or the noun/ subject when he is saying a sentence, if anyone has any tips for that) and then another mug while reading outside. The blend features black tea (of course, it’s for breakfast) with two forms of roses and a Rose Congou base, cinnamon and vanilla. The rose is definitely wafting around in the mug, though not too strongly. I’m also tasting occasional hints of cinnamon. I feel any 52Teas blend that mentions vanilla never has enough vanilla. The black tea is a bit light. But there is a satisfying quality to the first mug that somehow does say it’s an indulgent breakfast treat. I’m wondering why 52Teas never has yerba mate bases though… or oolong?
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoons for a full mug// 15 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

52teas ordered today and this was the first one I tore into. It is one of the teas that I was most excited about. The combination is so unique that I just had to try this. Rose, cinnamon, and vanilla. I mean, how amazing and fancy does that sound? So…… I enjoyed this but it was little thinner mouth feel than I was expecting. The flavor was good. I mostly got vanilla and cinnamon. I am taking this one to work to see how it holds up there……