Manoomin Maple

2024 sipdown no. 87

I’ve brewed this at 3, 4, and 5 minutes and it always tastes the same. Like muddled maple water. Such a shame considering the ingredients.

Homemade Advent Calendar from AJRimmer: Day 2

Whew, this has been a DAY. Not a bad day, just a long one, with thing after thing after thing. It’s now 10:15 p.m. and I’m fiiinally writing this tasting note!

I was so happy to unwrap Manoomin Maple this morning, after wanting to try it for quite a while! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but — whoa. There’s a lot going on here. So much toasty vanilla maple goodness! I couldn’t suss out the berries or the coconut, but I’m sure they were contributing to the super interesting flavor profile.

There’s this one vegan marshmallow company that makes maple mini marshmallows, and honestly, that’s what this blend evoked for me most strongly! It’s soft and pillowy and sweet… but with a bit of depth from the wild rice.

It’s just sliiightly on the sweet side for me — I couldn’t see myself downing a giant mug — but it works really well as a dessert tea to savor.

Super happy to have tried this one!

I found this tea lacking in complexity. Based on other reviews, I’m going to try it again before adding a score.

I get generic fruity and sweet notes with very soft oaty flavours if I concentrate on it. I was hoping for more toasted rice and maple. The black tea is doing most of the work here, but is not as potent as I hoped. Will try again soon before I write a better review. Just documenting this so I can look back on it next time.

I received this tea from Kaylee — a big thanks!
Well, reading the notes made a big expectations; but sadly not fully delivered. Drank yesterday morning, so maybe I won’t recall everything correctly.

I got a wonderful base tea, with nice toasted/roasted rice flavour and not-so-sweet maple syrup. Sadly, I didn’t get any blueberry.
The roasted note was something I have been afraid of. Many teas were just dominating with this note and often it’s just too much. But here it was on pleasant level, and as I said again, the maple syrup was just right addition.

Sadly, I don’t got any left to try it in different ways, for instance as a latte. Maybe one day…

I’ve been really eager to try this one, and it lives up to expectations. The flavor is so interesting! I can’t even tell what I’m tasting, but it’s desserty without being too heavy or sweet. I really enjoyed this sweetened with milk. The resteep tasted shockingly good (for a resteep). It was almost chocolatey and so desserty and fun. I can’t wait to have more! The next time I had this, it tasted so marshmallowy and delicious. I really love this tea.

Yay, it’s BACK! DavidsTea has restocked Manoomin Maple, which means I can finally dip more into the tiny stash I’ve been hoarding for a year. I really didn’t expect to like this one, both because black teas are always risky for me and because I’m not big on blueberries. But it turned out to be really wonderful, and by the time I figured that out it was already out of stock. Happy it’s back, have already placed my order before it disappears again.
So I’m continuing my Canadian food theme today, pairing this tea with a different vegan lox. This particular lox turns out to be phenomenal, by the way – Living Tree Foods’ Slammin’ Lox. It’s not exactly in wide distribution outside of British Columbia and literally one online grocer, unfortunately, but for anyone who doesn’t eat fish and can get their hands on it, I highly recommend it. This blend, as an oat milk latte, actually paired really well with a bagel/cream cheese/lox. I think that’s because the maple isn’t super sweet, and the maltiness of the black base plus the roastiness of the wild rice gives it some heft that works well with a savory meal. Also this lox isn’t as strongly smoky as the one I had yesterday. So the smoke/sweet flavor contrast wasn’t as jarring between the lox and the tea.

Don’t particularly love the malt flavoring

I am so sad this is no longer available, I recently got this in a swap and I’m in love! It’s like a warm slice of cream pie but its a mix of roasty toasty coconut, cranberry, and blueberry.

Had a cup of this earlier, resteeped and am drinking the second cup now. I feel like the first cup was dominated by flavorings, like blueberry and maple. This second cup is more genmaicha like. The rice really shines through with a nice roasty flavor. It has a sweetness to it that lasts into the finish where a light maple and blueberry come out. I’m really enjoying this cup. I wonder what would happen if I did a first steep, a second right away and combined the two. Would I get more of the rice balancing with the maple and blueberry? I’ll need to explore this further!

I finished this off in record time, which implies I enjoy it. It’s definitely an easy-drinker, especially for a vanilla lover. Next time I’m running low on dessert teas it will be a strong contender for re-order.