Monk's Blend

Mmmm! I can’t believe the monks were allowed to drink this, it’s sinfully delicious!

It’s a bit creamy from the vanilla, and definitely fruity, I really like it!

Though I have to google “grenadine” because surely this wasn’t made with that syrup that they used to put in my Shirley Temples when I was 8. No way were the monks allowed to drink that stuff.

This is something I will have to buy! All you who hate monks blend, feel free to send it my way! :)

Happy Saturday to me! Thank you Sil, for another winner!

(about 95 degrees for 3-4 min)

This comes far later than intended, I should have just put it off till morning but I meant to do it 90 minutes ago! I went to a yelp party tonight, it was ok, I always feel left out but eh. This one guy there, he’s a yelper too, but he takes pictures not even as one of the official photographer and tbh he’s the best. LOOK AT THIS. http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/yelps-deco-dence-otps-first-yelper-party-marietta?select=eIHKdZKe6TLJwd4PhkjbZQ#jgwwq6EtoVO24tx2MVeutg
I have no idea how that is such a good picture because he was trying to get one and this little fly was getting all up in my face and I was trying to watch it to swat it away before that haha.

ok so I really really oversteeped this as a coldbrew. Like I hadn’t finished up my tons and tons of Sansa Stark tea so it kind of sat there a bit longer than necessary. It’s strong. it’s not very sweet. Though, I have never been much of a fan of this blend. There’s vanilla, but there’s really nothing else to it imo.

Well I used half the bag so at least there’s not much more.

I hope my sense of taste has mostly returned. Thanks to Rachel Sincere for this sampling!

STEEPED: Very fruity sweet smell. I think is pomegranate or grenadine. Dark brown colour.

TASTE: Spike of fruityness and slight bitterness over a base of black tea.
Sweetened (and cooled off) I can taste the vanilla and fruityness. Not as bitter.

COMMENTS: Maybe I’m still sick and tasting bitterness? But I could of oversteeped. Taste some good potential if I can get it brewed right!

I’d say this tea is a nice, nondescript smooth fruity blend. Sometimes there’s just not much to say. I’ll drink it but I won’t get excited about it.

Hmmm . . . could be that I oversteeped, but what I’m tasting is some fake grenadine flavour over a little tiny bit of vanilla and some not-great black tea. Will try another cup before I write it off completely, but yeah. Bleh.

Fruity flavor, but goes great with a touch of sugar and cream. Exellent daily tea.

This is my go-to tea, I drink it all the time and had to start buying big bags. It’s delicious, soothing, like wrapping up in a cozy blanket on a chilly night. Strong vanilla flavor with a hint of grenadine in taste and scent, and sometimes I add a spoon of honey. The health perks of the calendula are a nice bonus.

I’m drinking this before work today while the rain comes and goes. I haven’t been feeling well lately, so I’ve been mostly drinking various ripe puerh teas; however, I was in the mood to try something a little different this morning.

I must say that this isn’t the best tea, but it is definitely a treat to be had from the usual tea. I rarely drink flavored teas anymore, but there are moments where that’s all I need/want.

Notes: Slightly bitter, mildly fruity/floral on its own. You can slightly taste the grenadine. I added 1/2 tsp of raw sugar to the cup to hopefully cut a little bit of the bitterness from the tea; which worked well, I think. There are rare occasions that I’ll add a bit of sugar to the tea, but this is one of those teas that does much better with some…..

Found some more of this in my stash a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been putting off drinking it because of how sick I got of it last time. I brewed up a cup this morning with breakfast because I couldn’t be bothered to go hunting through my focus box for something else, and it’s actually not as bad as I’d expected. Like I’d previously noted the base gets astringent fast, which means I took this with milk, which means the fruity flavours were muted more than I’d have liked. I tried a few sips before adding the milk though, and got more of a strawberry note than a pomegranate one. The vanilla isn’t as strong as it used to be, so I did enjoy this more (me being a staunch vanilla-hater), and I’m going to change my rating from 32 to reflect that. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad either. It’s deserving of an average rating, but I’m still keeping in mind how quickly I soured on this tea and how much even the thought of it made me want to never drink it again.

Queued post, written April 23rd 2014

I’ve learned, relatively recently, that a ‘monks blend’ is often something that involves vanilla and grenadine. Well. Isn’t that really all the justification I need to nab this one out of the EU TTB round 2?

Vanilla and a relatively tart sort of fruit seems to generally be a winner for me. There is the fabled Late Summer blend from AC Perchs which has vanilla and cranberry, for example, and the very idea of vanilla and grenadine in tea (who am I kidding? In anything! ) holds a great appeal to me.

This one smells both tart and sweet. I can easily tell that there is vanilla in it and the grenadine is equally clear and easy to detect. I can’t pick up anything of the base, though, which is a shame.

Gosh, this stuff! This is very similar to the aforementioned late summer blend, actually! It’s just grenadine instead of cranberry, and to be entirely honest with you I don’t think there is that big a difference between those two things to begin with.

I’m tasting primarily pomegranate-y grenadine. The vanilla smooths everything out and adds sweetness before the pomegranate comes again in spades on the swallow. I should have liked to have a little more vanilla in this, but it’s very good already as it is. It’s weird with flavours, really. In almost anything flavoured I want to be able to taste the base as well as the flavour. Except vanilla. There is always room for more vanilla.

I was skimming other people’s posts about this one, and came across one written by Anna. She didn’t like this blend very much but she wrote that she thought it would probably be something for me. I laughed when I saw. How right you are, Anna. How right you are.