Happy Banana

Made this in my curve travel mug, which I am currently loving but will review later, because I don’t want the ‘honeymoon stage’ to colour my perception.

I’m sad that river tea went out of business so soon after starting up, as I really did enjoy many of their blends. This one in particular got rave reviews, and so I pretty much filled my steeping basket with the trail mix and let it steep endlessly. I’m drinking it a few hours later, and it’s really like people are describing: liquified banana bread. I suspect that waiting for two years to drink it has not been kind to this tea, but I know it could be a lot worse. It’s begging for a bit of milk though, but even just like this, you can taste a ton of banana followed by the way your mouth feels after you’ve eaten dates, without the actual taste of date if that makes sense. Maybe a honeyed sensation more than anything else. It’s lovely to sip on and it’s helping to warm me up in my frigid office. And tasting better as it cools!

Thank you Ost for the sale! I’ve seen tasting notes for this one before and it sounded good. It is — it tastes like a liquefied banana coconut cream pie! I may have left this one steeping for 25 minutes but the steep instructions suggest 10-15 minutes anyway. The most noticeable flavor is the banana with hints of coconut. I’m not sure what sultanas taste like but there wasn’t much flavor from the mangos and papaya… they probably lent some extra syrupy sweetness. (Also, NO hibiscus in this one. I feel like if it’s a herbal blend I have to give a hibiscus report.) It is certainly a dessert tea without caffeine! (Or with some graham crackers I was eating with the tea – it’s like the pie crust paired with the filling.) One of the best herbal blends I’ve sipped. There is just some ripe brown bananas in the infuser is all. :D Amazing that the bananas can be in a tea but I taste NO preservatives.
Steep #1 // just boiled // 25 min

This. I like it. Another.

Thank you Sil for sharing this cup of liquid banana bread. Delicious! I really need to get on that RiverTea order.

Sipdown (150/156)!

Woke up early this morning (technically afternoon) so I was able to sneak not one but two cups of tea in since I started work later than usual anyway. I made this one of them and I’m only just now realizing that I ended up having two banana teas for breakfast…

I’m sad the sample of this in my latest RiverTea was only a cups worth of leaf; I’d have really liked to share this with VariaTEA because I have a sinking feeling she’d have liked it better than I did. That’s not to say I disliked it though; I thought it was exactly like it had been described to me by Sil many times: liquid banana bread. Who doesn’t love banana bread? Crazy people – that’s who.

But that said I kept mentally comparing it to Tea Desire’s Banana Tea Chocolate Cream and it fell short to TD’s blend every time because of the lack of chocolate and the fact I found it less sweet; and if I remember correctly those were things that she didn’t like about BTCC so I think she’d like this better. The oilyness of the tea liquor was still there though. That trait doesn’t personally bug me, but I know it bothers others.

So yeah; liquid banana bread for sure! Just not something I want to stock when I still have BTCC stocked up and so easily available. But this is one of many RiverTea blends I’ve added to list of ones I’ve tried and it was a great, peaceful morning tea so there’s no regrets with requesting it as one of my samples.

Also leaving a link to a song here because it’s what I was listening to this morning and, again, I’m only now realizing how fitting it was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Graa_Vm5eA&list=PLAB044185EF279688&index=9

I’m pretty well obsessed with this singer right now, and this album in particular. So good.

This tea is amazing. Banana bread-ish deliciousness. Sil you were right.

I ended up leaving work early because no one was at the shop and I didn’t feel like I was being useful AND I had a lot of tea work to do at home, updating my cupboard etc.

This was the first one I made when I walked in the door. It came in the paper container that takes up room so it was an obvious choice for a first sipdown.

Except that it’s herbal. Whoops.

It’s really amazingly tasty though. The banana is perfect. Like Sil said, this is like drinking liquid banana bread, and believe or not, that is a VERY good thing.

I’m so thrilled I was able to try this. I think I’m going to drink the other half later, after it chills in the fridge to see how that tastes!

:D

ETA: It’s good iced as well. I had a few sips, then poured the rest into my daughter’s sip cup.

OH MAN! SOOOOOO GOOOD! Seriously…So when i first pulled this out of the bag i was like hmm..expensive trail mix anyone? It’s a heavy tea AND it’s 3tsp per cup….and there’s giant coconut strips in this…but MAN OH MAN. love it. My other half is making banana bread tonight..and this is like liquid banana bread. I even convinced him to have some and he was like oh hey…that’s really good. It even smells like banana bread baking in the oven… and the coconut? totally not overpowering and likely just adding to the delicious creamy banana taste. I dunno what else to say…this tea? sooo good. I had originally picked this up because i like banana flavoured teas and because i figure i’d try some teas that didn’t have tasting notes to help RiverTea out since i won their contest. I’m SOOOOO happy i did.

This isn’t the same sort of banana from foxy’s roxy’s tea…this is honestly…liquid banana bread. so it’s sweet…and very much banana bread..and so good..and did i mention it’s like drinking banana bread? holy god i love this smell… lol