Marzipan

hmm, brief view of the other reviews of this blend and those are not the experience i have had!

reading their reviews i overleafed and extended the steep time….whew! strongly marzipan!!! no problem!!! makes me wonder if they revamped the blend since then?

added a half teaspoon of agave syrup… noooooooot necessary, lol. a bit of cream with it was very nice.

smooth, not astringent. naturally sweet…. i think it might make a nice latte, and might be even nicer with a bit of contrasting spice added— nutmeg? i seem to be on a nutmeg kick!

I’m trying to clean out my tea cupboard as it’s the only remaining cupboard that didn’t get an obsessive ’I’m trying to sell my condo and maybe this will help’ cleaning frenzy because there’s not much in there I want to get rid of so my strategy now is to drink the stuff that’s in bags instead of my cute little tins so it looks neater (yes SpecialTeaz Chocolate chai, this means you’ll be mingling with Adagio’s Chocolate chai to save room, I think it’ll do you both some good). This little guy is in a bag so I went for him this morning.

I used more leaf than I normally would and that appears to have helped bring out the marzipan flavor. I have to say, it’s pretty darn yummy at the moment. I wish TG’s stuff resteeped better, but I guess it’ll help me clear out my cabinet a little sooner.

Its name is no lie. This stuff smells like marzipan. The greatest almond, sugary dessert known to mankind. When I open the bag, it’s a whiff of almond that doesn’t go away when the cup is steeped. The leaves have little bits of almond in it, which provides the delicious scent.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t translate too well to the tea. The black is a bit too strong to carry the subtle almond flavor, and it eventually tastes like simple black tea. I gave it a few tries, with varying steep times and water temperatures, but the result remains the same. So disappointed that the marzipan scent doesn’t come out in its taste. This probably would have been my favorite tea ever.

Guess I’ll have to eat real marzipan instead (such a sacrifice).

When I first smelled this out of the tin, I thought it was going to be another ringer for Brioche. The same sort of almond pastry smell to the dry leaf, which carried over to the tea’s aroma. It has a murky, caramel colored liquor that I thought meant it would have a sweet, pastry taste.

Wrong. It’s not at all sweet except an occasional fleeting note in the finish and aftertaste. There’s an almond note to the flavor and a Ceylon-like tea note, but it wasn’t at all as I expected a Marzipan-named tea to taste.

Which isn’t to say it’s awful or even unpalatable. I just expected something confectionery from the name. Which is why I’m rating this on the low site.

Wonderfully strong aroma of marzipan. Wish the flavor was as strong. Not a bad tea though, just had hoped for a bit more almond/marzipan flavor. Can still pull a bit of marzipan out of a second steeping but by number 3 not much left other than black tea. A little sweetening helps bump up the marzipan flavor, but still disappointing compared to the aroma.

This tea smells exactly like its namesake — sweet, fragrant marzipan. I wanted to start scooping leaves into my mouth right there at the store, so I picked up 250g of it without ever tasting it brewed. I’m glad I did for two reasons — first, I went through about 30g of it before I found my “sweet spot” for this VERY FINICKY tea, but once I got it right I am glad I have a decent supply of it.

The more TeaGschwendner teas I try, the more I am learning to just ignore their ridiculous brewing recommendations. They pretty much just say “boiling water, 2 minutes, 1 tsp-8oz cup” for every flavored black in their book. On some of their teas, more than 2 minutes WILL result in bitter, muddled, or unbalanced flavors, and for me this was one of them… but at 2 minutes with boiling water, I still smelled the marzipan but the flavor was a bit weak for my tastes.

So, like a few other TeaGschwendner teas which disappointed me at first, I experimented with some varying temps and brew times “bracket tournament style” (I only have 2 of my favorite stainless steel infusers lol). After a morning of brewing several liters of this stuff, I have a kitchen that smells like a patisserie and finally a delightful cuppa marzipan goodness. I also have a small pitcher of this sitting in the fridge (a blend of the unfinished brews) to try iced just for fun, although without the strong aromatic effect from a hot tea I am guessing it won’t be as good as I imagine.

2 minutes wound up being the sweet spot for me, but at 200F and two heaping teaspoons of the leaf (probably about 2.5tsp). Anything over 2 minutes and the black tea starts overpowering the marzipan, everything goes out of balance and it doesn’t really even taste that great anymore, somehow the faint notes of marzipan fool my senses into sensing some straw-like notes you’d expect from a Dian Hong but not an Indian black, and it doesn’t go well with the almondy-marzipan in the background. But at 2 minutes, 1 tsp winds up being a bit weak for me overall.

So my recommendation is to go heavy on the leaf, bring the temp down from boiling to about 200F for me, and stick to the odd 2-minute warning and you get a delicious hot cuppa marzipan. There is a slight smooth sweetness to the brew unadulterated, but I just HAVE to add a bit of stevia (or other kind of sweetener) to really make it pop "hey, you’re drinking liquid marzipan!!). I have already tried this blended with a few other teas, it’s horrible with Mariage Freres Vanille Imperial, pretty good with TGSR’s Caramel and I love it with a few cocoa nibs. Still searching for that perfect “dark chocolate covered marzipan” blend so I can make this a permanent stock in my pantry.

Definitely one of my favorites from TeaGschwendner so far, still plenty of bags to open & try once a few tins go empty & free up ;-)