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The 6th Tea of Christmas

This is one that I’ve not reblended for at least a few years & I’m glad to have it back in my cupboard. I love my chai blends & I love the spicy heat of this blend, not to mention the dark chocolate-y notes! YUM!

I will be the first to admit that my version is a bit softer on the spicy heat than was Frank’s version. That is owing to the fact that he used powdered/ground cayenne pepper while I chose instead to opt for dried, whole cayenne peppers that I opened up, emptied out (most of) the seeds & chopped/minced up the pepper pods & added that to the blend. So, with my version, you get a good amount of heat, but mine isn’t quite as high on the Scoville scale as Frank’s would be.

But I still love it & if I’m 100% truthful here, I prefer the heat level of this blend versus the scorching heat of Frank’s version. I don’t know? Maybe with age comes a more delicate palate? I used to be able to handle more heat than I am now & since I’m the first customer I have to please when I tea out there, I need & want my palate to be able to handle the heat level. I’m sorry to those who would prefer more heat, but if you would prefer more heat, please feel free to sprinkle a little bit of ground/powdered cayenne into your brewing vessel while you’re steeping this tea & you can achieve those desired results. Me though? I want my taste buds to dance, but I don’t want them receding into my tongue & trying to hide from the heat.

So, there’s a really nice, tolerable level of heat to this & as I continue to sip, I can feel the heat develop in the back of my throat. It’s nice! I also appreciate that I can taste the cayenne pepper, but that isn’t the ONLY thing I taste here, I taste the lovely blend of black teas (mostly Assam teas, but with a little bit of Yunnan for a nice, well-rounded flavor), I taste the other spices (cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves & black pepper) as well as notes of dark chocolate.

And I love it!

The 5th Tea of Christmas . . .

I’m a bit behind on posting these, I’ve been pretty busy with stuff so I’ve not taken a lot of time to just sit and write tea reviews.

I know that this tea probably caused a bit of confusion with its name – I questioned myself quite a bit on my decision to call it POG when it’s not the traditional POG of Passion Fruit, Orange & Guava. I absolutely love the Passion Fruit, Orange & Guava version & maybe someday?

But for the holiday season, I like to put out something every year that has Pomegranate in it because I think of Pomegranate to be very seasonal – as is Orange. So, I thought, why not blend them together this year? And then I wanted to add something a little more to it, and so I added Ginger. So, Pomegranate, Orange & Ginger is POG too, right?

Anyway, I do like the way this came out. I didn’t do a lot of tweaking to this blend, I thought of adding a bit more pomegranate to the blend but I liked the way the orange & ginger came through so I didn’t want to alter that balance by adding more pomegranate. I also find that the pomegranate pops a bit more with the addition of a little bit of sweetener (I prefer honey for this).

But it is a pleasantly fruity blend which usually makes me think of summer teas, but this has a definite seasonal twist to it thanks to the warm spices. The flavor of this is reminiscent of the holiday fruit punch that would be served at holiday parties when I was a kid.

The 4th Tea of Christmas . . .

I know that I just mentioned that the 3rd tea of Christmas this year (Crisp Cranberry Soda) is one of my faves, this tea IS my fave. Or at least, within the top 3 all-time favorites. I absolutely love this tea.

I think it is probably on the poll every year & It is quite often reblended as a result, however, some years, it doesn’t quite make the vote. I’m quite sad when that happens, because it’s one I WANT to reblend. (And quite often, when it doesn’t quite make the vote, I’ll end up reblending it the next year during a “reblend” month just because I want to reblend it.)

This is the tea. When I first crafted it – I was inspired by my favorite cafe/coffee shop drink – a London Fog. The cafe that I would go to occasionally would make – at my request – a london fog using coconut milk rather than cow’s milk or other milk alternative. And that was my inspiration to craft this tea, because as I would sip that london fog, I found myself loving how the hint of coconut flavor from the coconut milk melded with the bright citrus notes of the bergamot & the overall creaminess of the cup. But I wanted MORE coconut. So, this tea was born.

I love it so much. This tea combines three of my favorite tea flavors in one cup: bergamot, vanilla & coconut. It’s simply perfection in my eyes & if I were to rate my own tea (which I don’t) I would rate it a 100 because I love it so much.

This batch is no exception to that. I love it. It’s a 100!

The 3rd Tea of Christmas:

I know I should have posted this yesterday as the proper day for the countdown for this tea was yesterday, but yesterday was a bit weird & I totally procrastinated it. Sorry!

Anyway, this tea! This is one of my all-time faves, which is especially surprising for me as the caffeine-free teas that I craft, while I do enjoy each & every one of them, I would have a hard time saying any one of them is a “fave” but this one is definitely an exception to that! This is a fave!

I first crafted this back in 2016, it was part of the first 12 Teas of Christmas box that I put out there – those of you who have been with me since the start of my 52Teas takeover might remember that the first Christmas that I did as the Mad Tea Artist was a 5 “holiday” tea special set that included some amazing teas, but the following year, after much feedback from the customers, I brought back the 12 Teas of Christmas, but with a few changes from Frank’s 12 Teas of Christmas. His version of the 12 Teas of Christmas included 11 reblends from the best selling teas of the previous year & 1 brand new seasonal tea as the 12th tea. Mine, as you probably know, includes 8 reblends as voted on by YOU, the customers, and 4 brand new blends with the season in mind.

This tea was crafted as one of the 4 brand new teas that I crafted that year – and it is one that I get requested for reblends all throughout the year, every year! It is well loved throughout my base of customers & it is well loved in this house as well.

I cold-brewed my batch of this tea this time around. I don’t usually cold-brew a lot during the colder months, because I prefer the cozy hot tea vibe, but I decided to just go for it because this tea is AWESOME as a cold-brew. It’s just better served chilled because it IS a “soda” tea after all. Soda tastes better cold.

The green rooibos base is crisp & light, perfect for the hints of lemon & lime as well as the star of the show – the bright, tart cranberry! It’s sweet, tart & so refreshing!

*The 2nd Tea of Christmas . . . *

YUM! I really love this tea. I’m not always crazy about a Ceylon base (I usually only use Ceylon in a blend with other teas to help round it out) but sometimes, a Ceylon can be wonderful. This fine chop CTC is really strong & rich in flavor for a Ceylon but it works beautifully here, offering a bold flavor that pairs really well with the vanilla bean & cookie-ish essence as well as the spices. The cute little snowflake sprinkles do relatively little to the overall flavor except to add some whimsy to the appearance – but it is – as I say – whimsical & fun.

The cup is so pleasant & cozy, the kind of cuppa that I enjoy curling up to, especially on the chilly mornings we’ve been experiencing as of late!

For the 1st Tea of Christmas . . .

Before I get into my tasting notes for this tea, I want to address my tardiness in getting out this year’s box & sincerely apologize to all of my loyal customers who have been there for me. I am sorry that I wasn’t able to get the box out as early as I would have liked to. I have been dealing with a chronic case of cellulitis on both legs which has been extraordinarily painful – thus making it nearly impossible for me to stand for prolonged periods of time, which is absolutely essential when I’m working! If I can’t stand at the table & blend & package the tea – I’m pretty much – well, I probably shouldn’t use that word.

So, that’s what I’ve been dealing with for the past 5 months or so & it’s gotten worse as time passed. Many doctor visits, emergency room visits & many bottles of various medications & pain meds later – I do see the light at the end of the tunnel with this – but I’m still very limited with the amount of time that I can spend working at the job I love so much. It will get better, but as my doctor tells me, it will take a lot of time. This isn’t something that a magical pill or shot can cure, time & proper management is key & part of that management includes getting the rest when my pain demands it.

So I sincerely apologize to all of you who expected to receive the box so much earlier than you did. I am relieved that all of my US customers managed to receive the box prior to the countdown date of today, and to my Canadian customers, I do apologize – I did not get the information about the Canadian postal service strike until a day or two after I had sent off the packages to you guys & I don’t know the status of your shipments as the tracking system has not updated since the end of November. I don’t know if this is because things on the Canadian side just haven’t been updating or if it’s because the Canadian postal service just hasn’t accepted the packages from the USPS due to the strike activity. If I had been aware of the postal strike, I would have instead shipped using an alternative shipping service, but, as I said, I didn’t receive notice of the strike until after the packages were already in the custody of the USPS. My heartfelt apologies for that.

NOW! On to this tea . . .

I was actually quite surprised by not only the request to add this tea onto the poll this year, but also that it won by an astronomical number of votes! Not that I disliked this tea when Frank originally blended it way back in 2013 (in the summer of 2013 at that!) but just that it was one that had not been requested ever before in the near 10 years that I’ve been doing this thing!

Wow, can you believe that? It’s nearly 10 years now since I took over!

Anyway – this tea is really quite lovely. Since it has been more than 11 years since I last tried this tea, I can’t offer you a very accurate comparison of the two teas, since all I have is my previous tasting note/review of this tea. What I can say is that in my SororiTEA Sisters review of this tea, I mentioned that I liked this one better than the Gingerbread Chai – which says A LOT to me because I really LOVED the Gingerbread Chai & I can comfortably say that it was one of my top 5 chai blends from Frank’s era.

I loved the way this recreation of that tea turned out. It’s pleasantly sweet yet warmly spiced. Beautifully buttery & cake-y, just like you want from a cinnamon-y coffeecake with just the right note of ginger. It really is a perfect way to kick off this countdown! (And thanks to those of you who voted for this one!)

I apologize for this rather lengthy tasting note with my status update – I just wanted to let you guys know that I haven’t just been shirking off my duties as a Mad Tea Artist . . . & if you’re still reading this after all that ^ – thanks for hanging in there with me! Have a great weekend!

Also – the BUY NOW button will not take you to this tea, but to a “similar” tea from Adagio (which probably isn’t all that similar to me at all, except that they both have ‘GINGERBREAD’ in the title.) There are more quantities of this tea available & they will be made available to those that ordered the 12 Teas of Christmas box after the 25th & to everyone on the website after the 28th of December. Thanks again!

After taking photos of this tea last night, I decided that I’d cold-brew some of the tea to try it out. Up until now, I’ve only tried it hot brewed (I chilled some of the hot brew to taste it cold too so that I’d have an idea of how this was as an iced tea). After trying this now as a cold-brew, I think I may have to retract my original tasting note that’s found on my website, because this is even better cold-brewed than hot brewed. The vanilla & black tea blend is smoother, the cantaloupe sweeter & the raspberries brighter. It’s just a totally different experience cold-brewed.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love this as a hot brew, but if you’re going to ask me now how I’d recommend serving this one, it’s cold-brew all the way! So very good!

I cold-brewed this overnight. We’ve been experiencing some uncomfortably warm weather this past week, so I wanted to keep a jar of cold-brewed tea in the fridge at all times & this is one that I grabbed for that purpose. This is so refreshing as a cold-brewed tea!

The coconut is sweet & smooth & melds beautifully with the green tea base. the lime adds a bright burst of flavor while the spearmint offers a soft, crisp coolness that works so well with an iced cold tea. This is one of those teas that I made kind of on the fly when I didn’t have all the ingredients I needed for the blend I had originally envisioned, but, after tasting it, I was wondering what took me so long to come up with it. It’s just so good!

I’ve never actually had Mango Coconut Pancakes – I don’t know if any such thing actually exists, but if I went to a restaurant and saw such a thing on a menu, I’d definitely order it.

Actually, my original plan was to go with a mango pancake idea, but after I did my initial taste test, I found myself wanting more from it, so I decided to add a little bit of coconut & vanilla to the blend. I’m glad I did that, because I love the way the creaminess of these two ingredients enhances the starchy pancake notes & the maple. The mango & coconut – not surprisingly – play so well together. While this tea does have a lot going on – it all comes together really nicely. It’s really a flavorful medley of tastes in one teacup.

I drank this hot today, mostly because I tend to prefer our pancake teas as hot beverages, but I think it would be delicious iced too.

Currently sipping this tea – cold-brewed – and it is so good!

The Chinese Sencha is light & creamy. The creaminess is enhanced further by the note of marshmallow. The banana, strawberry & raspberry are not on their own super distinct & individual flavors unless you really focus on it to pick out each flavor, instead, it’s more like a medley of the three flavors to create a sweet yet pleasantly tart profile. Like a smoothie of sorts, but in tea form. Very refreshing & it makes a really delightful iced tea.