Almond Happiness

Meh.

This was my first 52 Teas order. Everything I’ve heard about Frank’s blends has been wonderful. I was excited to try this one because I love all of the ingredients in it.

But it was just mediocre. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. It’s fairly flavorless, and the black tea is a bit bitter. I’ve tried 1-2 tsp at 180 and 212 degree water, with milk and agave and without. Perhaps it’s just not for me?

Almond Joy candy bars in tea form? Why yes please. They’re one of my favorite candy bars—well actually I prefer Mounds, but I think in tea form I’d rather have the added almonds since most chocolate in teas tastes like dark chocolate anyway.

When there are 3 strong flavors in a tea it’s usually hard to taste them individually. This is the case here: the almond is the dominant flavor, and I’m getting a lot of chocolate as well. The coconut? There’s really only a hint of it. BUT this is the best almond tea I’ve tried so far, so I’m not going to complain! After all almond + chocolate is delicious, I’m really thinking of mixing in a bit of Yunnan’s Fable for the extra oomph of coconut (and also extra chocolate).

I grabbed this out of my swap drawer this morning and it’s been sitting in there for awhile. For some reason whenever I read the name “Almond Happiness” I just assumed it was a very stongly almond flavored tea, which are kind of hit or miss for me. But I’m going to try and cruise through some sample sipdowns today so I grabbed this one and threw it in the basket. It wasn’t until it was brewing (3 mins @ 185) that I started to wonder what exactly I was making. Frank doesn’t typically make simple flavored teas, there’s usually something more going on. Then I realized how dense I’d been. Almond happiness = Almond Joy. I felt incredibly dumb. Had I realized that sooner I would have brewed this one up a long time ago. Anyway I really enjoyed it. I would totally reorder. I got all flavors (chocolate, almond, coconut) and a nice black base. No honey or milk necessary. Yum! Thanks Jackie T!

Thanks to Jackie T for passing some of this along. I almost bought some, but my common sense took over (but I still needed to at least try it!)

My verdict on it is that… it’s ok. It’s not what I was hoping for (delicious amazingness a la H&S’s SoHo Blend), but I am enjoying the cup. I can taste the chocolate, which is great and not fakey, but I’m not catching much in the way of almond or coconut. Perhaps it’s because I just drank H&S’s Royal Wedding tea, which prominently features both of those quite deliciously. One interesting thing that I’m noticing, though, is that the flavour is a bit reminiscent of 52teas’ Cashew Turtle! I don’t know if it’s the chocolate, or the nut… but I’m diggin’ it.

Hmmm… the more I drink, the more I’m falling for this tea. Bleh, figures. It’s just alike enough to Cashew Turtle, which I adored and am all out of, that it’s filling that niche for me. Sadness. I think I have another cup or cup and a half left, and will savour it…

thanks again, starfevre for the trade! I woke up thinking almonds, so this one sounded good! I love those candy bars (who am I kidding, I rarely do not love any candy bar.) After a ONE minute steep (I’m trying low steep times on all of my 52s), all of the flavors here are even! I get almond, chocolate, and coconut notes at the same amounts. The second steep was for two minutes and I found that the leaves themselves had more of a dark chocolate flavor. 52Teas are amazing at doing this sort of thing. I knew I would like this one, as one of my favorite 52Teas is surprisingly the Coconut cream pie. I enough left for one more cup. Creamy chocolatey nutty goodness!

Quick note before my phone dies.
Received this from T.C.

This smells like alcohol big time! Like sickening so, even once steeped.
Hot I am getting mostly almond, I ended up letting it cool too much & it was bitter, but had quite a bit of chocolate.

I may have to let this air a bit to kill the alcohol scent.

ETA: I retried this today. Just over 2 perfect teaspoons, at 2.5 mins.
Much better this time, the leaves still smell like alcohol, but the steeped cup doesnr. It’s almondy, with a strong black base. I’m gonna try this again with 3 teaspoons at the same steep time & see if the other flavours come out more.

I’ve been wanting an Almond Joy in tea form forever..but I held off on a 52teas order until I could make a big one. Kind of a risk really, since stock is always touch and go. That’s part of the fun though, I think!

Anyway, when I got my tea package, the only thing I could really smell was the blueberry cream cheese danish. Which was lovely, of course, but it made me worried that I would taste and smell it in my other non blueberry teas, too. Thankfully that wasn’t the case!

The dry leaf smell in this had a sharp, almost unpleasant coconut note- maybe from the adding flavoring? I was hoping it would fade out by the time the tea steeped, and it did, so that was good! I just added milk and sugar since I knew I was going to try and take this to work to repeat the blissful moment at 11:30 tonight when things settle down and I can take a second to relax.

This tea is predominantly chocolate. Dark, hot chocolate. The coconut is present only in the creaminess, maybe a background accent but definitely not very strong. It actually reminds me of when I combined the Salted caramel from DAVIDS’ with my hot chocolate mix. Which is super yummy, if not quite screaming almond joy.

In a few hours once it cools it may have some different nuances emerge, so I’ll update later – but for now, it is still a really great tea to be sipping away at!

Backlog: I had this the other day, but I didn’t want to log it until my review of it published, here it is: http://sororiteasisters.com/2012/02/18/almond-happiness-from-52teas/

This was yummy… although I think it would be better with a touch of vanilla and more coconut flavor. But I still enjoyed it.

You know how they say there is no wrong way to eat a peanut butter cup? Well, when I eat mine (or when I did), I liked to eat all the chocolate away from the outside, then carefully peeled it from the top and bottom. Then I would eat the peanut butter center that was left.

Now, if I was to Do this with a certain almond candy bar-peeling away the chocolate outside then making a tea with the coconut/almond center- that is What this tea tastes like.

It was missing a little something when I made a preliminary cup last night, so I added some rock sugar today, though I RARELY sweeten my teas. Today, it is crazy heavy on the coconut/almond flavor, but all I’m getting as far as chocolate goes is the little bits that I couldn’t get unstuck from the coconut when I deconstructed my hypothetical candy bar. I was really hoping for the reverse-heavy chocolate, light other flavors… but maybe that’s just my PMS craving sweets ;)

It is yummy, but it’s more nutty than chocolatey.

This smells kinda chocolatey. The flavour is more coconut/ almond with hints of chocolate. (Not really an Almond Joy, but I don’t have one for the comparison, and it’s pretty close.)