Cuba Libre Black Tea

continuing my attempt to try and have at least one cup of 52 teas a day. I have had nothing to eat or drink all day…my work life is the suck at the moment. So now i’m home and i’m too tired to eat. But there’s tea and that’s what i’m drinking. I DID however get my tea box from terriharplady today which was about the only awesomely great thing in my day today. And while it means a significant increase to my cupboard size – it also means i have a bunch of mandala teas to try before i find a way to scrounge up some money for an order this month. :)

I cold brewed this tea and it’s a pretty good this way! it tastes like my memory of cuba libre from cuba, without tasting spot on. With a splash of sweetener it’s just a really nice cold tea.

Backlog***

I love sharing tea with my Dad whenever he comes over. I typically don’t add anything to my tea, but he likes a touch of sugar. Today when he took a sip, he said, hmmm…this tea is different. He eventually said it was good, but his comment seemed a little cautious.

Well, mine was tasty. I’ve never had an actual Cuba Libre, but the taste and smell of cola is spot on. I’m glad I packed this towards the back of the cupboard to help me reserve it for the warmer months. I look forward to cold brewing this and maybe adding some club soda. I sure am glad that all cola flavored teas aren’t yucky…Yeah…I said it! Take that David’s Tea cherry cola! That’s payback for you making me consider power washing my tongue.

I’m sad this doesn’t have lime in it, I was expecting that and there aren’t any here right now so I guess tomorrow I will go to the store for some.

Sweetening is a necessity for me when it comes to teas with soda flavoring, especially to have it iced. It makes it taste just like cola.

This is pretty spot on for rum and coke, but without the lime it’s just not a Cuba Libre to me. I know it’s typically without the lime in a lot of countries but the original drink is with lime. I can’t wait to get a bunch of limes and try it out that way.

Sorry if this sounds like oddly critical but I made sure to order a Cuba Libre last week in Tampa and it is my precedent for this. I was sure I wasn’t that big of a fan of rum and cola before I had that thing. I think the secret is you have to use regular and not diet coke. And the just adds the right acidity to make the flavors pop. This is definitely a tasty tea, it definitely tastes better than the prior time I had rum and coke! But I really love how these flavors are even better with lime, and I think a real lime would always be better over there just being lime flavoring in here.

Oh now I realize why I thought I don’t like rum and coke! My parents ALWAYS use spiced rum which I find horrible, so I just made one with white rum to compare and it is so much better, it also tastes just like this tea except that it has the not as great addition of alcohol aftertaste over black tea aftertaste.

Made the last of my sample as a cold brew. Not sure how long it brewed for because I didn’t pay attention. But I put it in this morning and am now drinking it before supper.

It is definitely very much Cuba Libre as a cold brew. I can totally taste cola and rum. I am getting a very slight lime. It could have used a tiny bit of sweetener but I wasn’t too interested in getting out of my chair. There is a bit of a black tea aftertaste. This one totally reminds me of laying out on the beach in the Caribbean sun.

Long live Summer!

Thanks Sil

Sipdown! I used up the last of the leaf for today’s cold brew, which has actually worked out better than I expected. I had a scant tablespoon left, and I was fairly convinced I wouldn’t get much flavour from it, but it’s managed to surprise me! I gave it longer in the fridge than I usually would — I guess about 15 hours, maybe a little more. I used a litle less water than usual, too — just enough to fill the bottle I take to work. I can taste cola, and the faintest hint of rum, and it’s actually beautifully light and refreshing on this hot day. I like the flavour of cola, so it’s a perfect compromise between flavour and the fizzy sweetness of the real thing. In the end, this one was more of a hit with me than 52 Teas Cherry Vanilla Cola. If I had the choice between the two again, this is the one I’d choose. It’s going to be a fond farewell.

from the Traveling Tea Box!

my 400th tea tasted!

I couldn’t resist…I snatched this one from the TT. Sorry guys! Of course I will replace it with something else :)

I smells like a mixed drink – faintly.

It has a nice medium black tea base and there is that flavor pointing to rum-like tastes, indeed! It has a sweeter end sip. The aftertaste is somewhat woodsy. It has a slipperiness to it on the tongue. This is pretty good. Different. But in a good way!

Wow this is exactly what I hoped it’d be, only with less mint. I taste mostly black tea and lime. There is a hint of mint in the aftertaste. Boo. I’m not a rum fan but love the combo of lime and mint. Damn I was really pulling for mint. Ah well, it’s still pretty tasty.
Now this was made hot, and the leaves were ctc (I ordered a bunch of the iced tea bags, fully intending to rip them apart, since I didn’t want to order bags full of the stuff)
Next time, I’ll def make this iced. I can really see it shining that way.
Also I’m not a huge fan of the base but it kinda works here!!

Backlog:

I enjoyed this flavored black tea from 52teas. I really can’t think of a “cola” flavored tea from 52Teas that I’ve not liked … somehow, Frank manages to capture that “cola” taste really well. This tea is no exception to that.

Overall, this was a very delicious blend. The black tea has a nice caramel-y undertone and it accentuates the caramel taste of the cola very nicely. I’m not a big rum fan (well, I’m not a big fan of any alcoholic drink, really) but, I like the alcoholic drink flavored teas … and this one is very refreshing.

Backlogging this from a couple days ago. Slowly, but surly working through my tea. Now if I can stop being lazy and log them in!

I made this ice tea style; it tasted fine warm, but this just seems more like an ice tea to me. The first time I made some I did my usual 2 steeping in one cup and added a bit of sweetener. It tasted pretty authentic…. AND STRONG! A little to strong. The second time I made this I did a combined 3 steeps and found it to be perfect. Minus the bubbles it tasted exactly like cola with rum in it! I am getting a slight lime tang, but if you want that to be more a flavor you will need to add that.

Brewing Specifics

Pot: Porcelain
Water: 8oz per steep
Leaf: 1.5 tsp (5 grams)
Sweetener: Don’t need it