Banana Bread Chai

2021 sipdown no. 58

Thanks for Cameron for sending this one my way!

I could not find any banana bread whatsoever here, but the chai spices were nice enough. They weren’t necessarily anything special, but I did like them with a rooibos base for a change.

I decided to broke in this pouch as well. It’s from boxing day sale and I just couldn’t resist as it sounded so good. I had banana bread maaaaybe just once, and one day I will try to bake my own. Hopefully the University workload will be slowly decreasing: as today I spent all day listening to the lectures in front of screen and I have no power doing some other things I should work on (eg. thesis).

Anyway, I digress a lot again.
Steeped two teaspoons in 300 ml. I have expecting more banana flavour, but it’s there. But the ginger is quite ruining it for me. I get it, it’s chai. But I notice only ginger and not the other spices. Maybe more of the bread note… something is lacking for me.

Just tasted in a latte for the first time. Foamy banana first sips combined with with hot ginger in the rest of the glass made this an extremely pleasant brew.

Advent Calendar Day 7

Excited to see another banana-flavored blend today and to try something else from Bird & Blend! However, I’m a wimp when it comes to spice and this one was just too spicy for me to appreciate. As I sip it, I get a nice spiced banana flavor, but the kick of the aftertaste is ruining the experience for me. Amanda sent a super-generous sample of this one, so I’m going to try brewing it as a latte to see if milk and perhaps a bit of sweetener tone down the spiciness enough to make it enjoyable for me.

Sipdown (330)

I saw Banana Bread and had high hopes for this but it didn’t deliver. There is a spice that hits the back of my through which could be warming and nice if it was accompanied by anything other than rooibos. Something about this is coming through almost lotion-like.

I bought this a while ago, but no tasting note yet!  This is one of those finely chopped rooibos blends, much like Gingerbread Chai, which I like, because they have a ton of flavor, a good mix of ingredients in each scoop, and you only need to steep one teaspoon to get a pretty strong cup.  Somehow I was actually tasting the banana today and not just the spices.  I like the spices, but I don’t really think of banana bread as spicy.  I would love it to be more BREAD like.  But as is, it’s a spicy banana.  The second steep was mostly spice, banana mostly gone.  I wish more vanilla would peek through as well.  I do love B&B’s finely chopped rooibos blends!  There should be mooorrreeee of them.  I will enjoy this one, but it’s not what I wish it was.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 14 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled  // 5 minute steep 
2019 Sipdowns: 88 (52Teas Hot Buttered Banana Bread )

Bird & Blend Tea Advent Calendar Day 22:

I liked this one. I cannot say whether is smelled or tasted of banana. The old sniffer is dead and gone. But this one was smooth and mellow and a bit sweet. After a coiuple of misses, I was glad to enjoy the whole cup and even re steep. The second cup was as good as the first.

Let’s not talk about how much tea I bought on Black Friday.
Thanks to tea-sipper for sharing this tea! I was very happy to get the chance to try it. The flavor is very lightly spicy with just a hint of banana. It doesn’t taste like any other chai I’ve had before. It didn’t need milk. I can’t point out what spices I tasted, just that it was a tasty and subtle combo.

Drank this one last night – I was really pushing how late I should have been staying up because I got stuck in a reality TV binge/loop, but at least I had the foresight to switch to caffeine free teas.

I eyeballed the amount of leaf for this tea, and dumped it in a “do it yourself” style sachet to leave in while drinking – I think I over did it a little bit because this cup definitely had some heat/spice to it! Mostly an unexpected heat from the ginger, but some cinnamon too. However, the reward for my over generous LLT measurement was that I could also clearly taste the sweet, creamy banana notes too! It felt, for the first time, like a banana chai. Did I love it? No, but I didn’t hate it either.

Next on the list is to brew it as a latte, I think.

Reducing my rating for this A LOT. I’m not getting any banana. It’s just a spicy rooibos.