Maple Bacon

Yep, this is a bacon-y tea alright!

The aroma is spot on bacon with dribbles of maple syrup. But if I linger on it too long, I actually feel a little nauseous because the scent seems to get “oily”! I think I’m just imagining lard congealing on a plate.

I think the taste is more akin to beef jerky than pork. Or like meat marinated in soy sauce. It tastes very “meaty”. And there’s that sweet edge to it—like barbeque sauce with molasses.

Upon cooldown, subsequent sips remind me of the taste of tea eggs.

All in all, I like this very much. It doesn’t disappoint. It seems satisfyingly bacon-y, meaty and protein-rich (all with a dose of sugar)!

And yet it’s tea. Amazing! ;)

Sipdown no. 99 of the year 2014.

This has been a difficult sipdown because the flavor of this tea, while incredibly maple bacon, isn’t for me.

If I didn’t think this had done a stellar job of living up to its name, my rating would definitely be in the orange face range.

Bye Maple Bacon. Thanks for your role in helping to refine my understanding of my own tastes.

ETA: No. 2 asked to try it and liked it, so I didn’t even have to finish the sipdown. Yay!

Back on the 6th day of christmas we were sent a few teas for our breakfast themed tea day :) I held off trying a few of them so now i’m playing catch up. So i love bacon…back a few years ago it was not unheard of for me to cook an entire package and eat it in one day (with my other half).

I’m not sure this tea is for me…it’s been sitting in front of me as based on the smell i haven’t been able to pick it up to drink it. There’s a weird underlying smell to the smokiness, that makes me want to clear my nostrils when i inhale.

Ok… first sip! this IS liquid bacon! I’m actually pretty impressed with how much this is just BACON. I’m not getting much in the way of the maple but it’s pretty good if you’re looking for a bacon tea.

That being said, this isn’t a tea for me…but i can’t hold that against the tea! Thank you tattooed_tea!

I’ve been holding on to this, afraid to try it. Finally I got the courage to tonight, only to be disappointed.

I’m not getting anything. I added maple syrup and salt and it didn’t help at all. I mean, now it tastes more like maple but I wanted the bacon alongside it!

I guess I have to steep it longer? I went with about 4 min, 15 seconds. It’s not even smoky to me. Oddly more than anything, it tastes like chocolate. It definitely smells like breakfast, though. I’ll have to play around with it again.

Received this as a sample when I bought a bunch of Frank’s iced teas that were on sale. I had been curious about this one, so I was excited when I saw it in my package.
I was really surprised with how great this was, as was my bf. Very smoky – which I absolutely love. I added a squeeze of maple syrup and a touch of brown sugar, which really brought out the maple and bacon flavors. It was like smoked maple bacon, candied and liquified in a cup. Actually really enjoyed this and it reminded me how much I love smoky teas. Gets more bacony the more it cools. The thought of this iced seems kind of strange, though; a tall glass of refreshing iced bacon tea? I don’t know about that. haha.

Oh I like this, I am really surprised, but there is no denying I really like it. I like how smokey it is, almost burnt tasting. It’s like maple bacon that’s been overcooked on the campfire. To my taste it’s mostly smokey bacon with just a hint of maple. I know call me strange, but that works for me.
Thanks JackieT for sending me this weird yet wonderful sample.

Another smoky tea to try! It’s probably a bad idea to be drinking so much black tea so late at night… oh well…

This is another very generous sample from Azzrian! Another tea I wanted to try before gambling and ordering.

The steeped tea smells somewhat smoky and sweet; not really smelling maple or bacon, perhaps they’ll be more apparent once I drink it.

Hmmm, the flavour is a bit different than I was expecting. A somewhat smoky, barely sweet black tea, with a fair bit of astringency. Darn, I must have steeped it too long. I did add a pinch of salt as has ben recommended, but am not getting anything resembling maple, or even bacon really. I think I might try adding some maple syrup and a bit more salt the next time, to see if that improves the flavour. Also might keep the infusion down to 3 minutes, as I’m really disliking the astringency. I thought four minutes would be low enough, but I guess not.

Thanks again for the sample Azzrian!

I followed the advice from my last cuppa and tried the tea with with a touch a maple syrup which I found really did bring out the maple flavour. I also added a pinch of salt to see if that would enhance the bacon flavour at all, but found it didn’t really make much of a difference to my tastebuds. So yeah, maple and bacon. :D

This is delicious. So far I am loving Frank’s maple flavoring in his teas. I don’t know if I like this as much as pancake breakfast, but it’s pretty close. This was amazing with my corn dog breakfast! It wasn’t overly smokey, which I was worried about. Next time I might brew this a bit stronger too.

Smoke isn’t a flavor on Steepster? Seriously?

Sorta Sipdown (191/195)!

This little guy is headed off to 221Tea and is officially the last of the six “sorta sipdowns” that I’m sending to her. I saved him for last mostly because I was putting off having him: the bacon teas still intimidate me and the smell of this one always makes me feel a bit nauseous. Still, after recently falling in love with 52Teas’ Pineapple Bacon rooibos I really wanted to give this another shot just in my tastes had changed enough for me to reevaluate my first impression and give this a better rating…

That’s not the case though: while I don’t completely hate the flavor it is making me feel somewhat queasy, which is probably only exaggerated by the fact I’ve been drifting in and out of headaches and cramps all day. Ugh.

Oh well; can’t love ‘em all – an important tea lesson that I still sometimes need to be reminded of. I was hopeful though; especially after loving Pineapple Bacon so much. I still think this is a something every tea drinker needs to try at least once though which is why I don’t feel bad passing it along to 221Tea: worst case she dislikes it too but has had a memorable tea experience and saved herself some money buying a pouch…