Andreastt

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Nice, I’ve just experienced two new things about this tea, one of the things is that it contains ginger!!
Did also wonder where the burning feeling came from, I thought it was the cinnamon, but no, it’s actually ginger. 1 and a half year of drinking this tea, and never noticed the ginger before now.

O.o

Well, the last thing I found out is that this tea is perfect for second infusing!

Great, plain black tea without big finesses.

It’s a blend of teas from China, India and Ceylon, and most leaves in it are about an inch long, very fascinating.
Dry leaves: Classic black tea smell (all tea enthusiasts know what I’m talking about), smoke, wet forest ground (!) and a hint of yellow fruits (mango and peach).
The fruity notes that were noticeable in the dry leaves are totally gone in the smell of the brewed tea, but the smoke, the wet forest ground and the classic black tea smell is there still. It would have been rather fucked up, if the black tea smell had disappeared…

It doesn’t taste bitter and/or anstringent, and it has a very characteristic taste. I could taste which tea, that were Russian Morning #24, if you placed 100 plain, black teas in front of me, I bet.
Plain, strong black teas do often reveal a malty taste when brewed, which also is present in this tea. It’s one of Kusmi’s strongest teas with a body between medium and full, but Grand Yunnan #21 is way stronger, in fact it’s the strongest tea I have ever tasted.
I suggest experienced tea lovers to check Russian Morning #24 out. If you don’t like that classic black tea taste, you definitely wouldn’t appreciate this tea, ’nuff said.

I got this tea because I bought a tin of Anastasia, figure that one out!

I bought a 250g tin of Anastasia tea, or I thought I did, but I actually got this tea instead, and the reason I know that is:
1. I have bought many Anastasia tins, and a single teabag, and they all tasted nothing like this tea.
2. I have smelled the Earl Grey Polish blend, in an actual Earl Grey Polish blend tin, and it smelled like the “Anastasia tea” I have, so it’s actually an Earl Grey Polish blend tea I have.
Eww.

This tea smells VERY lime-y and VERY lemony, but has less bergamot in it than the other citrus fruits I think.
The taste is bitter compared to other great quality teas (still not as bitter as Lipton).
The aroma of the steeped tea is very soapy and smells very much like some cleaning agent. Not my favorite scent, but it is very Polish, that is for sure.
I was not planning to buy a tin of this, but unfortunately I did it anyway…
By the way, I wouldn’t buy it again. Definitely not my favorite cup.

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Yay, now I am going the review my all-time favorite tea, Imperial Label. It’s so good, everyone who hasn’t tried it, please try it. It’s a damn, fucking unbelieveable tea.
The dry leaf smells of orange (fresh and zesty orange), cinnamon (hot and spicy), and has an ever so lightly vanilla scent to it. In one word: GOD-LIKE!
The steeped tea’s smell is lighter on the orange, and slightly heavier on the cinnamon/vanilla. The color is light green, with no yellow glow at all, but is SLIGHTLY unclear…
The steeped tea’s taste is orangey, cinnamon-y and vanilla-y. Strongest on the orange and lightest on the vanilla. It’s just a hint of vanilla, not overpowering and sweet. The aftertaste is quite liquorice-like, as you would expect, and for a Scandinavian like me, it’s a pure delight, when things contain liquorice (we in Denmark eats a hell of an amount of liquorice, the salty one the most). Combine the liquorice aftertaste with the warmth of cinnamon, and the freshness of orange peel, and you have something truly amazing. The sencha tea itself is aromatic, rich, unbitter and unanstringent. This tea is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L.
Wouldn’t change a thing at all.

Overview:

Appearance: Dark green sencha needles, pieces of liquorice root and dried sea buckthorn berries. A very few cardamom seeds.
Dry tea-smell: Fresh and zesty orange, spicy cinnamon and sweet vanilla.
Color: Slightly unclear light green color.
Brewed tea-smell: Cinnamon, orange and vanilla.
Taste: Exciting sencha tea, the freshness of orange, the warmth of cinnamon and the sweetness of vanilla. Slighty tart due to the sea buckthorn berries.

Undoubtly the best tea I have tasted in my life!!!

This tea is a bit of an unusual tea from Kusmi, it has an overpowering sweet strawberry scent, that almost smells of cotton candy or something. I don’t think it’s flavored with natural essences at all, but on their website there’s written: “We use natural flavorings in all of our teas”, or something like that, maybe it’s a naural flavoring that is used in this tea, but it doesn’t seems to be. Sniffing to a box of strawberries in the early summer is a natural experience, and this tea is far from that, sorry Kusmi.
It brews to a beautiful, very clear, yellowey green color, which is like almost all senchas look like.
The brewed tea has translated to something than reminds me more of vanilla/caramel than actual strawberry, but it smells delicious.
It’s not the most delicate sencha I have tasted either, it’s very bland, watery and slightly anstringent, but the anstringency is only noticeable on the back/sides of your tongue, and only when steeped for a very long time. Their sencha base used in Imperial Label is much more delicious, I really wished that they used that one instead, cause this one is just not that tasty, but it is okay. The sencha in this tea is the same as the sencha in Detox and Boost, but there are a so small amount of it in them, that the anstringent notes seem nonexistent. The strawberry taste in the brewed product is more natural, and is quite like eating a strawberry, a very sweet one.
Not the best Kusmi, and not the worst either.
Their worst tea is the Ginger-lemon green tea, uff it gives me goosebumps!

This is one of the tea bags I got after ordering at kusmitea.com, and as you know, every time you order at that site, you get 3 tea samples for free!
The other two teas I got was Strawberry green tea and Ginger-lemon green tea.
The only thing I can say about Ginger-lemon green tea is… bahh!
I would give it about 15 points, if I had to rate it.
This tea is much better than the other 2 teas I got, in fact it’s one of my favorites by Kusmi.
It’s lemon-y and lemongrass-y in it’s loose leaves, and has a subtle note of something slightly hay-y and tobacco-like. It brews to a lovely clear light green color with a touch of yellow, and it is very, very lemony with a heavy hay-y and honey-like taste at the end of the sip. It’s nice and light, and I remember that I once brewed it over night, to see if got bitter or unpleasant, but no, it really never gets. It’s an absolute great tea, but it is very light, so don’t serve this tea for people who says that tea tastes like nothing (there are some people that do where I live). One I know always says that tea tastes like fox’s piss, I do of course disagree with him…

I like Kusmi’s tea bags, their pretty, and they contain more than a tablespoon of tea, believe it or not. You are in fact able to make 3 cups out of 1 bag, nice!

Wow, this tea is candy-like, it smells of some orange and cream candy you can buy in Denmark, very nice, I have to say.

As mentioned, the leaves smells nice and sweet; like milk chocolate combined with sweet orange aroma, the roasted maté is not noticeable though.

The liquid tea is quite dark orangish-brown in color, and smelled so sweet, that I really feel of the chair… oh wait I’m just kidding, but it really is SWEET.

It has a chocolate flavor, I really don’t remember from other Kusmi-teas, it’s milk chocolate and very sweet. The orange is in fact the dominating part, when you drink it, and it really is all over your mouth, not only in the beginning of the sip, or in the end, it is all over your mouth. The chocolate is only there at the end of the sip, and when you just swallow, a melody of roastyness and coffeeness is revealed.

The orange aroma in this tea is not that fresh orange flavor, it’s that candy-like orange flavor. No other chocolate tea from Kusmi has a sweeter chocolate taste than this, it’s very sugary, and totally feels like sniffing to a block of milk chocolate, but do you know what? I like it!
Totally enjoyable, if you aren’t scared of sweet things!
Since I really can’t see what’s bad about it, I’m going to give this a high rating.
It does not overtake their Imperial Label, their Samovar and their St Petersburg though, but it belongs in top 5, definitely.

First of all thanks to Angrboda for sending this oolong tea to me, it’s the second time I taste an oolong. The other oolong I’ve tasted was called Dragon Eye Oolong, and that one was more a “black” oolong than a “green” oolong, and I have read that oolong teas varies from 8% fermentation to 85%, so that oolong was probably fermented by 60% – 85% I think.
This oolong is by the way much more green than the other oolong I’ve tasted, but it still got some black tea taste.
The dry leaf smells of course of raspberry, but it isn’t that sweet raspberry smell, it smells quite natural and unsweet. There are pieces of blackcurrant in this tea, which really surprises me since it’s just called Raspberry Oolong. The liquid tea smells natural too, and doesn’t has an overpowering sweet “nose”.
The liquid tea has an ever so lightly tartness to it, and is very silky in texture.
It didn’t get tannic or bitter, even though I steeped it for around 6 minutes. This is a really great tea, and I love that it both has a green tea taste and a black one, very nice.
I like this tea WAY better than their White Temple Tea.
Oolong is one of my favourite teas now.

Overview:

Appearance: Furled green/black leaves and pieces of raspberry and blackcurrant.
Dry tea-smell: Natural raspberry. Not overpowering sweet.
Color: Right between a green tea and a black tea, which means brownish-green.
Brewed tea-smell: “Tart” raspberry.
Taste: Very silky oolong, green tea taste and black tea taste, raspberry and a lightly tart aftertaste.

Well, this is the first time I try a tea from A.C. Perch’s, and it seems to be a tea house with potential!
I have tasted some white teas before, but not many at all, to be exact this is the 2nd white tea I try, which is to say that it isn’t a lot.
The tea itself is Pai Mu Tan, can’t be anything else, the other white tea I’ve tasted was a silver needle, and it didn’t had much flavor. The dry tea smells nice. Fruity, exotic, sweet and so on. The leaves are quite big and flat, and the steeped tea got that characteristic, almost silvery color to it. White teas are so adorable in color. I steeped this tea for a long time, 6 minutes, maybe 7 minutes, but it doesn’t seem to be a too long steeping-time. I can not clearly tell which fruits it smells of in it’s liquid form, it is just one fruity orgy, but there’s clearly strawberry and pineapple in it.

The taste is sweet, which may be caused by the candied fruits added to this tea, and of course the white tea itself, which tends to be sweet. I almost only get strawberry and pineapple when I drink it, and it is also tart due to the pieces of fruits added to it. Great tea, but it really is a fruity orgy. I don’t think it overtakes the best Kusmi-teas I’ve tasted.

Overview:

Appearance: Big, flat white tea leaves, orange peel and candied fruits.
Dry tea-smell: Fruit. Strawberry, pineapple and papaya.
Color: Silvery.
Brewed tea-smell: Strawberry and pineapple.
Taste: White tea, sweetness and tartness. Strawberry and pineapple.

Grade: B.O.P. (Broken Orange Pekoe)
Chocolate and mint, is a winner-combination for me, I just love After Eight Thin Mints, but this tea is nowhere near the taste of After Eight, it is more like eating a christmas sugar cane covered in milk chocolate! To be honest I was a little disappointed, that this tea didn’t contain peppermint. The mint in this tea is spearmint, a sweeter and more chewing gum-like herb than peppermint, so if you love strong mint, this tea may not be for you, since it really is a sugary extravaganza; milk chocolate and sweet mint from a christmas sugar cane!

The dry leaf is chocolatey, and very similar to Spicy Chocolate when it comes to the smell of the chocolate itself, their plain chocolate tea is to me much more stronger and more cocoa-y. The mint is definitely there, but the chocolate is the primary part.

The smell of the liquid tea is exactly like the dry leaves; dominating chocolate, and less dominatig mint. I would consider the chocolate in this tea to be a little weird. Still a great cup of tea. Tastewise, the mint is way more dominatig than the chocolate, but the chocolate is noticeable anyway, which I’m very thankful for. This is a great cup of tea, but better teas exists.

Overview:

Appearance: Lightly broken black tea leaves, cocoa beans and mint leaves. I really like the addition of cocoa beans, it makes it much more interesting to look at.
Dry tea-smell: Chocolate and sweet spearmint.
Color: Brown with an ever so lightly green glow.
Brewed tea-smell: Mint and chocolate. Most chocolate, least mint.
Taste: Non-bitter black tea, sweet mint and subtle milk chocolate.

Grade: O.P. (Orange Pekoe)
Finally I’m going to taste and smell Tsar Nicholas II’s tea, it has always sounded exciting and special to me. The dry leaf smells very citrusy, to be more exact they smell of bergamot and lime, perhaps also something a little sweeter. Maybe it’s mandarine.
The tea itself also shines through, which I like, overpowering teas are so vulgar and non-exciting, so I’m glad that some tea-fragrance is noticeable in this tea. I don’t know exactly which flowers there are in it, but there are lots of it. Maybe the flowers are lavender and ylang ylang, it’s not rosy in any way. After the tea’s done steeping I’m going to find out, if Tsar Nicholas II had taste for tea, hopefully he had.

Well, strangely though, all the remarkable aromas of the dry leaves, simply doesn’t translate into the brewed tea, you can’t smell any of the essential aromas, it just smells of black tea. Almost. For me, it isn’t negative that a tea has subtle flavourings, I like it even better when they have. Teas just needs to have a hint of flavouring, if you ask me.

The taste of the liquid tea is not that subtle, here the citrusness and the floweryness, is quite noticeable, especially all the flowers, but the citrus is also there, adding exiting flavors to the tea. It has a tiny bit of bitterness, but it is a light tea, lighter than their Russian Morning #24, and lighter than their Anastasia. The color is quite dark, even though it’s a light tea, with a body between light and medium. Goes well with milk too!
Bouquet of Flowers #108 is one of the best teas I have tasted, and it’s just great, great, great. Must buy a 125g later on.
Tsar Nicholas II had taste for tea, obviously.

Overview:

Appearance: Extremely long black tea leaves.
Dry tea-smell: Bergamot, lime and flowers. Ylang ylang, lavender and a tiny bit of black tea.
Color: Reddish-brown
Brewed tea-smell: Aromatic black tea and a tiny flower/citrus smell.
Taste: Slightly bitter black tea, but still light. Bergamot, lime and flowers like ylang ylang and lavender.

Grade: B.O.P. (Broken Orange Pekoe)
Aahhhh… relaxing, comforting and tasty, that’s what this tea is. The dry tea smells of roasted sugar, butter and cream… does it get better than that? Not really. I brewed this tea for 5 minutes which I think is a great steeping time for Kusmi’s flavored chinese blacks. I’m not joking. The liquid tea smells exactly the same as the dry tea, but here the butter/cream notes are less dominating. Still very, very pleasing. The black tea itself is smooooooth, and doesn’t even has a hint of unpleasant bitterness. The caramel flavor is medium/strong, and absolutely not synthetic, I’m seriously in heaven right now, but it is even more delicious with sugar and hot milk (the one with 1,5% fat, or letmælk as we call it in Denmark). The tea is orangish-brown when brewed. I will DEFINITELY buy this tea again, no doubt there!

Overview:

Appearance: Broken black tea leaves, not very broken, just a bit.
Dry tea-smell: Caramel (roasted sugar, butter and cream).
Color: Orangish-brown.
Brewed tea-smell: Caramel (less butter and cream, than in the dry leaves).
Taste: Smooth black tea and heavy caramel.

Usually when I buy Kusmi Tea, I buy their more special blends, their Russians, their flavored etc., and why I do that seems clearly in this tea, because it’s not very flavorful. Combine that with my preference about jasmine, and you have a slightly disappointing tea. The dry tea smells of course of jasmine flowers, but the green tea itself also shines through as an aromatic, grassy smell. The green tea base is, as i can see, a chun mee tea, which isn’t my preferred green tea. I prefer sencha and gunpowder over chun mee. The chun mees from Kusmi Tea I have tasted were all lightly anstringent. The brewed tea smells pretty much like the dry tea, but here the jasmine is even more subtle, which is positive to me. The color in the cup is orangey-yellow, and the taste is okay, I would say, but the aftertaste is slightly tannic, it’s not much, it’s just a hint of tannin, but what’s worse, is that the tea itself is boring. Kusmi did a slightly disappointing job here, and I don’t think it’s a tea, that I’m going to buy in big amounts.

Grade: B.O.P. (Broken Orange Pekoe)
Prince Vladimir, an unbelievable great Russian blend with an unbelievable great smell, that really screams: I AM RUSSIAN!!!
The smell of the dry tea is primary dominated by citrus and cloves, but also has a clear vanilla note on top of it all. The combination of citrus, spices and vanilla somewhat smells like Coca-Cola. The color of the brewed tea is light brown with a touch of orange, and it’s body is light verging on medium. It mostly smells of cloves when it’s brewed, but it also has a subtle lemon/grapefruit note over it, and a sweet vanilla smell too.

The taste of Prince Vladimir is mostly cloves, cinnamon and vanilla. The citrus notes do only appears at the end of the sip, especially when oversteeped. The aftertaste is very peppery, because of the cloves/cinnamon. As you would expect from Kusmi Tea, the tea itself is not bitter and tannic. All in all I would say that this is one of the best Russian blends i have tasted. Kusmi Tea is an expensive tea, and it really isn’t to buy around every corner, but it is well worthing the effort and the price. I also like the fact that the whole tea company is a relic from the ancient Russia. You really feel like a tsar when you drink Kusmi Tea, it simply can’t be more tsar-y!!

Overview:

Appearance: Lightly broken black tea leaves and grapefruit peel.
Dry tea-smell: Lemon, grapefruit, cloves and vanilla. Coca-Cola.
Color: Orangish-brown.
Brewed tea-smell: Cloves, cinnamon, vanilla and citrus.
Taste: Cloves and cinnamon, vanilla and grapefruit, lemon, light pepper and of course black tea.