backlogging this mornings tea. Finished off my Masala Chai sample. I only had 1/2 a teaspoon left, so mixed equal parts Chai and Assam Melody as before. Love it!
235 Tasting Notes
Ok, I think I’ve figured this one out. You have to use a bit extra dry tea to develop body with this tea. 1 1/2 heaping teaspoons (again, the silverware, not the measuring spoon) at a minimum for a 12oz cup of tea. I’m using drinkably Hot water and a full 4 minutes of steeping. The resulting tea is very mild and not astringent at all. A very tame cup of tea.
Made this last night in my 4 cup pot (after the decaf ceylon disaster). Two heaping teaspoons with boiling water, steeped 3 minutes. Yummy! This came out perfect. I really like the bergamot peel that Adagio uses in their Earl Grey, and like the “normal” version, this EG comes out with a big bergamot burst that some might find overwhelming. But for the real Earl Grey experience, I think Adagio has the finest…and their decaf keeps up the standard.
I fixed a 4 cup pot of this for my wife and I last night. First time I’ve tried Adagio’s Decaf Ceylon. In short, it was a disaster! The tea had an off taste that I can only describe as “fish stock” and I poured the whole pot down the drain (I abhor fish stock and anything made with it).
For the record: 2 heaping teaspoons steeped with boiling water 4 minutes. The off taste was present at 90 seconds when I checked for color and just got worse with time.
Used a bit extra (1 1/2 teaspoons) dry tea this time, as the tea is in large fragments (~1 – 1.5cm). Hot water from the coffee brewer and 4 minutes steep yielded a light rust/brown tea that is very mild in flavor. Not grassy in flavor…I can’t quite nail it down.
And the resteep. The resteep came out very good this time, not pale at all. Still had fines in the bottom as noted before, but good stuff.
backlogging this morning some more.
Backlogging this mornings doings…I went all out with Ceylon Sonata this morning. about a teaspoon in a large mesh ball (plenty of room) and HOT water at a full roiling boil! 4 minutes and I had a perfect cup of tea. As I’ve noted in the past, this is a good tea, not an outstanding tea…I’ve had better “Kenilworth’s”, but all things considered, I’m talking about the difference between really good and really, really good…not between trash and good.
made in my two cup teapot with a heaping teaspoon (not the measuring one) and fairly hot water (185-190 F). Steeped the recommened 4-5 minutes for black tea. Nice clean tea w/o much after taste. Mild, not tannic, not acidic.
Back from an extended weekend vacation filled with bad coffee and this was the first thing I found. When your tastebuds are asleep, this will do you good.
It was available and most likely to survive in a cup that previously had coffee
Used up the rest of my Earl Grey Supreme and made up the difference with Viennese Earl Grey. Very intense in the first cup this morning, yet surprisingly smooth. Working a resteep now, 8 hours later and its still Earl Grey, still smooth, and still good.
Nothing new to add….just good tea
Resteep and cloudy mystery solved. The resteep is of this mornings leaves (as reported below). The bergamot is gone (no surpise there), but its still a good cuppa good tea. Brewed with good color, even less astringent, very light flavor and not cloudy.
I realized, as I was resteeping, that the cloudiness was due to the fact that I made a mocha (instant hot chocolate made with coffee) in my mug yesterday and didn’t wash it out…a little extra flavor and who knows what else….
Used up the last of my New Vithanakande and only had about 1/2 what I needed, so I made up the difference with Earl Grey Supreme (all these from Harney & Sons). Darn good! I ended up with a slightly cloudy brew that had an oil sheen on the surface (Earl Grey?) and a mild bergamot taste while hot. About 1/2 sat until it was cold and Surprise! it was very good cold as well. Medium body, very slightly astringent…enough to add some pucker, not enough to consider it mouthwash
I swear this has some green tea….perhaps its the Darjeeling thats still green, but I can see it floating in my tea strainer.
A bit different, more mello…I recommend it for a sampler to check it out.
brewed a bit strong today…2 packets of sugar and its perfect
Finally got this one right today and it is particularly good. I like the fact that the tea leaves are in large pieces, leaves no fines the cup.
mmmm good. Needs no sugar. If you don’t like sweet tea, don’t drink this one…its sweet without doing anything.
Backlogging yesterday…Indian Spice by Harney & Sons. This is a “psuedo chai”. I call it that because all of the other Chai’s I’ve had are a combination of black tea and physically identifiable spices, like cardamon seed, clove buds, cinnamon bits, ginger, and one even had black peppercorns. This tea is what it claims…“Flavored Black Tea”, not what I expected when the word “Chai” is used (yes, I know chai means tea). Ok, disclaimer’s aside, this is a good tea. The spice is nice and well done, more in the vein of a mulling i.e. it doesn’t have that sharpness associated with ginger or black pepper. Visually, this is a deep black, processed tea. It looked like a black “gun powder”. It produced a transparent, deep red/brown liquor with a lot of fines in the bottom. The fines settled out quickly and nearly completely, even when agitated. I also had a resteep and, while milder/paler, it was good as well. I could see this tea being the basis of some good winter holiday beverages.
Classic estate Ceylon tea. This tea is consistent with other “Kenilworths” I’ve sampled. Kenilworth is rapidly becoming my benchmark for “good tea I like”. There are some better, a lot worse, but so far Kenilworth seems to be a consistent product that I like to drink.
This tea has a little white blended in…the “Ceylon Vintage Silver Tips” from the description (btw harneytea, you’re busted on your generic tea picture…it doesn’t show any of the Silver Tips"). I don’t know that the Silver Tips does anything much for the tea other than add visual appeal to the mix. The tea is smooth and mellow with no “grassy” finish (unlike Viennese Earl Grey by Harney). It doesn’t have much of a bergamot smell, but the flavor is definetly there to taste. A very good, high quality Earl Grey.
This is a very mild, mellow tea with a light Earl Grey smell. Good stuff, probably better suited to afternoon tea than morning wakeup. Has a mild grassy aftertaste as it cools. Not enough to detract from the overall experience.
I tried a resteep of this one from this late morning. I let it go extra long on the steep, 15-20 minutes, as I expected to pour it over ice for iced tea. It steeped to a good, dark color. But, once over the ice, there just wasn’t anything there. Funky colored water. eh, it was a resteep experiment..sometimes they fail. I did discover a nice side benefit. This tea gets its cinnamon kick from dried orange rind soaked in cinnamon oil. After two steeps, the orange rind was good to chew on! Cinnamon orange breath freshener!
