I drank my tagalong tin of this like a flash! When I took out my last sachet this morning, I couldn’t believe it. Sweet, jammy, perfect as is.
I will drink my Paris (with pleasure!) but then I’m switching to Tower of London for my berry tea!
1066 Tasting Notes
At one point I had nine tins of the various Zhena’s herbal chais is my cupboard ~ last night marks just a few sachets of Hazelnut left! The Vanilla is my favorite and I’m very sad to see it go. So flavorful. The spices were the gentle ones (without strong cloves or overwhelming pepper) and blended well.
I’m still on my stash reduction kick, so I’m not replacing anything right now. Once my cupboard is under control, this favorite is sure to be purchased again!
I added a little Demerara sugar to this tea this morning, and I think I found its most absolute sweet (pun not intended!) spot of deliciousness! Somehow the sugar gives the blend the wee bit of heft it needs (there is a fine line between delicate and weak I find!) and amplifies all of the flavors. I have a nutty, spicy, floral on the end of the sip amazing cup of tea. Paired with my croissant? I feel like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3RSlUkw9U0
Ah!
Another delicious favorite – all gone!
This tea was a chameleon for me! Today it tasted roasty but herbaceous on the end of the sip. Almost like chamomile. It’s tasted very floral on the end of the sip before, just roasty and plain good before… who knows! In any event, it was one of my most enjoyable new teas of 2012.
I am not rushing to reorder because it is a little pricy, and also you have to sign for the package (or pick it up at the post office) which is a bit inconvenient for me.
I keep trying to pinpoint the flavors of this tea, but being exact doesn’t do this tea justice. It has a bit of magic to it. Almond, cherry, spice. Floral on the end on the sip. Something sweet.
Nope. Still doesn’t describe the experience. How all of the flavors dance together to make something indescribably delicious. It tastes more like a liqueur — no. A dessert — no. A candy — no.
I think this is one you have to taste yourself.
The nicest treat I had all week. Thank you Ruby Woo Scarlett!
First, let me say this tea works. It’s a different feeling than chamomile – I actually felt fuzzy and slow after drinking it! I slept deeply and was not restless. I found the taste herby and not too bad – the smell of the dry tea is more offputting than the brewed flavor (the valerian – if you’ve smelled it before, you know of what I speak! FEET!).
My husband, on the other hand, did not feel sleepy from it! He is the guy who can take prescription sleeping pills and not feel sleepy, though. What is going on there, I don’t know! He’s been this way since a baby.
It works out though – he swears by the Forests tea for sleeping well with his allergies (so much so I’m almost out of the 4oz I just purchased, and just ordered a pound!), so I make him a cup of that before bed, and I drink this.
Thomas is gone :( All of my winter break black tea with milk and sugar drinking did him in. He was gutsy, malty, and delicious to the end! Many thanks to ashmanra for giving me this last, precious tin.
This is another of my tagalong purchases, and I decided to try it out because I have one of those rotten headaches which caffeine and a few moments with my eyes closed seem to help. Nice to pop a sachet in a cup when not feeling at my best.
Stout and delicious! I am surprised how smooth it is for being so robust. I am getting that unsweetened chocolate flavor which I absolutely love. It tastes nothing like coffee, but definitely shares its heft. I do think this would be fantastic first thing in the morning, and with food. I also think this will resteep well – and am going to try that out in a few minutes.
I can also feel my headache easing.
I am so constantly and consistently impressed with Harney & Sons teas, year after year after year!
I’ve been on Winter Break, living la vida loca (which for me means drinking black tea at 7, sometimes 8 pm and staying up late watching movies!!! Wild, I tell you). This has been my go-to, especially since the party usually includes holiday cookies. It is flavorful and bold enough still to stand up to my favorite monster chocolate chips (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-big-fat-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookie/) without tasting weak (like many of my otherwise favorites have when paired) or competing with the flavor of the cookie (like my flavored teas do). Classic, epitome of black tea flavor!
P.S. – I’m reading a diary of WWII called Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson – an account of everyday life by an everyday Londoner. Tea figures prominently! People were rationed to 2oz tea per person per week in the period I’m reading about right now (early 1940s) (!!!) and they really DO make a pot of tea each time life throws something they need to cope with at them, and they always feel strengthened by their cup of tea! She notes that when something particularly awful happened, the person would need 5 or 7 cups of tea to be a bit restored! It’s so interesting to read the huge roll our favorite little leaf played in the daily life of the British at this time.
http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/books/few-eggs-and-no-oranges/ if interested!
My husband has some breathing issues — allergies? asthma? and this tea helps. I drink it, too — I figure the herbs in it like Echinacea purpurea root are good for the immune system. The taste. Well. It is certainly acquired. It tastes like incense to me, but I think that’s the cinnamon mixing with the fennel. A little honey helps. The more you drink it, the more you think it’s interesting instead of nasty :) I’m just glad it makes my husband breathe easier.
This one wins the JacquelineM “most delightful to drink new tea released in 2012” award :) That little extra citrus at least doubles if not triples the delight factor of the already very, very fine Earl Grey Supreme. I love this one in all weathers, all times of the year. The tin makes me smile. The sachets have the perfect amount of tea in them. It resteeps beautifully three times. Well done, Misters Harney, well done!
I have finally achieved Paris Perfection for my Palate (and Situation)!
:)
Palate: One “stick” of Demerara sugar. This is just a long, thin sugar packet of Demerara sugar. It has 3.5 g of sugar (and a teaspoon has approx 4.2) which is great — just a leeeetle less than a teaspoon is what I like.
Situation: I work in a very olde building in a city, and we have an Office Mouse (humor me that it’s One Mouse). He just ate our peanut butter cups yesterday! I think a container of honey with its inevitable drips may attract his attention more then these closed packets which have a plastic bag around them in my tight little drawer. I can use honey at home.
The resulting cuppa is jammy and sweet and a real treat. I like that 3.5 g of sugar can move something from Pretty Good to Divine Decadence!
Oooooooh Lychee! You are sweet, fruity, and rosy. You blend so well with this medium bodied Chinese tea base. I love you and you make me smile! (I think lychee must have what jasmine has — a substance that makes me happy!)
I’ve been drinking this one a lot in the evening. The stress of the end of semester times two (I both work at a University and attend a University!) can get to me, and I have a bit of trouble sleeping. Luckily this is very easy to drink — some nights I even have two cups. Lightly minty, and apple-y from the chamomile, and herbaceous in a good way from the mugwort et al. Honey makes it even nicer.
Do I have wild dreams? No! But I do feel very dreamy when I drink it, and slip right into dreamland.
P.S. Now that gmathis received her Lady Grey Green card (I really did paint one after our conversation about Harney’s Canton Green tea) I can show you all a snap of it!
https://twitter.com/i/#!/jackiemania/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FdCvd83RM
So I forgot to bring honey or sugar in for my Paris, but I was so in the mood for it this morning. I got the idea in my head to mix it with Golden Monkey. I was hoping that the honeyed sweetness of GM would act like a sweetener, and take that little bit of bitterness away.
Success! I have a less berried and vanilla-ed cuppa, but it’s much naturally sweeter and a pleasure to drink sans additions. I may take it like this all the time — I much rather tea blend than use sugar :) although I’m still yearning to try it with honey to try and replicate Tower of London. It also resteeps better, as the GM is a beautiful resteeper.
One more thing – Eee — look how cute my new brew mug is! http://www.premiumsteap.com/p-503-fox-mug.aspx
We’re out of coffee beans, so I wanted at choose a tea with some muscle to get me kinda, sorta going today. I chose this one because, it is the holiday time now!! Eee!
Anyway – since this is the THIRD holiday season I’m enjoying this tea, it has lost a bit of its snowflake glitter :( Those cranberry notes are no longer singing. It’s still a good cuppa, but the lesson I’ve been learning this year – that I need to have less tea so that I can drink them all in their prime – is sticking like a pine needle into my side! Ouch!
I think I’ll now enjoy this as more of an afternoonish blend. Yes, with holiday cookies :) What do you all do with teas that are not what they once were? Make iced tea? Blend with something else? Donate to the compost pile?
I did pretty well this year, but 2013 must be the year I get down to 30 teas!!! Pinkyswear!
Farewell, my lovely Black Dragon Pearls! You will be missed. I am astonished how quickly I drank up your roasty chocolatey wonderment — I only added you to my cupboard in mid-July!
Now that Starbucks have bought Teavana — my head spins. I’m not holding my breath on being able to buy Black Dragon Pearls on every corner, but… can you imagine?!?!
A friend sent me two of these teabags in a card to try. I was telling her about how I drank an entire pot of Harney’s Vanilla Black in the evening, and was up all night, and I think she was worried for me :)
For itty bitty tea bags, this was robust and flavorful. It reminded me of a coffee drink and not tea. The sarsaparilla was an interesting addition to a nutty vanilla blend. I think it helped make it taste rich, but it did register as a little odd or out of place of a flavor.
In short, I’d gladly drink this again if it was offered to me, but it’s not on my to-purchase list. Vanilla Comoro is more to my taste as decaf vanilla teas go. :)
Yum. This was another of my tagalong tin purchases from my recent order. Sweet and jammy, plus gooooood tea flavor. I thoroughly enjoyed two nice steeps. It makes me wonder if I should add honey instead of sugar to Paris…and also makes me wonder if I should order this instead of Paris when I run out, as it’s absolute perfection in its natural state.
P.S. – Tasting note number 1000 here!
Today is a wonderful, wonderful day! I have a green tea that I not only find palatable, but actually love!
I threw in the selection of Historic Royal Palaces tagalong tins into my latest Harney order, because my husband travels quite a bit, and was expressing how nice it would be to have a “sleepy” tea along with him. He gets the chamomile, and I thought I could also give him the Earl Grey Imperial, and keep the others for myself. I had recently been wondering if I would like an Earl Grey Green, and thought the Canton Green, included in the tagalong selection, would be a sort of Lady Grey Green.
(oooh! Lady Grey Green. I am conjuring a Alphonse Mucha-like picture in my head of a grey and green Art Nouveau illustrated lady. I digress!)
The tea itself is light, not the least bit bitter, yet I can taste green tea for sure. The orange flavor is natural and delightfully present. Harney says this one is a great introduction to green tea, and I agree with that wholeheartedly. My baby step :)
A tin is soooo going in my next Harney order. I can drink this alllllllll day.
Ahhhhhh. So nice to have this in my cupboard again! I’m having it sans additions here at work and I do believe it needs a touch of sugar to bring out its full berry vanilla citrus splendor, but it’s still pretty gosh darn wonderful. On my second pot, which should tell you something!
The only thing is that it makes me feel very decadent and languorous, which is not precisely how one should feel at the office!
I am not proud to admit this, but I grunted when I tasted this tea. Not a mmmmm or an ahhhh but an absolute grunt like a pig. It touched the primal vanilla loving animal in me (who I have just discovered is porcine). I guess it could have been worse — at least I didn’t oink!
A subtle and delicious vanilla bean flavor. Slightly rubbery/tarry/dark (that’s a compliment) and the tea base is WONDERFUL. Smooth and flavorful and not the least bit bitter. Extremely elegant. Perfect. I’m drinking it with some sugar and milk, and it’s just lovely. Harney and Sons describes it as baking sugar cookies with your grandmother, but I completely disagree. It’s more like being served shortbread with your grandmother…the Dowager Countess!
…which makes my grunt even more inappropriate! I hope I can learn to control myself around this tea!
In short, I love it.
…and this lovely, finished!
Made a giant, hearty milk and sugared mug for homework doings. Stout but a little mellowed by time. Just tasting a hint of raisiny stone fruit flavors. I think this tea is at least two years old – it’s held up remarkably well! I enjoyed every pot — this was the first Irish Breakfast I tasted with complexities, and I would be pleased to find it in my cupboard at a future date.
The last bag! I really enjoyed this tisane — as long as you used the specified bag per 6 oz of water, you got a chocolatey, minty, creamy delight that is very nice in the evening. That being said, I don’t think I’m going to repurchase. My local tea store has a rooibos concoction which contains mint, chocolate, and vanilla which I’m curious to try.
