1 sachet for 250mL water, drunk bare.
I’ve only seen Harney and Sons Tea in my city at Christmas time, and then only at the ChaptersIndigo (like Barnes & Noble) book store. The tins are pretty, especially the big ones that hold 30 sachets, but they’re also expensive. And tins that only show up around Christmas usually aren’t the highest quality in the land.
But I’ve done some research on Harney this year, and today I broke down and bought a 20-sachet tin of Paris and a 30-sachet tin of Tower of London. (Dang — thought the ToL was loose tea. Oh, well.)
Flavoured black tea and I often don’t get along. I found an Earl Grey I really like earlier this year and nearly tap-danced for joy. Too, too often the flavours mask a poor quality base tea.
Paris. Hmm. Visited Paris in May of 1989 and left a large chunk of my heart there. Totally hope to return. Paris smelled to me those weeks of fruit, coffee, diesel (?), dirty river (the Seine), dog turds, fresh baguettes, brie, oranges butter, chocolate and people. I loved it. A lively, not always pretty smell.
The Paris tea, however, is awfully pretty. The tin promises “natural and art [artifical, I presume] vanilla, fruit and citrus flavors.” Apparently this is a “fruit black tea with a hint of lemony bergamot.” It’s a pretty subtle hint. I can catch awhiff of it from the dry sachets, but in the brew all I’m getting is limp China black tea and a really heavy vanilla flavor. Almost sickly sweet. And grenadine — yeah, this reminds me of a horror I once tried called Vanilla Monk’s Blend. Oh. Yuk.
I really wanted to like this tea. But, for me, I gotta file it with dozens of other flavoured black teas: Don’t Bother.
