Ryan Burress

The aroma is light and vegetal. The flavor is earthy and smooth, a bit dry but not too much. I’m not overly impressed but I can’t say anything particularly negative about it either. It takes milk and sugar well. Overall I think this is a good basic cup of tea.

This tea is very light in color and has a slightly sour aroma. The flavor is lightly earthy, smooth, not very dry or bitter, perhaps even a little sweet. This tea is light enough to enjoy without milk or sugar and may even be overpowered by them.

This tea has an odd vegetal aroma…it smells like peas, actually. The taste is all tea, however, and is incredibly round and smooth, not bitter at all, and does have a slight sweetness as described on the Harney & Sons website. This is a pretty darn good cup of tea! It tastes great without milk or sugar but also takes both well.

Elaine’s Blend has an earthy, dusty aroma and a medium-dark color. Its flavor is smooth at first, round, and dry with a slightly bitter finish. I needed to add milk and sugar to soften the bitterness, though it remains rather dry. Perhaps five minutes was a bit too long for steeping. I will try four minutes for my next pot of Elaine’s Blend and let you know how it turns out.

Whoa – steeped this for five minutes, resulting in a VERY astringent brew. Milk and sugar were no help. I’m going to try again at three minutes and see how it turns out. Results to follow.

This tea has a very light aroma. I steeped for five minutes, which may have been too long as this brew is very bitter without much character. Cream and sugar helped soften the bitterness while tasting but the finish was still very bitter and dry. I will try a shorter steep time for my next cup but so far this is not the tea for me. It is just too bitter.

UPDATE:
My second cup was steeped for four minutes, which drastically reduced the bitterness. Even so, I found this tea still a bit too dry and the flavor uninteresting.

This tea has a light, toasty, slightly sweet aroma. The first sip of this tea was exquisite. The taste is full and round and blooms in the mouth from a robust, toasted, almost meaty flavor to a smooth, honey-glazed sweetness. Its briskness is refreshing and light, not bitter or smoky. The taste experience is full, complex, and lasting, requiring neither milk nor sugar. This really is an excellent tea and I believe it is now my new favorite Assam.

This is a smooth, dry, slightly smoky blend. The taste is at first round and bright, then becomes slightly dark and sweet. It leaves a bit of a smoky aftertaste. It’s a little too dry for me but a little cream and sugar help balance the flavor. I steeped this cup for five minutes; shorter steep time may limit the dry and smoky elements. It has a lot of character and complexity and is worth a taste.

This is a nice, simple Chinese black tea with just enough added flavor to complement rather than overwhelm the tea’s natural taste.

This tea has a very interesting character. It isn’t sour or bitter at all but does taste very earthy and somewhat smoky. I don’t usually prefer Pu-erh teas but this one intrigues me. I added cream and sugar and the resulting flavor combination was actually quite nice.

This is a well balanced blend of Assam and Darjeeling with a bright, crisp taste. It is full, round and extroverted like Assam but polished, polite and refined like Darjeeling. It is an earthy, hard-working Assam freshly showered and dressed in a Darjeeling tuxedo. It has a slightly sweet finish. This tea is delicious on its own without cream or sugar but takes both well.

This is a lovely tea for the holiday season. It is indeed heavy on spice, but blending it with another black tea will reduce it for those who prefer less spice. It goes very well with cream and sugar. It’s not something I would probably drink on a regular basis, even during the holidays, but it is a good tea for those who enjoy spiced teas.

This tea has a mild, sweet aroma. The flavor is very brisk and dry. It has a slightly bitter aftertaste, the bitterness increasing with each sip. It remains too dry for my taste even after reducing steep time from five minutes to four. I find the sour aftertaste quite unpleasant, but perhaps this is just a matter of individual taste. Unfortunately adding cream and sugar didn’t seem to help much. Oh well, can’t love ‘em all I suppose.

No notes yet.

This tea has a pleasant, subtle aroma and rich, dark color. The taste is very smooth, not bitter, with an only slightly dry finish. There is a very, very slight sweetness to it, but hardly noticeable. This is not a terribly intriguing blend but it is not bad at all. It is a straight-forward, uncomplicated, medium-bodied cup of tea. It takes cream and sugar well. There are more interesting blends available, in my opinion, but this is not bad.

This is a very dark brew with an odd aroma I can’t quite place. The flavor is straight-forward and quite good. I can taste the Assam and the Keemun. This is a full-bodied blend and goes well with cream and sugar. For folks who just want a decent cup of tea, this one is perfect.

This tea has a nice, brisk, slightly smoky aroma. This is a blend of Chinese black teas. You can taste the thin, darker character of Keemun but the overall flavor is a little fuller in the mouth. It is not very bitter or smoky but is a bit dry. There is a surprising burst of sweetness in the aftertaste when the air hits your tongue. The more I drink the more body this tea seems to have and the rounder the taste becomes. This tea has an interesting character, full of flavor. It is also very delicious with milk and sugar.

This blend reminds me of English Breakfast but tastes a little brighter, a little rounder, a little more outgoing and a little less dry and reserved, much like I imagine one could contrast the historical stereotypes of the prim and proper buttoned-up British with the warm, welcoming and partying Portuguese. It is, therefore, quite aptly named after Queen Catherine of Braganza who, though maintaining the proper royal decorum as the wife of England’s Charles II, perhaps might also have enjoyed the conviviality of Carnaval time in Portugal, her home country.

I think this is a great anytime tea and one to keep on hand for guests. There’s something about it, though, that to my taste feels a bit reticent, as if there is more to the story than the leaves are willing to tell, hidden by subtle shades within the flavor that veil a brighter, more robust sweetness, but I imagine I am just projecting onto this tea my own subconscious desire for such sweetness and unwillingness to fully embrace this tea’s dry, smoky undertones. My own personal taste notwithstanding, this is indeed a very good blend and worthy of being added to your cupboard.

This tea has a nice, soft and sweet aroma. The taste is a little toasty with a sweet finish and brisk aftertaste. I doubt you would need any milk or sugar to appreciate this tea. It is not as bold in body as I usually like but it does have a complex enough character to occupy your taste buds for awhile with each sip. This is not a tea for the budget-conscious, but it is worth a taste.

This tea has a dark color and a rather neutral aroma. The taste is pretty neutral as well with just a hint of honey in the finish. The overall flavor is a little too subtle for me. Cream and sugar helped a little. It’s not bad at all, but not quite interesting enough for my taste.

This tea has a light, vegetal aroma that reminds me of cooked green beans. The taste is very smooth and bright, with a sweet aftertaste that seems to linger for awhile between sips. It is not very dry at all and I only taste a hint of smokiness. It has a very nice, smooth liquor and goes well with a little cream and sugar, though they are not necessary to appreciate this tea’s flavor.

This tea has dark color and a very soft aroma. The taste is very smooth, almost sweet, with just the slightest hint of smoke. Each sip starts off slightly toasty but finishes slightly sweet. I taste something that reminds me of caramel. It is not a brisk taste, not very dry at all. There is a very interesting aftertaste, almost a blooming sweetness when the air hits your tongue. It reminds me of the tastes and aromas of autumn. This is a very interesting tea with enough complexity to occupy your palate on its own without milk or sugar. I find this tea to be very thought provoking; each sip almost forces me to stop and pay very close attention to the flavor’s every nuance. With an understated yet full body and wide range of tastes layered quite smoothly together, this tea is a quiet storm of taste sensations.

This tea has a greenish-brown color and a lightly smoky aroma. The flavor is remarkably smooth with a very slight sweetness. There is almost no dryness and no change in the aftertaste from the taste of the tea itself. The smokiness was not evident for me until after I had consumed about a third of the cup, and even then it was very light. It has an earthy flavor, not as bright and round as an Assam and not as crisp and dark as a Keemun. It takes cream and sugar well and is a rather nice and satisfying cup. I would probably tend to have this tea with a meal or in the afternoon at the desk. It is not as bold a tea as one might want for that first morning cup. Though not incredibly complex, the flavor is quite nice and approachable. I imagine this being a good “accessory” tea, a tea whose flavor is not necessarily meant to be the primary focus of the moment but which would still make a nice, tasty and satisfying treat during a get-together or after a meal. This is a tea I would serve to a group of guests at a book club meeting or evening poker game, for example, but probably not my first pick for a tasting event or more formal afternoon tea time. All in all this is a very nice tea, worth consideration as a staple for frequent tea drinkers.

This tea has a nice, dark color and a crisp, smoky aroma. The flavor is not bitter, not too dry and not very smoky at all, as I thought it would be from the aroma and my experience with other Keemun teas and blends such as English Breakfast. It is even less smoky than its nearly as delicious sibling, Hao Ya “B”. It has a very clean, crisp, fresh taste, very complex and sophisticated. This tea has a depth of character unlike any other tea I have tasted. This really is an excellent tea. It does not need cream or sugar to be fully appreciated, but I found that if you do use cream and sugar, both work better with this tea than either alone, but be cautious; you only need a very small amount of both to augment rather than overwhelm this tea’s natural flavor, which just keeps getting better and better with every sip. Even the aftertaste is itself a unique and flavorful experience. I must admit, this tea has greatly improved my heretofore under-informed opinion of Keemun teas and may indeed have supplanted others as my tea of choice. I am delightfully surprised by how delicious this tea is and I’m already looking forward to my next cup and to sharing this tea with others!

This tea has an interesting aroma; it’s not quite fruity, not quite floral, and almost vanilla. The flavor is a subtle, slightly sour cranberry taste with a very light, almost unnoticeable almond finish. It also seems to taste a little like vanilla. Cream and sugar soften the sourness and bring out the almond a little more. I would personally prefer the almond flavor to be a little more pronounced, but I’m not a big fan of cranberry. I’d be delighted if Harney & Sons offered a tea with just almond flavoring (hint, hint, Harneys!). My preferences aside, I think this is indeed a good tea for cranberry lovers.