3219 Tasting Notes

Fabulous, smooth, sweet black tea. Gave it to a tea newbie today and he loved it. I noticed that my stock is getting low, and that is a no-no. This will definitely be reordered! It is on the “if you could only have ten teas list.”

Sil

Hmmmm I wonder if I ordered this one. Ill have to check it out. I do love me some black tea :)

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drank Prince of Wales by Twinings
3219 tasting notes

Thank you to Twinings for sending three teas of our choice to try! This is the sample I most wanted, based on reviews I have read here on Steepster. I was especially interested in whether this one would resteep.

I was a little surprised when I just read that this is a blend of Chinese teas because I could have sworn I tasted some Indian leaf in this. Then I read that it is Yunnan and southern province teas and it made sense, because there is a lot of assamica varietal in yunnan plus they tend to have a slight maltiness.

This is good. It is smooth. I took it without milk and sugar and it was not harsh. There was a hint of tingling or peppery flavor from the yunnan. It is not premium loose leaf tea but is very drinkable and easy to carry and make, so I think it qualifies as a Cheapster Steepster because….I like the resteep even better than the first steep! It is not strong, no, indeed. But it is now ever so lightly smoky and is even smoother.

This is nothing like the PG Tips or Yorkshire Gold that makes me hide under the bed until it has been tamed with milk and sugar. It is more delicate, but not frail. I doubt it would wake up an Assam lover but it is good mid-morning tea for me!

gmathis

Aw, come out from under the bed on over to the dark side :)

TeaBrat

This is one of my favorite Twinings teas…

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drank Mixed Berry by Twinings
3219 tasting notes

My samples came! My samples came! And though I have been wanting to try Prince of Wales for a long time, I could not resist this berry flavored black. It was really calling to me.

I don’t remember having a Twinings tea that I disliked. This one definitely lives up to my expectations. It is a very nice berry flavored tea.

I am drinking it plain and hot and it is great, and it really tastes like it would be over the top good iced and sweetened.

The tea base is nice. Of the flavors, cherry is dominant to me, but it could be that red currant is a big factor also. I wouldn’t know since I have never had red currant, and only recently tried black currant for the first time.

This is a really nice cuppa! I wouldn’t mind picking up a whole box.

Our samples came with a coupon code (Mailer) for 15% off through March 30, 2013. Good thing, as I don’t think this one is sold anywhere locally.

Edited to add: Nevermind the coupon code. When you go on their site, they already offer 20% off.

K S

Hope my come soon – just don’t remember what I asked for.

ashmanra

Well then, it will be a nice…..SUPPLIES!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RB2GboGOuTI

gmathis

Nope, not a bad Twinings in the bunch. Mine came; I tucked them in my purse for restaurant and away-from-my-stash emergencies.

K S

SUPPLIES! lol :) how do you all find this stuff?

ashmanra

Teenagers + Internet = constant hysteria! The good kind!

Tabby

!!! Oh man, I need to go check my mailbox.

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Two of my daughters had tea with me today. Youngest and I had this one – it is a favorite of hers – with Hungarian Embassy cake which is basically pound cake with a streak of cinnamon and brown sugar and chopped pecans.

This is an easy introduction to smoky tea. The blend is very nice and has a lot of body and character, with a little Darjeeling personality thrown in with the smoke. It is a real pleasure to drink.

Bonnie

You’re a diet breaker!!!

ashmanra

Not if it is the “See Food Diet!”

LiberTEAS

The See Food Diet is my favorite diet.

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drank KaiMatcha Premium by KaiMatcha
3219 tasting notes

My best friend had never had unflavored matcha before so I offered to whip some up today. Even using my metal kitchen whisk in a plain cereal bowl I got a really decent froth.

My friend said she felt like she had just had a serving of vegetables. I thought it tasted a bit like buttered kale, although sometimes leafy green veggies can have a bitter taste and you really don’t find that here. She agreed about the taste. This is the veggie goodness. I told her I hoped she was prepared to do some housework with all the energy that would be hitting her in about twenty minutes!

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Somehow I had failed to add this to my cupboard. What an oversight because I love this one!

Today I made a new cake to try out some new pans. I bought the half size Bundt pans and though I really should have made my pound cake recipe I decided to try a new recipe called Hungarian Embassy cake. I got the recipe from a friend who was at an embassy dinner over twenty years ago. She loved the dessert so much she asked for the recipe, and then was featured in our local paper for her baking and they ran the recipe, too.

I invited my best friend over for cake and tea. I also wanted a good excuse to use my new variable temp kettle again. The cake has a streak of brown sugar and cinnamon through it, so I thought this would be a good match for it.

My friend was captivated by the honey aroma of the tea. She really loved it. The resteep was just as good, making this an excellent value as well as an excellent tea. It was a great value even without its resteep-ability!

Smooth, honeyed, a tiny tad malty, and utterly delicious, this is a cupboard staple. Teavivre blows me away.

K S

The only tea I have rated 100… at least so far.

ashmanra

I believe it!

TheTeaFairy

I second that as well, awesome tea!

ashmanra

My friend cracked up and laughed at me today as I rooted through my Teavivre tea chest to get it! She couldn’t believe how much of their tea I have bought!

TheTeaFairy

Haha! I know, my friends and family think I’m an alien when they look at my tea cabinet! I have to admit that my collection has expended out of normalcy…

ashmanra

I think I have actually broken out in a cold sweat and chanted, “I have a problem. I have a problem,” several times recently.

TheTeaFairy

Oh, thanks for saying that Ashmanra, I don’t feel as lonely now. The real problem is that I do enjoy having this problem… I’m in the loop here, can’t escape!

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drank Tea Maker FL7000 - Krups by Krups
3219 tasting notes

Finally! I have my variable temp kettle! I like the way it looks, especially with the filters in it, isn’t that silly? But it is attractive just as a pot for boiling water, too.

All of this section will be the pros and the facts. First, you can set the kettle on the base any old way. It spins – you can turn the handle how you wish. I find that handy.

The lid comes all the way off for filling and cleaning. (Some brands don’t, and they are harder to fill and clean because of the angle you must hold them.) The lid twists on securely so you don’t have to worry about burning yourself with steam or water as you pour as could happen if a lid popped off.

The lid and filters are plastic but they are BPA free. The dual filter allows you to tout leaves or bags in the small filter, insert into pot with filter raised, then you can lower it when the water reaches your desired temperature. When time is up, simply twist the top and the filter draws up out of the water and you can serve straight from the variable temp kettle if you wish. I bought this just to heat water, though!

The water came to a full boil at about 4 minutes 38 seconds. Testing it against my English kettle on the stove, which was more expensive than the electric kettle and is designed for super fast heating, the electric was a little faster as my stove kettle took 4 minutes 50 seconds to come to a full boil. I have noticed it whistles starting at about 195F so I gave it until I could hear the water rumbling a bit to stop the timer.

One of the deciding features for me – this kettle will hold your temp for ONE HOUR! Most others cut off after 20 or 30 minutes.

The lid and glass must be somewhat insulating because HOURS after I tested the pot I poured out the water and it was still warm. Not tea making warm mind you, but I expected it to be cold by then.

Now the one and only con I have found so far. It only holds one liter of water. I often make two Beehouse pots at a time and on tea party day I make three. One liter doesn’t quite cut it, but I can work around that, especially since I really bought this for gong fu steeping sessions.

Edited to add: Also, it doesn’t beep when it hits the target temperature. The blue light on the base turns red and flashes. I don’t know if that is a pro or a con! Beeping would get annoying, but sometimes I might not be paying enough attention!

So far, I really like it and I am not disappointed!

These are available at Tin Roof Teas and I had waited a long time for them to come back in stock. Just when they did, I found out that none of my kids were coming home for a couple of weeks, and I wanted my kettle yesterday, so I ordered it with a discount coupon code from Macy’s and also got free shipping. LOL! So it all worked out in the end, and I think I am still going to be picking up one more from Tin Roof for a friend!

LiberTEAS

Before I got my breville, I never really thought that a variable temp kettle was necessary … I had been eyeballing my water temp all those years and I had it down pretty well, but, it makes life so much easier to have the kettle do the work for you. That’s also why I absolutely love my Breville, it does even more of the work for me. :)

ashmanra

It was very nice to just hit a button for the temp I wanted! No pulling out the thermometer now! I think this will be especially useful for whites and greens. The fact that it will hold at 167F appealed to me because I have a couple of white teas that go that low and most of the kettles I saw did not. I think I am going to wish I had bought a while back!

TheTeaFairy

Hi Ashmanra, I just received mine, (had to replace a cheaper one I had bought). You were right, it looks fantastic! I was just wondering if it stood the test of time, do you still enjoy using it as much?

ashmanra

I still love mine! And I gave one to my daughter and her fiancé as an engagement gift and they are thrilled with it. We use it at least several times a day and it still looks great and works great. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have enjoyed mine! I will not be without a variable temp kettle ever again if I can help it.

TheTeaFairy

Sweet! Thank you so much, I’m happy to hear that cause I just made my first pot and I absolutely love it!!!! Very well constructed and so easy to use, a breeze. I chose to buy this one cause I remebered your review :-) Also, it’s got pretty good reviews on Amazon.
Gongrats on your daughter’s engagement, what a lovely gift!

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This was sent to me by Bonnie a while back, and I really, really wanted to brew it gong fu style but I really didn’t want to be tied to the kitchen stove for 18 infusions! I vowed that I would not try it until I had a variable temperature kettle to make it easy. (The ancient Chinese didn’t have to worry about it. They had cast iron warmers with coals beneath that kept the water nice and hot for a long time! I have used my tetsubin in a similar way but a tea light candle doth not make the same heat as coals!)

So, of course my shipping notice said that my new Krups kettle would get here on the day I was going to be out of town ALL DAY LONG. But my neighbor watched for it and snagged it so it wouldn’t be in danger on the porch! And now the tea…

I out 2T in my little thick and easy gaiwan and gave it two rinses as the website suggested. The steeps are about four seconds and believe me, that is enough! The later steeps are my favorite, and quite frankly I feel like I am floating because I have drunk so much tea! Hubby abandoned me several steeps ago so here I am plugging on all alone and drinking it all! They aren’t kidding when they say you can expect about 18 infusions.

The first steeps were a bit astringent because I was having trouble juggling the new kettle and the somewhat awkward place I put it to be near an outlet and getting back to the tray in four seconds! They weren’t bad, just not remarkable. The later steeps are quite good – lots of stone and mineral taste in this with a nice overtone of the apricots and even a little spice like Ceylon cinnamon, the milder sort.

I plan to try it western style very soon! I will also review the Krups. Spoiler: I think I am going to love it, and youngest has already claimed it for making her tea on school days!

Azzrian

Congrats on the new kettle! You know …. I can get ahold of those coals! ..

ashmanra

I suppose if I am really bad for the next few weeks, Santa will bring some coals! But I still wouldn’t have one of those tall iron heating units they used…I suppose if I were very good all year I might get that next year!

TheTeaFairy

Well Ashmanra, you be a good girl now! (But remember that being too good takes the fun out of life sometimes!)
The coal thing sounds really cool…
Before I goy my own variable kettle, I was also using a cast iron pot to keep water hot for the gaiwan, but as you mentioned, it not very efficient…once you go variable temp, you never look back! Have fun with yours :-)

Bonnie

I have a glass pot and pour my boiling water into the preheated pot and cover it with a thick dome tea cozy which keeps the water up to high temp for at least 4 steepings. Some people I know wrap a towel around a pot of water and do the same thing.

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drank Vanilla Black by Harney & Sons
3219 tasting notes

Next to Lapsang Souchongs, this is my youngest daughter’s favorite tea. I wanted to make a pot of tea that everyone in the house would like today. I had just made a batch of sugar cookies based on the America’s Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated recipe that is supposed to be nearly perfect. (It is.) Hubby got off work early – well, he got off slightly later than he was supposed to, but having just worked one 18 hour day followed by a ten hour day, it felt like “early” and I wanted to have a family tea time to celebrate. Plus, tomorrow is our annual Christmas shopping trip out of town and we are feeling festive!

This was the best choice for an “everyone will drink it” tea. I am not sure, but I think that for the first time, hubby drank a black tea without adding milk or sugar! If so, that is a huge deal. He drinks greens, oolongs, and puerhs without additions, but black tea ALWAYS gets at least some sugar!

Great tea, great cookies, a very nice day!

BoxerMama

I got a sample of this with my harney order, it’s even better than Vanilla Comoro!

ashmanra

I buy it by the pound, I once had to drive 30 minutes to a friend’s house to borrow some to get youngest daughter by until our order could arrive!

Invader Zim

I hope he gets some sleep and time off over the weekend!

Bonnie

Have a wonderful time!!! I love black tea without sugar and a cookie on the side with it.

Miss Starfish

Fresh cookies and Vanilla tea? Be still my beating heart ;)

ashmanra

By the looks of the cookie platter at the end of tea time, you would have thought I invited Cookie Monster. But that IS our nickname for my hubby, after all!

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This was so good yesterday that I just had to have it again today. This was the first tea of tea party, as I wanted a great unflavored black tea to pair with our food. Today we had slices of homemade buttermilk bread, buttered and toasted, then spread with black currant jam, lingonberry jam, and/or Double Devon Cream.

How good was it? It was the only one of today’s teas that my guest requested a second cup and though she liked the other teas, said that this one was her favorite of the day.

Smooth, cocoa-y, hearty without biting, this is indeed a great black tea.

Bonnie

I read about the Congou being the 5th leaf down, harder to pick and get to, more valued and larger. Not the leaf a machine picks. Personally, I love a good Congou Keemun and what you paired this with sounds delicious!

ashmanra

I couldn’t find any information on that, Bonnie, I had read that the souchong leaves were five through seven. Is that what you were thinking of? I think Congou means the same as Kung Fu and gongfu, meaning “masterfully made.” But maybe it does refer to the hand picking?

Denise @ Nature's Tea Leaf

I finally broke down and made myself a pot of this. It is one of the few I haven’t tried here and it is as delicious as your words described. I can see why your friend had seconds. I think I will keep this pot to myself and maybe take a little home for the rainy weekend ahead.

ashmanra

So glad you tried it and liked it, Denise! It is excellent!

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Bio

I am a music teacher, tutor, and former homeschool mom (25 years!) who started drinking loose leaf tea about fourteen years ago! My daughters and I have tea every day, and we are frequently joined by my students or friends for “tea time.” Now my hubby joins us, too. His tastes have evolved from Tetley with milk and sugar to mostly unadorned greens and oolongs.

We have learned so much history, geography, and culture in this journey.

My avatar is a mole in a teacup! Long story…

Location

North Carolina

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