ashmanra

When I read about the toasted cheese and tea at the end of I Was A Rat, I had to smile! And I also had to celebrate that warm feeling and happy smile with a toasted cheese sandwich (perfect, by the way, from my new Breville Smart Grill and Griddle hubby encouraged me to get!) and a pot of good tea. I knew the old cobbler and his wife wouldn’t have had a foofy French tea, so I chose this milder-than-most Irish breakfast that we like so well! Very nice! Milk and sugar, of course!

A nice pot of this followed breakfast today! A little sugar in this one for me unless I am having it with afternoon cookies. Today I picked up on the grapey flavor of the black currant in it a little more than usual. It was yummy! And Mike Harney has offered to make some one pound bags of this loose leaf! Hooray! I already have orders for three people wanting it, and I expect Sandy may make it four when she gets back from her south island tour!

Mike Harney just wrote to me and offered to make a pound of this loose leaf! Hooray! I have asked him to make more than that – does anyone else want some of this delightful goodness in loose leaf? Just post to the Harney wall on Facebook or call or email them and let him know. Their customer service is unsurpassed! If you haven’t tried this lovely tea, I will liken it to Paris and it definitely has French style. It is wonderful unsweetened or with sugar.

Raining like mad, even thundering a little this morning. I needed a special breakfast, so out came my now-rationed Queen Catherine to go with toasted whole wheat lemon pound cake, made last night by middle daughter and myself. I am trying to hold off ordering until Golden Monkey is back in stock, but if more of my favorites start to run low I just may have to go ahead and order!

I haven’t had this one in a while and decided I had better drink it up before it gets too old! I plan to go to Southern Season again when Sandy gets home from New Zealand and I need to empty this tin so I will have an excuse to buy a fresh batch.

The leaves are black and gold, and the gold ones are the softest and fluffiest I have ever seen in any tea! The tea has light honey notes and a bit of cocoa or chocolate-y aroma. This is good plain or with just a touch of sugar. I resteeped once, as a cold, gray, and rainy day like this requires more than one pot of tea! This is hitting the spot after having had to go to a doctor’s appointment followed by grocery shopping and cooking a big pot of tomato rice soup…I am worn to a frazzle! I shall now quietly commune with my lovely cup(s) of tea!

Still smells great, still tastes great with sugar, still isn’t Harney and Sons Golden Monkey which is infinitely better and never needs sugar! I wouldn’t even write this one up again except that I haven’t written up a resteep. Yes! This one does resteep pretty well. It is indeed noticeably weaker but not terribly so, and was quite enjoyable. It really should redeem itself of that high price by resteeping well!

Okay, I have REALLY grown to like this tea, as long as I do not even pretend it is a Golden Monkey. If you are looking for a really tasty black tea that smells great and tastes really good with a pinch of sugar this is it. If you are looking for something that smells and tastes like Harney and Sons Golden Monkey, which is perfect sans additions, forget it! This is very price-y though for something that just tastes like a really excellent black tea. This costs more than double Harney’s Golden Monkey which is far superior.

A nice tea, a bit stronger than I like my afternoon tea but good with milk and sugar. If you like assams you will like this one better than I do. I am just not as assam fan! I do like it in some blends and this one is very drinkable.

This was lovely with mini eclairs today – this time I really picked up the chocolate-y cocoa notes. I added milk and sugar this time. Yummy!

The reviews on this tea at tea party today shocked me! I consider this to be a rather strong tea, but my youngest daughter didn’t even TOUCH Golden Monkey, her favorite, because she was enjoying this one so much! And my guest who never adds sugar and rarely adds milk proclaimed it an excellent tea. While I like this tea, I do consider it a strong tea for a heartier meal or for breakfast and I take it with milk and sugar. I felt it was a bit too rough to be paired with my blueberry scone so I opted for Paris, but everyone really enjoyed this tea.

I think this must be the best Golden Monkey in the entire world. Anyone who knows of a better one is more than welcome to send it to me and I will try it, but this tea makes me weak in the knees every time I see it, just like my hubby. (heehee! YW, sweetie!) Golden, caramel-y, rich mouth feel, seductive aroma. Perfection. Sigh.

Tea party day! And this was the first tea because I was planning to have Ceylon and India first but when I smelled this one I knew I had to have it with my fresh, home made blueberry scone with whipped cream! And it did not disappoint. This tea is worthy to be named Paris, the city from whence comes so many truly lovely and delectable flavored and scented teas. Absolute perfection! Added a touch of sugar. Ahhhhhh.

Still nothing even CLOSE to GOlden Monkey from Harney and Sons. I have decided to drink it with a bit of sugar when I am having food. Then it comes across as a pretty nice tea, but it doesn’t make me weak in the knees with ecstacy the way Harney and Sons’ tea does! Theirs doesn’t need sugar or milk or ANYTHING to make it one the best things that can happen to your teapot!

Lovely tea! Not as sweet and dessert-y as their Vanilla Comoro which is pure vanilla caramel delight, but excellent when you want something a little less sweet and rich and you don’t mind the caffeine!

I haven’t had this one in a long time! This is a tea that turns the complacent “I don’t care what tea I buy” person into a tea aficionado. This tea will make people picky about their tea! It has very nice, well balanced flavor.

I had a friend over today who said they really don’t have a tea palate and didn’t know what flavors they would like. I selected this one as a good starting point for someone not used to hot tea. It was very well received! This one is always good when you are in the mood for an Earl Grey, though I must say that their Supreme Earl Grey is even better!

I own it, so I need to drink it. This is not even close to the honeyed, golden, caramel goodness of Harney and Sons Golden Monkey which is divine with no additions at all. Today I decided to start whittling my supply of Teavana GM by using it as a breakfast tea. I took it with a little sugar and it made a nice enough breakfast tea – not strong by any means but a decent cup to have along with my toast and jelly, which was extra extra good toast because it was my daughter’s fresh whole wheat Buttermilk Bread toasted in my new Breville Smart Grill and Griddle, so it was just like the toast from the Greek diner where EVERYONE around here goes for breakfast!

We have to have this one at tea party every week. We are more than willing to try new things, and would be disappointed if we didn’t have something new to sample, but we MUST have our monkey! This is quite simply the best, most premium unflavored black tea I have tasted. Rich, golden, caramel-y, honeyed, – tea just doesn’t get any better than this.

This is another Dammann tea that we ordered from Summit Tea Company. It still doesn’t taste quite as yummy as Coquelicot Gourmand but it was a very good tea. The prominent aroma was almond or amaretto, delicious! At the first sip I picked up a very faint citrus flavor as well. We took it sans additions, and I wonder if this one would benefit from a touch of sugar. Nice, but I wouldn’t make a special order to France for it.

Nice quiet morning (for a change) with a pot of this and an Everything Bagel. Aaahhhhh!

When a water main breaks and your city is put on “boil water” status for three days what do you do? You make tea! I was disappointed because five minutes of boiling is supposed to make the water a bit flat since so much oxygen is dispersed from it, but my tea was yummy anyway.

This is a wonderful tea that to which JacquelineM introduced me. It has the aroma you would get if you made a plate of Pepperidge Farm dark chocolate cookies and some of the chocolate melted on your hands. I supposed that is what they call unsweetened cocoa notes. It was wonderful with my Everything Bagel, sans additions. I usually add milk and sugar to my breakfast tea “just because” but I had this one without because that is how I normally drink it in the afternoons with my cookies. Ah. Nice start to the day.

What went wrong? I loved the first Dammann Freres teas that I tried but I am pouring this one out! Life is too short to drink bad tea. This tastes like a badly brewed astringent tea with bad lemon added. Is it because it came from Summit Tea Company instead of straight from Dammann Freres? We bought this sampler hoping to find a US source for their tea, or at least to find a variety of teas we could order all at once from France. This one will NOT be on my list. I am getting no apple or caramel flavor at all.

For some reason I just didn’t feel like eating breakfast this morning, and I ALWAYS eat breakfast! I made do instead with a pot of this. A whole pot. There is a tiny hint of smoke in this 100% keemun tea, and it is dee-lish-us! I must confess that after drinking a whole pot by myself followed by 4 teas at the tea party, I sloshed by late afternoon!

I gave this one a second chance at the tea party today. The first time I tried it I made it by Teavana’s directions which call for a lower temp and time than most black teas usually do. It was….unspectacular, though the aroma was marvelous. Today I tried making it the same way I make Golden Monkey (may it forever be in my cupboard!) by Harney and Sons. The leaves look like Harney’s, the aroma smells like Harney’s, but the flavor – alas! Not even close! This tea is simply not as good and costs twice as much. We were drinking the two side by side so we could be sure it wasn’t our imagination that Harney’s is so much better.

I am so glad I only bought two ounces. Wish I had only asked for one – though many kudos and points to dear dear hubby who is too good to me and picked this up on his lunch hour while out of town because he knew I wanted to try it! :)