ashmanra

Thank you, JacquelineM!

I hadn’t read any reviews when I tried this tea. I opened the tin and held it in front of each daughter who was home. The second one said, “Root beer!” I just saw in the tasting notes that other people got cream soda from this, and I can definitely see that.

This was MY tea party favorite today! It was delightfully interesting. This is a HAPPY cup of tea. This tea is for drinking while you sing “Feeling Groovy” by Simon and Garfunkel. Or “Walking on Sunshine”. This is a bright and happy tea! This is grab-an-unexpected-peck-on-the-cheek tea. But it isn’t loud. It is gently happy!

The vanilla and jasmine are very well blended and balanced. I don’t get the overpowering feeling that I have been forced to eat a bouquet of syrupy flowers and I don’t get synthetic vanilla vibes. This is natural and fresh tasting.

This really is a Golden Monkey that tastes like a Panyang Congou, and I have no idea how it tastes with an everything bagel but it is very good with chocolate covered pretzels and Pepperidge Farm cookies! It is less sweet and honeyed than the Golden Monkey from Harney and Sons, and leans toward the flavor of Emperor’s Red. Thank you, JacquelineM! This was the guest favorite at today’s tea! Even my youngest liked it with no additives, and that is very unique!

I decided it was safe to make a whole pot of this today since my new tea should be here tomorrow! I gave some of this to my tea padawan and told her it was good plain or she could add sugar. (For the non-Star Wars fans out there, a padawan is like an apprentice and is wholly unrelated to the gaiwan or chawan.) She sipped and mmmm’ed, and said, “This IS good plain! It doesn’t need anything….” We had it with Rich tea biscuits. Lovely tea…

I was a little afraid of this Earl. The aroma was so strong when I opened the tin that I feared it might have a very synthetic taste when brewed. Not so! It was lovely and light, but not anemic. (I bought this and two others using a coupon from Barnes and Noble. If they follow a pattern, they will be sending that member coupon out again soon. Eeeeee!) This is a very nice Earl Grey. My favorite is still Earl Grey Supreme by Harney and Sons, but this one is a close second! And I can’t wait to try it as a London Fog.

I have only had chai once before and it was a very strong smelling chai with turmeric and black pepper in it. The aroma didn’t appeal to me but the flavor but was better than I expected. I highly prefer the seasonings in this chai by t Leaf T. I drank it without additions this time, but next time I think I will take Sandy’s advice and try it with a little honey and milk. Good Sunday afternoon tea!

This is stronger than Irish Breakfast by A Southern Season. I think it is because Harney’s is 100% assam just as their English Breakfast is 100% keemun. I like this tea fairly well, and I am not overfond of assams. To an assam lover it is probably fabulous!

Having read Sandy’s note again, I am trying this with milk and without, side by side. I really prefer without. I don’t detect any bitterness that needs to be smoothed and the milk is almost completely removing the Lady Grey lemon taste. I was enjoying the Lady Grey lemon taste because it makes me feel very foofy. So back to the cuppa with no milk and excuse me while my pinky hoists itself!

I am having this nice cuppa today thanks to my friend Sandy, who deserted us for the wilds of New Zealand! It’s okay, we get to Skype virtual tea parties now and then and we get her house and dogs! :)

First of all, NOT what I was expecting. I did not read Sandy’s reviews first, so I was looking for a pretty regular breakfast tea. I sipped and thought, “Christmas tea?” But now I realize it is probably lemon I am tasting, very Lady Grey and I haven’t had that in ages! The citrus notes made me think of Christmas tea, which I really only drink near Christmas. A good cuppa, I added sugar but not milk. Twinings recommends a 3 minute steep but perhaps that is for the bags. I didn’t know that when I made this so it got about four minutes and isn’t stewed. Perhaps there is a touch of bergamot? A little….very little…clove? Probably not on that last one, but I am not sure! Good tea! Thank you, Sandy!

Decided to do a side by side taste test at the tea party today. My youngest loves this Keemun but likes really mild tea for the most part. The Harney and Sons version was more aromatic, more robust, and darker. Although Harney says it is a little more astringent than some Keemuns it was not too astringent for me. I would give it a 1.5 of 5 for astringency! I do not care for astringent or bitter teas. The tea is mild to a fault in my opinion. If you want a good all around tea to serve to a group of non-tea-drinkers this might be your tea. But if you love good, strong, cocoa-y Keemuns, look elsewhere.

ABout a year ago I bought a sample of this tea. I was a brand new baby loose leaf tea drinker. I thought this was SO STRONG! I was glad I didn’t buy a whole tin. Now, my tastes have changed drastically, I no longer add sugar to all my teas, and I wanted to see if my feelings on this one have changed. I had just purchased some Keemun Hao Ya A at A Southern Season and thought it was awfully mild.

Today we tried the two teas side by side. Harney’s is definitely superior. The aroma of the dry leaves is deeper and richer, the color of the steeped tea is darker, and the flavor is more robust. (And the funny thing? It wasn’t at all strong to me! I thought it was milder than Emperor’s Red, JacquelineM’s roasty toasty friend who captured my heart and tastebuds as well.)

This is a good, solid tea and if you like Keemuns I believe it is worth your time.

A few days ago, my youngest looked at me in horror as she made my tea. “Mom, we are almost out of Queen Catherine!” She remembers what happened last time I ran out, and what happened to my friend who tried it at my house and called the next day foaming at the mouth like a ravenous beast and had to be placated with a small tin rustled from my stash. But I tossed my head and laughed, “Silly girl! I have a one pound bag! I will NEVER run out of Catherine again!” I picked up my pound bag to refill the tin and…..OH HORRORS!!! It is nearly empty because of Ravenous Beast and my daily consumption! “Hello, I would like to order another one pound bag of Catherine, please. No, I do NOT need a 12 step program, thank you very much.”

I drank a cup of this today especially for JacquelineM in hopes of giving a good description of it to compare with Vanilla Comoro.

Vanilla Black doesn’t taste as much like a dessert tea to me, while Vanilla Comoro oozes sweetness and caramel. I drank it first with no additions to see if the tea taste was coming through for me. It did, and I also thought I detected a very light cocoa note? I would assume that most flavored teas begin as a mild Ceylon but perhaps there is a hint of Keemun in this, or perhaps it is part of the natural flavor. The vanilla is not as sweet as Comoro, but does have the mellowness of a Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla. I drink this one with sugar only, but perhaps I should have tried it with milk to see what happens. This is a very good tea, and I enjoyed it iced in early spring.

Being new to oolongs, I don’t know if I can adequately review this tea, but I will give it a try! My apologies up front to all those who know and love oolongs!

The first steep surprised me. I am learning to like oolongs but I can’t honestly say that I love them. Wild Forest oolong was shocking in the way it behaved and I liked that, but I haven’t found that in any other tea.

Now for this one….the aroma did not appeal to me, but remember a person who loves BLACK tea is saying that. I sipped, and was pleasantly surprised. The tea had a LOT of body. There was a hint of sweet, fruity flavor – raisins? And definitely some nutty flavor. The second steep is much nuttier with a hint of butter, and a darker color than the first which may have more to do with my steep times.

This was far nuttier than Wenshan Baozhong, which had a very strong and lovely floral aroma.

This was made in a gaiwan, 1 1/2 tsps leaves to 4 oz. of 190 degree water for 2 min. 15 sec. first steep, 2 min. 45 sec. second steep. I would enjoy this when I want to sit and think, but this isn’t something I would serve at a tea party with a cookie plate! But that isn’t what it is for, anyway!

No notes yet.

I took the Joemo XL to work yesterday. The tea stayed hot for several hours, until I drank it all up! After my late lunch (we were busy) I rinsed the Joemo, poured in the ice from my soda cup, and added water from the water fountain to drink as I worked. I finished the water pretty quickly. At around 11 pm, 8 hours later, I realized I hadn’t emptied and washed my Joemo. Opened it up and VOILA! The ice was still there! Pretty much all of it! Yes, this puppy insulates!

Chilly morning, so…..cardigan over jammies, afghan I made last year in lap, scrambled eggs from the 70 year old tiny skillet, and hot buttered grits with a pot of English Breakfast. THIS is Saturday morning! Good tea! We decided today that we need the one pound bag.

I am joining that rascally rebel who said to add teaware like this! I used my Joemo XL for the third time today, but the other two times I was on the run and was pouring in lukewarm already made tea that I didn’t expect to be taking with me. Today I knew I would be using it at work and filled it at 10:30 am with good hot stuff! About three hours later I started sipping my tea and burned my throat just a tad – it was still that hot. At 4 pm I finished my tea and it was still nice and warm, much better than the super cheap travel mug we had purchased at a discount store. In that thing, my tea is cold by an hour later. So the Joemo XL gets a thumbs up from me! It was the Steepster Select a while back from Teafrog – that is how I first heard about it. If you order one, you might as well go ahead and get some of the chocolate and cream deliciousness they sell as well….

I was tres chic today at tea time in my new alpaca lace scarf gifted me by JacquelineM and made with her own two hands! She also furnished the best two teas at the table. Thank you! You are a wonder!
We were only supposed to have two teas today, but since we were still chatting and there were cookies and Aero chocolates left, I couldn’t stand it! We just had to make another pot of tea. The aroma is arresting. I read once that the French teas are so good because the French are master perfumers, and they use that blending expertise to make teas that make your mouth water. There was a lot of oohing and ahhing over this tea. The fresh fig gives a warm cozy feel while the orange peel gives a bright note and the nutmeg teases you from the background. Aaaaaah. I didn’t know if it would go well with food, but the pretzel sticks and chocolate covered cookies were not at all affronted. Delightful tea!

This is a wonderful tea from the fine tea wall at A Southern Season. It is very mild and smooth, and when I tasted it beside Premium Steap’s Emperor’s Red I realized it had more of a plant flavor while ER had that toasty nutty chocolate but oh so smooth thing going on. My youngest daughter loves it. I like it a lot, but I think I want something with a little more gumption.

This was the first tea served for the Wednesday tea party, and the favorite. There were lots of low, moany groany noises as it was sipped – it was a hit! The description does not do it justice – this tea smells the most chocolate-y of any I have had, and it so wonderfully smooth. It has a great range of flavors, mostly low notes if I understand how they rank that sort of thing. Sometimes chocolate-y drink doesn’t go well with chocolate-y food, but today this went very well with our cookies. Good, strong, and relaxing, like a shoulder rub from a big, strong man with big hands – and I should know. Hubby is 6’4" and his hand spans my whole back. That is what this tea is. It is THAT GOOD. The tea party guests agreed it was the more flavorful of the two unflavored teas today, the other tea being Keemun Hao Ya A by A Southern Season which is far milder than the one by Harney and Sons.

I have just made a new tea friend and I am trying to discover her tastes so I know what to serve when she comes. We tried Wuyi Shan Lapsang last week – she had never had lapsang tea so it wasn’t a favorite….yet. She really enjoyed the Rosy Earl Grey that JacquelineM sent me, so I thought Paris would be a safe bet for a tea she would enjoy today. On the mark! It was a hit, and we have a good starting point for winding our way through some new teas for her to try!

Second attempt today on this one. This tea was so mild I thought perhaps I had measured my leaves incorrectly, or that my scant measure I usually use for my Beehouse teapot was not enough. I added an extra teaspoon of leaves. I detect no change in the amount of flavor. This tea is good, but it isn’t even close to being as strong as the Harney and Sons Hao Ya A. Even though I like it and it is a good keemun, it doesn’t have the character and body I find in even the English Breakfast tea by Harney and Sons, which is 100% Keemun, though it is not Hao Ya A. This would be a fabulous tea to serve to people who are new to tea. It is mild, smooth, not smoky, not bitter, not astringent. It didn’t hold my attention without sugar, although on this second pot I am leaving out milk, since I usually use milk to smooth a strong note, and this tea has none. Don’t misunderstand! I like it, it is just very different from the strength of Harney and Sons, and much milder than the aroma in the store led me to expect. Six months ago I would have rated this in the nineties, but now I have tasted Golden Monkey and Emperor’s Red, and that changes EVERYTHING….

I was looking for a tea exactly like Emperor’s Red. Do you know what tea is exactly like Emperor’s Red? Emperor’s Red. Sigh. It was wrong of me to ask a tea from Qimun to taste like a tea from Fujian.

This tea is not without merit, however. It is a very good breakfast tea, not as strong as I expected, with good body and flavor. The cocoa notes are not nearly as strong as ER but they are there. This was definitely a milk and sugar tea for me. Very good. This was the “fine tea of the month” at Southern Season, so it was a very good buy. I will enjoy the two ounces I purchased, and would definitely buy this again. Next time I will add a tad more leaves. I was careful with it since I thought it would be strong, and should have used to full recommended measure. Smooth, no bitterness, not astringent at all.

Good breakfast tea, just basic, nothing too spectacular to say about it except that when you are in the mood for a breakfast tea this should satisfy! Better than many, but it doesn’t beat Harney and Sons English Breakfast!