English Tea Shop

Sipdown! 297/365!

A sample from Momo that I don’t honestly recall having tried before. It’s supposed to be black tea with natural flavour, but it looked like it had chamomile in it? And, upon tasting it, it also seemed to be loaded with hibiscus. Wow, sour. That’s all I could taste, so I ended up dumping in a bunch of honey and passing it off to my husband, who drank it but indicated it wasn’t is favourite. Haha. Oh well, good that I only had a sample size!

I enjoyed the smell but unfortunately, to me all English Tea Shops taste the same… and I have already tried a few.

Unfortunately, to me all English Tea Shops taste the same… and I have already tried a few.

Unfortunately, to me all English Tea Shops taste the same… and I have already tried a few.

Unfortunately, to me all English Tea Shops taste the same… and I have already tried a few.

Unfortunately, to me all English Tea Shops taste the same… and I have already tried a few.

Unfortunately, to me all English Tea Shops taste the same… and I have already tried a few.

Another tea that reached me by unknown way. ETS, I remember their teas are so-so.

This tea is exactly that. I notice cranberry and vanilla, as well some cocoa. Raspberries as their seeds in taste. I have expected more fruity taste. This is weak, although I steeped it even bit longer than written (4-5 min). And base made by hibiscus, rooibos and rosehip is very well noticeable too.

Smoky yet light. Campfire like feel in my mouth. It was delicious and smoky just like i like it. If you don’t like the overly smoky flavor, its not for you.

Woohoo, another oldie. It was a single tea bag in cupboard. Who knows how old? How expesive it was? I have no idea even where I get it, if I bought it myself, or it was from some tea bag exchange.

Anyway to the tea. After about 4 minutes of steep I made first notes about aromas. I notice vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Not much of tea base. Colour is brown, bronze – clear.

In taste it is bit weak, but still very good. Lots of spices, mostly … I do not know honestly. Maybe cloves, or it is star anise. Certainly orange peel in is making it bit smoother. A cinnamon is in for sure too. But I do not notice it much, maybe because there is nothing in contrast (as for example in Apple & Cinnamon). As it cools down, notice ginger and another more spicy spices. Maybe bit caramel too? But tea base is weak.

In conclusion, I think it is quite nice chai. Even when old. Bit sweet, but mostly spicy (expected). I expected more from tea base, more malty. That is bit sad in this tea.

The last of my Christmas tea was drank today. I’d been saving this last bag of ETS Ginger Bread Man for a special occasion, but I caved and had it this afternoon. I love how light it is, both in colour and flavour. I brewed for 4 whole minutes, which is a long time by my standards, to get a fiery orange brown brew.

The aroma is seriously inviting. It’s spiced and apple-y, while the ginger makes my nose tingle. The flavour has very little ginger in it, but that’s ok. It tastes a lot like the spiced apple juice we drink at Christmas, but more complex. The Ceylon tea in this blend is light with a medium body. It compliments the apple flavour and stands up well behind the complex spices without competing to be the dominant flavour.

Is it just me or are ETS teas always perfectly balanced?

Although I really enjoy the flavour of this tea (I wish this wasn’t my last tea sachet), I’m torn. On one hand, it is delicious and perfectly balanced. On the other, there’s barely a hint of ginger and it tastes nothing like a real ginger bread man. A great tea, just completely mislabelled and slightly disappointing when you’re in the mood for a very gingery tea.

I had some fun taking pictures of this brew for my tea blog, featuring a cheeky ginger bread man https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/english-tea-shop-ginger-bread-man-review/

The best thing about this tea is that it doesn’t taste like candy cane. Usually I find peppermint teas a bit overpowering, but this one I just adore. It’s a perfect balance between peppermint and the other, warming ingredients. It has more of a body than most peppermint tisanes I’ve tried.

I brew it lightly and enjoy the combination of refreshing peppermint and comforting green tea. Would highly recommend you read this if you’re interested in trying it https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/english-tea-shop-candy-cane-tea-review/

Friday Aug. 10 2018 Enjoying this Great Cup with Ginger and Peach Overtones, Smooth Book reading companion.

This is a lovely green tea. Tastes fruity with a hint of floral.

I found that this smells a lot like Davidstea Raspberry Mojito. I wasn’t a huge fan of that one, so I am a little skeptical of trying this one out. I prepared it iced and I did not like it at all! The mint is overpowering the berry taste in a really bad way. This one is going for a trip down the kitchen drain.

Has a nice chocolate/vanilla flavor and the rooibos taste is just perfect in this blend. I like this tea! I got a cute set of 3 tins of 25g each at marshalls on clearance and decided, why not try em? They sound delish. Super Berries and Green Tea Pomegranate were the other two teas in the set.

232/365

I’m continuing with my challenge (or trying to…) while I’m away, which means I’m writing these up as and when I can. I simplified things for myself as much as I could by buying a Varieteas box before I left – they’re a curated selection of 30 different teas, but all of them bagged. Not my usual thing, but useful in this particular set of circumstances.

My first pick was English Tea Shop’s Comfort Me. I felt in need of comfort this evening, after a long, trying day of travelling. It’s a blend of chamomile, spearmint, ginger, basil, vanilla, marjoram, amalaki and guduchi. No idea about the last two, but otherwise I’m on board.

It’s surprisingly heavy on the vanilla, with an edge of spiciness, and a background of chamomile. There’s just a touch of spearmint, which works really nicely with the vanilla to create a kind of butter mint effect. If butter mints were spicy, that is. I don’t immediately recognise the spiciness as ginger, although I suppose that’s what it is. I feel like I’m particularly sensitive to ginger and it doesn’t really bother me here, so that’s a bonus.

I’m intrigued by this one. I like it more than I thought I would, although I’m going to have to research amalaki and guduchi a little to find out what they are. Not tonight, though! Otherwise, glad to have tried this one.

I found a tin of this tea for $5.99 at TJ Maxx. Not bad!

Lovely smell and the spices aren’t overpowering, evenly balanced.

This tea was quite strong flavoured, with a nice smell. The flavour was ambiguous and I could not smell any identifiable fruit, but it was nice nonetheless. Good afternoon pick-me-up.

I made this iced in my tea press and oh my goodness, it was so good! I used 3 tea bags to make sure that there was lots of flavour. It was naturally sweet and bursting with so much berry flavour. So refreshing! Berry, berry good!!!

I bought this tea at Winners for a great price. I really enjoyed the soothing effect of the ginger mixed with the honey. In my opinion, one does not outshine the other. Thoroughly enjoyed!