English Tea Store

This is a lovely tea. Good for any time of the day. Very mild

I nabbed a sample of this to cold brew from the Traveling Tea Box (A) before I sent it off today. I have very little interest these days in flavored green teas made hot (with a few exceptions), but I do enjoy them cold.

The cold brew was pretty decent, although at first it was a little perfumy. It just occurred to me now that it was kind of a dead ringer for this DKNY Delicious green apple perfume that I have. Probably good I didn’t think of that then. Anyway, after a few sips the perfuminess faded a bit and I was left with a decent green apple tea, though it was somewhere between green apple candy and actual granny smith apples. But I love green apple candy, so it worked for me.

thanks so much again for the teas, Dinosara! This one is good. I’ve tried a few English Tea Store teas so far, and they have all been nice! The dry leaves sure don’t smell like chocolate though. And there are flower petals in it, which seems odd for a chocolate tea. Luckily, the tea actually has a smooth sweet chocolate taste on a nice black tea base. I think Harney’s Valentine’s blend has a slight edge over this one (that Dinosara also sent me a bit of!) but I really like this one. It’s like a milky bar of chocolate!

So these English Tea Store chai blends are not as strong as I hope they would be, but it is good anyway! I have been brewing it Western style, so maybe thats the problem. I will use the rest of my samples for the stove. This is a decent cuppa tea to accompany breakfast. The vanilla flavor is very light, but this blend is nice and creamy.

I wanted a hot chocolate flavor, so I went into my sample basket and reached for this one. This was a tea in the Tea Box Pass! Delicious! I couldn’t taste the chocolate as much and the spices were a little muted. But I could detect the chai flavors.

Seems like I got this FOREVER ago from Rachel Sincere! Thanks very much!

This is a nice, bold Yunnan black with lots of black peppercorn flavor, and a bit of yam and sugarcane. The leaves are sort of medium sized for a Yunnan black, and mostly chocolate brown/black in color with some golden buds mixed in.

I’ve been blending it with Fengqing dian hong, which is milder and yamier, and it makes a for a nice balance of flavor.

Brewing this in my new(ish) yixing, and I’ve had to use about double the amount of tea that I normally would. So far its still sucking up a LOT of the flavor, more than my other two did. The side effect of using so much tea is a major caffeine high, which, admittedly is pretty nice when studying for exams :)

meh, it’s hibiscus with other stuff added in to pretend it’s not just hibiscus.

1 tablespoon for 375 ml

Maple syrup or marshmallow-like sweetness. Lavender is stronger than the bergamot but I enjoy the balance of the two. No excessive astringency.

Thanks to Sil for sharing with me!

This is a medium-strength Lovers Leap Ceylon and it’s pretty satisfying! There is a bit of “crustiness” and it works really well in this cuppa! Delightful!

Sipdown! Because we are cooking with tea tonight! Oh yeah!on the menu some braised chicken with smokey tea, maple, onions, garlic, sugar, tomatoes with a side of rice…. Hpefully this turns out ok :)

I got this in a big swap with AlphaKitty and was really looking forward to this one. So much so that I brought it with me on our little mini trip away. Once we got to our destination and I was ready to settle in and relax I brewed some of this. It smelled great dry.

But alas, pu erh and I just don’t seem to be great friends. We get along great when I can barely taste it (cinnamon swirl bread, Aztec spice) but this one was a much stronger pu erh flavor and I just couldn’t seem to get used to it. Maybe someday my tastes will evolve, but that day was not today. Thanks for the taste though Alphakitty!

SIPDOWN…2 cups…good while it lasted…

This has a smooth black base and really balanced blend of bergamot and caramel. It is a nice alternative to the straight bergamot Earl Greys. I think the name is clever as well. A quality tea overall. Thanks Alphakitty for this sample :-)

SIPDOWN! oh yeah…need 160 more of those… lol

Yesterday’s adventures were a rousing success and lots of fun but now my cupboard is over 310 teas…so uh i need to get my drink on especially since there are a couple of swaps on their way as well. FML. hahah talk about first world problems.

Really enjoyed this one, though i DO prefer the majesties version.

Given the description of this tea, I’m honestly surprised that I thought it wasn’t too bad. Lavender? Jasmine? Earl grey? Sounds like something perhaps Dinosara or Alphakitty would love, but not me! However, this blend was actually quite well-done, and the floralness was tamed to a level that I actually didn’t mind. The flavours I was picking up from the black tea blend were also quite pleasant. The biggest problem with this tea was that it was astringent after my 2.5 minute infusion. I didn’t grab any to give it another shot, but if I could tame the astringency, I could perhaps enjoy drinking this straight. I imagine, however, that it would be best (and quite tasty!) with milk and sugar.

Thanks for letting me sample this one, Sil!

Mmmm! I can’t believe the monks were allowed to drink this, it’s sinfully delicious!

It’s a bit creamy from the vanilla, and definitely fruity, I really like it!

Though I have to google “grenadine” because surely this wasn’t made with that syrup that they used to put in my Shirley Temples when I was 8. No way were the monks allowed to drink that stuff.

This is something I will have to buy! All you who hate monks blend, feel free to send it my way! :)

Happy Saturday to me! Thank you Sil, for another winner!

(about 95 degrees for 3-4 min)

Sipdown tea #3!
Finished my sample of this. I really liked the flavors in this one.

mmmm not too shabby a blend though i think i still prefer the majesteas version. Still haven’t bothered with a side by side comparison yet. someday soon though as this one is almost all done. almost. not quite. darn it!

What a wonderful tea. Very nice citrus tones. I am excited to try this over ice tomorrow. I had it hot tonight with a little extra sugar to compliment the flavors. Thanks Alphakitty for the sample on this one. I see this as an affordable staple in my cupboard.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Another cold brew sip down, and this is delicious!
I think I am now hooked on cold brewing tea!

My morning cup. This is an ok Ceylon, but it was too light for my first cup of the day. This is more of an afternoon tea.

The tea has a very slight floral taste as well as a note of hay. It was a bit dry on the back of the throat. I was reminded of late summer when everything has been baked by the sun for weeks on end. Dry and crisp but also a little hazy around the edges.

This tea was from the teabox, and while I liked it it’s not a tea I see myself buying. It was nice to try though.

This smells delicious dry. Not really caramel though. The flavour is toffee like, without being overly sweet. Will have to try this as a cold brew.

Thanks to Lazey for this.