Harney & Sons

This is an “old friend” kind of tea, and went well with our pound cake and strawberry yogurt. Taken plain, no additions. I like it a lot, but I don’t know that I will replace it when it is gone. I will probably with Chocolate Delight from the Tea Guys if I want another chocolate flavored tea. Then again, I am really preferring unflavored teas lately….

I have had this tea for a really long time, and now I remember why. I don’t care for it! It is light and lemony, but it just doesn’t float my boat. It isn’t exactly astringent or bitter, though I do only give it a four minute steep. I just greatly prefer other Ceylon teas to this one. I am not a huge fan of UVA Highlands either.

We really started our tea journey drinking a lot of Ceylons, but I find that I have gravitated more toward Chinese sources when I am drinking black tea. Ah well, I can give it away knowing I gave it a fair shake!

backlog of this morning.
This is a very pleasant black tea base, without any bitterness nor astringency. The apricot flavour is sweet, mellow.
I am not sure the flavour is 100% natural but anyway it works perfectly.
I like mono flavoured teas, this is a kind of ode to a flower a fruit, a spice.
I love apricot and really enjoyed this one, thanks Nicole for the share.

I was hoping this would satisfy my craving for nutella on toast (or croissant, or waffle, or…anything. What doesn’t go with nutella?) The flavors were subtle; the chocolate and hazelnut were mildly there, but it was lacking that certain something.

Then I added milk and sugar, which smoothed it out and enhanced the flavors a bit, but still didn’t result in that “pow!” that I was hoping for. I guess it’s just not that kind of tea, and that’s ok; now that I know what it’s all about I can accept it for what it is. And it was a nice cup. Thank you to whatshesaid for the sample!

Got this bagged from a little cafe on the way to work. My thoughts were that something with ginger in it would ward off the chilly feelings from the torrential downpour this morning. This hit just the spot.

I like the natural-tasting, not too sweet peach flavor. It could have used maybe a pinch more ginger, but that’s a personal preference. From what I could tell of the base, it was an ok-tasting black- maybe slightly astringent, but I did have the bag in there for a long time since I went straight to our staff meeting this morning and couldn’t get rid of the bag without calling undue attention to myself. I also felt like there was vanilla in there, but I’ve been tasting vanilla in everything lately. Maybe it’s my cold.

Decided to prepare tea for me to relax from midterm stress.
It was around 9:30pm when I made it and I was on the phone with my parents and stress + caffeine (even though this tea has fairly low caffeine) = your parents thinking that you’re high ;)

But this tea is really good okay. THE AROMA. And it steeps really well. I’m on my 5th mug but I think it’s because I like my Jasmine tea a bit weak.

I loooove my Jasmine Dragon Pearls!
I doesn’t really matter what kind of Jasmine but… oh the Harney Dragon Pearls smell AMAZING right from the tin.
Smells good, tastes great, and it comes in a really cute tin :)

I got this as a sample sachet when I bought tea from Harney and oh golly, I have to thank Harney for sending me this tea! The second you open the wrapping, the aroma that comes out is amazing. Black tea, slightly fruity, and the caramel flavour was lovely.
I usually don’t drink fruity teas with milk, but I drank this one with a veeeery small dash of milk and it was amazing. I was pretty upset that I only had one sachet. The next time I buy from Harney, I’ll definitely buy some of this!
The reviews on the cite does it justice. One of my favourites :)

Very tasty, though I still think Tower of London and Florence are my favorite Harneys so far. The sweet-tart balance is very well done. I’m not the biggest fan generally of fruit teas, but as they go I liked this one.

Sipdown 7. I’m glad I didn’t buy more than a sample of this tea. I wish it tasted as good as it smells, because it smells amazing— warm cinnamon and gooey apple. Once steeped, the cinnamon hides away, but the apple flavor is still present. For some reason, I just don’t love the combination of the apple with the black base. It’s good, but nothing remarkable.

Wow, dry the grapefruit is very upfront, along with some sort of…feminine floral scent. Very unlike other bergamot-y blends I’ve had, and quite welcome.

I knew when I began my EG-a-thon I’d have a hard time picking tops or dismissing many because it’s pretty much my go-to, favorite blend and always has been (bergamot is probably my favorite fragrance; I used to use it in all of my toiletries and whatnot). And well, it’s true. I’ve enjoyed all the variations I’ve tried, and this is no exception. I love grapefruit, so this is kind of a no brainer despite my usual unease around astringent teas. This is lovely, and would make a good springtime EG. That said, like a few stragglers around Steepster I’m one of those weirdos who isn’t nuts for the H&S tea base they seem to use for the EG and EGish blends. It’s not a dealbreaker here, because there’s other good stuff going on, but I wouldn’t opt for a standard version EG with this base. Also, Tower of London is still my favorite Harney daytime blend. But this is nice, especially the fragrance.

1 tbsp in 12 oz

This was better last time with less leaf. It bordered on bitter this time. Must remember to do no more than 1 1/2 tsp per 8 oz.

This is a lovely oolong tea. The pomegranate flavour is clearly there, but not overwhelming. The oolong base is lovely and comes through clearly. Overall a great balance between tea and flavour.

Thanks jessiwrites!

The second resteep is still quite flavourful. The pomegranate has diminished somewhat but the oolong base is still nice and strong.

No notes yet.

So I had this one hot brewed today, and I also stuck a cup in the fridge as a cold brew. The cold brew turned out super good. It is definitely thirst quenching, slightly sweet, there is a creamy texture to it. You can definitely taste the roastiness of the buckwheat but it is a bit more blunted than when compared to the hot brew. I would like to try blending this one with a fruity or sweeter blend. I think this cold brew is going to be a summer staple.

This tea is super roasty – and I love it. I love all grains. So this tea is right up my alley. I have tried other soba cha’s before, but this one is the most roasty I have tried. This tea reminds me of the half popped popcorn in the bottom of the bag, DELICIOUS!

I tried a bit of the dry buckwheat, and I also ate the steeped buckwheat. Just like cereal, Mmmmm.

The tea tasted like roasty buckwheat/super toasted but not burnt brown bread/half popped popcorn. This is turning into one of my favorites.

Doing a comparison between this and Joy’s Teaspoon Earl Grey. Dry, I think I like the smell of Joy’s better; it’s gentler and sweeter. The H&S dry hits you over the head with bergamot.

Brewed, they look identical, a lovely ruby hue. The Joy’s continues to smell mellower, though the aroma of the H&S has backed off a bit now. The flavors match the smell impressions; Joy’s is gentler, softer, but still full of flavor (as it sits it takes on a tasty, invigorating lemon-y tang). The H&S isn’t bad at all, but in the context of such immediate comparison it comes off as far more bitter, though still full of nuance. The Joy’s is easy and enjoyable to take straight whereas the H&S can handle a healthy splash of milk. This leaves me conflicted because I tend to add milk to my afternoon Earl Grey just out of habit, so while I like the Joy’s more here the H&S might be more appropriate for how I tend to use EGs. Hm…

Thanks jessiwrites!

This is reminding me a lot of genmaicha. I’m getting a stronger taste but I like it :)

Resteep is pretty good, still flavourful.

Slept in, husband surprised me with cuddling and a makeout session (sorry if that’s TMI; this is my tea journal…) and then said he was totally game for celebrating Cinco de Mayo the way we traditionally have (he doesn’t drink and tends to get annoyed at how ethnic pride days in the US are just an excuse for college kids to get drunk, rendering otherwise great hole-in-the-walls loud and frantic packed-to-the-gills zoos, so we try to find tiny relatively deserted taquerias that don’t serve alcohol to get our salsa verde on) despite having a mountain of tests to grade. Wound up at Caminos de Michoacan, a taqueria and panaderia in one over in Berclair (awesome time-warp neighborhood, feels like the ‘50s-’80s, working class families, no ugly McMansions or suburban isolation sprawl yet, etc.) we’d ony been to once before, years ago. Had lengua and al pastor tacos along with a bowl of pozole with all the fixings and horchata. Yum. On our way out we grabbed a ton of pastries and cookies (including one of my favorites, an anise-flavored pig-shaped cookie) and the entire bill was still something like $15 cheaper than it would’ve been at any of the more typical spots we frequent. Awesome.

Why am I telling you all this, tealog? Because when we got home I put all the pastries on a big silver platter and brewed up some of this tea. And it was delicious and satisfying and pretty much an ideal Sunday afternoon. I wanted to explain all this because while the tea really did taste wonderful—strong and satisfyingly flavorful enough to stand up to all of those spiced sweets, but smooth and not so complicated I felt distracted or like I was wasting it that way—I feel it’s only fair to note everything else going on was so enjoyable that my mood’s such that anything better than Lipton probably would’ve been alright, ha.

That said, I do think this is an ideal “whenever” daytime blend. I might put it in rotation for my morning tea routine.

submitted as evidence:
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http://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/390752_10101295911035833_1805384882_n.jpg
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So in full disclosure, I have never actually tasted real lychee fruit, mostly because I have do idea how you eat one. Do you peel it, are their seeds, do you eat the seeds – it stresses me out :) But I do like lychee flavoured things.
The dry tea smells of lychee flavour on top of a strong black tea base, but it is very perfumey.
The brewed tea smells of the same lychee perfume. The tea tastes like a medium boldness black tea base. There is a lychee fruit taste to it, slightly perfumey, but not bad. The perfume taste almost reminds me of rose petals. Overall a good tea, but I would have preferred a more fruity flavour. I may try to add some sweetener next time. It is slightly sweet on its own, but maybe some sugar would bring out more of the fruitiness.

Sipdown! I thought I had more of this one left, but apparently not.

Anyhow, cold-brewed this over the past couple days, and it’s quite tasty. Green tea, caramelly, and a bit nutty (more likely from the tea than sesame, I think). I also think I prefer Tokyo to Bangkok… hopefully that’s the same conclusion I came to prior. One day I’ll get more of it, but that day is an awfully long ways away.

Also, my sipdown list is quite mucked up right now as I haven’t been properly updating it lately. Gotta add my new Butiki teas, perhaps delete a few teas I left with my mom, and then I’ll be back on track. No significant increases or decreases, thankfully… Butiki order added less than 10 teas, the majority of which are not significant amounts (other than the 4.5 oz. of PTA/PTA blends).

A friend brought this along to the cabin over the weekend to share. I was not impressed! Drinkable but nothing special at all.

Additional notes: I bought some of this from Yssah a while ago. This particular blend tastes a bit more flavorful than the Tower I tried before, probably because this was fresher. I just love this blend. Plums, a bit of cherry, honey and hints of bergamot on a lovely black base that doesn’t get astringent. It tastes like a jammy Danish. I thought I loved Paris more, but the new blend of that I bought from Yssah doesn’t taste the same as the sample I had before (kind of alcoholish). So I might like this one better, or else it is very close. Paris = berries Tower of London = stone fruits

Thank you Lala for this sample.

My third cold steep, I have caught the bug and will be trying them out all day. The weather is bright and warm here today so it’s just as well.

In raw form this tea smells lovely, very orangey and sweet. Not quite blood orange but more tangerine like. Still nice though.

Cold steeped for roughly 5 hours this tea is orange in colour and has the same juicy tangerine scent. Flavour is delicious, delicate and juicy, refreshing and sweet. Orange is one of my favourites and I was curious to see what the cold steeping would do to it. It tastes like a tropical orange juice that suits the hot sun perfectly. The sort of thing I would enjoy daily…may have to pick some of this up.