Harney & Sons

Wow! I was so confused in the beginning of this cup but found myself IN LOVE!
See full review here http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 13th.
I just want to say thank you to Invader Zim for sending me this GENEROUS sample!
I would not NEED to order more but I do want to get some so I can have the tin for it to have a deserving home!
I love the tart lemon (not sour) and the grassy flavor for the floral notes to rest on.
There is a shy sweetness about this tea that is NOT cloying at all.
Its so perfect!
YUM!

I tend more toward flavor and quality than “name,” but this delivers on all counts. Eight black teas carefully blended to produce one amazing cup of tea. I also tend toward single source over blends, but this breaks the rule again. Caramel-like sweetness, loaded with aroma, and a subtle kick that pleases. The blender deserves an award, or at least a meal at The Fort.

Yum yum this is so good. I like cinnamon in all its forms – I enjoy it sweetened, full-blown with lots of fire and anything in between. This is a really cinnamony tea – sometimes you can tell it’s spicy but have to pretty much imagine the cinnamon is buried in there somewhere. Not the case here. It’s gorgeous. I can’t pick up anything else but I absolutely don’t mind this (for me) one-note tea. I love it. It’s very inviting, very interesting. I can see its going well with honey, but I used stevia and a drop of milk. It’s November 2 and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate tea to drink. Thanks to my fabulous penpal Jackie for this sample.

Picked this up at the Tea Festival in LA last weekend! I love this flavor, fell in love at first sip! Reminds me of the tom kah soup I love at Thai restaurants, except no fish chunks! And the vanilla smoothes it all out. :-)

Tasty, got this out at Barnes and Nobel when I needed a tea fix! The coconut is strong, not artificially tasting and I do get a vanilla after taste. Not sure on the ginger part myself, I don’t pick up any or I’m Losing it searching for the green tea itself. I made a second infusion and it held up nicely, you definitely taste the ginger the second time around
Will buy again!

Drinking the last tea bag of this yay!

And oversteeping it as I have no where to put the tea bag! I’d have to go downstairs and fetch a saucer and I’m too lazy right now. I thought I had a saucer up here for emergencys like today.
Now I’m starting to think this kickstarter is a good idea http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/klip/klip-ditch-that-saucer-and-sip-as-you-brew?ref=live
Though, I’ve been doing in mug steeping because I’m out a 2 cup teapot. Maybe I should get just a freaking new tea pot.

Flavor? Actually not going bitter that fast and the coconut flavor is getting stronger. End of the cup the tea is starting too pungent for my liking.

I received a couple bags of this tea from Rachel Sincere, ty!
I need to do a Harney & Sons order sometime!

STEEPED: Fruity, roasty and creamy sweet smells over light gold tea.

TASTE: Lightly strawberry flavored first, then a blend of vanilla and coconut flavors wave in, over a gentle base of ricey puff green tea. Get a bit of a roasty aftertaste sometimes, other times a naturally sweet strawberry vanilla aftertaste. Overall a light tea.

Second steeping, the strawberry flavor is gone, but the coconut and roasted green is still present and quite tasty.

COMMENTS: Pretty nice tea – great flavor mix and delicious! However, this tea is pretty light. I’d be all over this tea all the time if it was stronger in flavor, but if I’m in the mood for a great light tea, this is good!

I got a tagalong of these to bring to school. The tea at my college is sad. So, so, very sad. Neglected bags of tea sit in glass jars exposed to light and with the lids off for most of the day. Typically I bring some kind of bagged tea from home that is unremarkable but at least not blech, and help myself to the hot water in the cafeteria dispenser.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is quite delicious. It’s not bitter at all, and I’m sure the pyramid tea bags help quite a bit with the flavor and quality. The best part, though, was it reminded me of being a kid and chomping on giant slices of toast liberally slathered in apricot preserves (and butter of course, don’t forget the butter). This reminded me of an Earl Grey, but with more of a “jammy” flavor.

I just realized that Terri Harplady logged this yesterday, and she also thought of toast and jelly!

A couple of short notes today. I drank this early in the morning, and it is now late and I’m yawning!

My partner’s last name is McCormick, so when I saw this I went oh my goodness! It’s McCormick tea! I’ve been on a quest lately to find some decent, inexpensive, everyday teas and ordered a tin of this. After all, it bears the last name of someone I love very much, so for that alone I figured I could like it.

And I did! It’s not going to knock your socks off (in other words, it’s no Laoshan Black), but this had a pleasant malty flavor with a hint of cocoa, and no astringency. Although I disregarded the instructions and brewed it for 4 minutes instead of 5.

As a testament to its name, this is in fact a Decent Cup of Tea.

My tried and true friend. With me daily, consistent quality from Harney’s, a sweet vibrant nectar I adore both tasting and looking at. Life exists for moments with this tea.

Update: the first time Harney’s has let me down, and with my fave no less, Li Shan. Yes, they are pricey, and that in itself can be a good source of complaint. However, this year’s Li Shan is a shade of its former self. That is the cause of my despair and lowering of their rating. 6/28/13

The gold standard. Pay a bit more but count on consistency. This is the only Li shan I have tasted that blossoms after the floral notes to reveal amazing base notes of lychee and citrus. Bliss.

Harney and Sons’ Darjeeling was my first love and has since led me to explore the wonderful world of tea. I always have massive cravings for this simple blend now and then. Today I’m sipping it as a post-Sandy celebration. Delicious. Simply, quietly, and elegantly delicious. The color is dark warm amber. The mild aroma is a bit flowery and leafy. A lump of rock sugar added and it is just perfect, both as my post-Sandy treat and as my first tea to be reviewed. :)

The Earl Grey tea that I measure all other Earl Greys against is my favorite (so far) from Rishi: http://steepster.com/teas/rishi-tea/5258-ancient-tree-earl-grey-organic-fair-trade. To me, that selection is the mother of all Earl Greys. It is strong, bursting with bergamot, and a complete, full-bodied, black tea blend. I was curious to see if this Harney & Sons offering could go the distance with Rishi.

When I opened the double-sealed sample packet, so kindly provided by ashmanra, the bergamot aroma immediately drew my attention. It was strong but not overwhelming.

I steeped the black leaves at 212 degrees for five minutes. I’m experimenting with five minutes for all black teas now. I like my tea to be potent in the morning as I need all the help I can get to shock myself out of the previous night’s slumber.

When my tea maker beeped completion, the bergamot aroma was much more subtle than I expected, particularly with five minutes of brewing at a boiling temperature. The smell was still pleasant. The color was a golden red.

With my first sip, the dominant taste was black tea. The flavor was nice, smooth, and malty, without bitterness, but I had difficulty sorting out the bergamot from the black tea attributes.

As the number of sips quickly multiplied, my tastebuds began to pinpoint the bergamot beneath the commanding black tea taste. It then occurred to me that the bergamot was not hidden behind the black tea flavors. The bergamot was so perfectly balanced with the black tea taste that it was actually fused into the overall tea flavor. Once I figured that out, my sleepy brain was able to separate the bergamot from the black tea when desired.

To sum this tea up, it did not dethrone my Rishi favorite, but it is tasty, smooth, and malty, without astringency. It would still be a great breakfast tea minus the bergamot.

If you like bergamot to slap you silly in your morning Earl Grey (like the aforementioned Rishi product), this tea may be a little too mild for you. However, if you can only tolerate bergamot when it is a quiet aspect of your cup, this selection will be a great choice. This Harney & Sons product will also be a winner if you prefer your bergamot intensity to fall somewhere between those extremes.

Refreshing and light green. Citrusy.

Classic Earl. Can’t go wrong.

Refreshing, strongly peachy.

Smells…odd. I think I just don’t like pomegranate in tea, although I love it in real life. This is the second pomegranate tea I disliked.

At first I didn’t think I liked this, but as the weather changes I’m finding the strong cinnamon flavor to be comforting, like cider. Fall-y. I do get some clove, but yeah, cinnamon all the way. Great fpr sickies too.

It’s hurricane madness over here on the east coast! We’re in the beginning stages of the storm and people are freaking out. There have been emergency broadcasts on virtually every channel, stores everywhere are closed and sold out of virtually every commodity, I have off school today and tomorrow and everyone’s locking themselves in their houses and preparing for the worst.

In the midst of all this insanity, I thought a cup of tea was in order. I haven’t had much luck with this one so far, but with the low price of it in mind I suppose it’s not so bad. I’ve just found that with this one and Boston the flavors just seem very artificial. But today it’s behaving a little better. I added sugar this time and it’s pretty decent. It’s reminding me of a cup of hot chocolate with a little bit of nut and tea flavor mixed in.

This was one of the few Mondays that I looked forward to! Thank you ashmanra, for sending me this Harney & Sons sample to taste!

When I opened the sample packet, a light vanilla aroma was noticeable. I steeped the very black short leaves for five minutes at 212 degrees. The brewed color was a dark amber.

The flavor of the first sip was smooth and breakfast-tea-like with mild vanilla undertones. As I drank more and more of this selection, the vanilla taste became more obvious.

I did detect a slight twinge of something additional with the vanilla flavor. I am not quite sure what it was. It wasn’t bitter and it wasn’t astringent but it did seem to be pointing in that direction. I noticed a similar attribute in another vanilla tea I tried a while back. Maybe it is just the chemical reaction of the vanilla bean when boiled in tea.

In any event, this was a pleasant enough tea with sufficient vanilla flavor to keep me from craving more. It became even more satisfying with a couple of English tea biscuits!

This is a tea I get thanks to Nicole. Thanks really for that.

Paris…my town…I mean Paris is really my town, the one I love overall on earth.
The other one which touchs (almost) so much my heart is Lisbon.

I decided to have this tea especially today because of its name, I’ll explain you why : I’ll have to leave my apartment in one year, the owner needs it.
Regarding the rates of the apartment in this city, I won’t be able to find another one with the same rooms number.
So I am already nostalgic with my town as I really don’t want to leave it : I feel already out of Paris even if I am still here.My bakery, my supermarket, my daughter’s school seem already distant now, as no more mines…

So let’s back to the tea : it’s a real tea :) I mean I feel the tea + the flavours and this is very nice.

After reading some reviews and especially cteresa’s one, I didn’t steep it too much, 3 minutes only.
I had none bitterness,none astringency.

This is a nice tea where I picked out bergamot (leading note for me) and vanilla and just a hint of caramel.

Not sure I would have chosen these flavours to represent Paris, but why not ?

Favorite herbal of all time.

Dry this smells like pipe tobacco, and brewed it’s cloyingly sweet and over fruity and flowery. I almost want to mix it with some Irish Breakfast Tea to tone it down a little bit.

It was so sweet tasting, it gave me the rare psychosomatic tummy ache. Imaginary, but painful none the less. :(

I tried this again with slightly cooler water, around 200 degrees and it came out much better. rating amended.

This is good – it manages to be creamy and fruity at the same time.
Otherwise it’s fairly unremarkable. I don’t really know what to say about this tea. Pleasant but eminently forgettable.
I know this is a short note, but that’s all I really have as a reaction!