Harney & Sons

Tea of the morning……

Hello, Old Friend. This is one of my ‘savor it’ teas. It seems like it was only available for a short time, and the tins were only two ounces. I am not even sure the last time I had this one! I think I made a mistake by trying to go a little lighter on the leaf. It is not quite as dark and mysterious as the last few pots that I remember. Oh, well. It will still be loved.

The tea of the afternoon.

It is hard to know what to write about this one. It is very roasty, complex, chocolatey, slightly smokey, and wonderful. I am a little put off by the cost, but not much once I taste it. Worth every penny! I can’t believe I made a whole pot today. What a treat!

This one is a winner. I agree with JacquelineM…that it is like Golden Snail’s tall, dark, and handsome brother. I want to add, the smoother and more sophisticated brother, you know the one that you swoon over every time he leaves the room. It is very dark cocoa, a little earthiness, and slight smoke. Very rich and deep. But oh so smooth and sophisticated.

I have been reading a bit of Michael Harney’s book (it was on the shelf at my local library!) and he mentioned that one of his tea mentors (I know you did not exactly call him this, Mike, but it sounds like he shaped a good deal of how your decide which teas to buy) said that he only buys and stocks teas that make him happy on sampling. Yes, this is a long, drawn out way to say: This is a tea that makes ME happy!

The other day, I brewed a cup of this, but forgot as I was rushing to get my kids ready for day camp. Packed them up, buckled up in the car and we took off with a huge list of to-do items that needed to be done without children… and halfway to camp, I realized I forgot my tea. So, naturally, as I’m driving, I’m neurotically thinking about all of the reviews I’ve read about this one. I’m weighing the cost of driving 15 minutes back to the house to pick it up and then another 15 minutes back to the freeway. My long list is looming on the passenger seat, and I turn back toward home.

It turns out that it was one of the best decisions of my day! (My sunglasses ended up being made with the wrong prescription; I got lost on the way to a new knitting shop, then found I’d have to hike a while to get there as the entire street was closed for construction.) But, I had finally had the chance to try Golden Monkey, and I have the lovely ashmanra to thank for this experience! (Not the forgetting, wrong prescription and getting lost and finding construction experience, but instead the tea experience.)

Golden Monkey is an appropriate name for this one. It’s a beautiful tea to look at. Dark, black tea leaves intertwined with golden, curled leaves. Like guilded curlicues found on the frames of beautiful artwork. It has a mellow scent that belies its strength. The tea itself smells lovely. Of course, I didn’t get to smell it immediately after steeping, but it still had a nice, sweet aroma to it. Upon tasting, I was surprised at the vegetal taste that I normally get with greens. It is earthy, but not in a pu-erh way. Instead, I would say it’s almost mossy. The element that really makes this tea, though, is the caramel taste that unfurls just after sipping and develops gradually on my tongue. It’s amazing! Sweet and full. This is one tea that should be taken without any additions. It’s very, very lovely and I can now see why Harney & Sons is always sold out of this one.

Thank you, ashmanra, for this wonderful tea! (Now I have to try the new crop, too, as I read your tasting note yesterday.)

I wish that I could give QuiltGuppy a HUGE hug for sending me this tea! Her generosity has put to rest a long running tea mystery involving an unmarked grey clay urn, the most incredible cinnamon tea I’ve ever tasted, and my crazy friend Rachel.

First, you shall have a story. I once had a friend named Rachel who was a sane(ish) individual. Rachel was from NY and she would go back home for the holidays every year. We would exchange gifts after the holidays, and one year she gave me an unmarked grey clay urn with the most fantastic cinnamon loose leaf tea inside. I asked where she purchased the tea and she said, “An Asian place in NY”. What?! That’s not an answer! But, I let it go and I figured that I’d ask again another day.

I did ask again. Rachel became more and more vague until she eventually began to deny that she’d given me the tea at all. Now, that’s just crazy! I eventually gave up asking and I resigned myself to parceling the tea out as if it were gold. I kept the tea in a special “safe” place in the cupboard. Safe until one day it fell over, rolled out, and smashed on the kitchen floor. Destroyed! My favorite tea ever was gone and crazy Rachel wouldn’t tell me where she’d bought it. I was so upset!

Decaf Hot Cinnamon Spice is my beloved anonymous cinnamon tea reincarnated. Its wonderful sweet spicy flavor fills my heart with joy. This tea has a name and I can buy more! I can’t thank you enough QuiltGuppy :)

September Sipdown Prompt – your oldest non-puerh tea

This one is probably tied for oldest. I bought a one pound bag of peppermint and one of lavender at the same time. Why is it so hard to drink a tea when you have a ton of it? When these three oldest teas are gone, I will probably replace the lavender alone in the future but it will be with a small tin.

I just don’t love chamomile so I tend to reach for something else when I want caffeine free beverages for bedtime. If my goal had been something really tasty, I would be having Carrot Cake Cupcake from Simpson and Vale right now. In addition, I have been gifted tins of the chamomile blend Mother’s Day over the years and tried several grocery store chamomile blends that all ended up taking the place of plain old chamomile, keeping this one shoved to the back.

Drinking it now, it is a pleasant enough cup. I like it cold and unsweetened in hot weather. It has done wonders for the dog’s paws when they were inflamed from allergies.Drinking it before bed like this, I will probably have more intense dreams.

Although this is not a sipdown, a sipdown is in sight at last. I expect this to be out of cupboard by year’s end.

Since all my advents teas today were teas I have made notes on before, I decided to hit one of the sipdown challenge teas tonight – an old tea.

I used three teaspoons of chamomile and one teaspoon of Upton Spearmint from 2013 to make a pot of tea. Chamomile by itself isn’t that thrilling to me so I usually add lavender or some sort of mint to it. This has faded a bit in flavor but is still good. The chamomile is probably from around 2014? I am fairly sure that other than some puer that I don’t mind aging, these are my oldest teas. I need to get busy sipping them down, as well as the remains of a pound of lavender I ordered.

I can’t believe this wasn’t in my cupboard. I bought a one pound bag because it did wonders for my dog’s feet. (Because it is so light, the one pound bag looks HUGE.) He has grass pollen allergies and had licked his feet raw last year. I read that chamomile could soothe it and bought the giant bag. I made the tea, let it cool, and soaked each doggie foot in a tall glass for about 30-60 seconds before bedtime one night. By the next morning, all the redness and weeping was gone. I pour it over him after his bath just for skin health and itching, too.

Well, now I need to drink it, and I am enjoying it immensely. I am making it, resteeping, and pouring it into swing top bottles that I refrigerate. It is so good and so cold when stored in glass, quite refreshing. I don’t get apple like lots of people do, but rather hay and minty light citrus.

But I am drinking it for a special reason. I have been on proton pump inhibitors for sixteen years. Yes, the drug that is supposed to be used for two weeks maximum. I had tried and couldn’t get off of it, although I got myself down to 20mg a day which is half of what they started me on.

Lest anyone think I was being a wimp, I can tell you that even with Prilosec I had heartburn and chest pain from esophagus spasms, nighttime reflux, bending over reflux, and would lose my voice from the acid washing up. And this all started back when I was really skinny, not due to being overweight.

I read a study recently that suggested that since acid is natural and needful, perhaps there is often a different problem. The most common is thought to be possibly an inflamed esophagus which can be due to allergy instead of acid. I decided to try again and this time, treat my esophagus with lots of natural anti-inflammatories. Thus the chamomile tea! And I am pleased to say that while I have had some rebound reflux, I can live with it and it isn’t constant. Also, Pepcid Complete knocks it out, and in five days I have only had two of those.

I am also drinking lemongrass tea made from the lemongrass I grow, and I drink it cold, too. I am replenishing my good bacteria with homemade yogurt and homemade water kefir.

The great thing is that I really love the cold chamomile tea and I love that it is making me healthier and helping me to get off of a drug that can be very bad for you in the long run.

I should be asleep but I napped off and on all day because of the muscle relaxant I took. Now I want to go to bed but I just feel too restless. I have two bags left of this one that my friend sent, and they are awfully old but I decided to go ahead and steep one and see if it helps.

It has been a very long time since I had Celestial Seasonings Chamomile, but if I remember it correctly this one is a bit better. There is still a minty taste, and it is surprisingly sweet and honeyed when I sip it. I haven’t had much chamomile of any kind but I am enjoying this.

A friend sent me some sachets of this tea a couple of months ago and I never tried it. It is nearly 3am and I have to get up early tomorrow to drive my daughter to an airport over an hour away and I simply can not sleep! That is something that hasn’t happened in a while. I made this is hopes that it would soothe me right off to slumberland, but it doesn’t seem to have done much. The warmth did soothe a slightly irritated feeling throat, but unfortunately I can’t that I see much difference between this and the cheap stuff I bought at the grocery a couple of years ago. The flavor is bright and almost minty, which I suppose is what they call the green apple flavor. I suppose if I drank this often I might develop a deal taste for it and crave it, but as it is, it isn’t doing much for me. Perhaps I need to find out the name of the wonderful chamomile Jacqueline mentioned!

A nice, crisp, basic light black tea. I agree with their comparison to assam.

I’m revising my rating for this one. The guava is omnipresent. I don’t taste any of the other flavors but maybe I’m just not sophisticated enough in palate to detect them. It still smells like pineapple to me before brewing. It has a sweetness without adding anything. I like this better when cold. It still won’t be anything I order again, but better than my previous taste.

I didn’t notice the green tea at all. I tasted pineapple, although that is nowhere on the list of to be expected flavors. It was somewhat muddy. I’ll try it again cold. As a hot tea, it’s not near the top of my list, but I’ve certainly had worse.

Tea of the morning…..

Yes, an odd one for me these days. Right now, I feel like I am coming off of a sugar high from Halloween. Plus, I have decided that I am slowly going through my flavored teas to eliminate some as I rarely drink them. I know I will never drink all of the flavored teas I have in stash. I just don’t crave them at this point. I am down to about 20 non-traditional flavored teas. (I am not including the jasmines, straight Earl Greys, and straight rose scented teas as I consider those traditionally flavored/scented.)

At first sip, I was thinking this would be a good one to give to my teenage tea friend. Well, maybe she can have half of it. ;) While I will never get thought the whole tin, I am kind of glad I pulled this one out again. I get light cocoa notes…a little more so than my favorite Fujian black teas. There is also a sweetness from the roses. Really, as flavored teas go, this one is well done. Yes, I can’t completely pass this one along…..I will be drinking some of it for sure!

Usual teapot method.

Tea of the morning……

I have mostly been drinking cupboard staples the last week or so (and how many reviews do you need to see about something I have reviewed 8+ times!). Lots of crazy things going on, and I do finally feel better! Yayyyy! It will soon be time for experimentation and sampling, again. Fortunately, my sample stash holds some really finteresting stuff!

I haven’t had this one for a while. I do like the chocolate and subtle rose notes. Definitely one of my favorites.

Steeped by the usual parameters…..

Tea of the morning with a little experiment…..

I have a jar! I decided to make up a mug of this and try it with some frothed skim milk. I think I will probably have to play around with it a little… I did skim milk in the jar in the microwave this time around. I might try half & half next time. What I ended up with was a chocolately tea that was mostly just frothed on top. It probably could have used a little more sweet, too.

12 oz mug, 2 tsp tea, freshly boiled water, 4 minutes. Lightly sweetend and made into a latte!

Notes on the froth: about 2/3 c milk in a jar. Microwave 1 minute with the lid off. Put the lid on and shake! Poor man’s froth! (I did just use the foam on top….I hope that was the right thing to do as I have not had that many lattes in my life!)

My breakfast tea… Yes, I know this is completely out of character. I cannot remember when I had more of a dessert tea on its own for breakfast since the first days of my tea obsession.

Good.chocolate.tea. Love the light sweetness that comes from the rose. This is my chocolate tea, as it tastes of tea and chocolate, but mostly tea. I also love that the liquor is clear, and not cloudy like some chocolate teas with the addition of bits.

My tea of the afternoon.

There is a new chocolate tea in my cupboard, and it will have a permanent place as long as chocolate tea appeals. I knew that Harney’s Chocolate Tea was good, because I got a sample of it long ago from Fairyfli. I consumed that sample in record time. When it came time to replace some of my chocolate teas, it was definitely on my list, but I decided the addition of roses would be right up my alley. I am definitely not disappointed. The chocolate flavor and rich tea base is very much like I remember in the Chocolate Tea, but the addition of the roses gives a slight sweetness and light floral note. Tastes like chocolate, tea, and lightly of roses all at once. Perfection.

It is also working wonders….it kept me out of the ice cream for the afternoon! And my sweet tooth is sated.

24 oz pot, 4 1/2actual teaspoons of tea, freshly boiled water, 4 minutes.

Sipdown, 138. I am sad to see this one go, but I also have had it for quite a long time. I won’t rush out to buy more but I will definitely restock once my cupboard settles down even further.

I love the coconut-almond-vanilla blend of this, which creamy and sweet and delicious. I also love this one cold-steeped, and it always turns out wonderfully. Definitely a yummy tea!

Today I moved into a new office that is a pretty sizeable upgrade from my previous desk. The only thing that does suck is that I no longer have a sink super near, so cleaning my tea infuser is a little more of a hassle. I think I will get another infuser mug, that way I only have to clean them out once around lunchtime… my max tea drinking tends to be twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon.

Today I steeped this for two minutes instead of three and it took care of the surprising bitterness that I had last time. Yay! Back to it’s delicious, coconutty, almondy, vanilla-y self. I think its the combo of those notes with the white tea that almost give it a chocolatey note. This is an old one that definitely needs to get used up.

Cold steep of this was pretty good, although I think I would use 1 sachet for 12oz instead of 2 like I did this time. I used to always do that but perhaps my tastes in even iced tea are changing! At least I know I can definitely cold steep this and get a delicious vanilla-coconut white.

Hmmm, this one is also old, and as a white tea I would expect it to age worse than its black counterparts, but I wouldn’t have expected it to gain an odd bitter note. I wonder if its the coconut? Other people have complained about coconut teas going rancid after a while (coconut oils not as shelf stable I guess?), so I wonder if this one is suffering the same fate? It doesn’t smell off or rancid though. That would be very sad if its the case. It did stay good for quite a long time, I just seriously neglected it.

Well, it was ok, just not as good as it once was. I wonder if I can steep it for less time and tame it a bit. Also will try cold steeping, as I always liked this tea cold steeped.

Rosy tea No. 3. It’s been forever since I’ve had this tea! And damn, I forgot to start my timer. Ah well, it’s still tasty.

Creamy coconut, almond and vanilla, with a hit of rose. Yum! Sure, it’s maybe a bit oversteeped, but not by much is combo is delicious and I am glad that it seems to be part of Harney’s permanent stash.

I wanted something creamy this afternoon, and this one fit the bill.

Drinking this now, I’m wondering if my taste buds aren’t a little messed up, at least for creamy flavors today. I’m not getting much out of this one, and that has never happened to me with this tea before! Maybe I shouldn’t have judged the Cream Earl Grey so harshly this morning. Man, this is weird. I haven’t noticed anything else lacking, just cream/vanilla. Lame.