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This has been in my cupboard for a few weeks, and I am just now getting around to trying it out. Really, ashmanra should get some kind of kickback from Harney…there were a few things in my last order where I just skipped the sample and bought a tin. I think I did that in my web order before this one, too, come to think of it…..
This is really good. It is definitely different than Vanilla Comoro. The vanilla is lighter, but oh the tea base is sooooo smooth….. I do think I might add a little more leaf to the next pot. 24 oz teapot, 3 perfect teaspoons- level (aren’t these really a tsp and a half? I bet that throws all of my previous notes off for readers, because I always use this spoon to measure tea), freshly boiled water, 4 minutes.
Preparation
Morning tea time and I’m eager to solve the mystery of this tea. Harness’s reviewed their tea and wrote, “A blend of three Chinese black teas: Keemun, Yunnan, and Panyang Congou. A great afternoon blend.”. It’s interesting because I don’t normally associate what I’m tasting with any of these teas. Well, mostly, anyway. So, what am I tasting?
First and foremost, and I think mostly because I’m so sensitive to it is the smokiness that stands out to me. Next is the deep maltiness that dries my mouth a tad. There’s also a thicker taste to it, which I’m thinking is probably a honey like flavor. I am picking up on slightly astringic notes. It’s not too prevalent, though. The finish is smooth and flavored more of raisin. I don’t taste any floral notes. All in all, an excellent morning tea.
Preparation
I’m celebrating today. I know that it’s not attractive to be too self-satisfied, but today I’m enjoying a victory. I have a neighbor who leaves his poor dog outside day and night, and it cries constantly for want of care and attention. The weather has been so hot lately and I’ve been very worried about the pup. I give him water and food when he runs out, and despite my talking with the owner, nothing has changed. Just when I thought that call calling the Humane Society may be the only option to help this dog, I called my homeowner’s association first. It turns out that my neighbor is in violation of several of the association’s rules! I received a call from the association president today letting me know that my neighbor has been fined, and that another neighbor has adopted the dog. He has a good home now!!!!! I’m so happy.
I’m celebrating with Midsummer’s Peach iced! Wow, this is a tasty tea that gets even better cold steeped. I’m even going to up my rating because it’s that good. I still taste something a bit floral in it, but it’s not bothering me a bit. Today’s a good day!
Victory all round, except for the neighbour who doens’t deserve one. Bring on the celebration!
nuthin wrong with that, I’d be worried for the poor dog myself. We have a similar situation with my neighbour, only the poor dog just gets let out into the backyard where he whines for attn. We’ve never seen them walk that dog, in 5 yrs! but they have two autistic kids and another one to boot. Don’t get me started on the ways they milk the sympathy. Not that it’s easy, but you shouldn’t get special privileges to build a deck violating a dozen code violations bc of it! and they emptied their pool into our yard. OK now I’m rambling. Still, poor dog to be with those ppl… *sighs
I’m so glad yours has a good home now!!! :) *raises cup o’ tea
Angrboda, I don’t seek to start rows but I couldn’t let this one go. Yay for happy endings!
Indigobloom, you’re not rambling and I totally get it. I don’t know why people can’t be basically decent. Nothing extraordinary.. just don’t be cruel and be respectful of others. Easy!
I know right?! they think they’re getting ahead, making it easier to get what they want but karma has funny ways of circling around. Grrrr, some people
Hooray for the doggie! We have Sandy’s dogs for the year, and youngest works for a neighbor who is soo conscientious that he PAYS her to go check on his dog every day while he is at work, even though I told him she would happily go play with her and let her out. But one HUGE doggie doesn’t have it so well, and there was a while that if my girls hadn’t carried water over there, it would have had none…in 95 and up heat.
A big thank you to the undeniably awesome QuiltGuppy for sending me a sample of this lovely tea.
I opened my sample package and the wonderful sunrippened summer peach aroma made my mouth water immediately! I think that JacqulineM put it best with her description “…juice dripping down your arm peach flavor.” My first sip tasted exactly like that! So peachy sweet and wonderful. The black tea is high quality and very smooth. My only reservation with this tea is the finish. I taste a strong rose flavor at the very end. I haven’t read this in any other review, so maybe this phantom rose flavor is specific to me. I just wish this tea were peachy from start to finish because I really don’t care for rose in my tea. I have one more sachet and I’ll give it another go later.
Queued post, written April 9th 2014
Perhaps I’m a little bad, taking things out of a travelling teabox that I’ve already tried before, but I did it anyway. This one was from the EU TTB round 2, and I stole it. I feel no shame.
Now the first time I had it I thought that it was good, but not quite on par with the hype surrounding the blend at the time. This hype has died down in recent time, so that the blend has now reached a sort of legendary status and is drawn out on occasion to bask in the glory of it. That’s the sort of vibe I get from people who occasionally post about it.
It smells lovely. It’s quite wood-y and a bit malty. I’m also finding a note of grain down there, which is strong, but not at the forefront. There’s a hint of cocoa, but not very much. I can’t remember what goes into this at all, but I suspect something to do with Keemun and Assam.
Flavourwise, I think I get it now. I think I get the hype. This is a strong tea and it’s very heavy on the Assam. I think I tried it the first time during a period of not much Assam appreciation (Assampreciation, hur hur!) and that put me off. This is very Assam-y, complete with smidge of cardboard and touch of raisin. There is also something in there that gives off a grainy note and a little bit of a smoky one as well. It brings me back to my earlier thought of something to do with Assam and Keemun, but I don’t think that all there is to it. There’s an almost toasty flavour as well and something that makes me think ‘Keemun, but stronger’. Perhaps there’s some low-grown Ceylon in there as well. I had one which, when brewed just so, gave me that same ‘Keemun, but stronger’ impression. Which is pretty good going, because in my opinion Keemun is a pretty strong tea all by itself. I’m a little uncertain here if this means I think there’s a low-grown Ceylon in combination with Keemun or if it’s only the Ceylon masquerading as Keemun. Either way there are those grain-y notes and a wee bit of almost-smoke on the swallow, so much definitely be in that territory.
Have you noticed, Steepsterites, that as soon as I sit down to write about a black blend I seem incapable of describing what it tastes like and almost invariably end up trying to decipher what it’s made of instead? Curious! It’s a bit like a puzzle. Having looked up the solution I find that it’s actually neither Assam nor Ceylon at all, but a pure Chinese blend. Three teas have gone into it, and I feel absolutely certain at this point that one of them must be a Keemun. I’m uncertain about the two others, though. Perhaps a not-too-hay-y Yunnan? The third one eludes me.
I just went back and re-read my first post about this blend from three years ago. Ah, yes! That was the time the on-off switch had broken off the old kettle, rendering it useless and making tea required boiling water in a saucepan on the hob! I remember that, it was ever so impractical. (Quite funny in hindsight, though) I don’t know if it was the fact that I didn’t have to bother with saucepans this time or whether my standard brewing methods have evolved a bit or perhaps my own preferences have, but I definitely had a vastly different experience with this blend this time. I mentioned it reminded me of Kusmi’s Samovar blend back then, though. I’d quite forgotten that one! If I were allowed to buy anything at all at the moment (which I’m not, I’ve got a To Try Box to empty!) I would go and see if I could find that one again. Ooooh yes, that was the one I bought when we were on a weekend trip to Paris, visiting friends who lived there for a year. That was the time I planned to ask them if we could make a stop in Mariage Freres while there and then only remembered it when on the plane home, stupid girl. (I later learned that M also had that same sort of vague plan while they lived there, but never got around to it and only realised that she had passed the chance after they had come home to Denmark. She’s not a tea-drinker quite on the average Steepster-level but she does have a mild sort of on-off curiosity about it. Oh well, these things happen.)
I enjoyed this tea very much this time around and I’m nudging my original rating upwards. It was 82 previously.
Are you a native Dane? Because your English is GREAT. Even the nuances.
I bought a tin of this at H&S while in NYC this weekend after tasting it in the shop.
Marzipan, I am. English came relatively easy to me in school (unlike German, where I never got further than learning a lot of words, but not how to put them together into something that makes sense), and then having spent the last 14 years living on the internet. Livejournal, mostly. I’m not very good at punctuation though. I find commas difficult. Being married to an Englishman helps a lot as well. :) I have to admit we speak mostly English at home. Husband speaks Danish at work, and we speak Danish at home if we have company or if it’s Saturday. I suddenly lose all ability to understand English when it’s Saturday. :p It’s a left-over from when he was taking his Danish classes and was preparing for his exams. We probably ought to speak more Danish at home, but we’re so used to speaking English together, making the switch can feel a bit awkward, even for me. I mostly read books in English as well, because I find it better to read the original version rather than a translation. Sometimes things are lost in translation and the original is the version that author actually wrote. Seems silly to read a translation when I can just as easily read the original. :) Besides, I like reading fantasy, and it seems precious little of that genre gets translated into Danish.
Sorry, that was a bit of a novel. And I didn’t even say thank you for your compliment. Thank you for your compliment. :)
MzPriss, I actually caught myself having a bit of a panic last night when Husband nearly asked for a cup of it. I was having something he doesn’t like, you see, so he’s gone to choose something else from the drawer. Luckily he settled on a different one in the end. (I did not say or do anything to influence him. Just panicked quietly.)
I read a lot of second language English since half of my family is in your area. Even when my husband first moved here he made some really cute and funny mistakes. So I can usually pick up on it, but yours is really great. It’s really funny with him since he (like you) switches back and forth a lot. He is basically like a language vending machine, whatever you put in, he responds in kind. So he can be speaking English with me and the phone rings and it’s Danish all the way. I love to listen to it. His sisters say his Danish is starting to sound a little outdated.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Husband says he’s forgetting how to speak proper English. He’ll be saying something in English and wants a particular word and the first one that he thinks of is Danish. Or he’ll start a sentence in a particular way because he’s forgotten that the keyword is a Danish one that has no clear English equivalent. He’s been here for five years now.
My written English is best. I make more mistakes when speaking, mostly because I get a bit sloppy, or I get distracted by sudden uncertainty about is/are in the middle of a sentence or something. :)
I remember a couple of funny ones he said when he first lived here. He called ear muffs “Ear muffins” (so cute) and we were going on an online video game and he asked if I wanted to go to the grocery to buy “raid munchkins” (so cute!). He also used to pronounce “steak” like “steek” and “taco” like “tack-o”
I loved reading this
You sneaky Zeke,lol, I think I would have done the same thing.
Husband once had to show me a dictionary before I would believe that ‘unpractical’ wasn’t a real word. It was quite shocking, I’d been saying that forever! (I still say it just to tease him. :p ) Mind you, he’s had some good ones in Danish as well. I usually proof read his emails in Danish before he’s comfortable sending them and he has a tendency to get overly formal sometimes. He also once sent me a postcard when he’d been travelling for his old job and wrote about a cathedral he had gone to see. He wanted to say it was impressive, but actually said it was impressed. :)
One funny one we have noticed, is that where I live (in the US south), people who say “I reckon” are like, total hicks. But to him it’s totally normal to hear British people say so he has a whole different idea of it.
‘I reckon’, yes, I’ve picked that one up as well. I don’t (think I) use ‘I figure’ very much though. It seems like an Americanism to me. I’ve been trying to weed those out of my English in recent years, because what with being influenced by films and television from both North America and from the UK, it was such a jumble. It’s quite difficult, because I don’t know that something is an Americanism until someone tells me and then I have to remember to avoid it. Sometimes that leads to further confusion, like when I learned that ‘gotten’ is an Americanism and only used in British English in a few particular dialects (can’t remember which now). It got me in such a muddle I had to go back and ask if, when I ought to say ‘got’ instead of ‘gotten’, should I also say ‘forgot’ instead of ‘forgotten’? I still find it a little weird that I’m allowed ‘forgotten’ but not ‘gotten.’ The words are so similar.
I’m also having to pay attention to how I use ‘okay’. If you ask, ‘would you like go and do such and such’ and a Danish person says ‘okay’ they actually mean ‘yes, let’s go and do that’ and not ‘we could, but I’d rather not.’ I caused no end of insecurity for Husband with that when we first met and it seemed to him like none of his suggestions were met with enthusiasm. :)
I had to get over that sort of thing with my cooking. It doesn’t matter what I make, I could only get something like, “It’s good” out of him. Over here people would go on and on about food and how it is so great, so I always felt like I couldn’t make anything that he really liked. But eventually I figured out it’s just him being Danish. I think somehow it all goes back to janteloven and keeping things low key.
I’m glad he chose something else. I have comma trouble myself. I like them too much.
Marzipan, This is true, it’s definitely a Danish thing. If I’d cooked for someone and they started gushing about how wonderful it was, I’d just start getting embarrassed and a little annoyed at them. At first because ‘yes, I heard you the first time’ and later because I’d start thinking they were just trying to hide how awful they thought it was. As a nation, we are not always very good at taking compliments. At least not the gushing kind. Janteloven is probably one of the greatest classical works that we’ve got, because it defines the Danish character very very precisely. Axel Sandemose ought to be a mandatory part of the curriculum, at least in gymnasiet (Danish equivalent to the American high school, for those following this conversation and not in the know).
MzPriss, if only you lot would use the Danish comma rules, my life would be a lot easier. :D Seems to me every single comma rule in English is followed by ‘except if such and such’
Greetings Steepsterites! I have returned from the Big Wild Unknown, aka a summer house near the southern tip of the country with boyfriend and his parents. It was a good trip and we were there for a week doing a little touristing, some reading, and a lot of relaxing. Managed to finally get rid of my cough while there. Returned on friday, visited my parents saturday for the parents-parents meeting (went well also, it seemed) and then back to work monday. Boyfriend’s parents went back to the UK this morning. Boyfriend will also go to the UK next weekend, poor him. The weekend after that is planned out with no plans. This is sorely needed and has even been put in the calendar.
In other words, I’m pooped. Well, truly and utterly pooped. What I need now is a good heartening cup of tea, and as luck would have it I am now also in position to finally try some of the nommies that QuiltGuppy sent me before I went away on holiday. At last! A process, however, somewhat hindered by the fact that the kettle broke the other day, the on and off button breaking clear off, so making tea is a frightfully complicated business involving saucepans and good aim. (There are very good odds, though, that aforementioned boyfriend will bring home a new kettle from the UK on monday. There’s a long story behind this, which I will tell if you’re interested.)
I decided to start with Queen Catherine because it seems to be a steepsterite favourite and because other people’s posts on it previously leads me to believe that it is indeed a heartening cup.
I was surprised by the leaf aroma. It was much grassier and spicy-er than I had imagined it would be. A second sniffing also reveals something a little floral, a little grainy and almost a tiny bit pseudo-smoky, which makes me wonder what this tea is actually blended of. Right off the top of my head I would guess something involving a Darjeeling-ish type and a Keemun.
After steeping, I’m more thinking the hay-like notes of a Yunnan. How confusing is this! There’s still the grainy, semi-pseudo-smoky note, but the grassy note that reminded me of Darjeeling is thankfully gone. Self is not a Darjeeling fan, you see. All in all, it’s a very strong aroma, sort of forceful and serious. It really does smell like it will be just the heartening cup of tea that I’m looking for here.
The flavour was a surprise again. There’s that pesky grassy Darjeeling-esque note again! I have to say I was hoping my nose was playing tricks on my when sniffing at the dry leaf, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Oh bother.
That aside, though, it’s not a total disappointment. That Darjeeling-y note is subdued and tamed a bit by other darker and less perky notes. There’s something in here that has a resemblance to the very initial flavour of a medium-strength hot coffee. You know, the absolutely first bit of the flavour of the very first sip of freshly brewed cup of coffee, before the tongue really gets in on the business of tasting.
The grainy note is still intact as well, although without the touch of pseudo-smoke. It’s strong, however, and relatively sweet. Almost a little bit honeyed, I think. Possibly a wee bit fruity. This particular note is my favourite out of this tea’s flavour profile.
So we’ve got three primary notes here. Something that I’m not fond of, but which is held down and controlled by the other two, something which is basically more like putting down a base for the flavour in total than an actual note of flavour, and something which I’m very fond of and tend to look for in other teas, such as Keemuns or Tan Yang.
One should think these three, or especially the former and the latter, would even each other out and become something fairly average. This is not the case, though. That Darjeeling-like note, I can’t say I like it much, but when held in check by strong, grainy, bold notes like the other two, I find it surprisingly tolerable.
Queen Catherine reminds me most of all of Kusmi’s Samovar blend, only far less smoky. I’m quite pleased with it, and I’m glad I got a chance to try it for myself. You lot have all made me so curious about it and making it sound like it was right up my alley. And, it looks like, you were not mistaken.
Welcome back! Do tell of your kettle issues.
Well, it started at this last Christmas. The boyfriend had ordered for me a fancy Bodum kettle with temperature settings and what not. It wasn’t in stock in Denmark, so he didn’t get it in time for Christmas. Instead I got a card with a drawing of it. Sort of an ‘IOU one kettle’ or something.
We then assumed that eventually it would actually come in stock in Denmark so that it could be ordered, and we waited and we waited and we waited. As you know, it is know June. We are still waiting.
Apparently it has now disappeared completely from the Bodum website where he attempted to order it, which we take to mean that it’s just simply not available for purchase in Denmark.
Then the old kettle broke, as mentioned. I’m thinking that the knob must have taken a hit when we were moving and it’s just slowly cracked more and more, because it’s a clean break. Leaving us completely kettle-less.
Well, if it had to happen, now was as good a time as any and it prompted us to actually do something about this new no-show of a fancy kettle. The boyfriend is going to the UK next weekend for his father’s retirement party, so he ordered one to have shipped to his parents’ house instead, which he will then take with him home on monday.
Turns out it was kind of lucky that it happened now, because in order to get it delivered to a UK residence, the website demanded payment with a UK card, for some reason. Or perhaps they just don’t do international shipping from that site or something, and therefore don’t accept international cards, what do I know? At any rate, as we had his parents visiting, the new kettle was charged on his father’s card.
It was ordered saturday morning, and today the boyfriend came home and told me that he had shipping confirmation on the kettle and was confident that it would arrive in time for him to bring it home next monday.
And then he said, “guess where it was shipped from.”
It turns out that the kettle that you couldn’t order in Denmark from a Danish Bodum site, and therefore subsequently ordered from a UK Bodum site for delivery in the UK shipped from…
Kolding, Denmark.
Whisky Tango Foxtrot?!
I won’t pretend to understand one tiny itty bitty iota of that logic. I’m just sticking to the fact that we’re finally getting the fancy kettle, and ignoring all that other stuff.
There’s a funny detail though, because as mentioned the boyfriend’s father ended up paying for the kettle, but last night they took us out to dinner at a nice restaurant. It turns out, though, that the card his mother had ordered specifically for using internationally was declined at the restaurant. So while they’re paying for the kettle we’re getting for ourselves, we ended up paying for the meal they treated us to. It being a fancy kettle, I think we came out more or less even, though. I’m not sure on the exact price of the kettle, but I saw the price of the meal and it seems to me like something that kettle might cost.
Wow that is one epic tea tale! Hope you get your new kettle asap!!
Me too. This saucepan business gets old pretty fast.
I can imagine!
Delicious.
Roasted hazelnuts dusted with dark cocoa. Bittersweet and flavorful.
Very aptly named. This is somehow evocative of how I imagine Florence at dusk to be like. Romantic, wistful and artful.
Sorry to wax poetic, but this tea inspires me beyond words! I love it!!!
Preparation
Yet another I apparently must try.
Yes you have too!! Doulton has the best reviews of this one! :)
Rachel – I think I have a fair amount of Florence at work that I think I am done with if you want to swap some (I’ll have to check and see how much is left)… for some Butter Pecan Black, Toasted Marshmallow, or Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish. Wow you have a great collection! PM me if interested.
I bought this with a summer sampler from Harney & Sons. It came already brewed in a glass bottle. Now that the hot weather is here, I thought this would be perfect to have on hand.
It’s nice when chilled. The first thing that I noticed is that the flavor is very muted. It is, as they advertise on the bottle, a soothing green tea. The ginkgo is pronounced and has an earthy quality to it. The green is quite grassy, but not vegetal. Overall, it’s a refreshing, thankfully NOT sweetened green tea that is very enjoyable.
(the sound of spoons tinking lightly against teacups)
Ahem, Ladies and Gentlemen, I hereby declare it “Royal Wedding” tea time.
Thank you for your attention to this fine blend. For more information, see previous notes.
Like Jenn, I have QuiltGuppy to thank for this. Also, like Jenn, today seemed like a good day for this. I love the delicate nature of this blend. It almost demands the best china to be used when serving. So I broke out an heirloom cup and saucer and made it my profile picture. That is Royal Wedding in the cup. (I did this days ago, but just felt inspired enough to log it)
I love the color of it after steeping, a rich gold in my cup. There is a hint of vanilla or maybe a note of honey. I agree with Jenn, the floral aspect is very light. This tea is formal, detailed, even complex, but wonderful. I can count the white teas I have tried on one hand, if they are all this good, I may be adding to the list!
Did QG keep amy of this for herself? Now I am going to have a cup of this, too!
I believe she did, she seemed to have enjoyed a windfall of it somehow.
Isn’t she just THE BEST?
Glad you are yielding to the power of Royal Wedding!
Royal Wedding for everyone! QuiltGuppy is a very genrous soul, and there is no denying that she’s the best. THE BEST :)
teawing’s right. :) I placed an order with H&S and it needed to ship in two separate boxes. Well, I received three. Half of my order had been duplicated. When I called their customer service to let them know, they asked me what had been duplicated, then told me to keep it and share with friends. I, of course, chose to share! :) One of the things I had ordered was the 50 sachet bag of Royal Wedding. I received 100.
Speaking of generous, Jenn, I’m just about to try my kombucha. I had to go and buy a different glass container with a secure lid for the secondary fermentation. The scoby baby looks great! I hope it’s ready to go on to the next step. (I also just bought some organic frozen peach slices and ginger to help flavor some of the tea.)
I love happy mistakes! Thank you for sharing!
I have the ever lovely and generous to a fault QuiltGuppy to thank for sending me a sample of this beautiful tea. I’ve always had a soft place in my heart for Harney & Sons. My mother always had a tin or two in the house, and I don’t remember drinking the tea so much as using the empty tins to store my treasures.
This tea comes in a lovely sachet and really doesn’t have much of a fragrance dry. After steeping, it has a wonderful vanilla and but slightly floral aroma. A first sip I definaly taste the white tea, and then the flavor moves to a creamy coconut and vanilla flavor. I don’t really detect a floral tone at all, and I get almost a smooth black tea finish. Which is strange but very pleasing to me. I used a bit of raw sugar and coconut cream in mine and it made for a wonderful morning cuppa.
I fear I may be chastised for saying this, but something in this tea’s profile reminds me of Tetley tea… in a good way. I’m in no way comparing this gourmet tea to common market tea, but there’s something there. I grew up on Tetley and it has a good nostalgic connection for me. Back when having tea meant at least two biscuits, and more sugar and milk than actual tea.
Don’t give your Tetley comment a second thought. I have a Twinings and Bigalow reference for my tea tastes. Constant Comment and Prince of Wales will always have a special place in my heart. They opened my doors to the possibilities of gourmet tea.
Thank you :) I think that you make an excellent point! Our love of tea started somewhere, and there’s no sense in denying our roots.
My hubby’s all time favorite tea is Tetley British Blend, and we received our first box of it from a British doctor’s wife who told us that it was the closest thing she had found in the US to the tea she was sued to drinking in England. So if a Brit approved, it must be pretty good!
Ashmanra, it’s funny you should say that! I went to school in England for about 10 years and tea was served at 4:00 p.m. everyday. I was a child so I didn’t really pay attention to what we were being given, but as an adult a British friend of mine here in the states gave me a box of Tetley British Blend and it tasted exactly like what I drank growing up. So, I just decided that Tetley must have been what I grew up on. It’s my best guess :)
A very tasty tea. If you like Japanese-styled Green teas with popped rice, then this will hit the spot for you. The combination of the green goodness of Matcha with the toasty nuttiness of Genmaicha is wonderfully full-bodied. I would recommend this tea to anyone.
Preparation
I love coconut! and almond! and vanilla (not as much, but I do quite enjoy it if done right. which it was here)
All these things in one smooth, buttery white tea??? yes please :)
Two infusions of this one, the first one a bit too strong (when will I learn…) but the second was perfect.
Again, not enough time to savour, but oh how I wish I had been able to! No sugar added either, but then there is no surprise there given the coconut!
Thankyou QuiltGuppy for sharing this one, you made my afternoon at work go by so much faster!
Now if only they had a shop here in TO :)
There are three words to describe this tea: toasty, toasty, and toasty.
This makes a nice cup of relaxing flavors of roasted tea. It is very similar in flavor to Genmaicha, a Japanese green tea with toasted rice, but even more toasty. Like the previous comment remarked, it is a nice and relaxing tea, though steeping it for only 1.5 mins gives it a more pleasant softness.
Preparation
Quite a nice tea. I purchased a 4 oz tin of this direct from Harney & Sons with the rest of my order since I was interested in trying a real tea from Africa. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and subtle flavor. I brewed it first at 185 / 2min 15sec, but got a lot of tannins. Brewing it 185 / 1min 15sec was lovely, but could probably be brewed longer/stronger.
The tea is very smooth, and much lighter than other black teas. At its price, it is also a nice deal for a nice tea.
Preparation
SIPDOWN #2!
Although this is a good, stout tea I’m deducting a few points because it is quite bitter today and not as good as I remember it. Perhaps it was old or was broken up a bit more at the bottom of the tin but I’m not sure if I’ll finish the pot.
Okay, a bit of milk helps to tone down the bitterness and bring out a nice maltiness. I’ll finish the pot but I don’t think I’ll be restocking.
Preparation
This tea was just the thing to help me wake up on a lazy Saturday morning. The robust, yet honey sweet flavor went remarkably well with my egg and bacon breakfast. I was out of milk this morning so I added a bit of eggnog in its place and this is a pretty great combination.
Preparation
This afternoon was a Queen Catherine kind of afternoon, but I’m out of the Queen! So, what to do but invite the Queen’s friend, Elyse, over for tea to help me regain my strength, sanity, and good mood. Seriously, this tea is putting me in my place while also being understanding and soothing. I think I will need quite a bit of tea tonight, though, to really feel like myself again.
Starting my day with a big 24 oz pot of Elyse’s Blend with a bit of sugar and milk! It paired delightfully with my breakfast of waffles with strawberry jam and banana slices – and is now perfect by itself in a large mug in a quiet room.
I never realized that about the perfect teaspoon… I never check it’s volume when I got it, but I guess that would make sense given the measurements I’ve ended up using to brew most teas (1.5 perfect teaspoons for 12oz water… so actually 2.25 tsp?)
I’ve never heard of the perfect teaspoon! Where do you get it?
It looks that way…..my perfect teaspoon holds as much as my 1/2 TBS. measuring spoon, which calculates out to 1 1/2 tsp (because there are three tsp in a TBS). The scientist in me had to check into it based upon how much water they hold, but I digress……
Harney has one….
http://www.harney.com/Perfect-Tea-Scoop/productinfo/72775/
I got mine at a local spice shop last fall.
I’ll have to order one next time! I have been skimpy with my leaves, and I bet this will help!
Well thanks for the confirmation! That may definitely change the way I measure some teas. I ordered my perfect teaspoon from a random merchant on amazon.com; they seem to be all exactly the same no matter where they come from, but they all say “1 cup of perfect tea” on the handle.
I wonder if it was made for those of us who view a cup of tea as an actual cup in volume, rather than the 6 oz. traditional size.
I’ve always been frustrated when tea directions say a certain amount “per cup”… per traditional tea cup (like you said, 6oz), or per volumetric cup (8oz)? Or per some nebulous 6-12oz cup/mug/glass that you might brew tea in? “Cup” is a pretty vague word, but I’ve always treated it like an 8oz cup.
I go volumetric, too. And it looks like my spoon has been compensating for me all along…. :)
same… 8oz works for me so that must be right!
I bought my spoon at A Southern Season and we always use it to measure our tea. The one Harney sells is the same.
This spoon issue is something that never even occurred to me. Jen, your tasting note prompted me to measure my own “perfect cup of tea” spoon (which happens to be half of a two-ended tool with a tablespoon coffee measure at the other end). Turns out it’s just about the same as a measuring teaspoon … whew! However, I usually use a little extra leaf anyway, because I’m seldom drinking from a 6-oz teacup.
I just checked my Perfect Cup spoon and mine is also exactly one regular teaspoon, which would be the right amount of leaves for six ounces. I would really love to have the cup weight scale from Upton because some tea leaves are so large that they don’t measure out properly. I know it is about the weight of an American dime per six ounces, so for my Beehouse pots I weighed several dimes, noted it on my scale, and use the scale to measure for a whole pot when it is really fluffy or long leaves. The Upton scale is more sensitive and face it…way cooler. Plus they had it programmed so that you can put your available leaves on the scale and it will tell you how much tea you can make with them! Want! Want!