Harney & Sons

This – again! Confoundingly delicious INDEED! So nice to have the black tea flavor in the evening. Milk and a teeny bit of sugar makes it dessert.

You have no idea how joyful it was to order a whole pound of this. Seeing that gigantic bag in my cupboard makes me feel like a squirrel who knows she has enough nuts for the winter.

http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Suzy-Miriam-Young/dp/1930900287

and NOT a mean red squirrel OR crazy Collingswood NJ plant destroying squirrel!)

Just finished the rest of my sweet and lovely sample from ashmanra. Thankfully, more is coming! I got my shipping notification from Harney and Sons – a pound of this is on its way with some other goodies :) I can’t believe how much we are enjoying this decaf tea!! My husband asks for it almost every night.

I had two more brownies left from our picnic…Vanilla Comoro was a must! I used a little more leaf and the tea was even more delicious – now I know to be a bit heavy handed. And, best of all, I slept afterwards :)

Had this again late last night. Very very good :) I tasted a vanillaish caramelish flavor – again light on the tea flavor but oh so comforting. This tea is already becoming a habit! I didn’t let any dark thoughts of caffeinated teas enter my head and was perfectly satisfied and delighted.

A decaf tea! So far, I have never met a decaf tea that I liked. I tried this one, courtesy of ashmanra, with such hope since it’s a Harney, and since it’s vanilla! You know how I love vanilla! :) It smells so good – a very sweet and creamy vanilla.

As long as I kept in my head “It’s night time! This is decaf! Compare to drinking an herbal!” I LOVED it! As soon as thoughts crept into my mind like “Think of your Vanilla Assam! Think of Madagascar Vanilla tea!” I thought it was a little weak tasting and less tea flavor than I usually enjoy. But guess what – I had a delicious, creamy, satisfying, hot black tea at 9pm and I slept like a baby!

So my caveat is – as long as you think of this flavor aside a rooibos or such, it’s a revelation! I definitely want to add some to my cupboard for those late nights when I’m craving a black tea, or want something nice with a late dessert. Just don’t let those dark thoughts of fully caffeinated teas enter your head, and you will be fine :)

Eight at the Fort by Harney & Sons is a bold, straightforward black tea. Paired with heavier foods, e.g. Chicken Gorgonzola and Pesto Tortellini, the tea’s flavor profile did not get lost in the palate. Instead, the complex yet pleasing blend of Yunnan, Assam, Keemun and others complimented the food well.

My surprise came in preparing Eight at the Fort: the 5-minute steep time was ideal. I also enjoyed this tea with a very rich tiramisu, so I drank it sans cream and/or sugar. It’s a tea that adds sensibility to indulgence.

Its a strong peppermint tea that leaves a rough after taste, but if you don’t let it steep to long it can be refreshing. I enjoy a cup every now and then but have found better Peppermint teas since my first purchase of this tea.

Initial Review: http://www.witheringleaves.com/peppermint-herbal-harney-sons

Bleh. Tastes as though peppermint oil was added back to the leaves. Tastes more like peppermint candy than an herbal tea. The aftertaste was less than desirable and lingered for an hour or so. This is one peppermint tea that I probably won’t be trying again.

I am doing a lot backlogging today! HAPPY NEW YEAR :) My friends own a coffee shop and have the Harney bagged teas to offer and I’ve also had this in the royal palace sachets. I don’t excitedly reach for cinnamon but I like this tea. I have found that Harney & Sons have some great bagged teas when I hit a coffee shop and would rather go for tea than coffee. MMMMM Red Hots in a cup!

One of my favorite coffee shops in the area keeps this tea on hand. It’s quite tasty for a bagged tea. I think Harney & Sons have some of the best bagged teas I have tasted. A light aroma, pale liquor, a nice light grassy flavor. For an inexpensive high quality bagged sencha I would say this is a good option.

I love peppermint herbals and have for many years. I had this tea at Border’s in the sachets that Harney & Sons has in their Royal Palace line. I was meeting the woman who is going to be my wife for the first time. I was a little nervous and peppermint tisanes have always been good for me to calm my stomach and nerves. I guess this tea has a little sentimentality to it for me.

A beautiful reddish colored tea; brisk and with great body. I will be drinking this one for the simple joy of the tea, in and of itself.

1 sachet for 250mL water, stepped 5 minutes, drunk bare.

Hmmmmm. God save the queen. Or at least this tea. The label says “Chinese black teas, stirred with pieces of dried stone fruit, then finished with oil of bergamot and honey flavors.” The base teas are fairly robust, especially for China tea, and they don’t drown beneath the fruit, bergamot and honey flavours. The bergamot is subtle but kisses you in the aftertaste. The honey scent is pleasant. Not sure what the “stone fruit” is — peaches? plums? I get more plum scent than anything else.

Overall scent is a tiny bit artificial. The taste is less so, but still there’s something fakey going on. I am strongly biased against flavoured black teas, so my review of Tower of London (and Paris) should be taken with my prejudices in mind.

A pleasant-enough flavoured black, but still disappointing. Maybe I have a stale batch. I won’t be buying this again.

1 sachet for 300mL water @100C, steeped too long because I got all distracted, maybe 6 minutes. Drunk bare.

That this tea is not bitter, but rich, after an over-steep, tells me a lot.

I think I’ve tried this before, this and London, and I wasn’t thrilled with either one. Tonight, Paris has an agreeable heavy and smooth mouthfeel. Something smells a bit artificial, almost like the grenadine flavouring in a Monks’ Blend — artificial vanilla, probably. It’s … odd to me, but I like the tea base better than I remember.

1 sachet for 250mL water, drunk bare.

I’ve only seen Harney and Sons Tea in my city at Christmas time, and then only at the ChaptersIndigo (like Barnes & Noble) book store. The tins are pretty, especially the big ones that hold 30 sachets, but they’re also expensive. And tins that only show up around Christmas usually aren’t the highest quality in the land.

But I’ve done some research on Harney this year, and today I broke down and bought a 20-sachet tin of Paris and a 30-sachet tin of Tower of London. (Dang — thought the ToL was loose tea. Oh, well.)

Flavoured black tea and I often don’t get along. I found an Earl Grey I really like earlier this year and nearly tap-danced for joy. Too, too often the flavours mask a poor quality base tea.

Paris. Hmm. Visited Paris in May of 1989 and left a large chunk of my heart there. Totally hope to return. Paris smelled to me those weeks of fruit, coffee, diesel (?), dirty river (the Seine), dog turds, fresh baguettes, brie, oranges butter, chocolate and people. I loved it. A lively, not always pretty smell.

The Paris tea, however, is awfully pretty. The tin promises “natural and art [artifical, I presume] vanilla, fruit and citrus flavors.” Apparently this is a “fruit black tea with a hint of lemony bergamot.” It’s a pretty subtle hint. I can catch awhiff of it from the dry sachets, but in the brew all I’m getting is limp China black tea and a really heavy vanilla flavor. Almost sickly sweet. And grenadine — yeah, this reminds me of a horror I once tried called Vanilla Monk’s Blend. Oh. Yuk.

I really wanted to like this tea. But, for me, I gotta file it with dozens of other flavoured black teas: Don’t Bother.

Definitely the most flavorful flavored tea I’ve ever had. The cinnamon completely overwhelms the tea, so it’s not a tea person’s tea. But damn is that cinnamon wonderful! It’s fragrant, spicy and rich. I like having a cup every winter morning at work after my cold walk from the subway.

With the rest of the sample that chris_s gave me of this tea, I made a small pot of tea for me and husband. It’s snowing here and I’m stuck up the mountain working from home again. This is a perfect afternoon tea. It’s very very minty. The chocolate is more of a background flavor to the mint today. I really like it… not as much as Florence, but it’s really good.

It’s a happy happy day when a co-worker (chris_s) brings me samples of Harney’s teas to try. The first one I’m trying is this Chocolate Mint. It smells absolutely fantastic and after smelling it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it until I got up and made a cup. Once brewed, the cup is very chocolately and everyone in the office can smell it. The mint is mostly present in the sip. It tastes like Andes Candies in a mug. Sadly, I don’t think I brewed it quite right as it is a little weak. It still tastes great even weak. I used 2 tsp for about 3 min at what I thought was boiling water (hard to tell at work with microwave as a kettle). Anyone have recommendations for amount of tea per 12 oz mug or steeping time?

PS – he also brought me Harney’s Spiced Plum, Harney’s Vintage Silver Tips, and Man Teas Maple Bacon… so you can look forward to those reviews coming soon!

Made this cup a bit weaker and added a bit more sugar than I had been and I enjoyed it much, much more.

Thanks, JacquelineM!

So, Day 2 with the Darjeeling Blend.

Once again, I was not a big fan of the first cup. Today I made sure to follow the steeping directions on the tin, but it still was a bit on the bitter side for me. I’m guessing I just have too much of the leaf for my little cup of water. We’ll try again tomorrow.

The second cup was better again, although I decided to experiment a bit with honey and think I overdid it. It’s not terrible, but a bit on the sweet side.

The second cup I made a bit weaker and added some sugar and it made all the difference.

Thank you Meghann for sending me this wonderful tea amoung the others in my surprise package from you. :-)

I have been wanting to try this forever and I am so glad I finally tried it. It is yummy, yum, yum! I can’t believe it is decaf. I haven’t had too many decaf teas because I have not liked them all so much but this makes me think I like a decaf tea. I just have to hunt for the right one.

Deliciously vanilla!

I received an industrial sized box of this as a Christmas gift so I was really hoping to like it-and I did!

Using the individually packaged traditional tea bag (not the sachet) the tea didn’t have much fragrance. There was a subtle orange-cinnamon presence but it wasn’t overpowering.

The prepared tea is incredibly sweet. So much so that I had to reread the package to make sure it didn’t contain a sweetener. The cinnamon really stands out and it is a bit warm. The orange is subtle and helps round out the flavor. You can make out a bit of the underlying tea, but it’s the sweetness that’s prominent throughout. If you have a sweet-tooth, this would be a great dessert replacement.