Harrods

Swooning for tea here! yep. call me a groupie.
I love black currant tea. And this one is no exception. It’s sweet and berry like with just a hint of tart and works well with the base black.
I didn’t add any sugar at all, and it was almost too sweet. I would have loved a smidge more tartness.
Now all of that aside, I’m starting to understand the Harrod’s line more. There is a background note I can’t quite identify that I remember from the chocolate Harrod’s tea. Definitely a “black tea” note, something almost hinting at bitterness but more in the way it hits the palate, as I don’t taste any bitter at all. I keep wanting to say its even a tad earthy but that doesn’t make any sense at all. Ah well, if I ever come across more I’ll be sure to play around with it!
So yum!! Thanks MissB!

Bagged toffee/caramel teas always seem to have this thickness to them that is just a little off putting and this is no exception. The base just takes over leaving very little room for toffee richness. Thank you for sharing MissB but I don’t think this is one I’ll seek out again.

The taste of this one is familiar but I can’t put my finger on what it reminds me of. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s chocolate. Instead I am picking up a more yeasty or barleyish flavor. Oh, it sorta reminds me of a burnt chocolate babka. It’s not something I’ll be seeking out again but it was fun to try so thank you for the share MissB!!

This is my first sipdown from my newest Sil bag, enjoyed in the bubble bath. This tea traveled from MissB to Sil to me. It’s juicy & sweet (if you sweeten it, which I did). I planted 3 varieties of currants last spring, black, yellow, & pink. I’ve only ever had dried currants, & black currant flavored teas, so it should be interesting!

No idea how I didn’t add this to the database when I originally grabbed it. Can’t seem to buy it on their website, and when I was in their store, it was only available as a bagged, boxed tea. With the Brits so fascinated by anything blackcurrant (I don’t get it), I thought it would be a decent addition to my fix. Had my bag the other day (pretty sure I sent off the rest to Sil to distribute), and it was… okay. Fruity, full bodied, nothing to write home about — although I guess with this review, I technically am writing home about it.

Lots of hmmmms these days. Not a bad one. Just… Hmmmm.
This is good, and there IS toffee there. But it takes some getting used to. At first I felt as if there was something missing from the toffee, as if it was hollow. Adding a bit of sugar helped. I didn’t think milk was necessary. It’s somewhat creamy on its own. It is a bit sticky tasting, so I suppose that part is apt!
Would I have this again? Yes, as a treat! Would I buy a whole box of it? I’m honestly not sure. Maybe. Ok so a tiny box.
Thanks MissB!

Thanks for this tea as well, MissB! Can’t say I’m a big fan – the tea really didn’t taste at all like chocolate to me (maybe a bit malty?) It wasn’t bad, just nothing special at all, and I never would have guessed chocolate. Their toffee tea was definitely preferable.

2min, 100C, rating 60.

Reminds me of 52teas’ Weeping Angel, though the base seems to be a bit less finicky. Thick, bold flavour, kind of toffee-like, but I’d love if it was even more present. Probably better with sugar and perhaps a touch of milk. If I had to pick, though, I’d choose the Lipton Caramel tea because it was lighter and sweeter. (Yes, I realize toffee and caramel are different.) thanks for the share, MissB!

do do do…another from MissB this one… is a little weird and i may have to try again. I was getting some fruity vibes from it today while i was drinking it at work in my travel mug. I suspect they’re there because i didn’t use any filters but it was weird to get nice toffee…black base…fruit? lol

I had high hopes for this tea, being only able to buy it in a three-pack online or in person as a box to itself. I mean c’mon, it’s Harrods! Sadly however, this is only an okay tea. I smell chocolate, but I get little of it in the sip except maybe at the very end. I get more of a burnt chocolate, almost barley-like flavor to it than anything else. Sent a bunch to Sil, so perhaps she’ll figure out a better way to make it right.

I like this black tea blend – smooth, a little malty, robust.

This one is next on the list of older untried teas! I got this sample from a swap with NayLynn, I believe she included it as a bonus. Visually, it just looks like generic black tea leaves – there aren’t any additions. Dry scent is very muted (though I expected that since it’s been in a sample bag for a few months) though I can pick out vanilla.

Once steeped up, the tea smells of wood and vanilla with some vague fruity notes. It mostly tastes like a very woody black tea. I taste a tiny bit of vanilla along with a touch of strawberry. Overall, it’s pretty meh.

Thick, almost syrupy brew in hard water. Tastes like a strong, solid black tea, with a weird (although authentic, I’d say) toffee flavoring. Needed some sweetening to make the flavors pop though.

A classic dark, fruity, malty, spicy Assam. Delicious.

A malty, strong and fruity Assam, Gold Rush is reportedly Harrods’ best selling loose leaf tea. As the title suggests, this is a fine, complex and powerful Indian tea with at least half the leaves being golden tips with flowery notes, all of them picked by hand before dawn in the Pengaree estate’s tea gardens in the hills of Assam, North East India. (spl) means the very best leaves are then selected.

This is a vigorous tea not for the faint of heart, to be taken after a good long brew with milk and, if it takes your fancy, sugar.

Harrods (founded by tea merchant Charles Harrod in 1849) has been selling this fine and complex Orange Pekoe for many decades, which probably makes this the original Gold Rush. This tea is apparently not available for purchase anywhere other than Harrods, which is thought to take most if not all of the output of the estate for sale in its London store. Demand ensures that Harrods regularly runs out.

BTW if you haven’t been, the tea counter at Harrods sells upwards of 100 different loose leaf teas, and 300 different varieties of packaged teas. Their selection covers the best teas from around the world including more than forty other single estate Assam, Darjeeling and Ceylon OPs, as well as many lighter fruit teas and a wide variety of Chinese and Japanese teas including at least one $50,000 cake of Pu Er. It is probably larger than any other tea counter outside of a tea importer, including that other classic Victorian tea counter at Fortnum and Mason’s.

If you have not visited this veritable Home of Tea, you’re missing a trick. A must for any true tea lover.

T&C TTB#13: Smells like vanilla. Tastes like a mish-mash of flavors. I suspect this was flavored by the other teas in the box. The base doesn’t seem all bad, but the flavor is indistinct and muddled.

T&C TTB

I haven’t sampled many vanilla teas so brewed a small sample of this from the TTB. This tea has a strong black tea base with a subtle vanilla flavor but might taste better with a rounded teaspoon scoop (maybe almost 1.5 teaspoon). I was really surprised how strong it tasted after just a 3 minute steep. I wish that I’d read the tasting notes before trying it because I think that adding creamer would’be elevated the flavor of vanilla.

Okay, this is the serving that I “snatched” from Traveling Tea Box & Cards organized by Nicole before I sent it to another person… sometime in February ;) So yeah, here it is, vanilla excellence.

I have nothing against vanilla flavor but at the same time it doesn’t make me overtly excited. I have also noticed that, with some exceptions (Butiki’s Caramel Vanilla Assam), it is not very well pulled off in teas. Especially when it is supposed to play the main and only role, like in the case of this tea.

This is pretty successful, though! Vanilla is present in both aroma and taste. Not forced, not artificial. It tastes just as if vanilla flavor was an inherent part of the base tea (which is some kind of black – Assam maybe?). I must say, however, that the base seems a little weak, but that could be due to me keeping a teaspoon of dry leaf in a way too big baggie for like 2 months now.

While this is not something I would care to keep in stock at all times, I think it would appeal strongly to staunch fans of vanilla teas.

Someone left a box of these teabags in my work kitchen today. I adore passion fruit in all forms, so naturally I grabbed a few for sampling. It’s pretty good! I may have steeped it for ever-so-slightly too long, since I neglected to note when I put the teabag in and then got distracted by an email—this is why I try never to try new teas while at work. Anyway, the passion fruit flavor is a bit fainter than I’d like. The base comes through strongly; I’m never good at ID’ing bases but I think it might be a Ceylon or similar. It reminds me of that Paradise iced tea all restaurants used to serve in the ‘90s—I’ve always liked that stuff, so no problem there. I do think I might enjoy this more iced, though; I often do with fruit-flavored teas, just as a personal preference.

T&C TTB 5/23

Thanks bluebelle for sharing this wonderful vanilla tea. I could see the cut up pieces of vanilla bean mixed with the black leaf. I brewed this up expecting it to just be an ordinary vanilla tea but it is not. It tasted nice without milk but with milk, decadent. Like bluebelle said it was like drinking a rich delicious custard.

Definitely the best loose leaf Earl Grey in that price range. Not as bitter as some of the bagged Earl Grey options out there, and the bergamot is very subtle, just like it’s supposed to be.