Kusmi Tea

So this is my last cuppa this tea! I’ve had this sample flying around and hiding in many spots in my house; so I’m pretty lucky I found it. This tea has been a pretty interesting offer from Kusmi. I think that the couple teas I’ve had from them are actually quite good (Prince Fladimir, Caramel, and Cinnamon). But their descriptions really leave something to want. I was thinking of ordering from them earlier this year and the most difficult part is seeing “black/green tea, citrus, spices” on just about every tea! It’s hard to know what you want when descriptors sound so similar to one another.
I actually oversteeped this one today. I have no idea how long, but may have been up to 5 min. longer than intended. You know what? It’s no worse for it! I like to do these at the suggested lower temp. and that seems to help the flavor a lot. But this was just very good in the longer temp. This tea has some distinctly peppery notes that are interesting to pay attention to. I like drinking this tea a whole lot more during the winter, but I really wanted to get it down! I think that I prefer this one sans milk/sugar; as with most of my tea. But I do think that it has been a pretty nice tea.

I was not feeling my best this morning and I needed a strong cup of wake me up; so this is the tea to go for in my cupboard! I only have 1tsp of this left after this one! I think that this tea is interesting. It has a lot of peppery, spicy flavors and tastes quite good sans milk and sugar. Although there is citrus flavor in this it is in the background. For me this tea was tasty, but overall I felt that the other Kusmi teas I’ve tried stand out more.

I just noticed my little baggie sample of this! It had been hiding for the last few months. Revisiting this is very pleasant! There are hints of spice, citrus, and overall warmth. I really enjoy this tea. I think that it is not really ‘new’ or ‘innovative’, but what it does is perfect. I would suggest this tea for dark and snowy days where one is able to relax with big warm comforter (me today!).

Another tea from Amy oh! :3 This one smells ever so slightly like Teavana’s Spice of Life. I don’t know if I’m the only person, but I think that some of Kusmi’s teas sound eerily akin to each other. Either way, this one sounded interesting! I noticed that also similar to Spice of Life, someone has commented about it smelling like coca cola. I get a small hint of that.
The dry leaf has a very distinct vanilla smell; where as the liquor reminds me of the Kusmi cinnamon.
This is pretty tasty! I do have to admit that mine ended up tasting very much like the cinnamon tea. There are some elements of light citrus in there, but not as heavily as the aforementioned Spice of Life. This does have a hit of lemon at the front of the sip that is quite nice. I really actually like lemon flavored blacks for some strange reason. I’m going to have to try steeping this at a slightly lower temperature next time because I lost out on a lot of the vanilla that is in the dry leaf smell. I really wanted some more of that to come through.
Overall I find this to be a comforting and wakeful cup.
P.s. am I the only person who automatically thinks “Putin” after hearing Vladimir???

Finally, after reading how much everyone seems to love Kusmi, I am getting a chance to try this thanks to Angrboda! I found this is the sample package from our swap! I was super excited to try it! First, I love vanilla, and second, my first Kusmi tea! Yay!

The scent of the dark brown leaves was more of a creamy scent than vanilla. I was smooth and thick smelling. It reminded me of a vanilla milk shake scent with the vanilla played down a bit.

While steeping I felt that the vanilla scent became more prominent. I also began to get smokey notes that scared me a little (I’m not a huge fan of smokey teas…). There was an over all pleasant maltiness to the brew. I approved. The liquor was a burgundy brown color that was a little redder than I am generally used to my black tea being. Very pretty in my glass Bodum Mug!

My first sip (unsweetened) was very smooth and malty. There was sweet creaminess peaking through but over all not what I would imagine as straight forward vanilla. There was also a slight smokiness to the aftertaste that surprisingly didn’t really bother me. Once sweetened the vanilla showed up a bit more. It was a decent vanilla flavor, but I found it to be more creamy than sweet. My perfect vanilla tea must have the right amount of sweet flavor to it. Once it cooled down a bit, the vanilla got stronger and I liked it better. yumm….

Over all a delightful tea to end my day with. Sadly it is very hard to get my hands on and not my favorite vanilla so far. If I ever am able to purchase it without a hassle, I might go for it. If I don’t get that opportunity, my tea cupboard will not suffer without it. : )

I can’t believe this is my first time logging this tea! I got this as a wonderful gift from Angrboda. I think the more teas I try as samples/gifts from Kusmi the more I want to place an order. The almond and strawberry are very, very tempting. I must also admit that I love their tins. They look amazing!
This tea is so warm flavor wise. I only steeped it this time at 3 min. so I didn’t get hot-lips flavored tea. This tea is perfect by itself, but my favorite thing to do with it is to make wassil with it. I just make the tea with hot apple juice instead of hot water. It tastes AWESOME! I really like the flavorings of the Kusmi tea and like others, I actually steeped it at a lower temp. than other blacks. This really helps the flavor out.

I got this one on Valentine’s day, in sachet form. The only time I reach for sachets is usually when I’m offered tea somewhere or I’m having a bit of nostalgia for myself. Hello, red rose? However this tea is in chunks, not powdered to death.

This is better than I expected. Then again, I like pink peppercorn and I’m a cardamom fan. I wish there was some sort of complimentary rose/lavender flavor in addition to the spices because they went quiet on the peppercorn (shame!) and marketed it as a love tea. Despite that the tea comes off liquoricy, and has a nice added touch with the ginseng.

If you like liquorice, you may fall in love with this for some reason.

This came as another swap item with oOTeaOo. I’m excited that I finally am getting to try some of these Kusmi teas I’ve had my eye on.

This one is nice and mellow and earthy. I steeped it at 180F for around 2 1/2 minutes. Like most other folks I’ve no idea what buffalo grass is supposed to taste like. I found it to be slightly minty, herby, sweet and kinda funky but in a good way. I can’t quite place the taste but I am finding I like this one a lot. I did a quick Google search on it and found out that it has been widely used for healing coughs and native americans believed it had meditative properties.

Regardless I am finding this to be some pretty interesting stuff although I can see how it might not ring everyone’s bell. It’s a bit strong. I have too much green tea in my Stash already but I’m tempted to go place an order with Kusmi!

Thanks to oOTeaOo for this one.

I’ve been wanting to try some Kusmi green teas and was eyeing this one. I have their Russian sampler but I’m finding some of those to be a little too strongly scented for me.

I steeped this one at around 170 F for 2 minutes. I’m not sure what they are using for the base of this Chinese green tea – perhaps something like a Mao Feng? It’s a mild vegetal and slighty herby taste. The almond is in this blend is fairly mild and a bit sweet. I was hoping for a bit more almond but at least it isn’t knocking me over with perfume. This is a nice solid choice for anytime, I might consider getting some if order with Kusmi tea.

I did also get a second steep out of it, which is always nice!

Sipdown, 125. Cold brew.

I wasn’t expecting to have this be a sipdown already, but when I started portioning this out for another cold brew I realized that this would be the last of it. I have had issues with some of Kusmi’s teas recently in hot brew, but I love them cold brewed. I even left this in the fridge for a day longer than planned but it was still delicious. Rich red fruits, some bright bergamot, and a lovely caramel. Glad I could really enjoy the last of this tea.

It is way to hot here, although thankfully it is relatively cool in my house, which is tucked back in the woods. Still, no AC here, and this weather is really going to put a damper on me drinking anything gongfu on the weekends. This morning was so busy, but I finally got a chance to sit down and drink a nice cup of this tea, iced.

I cold brewed it for 24 hours and it is quite delicious. The bergamot comes out a bit more, but is nicely balanced by the red fruits and a bit of creaminess from the caramel. Fortunately I quite enjoy this cold brewed, so I will have no problem drinking up the samples of the Kusmi teas I have, since something about their teas is not agreeing with me when hot.

Hmmm not sure what happened with this one. I had a sample of this before that I definitely enjoyed, and now I have a small sample tin again. I made a cup of this tea this afternoon and it wasn’t really tasty at all. I can’t even put my finger on it, but I didn’t enjoy really enjoy it and I even felt a bit nauseous with a headache after drinking it. I dunno, I am going to try it cold brew, and maybe I’ll give it another shot hot since I did like it once, but otherwise it’ll be swap fodder. :/

More sample stash busting, woot! Apparently I said earlier that I would probably cold-brew the last of this tea, but that was a lie. I had just the right amount for another Kati cup full of tea, so that’s what I did. This is definitely a very nice tea and it reminds me that I always need some kind of bergamot + red fruits blend in my cupboard, even if it’s just a red fruits tea and an Earl Grey that I blend together myself. The vanilla and caramel in this one are nice and they add some good flavors to the blend, but they’re not really necessary components to me. Glad to have gotten a sample of this one.

I got it in my head this morning that I wanted to try busting some of the samples that are overflowing my tea cupboard. Of course, a cup of this doesn’t quite use up the sample, but it’s getting close (I’ll probably cold brew the last of it). Some day in the future when I have gotten through samples and some of my excessive tea collection, I will definitely have to get more Kusmi tea.

This one is tasty as always but there is some weird smell in the air that is really cutting down on my enjoyment. I really don’t need to smell chemicals when I’m drinking my tea.

Dealing with idiocy this morning, and you know that means a nice, comforting, tasty tea. I love the combination of bergamot with red fruits, and when you add in vanilla and caramel? Yum. I’m really enjoying this one today, and it’s reminding me that I need to pick up samples of the rest of Kusmi’s bergamot-based blends.

Oh, Monday. I really didn’t want to see your face this morning. Hopefully a new black tea will perk me up a bit. All the Kusmi bergamot blends have been on my list of things I wanted to try for quite a while now, but I still haven’t gotten around to going to the Kusmi store in NYC to buy a sample pack. I was very excited when I saw this surprise sample in my recent swap with Infusin_Susan! Thanks!! This one is interesting because I’ve tried what are basically several of the components of this tea—Kusmi’s Caramel and their Red Fruits—and I love my bergamot/red fruits blend tea from Argentina.

From the steeped tea I get primarily the scent of a red fruits black tea and perhaps a hint of vanilla. There’s a brightness that might be the bergamot poking through, but it’s not a major player in the aroma. In the sip the flavors come one after another… I feel like I get the bergamot first in the sip, bright and citrusy, then a rich red fruits blend, then a vanilla/caramel flavor that blooms at the end of the sip. They all mix together at the end and leave me with quite a nice flavor. I taste more of the fruits than the vanilla/caramel in this, but the latter do round out the flavor and make it fuller and richer. This tea doesn’t knock my socks off but I do really enjoy it, and it confirms the quality of Kusmi’s blends.

This tea has been keeping me company for a few days now…YUM! See previous notes…also backlogging…

backlogging 2 cups from earlier today :) See previous notes

Thanks to Angrboda I am sipping on this one this morning and it’s got me in the groove for some reason! I might not be able to explain WHY, exactly, but there is something that I am totally digging here! It’s a nice mellow apple flavor – nothing over the top – but the strength of the black tea and the strength of the apple go nicely together. Perhaps it because it smells like sour apple but tastes like a Pink Lady. Pink Lady Apples are my FAVE Apple!

Whatever it is…I’m really enjoying it today!~

Angrboda is awesome…just need to point that out…thanks for this one as well, Dear!!!

It doesn’t smell overly vanilla but it’s ‘there’.
It’s not overly vanilla in the flavor – especially at first – but I agree with Morgana saying it’s sneaky! It sneaks in right at the end and smooths out the after taste nicely! As it cools a bit at room temp the beginning of the sip extends a woodsy or bark-like hint right and the beginning of the sip but then moves on to other notes on the tongue as you continue to sip.

This is nice. Nothing wrong with it at all but I do favor a few of their other offering over this one. Sure glad I got to try it tho and I would certainly drink it again and again :)

After going to the San Francisco Russian festival today, it seems most fitting to drink this tea. See my previous tasting notes. :)

This was part of a Kusmi Russian tea sampler we got. My boyfriend loves Earl Grey/bergamot blends so he likes them a little bit better than I do, I find them to be a bit perfume-y. The orange is very nice in this blend though. Might be better with a scone. ;-)

I am hoping this breaks me out of the Monday morning doldrums… somehow it does seem cheerful today.