Murchie's Tea & Coffee

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Recent Tasting Notes

79

I asked for an Earl Grey when I was in the shop and this was what was recommended to me! I love this blend. It’s warm, sweet and creamy and has a sort of a dreamy quality to it. Still definitely an Earl Grey but it has a lovely body that I think some Earl Greys don’t always have.

My goal is to taste it in a tea latte with lots of milk, but so far it’s just perfectly lovely on its own and I’ve been enjoying it black. Super sweet without being cloying and just a pleasure to drink.

Flavors: Bergamot, Cream, Earl Grey, Milky, Vanilla

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 10 OZ / 300 ML

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75

I bought this tea because I’m always looking for an afternoon tea that is black, but not super caffeinated. This was really lovely! It tastes better than some of the higher-end teas of the same ilk.

This is a black tea and a green tea blend, and sometimes the tea can feel very separate, but in this case, they suited each other very well and worked well. The tea is sweet, but has a nice caramel base with lots of toffee flavour. I like it just below boiling and brew it a little more like green tea though it’s also lovely (and still very flavourful) when it’s gone cold as well.

It’s sweet, sort of buttery, but not oily and just feels like a very sophisticated tea. I’ll have to come back for more.

Flavors: Caramel, Grassy, Green, Pastries, Sugar, Toffee

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 10 OZ / 300 ML

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55

Hmm, I’m surprised I haven’t reviewed this one. The first few times I drank it, I enjoyed it: The rose was mild but present, just a gentle whisper. But I’m drinking it today and it’s not jiving with my tastes — there’s an unctuous, slippery, almost cloying sugary rose note that’s turning me off. It’s probably coming from the artificial flavors… I’ll need to find a rose congou that’s scented with petals but doesn’t have additional flavors. :(

Flavors: Artificial, Rose, Sweet

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76

TTB tea! This has a level of smokiness that I can stand. I would have preferred a bolder black tea as the base, but this is not bad. My partner who doesn’t love tea actually quite enjoyed this one. I didn’t taste the jasmine at all.

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Cold Brew!

Picked this one up while in Vancouver this summer. I can’t remember exactly how expensive the tea was, but I remember the sale associate warning me before buying it that it was a lot higher than most of their teas – so they must have experienced customers dealing with sticker shock in the past. I have some theories on why it might be on the pricier side compared to a lot of Murchie’s other blends, but I’ll keep them to myself…

Regardless, I didn’t mind the price tag and I’ve found this to be a really enjoyable blend. It’s got a very punchy flavour with a lot of bright, lively citrus notes. The colour is obviously very in the realm of pink lemonade once brewed, but I do feel like it’s maybe a bit off in terms of taste? Don’t get me wrong, it’s delicious like I said. However, I taste a lot of orange. A very juicy orange, but orange nonetheless. With the mix of lemongrass and almost berry-like hibiscus flavours that also come through this reads a bit more like a citrus heavy punch to me. I think, for a lemonade, I would expect a lot more lemon and more bright acidity to the top notes. In the kindest way, this is almost too “dense” and saturated of a flavour to evoke lemonade – at least for me personally.

Still, so delicious!

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Going to send the Strange VariaTea TTB on its way soon, so I want to get some tasting notes up before I do. Not a lot of black teas/blends caught my eye, but this one did because I’ve been wanting to try a Murchie’s tea. I ended up enjoying this one more than I expected to given that I don’t like lapsang. The smokiness is well-balanced though – think something cooked in a campfire rather than face full of ashtray. Probably because it’s a blend. The floral note from the jasmine comes through and actually works well here. 

This isn’t one I’d go out of my way for – just because I don’t love black tea and have to limit my caffeine – but glad I got to try it!

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60

Strange VariaTEA TTB #25

There was no description on the bag, but I smelled the Lapsang so decided to give it a try. It really threw me when I realized there was jasmine in here too! I’m not sure the combination of floral and smoke is working for me, but it was certainly an interesting blend to try.

Flavors: Floral, Jasmine, Smoke

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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70

This is one of my favourite teas from Murchie’s and has been a favourite for like eight years, despite the fact that I only bought it once before. When you open the bag, it smells like maple syrup. And not like, table syrup, but actual maple syrup, which is just lovely.

There are apparently fruit notes in this tea, though I don’t taste them. It does feel a little acidic at times, but that feels more like the the tannins from the tea than any fruit flavour that might pop up. It has a lovely flavour when it’s hot but it does start to taste more like water as it cools.

Still, really warm and buttery and comforting. I enjoy it a lot!

Flavors: Caramel, Malt, Maple Syrup, Sugar

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 10 OZ / 300 ML

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Made myself another mug, this time sans milk. I couldn’t resist the fun wordplay and fitting moodscape of drinking Honeybee in the garden while watching all the bees hard at work pollinating the flower beds. I do think I prefer this tea with the milk addition, but it was nice on its own too. Brisk yet sweet with an interesting note of cocoa that was almost as strong as the titular honey flavours.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvdVk3lOL2I/?img_index=3 (Third Photo)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnatkV_92Bw

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Just finishing off a mug of this now, with a nice splash of milk added.

I brought this with because I thought both my mom and dad might like it – so far a checkmark from mom but, since I don’t switch to my dad’s house for a week, we’ll have to wait to see what he thinks.

I find, especially with the milk inclusion, this is a very thick feeling tea. The black tea base already has so much body to it so the fact it’s a step past that is really interesting to me – and I think it works so well with this type of pretty straight forward honey note. Honey in tea blends is a fickle flavour for me, but I appreciate how this one has a bit more of an aromatic floral lean to it when still having that darker, more dense golden sweetness of what I would maybe describe as a “classic” honey taste. As opposed to, well, something more specific like buckwheat or linden honey.

I don’t know that this blend sparks as much joy for me as some of Murchie’s others, but the flavour is a lot more of what I’d call an “any mood” flavour in that I could see myself drinking this more regulatory than some of the other blends I enjoy more but that have really specific ‘vibes/moods’ associated to them…

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Geek Steep S3E13 – Cowboy Bebop

This is the tea I drank while recording this episode (two episodes back – I’m only slightly backlogged on tasting notes this time). I’ve reviewed it here on Steepster before, and my general description of the tea hasn’t changed – still smoky, lush and jammy fruits, and perfectly floral in a super evocative kind of way.

This was one of my shortlist teas I almost paired with my viewing of the fandom, and I do stand by my fact that it probably would have worked very well alongside this particular anime. It has that sort of somber and romantic late night vibe that works with the sort of lonely, melancholic themes of the anime. Super cinematic in a ‘noir’ sort of way. Plus, there’s the obvious tie in of the rose in the opening which ends up being a very significant reoccurring image throughout the show…

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Have you ever seen a tea and just immediately thought, “Wow, that was clearly made just for me.” Well, that was me as soon as I saw AJ’s blend of Lapsang Souchong, dark fruits, and rose. The blend is so rich and evocative, with the sultry smoke notes providing an almost “mysterious feeling” canvas for lighter notes of fresh, aromatic rose. A dense and almost syrupy note of darker mixed berries adds a very luxe lushness to the cup, while also providing necessary sweetness to offset the more abrasive side of the Lapsang. It’s like a perfect anchor for these ethereal feeling flavors!!

I know the fruit flavourings used are a mix of several, with raspberry and black currant being the more discernable ones to me. I’ve been on such a currant kick lately, and I think the black currant flavouring used here does a particularly good job of challenging the preconception held by many that currants are unpleasant, medicinal tasting fruits. This is lavish, deep and jammy with such a smooth, round taste and feeling on the palate!!

Ultimately, this may be my favourite blend from Murchies yet. It’s complex yet balanced, and I feel I can picture myself transported to this exact parlour room; dark woods, several bouquets of fresh red roses, an ornate chandelier, low lighting with ornate gold embellished curtains, plush velvet seating in all different shades of dark reds and purples. So, so spot on!!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ctt7sJEu4nU/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmEzW7aS1dA

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Still working on tasting note catch up…

I wrote a really nice, long note for this the first time I had this tea and I kind of just want to say to go back and read that description for anyone seeing this note. But I do want to make sure to acknowledge how much I really enjoyed this mug. I had it Friday morning at the office. I don’t typically work in office on Fridays but a coworker and friend who works remote outside of the country was visiting this week so we came in to maximize his visit.

I was so fucking tired Friday morning (insomnia the night before) and this was the first tea I steeped up for myself. I’m not really an EG in the morning kinda gal, but that extra zingy yuzu top note to this blend just seemed to cut through the haze of the morning in the perfect way. I felt myself a little more energized and ready for the day!

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As I literally said just tonight, I love getting to taste all the different ways tea companies twist and play with the established expectations surrounding classic tea blends, like Earl Grey. So when AJ shared this was one of their newer blends it IMMEDIATELY went on my to purchase list!

After I had unpacked on Friday morning, this ended up being the first tea from my large trip haul that I steeped up – the curiosity was too strong, and an EG on a Friday morning was just speaking to me conceptually. Yuzu is really interesting to me as an addition to EG for a few reasons – it’s been a pretty trendy flavour the last few years as part of a wave of Asian inspired flavours becoming more popular within North America. This is in tandem to many other trends, like a drive towards citrusy or tropical notes as people both clamour for global escapism post pandemic and seek out tastes that convey “happiness” through their brightness or acidity. Though I think Yuzu, in particular, is sort of cresting in the trend curve right now…

So for all of those reasons, it’s neat to see a more ‘Asian flavour’ with this modern trend backing it up coupled with something so classic and grounded in British tea drinking culture. Then, from a culinary side, it just makes a world of sense to me that these two citruses (Yuzu and Bergamot) would work so well together as both are highly aromatic with a lot of essential oil pay off and such depth to their floral yet zesty kind of profiles. True to my expectations, it does work reaaaallllyyyy well side by side. The citrus is lively on the palate but grounded due to those denser (and, in the case of the yuzu, almost peppery) and somewhat pithy notes. Still, there’s brightness to the top of each sip that keeps the cup from feeling sullen.

I’ve also tried AJ’s Royal Grey, which I like a lot too, but this one takes the cake for me. I just thought it was so impressively well balanced while really honoring both of these main flavours. Murchie’s is one of those companies that could probably put out a dozen EG teas in a year without their core customer base growing tired of them, so I’m really intrigued to see whatever spin on an EG AJ comes up with next!

AJ

There’s something very “grounding” about Earl Grey variations. You could make a very wild mix of interesting flavours and have it seem just a little too ‘out there’ to work, but if you tack ‘Grey’ on the end, it brings it more down to earth; it’s suddenly ‘comfortable and familiar, but with a modern twist’.

Bergamot in general I feel rounds out other fruit flavours well. I call it a very ‘bassy’ citrus.

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83

As I mentioned yesterday, we actually visited a couple different Murchie’s locations. I drank this tea, as a little mini pot of tea, at the Victoria flagship location – it was the last one we’d visited and at that point I’d purchased the blends I was most interested in, but I still wanted to experience the store so we got a drink for their parlor room before window shopping.

I am not normally a fan of decaf teas, black ones in particular. They kind of just taste flat and sad – like a tea that’s had not just the caffeine but also the life sucked out of it. However, I was curious about the black currant flavouring that Murchie’s uses and I thought what I assumed would be the more neutral/light tasting black tea base – as opposed to their caffeinated version – might actually better showcase the flavouring itself.

I actually enjoyed this a great deal. Thought a thinner body, the black currant was almost thick and jammy enough tasting to compensate. Really rich, and in your face without dipping too much into that more medicinal side of currant. Still a tinge of the good type of medicinal taste though. Not sure if that makes sense to anyone but me, but I do mean it as a compliment. I really find it a shame that black currant is, generally, so unpopular in North America when those deep, rich purple berry notes are spectacularly stand out. There’s actually a super interesting historical reason behind why it was a flavour so slow to be commercially adopted, if anyone cares to look it up. Basically restrictions on growing currants in the US for a very long time is the TLDR. So North America just wasn’t exposed to the taste for a long time.

The UK got it right when they created drinks like Ribena, IMO. This tea reminds me of Ribena, and it was just a nice time.

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This was the other tea my mom picked up from Murchie’s and, of course, I made sure to try a cup for myself one of the mornings we ordered breakfast in to our Air B&B…

It’s a straight forward blend, and since she was mostly just looking for something really coconut forward she could add milk to I think she’s going to be really satisfied with it. I found the very slight oiliness from the coconut fat to be somewhat distracting as I sipped the cup, but the taste was really nice. Just a rich, creamy coconut balanced by a brisk black tea base. Delivers exactly on what it claims to – nothing more or less.

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We actually went to two Murchie’s locations during the trip – one in Vancouver and one in Victoria. The Victoria location was the one I was most interested in going to as it’s their flagship store, and the space is just beautiful looking. However, we were a little worried we might not have the time in Victoria among our other activities and I really wanted to make sure I got to buy a bunch of AJ’s new blends, so we slotted in one of the Vancouver spots to shop at as a safe guard.

This is actually one of two teas that my mom picked up for herself but, as our Air B&B had an electric kettle, I took advantage of getting to try a few more teas than the ones I bought for myself by brewing up a cup the ones she had purchased in the mornings the following days.

We had a bit of a fun tasting and guessing game with this blend as we tried to figure out the different flavours in the mix. It made for a pretty solidly full bodied cuppa with just a nice little bite of tannin, though that might be more from my penchant to overleaf and over steep black teas. Both fruity and floral, it was interesting how it simultaneously tasted very distinct in its tasting notes but also perfectly ethereal for the name. We both tasted strawberry, but my mom also tasted blueberries and lavender in her mug. For my part, I got more of the bergamot than the lavender but also found the florals reminded me of the lush, sweet taste of parma violets. I see now, also, that sweet pea is one of the tasting notes in the copy and I find that pretty apt.

I don’t think this is a blend that I would personally want for my stash as I feel I have some stylistically comparable blends that fit the same need this would. However, I see why my mom was attracted to it as someone who really loves bergamot, lavender, and (in general) fruit tasting teas she can still add milk to.

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drank Poet's Blend by Murchie's Tea & Coffee
476 tasting notes

Hnnng my dashboard’s stuck again. Notices aren’t updating, and forum’s cache seems to be backed up too. Welp.

This’ the first tea I released as part of the ‘Tasting Lab’ aside, which is the “AJ’s given free reign to go wild” section of the website where I release just whatever interests me (within reason). At the moment I’m releasing one exclusive tea every two months, and this was the first.

As part of its release, I wrote a work-blog post about the thoughts and inspiration behind it, but had to cut it WAY back to keep to an acceptable level of “AJ Rambles about History”.

The inspiration behind it (and the next blend) came about after a lot period of reading about blending-trends through history (especially the Victorian/Edwardian periods), changes in tea-drinking preferences in the US and UK (the UK dropping interest in green tea in the 1800s following Robert Fortune’s ‘famous discovery’, and the US switching from Chinese green to Japanese green at the same time, before finally dropping interest in green in the 1940s following WWII anti-Japanese sentiments).

This bleeds into the green-black blending trends that fell out of fashion in the late 1800s/early 1900s following all of the above sentiments towards green tea. Plus the disappearance of a number of tea types out of China. Chief among, “Scented Orange Pekoe” and “Scented Caper”s, nebulous names for a group of teas scented with flowers, chief among them jasmine (with at least one example of jasmine later branching off into its own distinct ‘tea’). When blending-books talk about SOPs, they talk about them being a “blending tea” not a “sipping tea”, and that the flowers used to scent them vary season to season (but can include: orange blossom, osmanthus, olive flower, magnolia, and jasmine).

Most noticeably, no blend guide seems to make a distinction in their blends towards specific scents of SOP, and list it very generically. The way it’s written (both looking at outside blending guides at the time, and looking at internal records of tea companies) seems to imply that the specific scent of the SOP during any given season was simply “what you get is what you get”, and the blends that included SOP were expected to vary in aroma.

This entire thing is probably a subject I might write a full blog post on? Eventually? And to avoid making this tasting note too long. Because what’s a blog for if not to focus all the pent up Interest about a subject. But the entire thing kinda culminated after a supplier was nice enough to send me every floral scented and flavoured tea they had, including an orange blossom flavoured oolong.

Poet’s Blend ended up most similar to Library Blend, in that it’s jasmany and slightly more green-leaning, but lacks bergamot oil. The orange blossom oolong sort of replaces the bergamot for that citrus, but only barely—orange blossom I find barely qualifies as ‘citrus’. It’s a very heady, in-your-face floral, and I think pairs very interestingly with jasmine, though it’s a touch bitter.

As a result, this tea can be slightly finicky with water temperature and timing. But the orange blossom adds a very nice fragrance, and is noticeable in the taste when you slurp. It’s very “spring”. The black teas mostly serve as a soft base, adding just a bit of body. The green and oolongs are more prominent in the actual profile, and then the jasmine and orange blossom dominating.

I realize I haven’t tried this iced, but today’s cup is already cold (got distracted writing), and the orange blossom and jasmine comes through more already, so I think I’ll try and ice it this weekend.

Flavors: Grass, Jasmine, Orange Blossom, Rosewood, Vegetable Broth

beerandbeancurd

Really interesting history drive. Are there sources you regularly turn to for reading up on tea history, or is it piecemeal from wider-lens sources?

ashmanra

Sounds delightful and I love the history you shared!

AJ

A little of both. Unfortunately, most old tea manuals are under 100 pages—closer to 20 if you convert them to modern formatting, and only have a chapter or so dedicated to blending (they usually come with the disclaimer that ‘blending can only be learned through years of experience’ and will give you fairly basic info).

So I collect a lot of piecemeal sources on blending, and refer back to several when topics of interest come up. Most books roughly cover the teas of interest during the day (whether their purpose in blending, or just a general summary). They’re old, old terms, so half the fun is trying to figure out what tea it’s referring to (if it even still has a modern equivalent).

Archive.org is definitely your friend.

beerandbeancurd

So cool, thanks for sharing.

Leafhopper

It’s always interesting to read about tea history! I read a book about the prevalence of green tea in the U.S. and the switch to black tea after WWII. Your blend also sounds nice. Anything with orange blossom gets a thumbs up from me!

AJ

That sounds like “Green With Milk & Sugar”, which was a really solid read.

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82
drank Rose Congou by Murchie's Tea & Coffee
2170 tasting notes

TeaTiff Traveling Tea Box | No. 8

I love floral teas, maybe rose most of all. Yes, I think rose is my favorite. This is a really lovely rose black tea. It’s uncomplicated but delicious. I don’t have much to say about it, aside from that. It’s definitely a keeper!

Flavors: Floral, Rose

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Teatotaler

I really love floral teas too and wholeheartedly agree that rose is the best! Violet tea is a close second.

Shae

Oh I do love violet, forgot about that one!

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Truthfully I’ve been putting this one off.

I absolutely love the taste of anise/black licorice/fennel but I can’t stand licorice root. This tea has all of the above, so I wasn’t sure where it would land with my own preferences. However, I actually found I liked the tea more than I’d expected to. It’s an incredibly intense and unabashed licorice flavour – of both the black and root kinds. Really coats every single surface of the palate and lingers for a significantly long time after each sip. It’s so sweet, but also has just enough dark bitter molasses-y notes to kind of offset that quality. “Kind of” is the key part of that sentence.

My grandfather passed long before I got into tea, but he absolutely loved black licorice flavoured anything and as I was drinking this tea I was struck with the realization that this would probably have been the kind of tea we’d have really been able to converse and bond over. That said, wouldn’t recommend this at all to anything who is even halfway uncertain of whether they like any of the above mentioned flavours. It’s extreme.

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My laptop battery just died in the middle of my nicely written tasting note, so now it’s just gonna be a short one – can’t be bothered to rewrite it. Nice tea with a sweet, rich taste. However, it’s very maple forward. Much more than I think a carrot cake should be, and the carrot itself seems to be lacking to me even though the spices feel right. Gives me more of an Autumnal pancake kinda vibe.

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drank Evergreen by Murchie's Tea & Coffee
476 tasting notes

Resinous; I associate rosemary with apple, so you get a piney, apple sharpness to it. The dried juniper berries don’t add much on their own, they just enhance that ‘cooling’ pine mint note you get out of the rosemary. The green-black base leans a bit lighter, brisk and sweet. The Darjeeling skews that. The way jasmine blends with rosemary is unexpected.

I’m actually drinking an earlier version that had a bit of bergamot oil added; I thought this helped make the blend feel less ‘dry’, but it was ultimately dropped from the final recipe, so there’s no liquid oils or flavours in this one at all. This was a tea I was very proud of, even though I knew that it probably wouldn’t draw in a huge crowd, being a little Unusual.

There’s actually an interesting story on my starting-point for this tea. The original blend I began with was a recipe out of our old Family Blend Book; it was labeled ‘Christmas Blend 1972’, commissioned for a family (keeping specific names out). They commissioned a new Christmas blend every couple of years, through the 70s and 80s.

I thought the background was interesting, and the flavour-notes weren’t unusual for most Murchie’s teas—jasmine and bergamot. So I played around with substituting some teas (mostly bumping up grades). I liked the result, but it was similar to our existing green-black blends, so probably not enough to stand on its own. At the same time, I had this idea to add pine-needles to a tea for a piney, ‘christmas tree’ flavour. But sourcing pine needles for human consumption was its own issue; it’s common to forage them, but difficult to find adequate quantities through wholesalers.

Rosemary, though! That was obtainable, would give me the Resinous note I was after, and also reminded me of the mysterious ‘Rosemary Scented Orange Pekoe’ mentioned off-hand in a couple of our very very old price guides. At the same time, I had a sample of dried juniper berries on-hand, and that felt like the perfect finishing touch along that same vein. The dried berries have a very faint pine-mint taste to them when steeped. Having never had gin, I don’t know how they compare.

My working name for the blend at that time was ‘Noel’, but that got turned down. I thought of ‘Evergreen’ next, since all constituents of the blend are evergreen plants. That stuck, and it felt like a better descriptor of the taste-profile. Unfortunately, this tea isn’t returning for Christmas 2022, but I might bring it back for an online-only 2023 addition. In retrospect, I realize it feels like a very Steven Smith kind of tea.

Flavors: Apple, Burnt Sugar, Jasmine, Nuts, Pine, Resin

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Cold Brew!

We almost missed this one while we were at Murchie’s because the tin was all the way off to the side of the counter, kind of hidden and out of view. I’m glad we ended up catching it though because the dry leaf smelled really amazing – very fresh, sweet lychee.

Steeped up, I’m half surprised I enjoy this as much as I do. I mean, the lychee flavour is on point – it’s very prominent but not too intense and it perfectly rides the line of sweet, juicy ripe lychee with the more floral elements of the fruit. There’s no surprise that it speaks this much to me. No, the surprise part comes from the green tea base. With such a minimal and simple flavour direction I was worried that the green tea would be present in full force. Perhaps it would have been if I’ve made this hot. As it stands, I found that the chosen base used to blend over was pretty muted and neutral without being flat/dull. So it was the perfect canvas for this delish lychee flavour!

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