Sloane Tea Company

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Recent Tasting Notes

64

Sipdown! 105/365!

Another one from Sil! ;)

One thing I’m finding very interesting about going through the second half of samples 4-6 years later is how, for the most part, my thoughts about a tea are very consistent. For example, this tea. I got a bit of chocolate and nut, but for the most part, it just tasted like a black tea. A decent one, sure, but nothing special. I figured this could be related to age – and then read my previous tasting note, from 4 years ago, where I said very much the same thing. So in 4 years, very little has actually changed. There are, of course, exceptions when ingredients have gone off, and a couple palate adjustments that have happened, but not too many. Anyhow, this is bringing me unexpected entertainment, but is not helpful in motivating me to actually finish everything off…

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64

Thanks for some of this one Sil. I am reasonably unimpressed, but given a) the comments I read and b) the age of the tea, it sounds like there wasn’t a ton of flavour to begin with, and what was there is likely gone. It’s still not a bad cup of tea – less astringent than 52teas’ Almond Happiness, but to be fair, it also has less flavour. Ah well, not a big loss – I don’t seem to be a big fan of Sloane teas in general for whatever reason. Not rating out of fairness to the tea, but I’d guess it would garner around a 60 fresh, for me.

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91

Thanks to Lala for the huge amount of samples from our swap back in March. I have enough of this tea alone for at least 5 cups, and that’s not counting resteeps! Thank you, Lala!!

The dry leaf aroma is all peachy goodness. The brewed tea aroma is peaches with something more. The flavor is a delicate balance of peaches, cream, and white tea. This is delicious! I’m so impressed with how delicately the flavors are balanced. They seem to romp back and forth, exchanging positions for prominence.

Gosh, I love tea. I hope my child likes tea too. It’d be fun to share that together. I love that my husband has become more interested in tea over the past year or so. It still amazes me that two people can drink the exact same cup of tea and, even preferences aside, taste different things in it.

Well for me, this is a great tea! It delivers on the cream element more than any other tea by that name that I’ve tried. It has no bitterness nor astringency. There’s a subtle sweetness apparent, the way fruit is naturally sweet. Total yum factor! I will enjoy every cup.

ETA: Hmm, I can’t find this on the Sloane website. Was it a limited edition tea or something?

Flavors: Cream, Peach

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 30 sec
Lala

This one was very good. I didn’t think it was limited edition, but I bought mine thru Indigo/Chapters.

Sil

it was a seasonal blend :)

CHAroma

I’m not real familiar with Sloane. They don’t seem to have very many teas available on their website. Are seasonal blends their thing? Or do they primarily use other retailers for distribution?

Sil

sloane = toronto company = what i’d call average teas for way expensive. i tend to only pick them u when they have their random sales around christmas when i can get them for 50% off. otherwise i find them generally overpriced for what you get

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90

Thank you Sil for this lovely creamy Oolong. It tastes much like a milk Oolong and it is nice as I loooooove milk Oolongs.
So of course it is creamy, buttery and mellow but it is quite flowery as well and has a touch of mineral taste (even a long mineral taste) at the very end of the sip especially when the cup is beginning to cool down.
I love it.

Flavors: Butter, Cream, Floral, Mineral

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 5 min, 0 sec

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70

I thought I’d already logged this tea when I was reviewing the other three tea in the Sloane sampler set, but apparently this one fell by the wayside. It’s a fairly mild incarnation of earl grey – nice and smooth with the bergamot notes going for subtle rather than ostentatious. It’s fairly average for me as I tend to like the bergamot a bit stronger, but personal bias aside it’s still a well-crafted tea.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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60

A bit on the smokey-cream side. I still personally prefer David’s Milk Oolong over this version if I am going to have a flavour altered oolong, though when tasted next to one another there are many similarities. This one doesn’t have the clean and airy mouth feel that the other does. Still, a pretty good brew. My boyfriend’s a big fan, and I love the design of the tin.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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Hmm, looks like I haven’t reviewed this tea yet! I will make it short, as I am at work and it is fairly busy, but I made a cup of this for the morning, not the first cup of this tea I’ve had either lol. In a nutshell, it smells rather tasty, steeps to a orangey yellow color, smells peachy and creamy steeped, but has a bit of an artificial flavor to it unfortunately. The artificial cream note is why I don’t really drink this tea that often. A shame, as it smells so good, but just doesn’t taste quite as good. It’s a very spring/summer-esque tea though, so I might have a few more cups of it as the seasons progress. Not too bad this morning!

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Sunday Sipdown #1

Compared to yesterday’s sipdown of Assam by Joseph Wesley, this is a really bold, malty cup. Slightly astringent, kind of metallic tasting, with a lingering aftertaste.

This isn’t bad, but I think it’s a bit too strong for me.

Thanks again, indigobloom, for the sample!

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Indigobloom

Hehe yeah this is not my fave. Which do you prefer, between the two?

Christina / BooksandTea

Of the two, definitely the Joseph Wesley. I didn’t get the layers of complex flavours you wrote about in your tasting note, but I really liked how smooth it was.

Indigobloom

Same here. The Joseph Wesley one is fabulous. But now that it’s a little less fresh, I’m finding it harder to spy all those notes. (despite it being in a tin!)

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The weather outside today is hellish, absolutely hellish. When I got home, I changed out of my soaked pants, put on a bathrobe, had some lunch, and decided that the only thing that would make me feel warm and toasty and safe was some black tea. Considering I rarely drink black tea, this was kind of weird, but eh.

Indigobloom gave me a sample of this about a month and a half ago, and it’s one of the few I have yet to try, so into the teacup it went.

I don’t really have the vocabulary to describe black teas yet since they’re not my preferred kind, but this was really bitter. Mildly astringent, perhaps, but I definitely agree with Indigobloom’s assessment that this is coppery. I guess this is the maltiness or briskness to which other people refer?

I don’t normally drink tea with milk, but I can see why others would add it to this to tone it down. I don’t think it’s for me, so when I finish this off (I have enough for 1-2 cups), this won’t be a restock.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
boychik

if you willing to try again i would recommend 205F or even 200F 1tsp 8oz 3min ;)

Christina / BooksandTea

Hmm, good to know. I was following the instructions on Sloane’s website of 1 tsp/6 oz, boiling water, 3 mins.

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78

TTBC2 #18

Hmmm… While this is not the most tantalizing tea I’ve had, or not even one of the better white teas I have had, the peach flavoring here is really intriguing.

I have a very weird relationship with peach flavored teas. They often make me think of Lipton iced tea :P But once in a while, the flavoring can be put off nicely. The best example is probably Lupicia’s Momo blends. but I do like the peach in this. I am not sure about the “cream” part.. I guess the creamy notes are there, but barely.

Unfortunately, the white tea here is not spectacular and seems to be full of these notorious “sweatcloth” notes that just sit on your palate. Perhaps I brewed this tea for a bit too long. I would love to try it again some time. The version from the Traveling Box was in a sachet, I wonder if they offer any loose leaf.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 2 min, 0 sec
Sil

sloane does have loose leaf, though this one they weren’t sure if they were going to be offering that way.

Kat_Maria

It doesn’t seem like they offer this one as loose leaf. They also seem to be sold out of it right now anyway. Oh, and their prices don’t sit well with me :D So I am glad I got to try one of their teas through the traveling box!

Sil

they’re pretty expensive imo, and not really worth it when compared to other places…

Kat_Maria

Yeah, it sure seems that way!

Sil

i picked up a bunch of their teas at a 50% off sale…and that’s the most i’d pay for them. to each their own i guess but i’ve had better from companies that charged less.

TeaBrat

they seem way over priced

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Sipdown! Many thanks to Indigobloom for giving me a sample of this to try.

It’s a Monday, and I’m going to do my bookkeeping for tax season. I haven’t started yet, but I figured that something dark like this would give me the fortitude to buckle down and try. I think I oversteeped/overleafed this a bit in an attempt to get the sipdown, but it’s not incredibly bitter. The tea smells dark – like smoke, or pepper, or dark chocolate – and this is carried over, albeit not as strongly, in the taste.

Not sure if I’d want to keep this in stock, but at least I’m getting an impression of what black teas I like. So far, I think I’m still going to stick with flavoured blends over straight ones.

Flavors: Dark Bittersweet, Peppercorn

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 15 sec 2 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

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Sample sipdown! Thanks to indigobloom for giving me a sachet of this to try (and for only giving me 1, so I can feel like I’ve accomplished something today by doing a sipdown).

As it was steeping, I could smell the chocolate aroma wafting through my kitchen, though when the bag steeped long enough, the most prominent smell was of the black tea base – which I always associate with raisins or prunes. The first taste was mostly of the base, but as it cools down, the chocolate is more apparent.

Not sure if I would want to restock this, though, as the black base is a bit too strong for me.

Flavors: Chocolate, Raisins

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 11 OZ / 325 ML

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tea for a queen!
simple business classy tea.
teacups clink and clack tea.
warm and toasty and light.

is it my birthday? it must be my birthday. cuz there is a MCU Harlequin AU Challenge being filled in AO3 and it’s got my big fluffy name all over it. (i need something to balance out all the darkDARK fics i always end up with, poor Clint.)

carol who

Ok, ok I know I’m old and dumb but what is “MCU Harlequin AU Challenge being filled in AO3” I only know the words “being filled in” and I’m not sure of the meaning in this context. :( I know duh, right.

Shmiracles

Oh Carol! ask away! anytime! i mean, how will you know if you don’t ask?
but also, it’s really not important haha.
i’m talking about fanfic. cuz as will happen with the internet, it seems there are a handful of tea drinkers that are also big fanfic readers. and there are lots of fandom tea blends for heavensake, and we all found eachother on here so many notes are often highlighted with fandom cheers.
so. yup. to explain. :)
it’s a M arvel C inematic U niverse Harlequin Romance themed A lternate U niverse writing Challenge and the stories are being posted on archiveofourown.org also know as AO3 in abbreviation.
so, for instance, Tony Stark & Steve Rogers have a marriage of convenience and then fall in love after much turmoil Jane Austen style, or Clint Barton is a stable boy & Phil Coulson wants to court him but tradition and status standing do not allow it without bringing shame to his family name, etc etc. you get the idea. basically the Avengers do Pride and Prejudice.

so, yup, i know you didn’t ask for fic but to highlight my explanation,
and since i do have a tardis on my desk next to my green arrow figurine…
i’ll just put these here (the first taste is free haha)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/97380
http://archiveofourown.org/works/335139
http://archiveofourown.org/works/90471
http://archiveofourown.org/works/667301
(but i add a disclaimer and say that DW isn’t know for it’s fanfic and when i did try to read some a while back i didn’t go well :(
i just pulled these from the top ‘liked’
maybe some other steepster ladies have some recommendations?!

TeaLady441

OMG. I’m happy you got into all that because I did not equate that with Avengers/P&P crossover and now I am going to have to look at some of those..

Also, WHY YES, I’d love to try some DW fic. I haven’t had much luck with those either, to be fair. But those are some good authors, so off to Calibre I go with them! (I’m copy your system now which makes sense but also means I have about 300 fics to tag but once it’s done it’s done FOREVER so that’s cool. I’m cool with it.)

Shmiracles

Cavo!
i recommend you search the tags like: Alternate Universe – Regency, Regency Romance, Regency, Marriage of Convenience, Alternate Universe – Jane Austen Fusion, and Harlequin. to start.
there are a few clint/phil that have a lot of kudos.

here is the MCU Harlequin Challenge: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/mcuharlequin
but the first one i read that got me to this place was this http://archiveofourown.org/works/779087 (which is not in the list)

and to explain, i don’t always go so fluffy with my pics, but after reading a story like this http://archiveofourown.org/works/562971 i can sometimes use a bit of happy ending quick read romance.

Shmiracles

and YAY!! cuz i love calibe AND i especially love my title labeling system. it’s simple and keeps things super organized without much effort. which is ideal as a foundation.

but listen, i wanna confess that i’ve also been using evernote. not that you should too! no.
calibre is great and works well and i still use it 100% it’s the only and best way to get stuff onto my kindle. period. but i have been saving every fic i read in evernote too. cuz i can search the full text of every fic. for those times when i’m like, oh the story had this and this and that in it and i wanna share it with someone or read it again. but it was a labor intensive project for a week or so. and not necessary but i had an intense compulsion to do it anyways. that’s me.

for calibre, there are add-ons too. i use one that lets you import and export folder names as tags. and another one that helps you find duplicates. and there is also one for fanfic specifically where you can subscribe to unfinished fics and then it will update your file in calibre when it’s updated online.
but i don’t actually use that add-on, cuz i only read finished works. but i thought it might be something that would suit you.

(now i’m just gonna take all of this and post it over on the fanfic thread cuz THAT is what it was created in the first place! haha)

TeaLady441

I love Calibre. :D I’ve been using it to store ALL my fic (and on dropbox so I can access it anywhere if I need to for some reason), but never really did much with it for fic…

But just keep giving me organizing ideas and I will think about them and then eventually copy you. :P I think your Evernote idea is pretty genius because, like you say you can just search for the fics you want without having to tag….

I used Calibre to create a separate library JUST for fic so at least with that I can tag the hell out of EVERYTHING and not worry about it cluttering up my non fic books.

I wish the collections add-on would work, but now that I’ve gone paperwhite, I can’t go back… I just can’t – it’s so great and I get to read in the dark when i try to get my toddler to calm down and just lie down in bed. I get some of my best reading then because it’s quiet and I’m left alone while she snuggles next to me and finally falls asleep. The crack is unfortnuate BUT I’m going to try and wait until September before replacing it bc usually Amazon releases new product then and I’d rather wait for the next gen, just cuz?

I will look into those plugins, and add more now that I see you’ve copied this discussion to the proper place!! ahaha

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77

Sunday Sipdown #2!

I had just enough for one last cup of this, and it’s a reliable, tasty chocolate tea. I added a splash of milk to see what that would do, but aside from changing the texture slightly (and also cooling it down), it didn’t enhance the flavour much. The almond was a bit more noticeable, and the chocolate a bit less so.

I would definitely consider repurchasing this – though I’ve got so many other teas to get through first.

Thanks, indigobloom!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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77

Overleafed this tea a bit, but I got such an influx of tea yesterday that I’m trying to sip down what I’ve already got. Also realized that I don’t have much in the way of black caramel teas, and I’ve realized that’s a variety I want to stock.

This wasn’t so bad, even with the overleafing. A tad astringent, but I added some honey to balance it out. I have enough for 1 or 2 cups, I think.

Anyways, do you want to know something cool? I took the buckwheat grains from last night’s sobacha and saved them in the fridge overnight so that I could have them for breakfast this morning. They turned out not so bad! I stirred in a small cup of fruit yogurt and had that as breakfast. So I feel very ingenious.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
KittyLovesTea

I always eat the buckwheat after I have Sobacha, though honestly I prefer their flavour pre steep. With fruit yoghurt sounds nice though. :)

Terri HarpLady

We used to eat a lot of buckwheat around here, & I love buckwheat noodles, stir fried with veggies. Yum!

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77

Now that I’ve had a few more black teas to compare, I’ve gone back to this one, and I realize I like it quite a bit. The blending of chocolate and nut flavour is well done, and the base works really well here.

This is perfect for a cold, blustery day like today.

Also: my order from Butiki with my new gaiwan and my replacement lid came in! Eeeee!

EDIT: This is tasting note 150! Woo.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
keychange

Yay for 150 tasting notes and Butiki orders!

Sil

grats on 150! that’s fantastic!

caile

Yay! :-)

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77

Thank you very much to Indigobloom for giving me a sample of this to try! I don’t drink a lot of black teas (yet), but I figured that today I needed a bit of a caffeine boost.

The dry leaf smelled a lot like chocolate. The tea itself smelled rather fruity (like prunes or raisins) at the beginning. but as the tea has cooled down, the chocolate flavour is much more apparent, especially in the aroma. I am getting an almond/truffle aftertaste.

I’m holding off on a rating for now because I’m still new to black tea. Once I try some more and figure out what I like, I’ll come back and reassess this one.

Flavors: Chocolate, Nuts, Raisins

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Great Canadian TTB and sipdown!! (162)

I actually sent the box off this morning but in the interest of saving time, I pulled out a few of the teabags to try later. This one is something I really wanted to try and thanks to the wonderful Sil, I got that chance. However, I built this up in my mind (I blame the pretty tin for that :P) as an amazingly delicious peaches and cream cup. In reality, this is really rather odd. I get the cream and the base is present but something about the peach flavor is really quite off.

Dustin

I’m such a sucker for a pretty tin!

VariaTEA

Haha if it looks nice, you expect the taste to follow suit. Alas, that doesn’t always happen such as with this tea.

Also, random observation but steepster notified me that you commented on “VariaTea’s” tasting note as opposed to saying someone commented on “your” tasting note.

Dustin

Sometimes I don’t even care what the tea tastes like, I just want the tin!

That is strange about the notification. For a couple months now I haven’t been able to view my messages on Steepster without opening the link in another tab. If I don’t it either crashes the browser or times out.

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60

Great Canadian TTB

Thank you Sil for including Sloane teas in the box. I have wanted to try them for a while and this is one of the ones that caught my eye. The hibiscus is a bit too strong for my liking but there is a nice berry flavor once you get past that. Not something I would keep around though :)

Sil

This is really just a cold brew for me, but feel much the same way. Meh.

VariaTEA

I can see that.

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60

Had for breakfast this morning – this was a sample from a long time ago swap with Sil!

My stomach is finally starting to remember how this whole digestion process works. It’s been touch and go for a few days and not much of anything (even tea) sounded appetizing.

This morning since things seemed better I went for a tea I hadn’t tried before (just in case it still doesn’t sit well I didn’t want to have a negative association with my favorite teas – as it is I can now no longer look at a box of Girl Scout cookies without feeling sick. ALL THE SADS.)

Steeped at the recommended parameters by the Sloane company. They have such gorgeous tins, really. If I didn’t have a surplus of them I would totally buy some – so pretty and elegant.

Taste wise I just added creamer from the beginning. Once it steeped up it looked too dark to drink on its own – and the smell was mostly dark chocolate. Dry leaf smell is contaminated from being in a drawer with a lot of other samples, unfortunately, but once steeped I got only unsweetened dark chocolate where I was hoping for some nuttiness too.

This took more creamer than I normally use to be palatable, so I’m guess it would have been really bitter and astringent without that buffer. Almond does that in tea (nuts in general add astringence in my experience) but I’m really not picking up on any almond at the beginning. Just….chocolate. And being a vanilla girl, this is not doing much for me.

Eh. At the end of the cup when things have cooled down marzipan takes over. Sweet and almondy – where were you from the beginning??? I like that eventually it lived up to its name but I ultimately think it took too long in getting to that point. Good to try, but I’m glad I just had a sample of it.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Dustin

That IS really sad about the cookies! Glad your stomach is treating you better at least.

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70

Here’s my tea of the morning and thanks to Indigobloom for the sample. I was expecting to be a bit underwhelmed because I don’t find too many chocolate teas that seem worthy of accolades.

I was wondering if I steeped this for too long (5 minutes) but really wanted to coax the flavors out more. The brewed tea smells like chocolate liquor but the flavor is really light. I get the cocoa noted but the almond is even a bit more difficult to detect. It was better with soymilk and rock sugar. Darn you, chocolate teas, for giving me a sense of false hope. ;-)

Flavors: Cocoa

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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94

Good thing I read the tasting notes before I tried this one- I would have really been thinking it was the wrong tea because who would guess Bergamot from Divine Cream?

This was a sample from Sil – and such a lovely one! It’s been a while since I’ve had a bagged tea. They are quite convenient aren’t they? Shame that you can’t really get good quality teas bagged for the most part, though. Ah, we’ll, just makes me appreciate the ease of it when I do get the chance.

This tea has the buttery caramel vanilla I love, accompanied by the surprise bergamot flavor. It’s a light bergamot, which is how I prefer my Earl Grey anyway, and as an Earl Grey Cream, it is quite good. I am considering getting more if only because it the ease of a good bagged Earl grey cream would be great for travelling.

I found a surprise hidden gem in my cupboard! I’m thinking it’s going to be a good week…

Flavors: Butter, Caramel, Vanilla

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 30 sec 8 OZ / 236 ML
Sil

it’s pretty expensive, but they do pop up shops and such in toronto and sometimes chapters has their tea on sale… i bought mine at a 50% off sale..

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72
drank Divine Cream by Sloane Tea Company
1908 tasting notes

Not bad – I was expecting something with a bit of a stronger caramel flavour though. The fact that the amount of tea in these pyramid sachets is a little bit skimpy might be to blame. Still it has a nice smooth feel in the mouth and I do get a bit of caramel flavour when I added some agave nectar.

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