Hmmm, this tastes mediocre this morning.
The East India Company
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Took some wise advice and lightened up considerably on the leaf and the steep time—just a couple of minutes—and this one is much better now.
I still can’t pick out any individual fruit/flower/spice flavors, it just tastes “purple,” but now it’s a clean grapey purple instead of bitter, muddy purple.
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Introductory cup of a sample I’ll eventually review at www.itsallabouttheleaf.com, so I won’t steal my own thunder, but I can’t help but declare I’ve finally found a white tea with some meat on its bones.
Review’s up—this is one of those teas you’re not quite sure how to describe. It left me neither revitalised, sensuous, nor romantic as advertised by the supplier; just a little puzzled. Still have a bit left, I’m going to keep lightening up the leaf and steep time until something happens.
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It kills me not to be able to say anything nice about a tea in a review: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2712/tea-review-the-east-india-tea-company-apple-and-cinnamon-tea/
I threw the rest out. Wouldn’t wish the leftovers on my worst enemy.
It has been a long time since my last review, but I am finally back in the country and yearning to try a new tea and share my experience with all of you! For this first review, we have “Cannon Ball” by The East India Company. While I would love to tell you exactly what this tea is, I am not quite sure. Their website lists it as a green tea, and the description suggests it is a green tea, yet the label on the container specifically says “It is a lightly fermented oolong tea.”
Well….okay then! This tea basically looks like an oversized version of gunpowder green tea, thus the naming fits, cleverly. The smell of the dry leaves is faintly reminiscent of that smokiness present in gunpowder green tea. Yet the slight floral taste brings to mind…shockingly…light oolongs. This tea becomes more and more mysterious, and I grow more and more curious!
Unsure as to the water temperature, I opt to use 1 cup of water prepared for green tea (to be on the safe side), coupled with 1 teaspoon of leaves. What works for gunpowder greens and oolongs should work for this too, right?
Three minutes of steep time, says the packaging. I can do that! (My time overseas has not taken from my tea-making skills.) The resulting brew is a pale yellow-green and smells like…hmmm…very light, floral oolong. Not overly floral, as one might encounter in the tasting of a jasmine oolong. At the same time, it carries the gunpowder green tea flavor, but with a little extra, as though one took a pouchong and mixed it with a gunpowder. This is definitely different, in a pleasant way. Overall, however, the brew seems a bit weak, and perhaps a longer steep time is required.
I love the smokiness of gunpowder green tea, and the fact that such a quality carried over in a new way to this tea definitely caught my attention. While this is an interesting and decent tea, it might be better to order a small sample to try initially. I thought I would love this tea, yet I now can only see myself drinking it occasionally, not every day. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate it a 73/100.
Just enough for a snow-day pot of this one. Fortuitously, I planned a day off for today anyway to stay home and keep shoveling…paperwork, not precipitation.
Just a good, basic, can’t-ruin-it Ceylon—even with a sloppy microwave reheat after it sat cold most of the morning.
Just a quick log without much comment; will be writing this one up later for www.itsallabouttheleaf.com, but it’s going to take a while to figure it out. BEI guards their ingredient lists like the queen’s jewels! “Sensuous blossoms and spices” may be dramatic, but not specific :)
I had 4 cups of this to start my day! LOVE and MISS this one already! SIPDOWN – see previous notes :)
Regretfully reaching the end of my sample. This has a lovely clean, clear, coppery taste that (I’m not going to deliberately mess it up for experimental purposes, but…) I suspect you can’t oversteep. Not a hint of bitterness potential.
Black tea, berry, spice, everything nice! See previous notes…almost out of this one…sigh…
I waxed poetic about this elsewhere, so I’ll make this comment concise. Straight-up, no nonsense quality Ceylon—a cup with clarity that’s just so good it doesn’t need to call attention to itself with flavorings or other bells and whistles.
Hoping for the same sort of clarity this morning. Many words to write before I sleep. Deadlines are no longer looming; we are two weeks post-loom.
Had 2 cups this morning…really like this
See previous notes
This is a lovely quality black tea I reviewed for www.itsallabouttheleaf.com, so I’ll save detailed comments for later. Suffice it to say that, since East India Company was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I to bring her swag and goodies and has a reputation to maintain, it’s royally good.
In the meantime, I believe I’ll add the East India fine foods store in London to my fantasy bucket list. (See all the treats at http://www.theeastindiacompanyfinefood.com.) I’ll take the Queen Elizabeth 1st Empire Trunk. A mere 3,500 pounds.
Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.
This is a good one. It is rather bold! I tossed out my first brewing of this tea, because I had used too much leaf – the smaller cut of the leaves makes for an incredibly strong tea, and when too much leaf is used, the tea becomes too strong and even a little bitter. But I remeasured, using a little less leaf this time, and I’m quite enjoying this cuppa.
The flavor is rich and satisfying. It has a citrus-y tone to it that is sweet and tangy. There are hints of spice to it as well, but not spicy spice. It is more of a sweet, exotic kind of spice taste.
A very enjoyable, revitalizing brew!
I had to add this tea to Steepster! The East India Company has a wonderful history of teas. This gunpowder tea is beautiful in the tin, rolled into tiny bullets if you will! Once steeped, they immediately unfurl into nearly perfect, whole leaves. Of course, none of this affects the taste all that much, but it’s part of the experience of a ‘gunpowder’ tea… ;)
The tea is both fresh and earthy. Not bitter at all in comparison to many other green teas I’ve tried. It’s a bit of a treasure to me so I like to reinfuse it a few times – it stands up quite well to this.
All in all this tea will appeal to those who enjoy a bit of history with their cup of tea. Enjoy!
Sipping on this now…previously reviewed here…
http://sororiteasisters.com/2011/03/29/kama-sutra-revitalising-tea-from-the-east-india-company/
YUM!!!
I’m going to have a lot to say about this tea so I think I am just going to save it for my FULL Review over at SororiTEA Sister for posting at 6pm est tonight. I will say as a teaser…with a history that this company has and a tea like this – it’s GENIUS!
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