The London Tea Room

sipdown (280) Another thanks to terri that i’m getting to try. I know i’m bringing home at least 3 teas this weekend from my parents place so i need to get down at least another 3 after this so that i feel like i’m making progress in getting to 200 lol.

This is a neat blend because it’s got a variety of teas in it. it’s a bit astringent but not overly so.

First cup of the day, believe it or not. I’m kind of getting a late start on things today :)
Sweet, earthy, smokey, tasty.

Hey Steepsterites!
It’s been a long day. I had to go over to the University for my Harp Student’s end of the semester jury. If you’d like to hear the piece she played, “Clair de Lune sur l’etang du Parc”, by Marcel Tournier, here’s a youtube of someone doing it (not my student)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWvwWHCF11Y
I made a 16 oz go cup of this blend, which is actually pretty nice. There’s just enough Keemun in there to give it a sweet, earthy & slightly smokey leaning.

First cup of the day!
This is a blend of Silver Needle, Darjeeling, & Kenyan teas put together by the London Tea Room (based here in St. Louis) in commemoration of the engagement of Prince William & Kate.

I’m not as into blends as I once was, prefering to enjoy each variety on it’s own merits, but this is a pleasant combo.

Another sipdown today! I also get to pack away a bit of my matcha for a friend so new flavours get to be opened soon! yay! I like this one a bunch. I think the vanilla helps to temper the black currant flavour and make it a bit more enjoyable that the harney and sons version. thanks again for this one terri!

ahhh, good morning!
Bills pd last night? “Check”
Yoga done this morning? “Check”
Bold & earthy cup of tea to start my day? “Check!”

It’s been awhile since I had a cup of this, & I love it! This tea doesn’t have the frills of a Yunnan, not quite as in your face as an Assam, but I feel that it is more like the A than the Y.
It really almost reminds me of blackberries, in a way. There is a fruitiness to it, a richness. Otherwise, I feel that it’s fairly balanced all the way across the board, from low to high. A very nice deep cup that is fulfilling, yet doesn’t scream it’s name.

thank you terriharplady I think i prefer this black currant version to the Harney’s version that i’ve had. This one has a little stronger flavour, the addition of a bit of vanilla and it smells wonderful! the black base doesn’t overwhelm the black currant flavour and there’s no astringency here to ruin anything. I have a bit left so i might try cold brewing this to see what that does to this one :)

Sipdown!
I drank this plain, & it’s not a very appealing looking tea dry, but actually, it was nice. (sorry for the lame reviews…lol)

It’s been awhile since I had a cup of this one. It’s an earthy but brightly citrus cup of yum!

Two of my adult harp students are here practicing together for a duet performance they will be giving this summer. It’s such a treat to have harp music in the background while I’m doing other things! I’m here if they have any questions, but I’m not actively ‘teaching’ at the moment. I’m also enjoying providing a succession of teas for their enjoyment, with the first one being a pot this coconut oolong, steeped in my green 16 oz dragonfly cast iron pot so it will stay hot for awhile, wit 2 little green ceramic cups. I had a cup too, of course, & it really is tasty :)

What to serve them next…

Sipdown! Had a cup of this in the morning before leaving the house. Another fine keemun shared by terri! :)

mmmm another tasty black courtesy of Terriharplady! This is a pretty enjoyable keemun. I think, as I have more of them, i’m coming to learn that i tend to prefer assams over keemuns, though i don’t find keemuns objectionable. I like the maltiness of this particular keemun. There isn’t a lot of smoke happening in this tea, which is nice as i don’t need much of that this morning. There is some though, and it adds a nice depth to this tea. Overall a pretty decent little number!

sipdown! a sil sized cup for me and a share with a friend :) Thanks terri for sending some of this my way. For an oolong? this ain’t half bad…for a peach tea, there’s a bit of an after taste here that is sitting funny in my mouth this morning. I’m not sure if that has anything to do with my sinuses being messed up, but it’s not my favourite taste. That being said though, it’s not a bad taste, just an after taste that it’s my fav. Overall this is a pretty decent tea. I like that the peach has a bit of sour too it, as if they’re slightly on the unripe side. But not enough to detract from the peach taste. thanks again terri!

sipdown!

this tea confuses me. It’s smokey but is also full of berry? There’s something in the blend as well that is making me sneeze but i couldn’t tell you what. Overall this is a pretty tasty blend though i think i prefer my smoke without the berry flavour. I do like the texture of this smoke however. I also don’t really grasp the vanilla that is hiding in here somewhere. However, this was an excellent large sil mug full of fun! Thanks terri!

oh god. i don’t know what’s worse…the oolong or the coconut. DEAR GOD NO! :) sooo sample from terri, and even though i was pretty sure that was going to be my reaction, i figured what the heck, i’ll give it a try. Especially after quite enjoying the coconut mango tea from last night.

the rest of this is going to kittenna whether she wants it or not…because i said so. Only enough for a cup but it needs a good home.

So sorry terri…lol at least i tried! not rating this since it really is because of my preferences and NOT because this is a terrible cup of tea.

This tea combines the features of a smokey ‘caravan’ type tea with the bergamot of Earl Grey. It’s suppose to be a tribute to Winston Churchill, who was not a tea drinker. It was really a big ‘risk’ for me to purchase some of this, but I had to give it a try. It’s ok, but not something I will re-order… :p

SIPDOWN! thanks agin for sharing this one with me terri. I taste more of the bergamot today which is making for a not as nice taste at the end of my sip, but nothing i can’t live with :) Happy yo try this one – i think the london tea room might need to be a place to order from in the future given how i’ve been feeling about a lot of their teas that terri has sent.

Sipdown! I think i may need to pick some of this up, though it might be a toss up between this one and the kenyan blend that terri sent me Either way this is a really nice every day sort of black tea. Not too much going on, but no astringency and a just a smooth blend for those everyday moments.

I was very curious about this tea as it is the favorite of my sister’s main squeeze. He seems like an intelligent fellow, so I imagined it would be pretty good. I was not disappointed when I smelled the raw product. My nose informed me immediately that this was the good stuff.

It smelled less wonderful after a three minute steep, less perfume-y and more…I don’t know…tea-ey? A vague hint of lemon or bergamot. That should have made it MORE perfume-y but somehow didn’t . Somewhere between the package and the hot water it seemed to have lost it’s feminine qualities and taken on a more masculine note. There was something in the way of an underlying scent, a kind of smokiness, that gave it a more manly quality. This made its appeal to the other gender understandable.

I found myself not really disliking the tea. I was just a little disappointed though, as the topnote left me expecting something more floral and perfume-y. The same thing happened when I tried Lapsang Saochang. These smoky teas, they sneak up on you.

Of course, that’s what I get when I’m trying unknown samples. When you have no labels from which to read ingredients and descriptions and are too lazy to go online and look them up for yourself, you’re bound to run into a few surprises.

This is from a sample box from my big sis, Terri Harplady. Our tastes are not always the same, but appear to coincide concerning this one. Like her, I’ll drink this when I’m in the mood and probably share it with my man. I suspect he will like it better. It’s ok, just not my favorite cup of tea.

Sipdown!
The first time I ever drank this tea it freaked me out a little, it was too intense. It was like a slap in the face of citrus & bergamot.
It was also Tony’s favorite tea. He took it personally that I didn’t like it, LOL. He can be like that sometimes, but he got over it.
So did I. This tea is very bright & was initially very acidic to me, but it doesn’t seem so bad now. Although it isn’t a favorite, I can drink it, & with sweetening it tastes very juicy with the flavor of orange, & a little bergamot. Unsweet, it tastes more like grapefruit, & the aroma of the dry leaf is more grapefruity than orangy, IMO.
If you can get past the fruitiness to the teabase, it’s actually kind of nice too, with a bready flavor.

Oh… this is really good. And apparently has bergamot…but not in the way that i dislike bergamot. It’s more like the bergamot that’s in the upton tea that i enjoy.

i’m exausted today. No idea why i came in today. should have worked from home. Looks like my other half made enough of a stink at work today that they’ve given him the time off again..so back to planning mode lol. eesh!

edit: oh yeah..the tea? delicious berry taste, though not so much with the vaniilla. I do like how this one blends together though it’s berry without being overly sweet or too generically fruity.

Backlogs incoming since it’s been a busy day. I’m exausted and want to go to bed but i just got off the phone with china and i really want to track my teas before i forget. :)

I have devised a plan for getting through all the teas that terri sent me by putting any random tea from her straight blacks into my morning rotation. The other tea can be whatever. This morning it was this one. Let me tell you, i’m pretty sure i really enjoyed this one as a basic breakfast tea that is a really nice even keel sort of morning tea. There is none of that morning tea acidic taste that makes me go ick.

I have one more small cup of this left that i’ll have when i have more time to sit and focus. This was soooo many hours ago. but it was good.

So…this is another part of my secret formula I’m working on (But NO MATTER WHAT, I’m not gonna tell you what ELSE is in it!!!).

My initial response to Lapsang Souchong was not favorable.
“People drink this sh*^?”
I had purchased some to use in a chicken recipe, “Tea-Brined Five Spice Roast Chicken”, from Mindy Fox’s cookbook, “A Bird in the Oven & then Some”. You brine the whole chicken in a mix or orange, lapsang, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, ginger…etc. Then you air dry it, then you bake. What results is a delicious beautifully lacquered looking bird with a subtle smokey spiced exotic flavor. The carcass makes great soup stock too!

So naturally I drank a cup…& it was strange. Interestingly enough, my love of Keemun has led me to realize that I do enjoy a bit of smoke, & I’ve discovered that if you add stevia, smokey flavors can (sometimes) taste like caramel.

My younger sister, Liz, goes by MsWhatsit on steepster. She’s not as out going as I am, so most of you probably don’t know her, but she’s a fun & wonderful writer, so I’ve cut & pasted her review of this Lapsang into my review. I hope you enjoy it!
MsWhatsit:
Some teas evoke images of pagodas and elegant ceremonies. That’s the sort of thing I was imagining at the first whiff of this in the package. I’m still not sure what happened. Perhaps I’m a lousy judge of character where teas are concerned. Or maybe this tea, which rode in with a sample package from Harplady (Thanks Sis!), picked up some of the more refined fragrances from those surrounding it. Or maybe, as when a rugged man tidies himself up like a gentleman to win over the ladies, it just gave me the wrong impression. No matter. The minute the hot water touched it, this teas true nature emerged. The scent did NOT evoke images of pretty ceremonies in little rice paper lined tea rooms at all. No, my imagination told me I was camping out with Genghis Khan and his rowdy entourage. It tastes like…well, tea, but with an interesting smokiness. I have read reviews of smoky teas with some skepticism. I wouldn’t have expected to like a smokey tea but found it surprisingly pleasing. Maybe it has something to do with my love of barbeque. Perhaps it’s the yen I’ve had for seasonal flavors. Pumpkin spices aren’t the only thing you smell in Autumn, it is also the season for smoky bonfires and firing up the wood stove. What better than a smoky blend such as this one to celebrate this time of year? The tea itself is a subtly fragrant presence with no bitterness, just a light familiar background flavor. As a girl with some Southern influences, I thought of barbeque and of sweet tea. I thought, ‘this would make the perfect sweet tea for an event without barbeque.’ Near the end of my cup, I tried it sweet and it was good. Then I added lemon. That was a little strange. I reflected that my husband (resident hillbilly and sweet tea expert) is right, lemon isn’t necessary or helpful. During the unprecedented second steeping I did consider going with the barbeque theme and adding a bit of cider vinegar and molasses. I’ve always been a fan of switchel and suspect this would make a good base. Perhaps when I try this a a cold brew, I will. But that second steeping was as good as the first and I had it all by itself savoring it’s uniqueness. I think I’ve found my new favorite autumn tea.

Pleasant, creamy coconut flavor! Sorry, I can’t really think of anything else to say right now!