Ilse Wouters Send Message

Tried it again, so many months later, when mornings are colder and a Christmas type blend is more appreciated. Still not too eager about this blend, too much cinnamon according to me…cinnamon dominates too easily other fragrances according to me. Important to have this tea brew for a very short time if you don´t want to have a too spicy result.

I have a small tin of this tea I hadn´t looked at for a long time, but today I decided to give it another try. Still very fragrant nose, still a fading away fragrance when steeping, but I liked it better than when I logged it last time. Maybe I even noticed the orange blossom today (very subtle) as well. I was skyping when having the tea and so, it cooled down quite a bit, but the drink didn´t turn bitter and kept its aroma, which I consider a positive thing.

A nice full-bodied black tea. I didn´t know this tea, so I bought it as much for the container (will be reused for some loose tea without any doubt) as for the tea bags. Complex taste, a bit coffee-like, which I prefer to drink later on during the day. It doesn´t turn too bitter when steeping for a longer time, so ideal when you – like me – sometimes forget you´ve made yourself a cuppa.

In the morning I like a nice cup of tea quickly made, so using tea bags is perfect. This supermarket brand does the job, and at a very competitive price. Further more, it doesn´t turn bitter that easily when having it steeping too long.

I finished these tea bags I had for a while already. Not too big a fan of green tea, but this is surely the other opposite, of a near tasteless brew, that gives you the same amount of apple flavour as of pear as of green tea…making it a hot drink that even tea haters can have without any problem.

As I am “living” in a British hotel for a while (in order to find our own place soon, I hope), I just couldn´t continue trying to enjoy the tea bags of PG Tips provided, so I discovered a Whittard of Chelsea tea stand in the shopping centre nearby and opted for a pack of Russian Caravan teabags. I know it could be a lot better, but in a hotel room, using the water boiler and cups provided, teabags are just plain practical. This tea can be drunk all day, has a slight smokey feel to it, but is never headed plain bitterness…that´ll do nicely on hotel, as far as I can tell. I´ll try to check out the loose tea variant at home pretty soon.

Still had a bit left to make the last batches of iced tea for this year, and it´s a good choice : a good green tea base with banana, or rather green banana=plantain I think (no sweet aroma here). The resulting tea is very aromatic, and lacks the (artificial) sweetness of a lot of fruity green teas, and when drunk cold it is very refreshing. Originally I had picked the tea for its fragrances. According the pack the recommended steeping time is 2 minutes but I never had a problem letting it steep for a lot longer.

I bought this tea in Madrid in a newly opened tea shop. They get it from a German importer , but I don´t have any more details of its origen. When I smelled the selection of black teas they sell, I inmediately liked this one, for it being different, quite strongly aromatic with a smokey hint to it. Once steeped, this smokey side is still clearly present. The tea has a reddish colour, is strong in taste but without the bitterness of most black teas, almost floral (which it isn´t, fruity it says on the “menu” of the tea shop, but I don´t really agree). One of the better teas I´ve tried recently.

Picked this almost automatically the last couple of days in the afternoon…nothing special, but at the same time it´s easy going, the weather being bad outside and you want to get something hot while getting on with all the other work. And if somebody calls or you need to go to another room for a moment, the tea won´t be ruined. I´m not sure I want to buy more of this when the tin ´ll be empty…wait and see.

Getting to the end of Summer and also at the bottom of the pack of Jardin Vert tea, and it´s been nice, really nice iced tea. I desperately need to clean out the teas I still have to see whether there are others which can be used for iced tea with a similar result…or just wait until next Summer, and see what´s to be found (and approved) in the tea shops. There seem to pop up quite a lot of them in Madrid these days, and some have an impressive collection of green teas, so I might opt for this 2nd way around. Any recommendations are welcome, of course.