Czar Nikolas II Premium Russian Tea Tea by Czar Nikolas II

Ewa 6 tasting notes

I am, I freely admit, a creature of habit. I like to start my day off with a nice strong cup of black tea. Usually this would be Earl Gray, but, ever since I found the European Import store in town, I have alternated between Earl Gray and Czar Nikolas II, or Cesarz Mikolaj, as we call it at home. I love this tea for how lightly flavored it is (it could almost pass for just a straight black tea), and for the fact that the package refuses to divulge what the flavor IS, with the ingredients saying simply: “tea, spices.” That is the kind of passive aggressive contrariness I can really get behind.

It also brews up dark. Really dark. Probably since, being in the Russian style, it is meant for use in a samovar, where a little of it is meant to go a long way. Technically, I suppose that means I’m Doing It Wrong, and I DO cut it with some straight black tea later on in the day, but I like my tea sludge-tastic in the morning. Wakes me right up.

2010-03-22 13:04:06 -0400

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4 min 0 sec

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(Extended) Weekend Backlog One Sentence Logs: The Next Generation!

I basically default to the czar when I can’t decide on what to drink, he rarely fails me (except for when he does).

2010-06-01 21:26:58 -0400

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Mmmm Czar Nikolas is so delicious. It’s the perfect tea for when I’m in the mood for tea but can’t figure out which one, because it can’t quite decide whether it’s flavored or not. It is all trying to fake you out. “Oooh, strong tea base! Wait, I sense light spices! But the tea base is so noticeable! but but, other flavors!”

2010-05-28 20:20:41 -0400

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Went to the czar for comfort after my sad experience with Irish Breakfast this morning. The czar, being royalty, was unsympathetic, but tasty.

2010-05-24 18:21:21 -0400

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Tried this this morning as a comparison with the St. Isaac’s blend. Now St. Isaac, Wikipedia tells me, was the patron saint of Peter the Great and Czar Nikolas II was the last czar of Russia. So…no connection there! Well I mean, Nikolas was Peter’s descendant so there’s that connection. But what does that have to do with the tea? Absolutely nothing.

Nikolas DOES follow the St. Isaac’s blend in the way that the tea base is the dominant flavor with the spices in the tea rounding out the taste. It’s more fruity than floral, though. It’s also a much lighter tea – even the first steep was lighter both in color and in terms of the strength of flavor. The second steep barely had any flavor at all. I need to try and remember to use more leaves in the future if I’m gonna drink it in the morning, although this lightness makes it good for the late afternoon, I think.

2010-05-02 18:53:50 -0400

Boiling

5 min 0 sec

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Woke up EXTREMELY late today and didn’t even have time to do a irish/scottish breakfast blend quick and dirty ingenuitea steep. Just tossed some of this into a teabag and ran out the door.
Ugh.
This tea was not meant for teabags, or perhaps the brand that I’m using is particularly paper-tasty, because the taste was just not what I have come to expect from Nick II. In fact, it had barely any flavor at all, and that’s with leaving the tea bag in! So sad. Sigh, stupid ingenuitea spoiling me for teabags forever.

2010-04-02 19:59:12 -0400

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8 min or more

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