Premium St. Valentine Tea

Dear Ms. Bonnie,
Little Terri wants you to be her Gramma! She wants to dress up in one of her fairie outfits & come have a tea party with you. I’d also like to have a tea party with you someday! We are both thankful for this sample of yummy tea.

This is a robust & amazing black tea with highly fragrant rose petals, safflowers (I was looking at the tea & thinking, "Is that saffron in there?), & some mystery fruit (who cares what it is, it’s delicious).
Little Terri was complaining that we’ve been drinking entirely too much ‘grown ups tea’ lately, & I realized that she was right, plus I still have lots of interesting samples to try. We were in the mood for something sweet, & this hit the spot! Plain it is good, sweetened it is phenomenal! It’s flowery & fancy enough for little T, & bold enough to satisfy me. It looks like I’ll be having a cleaning party tonight, as I can also verify that it pack a punch in the caffeine department.

Another Anna Karenina tea for the book club discussion. Big thank you to Terri HarpLady for sending out samples of this one!

I knew that I would love this tea the moment that I smelled it. It has a deliciously sweet aroma, florally and a little fruity. The blend itself is very pretty with its pink and yellow rose petals and vibrant orange safflower, I think Anna herself would’ve approved of this tea based on looks alone! The flavor is nice and strong, with a sweet, jam-like flavor and a finish that reminds me of a rose perfume. It leaves a taste in your mouth almost like you’ve been drinking rose perfume, but it is so very good! This is a perfect tea if you enjoy rose flavors. Although this tea is naturally sweet on its own, I experimented with adding milk and sweetener and found that it’s best with both. The milk and sweetener somehow enhance the fruit and rose flavors together very nicely without taking anything away. I adore this tea and will certainly be purchasing some from Amazon in the near future ($8.99 for 8.8 ounces – perfect!).

-Dry blend has medium size black tea leaves, pink and yellow rose petals and orange safflower. Safflower petals unfurl and float to the top during steeping.
-Dry leaves smells sweet, florally and slightly fruity. Tea liquor aroma is malty, floral and sweet.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium brown color.
-Sweet fruity jam flavor with a rose perfume finish.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Excellent tea. A perfect cup of sweet rose tea!

Another tea that has seemingly gotten lost in all the other tea. Thank you for the sample, Bonnie! I know I still have a couple more from you I haven’t tried yet so I will get to them soon too!

In the bag this smells like French candy. I love the violet ones but they are pretty expensive every time I see them. http://www.amazon.com/Anis-Flavigny-Candies-France/dp/B002WZF196

It really tastes like them too. It’s very floral, but so sweet. It’s not in your face with the floral notes, and it seems like some sweetness comes from some kind of fruit also. But I seriously cannot get over how much it tastes like that candy.

It’s pretty heavily flavored stuff, definitely not for anyone who doesn’t like rose especially. As for me, I will take it and hope I don’t buy a package of it off Amazon with next semester’s books. I got a C- in the class I thought I completely failed. While I should be pretty mad I got a C- I am not, because when you’re convinced you didn’t even pass, a C- is like an A+.

And thankfully that means I will not have to do that again in the summer ever.

First Review. VERY DIFFERENT! This is the PERFECT tea to drink when watching an old movie like Murder on the Orient Express or an English Murder Mystery! I need to redecorate my condo in chintz and add a proper tea table and Lomonosov Teapot. Why? This is an Old World floral tea…one that takes you somewhere else…to a place in time where you first thought tea belonged before you were educated to know better. Not tea bags…not there…but in old movies where there was tea service and refinement. I’m getting carried away again being a visual thinker in my right mind (Lefty). Rose petals in tea are rarely this sweet and floral. I am reminded more of very fragrant trailing roses on an arbor in the heat of the day…so concentrated. There is safflower and a citrus finish that keeps the tea bright. I have no idea what the fruit is. Possibly sour cherry? This is a popular Russian fruit flavor in tea. I went to taste my jam and think this is it since I use it in my other Czar Nikolas ll for guests (see other notes). Very nice sweetened. Adding milk is not necessary but I tried it and it’s just ok. I steeped 5 minutes. Good dessert tea. I would serve this with chocolate (dark) or a salty cheese (opposites work well together). Oh yes this is inexpensive…8.8 oz cost me $7.99 plus shipping (amazon) same with the other Czar Nikolas ll Renaissance (exporter is in Sacramento,CA with no online ordering).

Feeling nostalgic today…remembering a time most of you were not alive as yet. San Francisco in the 1950’s. You HAD to dress up to go into town. Hat and gloves even as a little girl. Grandmother wore her mink coat or stole. She had money…we didn’t but we always were clean and pressed. Anyway, there were flower vendor stalls all along Powell Street (where the Cable Cars run) and around Union Square. The favorite flowers of mine were nosegay’s of violets and baby roses or just violets. Rows and rows of nosegays. Pick one beautiful bunch out for a small price and carry it around in your gloved hand. This tea is like that sweet smelling nosegay. My grandfather (Charlie Cameron) took me dancing at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on my 13th Birthday which was grand indeed! He looked like Clark Gable! OK lock me up. Getting too syrupy!

Terri, thank you for this tea :)

It is nice to sip to this while listening to Ana Karenina (again).
After sipping, I breathe in and out and nuances i did not notice before were there! A little xylitol brings together the pleasant blend’s flavors and pushes it up to the surface.
Before the bit of sweetener, I thought this is a tea a man will like :) it is robust with a slight floweryness.
But for being robust, it does not have the strength that makes me back off from breakfast teas. This is a good tea to transition my taste buds into those and I imagine I will be liking those bolder teas in the future :)

And thanks for the sugar tip, yall! It is an interesting tea upon second glance. Im glad to have enough for more encounters with this Czar

I had this earlier but want to make a note of it before I forget: this is really good! I didn’t know if I’d be crazy about the rose, bu it was really enjoyable. I wouldn’t to drink it all the time, but it will make for a nice treat.

Thanks Terri HarpLady

Recieved a sample of this from Terri the Harp Lady about 2 weeks or so ago, I’ve made it about 3 times now and I’m loving this, not an everyday type of tea, it tastes like rose perfume and medium to light black tea with a hint of some kind of fruit that reminded me of a sour berry. Today being Valentines day I made a tea bag with the loose leaves and a coffee filter before leaving the house and brewed a cup of this in my travel mug before starting my shift at work [I work retail and I find no matter what I’m doing I always get really thirsty at work so I carry my travel mug with me.
Delicious and it didn’t get nasty when it got cold like some teas.

Anyway, it’s too ‘perfumey’ when you drink it straight I find, though it might help if I was a bit more particular on steep times and temperature, of course if I do feel like I’ve ‘burnt’ or oversteeped a tea I do adjust. I take mine with two spoonfuls of sugar to even out the perfume taste and it works well.
steeped for 4 minutes in boiling water. anyway a delicious blend of loose tea and flowers.
Drink with love,
Audrie Rose

Czar Nikolas II also comes in a Silver package: Black Currant, Strawberry (Nostalgia)
this one is my favorite flavor from this line and I think it is the house tea at Russian Tea Time on Adams street here in Chicago

Blue package: Safflower, Marigolds, Blue Mallow Blossoms (Renaissance)

black pkg and a green pkg which both taste like Earl Grey

One of my favourites! It’s difficult to get ahold of in the UK, though maybe I’m not trying hard enough. Before my friend sent me a 100-teabag pack of this, I would conserve the few teabags she sent me preciously, since it’s so delicious…

It’s not exactly overly sweet, since like with most rose teas it loses its fragrance if the water’s too hot, but the safflower and fruit are an amazing touch; it’s just floral enough to soften the rose flavour. I drink it black; it’s too floral to take milk, I think. It’s also lovely and delicate to drink that way, even if the flavour can get strong. I love it <3

One of my favorites. Has a floral quality that goes perfect with a little half and half and a dash of honey. Smells rich and wholesome, with an old-world aromatic quality.

My parents bought this for me a while ago. Don’t know where they got it. It’s very floral, and smells wonderful. I’m not typically a fan of floral smelling/tasting teas, but this one was pretty good.