Renaissance

Many thanks to Bonnie for sending this my way forever ago!

I left the leaves in for a little too long because (like always) I got sidetracked, only this time I didn’t hear the buzzer go off. It didn’t really do this tea justice. As a result, it got kind of soapy and there’ s a lot of uncomfortable astringency. I’m not going to put a number rating on this one because I don’t want it to be judged on my bad habits. However, I am going to try again because this tea sounds like it could be pretty tasty! Thank you Bonnie for the sample!

Picked this up with the Princess Noori at the Russian market today. Smells very strongly of fruit. Not sure what fruit, but definitely fruit.

Tasting it, I get berry. Reminds me of Lady Londonderry so maybe strawberry. It’s a good tea. Light and fruity. As it cools, it becomes more tart. I think I do want to try it like Bonnie did, with a spoon of cherry jam. I sure have enough to share if anyone wants any.

Picture of leaves: http://s1165.photobucket.com/user/dagony/media/Tea%20Stash/IMG_1989_zps2f512a55.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

Another one from Bonnie. I was a little perplexed when I smelled the dry leaf, as it smelled strongly of what I perceived to be strawberry. It reminded me of the strawberry zabaglione I had earlier today. The taste was also similar, just without the creamy aspect and with a slight floral flavor. I would say this one is similar, but a little more refined and less dessert-like.

This just arrived! Joy! Wanted to try this after reading about how it was served in the Russian tea room in San Francisco in the old days just the way I was served by Fr. John at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Saratoga,CA. Instead of Russian Caravan smokey tea he used a more floral Russian Tea and put in a huge glob of sour cherry Jam and a spoon. You sip, get some jam from the spoon and sip some more. So good. I made me the same cuppa tea, sour cherry jam and all. AHHHHH!
Now the tea:
I did pour a sample first. My Steep time was 5 minutes and the liquor was med dark gold. The scent from first opening the huge bag of tea (8.8 oz for $8.99 a bargain!) was so different and floral but not something that I could say I knew what it was. Big scent though! Marigold…blue mallow…safflower…a bit buttery on the end. I let it cool but it does not taste good cold. Maybe sweet would be ok. This is fine without any sweetening hot and I’ll try without jam and with milk later. Love it this time.

Thanks to Bonnie for a sample of this. The dry leaf has a very very pungent smell. Smelled like a strawberry perfume. I am usually not a fan of flavored black teas, but this was a little different. The taste to me has a berry like flavor. It surprised me.:)

this is one of my favorites, to me this is sort of unusual flavor