Lady Londonderry

I am SO so happy I did not pass this on to a trade partner (sorry trade buddies) but this is all mine! This has made it to my perm stash. I have to have this always on hand.
Creamy, citrus, sweet berry, floral but not in my face floral.
And at under 14 bucks A POUND! HA this CAN be in my stash at all times!
WOOT WOOT!
Love it!

Azzrian was awesome and sent me a bit of this! Thanks so much!!!

Dry – this smelled a little citrusy but also a little like loganberries or currants.

Wet – this smelled more like an herbal-lemon.

It has a deep-rich red/brown color to it that is very vibrant and lovely.

It’s a nice medium strength SWEETER type black tea taste on the tongue. It does have a mouth-watering citrus-berry combo that is almost like a sweet and/or fruity wine-type tingle on your tongue!

Thumbs up! Thanks again Azzrian!

Thanks to the very generous Azzrian for this sample! I mentioned offhand that I forgot to add it to my order at ETS and she offered to send me some, and I am SO glad I got to try this. This tea is enchanting! Usually I can pick out individual flavors quite well, but here they all blend so perfectly you just get hints of them: berry, citrus, floral, even some honey notes. With no additions it’s a bit sweet, but a natural sweetness that seems to come from the berry flavor. The floral is so light, almost airy, and the citrus is nicely in the background and not overpowering at all. Everything here is in perfect harmony: I can see why it has so many great reviews!

Thanks to Azzrian for a sample of this tea!

Unfortunately, we had another case of flavourless tea this morning… Again, I swear I didn’t underleaf, but the result doesn’t taste like much (except there’s some astringency with this one). I really don’t know what I did wrong. Luckily, I have enough of this to try and fix my obvious mistake(s)! Putting this in the travel mug may have been mistake #1…

This one intrigued me with the promise of berries, citrus, and florals, so I asked for some in my last swap with Alphakitty and she was kind enough to send me some!

To me, the leaf looked suspisciously like a black green blend, but no one has mentioned this at all, so I thought I was probably just hallucinating something. I went ahead and brewed it boiling, and most of the leaves in the infuser appear black, though I will say there are a few greenish-tinged ones that are intriguing.

Nontheless, the resulting tea isn’t bitter or scorched like a green might be when steeped at that temp, so I guess everything is ok. This tea is super duper berry-licious. It is berry to the max. I can’t really pick out a specific berry, necessarily, but it’s definitely berry. Maybe some black currant, yeah. It’s honestly perhaps a bit too much berry for me, and I would like it if the berry might step back a bit and let someone else have a bit of the spotlight. Because there are other flavors, playing in the background. A bit of bright citrus, for sure, and a hint of florals. Not really that floral, just a bit of orchid somewhere in there. Anyway, it’s a pretty tasty tea but it’s a little too in-my-face with the flavoring and I’m not quite feeling that this morning.

Thank you Azzrian! I can see why you love this!!

This tea…I don’t know how to explain it properly, really. I highly enjoyed this tea. But there were some complications, I guess you could say. I’ll explain in my tasting note, so don’t worry.

Smell: Dry, in the bag. It had a floral aroma, with a hint of something citrus. Reading over the ingredients/tea description, it mentioned strawberry and lemon, so that makes sense. It’s a nice scent, and not too strong. Dainty, light, sweet. :-) Steeping it was about the same, though I find that steeping for most of my teas always kind of mutes the scent. It’s not bad, it’s just how it is. The color was nice, too, a dark reddish brown.

Taste: This is where I faced problems. It was REALLY GOOD! It was!! But I can’t really find the words to describe what I was tasting. One of the tea descriptors was “malty” and I don’t think I know what that tastes like yet. It also had a floral, sweet taste too it, which was nice, and that citrusy/fruity taste, but I couldn’t place the tastes. It was very yummy despite not being able to properly describe it, and I am very pleased with it. I’m glad I have enough for several cups, which also means a little bit of experimenting, but not TOO much! Oh, just because I always put how I make it: two packets of sugar in the raw. I think next time I may try a bit of cream. Don’t know though.

I also steeped this in a mug, like my other tea, but it turned out better because this mug held about 8 oz, and I properly filled it. So no diluting for today! :-)

I came home for lunch today to find a wonderful box of goodies from Azzrian waiting for me! Everything looked so wonderful! I sniffed this pouch and said, “This has to be first!” I brewed it in my JoeMo to take back to work with me after lunch.

The leaves had a beautiful aroma. The wet leaves were bigger than I expected, and the brewed tea smelled just heavenly. I had a coworker sniff the tea when I went back, and I swear her eyes rolled back a little. “Berries!” was her exclamation.

This was seriously delicious tea and I can’t believe the review that said it is about $14 a pound. I think some of this may need to come live at my house! Though touted as a British tea, there is something a little French in its lineage to me, the way the French excel at the art of perfuming. This is perhaps a little lighter on flavorings than some French tea. I would call it a Dammann Freres Light!
This is well worth keeping on hand. Guests will feel truly pampered when you serve it.

Delicious with no additions! The berry flavors will make this a wonderful summer tea, too.

Thanks to Alpha Kitty for this sample, which came as part of our Steepster book club trade.

Tony & I just got back from brunch, & this is a nice afternoon tea: black tea with flavors of strawberry, lemon, & some florals. What’s not to like? Although I tend to drink most of my teas unflavored, I also like variety. This is sort of a hot strawberry lemonade, & would probably be really tasty over ice in the summertime. As I usually do with flavored teas, I added some stevia. There is enough left in the sample for another cup, which I’ll have at home another day, with the addition of french vanilla coconut creamer. I think that will be the icing on the cake!

This sample came to me by way of Azzrian – thank you very much!

The dry leaves smell quite good – I smell berries!

I brewed up 8 ounces of water and poured over a teaspoon and a half of leaves. Tasting the tea liquor its just a tad bitter for me, so I end up adding a little rock sugar. It mellows out the bite a bit and brings the lemon and berry taste forward. I can see why this is a favorite of Azzrian’s. Thanks for passing a tasting along! :)

I bet this would be tasty as an iced tea!

What a wonderful tea. Very nice citrus tones. I am excited to try this over ice tomorrow. I had it hot tonight with a little extra sugar to compliment the flavors. Thanks Alphakitty for the sample on this one. I see this as an affordable staple in my cupboard.

Thank you Alphakitty! This tea smells wonderful! It has a nice citrusy, berry aroma to it. The flavor is pretty great. It has notes of orange, lemon, strawberry, currant, and a little bit of a floral flavor. The black tea base is present with malty/sweet notes. It almost reminds me of berry lemonade. But better. Because it’s tea :]
Thanks again!!

Friday night tea with my daughter and granddaughter and outside there is a new dusting of snow and a big 16 degree chill. Perfect tea weather. I made some gingerbread and lit candles before getting my tea tray ready. They chose Lady Londonderry because it just arrived in the mail and smelled wonderful. We let it steep about 4 minutes since we like our tea a bit strong with milk. Nice floral notes…like delicate candied violets. The maltiness is so slight and I did not notice any lemon or orange. Maybe next time it will show. I would have chosen a hardier tea for this weather but this does take you to another time and place where songbirds and flowers are present. My perfect evening was topped off with a new classical piano composition by my 16 year old granddaughter who composes choral, and orchestral music also. I cried…so beautiful.

This tea is a deeply satisfying black tea, but hums all throughout with the taste of gummy bears. So prevalent, I just had to choose it for my BookTasting tea companion to Douglas Adams’s “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe.” Talk about a fun experience!

Please find my complete BookTasting review of this entertaining match-up on my website.