Paris

I found this tin in my cupboard and had forgotten all about it. It was a little puck of a container that Kaliskaa had given me a while ago at one of our conventions. I loved the idea of it after reading the descriptions, so I went for it.

It turns out, the idea seemed better than the execution. I can barely taste the bergamot at all, and the vanilla reminds me of artificial orange. Like a Dreamcicle. I’m also reminded of the Adagio Zodiac Series blend, Leo. I know this sounds like blasphemy to a lot of you, but I’m just not digging this one very much. I had wanted a real Earl Grey, and this is just not really one at all…

Or maybe my sample is stale?

This one courtesy of the amazing takgoti!!

I am all mixed up today. I ate my packed lunch for breakfast, so I figured an afternoon tea is now fair game :)

The dry leaves smell fantastic!!!!

sip sip – oh WOW! Yup, this is pretty much heaven in a cup. It really does taste like Love!!! This is what the Mariage Freres Fall in Love should have tasted like if it were stronger (and in a black tea base). Baked custard and berries. I’m not getting any of the citrus. Maaaaaaybe a slight haze of it after the sip. This tea is exquisite!!! It has the Harney signature of being PERFECTLY blended. This is a must for my next Harney order (but takgoti was so kind to include enough for at least 4 more cups of Love!!!).

Rain, rain go away! It is pouring down buckets here this morning. Making my office more and more like a cave. Yuck! Thanks to the rain (stupid cane/aircast) I couldn’t stop for my usual cup and conversation at a local cafe. But thankfully I had a sachet of this in my desk.

I’m really liking the fruity flavors of this black tea and the bergamot. Oddly enough I did like bergamot much in the past. But these days I truly enjoy it in my teas (when the flavoring works). Now if the sun would just come out even for a moment!

How does this tea exist? I liken this experience to what I imagine afterlife is like, if you’ve behaved anyway. lol
It’s creamy and rich and flavourful. I even poured some off so my coworker could try it. It’s amazing.
Thanks to Jes for this sample, now I have to buy it.

Thanks so much to WillWorkForTea for sending this along! I REALLY appreciate it. This is one I’ve wanted to try. First, the color of the unsteeped leaves is very very dark. The flavor of the black tea isn’t too strong, which is good because it lets the other flavors stand out. It’s like a buttery pastry with blueberry/raspberry jam on it! So so good. Now I wish I had one, but this tea will have to do! Don’t let the ‘bergamot’ description scare you. I was worried too.. but the bergamot isn’t strong. It’s barely noticible and what is there probably enhances the pastry-like flavor. The second steep was just as tasty. There really wasn’t any flavor loss for me. I LOVE this tea and now I feel like I have to try everything from Harney & Sons! (Like I didn’t already want to…) One of my favorite teas is Hot Cinnamon Sunset from them! And these two are the only two I’ve tried, so I have work to do!

I was out pretty late last night for an Oscar party and so I’m not even going to pretend that I’m “all there” right now.

I was looking through my samples from Bonnie and I saw this, and I’m really in a no nonsense mood and there were two of these in sachets, so I decided to just make them.

One thing I love about Harney’s sachets-They’re done really well and they put a good amount of tea in the bag, and I can steep them twice, which I can’t do with a lot of sachets.
One thing I don’t love-The tags aren’t long enough AT ALL so it always falls in the cup and it’s a pain in the butt to get out.

I am always impressed with Harney’s teas. Always. I haven’t tried one yet that has disappointed me. This is no exception.

It’s fruity and smooth. I was afraid it would just be like Lady Grey from Twinning’s but it’s not at all. In fact, it’s not even an Earl Grey. It’s a fruity black tea that is so lovely and sweet.

Definitely purchasing a full size of this one, thanks Bonnie!

Sachet in mug, boiling water for 5 minutes (second steep boiling for 7 minutes), added a little milk and sugar

All those good reviews? Totally worth it. This tea is jawdroppingly good. I could snort this tea the smell is so intoxicating, and the taste is just as…..wow, I need to order a tin >_>

Anyhow, more details. It’s a fruity, citrusy, rose-y kind of thing. It’s like trying to explain FLCL to people that don’t watch anime (my fav one by the way!). It’s just this conglomeration of everything nom. BUY IT NAO

It was not long ago when I discovered a love for black tea. But the more black teas I try, the more I realize that I only really like the quality unflavored Chinese ones. I’m not sure why this is. But ah well. It has been fun. My flavored black tea experimentation will likely slow to a few select blacks. I may occasionally crave a milky black tea, but for those instances, I’m happy to stick with EGs or chai. I’m still keen on exploring the world of quality unflavored blacks though. :)

As for this tea, it is pleasant enough. Caramel and vanilla are evident from the beginning. The fruity qualities don’t really show until the cup has cooled. Nice enough with a smooth base. I wish I loved it as much as other Steepsters seem to. :)

Thank you, AlphaKitty, for the sample!

Thank you Travelling Tea Box A! I do know who included this but i know by the time i get around to reviewing all of the items I snuck out of it, i’ll have forgotten it. So consistency and all you know :)

I was totally distracted while making this. I lost about an hour of my work day this morning when the mailman showed up early which meant i HAAAAD to open my travelling tea box, sort through it, package up teas i took from it etc… you know how it is. PLus i received 2-3 other packages in the mail and i was like it’s CHRISTMAS!!!!!! well as close to it as I’ll get since this year won’t be really christmassy with all our friends being out of town and no time to visit either set of our parents.

Anyway…i’m rambling. This tea… i made while trying to grab lunch and takle 13 different things at work. i distractedly picked up the team to sip and WOAH! HELLO! It was like WOMAN! PAY ATTENTION TO ME! YOU WANTED ME! NOW LISTEN UP!

I’m not sure what I was expecting with this tea. I think I pretty much had decided i was either going to hate it or love it. The jury is still out on how i feel about bergamot. Well folks, i love this. Its not a tea i’d drink all the time, but it IS a tea i will thoroughly enjoy and likely replenish when I run out. It’s vanilla..and citrus and smooth. It isn’t a dessert tea but it’s not quite a MORNING tea if you know what i mean. I feel like i should be drinking this with a scone. of some sort. it’s fruity..and yet not.

I will have to give this even more attention when I have less urgent things from work. All in all, a giid first step in my travelling tea box!

I think my taste buds are a bit off today. While I really enjoyed this flavor, I kept getting an after taste of hotdogs. Obviously something weird is going on with me. Unless somebody is secretly putting hotdogs in my tea stash :( I also accidentally let this steep a minute longer than I had intended and I could taste some bitterness coming out, especially as it cooled. However, as I said, the tea itself was great.

Can you believe this is my first time EVER sipping on this tea? Special thanks to Kristin for the opportunity to do so!!!

Bagged Version

It smells like fruit and chocolate. It brews a darker-brown with a reddish-orange hue. It’s not an overly strong black tea base – probably a lighter medium in strength. The citrus is juicy and helps cut the bitter-tart of the currants. The currants are then more pleasant in this pairing because of it. The chocolate is subtle and I can pick up on that flavor more on the end of the sip and on to the aftertaste. It does seem to contribute a smoothness to it as well!

YAY! I’m so happy I finally got to try this! Thanks Kristin!!!

SMILES on this one!

My first Harney & Sons.

A little back story, Uniquity dropped a hint that I could pick up H&S at my local Chapters! So I ran there as soon as I could, and the only kind was Paris. It sounded intriguing (although I’m dieing to try Florence), so I picked up a canister and never looked back.

Wow. It is delicious. I feel grown up! It’s delicate but has body, a little fruity and a little bergamot. I’m also in love, along with all of you!

Now tomorrow in my birthday and I have to choose what tea to have! Will it be Paris or Buttered Rum? A very difficult decision. Well, not really. I’ll have both, but which to have first?!

Please please tea-gods, may you bless me with more Harney & Sons one day.. one day..

i got home from my trip with this on my doorstep.
the day is overcast and i am in the bluest of moods.
this tea will comfort.

The light lemony scent is present in the dry leaves, but when brewed is sweet and nutty.
The liquor is a beautiful amber. I was also thrilled to discover that what I thought was just a twig in my leaves was two leaves and a bud, which opened on steeping.

The taste is sweet and nutty like the scent, with a bright edge from the bergamot but no noticeable citrus flavor.

I added about 1.5 tsp white sugar and a healthy splash of milk (I’m a heathen I know). To me, most flavored black are better with sugar and cream/milk. I find them comforting.

Overall impression – I bought a tin of this tea because I enjoyed it so much at the tea house. I’m not disappointed!

First things first, Merry Christmas Steepsterverse! I hope you all enjoyed your yesterdays and/or your this mornings and will continue to be full and happy throughout the day. It’s only 2 PM and I’m already stuffed. Must be holiday times!

As it’s a day for merriment, I’ve decided to break away from my current dive into the backlogs of my tea drinking and log something that I drank this morning. I couldn’t tell you why I haven’t logged Paris before, because it’s a very good tea. I steeped it just in time for present opening, and if something can hold my attention during that madness, you know it has to be good.

I’ve never been to Paris. I would love to, and it’s on the list, but it isn’t something I can check off yet. I guess more specifically I want to go to the French countryside because I’ve heard that people are much friendlier once you get away from the city, but I don’t think I could visit France without spending at least a day or two in Paris. That being said, beyond four-odd years of school French, I have not a clue what makes this tea worthy of being dubbed “Paris.” What I can tell you is this.

It is very flavorful. There are many berry flavors floating around in it, laced with just a hint of bergamot, and this keeps the flavor very “up” and refreshing. I think of a breezy, sunny day on a grassy hill, with nothing between you and the sky while the scent of berry bushes waft coyly in your direction. It’s a wonderful image to be conjured up by a tea. But at the same time that this tea wants to float away like a cherry red balloon against an impossible blue, it’s grounded. And it’s grounded by something warm and familiar, that feels like it’s been around much longer than you have. For me, it wavers somewhere between pipe tobacco and vanilla.

All of this blends together wonderfully in my cup. The taste of the tea is there [I’d say Ceylon, but I’m still relatively new at this picking out black teas game and not too good at it] but it’s a backup singer, not a front man. It’s happy, but it’s not a crazy, ecstatic, wild kind of joy. It’s reserved, perhaps refined – curtailed in just a bit to keep your mind mellow enough to truly appreciate what it is that’s going on in the moment instead of having to look back on things once the euphoria wears off.

It’s easily one of my favorite teas from Harney & Sons, but the flavor is strong and specific enough that I can’t drink it every day. I tend to pull it out when I want something cheery and warm, like when opening up packages with my family around the tree.

Can’t comment on the brewing parameters as I didn’t make this one myself.

Tried this because I’ve been wanting to forever. I don’t have much experience with Harney teas but not because they don’t sound good – I just can’t seem to get myself organized to place an order there. I seem to remember that they don’t do free shipping, and since I’ve just swapped a bunch and gotten a Verdant and 52Teas order it will be awhile before I can put one in anyway.

The description of this one was really appealing, but when I tried it all I really got was Cream Earl Grey. Maybe with an extra hint of lemon. It wasn’t as spectacular as I was hoping, but I was concentrating more on conversation than the tea so that could be why. It was good, but nothing really stood out about the flavor.

This is absolutely one of my favorites from Harney (the other being Indian Nimbu). And judging by the sheer number of positive tasting notes on this tea, I would say that I’m not alone in my enjoyment of this tea.

I am actually drinking this in bagged (sachet) form today, as I received it as something a little extra in a card from a friend. A nice surprise, although I must admit that the sachet version is not nearly as good as the loose leaf. That being said, it is not quite as noticeably different in bagged form as other teas from Harney, the tea that immediately comes to mind is their Hot Cinnamon blend. There is still a difference it is just not quite as profound.

Since this is the bagged version, and it would appear that I have not yet rated this tea (how could this be?) I will hold off rating it numerically until I’m tasting the loose leaf. This is still delicious though, and a nice pick-me-up on this chilly afternoon.

My afternoon tea of the day…..

I had forgotten how much I like this one as it was one of my first teas from Harney. Fruity with bergamot. The tea base is very rich tasting, even moreso than Marco Polo, and rounds this out to be a full tasting tea. Lovely. I only wish the bergamot was a little lighter, so it sounds like I need to try Tower of London. That is next on my list!

Resteep at 6 minutes was also very good.

This is a sample from BoxerMama.
Actually, for a flavored tea, it’s not bad ;)

Mmmm. It’s raining this evening and that means that I can FINALLY have a cup of hot tea! I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Paris blend! Many thanks to Will Work For Tea for sending me some in a swap! The tea is sweet with just the slightest bit of astringency. I am reminded of berries with a dash of sugar. Lovely, sweet and rich.