White Christmas

What an adorable tin! I’m just going by the picture of course, as I am lucky enough to try this in sample form thanks to Kristin’s kindness. Steepster’s been on a Harney’s kick for a while, eh? I like that, because there’s a shop with a big Harney’s selection near my house.

I totally brutalized this poor tea, because I wasn’t paying attention and failed to note that it’s a white tea. So it got boiling water. I did realize my error three minutes into steeping it, and took out the leaves, though. I really like this one, but I’m going to have to give it another shot with the proper water temp because the oversteeped leaves are overshadowing the delicious flavors.

This tea smells like white chocolate! It’s also a pretty blend with big white chamomile blossoms. The taste is delicate but interesting with subtle nutty notes.

This tea has grown on me. I did not take to it the first time I tried it, but I now find it a pleasant, soothing cup—watched my water temperature and steep time carefully. Nice to sip while watching the snowstorm that hit us yesterday!

A fantastic tea! I was not let down! The almond is a fantastic, smoothing flavor, holding together quite a list of other tastes. White tea, vanilla, cardamom and a bit of chamomile makes this a warm, soothing morning or evening tea!

Looking for a Christmas tea, H&S “Holiday Tea” let me down last year because it was too strong and spicy. This White Christmas is everything “Holiday Tea” was not! A delightful winter tea!

I don’t like peppermint tea but this is the best one I’ve had. It’s mild and not in your face peppermint and works to blend with the other flavors. Pleasant to drink and calming. Also smells delicious. I wasn’t able to taste any nutty flavors though.

Disappointing. Smells lovely in the tin, but it brewed up to taste weakly of chamomile, with the other spices pulling a disappearing act. I steeped for 4 minutes at 180 F. It does have a dark coloration, but the flavor is sadly absent. I’m not a huge fan of white teas, but I usually find them tolerable. I don’t think I like chamomile by itself either, so I wish the vanilla or almond promised by the scent had come out a bit!

I’d just got home and desperately needed a cuppa, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to sample next, so in the end I chose this tea based solely on the strong white chocolate scent of the dry sachet .. Plonked it into a mug, and without thinking filled it up with boiling water, actually pouring boiling into my room-temp mug brings it down to 90°C but the point is I scorched it, then suddenly clicked ‘Oh No, White!!’ .. I quickly emptied half the cup (more than I’d intended), and re-filled with tap water, only that took the temp way down to 65°C ..

- See if I’d had my regular morning brew I wouldn’t be so absent minded come 10:30am, but eh, I’m searching for variety in my mornings and thus had tried something earlier that didn’t ‘do it’ for me ..

Anyhoo, so this left me with a tea that smells somewhat Vanilla (though extremely weak compared to H&S’s Vanilla Comoro), but tastes only of Bitter Chamomile – blech .. And it’s getting worse as it cools down so I’m not even going to finish it :(

Considering I had just the one sachet to sample and obviously abused it with heat I don’t think it’s fair to give it a numerical rating .. In saying that though, I don’t think I’d personally purchase more even if it had brewed correct – I’m simply not a fan of Chamomile, and none of the other flavours seemed to be present ..

In short: I failed the tea – the tea did not fail me

White Christmas on TV and White Christmas Tea in my mug.

I am not sure about this tea. I brewed it for about 5 min, but it still tasted very weak. The almond flavoring throws me off a bit as well. I think I like the idea of this tea more than I like the taste of this tea.

Tastes much better as it cools down. Another mild tea. Vanilla notes and creamy texture.

I know St Patty’s day is a little late for Christmas tea but I wanted something I hadn’t had in a while. This is a pleasant tea. It aroma when first brewed is pleasantly vanilla with more of the almond and camomile scents coming later. My water was just below boiling and I forgot about it for about 10 min but it wasn’t bitter. This isn’t a strongly flavored tea or very complex. I added some sugar and it was a nice cup of tea but nothing super great.

Gorgeous tea! So light and flavorful and brews well in the silk pyramid sachets it comes in. Definitely a favorite!

It’s been a while since I drank this. I didn’t remember it having much flavour but this time I over-steeped it and it’s a tad bitter. I’m not a huge fan of white teas but this is a nice blend and smells wonderful!

I had a cup of this while playing Catan earlier today. This tea smells amazing. It’s tasty, too, but I could see myself brewing a cup just to make the office smell nice. Loved it.