Queen Catherine

Sample coming from Meeka, which I got yesterday at our Steepster meet!

Was just 3 of us this time, but it was fun! In theory – hey, stash busting! But result was coming home with more tea. Yep.

Anyways, Queen Catherine. I saw a suggested steeping time on HS’ site of 212F for 4 to 5. I tasted at around 3.5 and was like “wahh, this is more than enough!” It hit the bitter side, little stronger than what I’d like, and I didn’t feel like adding any milk. However, after the cup cooling while I was dealing with emails, it smoothed out. Queen C is malty, bold and the bitterness reminds me of really strong/pure dark chocolate

Back to dealing with emails. Since I had no internet Friday and was busy all weekend I’m super backed up.

A blend of three Chinese black teas: Keemun, Yunnan, and Panyang Congou. A great afternoon blend.

Thank you very much to ASHMANRA who sent me this tea. It’s a fantastic blend of three Chinese teas and they work together as if they were in a classically choreographed ballet. The “players” seem to include some Keemun and some Yunnan, I think, although I don’t know. There are tell-tale traces of flower and spice and chocolate plus a little bit of smoke (not enough smoke to scare you away, I promise).

All in all, a very solid and strong morning blend that I’d be happy to wake up to every day. It’s got a great dance of melismatic flavors subtly bowing to each other. You might want to give this a try if you are in The Simple Life’s DAWN detox.

Morning tea time and I’m eager to solve the mystery of this tea. Harness’s reviewed their tea and wrote, “A blend of three Chinese black teas: Keemun, Yunnan, and Panyang Congou. A great afternoon blend.”. It’s interesting because I don’t normally associate what I’m tasting with any of these teas. Well, mostly, anyway. So, what am I tasting?

First and foremost, and I think mostly because I’m so sensitive to it is the smokiness that stands out to me. Next is the deep maltiness that dries my mouth a tad. There’s also a thicker taste to it, which I’m thinking is probably a honey like flavor. I am picking up on slightly astringic notes. It’s not too prevalent, though. The finish is smooth and flavored more of raisin. I don’t taste any floral notes. All in all, an excellent morning tea.

The leaves are dark and crumbly. The fragrance was unexpected. My initial thought was raisin bread. As I tried to dissect that further, I realized it was malty, yeasty and had notes of fig.

After steeping, the fragrance simplifies. The flavor is malty, slightly sweet and had a high level of salinity. I’m not getting much of the smokiness that has been mentioned quite a bit with this tea. I can see how this tea would take very well to lemon or light cream and sugar. It has a bit of a weak finish. However, as the cup cools, it develops more body and character.

Overall, it’s not a bad tea but it’s also not at the top of my list.

A big thank-you to JacquelineM for allowing me to have breakfast with the queen!

I easily recognized the Keemun lending a tiny whiff of smoke and reminding me of Harney’s excellent all-Keemun English Breakfast. I picked up on the Yunnan too, adding a touch of peaty warmth and roundness. But I confess I had to resort to a tasting note from the Harney folks to find out what else was in here: Panyang Congou! When I took a sip without milk, that made sense to me — this blend has that slightly honeyed taste I associate with Panyang Congou.

All in all, an excellent choice for breakfast. I’ll bet it would make me just as happy at any other time of day, too!

This is another tea from the lovely JacquelineM! Thanks again!

This tea was one that I was a bit afraid to try. I am just beginning to appreciate smoky notes in tea, but I am always worried that the next smoky tea will be the one with too much smoke going on. This tea is strong, slightly smoked, and has a smooth dark cocoa aftertaste that lingers after the sip is long gone. This tea helped me get a lot of work done today – Catherine does not allow you to sit around and wallow about being tired. She demands that you get over it and get to work – which is exactly what I needed today.

I really do like and perhaps am growing to even love this tea. Queen Catherine will definitely stay on my shopping list!

Smooth, sweet, and smokey. Nice breakfast tea.

This was a tea I just had to try based on name alone. A tea named after a Portuguese woman, a Lisbon neighbour so to speak, the woman responsible for some very cute unicorns (with lions) on occasional bits of the city (I got a weakness for those unicorns). And she liked her tea, so I do have a big fondness for her.

The fondness extends to the tea. This is such a chinese black tea, and that by my book is a very good thing and just my kind of tea. It reminds me a bit of Twinings´s Prince of Wales, the same sort of chestnutty taste, hint of smoke. But for proper taste note, must brew it a few more times and skip the milk. A very nice lady, this queen of England.

As is the case for so many of us, I have to thank QUILTGUPPY for the chance to try this.
I love rich, full-bodied black tea. This blend is so smooth, yet it seems to have a little extra up it’s sleeve. You can tell that flavor is there, it just isn’t in your face.
I may try a little milk or cream with this just for effect, but it stands well on it’s own.
It is a beautiful golden elixir when steeped.

A keeper for sure!

Hope all the mothers out there had a great weekend!

So, we traveled to see my parents this past weekend but they had a surprise for me-they took me on a short trip to a mom and pop tea shop they recently discovered. There are zero teashops anywhere near where I live, so getting to go to one is kinda a big deal.

The shop is in an historic building built before the Civil War. It had an unusual but not unpleasant aroma inside-like a mélange of spices that I smell when I go into the health food store-more about the aroma later.

Anyhow, the shop is all Republic of Tea, Stash, and Harney and Sons. RoT was in tins only and Stash was just bags. Harney was the big attraction since I have never tried any of their teas before and the only tea sold in bulk. Armed with notes from Steepster reviews, I began checking out the tea. This is just a shop-no food or drinks are served, but they brewed a cup of tea for my parents the last time they visited. Today (Mother’s Day), it was just pop there and he said no, they don’t offer samples. Fortunately, he sells tea in amounts as small as one ounce and the prices are about the same as Harney’s web site-so it’s no big deal if I don’t like any one tea. Disappointment right off the bat as they don’t carry Golden Monkey. They had most of the others I was interested in. The teas were in 1 or 2 pound zip-locked foil-lined sacks which were then placed inside giant Harney tea tins. I was at least able to smell the teas before purchasing. I’m not convinced the owner was that passionate about tea-he knew enough to suggest Lapsang if I liked smoky teas, but he had never actually brewed a cup for himself. He also didn’t have any First Flush Darjeelings. I think maybe a financial planner recommended the tea shop as a business for them to run when they retired. Still, I was comfortable enough with my own knowledge and the collected wisdom of Steepsterites to buy 7 teas.

First up-Queen Catherine tea. All dark and a few medium brown leaves. Maybe one or two golden tips. I wish Harney’s wasn’t so mysterioso about what is in their blends, but I did catch a whiff of what I think is Fujian black in the dry and brewed leaf. I also thought I smelled a bit of malty Assam in the dry leaf-that should not be possible as this is supposed to be all Chinese teas. Maybe it’s a Yunnan black. This is smooth and lively. I taste a bit of chocolate. Body is medium-full. Maybe a touch tannic in the aftertaste. This is very enjoyable. Maybe I can come up with better descriptions after a second cup. I could definitely drink this as a breakfast tea-probably always cupped plain, though.

I am tired so this first tasting won’t be as detailed as my other first tastings, but I love the Queen. Slightly smokey with an undertone of chocolate. This would make a very nice morning tea and I can’t wait to get home so I can have another pot of this. It has to be my favorite out of the Harney & Sons tea samples Ashley gave me. Yummy!

Deliously smooth, a bit creamy (in the non-traditional sense) and a touch smokey. I enjoyed this quite a bit. I almost felt upright and refined. I only have a sample of this and believe it may end up on the grocery list.

Cteresa was so kind to send me a sample of this tea. It wouldn’t have been my choice as I generally only drink (or rather drank) black flavoured teas, but as she suggested it and I wanted to step a bit out of my box, I agreed.

I’m not sure that was an altogether happy choice :-)

This really is a far lovelier tea than I would have expected based on it’s discription. It is smooth, sweet and malty and has hints of chocolate and a very slight smokiness. I think this was my first (conscious) taste of a chinese black tea (blend) and it tasted like more.

So why aren’t I happy? Well I just have one tsp of sample left and after that I’ll have to do without. I’ve only seen two places where I can order this tea, that’s at the US based Harney website or the Dutch importer. From the US website I can order a single tin, but shipping costs are some $ 34,- (about 5x the tea itself). The Dutch importer is prepared to send the tea free of shipping charge, but it can only deliver the tea in 1 kg packages… That’s a bit much considering that I like to drink a variety of different teas.

So now I know this really affordable black blend staple and I’ll have to do without…. On the upside, it has put me on the path to explore more straight black chinese teas :-). Presently I’m happily awaiting the arrival or my ‘little black tea adventure’ from tea-adventure.com (which I just ordered yesterday, so won’t be arriving for another fortnight).

BTW: how do you guys make bold typing?.

I love this tea every time I drink it! Sweet malt with a touch of smoke. What’s not to love?

I usually brew blacks for 3 minutes, so I ignored the instructions that said 4-5. FOLLOW THEM DIRECTIONS. This is a really nice tea, but the flavor at three minutes was a whisper compared to a longer steep. Delish.

PS. Do not attempt tasting notes right after eating guacamole ’n onions.

This could be love. I tried Queen Catherine after reading the many wonderful reviews about it here and at other sites. When a tea (or any object) is so loved I’m almost afraid to try it because I doubt there is any way for it to live up to all the hype. The Queen, however, rules. This tea is strong but not overbearing. There are slight notes of chocolate and coffee (maybe?) and a smokey note at the finish that I love. Such a lovely tea. I look forward to spending many more moments with the Queen.

Thanks to JacquelineM for letting me try this tea!

So I’ve been looking forward to this tea in the mail for quite a while now, and it’s finally here! Brew it up, pour it out, here it goes:

This is a tea with muscle! The mouthfeel on this is extraordinary, it’s is one of the smoothest teas I’ve encountered. It gets spicy in the back of the throat too when you swallow! This would wake me up in the morning, and then some. Guess I’m ordering some more!

Good cup of tea but nothing particularly unique or interesting about it. Flavors did come out when cooler but nothing grand. Overall a good tea that I’d drink again but not something I was particularly fond of.

This is my first tea review! I’ve realized my love of tea in the past few years and have been trying all sorts of different brands and teas, so this site seems like a good way to organize my thoughts and favorites.
So anyways! I ordered several samples from Harney and this one definitely stands out. I like to add a bit of brown sugar. Could also hold up well with a splash of milk or cream. It’s smooth and malty, yet bright and cheery. It truly makes me feel like a proper queen – very complex, yet still approachable and comforting. I love the flowery notes I’m picking up on; that’s probably the most interesting part about Queen Catherine that brings me back. It’s very intriguing! One of my favorite teas I’ve ever tried! Will definitely be ordering more once my sample runs out.
Oh! Now that it’s cooled I can really taste a smokiness, and I really like it. This would probably be great iced, too. Such an interesting tea.