Rose Scented

The afternoon cuppa. Post presentation and time to relax!

I like rose scented and flavored things so I was excited to check out this sample. It is very strongly scented when you open the bag and you can see some rose petals mixed in with the tea.

It’s a blend of ceylon and keemun and brews up to be a very dark orange. woooow, this is so relaxing and nice! I love the way it smells and the tea itself is very smooth and rich. I don’t sense a lot of bitterness or astringency in here. I usually drink a lot of black teas with soymilk but it seemed such a shame to add anything to this. It is very nice to just sip on plain.

Rose is supposed to be an anti-depressant. Regardless, I think this tea is wonderful if you’re into rose. I think I liked it better than the Upton rose congou.

Sad that I did not get a whole tin of this but perhaps I will when I am ordering some other things from them. I feel like I just got back from a trip to the spa!

Many thanks to ashmanra for this tea!!!!

I read some reviews saying this was quite the rosy one, and I figured “forewarned is forearmed!” so I used half a teaspoon of Rose Scented, and half a teaspoon of China Black FOP that LadyLondonderry sent me (this is a total thank you tea friends cuppa today!!!)!

I’m really glad I did that because I am LOVING the results. The tea is beautifully sweet and rosy, but also very tea-ish. It is now perfectly suited to my tastes! I didn’t even think about sweetening it. The rose provides the perfect amount.

I am definitely getting some of this one in my next Harney order! I have a little sample packet of Harney’s Panyang Congu…the next time I make this, I’ll try a blend of that & the Rose Scented to see if they like each other. If so, I’ll get a tin of each and make my own Perfect Rose Scented Blend.

(An aside – anyone know the tea base in Rose Scented?)

YUM!

I have a ton of Harney’s samples to get through, and this is the first. I love rose teas, so I knew this one had to be on my try list to see if I need to purchase a tin. This one smells wonderful, like walking through a rose garden in full bloom. The tea tastes nice and light – not too strong of a black tea and not too heavy on the rose. It’s perfectly balanced, like almost all of Harney’s teas are. I’m really enjoying this cup this morning. Definitely will be getting a tin!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs with pink and yellow rose petals.
-Dry leaves smell like perfumey rose. Tea liquor aroma is of black tea with a hint of rose.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium orange brown color.
-Light black tea and rose flavor and finish. Light floral aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener. Milk optional.
-Excellent tea. A lightly flavored rose cup.

I enjoyed the rose Earl Grey from H&S, Sally’s Secret, quite a bit, so I was looking forward to seeing what this one was like.

In the sample packet the scent is very strongly of rose. Although I escaped an association with bath products, I can see how others might not. The ingredient list indicates that this contains rose oil, and there is a sort of volatile quality to it that makes it smell stronger than one might expect simply from fresh roses. This isn’t to say that the smell is bad or has a false note. I didn’t find it to be that way, but then I’m a really big fan of rose fragrance.

The intensity of the fragrance smooths out some with steeping and I can smell the biscuity sweetness of the tea underneath. There’s still a nice rose scent to the tea.

The rose is very, very present in the taste and I liked it quite a bit. It has been a while since I tasted the GM rose, and this is stronger, at least as far as memory serves. It’s about on a par with the degree of flavor present in the Numi Velvet Garden White Rose, only it may seem a little less because the black tea provides more of a buffer than white does.

This is a little too rosy for daily consumption, even for a rose lover like me. However, it’s an amazing flavor for an occasional dose of rose.

Ahhh, this is just lovely.
I do believe this is the Rose I have been searching for.
When you open the tin, you are transformed into a English Rose Garden.
Not much more to say, except I like it.
If you are looking for a subtle rose tea, than this is not it.
But, if you don’t like timidity, and like your rose tall and proud, then grab up a wee bit of this.

Rose is such a love/hate scent. Most people I know and indeed most companies that produce anything with rose prefer it mild, shy, ‘this is a MODERN rose’, ’it’s not old lady-ish’, ’it’s not too overpowering’. To hell with all that. I’m a rose addict and the stronger, the better. Give me a posy, nay, a garden and I’ll be in heaven. When I heard this was quite a full-on rose tea (said in hushed, ‘I warn you’ tones), my first thought was ‘AT LONG LAST. BRING IT ON.’
This lives up to my expectations, it’s wonderfully rich and unapologetic. Fresh and heady at the same time. Oh, so good. If only I could find a perfume this brave. Thank you Jackie for such a wonderful start to the new year.

Tea of the afternoon. This is like my regular rose tea, but on rosey steroids! I like it! The tea base is very good, and the rose is definitely in the forefront of this tea. It is also very present in the aroma. In the other tea blend, the rose is more of a complement to the tea base, rather than the featured flavor. I definitely have a place for both in my cupboard!

24 oz. teapot, 4 actual tsp. tea, freshly boiled water, 4 minutes, lightly sweetened.

This is the other sample of a rose black I got from JacquelineM. I was excited about trying this one since the reviews say that it is really heavily rosey, and I do love rose! When I opened the packet the smell of rose hit me hard; this tea isn’t playing around.

Upton’s Rose Congou I had yesterday was a very herbaceous rose flavor, and it shared the stage with the black tea base. The aroma of this one… I could smell it all day. Some people might call it perfumey, but to me it smells exactly like fresh, lovely rose turkish delight. My favorite!

And it tastes pretty much exactly how it smells. With some sugar I think it would taste so much like rose candy I might be convinced I was drinking it liquefied. It’s definitely a sweet rose flavor, but I wouldn’t really say the tea has any natural sweetness per se. There’s a thickness and richness that you get with certain types of florals, and I love it. This is a seriously rose scented tea, and I think it will likely be my go-to rose tea when I feel the need to indulge in tons of ROSE!

I haven’t had many rose scented teas, or floral teas for that matter. I tried this one because I have spring fever and I like the smell of roses, and I thought it sounded romantic – and also because I get the itch to try new teas! I don’t try hard enough to control it!

First, the aroma of the dry leaves is not overpoweringly rose, but it is most definitely present. When steeped, the tea has a lighter rose fragrance. It isn’t strong enough to make me feel that I am drinking bath water or eating soap! It is a light rose middle note that lingers for a moment and teases your sinuses as it wafts up.

The tea base is smooth. Very, very smooth. I drank the first two cups of this without milk or sugar and enjoyed it very much that way. I made another cup with sugar, and I think I like it best without. The rose flavor is very civilised, but I don’t know if it might be a bit too much for you, Paul, having been through a floral trauma! :)

I tried a little milk in the cup with sugar when it was about half gone. It didn’t hurt it, but didn’t do much for it, either.

The tea was served with pears and it was a nice pairing.

I am always looking for teas that taste great plain because I have two guests who DO NOT add milk or sugar to their tea. (And three who always always add milk and sugar no matter what the tea!) This will be a fun addition to the next two tea parties since we enjoy trying new things and comparing notes, and I think it is balanced enough that everyone will like it. We’ll have to see if anyone LOVES it! I am glad I bought it, and will drink it whenever I want to feel the way Marco Polo makes me feel – soothed and a little spoiled.

I cut a “Madame Marie Curie” rose from the garden to join me at table for afternoon tea today, but it was far enough away that it wasn’t lending any extra aroma to the tea!

I just received this tea today after much anticipation and it’s divine (as all of the teas I’ve tried so far from Harney are)! It’s beautifully fragrant (apparently with natural rose essential oil) and a very delicate rose flavour infuses the tea—it’s not over-powering—the rose flavour enhances the tea flavour very nicely. There is absolutely no bitterness when brewed as directed.

The dry tea has small pink rose petals mixed throughout. Looks very romantic.

The dry tea and the tea liquor both have a strong smell of rose perfume. It is very pleasant. Reminds me of a traditional english tea room/house. And also of my grandmas house.

The steeped tea tastes very strong of rose perfume. There is a very faint sweetness to the tea, the same as you get if you use real rose petals. I find the rose flavour a little overpowering for my taste. I feel like I have very fresh rosey breath after drinking this tea.

When searching this tea I noted that many of Harney’s teas can be custom to add a rose scent. I think I would like to try this blended with an Earl Grey. I am glad I only got the sample size of this.

Despite being male and fairly indifferent to flowers – a 2010 visit to the Royal Hulticultural Chelsea Flower Show stands as one of the most tedious days out in recent memory – I have always loved the paradoxically pungent and delicate, earthy and transcendental fragrance of roses. I read once that the mystical scent of rosewater or rose otto is sufficient to open the third eye of a latent clairvoyant . . . I can attest to this, having been lost in thought for several moments with no awareness of the passing of time from smelling roses, transported to gardens in France or the Home Counties, or to bazaars and mosques in 1001 Nights. Even just the merest hint of rose, and I am lost in nostalgic memories of my Granddad’s Czech & Speake cologne or my Nan’s rosewater perfume and tonics.
But I digress.

It is a particularly balmy Summer’s day here in Sydney and I am sitting with a lukewarm cup of rose-scented tea. The rose fragrance is particularly strong and is only recommended for anyone partial to rose or floral-scented teas and suits the sweltering heat. The colour of the tea is a dark saffron, and flavour of the tea-base is full-bodied with hints of honey but otherwise fairly underwhelming. I would have loved a nice, nutty Keemun taste rather than the nondescript tea on offer here.

The tea does leave a somewhat acrid, chemical acrid aftertaste which leaves my tongue somewhat numb and tingling. This was particularly noticeable with the Twinings Rose Garden tea, to the extent that I found it really unpleasant and I put it down to Twinings usual poor quality of recent years. Perhaps this aftertaste is inherent in the rose petals themselves and a necessary trade-off for the fragrance so I won’t lower the rating for this, but I will have to deduct points for the uninteresting and flavourless tea base.

I received a tin of this tea while suffering from a pretty painful migraine. I was worried that the rosiness would exacerbate my symptoms (as perfumed things tend to do) but brewed up a teapot of it anyway! It was so fragrant … my kitty sauntered across the house to inspect the new smell!

The aroma is lovely. Soft, not TOO perfumey, but considerably more sweet rosey in fragrance than Upton’s Rose Congou. The tea is medium-bodied and quite gentle, and the rose oil/petals compliment it well. Thankfully, the warmth and smoothness of it actually aided in some migraine relief (as well as the caffiene, I assume.)

As a lover of rose teas, this was quite enjoyable. I recommend it to anyone who loves perfumey rose scents & flavors, as well as a sweeter cup of tea. :)

Blech. This was one of the 3 teas I tried today in Harney Soho’s Valentine’s Day tea flight. I am not really a floral scent fan, so I was not really happy with this tea. The rose just doesn’t do it for me at all.

This tea brings back memories of the scent of my Grandmother. She was an immigrant to the US, and simply put, so steeped in the atar of roses (from the Valley of Roses her home country) that her pores simply exuded the fragrance. So how could I not cherish this exotic infusion?

The tea is not only scented, but has a forward flavor of pinkness, and is smooth as velvety petals. Such a delight!