Rose Scented

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.

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 decided to mix this one with lapsang souchong and cold brew. I don’t know where, but I read about cold brewing lapsang, maybe I dreamed it. Hot, I normally mix lapsang with rose buds to blunt the smokey flavour a bit. So I thought I would mix these two, why not? It should be awesome.

Well, not so awesome. I definitely do not like lapsang cold. The rose scented tea was super chemical tasting, most likely due to the flavouring. Both of these teas are much better hot.

Oh well, at least I tried and learned a lesson – just cuz you dream a tea blend, doesn’t mean it is going to be delicious in real life. Mmmmmm, delicious tea dreams!

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.

Friday. Thank the maker, its Friday. This has been a dreadful week, only way it could possibly worse is if something goes wrong today, and I’m hoping that it goes very smoothly indeed.
A lovely tea to start the day. This is not the week for teas I do not care about at all. This is time for proper tea. Proper cuppa!
I’m nearly done with this, and I’ll miss it when its gone, though it wont be an instand reorder, to be sure.

Tea #29 from the Here’s Hoping TTB

I find that I’ve become rather picky about rose teas as of late, many of them leave me feel like I’ve steeped potpourri in water and tried to drink it, when what I really want is something much more subtle. This tea falls somewhere in between what I’m looking for and what I refuse to drink. I think the scent of the tea is nice, but flavor-wise it does remind me a of perfume. I think I would have enjoyed this more had I been in the mood for rose tea and had I not just had a cup of elderberry tea that also was heavily rose flavored.

I’m not going to rate this one until it crosses my path a second time. There was only enough leaf for one cup so this tea won’t be continuing on.

This is a lovely, generous sample from Hesper June. Right off the bat, it smells wonderful! The tea looks lovely too, with beautiful rose petals nestled in among the tea leaves. It smells like burying your nose in a magnificent summer rose. Yum!

The tea brews up to a lovely aroma, too. The taste of rose is not overpowering and it blends nicely with the base. This is the perfect tea to start off June with. After all, roses are the flower of June birthdays. Mine will be coming up soon, I’m excited! Hopefully the new year of life brings good things.

Hahaha, this tea has me happy and spinning off in all sorts of directions! If you enjoy rose teas, absolutely try this one out. It is delicious! Thank you so much, Hesper! I would not have tried it if you hadn’t sent it along. :)

Aww, this is the last of the Rose Scented I have. Today is pretty awful and boring and annoying, but tea, you are awesome and I will miss you.

That reminds me, I saw The Grand Budapest Hotel with Shmiracles last weekend, and it was a great movie I can’t wait to see again. But we decided there was one flaw, in that there was not nearly enough 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.

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.