Honey Nut Biscotti

Good Morning!

My grandsons, Ian (11) and Donovan (9) spent the night and this morning they asked for TEA before anything else! (Well trained boys!) (Mom is away with 15 year old daughter Kiah learning about sustainable living. The 6 other kids have been farmed out to friends because dad has to work weekends.)
When I picked the boys up from school yesterday,we went straight to Happy Lucky’s for tea. This is expected. Tea with Grandma!

This review will be a combined one. We are writing it together.

All the boys have their own gonfu tea sets, and a collection of tea’s at home. (They admit to drinking tea more in Winter than Summer)

The mood this morning was snowboarding competition (Red Bull Snow Scrapers) on a sports channel. (not a bad backdrop for drinking tea)

Both boys were in PJ’s on the couch with trays and mugs. I fixed a pot of this tea and poured some for each boy and myself. We smelled the wet leaves.
Ian said the leaves smelled like Chai.
Donovan agreed the leaves smelled like spice.

We all began drinking tea which was lightly sweetened, and then we added a little cream. (This was the request of the boys)

I thought the tea tasted a little perfumy. This might have been the honey flakes…not sure. I had noticed big flakes of pistachio nuts in the dry leaf. At first I thought the tea tasted odd but later, I began to like the taste. The flavors reminded me of Italian and Middle Eastern Pastries.

Ian and Donovan said they liked the tea. Ian said the tea tasted like coffee and Chai (flowery sweet). (Who’s coffee had he been dipping into at home?)
Donovan said the tea tasted like the Assam Strong Malt tea that I let him taste at Happy Lucky’s yesterday (good call).

True ‘drinkability’ test? The boys finished the pot of tea!

I’m not sure why, but this was a quirky tea. A different taste.
If you get a chance to try this tea, don’t judge too quickly.
Think about Baklava with pistachio’s and honey that you find in authentic Middle Eastern shops. This tea tastes more like those than Biscotti I think.

Gotta go watch TV with the boys!

Grazie, Azzrian!

I went outside to check my mail but nothing was there, so now I am of course cold. This was in the nearest container full of tea, and the first one I grabbed that I’ve yet to try, so it was clearly a winner.

I was thinking it would be very almond, but the predominant smell is most definitely honey. I get the same taste from this tea as Bonnie: it actually reminds me far more of baklava than it does of biscotti. This has quite the bold base tea! It’s malty, but it blends so nicely with the sweet honey. The nuttiness adds a good bit of savory flavor to the cup, but I am still enjoying it a lot.

I don’t think it’s something I will buy for myself, but I will have no problem making myself a cup with the rest of the sample. It will definitely come in handy on a much colder day, preferably in the morning!

Funny story I have to tell now that I remember. I bought a couple tins of tea when I was with CupofTree and I left them in the paper bag and stuffed them in my suitcase yesterday morning. So what happens in the security line? They cannot see into the tins or whatever so a TSA agent has to take them out to inspect. I’m like seriously, they are tea. So of course they checked out as not being drugs but tea, and at least the agent was a super nice lady. In Atlanta they are SO mean which I thought was funny because on Saturday night, I was saying that the bartenders at the wedding were like genuinely touched when you thanked them. And people kept telling me it’s because people aren’t nice in Florida.
Anyway I was glad I had not purchased any oolong.

Well, I funny story with this one. I actually had this tea few days before Nicole kindly sent some to me (thank so much!) except it was called Tealux ‘Honey Pistachio Biscotti’. So it’s the same blend with different sellers and different names. I could tell right away by the name, the look of the tea, and the descriptions of the ingredients. haha. I find both blends are missing the promised pistachios! I don’t see any in the picture of the Kally, but I do see one right in the forefront of the Tealux! Maybe they float to the bottom of the bag. (Some nice pistachio blends are SpecialTeas Vienna Winter Green and Fusion’s Pistachio Lime Mate, Butiki’s Pistachio Ice Cream). So I can’t really say much more about this one that I didn’t say about the Tealux. Both are mild flavored black teas that are sweet tasting, with yummy looking almonds. I’m not sure how much it tastes like biscotti. But it’s pretty good. It has a bit of a drying mouth affect though. BOTH blends have misleading descriptions… it seems more like almonds and coconut to me rather than pistachios and biscotti. So I wonder if all of Kally’s teas are the same as Tealux’s or if they have multiple different sources? I’ve seen another almond tea that has more than a few brands with the same blend. I’ve got two of them (Teavana and American Tea Room) and I just saw another one yesterday. Who are the original blenders and why don’t THEY sell their own blends? It’s interesting!

ETA: I shook up the Tealux two ounce upside down thinking the pistachios would float to the opening where I could see them when I opened the bag. Nope. No pistachios.

Mmm. This has a definite honey taste. Not a fake honey either, but a real honey. I get no nut taste at all, though. The black tea base is very nice. I can’t tell if it is the honey or the tea base that gives it a noticeable dryness which increases as the cup cools.

Overall, though, I will say that the initial impression of the 4 Kally teas I have tried thus far is that they are some of the smoothest black teas I’ve had. I’m not sure I’ll keep this around but I will certainly enjoy it while it lasts!

Update: It does resteep decently for a second cup, though the honey is lessened a bit.

I am just finishing up a cup of this tea now. It is my first tea of the day (it is 5:30 pm!) because we had a bunch of errands to run, and I felt myself NEEDING tea about midway through those errands. I kept thinking of this tea and told myself that my patience would be rewarded by tasting a new tea.

And it definitely was rewarded. I really like this. It has a fresh baked cookie kind of taste to it. I find that the black tea base is a bit lighter than I would have expected – I thought that more Assam would have given it a stronger sense of that rich, bake-y kind of taste, but I think that the lighter base allows for the flavors of the nuts, honey, coconut and chrysanthemum to come through. I like the way the chrysanthemum highlights the honey flavor especially.

I like this tea quite a bit, and it makes me look forward to the other teas I have to try from them.

Black Tea, Pistachios, Honey, a bit florally, and a touch of sweetness!
It’s bold and burly!

The 2nd infusion is sweeter.

This is a powerful flavored black!
Creative yet true to it’s name :)

Hrm. I’m really not getting much from this tea other than a sense that it’s flavoured, and some astringency. Perhaps 4 minutes was too much? I guess I’ll have to give this one another proper shot later! This is drinkable, just… nothing really tasty/special at all.

Thanks to Azzrian for this sample!

REALLY wanted to try this one (smells DELICIOUS) but I looked it up first and noticed there was real honey in it :( Boo! I guess this is a fake tasting note because all I could do was smell it :(

Thanks Nicole for the sample! This one is really good. It’s probably my favorite of the three teas you sent me. It is sweet, the base isn’t too bitter, and it is very inviting. There is a slight hint of flavor at the beginning of the sip that’s a bit interesting/don’t know if it’s my favorite; but it’s still very nice.

I won this when Kally Tea ran their last contest! I have been not enthused by the last few flavored blacks I’ve tried, however, this was OH SO YUMMY! You can see the shaved almond slices in the tea, and it brewed into a delicious medium body black tea with a nice brisk base and definite almond flavor. I added a bit of honey to enhance the natural honey flavor and sipped on it all morning.