St Petersburg

I AM SUCH A SPOILED SPOILED SPOILED PERSON, I’M JUST SAYING! flails

Had to get that out of my system. :p

Also from the Kusmi sampler pack we have this one, which has citrus and caramel. Funny sort of combination. Not one I would have been able to come up with on my own.

Totally caught up in the being spoiled and in having strawberries with milk for dessert, I forgot to pay attention to leaf smell and predictably to steeping time. So I don’t know if this post will be entirely accurate.

It does smell like some sort of citrus flavoured caramel. It’s kind of weird and kind of natural at the same time. The two smells merge quite well, the citrus taking some of the heaviness out of the caramel.

Tastewise, there’s definitely some oversteep damage here. There’s a bitterness to the swallow that I’m sure is not supposed to be there. A bit like a mix of soap and overcooked bergamot.

So I’m not going to give it any points yet. I want to try it properly first, but given the aroma, I’m feeling pretty hopeful about this one.

Thank you whatshesaid (i swear i almost wrote whatshername again) lol This one was part of our swaps and i’m SUPER glad to get to try it before i had to make a purchase. I’m not quite how i feel about this one yet. I may need to try it cold brewed first. The bergamot and I do not get along. at all. But this is a strange tea. It smells a little like florence from harney and sons…but then it tastes a little like caramel with a splash of fruitiness. I’m going to have to play with this one a little more. I don’t hate it, but i’m not sure how i feel about it yet. heh

Yaaaaay my teas showed up. I wanted to try this one the most so I had to make an entire pot of it first!

[Sidenote: Does anyone want to do a quick check of a couple informal reports for me? I ended up with a partner who was too good to actually do a peer review for me considering she only uploaded one of her reports instead of two. They’re both just over a page long so if you’re someone who has to regularly write memos, esp. trouble/investigative reports, you would be REALLY helpful unlike this girl.]

So yeah I made a pot of tea expecting to have two things to edit and I only had one. I’m trying really hard to give her the benefit of the doubt but in class she’s like, oh I’ll have it there in a couple hours! And nope.

I love this one! I’m not really picking up on caramel at all, but the berry flavors are nice, along with the slightly floral flavor. Maybe that’s supposed to be the bergamot? It’s really not coming off as citrus for me.

I took the water off the stove before it boiled so maybe I will let it actually boil and see if that coaxes out a bit more, maybe steep it a bit longer. I like how it is right now though. It’s like a smooth berry Earl Grey.

08/01/2013
i love my 5 russian tea sampler pack i got from kusmi!
the tins are lovely. each smells so potent and decadent. and the russian theme adds a bit of romantic stoicism to each sip.
it’s a literary cup!
my boyfriend declared that the tea was ‘so smooth!’ on first sip, and he didn’t even know what kind i gave him. he could just tell that kusmi was different from the others i’d been brewing for him. and i think that says something.
i don’t get that heavy of a citrus flavor, but it is there. definitely. it adds to the dryness overall.

24/01/2013
has anyone made a spreadsheet for their tea?
if so, what kind of info did you keep in it?
am i over doing it?
i mean, steepster has all the info anyways kinda right, so is this really necessary?
and i could just keep a list of the special steep times for the exception teas?
idk
my sister’s friend said i need TEAHAB.

28/01/2013
we all just wanna drink our tea down to a manageable amount don’t we?

many of us have decided to try to not buy more tea in 2013 until we drink what we have and make room for the new purchases. i’m no exception. i also have 2 drawers of tea in my kitchen (*see ref a & b) and a 3 rd that i call ‘the-tea-i-shouldn’t-have-bought’ drawer because i have no proper place to put it. it’s the drawer where i put my new orders when they arrive, as a holding place until i have an empty tin or something available for storing them in.

well yesterday i freed up 3 tins and this morning i just finished this tea, St. Petersburg, as well.
goodbye St. Petersburg. you are a healthy stable cup and i will see you again i’m sure.
and i will also use your tin for years to come.

a.) http://instagram.com/p/Uh6QRIoc-a/
b.) http://instagram.com/p/Uh6GZyIc-N/

I have always wanted to love Kusmi tea – the tins! So pretty, and stackeable (a really important attribute for residents of my tea corner). But whenever before I have had Kusmi tea, I have always been underwhelmed. It´s not totally fair to judge a tea by how it´s prepared on cafés and teashops, so I have always meant to give a fair trial to Kusmi tea. And this is it, got 50 grams of St Petersburg (and such a pretty pretty bag they gave me!), brewed it semi-carefully ( tap water, attention to temperature, and medium attention to time) and well here goes.

I don´t really like it. It smells interesting, very interesting, caramel and bergamot and fruity, very intense. Brewed, I get fruit and caramel and interestingly the bergamot is not overpowering. But rather than a symphony the flavours are all like an instrument tuning, a lot of flavour and it seems to be clashing somehow. And I I do not like the base tea, must retest again, it came up bitter. I will keep retesting, got nearly 50 grams to play with, but maybe I can not brew this up any better than those cafés. Meh.

This one called out to me this morning when I was trying to decide what tea to have. The dry leaves smell lightly fruity, like a fruity currant aroma. There is also a hint of sweet bergamot and caramel. The tea in the cup has a black tea and bergamot aroma. There is a malty flavor with a slightly sweet fruity finish. There is a strong citrus aftertaste that is just a little too lemony for me. I like this tea, but I don’t think it will become a favorite of mine. It’s a nice version of a light Earl Grey, but fruitier and sweeter. Thank you, whatshesaid, for this sample!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs.
-Dry leaves smell lightly fruity and of sweet bergamot and caramel. Tea liquor aroma is of black tea and bergamot.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium orange brown color.
-Malty flavor with a slightly sweet and fruity finish. Strong lemony citrus aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. Malty flavor with a hint of fruity and citrusy sweetness. Main flavor is sweet lemon.

Sample from ShayneBear! This one is like an Earl Grey with caramel syrup. I actually quite like it. In fact, I might order a “London Fog, no vanilla, with caramel drizzle” at Sbux one of these days.

Sweetened a bit, with a dollop of soy creamer. Pretty much how I take all my black teas. The tea hasn’t gone bitter, although there is some astringency coming through. I’m pretty impressed with this bagged tea! I’m definitely keeping Kusmi Tea on my “to order” list!

Edit: Second steep for 4 minutes. I’m surprised that there’s so much flavour left. It’s not as strong as the first cup, but it’s definitely close. And that’s even after eating a little smoked salmon.. :)

Well, how to say that in English…the word BOF in French is exactly the expression of my feeling about this tea.
I cannot say I like it but cannot say the inverse.
I recognize some qualities but I am very disapointed by the difference between the smell of dry leaf and what I get in my cup.
Maybe too much caramel vs red fruits for me.

I was really excited to try this one! Kusmi’s blends all sound really unique and yummy. :) (I really wanted to get their Russians or Essentials samplers, but both are out of stock, and I’m impatient, so I bought this and Prince Vladimir, since these are the ones I wanted to try the most. :P)

The leaves smell reeeeally yummy. :) I definitely smell the bergamot, but the caramel also comes through really well. The vanilla and fruit are there too, but to a lesser degree.

Brewed, I smell black tea with a hint of caramel. Mmm.

Drinking it, I definitely taste the fruit. It’s nice! It’s not too overpowering. And I definitely taste the caramel, too. It brings some creaminess to the tea. It’s really smooth, anyway, but it just makes it even yummier. :) It did get a liiittle bit strong this time, though, so I’ll have to experiment for next time. :P But it’s great for this morning! :)

So I work Friday nights, every week, for 4 hours. Just me, my manager, and a yoga teacher. So we decided to start something new. Tea parties!
Yep, last night we brought in some of our favs, a teapot and some bubble teacups. And drank tea all night :) Ah yes. So I swapped some teas with her and came home with this Kusmi blend. I’ve been so excited to try Kusmi!

Ooh I’m enjoying it! On first scent it smelled like a fancy Earl Grey but despite my un-fondness of Earl Grey this one’s yummy. It’s not overwhelmingly bergamot-y.

And she gave me the rest of her tin of this – so a pretty tin and a yummy tea! I’m so lucky! Good day :)

Update February 22/13: Having this one this morning before my day begins. This is my first cup of black tea in a while. Yum! But that’s my last cup of this one, does that mean sipdown? Now I just need to find some Prince Vladimir.

My second at-work tea bag experiment of the day. This one also came as a sample with a Kusmi order.

In the bag, the tea smells pretty yummy. I can smell the caramel, but it isn’t overwhelming, and there is also a fruit smell, so that the main impression is of caramel apple, or caramel dipped berries.

The tea smells delightful. I can smell the vanilla as well as the caramel as well as the fruit.

The taste is smooth, and really interesting. There’s a lot going on, but it manages not to be confusingly busy. The flavors blend nicely. In fact, it’s not so easy to pick out individual flavors once you’ve progressed to the tasting point. Though if I concentrate, I get all the same things I smelled. I got vanilla, then caramel, then fruit. The aftertaste is a mild, sweet tea with berries.

I have a tin of this in loose leaf form, and I expect it can only taste better. Something to look forward to!

Oh, Monday. I really didn’t want to see your face this morning. Hopefully a new black tea will perk me up a bit. All the Kusmi bergamot blends have been on my list of things I wanted to try for quite a while now, but I still haven’t gotten around to going to the Kusmi store in NYC to buy a sample pack. I was very excited when I saw this surprise sample in my recent swap with Infusin_Susan! Thanks!! This one is interesting because I’ve tried what are basically several of the components of this tea—Kusmi’s Caramel and their Red Fruits—and I love my bergamot/red fruits blend tea from Argentina.

From the steeped tea I get primarily the scent of a red fruits black tea and perhaps a hint of vanilla. There’s a brightness that might be the bergamot poking through, but it’s not a major player in the aroma. In the sip the flavors come one after another… I feel like I get the bergamot first in the sip, bright and citrusy, then a rich red fruits blend, then a vanilla/caramel flavor that blooms at the end of the sip. They all mix together at the end and leave me with quite a nice flavor. I taste more of the fruits than the vanilla/caramel in this, but the latter do round out the flavor and make it fuller and richer. This tea doesn’t knock my socks off but I do really enjoy it, and it confirms the quality of Kusmi’s blends.

Kusmi sampler 2/5 St. Petersburg
With caramel, red fruit and bergamot I am enjoying this quite a lot this morning. It is more mellow and less perfumey, citrusy than the Prince Vladimir of yesterday. Caramel gives it a slightly sweet note. Yes, there is berry here but very subtle. Again, lots of bergamot is not really my favorite thing but the blend here is really quite nice… mmm. I could get used to this! Really quite a nice way to wake up…

And it’s another tasty and straightforward Kusmi tea!

The tea smells like mixed berries (strawberries and raspberries mostly) covered in caramel sauce. And you know, it pretty much tastes like that too. It’s a rich, decedent tea with a smooth tea taste throughout, a very strong caramel tail (probably easily identified because I’ve had Kusmi’s caramel tea, not sure if I would have picked it out otherwise) and a refreshing berry whoosh after the sip. It’s dessert-like but in a heavy, rich cheesecake sort of way not a light, fluffy cupcake sort of way.

I add a little sugar half way down my cup and it seem to bring the bergamot out a little, the caramel out a lot and hide the berry a bit but it also made it an over-the-top sweet – like a heavy cheesecake covered in frosting. A bit much for me even if all the tastes were good (and they were). Overall, I prefer it unsweetened because it doesn’t overwhelm but if you’ve got a big sweet tooth, throw a little sugar into this puppy!

As seems to be typical for Kusmi, this is smooth tea with no nuances and, while I didn’t know how the flavors would combine, it tastes really nummy. I don’t think this will become my favorite tea ever or anything but I can see it having a steady spot on my pantry shelf.

The second steep (4:30) is a little more berry, a little less caramel and overall not quite as thick/rich/heavy. But still good!

This one courtesy of thequietlife!

Taken with a teaspoon of sugar and splash of half and half.

This tea has a little bit of everything I love in a tea: berry, bergamot, caramel! I am sitting quietly and picking out each delightful flavor. They come in that order – a burst of berries, leading into the citrus, and you end with a faint caramel warmth. The only thing keeping my tea rating out of the 90s is that I would like a little more of a tea taste. Perhaps my next cup should be taken without milk.

Thanks Sil for this one!

I have been wanting to try Kusmi for a long time. Glad to have had the chance to try this one. Before I double checked the description of this tea, I smelled the dry tea. It smelled like vanilla and cherries. Then I smelled the brewed tea and it smelled like a generic Ceylon breakfast tea. So my first thought was that there was some scent contamination. Then I read the description and thought, well I was right on the first smell. As the tea cooled, the brewed tea began to smell more of caramel, vanilla and cherries. After seeing the suggested brew temp of 195F, I think I might have used just too hot water, and that is why initially there wasn’t much smell. Happy it ended up working out in the end though.

The brewed tea tastes of vanilla and cherries. As it cools more and more, it has a thick, creamy texture. There is a very faint, sweet, citrousy type flavour, like orange campino candies. But I am not getting too much bergamot. This would definitely make a great after meal tea. It keeps getting better and better as it cools.

Smooth and easily recognized caramel flavor, complemented/sophisticated by the pitch-perfect level of bergamot, which is subtle. I’d prefer more depth of flavor, but it is a nice, easily drinkable tea. Astringent on the finish. Thanks to Crystal for tossing this into the swap!

Pretty tasty – fruit and caramel, yes – but I think I liked Prince Vladimir better. This reminds me of something I’ve had before, but I’m not being able to place it. Blue moon, maybe? Except that it really doesn’t have the apple notes, hmm.

It is very nice, and sweet enough to drink plain, but would probably benefit from a dash of sugar. I’ll try that next time, since Kusmi considerately puts 2 of each tea into the sampler!

Kusmi’s St Petersburg reminds me on some sips of a monks blend with its mix of vanilla, from the caramel, and red fruit, but as I drink further on you get a more dominant tang and a hint of floral from the bergamot.

The caramel is buttery and creamy with a hint of vanilla and I can see why people love Kusmi’s Caramel tea. Later on in the cup, I smell the red fruit more than I taste it. There are hints of cherry and currant and blackberry.

The base is quiet and unassuming, it is quite smoooth and sweet but it doesn’t seem to have a great deal of complexity. There is a touch of bitterness that adds a bit of depth to the tea but otherwise is fairly thin. The flavour of this tea is fairly subtle it is not strongly sweet or creamy.

The second and third steeps are more bergamot and red fruit, with the caramel fading and the bergamot leaving a tingling on the tongue and it tastes at times slightly metallic.

The kusmi tins are certainly useful and fairly beautiful and the tea comes wrapped in folded plastic inside with a nice presentation.

This is a pleasant tea that makes a nice afternoon tea especially for those who may appreciate a lighter bergamot earl grey with deeper fruit tones. I think I still prefer a tea that has a stronger more flavourful base underneath it.

I paid altogether too much for a Kusmi sample set simply because it was the second time I’d run into one in a week. I’m surprised my willpower stuck with me that first time, and it certainly didn’t this time. The tins are so beautiful! Pretty packaging always gets me.

This is one I really wanted to try. It sounded delightful, even though there’s a lot going on. The tea is crisp and bright and there is that red berry flavour off the top, subtle caramel sweetness at the end, and a little citrus throughout. It feels very summery. Fitting, since a carnival suddenly set up shop and closed down a large chunk of my street with no explanation this weekend. It’s been a weird set of sounds to have in the background for the past few days. And it’s disorienting leaving your building and seeing a bouncy castle. Okay, I’ve just looked it up and I think this was Taste of Little Italy? I was certainly fooled as I saw no delicious food, only carnival games and a train ride. I should’ve walked further west.