Anastasia

I have been absent from Steepster because a large group of people descended upon my home, these people were always needing to be fed, whining about how the shower they took was cold and always wanting some article of clothing washed or their specific dietary needs being met.

In other words, my family was here.
They also pried in my cupboards and were constantly asking me why I was hoarding so much tea. (long, agonizing sigh inserted here)
But, now here I sit, in a house that is too quiet, both sad and relieved at the same time.
I shared my tea with my family, especially my father who actually does drink tea and he liked almost all the teas I shared with him.
Some of my other family, spat out or wrinkled their noses or gagged at the teas I so generously shared from my “hoard”.
This tea arrived, unfortunately, while they were here.
Comments were made about how I had bought MORE tea while I clearly had too much already.
Anyway, I actually ordered loose tea, but this arrived in the their little muslin baggies.
I could have made a fuss, and returned it.
But, I have wanted to try this flavor and brand for so long now, that I just swallowed the extra expense and opened and have been quickly sneaking a cup while the company was here.
I did not want to share this tea, since I spent so much and there is only 20 little muslin baggies in the box.
But, now here I sit, in my empty house, drinking it out in the open, and once again visiting with my understanding friends on Steepster.
I have missed you all!
For some reason, I was expecting this tea to be a bit bolder, instead it is a very elegant Earl Grey.
The delicately blended citrus makes it feel worthy of a real proper tea party.
I think I was expecting this tea to blow me out of the water and totally wow me.
Instead it fells like it is gently reprimanding me and tell me to cross my ankles and sit like a lady.
I like that though.
Especially since I am missing my Mother more than I would like to admit.

I’ve been sipping away at this without even thinking! My first day of training got cancelled, nooooo, but I go tomorrow. I went to the mall anyway to confirm my suspicions that I have no idea how the mall works. I ended up in Sur La Table before I ever found a dress, so I called my mom to tell her I found a bear cookie cutter. She was like, where, and I told her, she had no idea what I said so I said it again as “on the table in French.” So then she figured it out, I was so amused. I had to stop myself from buying a tin of Dammann Freres tea in there.

I did find a dress but I was really worried I was only going to find a bear cookie cutter.

So finally home, it is tea time. I am glad I picked this one, though I am not very happy with how these little tins are covered in fannings. They are getting all over me.

I steeped this one for 3 1/2 minutes and used boiling water. No problems, surprisingly, given the ideal water temperature listed is far lower. I love how smooth these Kusmi black teas are. I’ve never enjoyed the flavor of bergamot so much.

This one is citrusy but not just from the bergamot. I can taste lemon and orange too, which gives it more of a sweetness than just bergamot. I like that the bergamot isn’t extremely heavy, which for me always leads to it reminding me of kitchen cleaner.

I love these teas so much. This one I think is my favorite so far, but out of the Russian sampler 5, I only have two left and I think Anastasia may stay …Grand Duchess of these teas.

I would have said queen but it only feels right to go with the proper title.

This year’s gift to myself was the Kusmi sample set of russian blends and this cup http://www.roykirkham.co.uk/images/images/m/577.jpg which is the same series as my favouritest ever teapot. I love how it’s standing there all full of tea and baaa-ing at me.

Anyway, this is the first one out of the sample set, chosen by ippy-dippy.

My nasal membranes are dried out today. I can’t figure out if I’m on the verge of a cold or something or not, but they definitely aren’t working, so I didn’t get much out of smelling the dry leaves. I could smell them, but not well enough to tell anything beyond ‘citrus’ and after a while it just started to feel weird in the nose.

Enough about my health, you’re not interested in that. Let’s just skip to the part where smelling the steam coming off the cup of finished tea went much much better. It’s definitely citrus-y. Primarily bergamot with the others coming in on top. Like Earl Grey With Friends.

I was expecting sweet citrus, but this isn’t really it. Again, the bergamot is in the forefront and it’s got that slightly bitter bite to it. I’m glad the other citruses are there too because without them I’m not sure I’d have liked this as much. As it is, it’s nice but not a favourite. Maybe it’ll change later. It’s been known to happen that I completely fall in love with something I initially didn’t think that much of. The much beloved Tan Yang being a good example of this.

I do wish it was sweeter though, so I tried adding some cane sugar. Didn’t work either. Oh it’s sweeter alright, but not in the right way. The sugar doesn’t really merge with the citrus flavours like I wanted it to. The tea flavour is unchanged and then the sugar sweetness is there sort of next to it.

This is an enjoyable blend, but I’ll keep looking for a favourite, I think.

After my last cup of tea I ate dinner, and I still haven’t done the weight workout. It’s because I need a caffeine boost first. Otherwise how can I possibly be expected to “just do it”! Yeah, that’s the ticket. So I’m going to have another cup of tea.

I wanted a Kusmi for some reason, and I couldn’t decide which one so I did a little bit of a GM sampler redux here and just stuck my hand in among the black teas until I got a Kusmi. This was the one that came up.

I’ve decided I really need to read War and Peace so I’m in a sort of a Russified mood, and so it was somewhat fitting that this Russian sampler one came up. The Kusmi samplers are in itty bitty tins that look like baby versions of the bigger ones. Is it just me, or does anyone else get a Fancy Feast vibe from these itty bitty cans?

In the itty bitty can, Anastasia smells flowery and citrusy in that French perfume sort of way that many of the French teas seem to have. I definitely smell lemon, and the bergamot is there but seems like it’s sitting in the back seat. I am coming to believe that when one puts lemon with bergamot, the lemon will always come to the fore. This is, in any case, my working hypothesis.

Deep mahogany liquor. A very ceylon aroma, sweet molasses smell. There’s a fruity smell but it’s not wholly citrus. It’s more of a sort of dark berry smell I’ve smelled in Ceylons before with citrus around the edges. It’s like someone rolled a berry in a primarily lemon coating that had some orange sprinkled in.

I was expecting a strong fruit flavor but I’m really not getting that at all. It does have a sort of Earl Grey feel, but only in a tangential way. The main citrus flavor is lemon, and it adds a bright little sparkle, but it isn’t overly strong. I like the lemon in this. It’s not too tart or soapy.

But there’s more to the fruit than the citrus. I get a sort of a berry flavor to the tea as well. The tea is generally smooth with a little bit of bite right at the end every few sips. It’s not really full bodied, but it gives the impression of being that way.

It’s a really interesting tea, somewhat surprising. I wasn’t really expecting to like it, but I do. I will have to taste it against the TeaFrog Earl Grey Special just for laughs when my TeaFrog order arrives.

Car wouldn’t start this morning. Ugh. And I just had it in the shop! I’m not sure how much longer I can keep pouring money into it, it’s getting quite old. Sigh. I spent this morning looking at new cars and daydreaming about how nice it would be.

I decided to go ahead and try the rest of my Kusmi teas from my sample tin set (the Russian sampler), most of which I haven’t tried even though I’ve had it for a while now. This one smells like bergamot and orange, with a floral orange blossom note. It also smells strongly of what I believe is one of the base tea, and it isn’t a pleasant smell for me.

At first I was not feeling this tea, but it’s perhaps getting better as it cools. One of the teas in the base blend really isn’t my favorite, but it’s smoothing out a bit I think. Still, I am not finding this tea to be all that tasty overall. All the flavors are there that mean that I should like it, but then I just don’t. It’s not pleasurable. I dunno, I just hope that this dislike of my Kusmi teas is temporary or doesn’t extend to all of them because I have a huge tin of Petrushka that’s not going to drink itself!

Anastasia is such a promissing name…full of mystery like the story of the last imperial Russian family

In my mug, each time, I am impressed by the amber colour of this tea…bringing me back to Russia again , St Petersbourg… The Amber room…

It’s clearly a bergamot tea but citrus notes are predominant to my opinion.

Even if bergamot + citrus is often used in a lot of tea’s composition, the mix of these two flavours makes this Kusmi tea’s original composition absolutely unforgettable and unique.

Of course, you need to be a bergamot unconditionnal lover…this is my case.

I am generally not impressed by Kusmi (except by their tins) , Anastasia is one of the rare exception and is really my favourite Kusmi’s creation.

So perfumed and so sweet in the same time.

I didn’t realize I hadn’t had this one before. I thought I had tried each of my Kusmi Russian blend teas but apparently not. Anyway, taken with no additives. Like all Kusmi teas, this is not overpoweringly flavored. There are soft citrus accents, the most noticeable one being a fresh-lemon taste that gives it a hint of tartness. There is a soft sweetness to the tea that makes it not need sugar but it isn’t as sweet as something like Troika or St. Petersburg. I think the lemony tartness is the cause of this, countering the thick smoothness of the tea and creating just a hint of discord. This is still a pretty tea but I prefer the rich silkiness of Troika (even though it can edge towards too decadent) over this silky tea and fresh lemon mix. Though I will say, the lemon tartness is very well done – it tastes remarkably like real fresh lemon. I would say this tea is more of a match for people that find other Kusmi teas too heavy/silky/rich or those that enjoy lemony teas. Personally, I prefer citrus with more sweetness and less tartness.

Doulton’s Shakespeare: A Tasting Note in 5 Acts
Act IV scene 5

Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentany as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth;
And ere a man hath power to say “Behold!”
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I scene 1

I am so pleased to have finally tried my first Kusmi tea! This was a tea sachet — which Kusmi’s sachets are pretty cool in and of themselves. The empty tea packet had a really pleasant floral/bergamotty smell.

Oh, but the cup. The cup is a bit of a letdown. It was a weak somewhat papery earl grey with a lime tang. It’s not a very memorable tea. It was neither offensive nor memorable (wait, didn’t I just say that?). Trying to come up with a Shakespearean equivalent was what kept me from posting a note all day, but I think that I’ve finally come up with it.

This is the stage set for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s a beautiful, flowery facade: an illusion of a fairy-forest made from muslin, wood, and paint amongst other things. It’s a nice tea, but I tend to enjoy more depth. M

another tea that i’ve drank many times and never review.
i like all of the russian blends from kusmi. i plan to try their other teas as well.

i guess nothing especially descriptive comes to mind about this tea. but please don’t think that means it’s isn’t very good. buy it! drink it!

LOVE the name of this. This tin is awesome too. You can smell each one of those ingredients in there when you open the tin! It ‘brews’ quickly. It’s medium brown in color. Wet leaves you can primarily smell lemon, lime, bergamot over the tea.

It’s bold but not as chalky as some Earl Grey types can be. I like the lemon and lime adds. “E” for effort…it’s not too shabby! :)

Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp
Water: 750ml at 212°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: citrus, perfume
Steeped Tea Smell: bake-y
Flavor: lime, bakey
Body: Full
Aftertaste: citrus, bakey
Liquor: Translucent dark red-brown

Not digging the lemon lime earl grey mash up.

Rating: 2/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2013/02/06/kusmi-tea-loose-leaf-black-tea-anastasia/

I’m beginning to think Kusmi can do no wrong with black teas. This is the 4th I have tried, and it’s very good. Latte’d it up today, because it’s just one of those days where you’re lucky I got out of bed. I did take a few straight sips that seemed like they’d be ok if I weren’t in That Mood.

Kusmi Tea Sampler 3/5

This is a fairly subtle blend which I am coming to appreciate after being knocked over by Prince Vladimir earlier this week. The bergamot is in the forefront here, the citrus and orange blossom is hanging out in the finish in a nice, polite manner. I was worried the orange blossom would be too flowery here but no, it’s very unassuming. I don’t even like bergamot that much so I don’t know why I am drinking all this bergamot flavored tea… :)

I like this pretty well, it seems like an afternoon type of tea for moi so I may end up bringing it to work.

Have you ever had a “wall” that you just can’t get past?
I heard about writerblocks etc. but I never heard about a tea"wall". You know, like suddenly losing the strength to drink tea. Yup I had the tea “wall” or “block”. For like a month … or two. Maybe three, I lost count.

But today I took some tea with me to school. Among them ANASTASIA. I took my first sip of tea today and the only sentence that went through my head was:“Welcome back color”.
(It’s a name on a album by Tina Dickow). I don’t like the song or the lyrics, but the title is fitting for that little moment of tea for the first time in months.

I don’t remember writing a note for this tea so let me tell you about it:
It’s a black tea, smell’s of bergamot and other spices… But it taste exactly like Earl Grey. Just a bit sweeter and bitter. If you had to pick one of the two – then pick this one just for the can. It’s prettier.

Love the unique lemon/lime scent of this tea, which sets it apart from classic Earl Grey. I’ve always love Kusmi Tea’s russian blends and this is definitely a classic.

I bought this from Kusmi online and realized I bought two of these small tins (one from each of 2 samplers). I am happy about that because I love this tea! This similar to an earl gray tea, which is also one of my favorite blended teas. I love bergamot and orange blossoms and citrus anything! I adore the beautiful Kusmi tins. Anastasia came in a navy blue tin.

This one is a nice blend. The dry leaf was a little wiry but thick. It was just the dark brown leaves and no flowers or anything that I can detect. The scent was filled strongly with lemons. This tastes amazing and is it smooth. There is no hint of astringency in here at all. The brew was a light brown. It tastes almost like a lemon cookie and got better as it cooled down. This tea doesn’t call for any additives, so I’ve had this plain.

I enjoyed this tea. It was lovely, and as my mom said, “elegant.” It really is elegant; I could imagine it being served with little scones or something in a lovely tea service… anyway, thanks to Crystal for this, again. :)

Anastasia… my first love in the world of kusmi. And to this day, I still have it as a part of my coplection. today felt like te perfect day to just relax, read and have a kusmi day. I started off with St. Petersburg, andnow Anastasia… and perhaps I’ll finish off with Prince Vladamir later. I honestly love Kusmi tea in general because this company has so many unique and tasteful blends to offer. Anastasia is a earl grey orange blossom blend that gives the tea drinker a tender embrace of warmth, comfort and ease. Drinking this tea is relaxing even though its a black tea.

When dry, this tea had a smell I think I can’t really describe. It didn’t smell much like any other tea I’d ever smelled before, though earl grey would be the closest comparable smell. Like all other blacks I’ve had, I found it needed sweetener to be palatable. Hot and with sweetener, the flavour was something completely unexpected. There was a faint hint of orange blossom, a bit more of lemon, and a real sense of floral. The first thing it reminded me of was actually Kusmi’s rose tea with some peachy kind of overtones, to the extent that my first thought was to wonder whether it had rose in it. When it cools, it’s really more like those pre-made liquid iced teas that are black plus lemon, which is nice—except for the annoying peppery note in it. That damn peppery note! Y u do dat, Kusmi? Hahaha! Seriouly though, it’s a letdown that it’s there, because otherwise this is a nicely fruity, slightly floral black that could be good both hot or cold. As it is, I don’t think I could bring myself to buy it. That demonic peppery element lurks there in every mouthful. It doesn’t even lurk, actually—it’s the first thing you taste. Only after it do you get the delicious tea taste and well-executed fruitiness.

It’s hard to not be on the fence about this. I can’t stress enough how tasty the fruitiness is. When I lived in Australia, I used to drink the pre-made Lipton iced lemon green tea and iced peach black tea, and they’ll always have a place in my heart, though their flavour is hardly groundbreaking or exotic. This tea (once you get past the damn peppery aspect, of course) reminds me of it and I like that.

I didn’t try this with milk (well, I did take a spoon out and add some milk to that just for a tiny test, but the flavour wasn’t tempting), and wouldn’t suggest it, because the fruity flavour is more lemony than orangey, which I think makes it a poor candidate for a latte (and a good candidate for serving iced). I’d recommend giving this tea a try (do try before you buy), and perhaps adding fruit juice like lemon or peach to it, on top of the sweetener. Also, the peppery thing goes away a bit when the tea cools and may have been exacerbated to a degree by my over-steeping (but if it was, presumably the fruitiness was too), so all hope isn’t lost with this. At room temperature, I thought it had something of a classic iced tea flavour (but a bit less fruity), which wasn’t what I was expecting of something whose description makes it seem kind of complex and refined. That’s not a criticism, though if you were expecting something that really balanced all of those citrus ingredients and genuinely represented lemon, orange, and lime all at once, you’d probably feel disappointed.

Update: I raised the rating for this a little bit because on the second and third steepings (the third was pretty weak, so don’t count on it being satisfying), there was almost none of the peppery note, and iced with a bit of lemon juice and sweetener, it was good.

I tried this again, hot, with sweetener, and with no milk. It seems really different to what it was last time. The aftertaste has a beautiful delicate orange flower sense if you really pay attention, and this time, even though I oversteeped it as per usual, there wasn’t an annoying peppery element, and no bitterness. It seems a lot less lemony than I found it last time, but overall, I think I was wrong about my impression that this is no more than a failed earl grey. The more that orange flower element gets to me, the more I want to raise the score of this. I raised it two points, but the taste in my mouth says that wasn’t enough. The tea of adequate strength without being dominating, it’s ladylike without being overly demure, and it’s floral without being perfumey. Not bad, Kusmi! I’d drink it again!

I can smell the lime and the orange blossom in the dry leaf and the tea – I’m impressed already. Upon tasting, I’m actually finding the tea to be overwhelmed by the citrus. Maybe that’ll get better as it cools. Ooh, there’s a nice floral aftertaste though.

… Still very fruity as it cools, also floral. Having this with just a bit of honey. Not sure I’d buy a tin of this, it’s pretty distinctive for everyday drinking. I’ll try it with milk next time (how I usually take my EGs)