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Sample cube 8/18

Admittedly I haven’t had much experience with Darjeelings in the past, so I don’t have much to compare this to. The dry sachet had a very woodsy aroma with a hint of something coffee-like. The tea brews out to a deep red-orange color. First steep was, for some reason, quite bitter in spite of being fragrant. Not just astringent, not one of the other natural flavors in tea that might be mistaken for bitterness, but literally bitter. Second steep, however, was much smoother, with no bitterness, a light muscatel note, a hint of woodsy smokiness, and a crisp, slightly astringent profile that definitely says black tea, but is not as in-your-face as some other English-styled black tea blends can be. I’m rating this based on the second infusion since I may have let the first sit for a little too long.

Sample cube 7/18

I usually don’t like rooibos and don’t care about chai, but this was surprisingly enjoyable. I think it has to do with the blend of spices being just right—the cinnamon isn’t overwhelming, and the cardamom is quite nicely present. Overall it’s a very soft chai, and makes for a nice cup on a cooler evening like this.

Sample cube 6/18

This is what an Earl Grey should be like. The bergamot in this one is very fragrant and fresh-seeming, without being too sharp as it can be in some blends. The tea itself is nicely robust and quite smooth. The packaging indicates “four types of black tea and silver tips”, which seems a little extravagant for a blend where most of the nuances will be lost in the bergamot anyway, but the tea base really is quite good. So far I’m finding that Harney and Sons does traditional English-styled teas very well, with more mixed results on “creative” blends. There are still a lot of samples to go through…

Sample cube 5/18

I haven’t found many fruit-blended white teas enjoyable—more often than not, they end up tasting like fruit in slightly dusty water. But when I try a new one I always hope it will surprise me in a good way. That said, I picked this one out of the cube using a random number generator. Hah.

The sachet was covered with a yellow dust, as if some kind of flavoring or coloring had gotten applied a little too liberally. The aroma of the dry tea is vanilla, caramel, and dried citrus fruit—sweet, but slightly musty. Once brewed, the tea is a light orange color. Many little hairs from the leaves escaped into the brew, but with some white teas that is to be expected. I tried to be cautious with water temperature and steep time, but the tea base was still rather astringent. It is sweet, but it’s hard to tell whether that is from the flavoring or the tea itself. The citrus flavor is, again, slightly musty and not too robust, and hard to identify as grapefruit. As the tea cooled, it took on a juicier and more pleasant note. Overall it’s just okay, not particularly memorable for good or bad qualities, though it might be much better as a summer iced tea.

Sample cube 4/18

Brewed cold for work on a very hot day. Tastes like a very smooth green tea with mint in it. Not being a big proponent of mint in tea, I don’t have much to add about it, but it is nicely refreshing and will be enjoyed by those who like mint. I can’t imagine what this would be like hot, though…

H&S sample cube 3/18

This one smelled like fresh fruity sweetness the moment I opened the package—which made me a little wary, because flavored teas often don’t taste nearly as good as they smell. In fact, I’ve started to think there is an inverse correlation between the two…

Fortunately, this turned out to be much better than expected. I got enough out of the sachet to make one glass of iced tea and a small cup of hot brew. The iced version is very much your standard “tropical iced tea”, but the black tea adds more body to it, so that there isn’t the bitterness or tartness that you often find in a fruity iced green tea. The color of the brew is somewhere between that of a green and black tea as well. The hot brew is much richer, with a strawberries-and-cream effect. When hot it’s more reminiscent of a black tea (think a blended breakfast brew), but tempered out just a little by the presence of the green. Overall I’m pretty impressed!

I found the Harney & Sons sachet sampler cube waiting for me when I got home…but as it was rather late, I decided to try something decaffeinated.

This tea is honestly pretty good. Not having had a decaffeinated black tea before, I can’t really compare, but it doesn’t seem like anything was lost in the process. It tastes just like a crisp, fragrant black tea should. There’s a smooth muscatel sweetness, almost peach-like, and the slightest bit of astringency. What this tea reminds me of most is CBTL’s Pacific Coast Blend, which is also a Ceylon. Which means this one could also be quite good iced.

I’ll be trying the rest of those samples over the next few days/weeks, but it seems too much effort to add them to my cupboard if they’re all single-serving…

Sample cube 1/18
[2/18 will be Paris which I’ve already logged (and just bought a tinful of), so no note this time!]

Cold brewed, and well, here’s the first 100.

I can’t really begin to describe this—how it seems to keep unfurling and evolving into something completely different, time upon time, even in the same sip. There was a richness I had never tasted in a tea (or anything) before, for a moment my only thought was, I don’t even know how to deal with something like this. I can try to list the notes of pumpkin, sweet potato, earth, light florals, buttery mouthfeel, etc, but separately these descriptors all seem inadequate. Cold brewing is almost cheating.

To be quite honest, prior to this tasting I had thought I would never understand the poetic nature of some of the previous reviews. But right now, I feel like they are all substantiated.

Finally done logging everything that came in the order!

This tea is similar to regular Laoshan Black, with less obvious chocolate notes, but still quite rich and mellow. It’s slightly smoky, subtly sweet, and has a malty, grainy fragrance that makes it quite a refulgent experience. If I remember correctly, it’s more complex than regular LB, because the chocolate being less insistent helps everything else come through. There’s also a freshness that’s almost reminiscent of Laoshan Green.

I had been having some trouble making an enjoyable cup out of this tea, and today I finally stopped overthinking it. I used the old tiny kettle, stopped before full boil, and brewed up a mug without really being particular about proportions or temperature, instead just going with what I was habitually used to. And it was perfect. I think there’s something to be learned here…

The Verdant email newsletter suggested trying this tea iced. Out of habit or maybe some deep-seated familial insistence I don’t ice Chinese teas, but I had to be more adventurous. So, cold brewed 8 hours, and it’s fantastic. Much more earthy, with predominant mushroom notes in the aroma and taste, very little noticeable sweetness, and a lingering background of cocoa and muted spices. It’s very complex and dimensional—as if short hot steeps would separate out all these elements, while cold brewing presents them all together but favors the ones that would have been less obvious. And as an iced tea it’s highly refreshing, and has a strong recognizable black tea base quality.