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I had this tea today with breakfast and…
“Everybody needs at least one extremely cheap, bog standard (yep, there’s that wonderful descriptor again!) bagged black tea.” as gmathis said just yesterday.

It is that. Nice, simple, coppery, slighlty malty tea as expected. Unlike 3 years ago no toffee and chocolate notes found this time.

Good daily drinker. But nothing I would buy again. Fine if offered.

I got Curtis tea bags as well from CGFoods, actually Curtis Magic Tea Party collection. It looks very fancy and nice and I have hoped for individually wrapped pyramid sachets. Sadly, I got “normal” tea bag wrappers, but still they are new for my collection! You know, differences on the backside and voilá! it’s new addition. Same like stamp-collecting.

I took this one today mostly because it has been long since I had grape flavoured tea. Only one I can recall that I wrote here about was Greenfield — Festive grape, note: http://steepster.com/Martin-CZE/posts/400728 (maybe there are more!)

This one smells wonderful and very similar. But taste is very different. It was rather like sultanas in the cup, certainly no red wine notes at all. I think it is becasue this tea does not contain any hibiscus and rosehip. It was sweet as juicy grapes are. But in the same time it was a bit flat in flavour. I have hoped that I will notice some floral notes from rose, but nada sadly. But this is not first and last session of the tea. Maybe shorter steeping time (yes, I have oversteeped this cup) would help.

I wonder if I would say the same if I got the tea in pyramid sachet. It was pleasant, but hoping for something more.

I am not sure if you have checked website of this distributor, but if you did and found something that isn’t available across the pond and you thought you would like it, hit me up with message and I can arrange the order for you.

So, another tea from CGFoods.

It seems they have tweaked the blend a bit, as well the tea bag itself. Now it shows preparation instructions and taste is different (or my tastebuds).

It is much more mellow, however very citrusy indeed. The Ceylon base is fine — nothing too much distinctive, but light and citrusy.
Flavour is very lemon-forward. The lemon zest is yeling on you from aroma as well as from taste. It’s like fresh lemon peel was added to Ceylon tea base.
Maybe I had an old tea 3 years ago!

It wasn’t bitter at all and not biting too. Something has changed.
Straightforward lemon tea. Would be good iced I think — classic taste. I am curious about difference between Lord Grey and Royal Lemon. Because I haven’t noticed any bergamot here.

40 → 50

So yeah. I bought lots of tea again. And moreover, all in tea bags! Shame on me, as a tea enthusiaist. But my tea bag wrapper collection needs some love and fellow tea bag (for short) collector had a discount thanks to her blog entry. I could bought some loose-leaf. But maybe next time! Thank you CGFoods for fast delivery and a few free tea bags in!

Anyway, I have deciced for this one as first because turmeric in, I said just two days ago I am not that fan of it. But it sounded interesting in combination with cinnamon and orange.

The orange was fresh, fruity and pulpy, as I do like it. The cinnamon was sweet-like and not bitter at all and complements the orange well. Sadly, the turmeric is not present in flavour at all.

Luckily, I haven’t noticed much of hibiscus — not even in colour of the tea. In color it was rather yellow grapefruit like and cloudy.

They suggest 10 minutes steep and I did long steep… however no idea how long. But it was enjoyable cup for sure. However, the turmeric is missed.

I have had received two pyramid sachets from derk which were, I suppose, mostly for my collection, but tea inside is actually very fine as well.

I am not generally fan of turmeric, moreover with ginger. But I have decided to try it, because, what doesn’t kill you, tries to kill you again.

The aroma was quite spicy and earthy, but also citrusy somehow.

Brew, is naturally very yellow, but in terms of flavours it is balanced combination of name ingredients. Again, the orange flavour was there too, although I can imagine it being stronger and more pithy like. It was zest like. But overall good and tasty tea.

I see that I have commented under derk’s note that I will have nice tea enviroment as well. I wrote I will need a tea pot, which is still true (still haven’t bought any), but there is some from past workers, so I may use that one. Sadly, my desk is rather small and sometimes I have so much papers around I have almost no space to put my mug anywhere there. And the shelves I have? They are full of other papers and books necessary for my work. Exceptions were different back then.

Is there any better time for tea, which was labeled from derk “if you dare” than now, when my senses are muted somehow?

I think not.

Visually, this tea looks very nice. I saw cardamom pods, some ginger pieces and lots of small seeds and other small particles that I have no idea to recognize what are they.

Anyway, I used only one teaspoon of the blend and used boiling water. The result wasn’t that perfect as I have thought. It was somehow muddy mess of all spices together. I noticed mostly the spices I have recognized — ginger and cardamom, but it was on same level as other spices. Nothing of cacao or _vanilla, nor the fruits. I know, that my taste buds are not working correctly, but anyway…

It lacks any base too. I mean, it is fairly nice blend of spices… but as there are that many different spices, none of them were really prominent and making the base. Maybe, the second teaspoon I have in the pouch, I will try with some basic black tea.

I am in a bad state to write a tasting note. I have a cough, cold and I feel I lost sense of smell (stuck nose doesn’t help). I am drinking recently mostly homemade herbal blend, but for family I was asked to make a tea. Green, if possible. “Finally, they have been a bit specific.” So, it is family pot tea. Well accepted by all!

Thank you derk, for local tea. Very local.

And now some of my impressions. It tastes a bit herbal to me, but overall it is smoth and mouth-coating. It is even a bit grassy for me, but imagine a summer grass and not freshly cut. Rather, still growing one, rather meadow for you across the pond.

Can’t wait for better time for this tea. The tea quality is high and the tea is nicely fluffy.

There are certainly many better Earl Greys, but I actually ran out of flavoured blacks at work (some little of Snowball remains) so I bought this in grocery store with a hope it will be a good easy drinking tea. Moreover, the box was very cute and I have hoped that outer wrappings of the tea bags will be cute as well. They are!

So, I decided to take a mug of it when I have arrived home to test it out.

The aroma of the tea bag itself is pretty much common. Almost nothing. Some herbs. Nothing from tea. Bergamot was somehow muted.

Brewed tea with boiling water and three minutes steep is okay. Orange is actually overpowering the base, but in a still pleasant level, there is some sharp lemon taste too. Sadly, I don’t notice much of bergamot — because the rest of the flavour is the fennel (or anise, or both). Interesting twist.

I think that I will finish the box while sipping in the office. It’s safe bet for those sessions.

The remaining tas of Joy of Tea series are: Ginger Spices, Green Jasmine and Berry Dreams. None of them sound too interesting to me, but maybe I will buy them for the tea bag wrappers.

There is one fellow Steepsterite who has asked me, if I can get this tea. I have been finally able to, so I bought a pouch, which was way more expensive than I thought (but I didn’t cared — 45 cents per gram) and decided to share with them a bit.

But of course, opened pouch needs to be drank quickly. Even though I did my best to pack it again, without air/humidity/etc. contaminations.

Imagine dark black leaves. Very wiry, but they look amazing in my opinion. Looks really hand-made as their hue tend to vary. Also the quality. Some are broken more, some are almost intact.

You take a sniff and you get certainly a cacao note. It brings childhood memories. Weird for tea. But it smells like a kindergarden cacao which I didn’t liked back then. But the aroma is magical and dreamy.

I have prepared this wonderful tea just two times so far, both prepared western. Once using big strainer, second time it was with fillable tea bags. Going to try it gongfu as well.

Even the parameters were same for both steepings. First steep with almost boiling (but not boiling) water, second was okay with boiling water. Two, three minutes steep are sufficient. But longer steep is okay as well. In both cases, I have used two teaspoons.

First steep is… how to describe it? Very flavourful and I have noticed indeed again cacao notes, but followed with hints of sesame and peanuts. Those flavours were followed with malty and some sweet… caramel I guess. Second steep is actually very similar, but it’s not anything against this beautiful tea.

Ilse Wouters had tea called Woori from Paper and Tea and I honestly think, it is very same tea. She said it is rather afternoon tea and I have to agree. It’s mild and smoth, good for calming down the nerves (Yes, I am stressed about the work and some other things (I think everyone understands what are they) ), and it somehow brings me into writing mode (as you can see here).

Yes, if I was about to write some flaw, it is rather thin aftertaste. The flavour does not last long in the mouth. But not all teas are perfect. Either way, it is time to rate it and it will be very high. Yes, there are some teas above, because I am biased still with the price level, as well the uniqueness affects me. However, Georgian tea is probably a bit more available than this gem.

If you got Dobra Tea nearby, it should be available unless it is sold out. It happens very often.

2021 batch

It’s over the year since I had it? Damn… time flies!

Anyway, I was looking for this tea all morning as I had somehow upset stomach all day at work and it wasn’t much fun at all. I wonder what was/is wrong, but peppermint tea to the rescue!

First of all, the menthol in was still present, secondly, it was still very good and tasty peppermint tea. Thirdly, it has helped with my stomachache.

Good on all points. But it is sipdown.