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Tried this on the kids. No. 1 says he likes it but didn’t really want to drink it, and no. 2 says he loves it. But then he admitted that after sleeping on it, he doesn’t really love the Strawberry Kiwi from last night as much as he thought he did.

So who knows. My witnesses are proving unreliable. ;-)

I have to say I liked this fine tonight for a non-tea, though if I compare the day’s ending to the day’s beginning (the American Tea Room peach flavored black) I far and away prefer the black tea based peach.

Next in the line of experiments to see what the kids might like. I was rather surprised that neither of them had any love for this, as it is a very smooth, vanilla-y lemon. However, I wasn’t really feeling the love much myself this evening so I suppose I’m not one to talk.

It may be that this hasn’t aged particularly well, so I hesitate to mark down its rating, but I think I’m putting it first in line for sipdown status among the various herbal blends we’re revisiting now.

This is surprisingly good. I am baffled by it, though.

Ordinarily I would make chai on the stovetop with milk and sweetener. Somehow that seemed wrong for green chai though I’m honestly not sure why that should be. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t had creamed spinach. So I steeped this as a normal green.

It’s a tasty, spiced green tea-though without the chewiness that milk adds to chai. The tea is mild and the spices are as well, but with a peppery kick.

In the tin, I mostly smell clove. A little ginger and cinnamon, too. I see what look like pieces of cinnamon among the leaves. Steeped as I did, the tea has a light yellow liquor and smells a little like gingerbread.

I think steeping as a regular green is the way to go. This is a delicate approach to chai and I think milk would drown it.

Sipdown no. 22 for the year 2014. I’m glad I still have other Gyokuros I have yet to try. This one was a good introduction.

Sipdown no. 21 for the year 2014. I see I am averaging about a sipdown a day. I have another scheduled for the afternoon between conference calls so I’ll be at 22 on January 22nd. Heh. This sipdown thing is a little dangerous. I can already hear the little voice in my head saying: “hey, you know when you get to, say, 500 sipdowns for the year, maybe you should reward yourself and BUY TEA from someplace you’ve never tried, and maybe that’s also worth buying out your shopping list at Harney & Sons… no wait, maybe you need to get to 750 for that…” Ugh. I mean it’s not like 500 is on the horizon, so I’m playing a game with myself there, setting the number that high. On the other hand, at this rate I’ll soon be doubling up my average…

In any case, I decided to drink this one because there’s a big jar of honey sitting on the kitchen counter at the moment from the neighbors’ bee hive and it was a free association sort of thing. (There’s a lot of “urban farming” going on on my block, though I suppose it’s really more “suburban farming”-several people raising chickens, bees, etc.)

In looking at the notes on this I am wondering why I didn’t get a sample of Tower of London? It sounds like something I’d do, but I don’t see it among my list of notes or among my stash. I’m putting it on the shopping list.

I feel oddly comforted when my notes from my original tasting capture what I’m thinking on a subsequent tasting much much later. There is enough uncertainty in the world without wondering what’s going on with your senses. Basically, I have the same reaction as before: “gentle, smooth, honeyed. It’s medium to light bodied, and somewhat brisk, a really nice perker upper after a weekend nap. I wish I could unravel the flavors to say what the Kenyan tastes like, but I can’t. The black tea blend is pretty seamless.”

I’d add it to the shopping list but I see it’s already on there.

This is, essentially, the ATR Earl Grey Lavender without the lavender. It’s the same yummy Yunnan base and the same relatively light touch on the bergamot. When I say light touch, understand that I’ve had Earl Greys where I felt afterwards as though bergamot oil was being excreted from my pores. It’s not that the bergamot isn’t present here, it’s that it isn’t taking over the entire experience.

I would never have expected a light touch on the bergamot when I sniffed the sample packet. The scent from the packet is very citrusy and a little floral, though there are no petals to add color to this pretty, dark-leaved tea. Once the tea is steeped, the Yunnan base really comes to the fore of the aroma. I love this smell-brown sugary, leaning almost toward chocolate. It’s the same general idea as the Samovar Earls, which I adore.
The tea color is a gorgeous reddish brown. They call it garnet. It’s not quite that red, but it’s still lovely.

The flavor is what I like most. It’s that brown sugary base that cuts the bergamot and keeps it from veering into perfumed oil territory. It isn’t quite as smooth as I recall the Samovar (with a similar flavor profile) being-it has just a bit of briskness to it. But it’s still right up my personal Earl Grey alley.

My sample doesn’t say it’s organic, but my guess is it’s just a prior version of the current one which can now be certified as organic. It does identify the tea base as a Ceylon. The base looks and tastes like the base to the Apricot and the Passion Fruit, which I had suspected were Ceylons but felt too rusty to make a call on-I’m glad to know I haven’t completely lost all my knowledge of black tea varieties during my hiatus.

The smell of the dry leaf from the packet is wonderful. It’s reminiscent of the juiciness of the apricot, though this time it’s juicy peach. I once had a wonderful peach pie in which the peach flavor of the peaches was incredible-it was like a heightened version of fresh peach. More peach than actual peaches. That’s what this smells like.

The aroma is a gentler peach plus the Ceylon, and the liquor is that gorgeous reddish color I associate with Ceylons.

The peach flavor tastes just like it smells. The BF, being a fruity tea fan and a peach fan in particular (he loves everything from the fruit off the tree to the ice cream and everything in between), said this was “right up at the top” and asked for more before I’d even finished my cup.

I agree. It’s a great black peach.

I’m bumping the ratings of all the ATR fruits because I’m still feeling my way back into my rating system. They’re all really excellent examples of single fruit blacks so I’m rating accordingly.

A hit with both peanuts! No. 2 more than no. 1, but both said they’d drink it again. No. 2 is the strawberry fan in the house, and as the strawberry is very much the main event here, I’m not surprised.

Delighted to see that this is still for sale at The NecessiTeas site in case we find ourselves needing more!

In an effort to find non-caffeinated alternatives for the kids to enjoy, I steeped a cup of this tonight and gave them each a taste.

We have discovered that neither peanut is a chamomile fan.

After having quite a bit of the Independence Coffee Co. Chamomile/Peppermint Plus over the last couple of weeks to put out the five alarm fire in my virus ravaged throat, this was perhaps not the best choice for me this evening. I need a little distance from the flavor so I can stop associating it with pain.

The mint in this one is milder than in the Independence, and the flavor is more subtle and complex. Bumping it a few points higher than the Independence for subtlety and complexity.

Tried this on the peanuts tonight with mixed success. No. 1 liked it and said he’d drink it again. No. 2, not so much. He found it a little tart for his taste, but did not at all like it once sweetened. The BF and I remain big fans.