41 Tasting Notes
There’s such a large tea community in California! Only here can you go to a small, out-of-the-way grocer and find a half-dozen or so teas that you’ve never heard of. If you’ve read some of my other posts, you’d know by now that I’m a big Ceylon fan. If I see a box or tin of tea with the word CEYLON on it, I buy it. No questions asked. I’ve never heard of DMM Brothers tea before but I am indescriminate in such cases. This tea is pretty good. It tastes like a blend of Assam and Ceylon and brews darker than pure Ceylon would but there’s no mention of blending on the box. I added a splash of milk on the second cup and it was very pleasant. In my opinion, this is NOT pure Ceylon.
Wifey brought this home from the supermarket and happily extended it into the reading path of my Nook. I’m reading Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice (where vampires don’t sparkle like drag queens) and didn’t even notice her entering the room.
Constantus interruptus.
Of course, she made me taste it and of course I hate it. She loves all things caramel but even she was disappointed by this herbal monstrosity. Tastes like Willy Wonka threw up in it, to use her phrase. Adoreable, isn’t she? My opinion is this: the chocolate is there but tastes stale. The caramel is apparent only on the nose since the pseudo-chocolate dominates the infusion. It’s like a bad bowl of warm Coco Puffs. It’s pretty awful.
I don’t get it. We bought this tea at a place called The Dollar Tree where everything is one US dollar (plus tax of course). This tea was supposed to suck. It doesn’t suck at all. In fact, this bagged tea is comparable with the Bigelow Premium Ceylon I got last week. Beautiful amber colour, lovely Ceylon aroma…I’m very impressed by this tea. I wrote to the company (www.globalbrandsllc.com) and told them so!
By “Great Value” they mean CHEAP. It’s tea dust mostly. Stems included. If you steep it long enough, you can actually taste the Assam character but you also run the risk of enhancing the bitterness of the stem fannings. Still, this tea is better than Lipton. I picked it up at Wal-Mart. 100 bags for $3.26 US.
My wife bought a box of this nonsense at Wal-Mart last night. She absolutely loves it, so she ran back and bought six more boxes. I tried it the way she likes it (no milk, one Splenda packet) and it was so terrible that my face screwed up into a black hole of disgust and I wanted to kick a kitten. Being stupid, I brewed another bag and tried it with milk and sugar and was so angry at myself that I drove to the SPCA to purchase a kitten but they were all out. The feeling passed. Never again will I drink this.
First of all, Rooibos is NOT tea. Anyway, this looks like sweepings from the floor of a flower shoppe or maybe a painter spilled some lovely colours into a bag of tobacco. In any case, this loose leaf infusion seems like it would be a clown’s favourite drink. I’ve never tried it and I never will but the colours really got my attention. :)
Received this tea yesterday from Bigelow. This is MUCH better than the Classic. Brews fast so give it a two-minute steep with near-boiled water or even three minutes if you like your tea with a more bold flavour. I still prefer the Ceylon blends, but this tea is definitely something with which I’ll experiment. I ripped a bag open and the leaf is a nice size which explains why it infuses so well. A very pleasant brew. It’s nice to know that they are paying attention to tea in the Lower 48!
*Addendum: I just blended it with a bag of Bigelow Premium Ceylon in a ten-ounce mug for three minutes and it was excellent!
I received my box from Bigelow yesterday! I ordered this tea, the Premium Ceylon and Classic Charleson Breakfast Tea. Firstly, this tea is bagged. There is also a pyramid version as well as loose tea. As with every first-time tea, I varied the steeping time for four bags (one minute intervals on a rising scale). The aroma is pleasant but gets notably deeper and even a little harsh the longer it steeps. Three minutes seems to be the most effective steeping time (for me) as the tannin is more evident and the bitterness tolerable without being overwhelming. A pleasant tea perhaps more suited for Southern-style iced tea. Evidently, American Classic Tea has been the official White House tea since 1987 and is officially designated as the Hospitality Beverage of South Carolina.
Yawn.
Typhoo wasn’t allowed in our home when I was growing up. My father wouldn’t allow it. Not because he thought it was a bad tea (although it is), it was due to the fact that he hated the tele ads. He used to say that he’d lose an IQ point for every Typhoo advertisement he heard or saw. I have to agree with him. Since it was banned at home, I considered it forbidden fruit so I drank it at friends’ homes and any other such times that it was available to me. I never liked it, but it was forbidden to me and therefore was to be imbibed as often as possible. Call it rebellous youth. :)
When I first arrived in the Great White North from England in 1993, this was the tea that was sold and served everywhere. If I didn’t bring a bag or two of Tetley with me to a meal, this is what I drank. It’s an above-average black tea blend with a standout Assam character. It’s produced cheaply and sold similarly so don’t expect the Queen to accept a cuppa generica, but it’s a solid backup tea.
