Fortnum & Mason

These were a Mother’s Day gift from Ashman. I have been out of jasmine pearls for a while and really only loved Teavivre’s but I told him I wanted to try these since they are a new offering. They have previously only been available in the Piccadilly location.

My complaint against Harney’s Dragon Pearls is that I don’t care for the base. The jasmine seems okay, but the green tea is harsh and sharp to me. The attraction of the Teavivre Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls was that I love their jasmine teas pretty much across the board (they have many) and I liked the base a lot. It was calm in a cup.

I made three steeps of this. It was sipped beside my wall of jasmine vine on the patio from a tiny bamboo hat cup. The instructions call for boiling water and I wasn’t brave enough to do that on my first try with these. I used 175F, and for reference Teavivre calls for 185F for theirs. I steeped for three minutes.

I am so glad we got these! The base is just right for me. The jasmine is a little lighter than I expected and probably lighter than Teavivre’s, but it is possible that increasing the temp to what F&M calls for would bring out more jasmine. I am very happy with the base on all three steeps. The jasmine was almost all gone in the third steep but the green tea was nice.

I will try it again using their parameters now that I know I don’t have to tame a sharp green tea to enjoy it.

May Sipdown Prompt – a cold steeped tea

I put this in the fridge this morning after breakfast and took it out after lunch. I used the Rare Tea Company glass cold steeper, so this was refreshingly freezing cold, much colder than plastic containers get! I think the tea should have had more time, though.

The bergamot came through very well, the rose was muted, and the tea base itself just hadn’t had time to extract as well as I had hoped. Still it was quite refreshing to drink outside on this hot and muggy day. I will definitely be trying this again, giving the tea more time to infuse. The citrusy bergamot is great as a cold tea flavor.

Sipdown

This was one of the teas I was most excited to try in the advent as it was one of the few that I hasn’t had before. It was very good, figgy enough for me and not too figgy for Ashman. I do prefer Fig and Lavender from Tea Grotto over this one I think, but this really is comparing apples and oranges because this Fortnum tea is what it is supposed to be – a black tea with fig flavor. Tea Grotto has a lot more flavoring and would probably suit different pairings than the Fortnum tea which is more black tea forward.

I would definitely enjoy having this tea again and if we do the advent again sometime I hope this one stays in the line up.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 21

I have really been looking forward to this one! When I checked out the list of teas in this year’s advent refill I saw that there were four or five teas I had not tried and this was one of them. Fig seems so Christmassy to me. Is it because of the threatening song about figgy pudding and wishing a Merry Christmas?

The fig aroma is so nice and the flavor is good, as well. To be fair, we did double steep this and combine the two steeps so it would have been a little bit stronger if we had only done a single steep. Ashman does not care for fig but he said mainly it is fig jam that is too sweet and cloying to him. He felt this just came off as a mild fruit tea in the non-citrus department so he enjoyed it well enough.

I liked it pretty well, but keep in mind it is a one note tea. I think in the future I will try blending it with a vanilla black because I think that might take it over the top.

Sipdown

January Sipdown Prompt – a tea you plan to buy again

This is Ashman’s favorite tea in the whole Fortnum advent every year. When I saw how much he loved it, I drank other teas and saved it for him because there are only a few teas that elicit such a response from him.

For this reason, I plan to add a whole tin to my next Fortnum order and I am considering getting the wooden caddy of special Darjeeling as well.

The special one seems to change occasionally over the years and the current offering is Badamtam First Flush FTGFOP1. Does anyone have experience with these two teas or something similar enough to give an opinion as to whether he is likely to love the more expensive one? It is possible that the very characteristics that make it unique and desirable to some people will have the opposite effect. They speak of it being high grown and having notes of minerality, whereas they describe the one we have here as smooth and drinkable.

More expensive, finer, more nuanced, more layers – may not translate into “preferred by every individual.” For instance, I prefer middle to low elevation teas from Sri Lanka because the highly desirable (to some) high elevation teas like Uva Highlands and Lover’s Leap are a bit too sharp for me. That could be the case with this tea for Ashman. Decisions, decisions.

I guess if I buy it and he doesn’t like it, at least we have a cool wooden caddy.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 19

I think several listings here on Steepster are actually the same tea. The front of the tin says “Finest” in tiny letters under FTGFOP. There are only one or two other listings on F&M right now, one being a Badamtam. So I think three of the Darjeeling teas from Fortnum & Mason listed on Steepster are all actually the same tea.

And the bottom line – this is one of their teas we enjoy most, especially Ashman. Each year when we would drink it together he always liked it more than I did. I learned to go with a lower temp and shorter steep for Darjeeling and I must say today this one rocked. It was amazing with breakfast.

I texted him and asked if he drank advent tea at breakfast and he said yes and that it was the best one of the whole week.

Darjeeling is often compared to wine, and I would call this tea oak-y. It was not sour or astringent and wasn’t really brisk, but that woody flavor really cleared the palate when sipping with food. (Frozen waffle, maple syrup, and eggs with cottage cheese and Penzey’s Sunny Paris seasoning mixed in, scrambled.) i am a little sad that I didn’t make a bigger pot, but I think I should be nice and save most of this for Ashman.

Sipdown

January Sipdown Prompt – drink a lingering advent tea

This is the second to last remaining Fortnum advent tea. I am leaving Ceylon for Ashman because it is one of his favorites.

When I saw how my cupboard had swelled at the end of the year, I thought I would probably not consider getting the advent for a few years to come. Now I am changing my mind. I liked the variety and I felt free to give away any tins that were duplicates or that were teas we didn’t enjoy. (we don’t love their Christmas Black or Green, sadly.)

They added some new teas to the lineup this year and had fewer duplicates, so I got to try some new blends. So my thought now is that in November I will assess my cupboard size and what they are putting in the advent for 2025 and base it on that. A homemade advent could be a really good thing, too. I still have about 60 of their tiny tins saved from previous years that I could fill and label and have my daughter put the teas in the box so the order will be a surprise.

As for the taste of the tea – this is a good, serviceable breakfast tea. Strong enough to go with food, not so brisk as to require milk, but becomes pretty silky smooth with it. I have never tried it with sugar as I usually don’t add sweetener but I feel sure it could take it well if that’s how you like your tea. It isn’t a competition grade Keemun or Assam, but it is a good example of a well-loved type of tea and sometimes that is what we feel like drinking.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 17

Hooray! A Fortnum tea I have never tried before!

I asked Alexa (my Echo device) what was in this before I made it this morning thinking she would say she didn’t know. Instead she lied to me and told me it was a peach tea. I have had their Black Tea with Peach and really didn’t think they would put peach in a blend called Albion. Look on the website and I was right. This is a black tea blend with Assam and I believe it said there was some African tea (Kenya?)as well.

It is a hearty tea that I would classify as Irish Breakfast style. I was really surprised to hear that Ashman drank it for breakfast without any additions. This is one where the Assam is strong enough to tempt me to add milk, but I didn’t and had it at both breakfast and lunch and it was pretty good. It isn’t what I would consider a luxury tea but rather a decent daily drinker type.

Edit to add: just tried the final cup with milk (no sugar) and this really elevated it. Yum!

Very happy to have tried it, because I love trying new Fortnum teas!

Sipdown!

Finishing this off with a huge pot on this gray and drizzly late December afternoon.

This is much better than the first time I had it. It is a blend of black teas and jasmine green and really needs to be treated like jasmine green to suit my taste. Made that way, it was delightful with my late lunch of leftover roast beef sandwich followed by wafer thin gingerbread hearts. It really is like having a nice afternoon Darjeeling!

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 11

This is a new to me tea! I think there are three or four in this advent that I have never had before and I am excited to run into one today.

I was a little put off when I saw that not only is it a black and green blend, but the green is a jasmine.

I made it like black tea with boiling water but kept the steep just shy of four minutes. At first I thought it was super sharp and harsh, but as I kept drinking, it just started reminding me of darjeeling. Since I like darjeeling prepared with a low temp and short steep, I decided to try again.

This time I turned the kettle down to 175F to pamper the jasmine green and kept the steep at three minutes. Now the color of the steeped tea is lighter and the jasmine is definitely coming out more. I think I prefer it this way.

Ashman had already prepared his and gone by the time I made mine, and later told me that he added milk and sugar because he wasn’t wild about it. He didn’t notice that it had green tea in it and had prepared it like a black tea.

It was a decent tea, but not one I would buy. I am very glad to have tried it, though!

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 6

Edit to add: Sipdown! December 29, 2024

The aroma of the dry blend has a nice lemon candy scent. Steeped up, this is a plenty strong green tea but if I didn’t know what I was drinking, I would have thought this was a plain green tea with natural lemon notes. I did double steep and combine both times I had this today, by the mug at second breakfast and by the large pot at lunch with Ashman.

Ashman had it breakfast and said he thought it was very lemony smelling this morning when he made a mug for breakfast, and he didn’t resteep and combine. I will have to try it that way.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 5

I was excited to see this tea on the list of teas included in the advent because I really like vanilla tea. Both Vanilla Black and Vanilla Comoro by Harney were early introductions to the world of tea for me. Since then I have run into vanilla blacks that had watery bases or too little vanilla.

This one is quite good. Both Ashman and I drank it sans additions but it would be good with milk and/or sugar if that’s how you like your tea. The base is strong enough for breakfast. The vanilla is not quite as strong as Harney’s but it is certainly strong enough and very pleasant. This will be easy to finish! It would even be a good tea to blend with another to flesh it out for enough to make a big pot. I love using vanilla tea as a mixer with other teas! I might save a little to go with the last of the peach or strawberry tea.

Sipdown!

I really like this one. It reminds me of my long lost Tangerine White Tea from Revolution. It is fresh and bright, great for a dreary, drizzly late December day.

Fortnum & Mason Advent – Day 1

The order of flavors will be different from other people who bought the wooden advent refill, as they are shipped in a box in no particular order. I checked to see if they were intended to be placed in the calendar some certain way, but none of the corner tins were their Christmas blends which is how they come in anything pre-packed. Also, they didn’t sell the wooden advent itself this year. It has been replaced by a nice cardboard box, which probably can survive and be filled with the refills next year.

I asked my daughter to take out a Christmas specific blend and put it last, and then put the tins in however she pleased. This way I am still surprised! Ha ha!

The mandarin flavor in this is so authentic! When I was growing up, we received oranges and tangerines and walnuts and such in our stockings. We rarely had citrus fruit in the house except at Christmas, so this tea smacks of Christmas for me!

We did our double steeping treatment on this. Three teaspoons of leaf in a Stump pot which holds about 18-20 ounces, steep and pour into larger pot, then steep again.

Even with this treatment, the color is deep golden yellow and the flavor is bright and fresh. It paired nicely with the quince jam in the Bonne Maman advent.

Would repurchase sometime if a citrus green tea were needed on shelf.

Sipdown

Not a bad tea, but nothing special. I think Momijigari is THE apple black tea for me, so I am thankful SuperAnna gave it to me years ago!

November Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea with caramel or maple flavor

We opened this tin today and one-fourth of the sachets are gone already due to experimentation.

The aroma is light apple with a little dark caramel. The taste is the same and Ashman and I both felt it was very mild. It was milder than I wanted it to be. Toward the end of the first big pot we made it started getting a bit brisk and Ashman said that perhaps it was meant to have milk and sugar added. I think I saw something on the site or on the tin that said it is best taken without milk, but I could be wrong. We drank the whole large pot and it was okay with our cinnamon crunch bagel for breakfast.

After breakfast I decided to see if perhaps it would be better made with less water so I made a small mug. I tore open the sachet and measured and almost exactly a teaspoon of leaf was in it. That’s enough for a cup but not a big mug so perhaps using less water now was going to make it stronger and better.

Well, it wasn’t bad but I can’t say it seemed much stronger. So time to try again.

This time I made a small mug of tea and added a teaspoon of maple syrup to sweeten it. It already has light caramel notes. The maple syrup just didn’t mesh and meld well with the tea, so I actually preferred it unsweetened. That is how we will finish this off and it won’t take long since there are only twenty sachets in the tin and the sachets only contain 2.5 grams of tea. I might play around with steeping parameters a bit, and while I don’t hate this blend, it just isn’t worth the price to me and there are better teas out there I would rather drink.

It was okay and the name had me excited for a real treat, but not a repurchase unless it just happens to be already included in a hamper I want next year.

Flavored black tea. If I had to guess the base might be some unsmoked souchong blend, it is so well blended all the distinctive characters of the black teas are gone. The smell is very peachy but the taste isn’t fruity at all.

The tea is rather expensive in the US, if you’re buying this from the UK then the price isn’t that bad.

sold for $14.40/ 125g in the UK

https://www.fortnumandmason.com/black-tea-with-peach-loose-leaf-caddy-125g

sold for $34.95/ 125g at Williams Sonoma

https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/fortnum-and-mason-black-tea-with-peach-loose-leaf-tin

Ashmanra sent this my way a while ago, and I saved it for an afternoon pick me up cuppa. It’s sweet and floral, but not cloying. There is a savory note here too, a well balanced oolong that doesn’t taste too green. What a nice cup, thanks!

Adventageddon Day 24 – Tea 3/4

Couldn’t think of a more fitting tea to end this advent with if I tried.

A lot of European (especially French) tea companies tend to do this thing where the blend the exact same tea but on different bases. So, for a split second, I thought this might just be a black tea version of the Christmas Green from a few days ago. They’re very, very different teas though. This one is a MAJOR clove bomb. Bits of cinnamon and orange too, but more clove than anything else. I fucking loved it. That flavour profiles 100% tastes like Christmas to me, and it made today feel very, very festive to me. Definitely a lot more of the flavour I thought yesterday’s Spiceed Orange blend from Plum Deluxe was gonna have.

Would I do this advent again? Probably not – I feel like it doesn’t change enough year over year to warrant repeating it. However, it was pretty close to exactly what I expected from it. Maybe even just a little bit higher. Lots of British style teas, but with a few surprising blends mixed in there that I wouldn’t have discovered from Fortnum otherwise. Some of which I’ll definitely be buying whenever my next F&M order ends up being in the far future.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1QHuq0OvkR/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ygiyWvdZ4I

Adventageddon Day 23 – Tea 2/4

Super excited to try this tea today – I’ve been curious about it for a long, long while now. It was very good too! I thought the pine-y notes of juniper and distinct taste of tonic were so representative of a good G&T, and I appreciate the light citrusy finish as well. Overall definitely a little sweeter than expected (licorice root) – especially in the lingering finish. However, as a person sensitive to licorice root I did think it was pretty well balanced.

If I didn’t have DT’s version (which I slightly prefer – it’s less sweet) I would probably be tempted to get more of this. It’s quite interesting tasting while still being really delish.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1Nib5IOsB3/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jRjKaRnzGw

Adventageddon Day 22 – Tea 1/4

This was, shockingly, one of the best teas of the day. Best new to me tea, for sure. I haven’t looked up the ingredients yet, but it was just such a smooth and creamy cup with an almost anise-y sweetness to it! Maybe not a flavour for everyone, but I thought it was wonderful – especially with this ooey gooey baked brie topped with today’s sweet and tropical jam! You’ll have to excuse how sad it looks though; I thought it might look prettier outside of the brie baker, but it wasn’t quite as structurally sound as expected…

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1K_pUOuXLN/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxygR8Cb7a4

Adventageddon Day 21 – Tea 2/4

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again a million other times, but I’m just not huge on chai blends. Especially one like this that is as close to the most basic as they come. However, this was technically my only advent tea that was truly new to me, so I tried to go into my cup with a receptive mindset. Even though Chai isn’t usually a go-to for me, I appreciated that this was an especially clove and anise forward cup. I know those are highly polarizing flavours, but I actually do enjoy both so it helped redeem the cuppa for me!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1IZE2AOCfJ/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSUt3xoBVK0

Adventageddon Day 20 – Tea 1/4

Oof, I hate Gunpowder green tea, and this one was an especially coarse and unpleasantly mulchy tasting cup. It was my first tea of the day which was kind of unfortunate, but at least I was able to get it out of the way quickly and move onto something nicer.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1F0HEXu3XQ/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQf2LG5qtzY