Fortnum & Mason

another from this morning – i am trying to drink this and the royal blend in order to make sure i balance out finishing them. I think i like royal blend just a teeeeny bit more than this, but i’d have to drink them side by side again to make sure as it’s been too long (yes a day) since i had the royal blend lol

Morning tea! i figured that i should really get around to trying the rest of my F&M teas since my parents are headed to london in a few weeks and are already asking me what i’d like them to bring back. Not that i need more tea but it’s an “easy” solution to things.

I sort of cheated with this one today and added a splash of maple syrup..so i’ll have to rate this later when i have it straight but so far, this is a decent cup that i quite enjoyed!

Wow! A great anytime-of-day tea!

You will be so awake! Yes.

Was a little freaked out at first—to me this is a tea that NEEDS milk, which isn’t something I say very often—but as soon as I add some it becomes scrumptious. Really good! I get hints of cocoa, and the milk smooths out some of the tannins but they’re strong enough what’s left is a nice velvety softness, with contours or bumps or something that are welcome, not uncomfortable. I also appreciate the opacity in the cup when milk’s added; like a good dutiful breakfast blend, it doesn’t fade to dishwater but turns that lovely “creamy coffee” hue, with those pearl pink undertones. I could definitely drink this first thing regularly (provided I’ve got milk!). Yum. Thanks so much Dexter3657 for giving me the chance to try it; I’ve been curious a long time about it and am pleased it lives up to my hopes! Makes me feel willing to, at some point when I can get back on the horse with tea orders (ha), give F&M’s classic blends a shot.

The leaf is a fairly broken orange pekoe assam that brews quickly to a deep orange red. It smells sweet and fruity with a liberal dose of malt. The flavour is kind of similar to Ahmad’s Kalami Assam without the baked goods note and syrupy texture and a bit more malt. Brewed at @ 92°C. There is a touch of sparkling astringency and dryness from the Tannins in the aftertaste, although the first sips are quite smooth. The tea itself is sweet, with hints of plum and sweet cherry above the malt. Nice uncomplicated breakfast tea.
1tsp/92°C/225ml
Thanks Dexter3657 for the chance to try this tea!

Backlog: woke up with this one this morning and it was good. Not particularly memorable though. Sorry Breakfast tea!

Thanks Sil for this sample. I’ve been drinking it at work today and was pleasantly surprised. I would say that I normally like single teas rather than blends, but this is a good one. It’s just a little “brisk” for my tastes, but all in all pretty good.

Another BBBB offering from Sil, even bolder & maltier, this one has a bitter edge like coffee. It’s called breakfast blend, but I’m having it as an after breakfast blend, while we watch the first episode of the 5th season of Supernatural. Addiction runs deep…

MMMMmmmmmm this is a great tea. Thanks Sil
I’ve been drinking this for most of the evening, and it’s really nice. Nice gentle strawberry. Nice black base – is that a hint of malty chocolate way in the back from the base – maybe, or it’s wishful thinking – either way I like this.
It’s not fake in your face flavors, it’s just nice and subtle but no question it’s strawberry. I really like this with a hint of sweetener and a dash of milk. It makes me happy.

Goodbye yummy black Strawberry tea!

Happy New Years Eve to everyone. :)

We are doing nothing special today, but I did watch about 4 episodes of Supernatural (hello season 5!) so I’m very happy with where the day went! We’re almost out of Christmas cookies and chips and all that junk so that’s also a bonus. Then I won’t be tempted to eat all the bad things if it’s not sitting in my cupboard, taunting me.

Sipdown (157)

And this was another extra sample from Sil!

It’s really good, although it sorta reminds me of Ruby Pie? Maybe just because I had it yesterday and the memory of the strawberry is lingering on.

This is a nice tea. I have enough for one or two more cups, and I’m looking forward to them.

This tea is ok. It’s not great. It’s strong and other than that I can’t pick much else up.
It’s better with sugar. It sorta needs sugar. Yikes.

It’s a Monday sorta tea.

You know what I did today? Dropped my phone and the bus and used my foot to catch it so it wouldn’t slide everywhere. So, I grinded it into the floor and scratched the crap out of it. It kept turning itself off and wouldn’t boot so I ended up buying a Windows phone for $100 at the BestBuy by my office. That’s my day.

I was interested in trying out the Windows platform just because I love my surface, but I wasn’t planning to get a new phone 1 year after I bought my Blackberry. :| To be fair though, it was failing before I crushed it. The power button and head phone jacks and volume button all stopped working last week.

New phone! Bad tea! :D OHAI monday!

Woah. This tea is bold! It’s almost milk&sugar bold, although I’ll probably finish this first cup plain.

Ok – time to roleplay – i’ll finish this later. :P

SIPDOWN!

Yay! If I can get a few more down I may possibly be able to order some Earl Grey Cheesecake and Peanut butter cup black! I better spend most of my day drinking, which was what I was planning on anyway so yay again!

I remember how bitter this was from last time so I bumped the time down to 3 minutes, which I almost never do with black teas. I also found some of the Nestle Bliss creamer (only sugar and milk and cream as ingredients) so I wanted to give that a try in this to see what happened.

Hmm… By itself the flavor is a bit mellower but still bitter. I also think I’m getting some flavor contamination as I’m picking up some fruity notes which shouldn’t be there :(. Yeah, even at three minutes this is still a blend that requires additives.

So, a splash of creamer it is! This solves the astringency problem well but now I feel like I’ve lost the tea-ness of it. I don’t think there was any winning with this one for me: it’s undrinkable plain and not quite strong enough to hold its own at the minimum steep time. I’m glad I got to try it but I’d much prefer Uptons East Frisian BOP for my breakfast.

On to other teas then!

Well, at first today started off awesome because my Butiki order was out for delivery early. But then I was sad because the mailman delivered it to the front office, which closed before I got home. That sadness didn’t last for too long though, because next to the delivery notice was a package from Sil! A really generous package, too- it’s like a European tea invasion in my apartment. :)

It couldn’t have come on a better day – it was rainy and cold out and we’d been out in the weather for a few hours so a warm cup of tea sounded perfect. The boyfriend wanted tea too, which kind of limited me to this one as he doesn’t do any “crazy” flavors.

He also doesn’t do milk or sugar, which in this case made the tea a no go for him. I went a little conservative on the steep time (the recommended parameters are 3-5 minutes, and 4 minutes is what I usually go for with black teas) but WOW. Astringence city! It has that beautiful earthy black tea smell and it certainly stood up to milk and sugar but I like my black teas to be drinkable either way, and this is definitely not something you can drink plain. Not the way I brewed it, anyway.

I should have enough for one or two more cups (see: Sil and her generosity) and I’ll try to bump down the time even further but as it is, I can’t see this competing with Frissy, my most favorite breakfast tea. I loved being able to try it though – it’s officially the first Fortnum & Mason tea I’ve ever had!

Here’s one from the BBBB, compliments of Sil. Thanks Sister!

I drank this straight, but I think next time I’ll sweeten it a bit, & maybe even add a little french vanilla creamer, ala strawberries & cream!
Little Terri is in my head, yelling, “I want more tea!!!”, like a little brat. The truth is, I do want more tea, but I need to make my next cup something without caffeine, so I can go to bed early, or at least at a reasonable hour tonight.

I’ve had this tin in my cupboard for so long and it’s weird that it’s not there anymore. Gunpowder Green and I lived in some interesting places together.

Goodbye, old companion.

I seem to recall I drank this last time I was writing a hopeless paper of misery and procrastination. I’m a creature of habit, unfortunately.

I’ve watched Buffy season 1-6, but never finished season 7. I want to do that. Right. Now. I want to finish the last six books of Wheel of Time. I want to know how A Storm of Ice and Fire ends. I don’t actually know my green teas very well. I have too many regrets and unfulfilled goals to die by paper tonight!

I’m taking a couple film classes right now and I’ve discovered that there are so many movies that I’ve never heard of! Also I’ve learned some special tricks for making myself enjoy silent films (self-deception). I think M (1931) might be my new favourite film however; I hope this short assignment doesn’t make me hate it.

Currently drinking this smoky butter green to help me get me through today. Yay, green tea!

Sis brought this back from London. She has it set in her head that my favourite thing in the world is green tea. It’s not, but I like to keep some around for a full moon when I turn into a veggie craving monstrosity. Sometimes green is good. Like when I’m sick and reaping the consequences of my procrastination.

It’s so typical of me to get cold-like symptoms at this time of the year. Bleh! I need something to help me keep calm and focus right now, and green tea is one of the few things that works.

For whatever reason, I find tea steeped in teapots, particularly green tea, tastes better in little cups. It doesn’t fly so well in this huge mug however, although it’s passable.

This is vegetal, smoky, and somewhat buttery. The slight astringency tells me I need to steep for a shorter amount of time. and steal a variable temperature kettle.

My No1 Ceylon B.O.F. blend!!!

Try Fortnum’s Queen Anne Blend instead (both Assam & Ceylon).