Harney & Sons

It’s deja vu all over again! Made http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2013/04/17/apple-cinnamon-pull-apart-rolls-from-store-bought-to-homemade/ again, and there is nothing in the world I wanted to have more with them than Vanilla Black. That natural, dark vanilla flavor and good tea go so well with these little sweet breads. They are forever forged together in my mind…perfect pairing.

I made these: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2013/04/17/apple-cinnamon-pull-apart-rolls-from-store-bought-to-homemade/ and as soon as they were out of the oven, all I could think of was having one (two, three!) with Harney’s Vanilla Black. I did, and oh. The tarry, sophisticated vanilla was just the foil for these delicious little breads.

I am not proud to admit this, but I grunted when I tasted this tea. Not a mmmmm or an ahhhh but an absolute grunt like a pig. It touched the primal vanilla loving animal in me (who I have just discovered is porcine). I guess it could have been worse — at least I didn’t oink!

A subtle and delicious vanilla bean flavor. Slightly rubbery/tarry/dark (that’s a compliment) and the tea base is WONDERFUL. Smooth and flavorful and not the least bit bitter. Extremely elegant. Perfect. I’m drinking it with some sugar and milk, and it’s just lovely. Harney and Sons describes it as baking sugar cookies with your grandmother, but I completely disagree. It’s more like being served shortbread with your grandmother…the Dowager Countess!

…which makes my grunt even more inappropriate! I hope I can learn to control myself around this tea!

In short, I love it.

AlphaKitty is one of my tea swap buddies from the steepster book club, & so Thank you, Alpha! I’ve had Tower of London one other time, & it is a sweet & juicy fruity treat with a nice black tea base! One of these days I’ll probably place an H & S order, & this one will be on it!

I’m making a 2nd cup & heading for the bubble bath!

I got a second package in the mail today, from Rachel! We did a little swap, & she sent me some Harney & Sons samples, which I’m excited about, as I’ve never tried any of their teas! Thanks Rachel!

The predominant smell of this tea is Honey, & there is honey to the flavor as well, but it’s not particularly sweet on it’s own. I added stevia, to bring out the flavors, & it did! This is a mild cup of fruitiness, mostly of a peach-like nature. The black base is not particularly bold, but provides a mellow backdrop that makes me think of toast with jelly on it. The bergamot is very mild, just enough to add a little brightness to the cup. Yummy! I’m in the mood for sweet teas right now, & this was very nice (I say was, cuz it’s gone!).

I got a sample of this yesterday and am enjoying it greatly. This is a light tea, both in color and flavor, and the pale liquor has the faintest floral aroma- so faint I thought at first that I was imagining it. I like the subtle flavors- they force me to quiet down and pay attention to fully enjoy it. This will probably become my “meditation tea.”

My sample, purchased in October, 2012, cost $4.00.

I have had genmaicha from three different retailers now. I find Harney & Sons to have a more mellow and smooth version than others I have tasted. The toastiness is there, but it blends well with the green tea- I find both the vegetal flavor of the tea and the roastiness of the rice to be well balanced. It’s kind of nice to see popped rice in the mix- makes this a unique tea.

I simply love this time of year, and few things match it so perfectly as this tea. It sums up everything I love: the crisp, brisk air, the emblazoned leaves crunching underfoot. There’s nothing better than taking a deep breath and enjoying it, putting on an burnt orange sweater and warming up your hands and heart with this perfect fall companion.

Wanting tea past midnight, I decided to open my sample of this. I’ve never had a decaf tea before, just obviously tisanes.

I don’t think I’ll be reaching for a decaf tea anytime again soon. Since I’ve heard so many good things about this tea on here, I thought I’d try it. I love vanilla, and I wish I could drink black tea all the time.

But this is just not doing it for me. The vanilla is nice but it’s just flat. I’m guessing that has to do with the base tea, which honestly doesn’t taste like much of anything beyond woodsy. Of course my vanilla bar is probably set really high but this seriously falls flat. It’s like a stale sugar cookie :(

Oh well, like I said earlier in a comment somewhere, if we all liked the same things, there’d be no point to this website.

Last week, I was in Boston to see Morrissey and hang out for a few days. I took advantage and drank some teas that are harder to get up here. Unfortunately for this one I tend to agree with a few of the other reviews in thinking it was pretty flat. Overbearingly, one-note, harsh cinnamon. I’m not going to rate it as I am pretty finicky about cinnamon in teas.

I am going to try to be better about logging teas, we’ll see how long this lasts. It is a raining morning here after several days of sun in a row and a beautiful coastal hike yesterday. I felt like a stronger tea this morning to get moving. My cute little 12 pound puppy was 54 pounds when I weighed him on Friday and he is only 5/6 months old, I think he may be part elephant.

Back to the tea, I am taking it with milk and honey today. I think the berry note I picked up the first time was more a result oh honey choice than the tea itself. It is a brisk tea even with milk but no bitter notes. It remains a good choice for starting the morning and the week.

I got a new puppy yesterday and I am crate training. So after a night of howling and a morning of cleaning messes, I needed a strong tea. The dry leaves look like mostly CTC with a few longer leaves, as well. Dried it smelled kind of typical malty breakfast teas. I tried it without milk and sugar first and it was strong with some astringency. Since it says it was made for milk and sugar I tried it with even though i don’t usually take my tea that way. There was no further astringency and had a berry flavor that I couldn’t detect without it. Very sneaky and very yummy.

Thanks CupofTree!

This is more savory than I thought it was going to be! I did not realize it is Bangkok as a bagged tea, but it makes sense now. It’s been awhile since I had that, I know I have a sample somewhere from someone (sorry) and I believe I was told by Alphakitty that it’s an awesome iced tea.

So I have a couple more of these sachets and I will definitely ice it! That was actually my intention but I was trying to make kale chips at the same time and failed miserably. At least I had gotten the kale for free so no serious harm done.

Anyway I do like this a lot better this time around than the first time I had it. It is like a light coconut soup. I mostly taste the coconut, but it isn’t a sweet coconut, and then the lemongrass and ginger.

Azzrian & I were talking about a trade the other day. We did a tea swap back in the fall when I first joined steepster, & I enjoyed the lovely teas she shared with me, but I realized I still haven’t drank them all! I got caught up in all the amazing black, green, oolong, whites, & puers out there, & wasn’t drinking much in the way of flavored teas. My mood for flavors comes & goes, & I’m glad because I don’t want to be some kind of perfect purist, although I will maintain my right to be a tea snob & stick with high quality teas that aren’t loaded with artificial crap.

So…this tea is nice. I hadn’t read the info on it, & was expecting a breakfast blend, like the founding father’s version of english breakfast. It smells like graham crackers & cranberries & caramel. I brewed it kind of strong, cuz that’s the way I roll, & it’s delicious! The taste reminds me of a cranberry almond granola bar, held together by buttery caramel. I thought about adding some stevia…it is robust enough to do so, & I’m sure the sweetness would make the flavors pop, but I’m enjoying it so much as it is, that I finished the cup plain.
The flavors are nicely balanced, & it’s a Sipdown!
Thanks Azz!!

Thanks to Azzrian for this sampler!

This is an interesting blend, tart & tangy. It was my first cup of the day, & the sample Azz sent me was generous enough that I can try a 2nd cup later, which will be lightly sweetened or or cold brewed…still not sure which!

Now I’m off to meet a friend at the London Tea Room!
Enjoy the day, everyone!

Forgot this was a green/black blend, but Harney’s instructions were for 212F anyway.
Picked this up from a little tea/beer place at the beach, they measured all the tea into little plastic bags and this one in particular was leaking smell all over the place. I’d get a whiff every time I walked by the table where it was sitting. It smells very fruity, which I think is mainly the guava. Definitely tropical.

It has a very light feeling which I think is due to the green tea component. I taste the guava followed by a general “tropical fruit” flavor. I think this would be great iced and maybe I’ll play around with brewing temps. I have enough of a sample to play around so we’ll see! I think I’ll rate after I try it a few more times.

Hey! It’s decaf! It TASTES! It tastes good! A cause for celebration and a little woo-hooing, as there are so few plain black decaf teas that have any sort of potency.

First thing that came to mind as I enjoyed this treat from ashmanra was unsweet graham cracker. Filling and substance-y. And welcome. It was a (resounding thunk as I drop all the baggage on the floor) DAY.

The perfect accompaniment to our apple-themed potluck/tea party!

Sip down. What a wonderful tea. Even using microwaved water this comes out perfect. Ashmanra says this is bolder than the Teavivre version. I can’t really tell the difference but I never tried them back to back. This one is leaving me with cool breath like peppermint. If you haven’t tried golden monkey – you should.

This is a good resteeper. I had two or three cups yesterday and a couple more today. Too bad I don’t have time to actually enjoy any of them.

I arrived home to find two new boxes of samples and I already have several I haven’t got to try yet. This keeps up I am going to have to take a vacation day just to enjoy tea…. Another entry in the you might be addicted thread? Yeah, probably so. I’m good with that.

This is not much of a review as I was not able to give this my full attention today. This is mostly to say publicly how much I appreciate the kindness of Ashmanra. Your sending me this wonderful tea out of the blue came at the perfect time. The work day was so stressful I literally wanted to curl up in a little ball in a corner and just rock. Not real manly, but you can only take so many firey darts before you need to catch a break. This tea helped me hang on to what little sanity I have left.

This is really good. Beautiful to look at. Sweet and malty. Carmel and mild sweet taters. This is Bailin Gonfu meets Dian Hong golden tips, get married and have a kid… A wild child! Ashmanra in her note to me called this tea the Batman of teas. I say, to the Batcave! For more of this.