Harney & Sons

One last thing. This tea is from India, which has a much higher organic standard not China.

I have been searching for the perfect organic green tea that I could take anywhere in my travels without having to add anything to it. Harney & Sons organic green tea with citrus & ginkgo is that perfect tea! Nothing else needed, save for clean, crisp water, (which definitely matters if one wishes to taste the tea & added flavors untarnished by heavy metals & other such pollutants & contaminants one might find in ones water supply.) I am a bit of a water snob being an aquatic specialist for a custom aquarium company. One could have the best tea in the world, but unless one uses the best water, what’s the point. Luckily, I have found both.

This is nummy steeped with the cream for creme brulee. That is the entirety of this review. :) That, and since I am now officially out of Butiki chai, this one is at the top of my list for basic chai.

Another pot of this today while making Smoky Chicken Chowder for dinner tonight. :)

Made this with 2 cups water, 1 cup non-fat half-and-half cream (since I had it for the soup anyway…) and a scant 1/4 cup of sugar.

I do like this blend because I can taste the tea as well as the spices, milk and sugar. That said, however, since I have been having more and more chais lately, I can’t say that this is on the top of the list. Right now that spot is held by Butiki’s chai blend. But this is definitely a strong second place.

The coworker whom I introduced (ie. addicted) to loose leaf tea brought this in last Friday as part of his breakfast offering. He brewed up at home and added the milk and sugar there so I can’t really report on temp or time.

I normally am not a huge chai person. This, I could see a reason for keeping in my stash. I love, love, love cardamom and have been disappointed by chai blends in the past that have been very heavy on cinnamon, seemingly to the exclusion of other spices. With this, I can taste the cloves, a hint of ginger possibly and loads of cardamom. It makes a light chai, not a hit you in the face chai.

And after breakfast, coworker and I had to put in a Harney order. He used a lot of his Indian Spice to make the chai for the group and well, you can’t have too much tea, right?

First, thank you to Amy oh for this sample!

Maybe I’m nuts, because I haven’t seen others note this, but to me, this has a very buttery smell when steeped. A little spinachy. No butter in the taste, though.

Light golden in color, a bit floral but not very much to my taste. To me, this seems a lot like a green with somewhat less vegetal impression. Somewhat astringent and dry mouth feel. Lighter than the seconds and autumnals that I’m used to drinking.

I like this, but I don’t know that I’m going to be a huge fan of first flushes. A bit too light overall for me for this to be a favorite.

Just finishing off the rest of this sample that Nicole sent me, this is very nice for a second flush darjeeling. I admit I went a little darjeeling crazy last year and I still have a lot to drink, I need to get busy, or meet a new guy who really likes tea! Anyway this is nice. :)

I’m having some more of this sample sent to me by Nicole…

It’s very good for a second flush darjeeling – I highly recommend it!

Thanks to Nicole for sending me a sample of this. I opened up my tea cabinet today and I just have sooo much tea especially now that I’m on my own! It’s kinda crazy. :)

These leaves seemed to be very fine, so I steeped them up in a For Life teapot using a Finum filter. This is a lovely second flush darjeeling with the classic muscatel flavor. The tea liquour is a lovely reddish brown color. I am getting an essence of plums also with a bit of almond nuttiness in the finish. A very nice tea for a Saturday morning, thanks again Nicole!

This is my first tea review. I am a huge fan of Harney & Sons tea,so I was excited to try the RMS Titanic Tea. I bought the 20 ct. tea tin of sachets. 5% of the sale goes to the Ocean Observancy,which is great.
I brewed the to boiling temperature. I personally have a preference to black teas.
This tea is a blend of Keemun, Assam, Ceylon and Oolong. I steeped the tea for a few minutes. While I was drinking this tea, it had a nice, full rich taste. Eventhough it has a rich taste to it, it has a bit of sweetness to it, so it’s not bitter. I enjoyed my cup of tea from the beginning to the end. The taste was consistent,which I love. I would recommend this tea .

I don’t know what I am doing.
So, is this Matcha or Genmaicha?
Well, I had my Matcha whisk out and had already played around with some Matcha this morning, so I prepared this like it was a Matcha tea. (good grief, apparently I was seeing how many times I could mention Matcha in one sentence)
Well, I do not think that was quite right.
But, as I sit here, admitting to you all how green I am at this (Haha! Green! Matcha…get it? ahem…) I am enjoying the flavor of this murky blend of what appears to be something I might scoop out of the cow pond.
It is nutty and yet fresh and actually quite sweet.
I am happily chewing on the little rice bits with green tea leaves stuck to my teeth.
At least I am enjoying my ignorance.

This is truly an amazingly well done black tea blend. The smell is incredibly good, fruity with such a strong hint of chocolate. Brewed, the flavors dim a bit into a well-rounded black tea. Generally only drink PG Tips with milk, never a nice loose-leaf, but this is a tea I actually do enjoy with a dash of milk. I like a strong brew. Over all, it’s a great tea and I’m so glad I discovered it!

Another bottled Harney & Son’s tea from Fresh To Order!

I know I said I’d get to the currant flavor next, but this one really caught my eye. Now, this is a little different from the other two I’ve tried. It’s much sweeter and lighter on the actual tea aspect. I can tell there is black tea in it, but just barely. It’s mostly in the aftertaste, and dries the mouth a little bit. If I didn’t know better, I might have missed it and just thought this stuff had a slightly bitter finish.

The berry aspect is delicious, though. Raspberry is what I taste the most, then blackberry, and maybe grape juice. (Though I don’t think there actually is any in there.) It says there’s apple juice, hibiscus, and honey in it, too, but I don’t really taste it. Maybe there’s a hint of hibiscus if I really feel for it. It mostly just tastes like berry juice. But I like it. It’s tasty for what it is, if you don’t take it too seriously.

I had a teabag of this tea, which was older than I liked to admit, but it was actually pretty tasty. Definitely overwhelming amount of vanilla, and not too much grapefruit. My boyfriend tried this and he LOVED it. Of course he likes the expensive tea. I looked online, and they only sell it loose by the pound?! Geez.. that’s pricey.

I decided to cold brew this last night before I went to sleep. I awoke and immediately tasted and was pleased. In the past, before researching the proper techniques to steep tea,I was guilty of steeping at too high of a temperature.

Well with cold brewing I don’t have to worry about being distracted by getting ready to go out or tending to my son or other home duties. Just set in fridge and forget for a while.

It’s a light grass taste, nit bitter and I love pineapple so that seals the deal. Unfortunately this was my last bag and I would repurchase again from this brand. They have a promotion right now that if you spend $25+ you get free shipping. :-)

Malty and cocoa-y. I do overleaf my teas so this done in a pretty small teapot still used a full 5 grams/1 teaspoon. About a minute for the first, 2 minutes for the second pot. Om nom nom.

https://instagram.com/p/BBbGNdVLqhq/

Did a side by side this afternoon with this and Teavivre’s Golden Monkey. Harney on the left, Teavivre on the right.

http://tinyurl.com/hyqoboe

I warmed the gaiwans, put in the leaf and covered while the water was heating. Visually, there are more golden tips in the Harney tea. The scent of the warmed, dry leaves: Teavivre has a smell of hay and dark molasses. Harney’s aroma is malty brown sugar.

About 200F was water temp. 1:30 steep time.

Scent of steeped leaves: Teavivre was sweet dusty hay, Harney was a smell of cooked, wet leaf and rock.

Taste of cup: Teavivre was hay with some malt, mild with a minor, not unwelcome, sour note at the end of the sip. Harney was maltier than TV and sweeter in that brown sugar way, liquor is lighter in color by a touch.

Conclusion: I like the Harney better. Granted, however, that the Harney is fresher (2015) and the Teavivre is older (2014). So this wasn’t an optimal taste comparison, probably. I’ll still enjoy both. :)

Up first for today in the long weekend of not waiting to drink the favorites is this delectable GM. A practically perfect, consistent, GM. Lovely leaves and superior flavor. Such a smooth way to begin the day.

Trying to ease my way back into tea taste. My tastebuds have been way off since that brief tummy thing after Christmas and my straight blacks just haven’t sounded good. :( No matter. If my taste is changing again, then I’ll either keep what I know were favorites or I’ll have mass amounts for swapping. :)

Straight, this is still very good. Still not as good as I remember it being just 2 months ago. Now, add a teaspoon of cream and WOW! The honey and caramel just pop into your mouth and transform this into a full-on dessert tea. This is pure heaven on a very cold and getting colder night.

I see I’ve reviewed this before. Perhaps back when I was just getting into this type of tea? I’m not sure how I thought it was light before. Maybe just a different batch. It’s been about a year.

This is simply wonderful. Deeply malty, fruity and cocoa-y. I forgot to look on here to see if I’d had it before when I grabbed the sample with this last order. If I had, I might have sprung for a full tin. It definitely goes on the shopping list now. Must have more than just a sample. Especially now that I’m looking at prices through the lens of per ounce, not just what the immediate cost is. This is comparable to other teas I like for the amount you get. The only downside is that my resteep was very lacking despite leaving it to steep about twice as long as the original time.

Light and smooth. Pretty liquor. The dry leaves are a pretty mix of gold and black. A bit of a malty taste. Somewhat easy to oversteep perhaps. I do like this quite a bit. If it were to go on sale, I’d get more. For now, I’ll stick with a sample now and then.

It does have a polleny smell when dry. The smell when steeped reminds me somewhat of these honey cookies I make – like cooked honey. The tea base seems to be very light and inoffensive. Smooth. I thought the honey tasted a bit odd. I do sometimes have honey in my tea but it’s usually when I’ve oversteeped it so maybe I just don’t know what to expect. I’m glad I tried a sample, but I probably won’t order it again. Nothing in particular wrong with it, just not to my personal taste.