Harney & Sons

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Recent Tasting Notes

94
drank Florence by Harney & Sons
216 tasting notes

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94
drank Florence by Harney & Sons
216 tasting notes

Okay, here’s one for ~lauren!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4516495198/in/set-72157623664718933/

This is decadence. This is a double-strength mug of Florence with three scoops of chocolate ice cream added.

Double-strength Florence is so dark the spoon almost stands up and incredibly bitter — and I say that as someone who loves bittersweet chocolate! But double-strength Florence with three scoops of chocolate ice cream is creamy and smooth and delicious! I didn’t cool the tea down before adding the ice cream, but letting it steep for so long and adding the ice cream cooled it down enough to let me start drinking right away, so I could enjoy the combination of hot tea and cold ice cream before it equalized.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

(Dinner? What dinner?)

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 7 min, 0 sec
Cofftea

Um… uh… wow… That sounds so good I don’t have words for it- only tears cuz I can’t have any. Tea floats are AMAZING!!!

~lauren.

OMGoodness! WANT! WANT! WANT! Can I have some? WANT! WANT! WANT!

~lauren.

Plus, I like that mug – it’s got an attitude!

I ♥ NewYorkCiTEA

What a decadent “bad girl” (your mug) dinner! Yum!

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94
drank Florence by Harney & Sons
216 tasting notes

I have been shamefully neglecting to log this, despite Doulton’s kind swapping when I specifically wanted this one! I just seemed to keep drinking it at times when I would have had to give a really rushed tasting note that wasn’t worthy of the tea. So, consider this a backlogging x 5!

I’m not usually a big fan of chocolate teas: I figure, if what you want is chocolate, make some cocoa! But the luscious descriptions of this kept drawing me in. First I tried it plain, and I thought: Okay, it’s not bad, but what’s the big deal? Then I tried it with milk.

Om nom nom nom nom!

Oh! So I get it, now.

With milk, there’s a chocolate taste, yes, but there’s also a thoroughly creamy hazelnut that blends in perfectly, and supporting both of those there’s a strong black tea base to remind me that this isn’t a cocoa experience. Cocoa is a comfort drink, a lazy drink, something to sip while doing something else. Tea is its own justification! Mmm, tea.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 30 sec
Cofftea

I often steep tea (either chocolate or chai) in milk and then add cocoa… that way I can have the health benefits of all 3!=D

Cait

grin That’s thorough!

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77
drank Florence by Harney & Sons
328 tasting notes

I like this tea OK BUT the strong/bitter flavor of the hazelnut smothers the chocolate. To counteract the strong flavors, I have a tendency to add too much sugar to this one. I am lower my rating as this is no longer my favorite chocolate tea..

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77
drank Florence by Harney & Sons
328 tasting notes

This has been a chocolate weekend for me courtesy of Doulton’s sampler! First, lots of Mayan Chocolate Chai, then Dawn, then Haute Chocolate (from Teavana), and the best for last, Florence! This is by far the most chocolatey tea blend I may have had “ever” and perhaps, the hazelnut gives it a richness that a solo-chocolate blend would not be able to provide….

SoccerMom

Lori, I must agree Florence is my favorite chocolate tea too. (so far) :)

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100

Possibly my favorite tea of all time. So delicious. Very smooth, not too sweet. Instant relaxation.

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17
drank Florence by Harney & Sons
220 tasting notes

Florence, you absolute bastard. After a very disappointing and costly experience with old (literally) Florence, I managed to procure a mere teaspoon of this to see what it was supposed to taste like. Heaven in a cup is what it is supposed to taste like. A perfect chocolately nutty blend of decandance, especially with milk. A definate 100 or a smiling licky face rating on Steepster. I would even go so far to say that if Frank Sinatra’s voice were a tea, it would be this. You better believe I savoured every single moment with this heartbreakingly singular cup of tea, while glaring my pretty but useless and tasteless tin of Florence I had purchased earlier.

As an aside, I do wish you could give the same tea different ratings each time you try it. I am leaving my rating as is because I don’t want to give my first legit bad tasting note for this a 100.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 0 sec
Shanti

You could still up the rating, and people would see this note alongside the older one and understand why the first tasting note doesn’t match the high score :)

Stephanie

Boo for old Florence!!

Harfatum

Or just add a note to the older post about it being old! Seems to me that one’s rating ought to reflect one’s opinion of the tea in a decent state.

Miss Sweet

I’m still undecided about the rating, seeing as the company is at fault for being unable to maintain the quality of the tea their customers are purchasing. Plus this note was a one teaspoon one-off and my rating reflects the $20 I spent on a dud tea. LOL rating dilemmas~

Shanti

Did H&S sell you the tin directly, or did another store just keep an old tin in stock? I guess I wouldn’t want to hurt a company’s credibility just because someone else selling their tea is did a bad job of making sure their tea was fresh, but that’s just me—I feel guilty easily :)

Miss Sweet

From a store, but the tin has the NZ H&S sticker on the bottom proclaiming it doesn’t “expire” until August 2010. I need to send the NZ H&S another passive aggressive email about it, getting to taste proper Florence really just made me more annoyed about the whole thing (I’d almost forgotten about it tbh) haha.

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17
drank Florence by Harney & Sons
220 tasting notes

The aroma of the leaves is faint, if you bury your nose right in the tin you can make out a hint of chocolate. The resulting infusion has a promising hazelnut on the nose, but falls flat on the first sip. A smooth, medium-bodied black tea with a ghost of chocolate flavour, which I could just be imagining due to my desperation to taste something, anything!

This is the second Harney & Sons tea that I’ve tried that hasn’t had much flavour to it, contrary to the other tasting notes, so I’m starting to wonder if this is a freshness issue. The leaf is packed loose in the tin (other companies I buy tins from will seal the tea in a bag inside the tin) and there is a best before date for August 2010. A “packed on” date would be much more helpful to me really, is this tea a year old or 5 years old? Just how airtight are the tins? Why isn’t there a decent stockist here? Why am I poking around on Steepster instead of sewing my dress?
So many questions, I’m not sure there are answers…

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 5 min, 0 sec
Doulton

I’m sorry that you’ve had a bad experience with Florence. I think it’s one of the richer teas out there. I recently tried a tea that has a great reputation and many accolades and I suspected that something had happened to the tea. Somebody perhaps kept it in a plastic bag on a hot windowsill or found it in an attic. I heard someplace—cannot remember where—that the numbers on the Harney’s tins, which appear to be dates, are actually some sort of production number.

But maybe that’s an urban legend.

~lauren.

Oh, so sad that you didn’t enjoy this tea – it’s one of my favorites! But maybe you are onto something with the expiration date. Are you ordering directly from Harney & Son’s website or another provider (e.g., Amazon)?

Cofftea

Whoa… I almost took a double take on this rating. Too sad! :,(

Miss Sweet

There is a printed sticker on the bottom of the tin which actually says “best before”, but again its frustrating not knowing how long they think their tea is good for!
I buy from a local department store that carries a range of the Harney teas, I suspect it probably has something to do with the tea not being sealed properly inside the tin, shortening its shelf life. They have a NZ based distributor, but if I buy direct from them it will be the same tea that the department store gets.
I’m so bummed, this tea sounds like its meant to be really delicious and I just wasted $20! :(

Cofftea

You could always try sending Emeric a PM.

~lauren.

Totally off topic (my apologies, you must hear this all the time) but I saw LOTR I, II, III and fell in love with NZ. One of my kids went there to visit and came back with amazing landscape photos from the ground & air! The other one only made it to Australia but didn’t to NZ :( Simply lovely!

Cofftea

I have a friend (one of my ex’s actually) who’s grandfather and aunt live there- they were there for Christmas.

~lauren.

I would love to visit – but it’s an 18 hour flight! Can you imagine being on a plane for 18 hours?

AmazonV

I am sad that it seems to be falling flat for you and i like how you point out the packing vagueness – it is hard for you to gauge the freshness of it – any idea on how bad the cost would be to ship you a sample size? those are plastic mylar sealed bags…

Miss Sweet

Haha yeah I hear the LOTR thing a lot. You get used to 18hr+ flights living here and wanting to travel anywhere, being so isolated from the entire world has a lot of downsides!

@AmazonV I’m not sure the main Harney site ships here, will have to get in touch. Interestingly enough the refill bags for the tins are much cheaper than from the NZ distributor, shipping costs would probably make it similar costwise but I’d be guarunteed freshness. Oh the things I have to do for decent tea!

Mike_Harney

Amber,
Sorry the tea was bit stale. We do want our friends at the end of the world to have great teas. Please send me your email and I will get some to you.
Best Regards,
[email protected]

SoccerMom

Miss Sweet, Some of the H&S teas do come bagged and in the tin. I have ordered from them several times and on one of my later orders (Lung Ching) it was bagged inside the tin.

Miss Sweet

@Mike_Harney Wow thanks so much, have flicked you an email!

@SoccorMom Oh good to know- I’ve never bought the loose leaf before, maybe they’ve changed how they package the tins :)

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88

As suggested by Cofftea, I’m doing a side-by-side comparison of this tea (also courtesy of Doulton ~ thank you very much!!!) and the NecessiTeas Cinnamon Bear. The parameters are similar – same amount of tea (except that this one is in a tea pyramid as opposed to loose leaf, but I cut open the pyramid so that I could brew it the same as I did the tea from NecessiTeas), same temperature (boiling water) and same steep time (3 minutes). So, really, the only difference here before tasting is the pyramid. The NecessiTeas wins a couple of points for being loose leaf, on the other hand, Harney wins points for having excellent customer service (which is pretty darned important in my book). I added a tea spoon of raw sugar to each cup.

Honestly, I can’t notice any significant difference between the two. If I were to do a blind tasting, I don’t know that I could pick out one over the other. But this one has a higher score on it than the Cinnamon Bear only because well, I’ve never had to wait three weeks for an order from Harney before, and they always send me a free sample with my order.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
Cofftea

Does this come in loose leaf? If it doesn’t then it may be different teas after all.

LiberTEAS

Cofftea: Yes, although it is called Hot Cinnamon Spice in loose leaf form. The sachets are called Hot Cinnamon Sunset.

Cofftea

Yeah, I saw a company sell an artichoke green tea… Chances are that’s almost definitely an Adagio tea. Our tea shop lists the brand right on the tins in the store. Unfortunately not on the packaging when you order it.

teabird

I did think that “three types of cinnamon” part was rather unusual to be duplicated in separate blends; thanks for doing the comparison! Now I’m wondering if H&S buy it from someone else or if they are the blender. Either way I’ll probably continue to buy from H&S, considering past good experiences with their tea and service.

LiberTEAS

Although I do not know first hand, because I know that Mr. Harney is a well-known as a blender – I can say with a good deal of confidence that Harney & Sons are original.

SoccerMom

I agree with LiberTEAS and from reading the H&S book I would also feel confident in saying that the Hot Cinnamon Spice and the other versions Sunset and Green Hot Cinnamon Spice were all blended by H&S. I had Hot Cinnamon Spice (the black version iced today) and it was excellent. :)

teabird

Y’know, for all my love of HCS I don’t think I’ve ever tried it iced O_O SoccerMom, you’re brilliant! And you’re right, the new cinnamon blends are strong evidence that they blend it themselves (which I should have been able to figure out for myself, just wasn’t thinking) which is great news – I like buying close to the source, when possible, and I definitely want to keep buying from H&S!

LiberTEAS

This tea is fabulous iced! Absolutely yummy!

AmazonV

really? iced? hmmm

SoccerMom

Yep, Iced. I found myself not able to guzzle it like most iced tea but I savored it slowly. My son stole a sip and said it was too spicy!
I have a huge tin of this so I have to be resourceful or I won’t finish it!

SoccerMom

Oh and it’s soo sweet it doesn’t need sugar AmazonV!!

AmazonV

gasp no sugar, that’s crazy talk!

Cofftea

LOL AmazonV- I never sweeten my iced tea or lemonade (i.e. lemon water)

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68
drank Kenilworth by Harney & Sons
259 tasting notes

A warm tea, smooth flavor, no bitterness.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 15 sec

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75

Mmmm I love this tea. It always reminds me of being on the beach with a sandy beach towel. The smell is luscious and captivating. The body is smooth and packed with flavors of, you guessed it, lemongrass and also coconut predominating. This is always a great pick me up and puts me into a summery state of mind. Great for the spring and summer months in my opinion. Also good iced. Harney and Sons does sell an iced version.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec
SoccerMom

I love this tea too. I hadn’t thought of making it iced though waters your water to teabag ratio when you make it iced?

SoccerMom

I meant what is your water to teabag ratio?

ru06

I buy the Harney iced tea bags and make it that way for iced tea.

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81
drank Queen Catherine by Harney & Sons
56 tasting notes

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Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C

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63

Tried a sample with my latest H&S order. Not as smoky as other Lapsang Souchong teas I have had, which in my case is good. I’m not a big fan of overly-smoky tea. This blend is pretty mild and I am enjoying it as an afternoon pick-me-up.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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83

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83

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83

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Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C

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83

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Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C

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100

So my sister works at Barnes & Noble, and I saw this on the shelf one day. I asked her colleague behind the counter at the cafe if they had any of the small sample size tins. They did not, but he was nice enought to hand me a single tea bag from their open cafe stock to try, free of charge. No sweet of him! Anyway, because these tea bags are so big, and good for 2 cups, I dropped it into my 2 cup tea pot the next day to give it a whorl. SO tastey! Definately a green tea, but the coconut and ginger where there too, so it wasn’t just ANY cup of green tea. As soon as I have some money (stupid college), I’m going to have to pick up a tin of this tea.

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec

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74
drank Florence by Harney & Sons
828 tasting notes

I apparently was totally offline this weekend. I drank tea, but no logging. And I didn’t do much else on any other social sites, either.

But, wow, Florence should have prompted me to stop by. I got this one from the Traveling Tea Box, and now it’s on my shopping list.

I couldn’t remember what to expect out of it. I just knew it was one I wanted to try. So, as it steeped, I was surprised by the lovely chocolatey/hazelnuty scent coming from the cup. And wow! It was flavorful! This definitely strikes me as a dessert tea, and reminded me a tiny bit of dragon balls. But, really, a more grown-up version of dragon balls.

Yum! I can’t wait to get some more!

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80

Just to change things up from our usual single estate or unflavored tea blends that we usually make…we decided to brew a pot of Hot Cinnamon Spice as our tea of the moment.

As others have said, it tastes like a liquid fireball or red hot. It is sweet and spicy as a result of the three types of cinnamon and clove. It is strong and doesn’t need sugar at all. The fact that it has such a strong taste, means that people have very strong opinions on whether or not they like it.

The majority of the people that taste it in the tasting room seem to love it, but there are a few that would prefer something a little more subtle.

To each their own!

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
SoccerMom

I love it! I own a huge tin of it and am thinking about making it iced.

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drank Kenilworth by Harney & Sons
3225 tasting notes

With all the kitchen revamping, I have had to move my tea stash. I realized that I seriously need to prune my collection and I am trying to drink some of the older teas. When we first went loose leaf we drank a lot of Ceylons, but then I went to Fujian black, then oolong and green, and I ignored my Ceylons. Snce this one caught my eye, I thought I would try to find out why I had so much of it left after so long.

This was the second tea served at tea party today. We had White Stilton Cheese with Cranberries on crackers and Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies, as well as Oreos and Danish Wedding Cookies.

The color of the tea as I poured it was so deep and rich, and the flavor was the same! Why didn’t I drink this up when I got it? This is fantastic tea, and my guest loved it, too! The aroma and taste were fruity fruity fruity. I won’t wait long to make this one again.

Azzrian

Oh wow that sounds SO good and I was already thinking I needed a snack lol

Sil

Ooh that does sound really good! I need to make myself a hArney and sons order one of these days

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drank Kenilworth by Harney & Sons
3225 tasting notes

This was especially good today for some reason. Maybe I just needed a good cuppa since yesterday my hubby came home from work early with severe back and leg pain that even a trip to the Hospital didn’t do much to alleviate. We are keeping him knocked out as best we can and trying to be very quiet!

My first tea loves were Ceylons before I fell in love with fujian province black and oolong teas. This one is very nice. It has great body and just the tiniest bit of assertiveness that lets you know you are having a cup of REAL TEA, but it isn’t astringent. I can drink it plain with no problem. I prefer this one over both UVA Highlands and Lovers Leap.

Dinosara

Yikes, I hope your hubby feels better soon!

Jenn

My husband through his back out once and he refused to let me call an ambulance for two hours. He was in so much pain. I hope your hubby feels better very soon :)

JacquelineM

I hope he feels better soon! I went on Tuesday w my husband for his MRI of the back and leg. He is having problems from a fused bone & he also has one leg shorter than the other from when he broke it in high school. Now that he is in his 40s it is all catching up to him. I hope the MRI lets the doctor know something to do to relieve the pain. I hope the same for your husband!! Are they doing tests or seeing if rest puts things right?

ashmanra

They did X-rays and said there was degenerative disc disease, but they saw that many years ago. He goes to the doctor on Tuesday and I hope he can start physical therapy very soon after. His hips were very out of alignment, causing to walk and stand like someone with one leg much shorter, even though it isn’t. They also said these problems are worse for taller people, and he is nearly 6’4" tall, with a long torso and shorter legs in comparison to most. Hope your hubby feels better soon!

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drank Kenilworth by Harney & Sons
3225 tasting notes

Lovely tea this morning after breakfast! This is good sans additions to me, though hubby likes it with milk and sugar – the way he takes all his teas! :)

Preparation
Boiling

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