Harney & Sons

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.

Nice! Nice! Nice!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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! :)

This was the first tea served at tea party today. Tea party included a sampling of Lindt Dark Chocolate with a Touch of Sea Salt and fresh pound cake, as well as a cookie plate. This was very well-liked, and was so smooth. It is not as astringent as Uva Highlands, but a little more so than a really low grown Ceylon – which I love – they really are smooth! Kenilworth Garden has nice body and flavor. I took mine plain, youngest daughter took it with milk and sugar. It is good both ways!

One of the tea party teas today. It was a hit! This was the second tea we tried and our guest exclaimed, “Now that is good tea!” We took it sans additions today.

I usually like this one, but today it followed Emperor’s Red by Premium Steap, and that is a hard act to follow. Since I was taking my tea without additions, this one was a bit astringent. With milk it would have been much better. A great Ceylon, though, especially if you take your Ceylons with milk and sugar.

This is my favorite Orange Pekoe (Ceylon) tea from Harney and Sons. It rivals A Southern Season’s Extra Fancy Ceylon Orange Pekoe.

Definite improvement now that I have weighed the leaves. It takes about 4 1/2 teaspoons to make the appropriate weight for my 22 oz. pot. I steeped it for the full five minutes this time, added milk and sugar, and all three who shared it said they liked it. It is a good evening tea for when I am not wanting the sweetness of Vanilla Comoro. (Has that happened yet, though?) This one was really a gift for my youngest daughter since she loves Irish breakfast but I don’t like giving it to her in the evening.

I really want to love this tea. I am hitting “like” at best right now. For the first pot I made I just scooped out three teaspoons of leaves for my 22 oz. Beehouse pot, not filling it to the top with water. The tea had a nice flavor but was VERY weak. I thought I might be the problem and I was! These leaves are large and light, so when I actually weighed the leaves, it took four teaspoons to equal standard testing weight. (That would be about the same weight as three dimes.) That made it stronger and the flavor is good, but still not quite strong and rich enough for me. I may be spoiled by original Irish Breakfast. I will try it again, and again…no doubt, until I get better results, but in the meantime I would say that if you want decaf tea, the best I have found so far is decaf Orange Pekoe by Southern Season or Decaffeinated by Harney and Sons. The best FLAVORED decaf black tea I have tried is…sigh….Vanilla Comoro. By the way, I added sugar but no milk. I will try again with even more leaves and see if that fixes it.

This tea is a prime example of a “green-tasting” oolong (in my opinion). While it is not my preferred flavor profile, it’s still a tasty cup. I’m getting nutty, lightly fruity, asparagus-like notes from it. The first cup seemed quite vegetal to me, but the second steep has calmed down remarkably. Both cups are smooth as can be. A big “thank you” goes to Jillian for sending me a sample of this. She mentioned Wuyi Yancha’s “re-steeping power” in one of her posts. I’m looking forward to getting a few more cups out of this!

March Sipdown Prompt – International Women’s Day

I chose a tea named for a woman for the prompt since I am all out of tea that I know for sure to be from a woman-owned company.

Many years ago when I first started drinking this, I looked up Catherine to learn about her, and I think she must have been a strong woman indeed with all she went through. I am thankful she brought tea with her when she sailed to England to marry.

This is a blend of black teas from China, and has lots of smoky Keemun notes. Love it. Enjoyed with lunch on the patio – a sandwich of homemade honey-nut chicken salad with Craisins for me, and half a peanut butter sandwich with a heartworm pill hidden in it for Sam the King of Dogs. No tea for Sam. Good pairing.

This is the first ever review (from me) of this tea that isn’t going to glow and gush. But it isn’t the tea’s fault!

I had it yesterday for breakfast and it was just…meh. I thought I had done something g wrong so I had it again this morning and even the scent of the nearly empty tin did nothing for me. I checked and this tin is five years old!!

Instead of helping me toward a sipdown, I bought a replacement tin and since I had a coupon that required more spending, bought some new matcha. Oh well. I would not have let this one go off shelf, anyway, and I am nearly out of matcha, so good timing for the coupon.

BTW, if you are hankering for some Harney, sign in and put things in your cart and leave. Within a day or three you should get a coupon toward any tea you wish, not just what is in your cart.

Did I just enable? I enabled, didn’t I….

Round 2 through the May prompts!

I hope to do three rounds through the May prompts this month. On round 2 I get to note my real cupboard absolute must have – the Queen.

I was up half the night worried about Sam the King of Dogs who seems to be having some gastric distress, and I really needed something to both encourage and comfort this morning. A blend of three Chinese black teas, this is just the ticket with its wisp of smoke and bready flavor.

Don’t know why but woke up depressed yesterday. Hypothetical argument generator was set on high and imagination worst case scenario screenwriter was working overtime. By evening I was exhausted. Still didn’t sleep until 3 am.

I reached for the Queen this morning and made cheese toast with mustard instead of my usual (recently) waffles. This made me think of K S and rat lunch (old Steepster term for tea and toasted cheese taken from the book I Was A Rat) which made me emotional again.

The Queen is reliable. A mix of Chinese black teas, she highlights the best elements of each one. She is strong but not too strong to take sans milk and sugar. There is the classic “tea” aroma, coppery but not sour, a little briskness but not too much for me, and a good full body.

I knew what it was immediately. I also opened it immediately.

We were looking at advent calendars a while back and saw the big wooden F&M one. I mentioned that it was a really nice one, wooden and refillable, but way too expensive to justify although certainly worth what they charge for it.

Ashman said he had never heard of the company and I told him I had a tin of Rose Pouchong purchased in London by our daughter but he isn’t a fan of rose tea so I never serve it to him. I also mentioned that in the book series we are reading at night, Flavia DeLuce will send a hamper from F&M to Antigone Hewitt, so it is an old and esteemed British company.

Apparently, he ordered as soon as my back was turned!

I plan to cheat like mad and drink whichever ones I want when I want. I am feeling grateful.