Harney & Sons

We have at least two feet of snow! Time for the Florence tea and cookies. The hazelnut and chocolate is just the right amount of sweet and very delicate.

Delicious! A perfectly cozy cup of tea.

This tea comes in bags, so I cannot describe the aroma of the laves because I feel that I am mostly smelling packaging, however, when brewed it smells a little like medicine (I think Dimeatap, but I can’t be sure).

This doesn’t bother me, so I drink it willingly. I must say that a little sugar goes a long way in this tea. Overall, worth a shot.

I still have an embarrassment of this tea, which is far too old to take very seriously. (Novice Steepsters, never order a whole pound of tea!) New, it was mild and a little watery due to the decaffeination but you could identify it as a Darjeeling without looking at the label. Now there’s almost nothing left of the grape-iness, just a little bitter nip at the end of each sip.

However, after my week of full-throttle kid wrangling that ended with a Family Night event akin to Nickelodeon Double Dare on steroids, I slept hard for eleven hours and have been starving for carbs all day. The bitterness is a fair balance to the little Pillsbury blueberry biscuits I’m noshing on.

I’m not quite ready to compost the remaining stock—there are still lots of hot weather days ahead and it will ice down OK—but once it’s gone, I’ll just let it stay gone.

I bought a whole pound of this ages ago, and probably shouldn’t have; though it’s a good decaf, it’s now gone a little flat. Thanks to a suggestion from jacquelinem, I think I can salvage what’s left—a few hunks of brown rock sugar restored its depth of flavor a bit.

Still in search of the ultimate unflavored decaf black tea that has the flavor punch of its counterpart, but this one still qualifies as highly plausible.

My pouch of this decaf has had a hard life, storm survivor and all, and may just be losing its edge due to freshness issues. It’s still “eh” OK when I’m not in the mood for an evening herbal. I’m a lot less enthusiastic about it than when I first tried it.

I do wish I could fall upon a decaf black tea that doesn’t seem like a wimpy substitute for the good stuff. I’ve tried winkle-tinkling my nose like Samantha on Bewitched and I just can’t make it appear.

Wasn’t being particularly careful and let this go a little bitter; think the water was too hot. Still smells nice and tangy, and is a plausible substitute for its caffeinated counterpart.

Has a beautiful orangey-gold color that looks really, really nice in Grandma’s rosebud teacups. Makes me feel quite elegant. It hasn’t lost its tang in the decaf process and steeps well more than once.

So I didn’t exactly have a metric ton’s worth of luck the last time I made this puppy up so I thought I’d give it another go and use the hubby as a guinea pig to see if his tastes agreed with the tea more than mine. I also decided to brew this like a regular black even though there’s obviously other goodies in there. I could say it was something like I was experimenting to see what flavors I wanted to pull out of the tea, but in all honestly, the Zojirushi was set on 208, so I just used that. Apparently when I get lots of sleep, my mind is even groggier than when I get very little sleep.

This cup is actually more successful. But that’s only been on sips 2+. Sip one, things hit me why I wasn’t a big fan. Good brisk start to the sip, watery bland finish. That’s what did it for me the other time I had this – the taste at the end of the sip. It tastes raw and weak and thin. So I got that this time, made a face, then put the cup down for a bit while I checked out the flurry of activity that happened on here while I was asleep.

Letting it sit seems to have been beneficial in some ways since the raw, thin flavor is now gone from the sip but now there is a hint of bitterness right at the tail. It’s not unpleasant though, so I’m cool with it (others might not like it though). Fortunately, I’m drinking this out of my new 15oz mug so I can let the tea sit for a while without it getting cold. Which means to me, I’m only going to enjoy this tea in large quantities, when I can let it sit long enough to make that end taste transition but still remain a bit hot.

Still not a favorite tea or something that I’ll have to get in the future but definitely a more successful steep for me this time around. Gave the rating a nudge upwards as a thank you. The husband is quite enjoying his cup, though, saying it reminds him of a good morning coffee that he would actually like (neither of us are big coffee fans). He even went so far as to ask if it had Darjeeling and Keemun in it. I’d probably guess so and that helped me with that bitter flavor I get at the end – Darjeeling. Not sure what the raw, green flavor at the end previously was though, but now that I’ve let my mug cool a little too much while discussing Calibre sorting with the husband, I seem to be getting a little of that rawness back.

The husband also stated that he was a bit torn on this tea because it is awesome but borders on being a touch bitter at some times. He even went so far as to give it a low 5/5 stars. Which for him is huge. So yeah, apparently I’m the freak that doesn’t enjoy this tea.

Oh well.

So I intended to take takgoti’s suggestion and brew this at 180, but I was too impatient for the water to cool and gave up at 190. But I can totally see how boiling would be too much for this tea. There is a hint of something at the end that I think would develop into overwhelming bitterness if brewed at boiling. But at 190, it’s totally okay. I imagine that at 180 it might be pretty much gone.

I was actually really excited to try this one because of the great reviews but I’m feeling a little deflated. It tastes… normal. It’s nice – has a good flavor, a little fruity, a little malty, a little smoky. It’s kind of a combo of all the good things that I appreciate in different types of teas, but they are all rolled into one tea. Which you would think is a good thing (and I think most people would agree) but it leaves me feeling that the tea is a bit confused.

It’s a well-done blend, I think. You get all the good out of the teas and none of the bad – no rough edges or harsh tastes. DH gives it a 4/5 star rating, so I think the sadness I’m getting from it is a personal taste thing. The tea itself is good. Just not my speed.

I’ve spaced on logging this a few times, so I’m going to do it before I forget again.

This is another occasion where the Harney and Sons has managed to impress me on their flavoring prowess. What with the surge of pomegranate’s popularity in the tirade of fruits and berries being pushed at us for their antioxidant/detox/cancer-fighting/etc. properties, it’s no surprise that the presence of pomegranate in tea has also seen a significant nudge in use.

In the midst of all the pomegranate madness, I’ve gotten my hands on a few pomegranate teas, and this one is so far leading the race in terms of matching up to the true flavor of pomegranate. For the most part, the others tasted very much like, you guessed it, hibiscus. [With all the hibiscus knocking I’ve done, I should stress here that I don’t dislike it. It’s simply a case of too much of a decent thing becoming boring. Additionally, I don’t consider straight hibiscus to be an acceptable substitute for whatever touted fruit flavor I’m supposed to be getting out of a tea.]

So, here’s the thing about this tea. The pomegranate flavor is definitely welcome. The tea on the whole is very light, and I enjoy this to a certain extent, but I can’t taste the oolong. It could be because I don’t drink a ton of darker oolongs and am not fully accustomed to the flavor. However, it could also be that, light as it is, the pomegranate is drowning it out. Taking all of this into consideration, I’m still not sure where I stand with this one, even after making my way through almost all of the sample. I think that I find it mostly enjoyable, but maybe this is why flavored oolongs are considered “taboo” by some people.

This is as basic as a tea gets. Rooibos is technically a tisane or more commonly a herbal tea. It comes from a plant called Aspalathus linearis and simply referred to as red bush. The plant starts out as green and the “red” color emerges as a result of the oxidation that occurs during the processing of the leaves.

Rooibos has no caffeine as well as other chemicals that occur in tea (sourced from Camillia sinensis); these differences result in rooibos being very forgiving in the brewing process. You could easily oversteep leaves from Camillia sinenses and the resulting liquor is bitter, harsh and undrinkable, but oversteeping leaves from Aspalathus linearis does fall into that problem.

As a experiment, this rooibos was steeped for 8 minutes, with water that was boiling at the start. The tea that resulted tasted fine, it was strong on the typical smoky flavor but there was no bitterness.

Under a standard brewing of 2 minutes 30 seconds, it resulted in a refreshing tea that had a hint of smokiness to it and generally a smooth finish. There is a very, very slight nutty flavor to it that complements the mild plant-like taste- however, these two flavors are very mild, which is good for something like this that makes an excellent everyday drinker.

I was never thrilled by the idea of chocolate flavored tea, and actually when it arrive with a couple of other teas in a Harney & Sons order, I couldn’t remember what made me order it. This was quite pleasant, though. I thought about adding milk and sugar, but it truly doesn’t need anything of the sort, and I enjoyed it plain.

Both the leaves and resulting brew smell incredible, but the flavour really disappoints. Both the cinnamon and apple are barely there, and adding milk just mutes the tea further.

It was interesting trying this after the Oolong tastings I did today. This one has a Tie Kuan Yin base, and combined with an incredibly light tough of pomegranate, its still boring. The oolong still leaves a lingering taste, but the tea itself isn’t anything to write home about. Its “nice” but not as exciting as it originally sounded to me.

I am usually disappointed by fruit teas—some will smell so wonderful, then taste like kool-aid (unsweetened), but I was lured by the packaging, the pomegranate, the discount…Turns out to be a decent tea, pretty mild, with a little fruit, not too much, nothing fake about it. It’s a bagged tea, a good choice to keep in my office for days when I don’t have time to fill the big travel mug at home, or when I need a little something to make it through the afternoon.

Didn’t pay attention to the steep time (although I’m sure it was more than the recommended 3 minutes!) and used the electric kettle at work when I made this, so maybe I’ll keep track next time and re-visit this review.

What a lovely tea that is quite complex. The nose has nice malty and earthy tones and the finish is smooth and bold. The taste is slightly malty with a little bit of pucker to it. It also has a nice kick to it, I made it fairly strong. Definitely another one from Harney & Sons that is sure to please.

The more I drink this tea, the more I enjoy it. really rich color and scent. Perfect for my morning tea of choice.

I love this tea – deep golden brown color and “toasty” scent. Tastes a bit nutty but a great mellow start to my day.

Second steep.

Still desperate for more caffiene.

The spices are more mild on the second steep.

It’s a TRAGEDY! I always start my morning with 2 cups of coffee, but there’s no creamer here at work! So I went straight to tea, but there’s just not enough caffiene. whimpers

Anyway… I consoled myself with this tea, which is one of my favorite blacks. I’m tasting the oranges strongly this morning.

2009-11-23 noon
This is the bagged version
prepared with a bit of Splenda

Spice dominates this tea – cloves and allspice. The finish is of black tea.

I’ve shared this with a couple of friends who abhore putting sweetener in their hot tea (including my husband). They’ve reported almost no spice flavor. I suggested adding a bit of sweetener, and they agreed that the sweetener does bring out the spices.