Kusmi Tea

I got a sample of this from Courtney yesterday, and I decided to give it a try this afternoon. It’s quite good, the flavoring seems very subtle… which I appreciate, because too often black teas get so heavy. Thanks, Courtney! I am looking forward to sampling more from Kusmi, this was very yummy.

Very tasty tea. Drank it plain. Fresh, flowery scent that holds a dominant tone of citrus. Well balanced. I want another cup :) .

This was one of the teas in a six-set Kusmi sampler that my parents brought back from their recent trip to Paris alongside some Damman Freres (although no Mariage Freres or hand-blown French tea pots . . . thanks, Mum!) although it is one of about ten Kusmi teas I have been interested in trying.

On initial inspection, the tightly rolled Gunpowder pellets are fairly even in size. The scent is rather strong, reminiscent of traditional boiled sweets or stodgy-English puddings and desserts. It’s not quite citrus and not quite caramel. The scent intensifies when hot water is poured into the tea pot.

After brewing for just under three minutes, the colour is a beautiful, light-caramel colour. My initial impression is that it’s an interesting blend, perhaps rather too complex to make more than the occasional appearance at afternoon tea. Perhaps future tastings may change this, but I find red fruits in my tea a little too intense to drink on a regular basis. The sweetness of the caramel tempers the earthy leatheriness of regular gunpowder tea and gives a full-bodied mouthfeel, the red fruits leaves a tingling sensation on the centre of the tongue between each mouthful, but I can’t really detect the vanilla.

It’s rather fitting that I’m drinking this very French tea – despite it’s Russian origins – out of those ubiquitous French espresso glasses which are just perfect for white, green and fruit teas. I would be interested in learning of any real connection that this tea has to St Petersburg, or is just one of a series of Kusmi teas bearing a Russian name? At any rate, I will definitely be trying this tea again, perhaps at a French-themed afternoon tea.

Okay, this is a sipdown. I drank the remaining of this tea this morning, as a hot tea and then as an iced tea with a bit of stevia added. It is good both ways. This is a nice blend of black teas but it’s way too expensive to justify getting more.

Tea of the morning; back to SF after spending 3 days in Portland. I tried to go to as many tea shops as I could but I certainly missed a few. The trip was very enjoyable aside from the rain.

This blend is a nice and mellow black tea. I think it’s one of my favorites from Kusmi along with the spicy chocolate.

There is a small family owned grocery in San Francisco called Bi-Rite; they just opened one in my neighborhood so I took a walk down there this morning. It’s definitely on the upscale side of things, very yuppifed, oh well. Probably won’t be making a lot of major purchases there but they do have a nice tea selection.

I’ve never tried this tea from Kusmi and decided it might be worth the splurge. The box says it is a blend of China, Ceylon and India teas. Note: this is the muslin teabag box and not the loose leaf. There seems to be something vaguely “citrusy” about this blend, both in the aroma and the flavor. If I had to take a guess, I’d say the Indian tea is a nilgiri which accounts for that brightness. Though it could be a darjeeling as well.

Anyway this is a good tea to sip on plain, not a trace of bitterness anywhere. I decided to drink this with a slice of lemon and that was a really good call. I can see it would be good with a splash of soymilk or milk, but it definitely does not need sugar. I actually like this blend a lot but I was thinking it would be more hefty than it is somehow. I would drink this in the afternoon too. Very enjoyable — might need to keep this in the permanent collection but at the price I probably wouldn’t drink it every day.

A couple of the other reviewers mentioned lapsang but I am not detecting any smoke in this whatsoever, how odd.

I cannot believe I am already almost finished with the 1oz tin of this tea! Thank goodness I have another. This is definitely my favorite Kusmi Tea so far. My husband left for Tanzania today for a week and it wasn’t for a good reason either so we were both sad. We needed something to lift our spirits this morning. That called for something citrusy. This was perfect!

I bought this from Kusmi online and realized I bought two of these small tins (one from each of 2 samplers). I am happy about that because I love this tea! This similar to an earl gray tea, which is also one of my favorite blended teas. I love bergamot and orange blossoms and citrus anything! I adore the beautiful Kusmi tins. Anastasia came in a navy blue tin.

This one is a nice blend. The dry leaf was a little wiry but thick. It was just the dark brown leaves and no flowers or anything that I can detect. The scent was filled strongly with lemons. This tastes amazing and is it smooth. There is no hint of astringency in here at all. The brew was a light brown. It tastes almost like a lemon cookie and got better as it cooled down. This tea doesn’t call for any additives, so I’ve had this plain.

I received this sample with my Kusmi Teas order. I thought the packaging was pretty with the mint green label and the cloth-like teabag. The scent wasn’t overpowering, but I managed to see a piece of popcorn and some rice mixed in with the dark green tea leaves. This is a VERY light genmaicha. It was unexpected. One of the first teas I got into was genmaicha because they would serve it at all the Japanese restaurants around me. This one was very watered down. The liquid was a light yellow. I really had to stick my nose in my cup and swish the tea in my mouth to really get the scent and flavor. This is nice and sweet and there is no astringency there. I like the light nutty and rice flavors. I imagine that this would be refreshing and nice iced or cold brewed.

I am not a fan, unfortunately. Light, barely detectable genmaichas are not my thing.

MMMMmm Tasty the berry flavors are nice,along with the bergamot. nice black tea

I was almost reluctant to try it, as I’m not a huge fan of spices in tea; had I read the previous reviews, I may have been more optimistic about it.
The smell is quite spicy, the tea looks very “normal black tea” in the small tin, with only a few orange peel pieces here and there.
The overall taste is really mellow, and honestly even weak, much milder than the smell might make it seem. Chai fans should be highly disappointed in drinking this.
The second steep already comes as very weak and light-colored and definitely requires a few new leaves to have some body, which is surprising in comparison with other Kusmi teas I’ve had, like if they had used a second (or third) grade tea base for this one.
I can taste a bit of clove remaining on my lips, but not as much as in the Spicy Chocolate. The orange flavor is to be searched for. The vanilla hasn’t been found yet.
Nicer than expected, as the spices are not as strong as I feared. I guess this small tin should be emptied in a reasonable future…
… and refilled with something else, as it’s not something I would try to get more of.

I am 6 months now, and its a girl! I am super excited! So, I chose to try this tea today. I received a teabag sample of this in the mail with my Kusmi order. I adore the cute, smooth brown and pink wrapping. What was even more interesting was the bag that this came in! It was a cloth or cloth-like teabag! WOW! I’ve never seen anything like it. I have the large reusable teabags, which is comparable. However, this is different because its not reusable (I don’t think).

Onto the tea! Have you ever smelled the scratch and sniff chocolate stickers or pencils? This smells exactly like that! It brought back childhood memories! I could definitely smell the chocolate and a bit of spice. It wasn’t that prominent though. After steeping, the liquid was a dark brown. The spices didn’t come through as much. In fact, it tasted like a very watered down sugary cocoa with a hint of warmth and spice. I was expecting a more robust cup, but this is good for those days that you want a small chocolate kick but nothing too spicy. There was no bitterness to this cup, which I love. I added some sugar to see if anything flavors would come up. I sense something nutty. Perhaps its cacao? I can definitely taste something woody and nutty with the chocolate. Very delicious. After that, I added just a tiny bit of skim milk, and this turned into a mild hot chocolate of sorts. VERY mild and light. This isn’t something I would purchase just because it wasn’t as chocolate-y as I would like it to be. The flavors were a bit bland. Perhaps a longer steep time would have helped it out.

You know how sometimes it seems like you search and search for something and it ends up being right under your nose the entire time? Like, a really good caramel black tea?

Yeah. I made this to take into the movies with me yesterday, and couldn’t believe how tasty it was.

I remember being super underwhelmed when I first tried it because at the time I was looking for super extreme flavoring, but now that I’ve refined my tastes a bit (great success!), I realize that I truly enjoy this tea.

It’s pretty delicious. Subtle. Sweet caramel flavoring and a tea base that seemingly can’t be ruined, because I’m pretty sure I let it steep for quite awhile. A nice rich liquor that stood up next to my milk and said “I shall not be overcome!”

It was good. I’m sad I swapped so much of this away back in the day, I might just have to suck it up and do another Kusmi order at some point (I hate paying stupid shipping fees but what can you do when you live in a shoe Canada??)

Bumping my rating up from 76. Such a happy ending to a tea story!

Drank this again, it’s growing on me! It’s a subtle caramel taste but the tea base is pretty nice so I do appreciate what they did here. I am starting to enjoy the fact that it’s not overwhelmingly sweet, so I could drink it alongside actual dessert without having a sugar coma.

Maaaayybe I will just have to bump my rating up!

Back to Doctor Who now. “You are superior in one respect….you are better at dying!”

I’m almost done Season 2 (decided to watch this because everyone seems to be nuts over it) and trying to decide if I should continue along with S3 immediately or watch every season of Buffy over again instead. (Diehard, lifelong Buffy fan)

I really want to love this, but I find it brews really weak! It’s so black and rich smelling in the tin, but when you add water it isn’t very hearty at all. I know there’s a real “tea word” for that but I’m struggling to remember it.

So, caramel. It does smell fairly caramelly, but doesn’t taste as much. I know I’ve been drinking a lot of super sweet dessert teas over the last few years, the kind that punch you in the face with their (often artificial) sweetness. Obviously this one is intended to be much more subtle and therefore classic. I am trying it with a bit of cream now which is weakening it more. I bet a small amount of sugar would bring out the flavour more but I have sworn off adding sugar to anything. I might try a bit of honey though that could be weird.

To summarize, it’s not as sweet or caramellicious as I’d hoped, but my taste buds have long been ruined by ridiculous saccharine confection blends so I will keep trying this as I hone my tastes!

Still an old favorite of mine. I had bought it blind from Kusmi, and didn’t regret it. I do love bergamot. I find it interesting how I’m just noticing now how similar this is to Harney and Son’s Paris tea, which I also love. I will have to do a taste test sometime. At the very least a sniff test, once my sick little nose is back to operating at 100%.

I recently ordered this and the Caramel tea from Kusmi and was really excited to try this, based on the description, it seemed right up my alley.

It didn’t disappoint me, I can taste the fruit, and the sweetness of the caramel, and of course the bergamot which basically seals the deal that I’m going to love it, since it reminds me of a fruity earl grey.

To me, it’s sort of like what Davidstea ‘The Earl’s Garden’ (which I love) would be if it tasted less artificial. I will add to this after my second taste!

I accidentally steeped it about ten degrees higher than recommended on the tin so next time I will do it accurately and report back!

Edit to add- it’s definitely more tea flavoured than anything else, I mean the flavouring is definitely subtle!!

I got this in a tea swap from fellow steepsterite Ellyn. I have never tried a tea that is violet based. I was apprehensive at first because I am not a huge fan of floral teas, they have to be extremely specific, otherwise I find them way too pungent and off-putting. I was pleasantly suprised. It is quite mellow, and the black tea comes out strongly within the beginning of the sip but towards the end of the sip, I can taste the floral. I like violet way more than any hibiscus or rose tea I have had as I find it compliments with tea, rather than overpowers it! this was an excellent first venture into a violet tea, and it definitely will not be my last!

Reviewing my rating. I wonder why I rated it so high. I really have trouble to finish the 25g mini tin, often get a too bitter brew and am not so keen on the overwhelming rose flavor.
I indeed tried it mixed with some of my Jasmine pearls. Overall I have to be careful to put twice as much rose green tea in comparison with the jasmine tea, otherwise the rose is already muted at the first brew. And even when I managed a successful first brew, it doesn’t allow for a resteep, the jasmine gets stronger and stronger and the rose seems gone.
Not a very interesting blend and too capricious. Not sure that I would recommend it, even to flowering / rose tea fans.

Reading the other reviews, I really wonder if there are different batches not made with the exact same recipe.
When opening the tin, I was a bit disappointed to see less rose petals in my blend than there are in the marketing picture. However the smell is there.
While brewing, the flowery smell gets quite strong and wafts over the room.
I tried to be careful not to overbrew the first steep and tried it.
Yes, roses and roses and roses with a nice green tea reminding me of green-pasture grass.
It’s a bit too flowery for my taste, though I believe there are not too much rose flavor in the blend; it’s just that I prefer the flowers to be mixed with something else.
The first brew looked a bit murky, not as much as Green St Petersburg, but enough not to look too appealing to me. From the second, it got clearer and nicer. For this first batch, I steeped it 4 times in total and it felt like 1 or 2 more could have been possible. I forgot it for almost 5 minutes at the third steep and positive surprise, it was not bitter.
I may try to mix it with my jasmine pearls, to try to replicate the Pearl of the Orient blend and see if the mix jasmine-roses makes it easier to finish both those very nice but too flowery teas.
I would definitely recommend it to rose and flower flavor addicts.