Kusmi Tea

Sweet Love’s spicy aroma pulls you closer and your tastebuds anticipate the ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and pink peppercorn setting them ablaze. Yet, the liquorice roots add a smooth and very sweet layer to this chai’s flavor profile that needs no additional sweeteners.

For those chai stalwarts who prefer spicy to sweet, Sweet Love is exactly what its name implies. This black tea pairs excellently with dessert and definitely adds a romantic air to its atmosphere (read: keep used leaves as potpourri).

Usually I’m not a big fan of decafs, but this one is surprisingly nice. It’s very flavored like the non decaf version of Earl Grey. It’s great to accompany it with some milk. And great when you want a strong tea without the loosing sleep at night if you drink it in the evening.

I got a 2oz sample of this in the mail when I ordered some Christmas prezzies from the Kusmi website a few weeks ago. Now that it’s REALLY starting to be that time of the year (with the boyfriend’s family arriving in a few days) I decided to go ahead and give it a try.

Dry, it smells so lovely and fruity with that kick of Christmas-time spices. It’s also really beautiful, with bits of almond and what I’m assuming is orange peel.

Although once it’s steeped… it’s nice but it doesn’t pop out as a really amazing tea. It’s subtle… not nearly as spicy as it smells. You can definitely taste the fruit. It’s relatively smooth and sweet, which I find to be a given if it’s coming from Kusmi.

Um, I mean the tea is enjoyable, just not what I was expecting/am looking for.

Kusmi says that this goes well with spearmint and I’d have to agree since it seems like this is slightly contaminated with minty from the green assortment tube it came in. But it’s okay because it’s not too overpowering and it adds a nice little note to what seems to be an otherwise overly average tea. There’s nothing really too exciting about this one but at the same time, the fact that I don’t have any issues with something that is a Chinese green says a fair amount of good about this tea. There’s no salty/mineral taste (though perhaps the tinge of mint is covering it?) and it actually feels very smooth and silky while drinking, something I can’t recall from a Chinese green before.

Taste-wise, it’s pretty average. It’s green, it’s tea, it’s there. There’s not too much more to say about it. The feel is the neatest part – and that is pretty neat.

So ultimately, I’m a bit mixed about this tea. It’s good for a Chinese green – I like it – but it doesn’t seem that special other than the fact that I don’t find it offensive. Totally drinkable and even enjoyable, I just don’t know if it will stick in my mind enough for me to remember to drink it.

ETA: Second Steep (2:00) is a little rougher with some slight astringency and I can taste some smoke now, though it is more cigarette than pipe or campfire.

The green version of my beloved St. Petersburg!!!! :D The signature notes of red fruits and caramel are just as fragrant and delightful… it’s virtually the same as St. Petersburg but only lighter and sweeter. I personally think it’s great for evenings as it is a soothing, gentle tea.

My second Kusmi Tea. It has a lovely, rich aroma of chocolate. The spices used in this tea are not specified on the Kusmi Tea website, but probably they are spices commonly used in masala chai recipe? Mmmm… so Indian! :9 Guess the tea will go well with a bit of milk! ;D

Free sample from Kusmi! yay!

First off, I don’t love Earl Grey. Never did. But this has a floral taste that kind of overpowers the actual taste of tea, so the Earl Grey is more of a sideshow than the main event. It also leaves a sort of floral aftertaste, which is a little weird. Like eating flowers. But they were certainly spot-on with the name of this one.

Also, I’ve never seen one of Kusmi’s tea bags, but I love them. They’re little fabric bags, kind of like cheesecloth, which allows the tea to expand without getting crushed. So it’s almost like using loose leaves, but without having to clean up afterward. Bonus!

Looks like Gunpowder. Smells like mint. (Of course, that could be the mint from the sampler tube, not this particular tea.) Tastes… like green tea (tastes like the same one from their Almond Green) with an astringent chaser of… something, then followed by a grassy/hay-like aftertaste.

I can’t figure out what that astringency is but it’s pretty surprising. Almost like I overbrewed the tea but I used the same parameters that worked well with their Almond Green. So I’m guessing that buffalo grass is somewhat bitter/astringent?

I’m desperately trying to figure out what that bitterness is from. Fortunately, it seems to be fading as the tea cools. The cooler it gets, the more I can pick out. At first, slurping brings out some smoke? Have you ever driven through the smoke from a massive grass fire (like the controlled burns they do near highways that you drive on for miles and miles without seeing another car)? Yeah, slurping makes it taste that that.

More cooling and then there is a flash of flowers. Not so much garden flowers (highly fragrant sweet roses and the like) but more subtle, smaller flowers that you’d almost ignore the scent of as you walked by, but if you noticed you’d smell them everywhere.

More cooling and now I can pick out a savory herb taste. I actually went to sniff around in my spice cabinet to see if I could figure out what herb. Oregano. (Thyme was the second runner up but it was too sweet.)

And now that it is almost room temperature, I taste green tea and oregano. Oh, it’s not exactly like oregano. It doesn’t have quite the same high note. Perhaps like old oregano? But yeah. Oregano tea.

Not sure how I feel about that.
10g/20oz

So this is pretty cool. The leaves smell strongly of marzipan (and a little mint but I think that’s because it was in the sampler tube with the spearmint green sampler) but post-brewing, that smell disappointingly goes away. Fortunately, the marzipan shows up at the front of the sip (particularly when the tea is hot), then transitions to a more straight almond flavor which melds smoothly into the nuttiness of the Chinese green.

The Chinese green base in this doesn’t seem overly fancy or spectacular, but it works so great with the flavoring. As the tea cools, the marzipan sweetness fades and it becomes more raw almond and green tea, but again, the flavors meld delightfully.

Once again Kusmi surprises me and makes me like a flavored green.

Second Steep (3:00) – The flavor is softer now, predominately green tea but there is still a noticeable flavor of almond underneath it, mostly straight almond but with occasional sweet little marzipan spikes. Toward the end of the cup there was a little not-quite-bitterness, not-quite-astringency but almost thick, dark nuttiness. If it were stronger it could edge into unpleasant but as it is, it just makes it move fully away from the desserty marzipan almond and into a more natural/straight almond flavor. Honestly, it’s really tasty.
5.3g/10oz

The dry leaf smells like the green pack Extra gum. Which is kind of awesome because I love the green pack of Extra gum. The liquid has a few notes of that Extra gum sweetness but there’s a more natural, heavier note in there that kind of settles it down. Surprisingly, I’m looking forward to trying this.

The taste isn’t as sweet as the smell of the dry leaf. The heavier smell in the liquid shows up in the taste more than the sweetness does. The mint is nice – not raw or edgy – and it has a nice sweetness and a good menthol whoosh at the end that balances well with the tea.

Normally, Chinese greens are iffy for me but this one seems to be working well. There is some astringency at the tail end but it isn’t salty/mineral-y and so the astringency is just a stab of fresh-feeling at the end. The green tea’s got a bit of a woodsy flavor that balances the sweet mint nicely. I’m not sure if it’s from the mint or the green tea but there’s also a little spicy flavor to this.

Honestly, not what I was expecting from the Extra gum smell of the dry leaf and that’s a little disappointing. But at the same time, this is a nice, winter-y, cuddly green/mint blend. I was a little concerned about how Kusmi’s green teas would go, especially since a lot of the ones in the sampler are flavored and I have difficulties with flavored greens at times. Not that this is “flavored” (it’s more of a blend, I’d say) but still. This is pretty tasty so I’m a bit less concerned about the other greens I have to sample (well, except the Green Bouquet which I am fearing will be like Bouquet of Flowers No. 108 which was… not good.)

Anyway, I’m not sure if I would make a Kusmi order to get this tea specifically but since I do like having a mint tea around (nice for those allergy-induced stuffy days) I could see selecting this one to be the one I choose if I’m going to be ordering from Kusmi (and face it, with Caramel, St. Petersburg and Troika, I will be ordering from them decently often) and I am out of something minty.

YAAAY! So I decided to splurge and buy myself a tin while ordering my boyfriend’s mum’s Christmas present online. (shhh ;) and I got this in the mail today! SO EXCITED to try it and SO glad I decided to buy it online and not go to the Champs Elysee!

So not only do I get to try a new tea… it’s snowing in Paris and all the snow is resting on my now-dead flowers on my balcony and oh man, it’s so beautiful and I am so happy. Now let’s get this kettle boiling…

… mmm! So nice! Exactly what I needed. It’s very sweet and the caramel almost gives off a honey like taste. Even texture really! I’m not going to write too much about this because I’m getting over a pretty wicked cold and can’t taste or smell as one is supposed to. But if it tastes this nice under these conditions… can’t wait to try it when I’m feeling up to par!

So big ups to Kusmi. This tea is wonderful!

This tea has a pleasant chocolate smell, and I like the spicy taste, but I like it even better with just a little bit of spiced honey in it. mmmmmm

Drank this with the boyfriend while he was making a lovely little tea rack for me! Will try to post pictures eventually :)

So today I went on a little hunt around town for the Caramel blend by Kusmi (saves on shipping ;)… but sadly neither of the two stores I went to had it! I’m going to have to wait for Christmas or make the trek to the Champs (which is never something I do for fun because frankly, it’s tourist hell…) So instead I decided to go for the St Petersburg.

I always get a bit anxious when trying blends. This is probably because my past consists of way too many cups of cheap tea blends brewed for too long (eugh). But I’m happy to say that I’m quite impressed by this blend!

I love how smooth it is. One can definitely feel (and taste) the caramel. It’s in that beautiful little bubble right before you get to sweet so it can be enjoyed at any time of day. It smells absolutely amazing as well! I’d like to try to bake with this… hehe.

I am quite happy about this addition to my cupboard!

The Final Sipdown: Day 6.2

It’s a slightly overcast, though otherwise no less beautiful fall day. After momentarily debating over which tea to ELIMINATE next [sorry, I write a word like ELIMINATE and feel as though it needs to be said in all caps], Auggy reminded me that she had sent over some of Kusmi’s Caramel in the last package I received from her.

No brainer.

Using the entire sample [and it was sizeable], I made a large pot in the Breville and poured about a third of it into my tumbler to take while I took the dog out for a walk. Apart from the fact that the tumbler [I keep wanting to type that as tumblr] I have keeps the tea HOTHOTHOT for a long time [great when I’m drinking throughout the day, not so much in the short term], it was a delightful companion to my afternoon excursion.

That said, drinking tea whilst walking a very curious dog does not lend itself to paying attention to nuances within a tea. So I was happy that I had a near full pot waiting me when I returned so that I could log it properly.

This tea is smoooooth. It tastes of caramel, but not in an overtly flavored way. The black tea flavor is nearly always threading in and out of the caramel flavor in a pleasant, complimentary manner. At times I get notes of dates and cocoa, but the caramel is the star here and it is delicious. As the tea cools, I tend to get more astringency from it, but the aftertaste always is silky, part-salty-part-sweet caramel.

I have spent the majority of today sipping on this whilst Little Dog sleeps nearby, I catch up on DVR’d things, and I recover from yesterday. Thoroughly enjoyable, and should I find myself at Dean & Deluca in the near future, I hope I’ll be able to snag a tin of this [though I don’t recall seeing it the last time I was there]. Part of me is now wishing I had used one of my self-alloted five saves to keep part of this sample later, but it’s just giving me another reason to push through TFS so I can justify purchasing a tin.

Little Dog | http://bit.ly/cgMywy
Foliage | http://bit.ly/cb6e5y

And just to reiterate: I ABSOLUTELY ENDORSE THIS TEA.

Teas Downed: 14

Yum. Smoky, but not overly so. This doesn’t remind me of campfires or feel as strongly masculine as Caravan by A&D does, but has a nice husky flavor. I tried this both unsweetened and lightly sweetened. In both, there was a inherent sweet flavor at the end of the sip that very much complimented the smokeness of the brew.

Nice nice tea. I need to go find myself more Kusmi teas! (time for a Dean and Deluca run I think)

So, I made the mistake of reading the other reviews before drinking the tea and I was a little worried…. I’m the lucky person to get the rest of Angrboda ’s sample, and almost expected to see an actual grandmother in the tin once I opened it.

And wow – it definitely smelled like soap when I sniffed the leaf. Woo – SOAP. Soapy-soap-soap. But once brewed, I didn’t get that at all. In fact, I only vaguely got a floral taste. (Mind you, I did sweeten immediately – I didn’t even try unsweetened.)

I’m getting a diluted Earl Grey with a general floral undertone. Not bad, but not great.

Not Grandma, maybe Aunt Doris instead?