Murchie's Tea & Coffee
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Random non-advent tea note! I wanted a black tea to start the day and none of my current advent selections fit the bill.
This was an impulse purchase with my last Murchie’s order. Not sure why I felt compelled to try it, as I’m not a big floral fan. Yet orange blossom and honeysuckle both still appeal to me somehow. Anyway, this used to be a lady grey style tea with citrus and bergamot, but they reformulated it to something completely different. It’s enjoyable, light and fairly smooth with mellow citrus and sweet floral notes. There is something about the orange blossom specifically that goes a little bit soapy or body product to me, but not overly so. The overall balance leans a bit more floral, but it doesn’t totally overwhelm the bergamot. A pleasant cuppa, though I probably will put this into my rehoming box, just because I can’t see myself reaching for it.
As for the naming, I feel like Miss Grey would be better, as I picture the classic Earl and Lady Grey duo, with this tea being their young socialite daughter.
Flavors: Bergamot, Brisk, Citrus, Floral, Honeysuckle, Nectar, Orange Blossom, Perfume, Soap, Sweet
Preparation
Another from Cameron B a while ago, thanks very much! This one sounded ideal for reading. Assam and keemun and yunnan for caffeine power? Yup. It looks like they include more leaf than usual for a teabag. Unfortunately, I think these brew better in warmer weather, as when it is cold, the teabag seems to keep air in it, meaning the leaves aren’t steeping as much as I’d like. Maybe I should take the leaves out of the teabag…. The flavor is decent— like I said, somehow better in warmer weather, stronger. Assam, keemun and yunnan sounds like one of my ideal combinations, so this should be really good. Malty! I HAVE had it a few times now, more frequently than most teas, so I must like it…
Steep #1 // 1 teabag for a full mug // 19 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep
January sipdown
I brewed this very hot (almost boiling) but then cooled it down slightly with a dash of soy milk. It still takes forever to cool down in my thermos but I don’t want to leave a hot beverage without a lid sitting at work on the employee table. Still, it was lovely for both steeps.
I initially through this must be strawberry but raspberry makes more sense because this does not taste like Murchie’s other strawberry teas. The rose is nice and floral without being overpowering. I think this tea would benefit from a bit of vanilla to round out the bergamot. Or, maybe a maltier base. Still delightful, though.
Flavors: Bergamot, Berry, Brisk, Citrus, Floral, Fruity, Rose
Preparation
Dec 2025 TTB, 2nd round.
Government Street Blend; by Murchie’s Tea & Coffee
Stringless paper teabag in an unsealable cellophane bag. (I suspect it’s gone stale in the time since Arby kindly added it to the TTB 7 months ago.) 2.6 g. / 8 oz / 205°F / 4 min. The CTC leaf within yielded a powerful, dark brown infusion with a pleasant black tea aroma.
If there is green tea in this blend, I couldn’t tell (nothing floral or vegetal).
If there is jasmine flavor in this blend, I couldn’t tell.
If there is bergamot flavor in this blend, I couldn’t tell.
Sweetness—nope.
Nor could I detect anything uniquely Darjeeling or Ceylon, except the slight maltiness was complemented by a note of cardboard flavor.
A pleasantly tannic finish. Overall, the tea is okay, slightly more complex in the tea flavor than Lipton black tea bags. Recommended, but because it lacks four of the specific flavor/aroma elements claimed, I dock it twenty points and arrive at a rating of 47.
Flavors: Cardboard, Malt, Tannin
Preparation
Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!
I recently ordered the Murdoch Mysteries collection from Murchie’s, and this is one of two additional teas that tagged along for the ride. I honestly don’t generally enjoy either marzipan or coconut flavors in tea, but for some reason I felt compelled to try it anyway. Maybe because I’m a sucker for a holiday tea, and I’ve tried all the others.
Anyway, I’m actually enjoying it! It actually tastes a bit like an almond-flavored butter cookie to me, with a touch of creamy coconut. It brings to mind a small, round buttery cookie similar to an Italian wedding cookie, but rolled in a bit of sweetened shredded coconut. The marzipan isn’t so strong that it becomes cloying, and the cookie quality helps there too I think. So an unexpected success!
Flavors: Almond, Buttery, Coconut, Cookie, Creamy, Marzipan, Smooth, Sweet
The last new-to-me holiday tea from Murchie’s!
This one is lovely. It actually reminds me a lot of Creha’s cinnamon wakocha that Yunomi carried once upon a time. They still have a few of Creha’s flavored teas, but not many. I may have to order the roasted chestnut again one of these days…
But anyway! The base here is very light and Darjeeling/wakocha-like, which makes sense given it has black tea from Nepal. The cinnamon is subtle but gives it a Taiwanese-esque cinnamon and honey vibe that I love. I feel like the birch bark and cinnamon are sort of melding together for me, so it’s hard to pick out the described wintergreen notes. But either way, it’s delightful. Definitely a good year-round tea, and one that I would order again!
Flavors: Bread, Cinnamon, Grain, Hay, Honey, Light, Nectar, Smooth, Soft, Sweet, Toast
Preparation
Another Murchie’s holiday tea that I skipped last year, so figured I would try it out this year!
This is… interesting. I do like it, but to me it’s not gingerbread at all. It actually tastes a bit like one of those root beer barrel hard candies mixed with a few red hots. And there’s some earthy ginger in there too, which leaves a slightly warm finish. It’s not at all what I was expecting ha ha, and when I smelled and then sipped it, I immediately thought “root beer barrel” lmao, it’s that spot-on. But it’s actually quite nice because the flavoring isn’t so powerful that it’s cloying, so it makes for an enjoyable less conventional spiced black tea. And I think the ginger root helps it not just taste like straight-up candy as well.
I will say, it’s a bit thin even though I intentionally used extra leaf due to the high proportion of spices (and therefore lower proportion of tea).
Flavors: Candy, Cinnamon, Earthy, Ginger, Root Beer, Spices, Spicy, Sweet, Thin, Warm, Watery
Preparation
I’ve been good about not buying tea this month (since I haven’t been drinking much anyway), but couldn’t resist grabbing a few holiday teas from Murchie’s that I didn’t try last year. I got the Birch Blend, which was a tasting lab blend but was brought back (yay!), Gingerbread, and this tea.
This sounded intriguing to me, it has vanilla and spices (as mentioned), but it also has roasted carob and sarsaparilla. It does smell a bit like a root beer float in the bag, and in the steeped cup. Sipping it, I really like the blend of spices, and they keep it from straight up tasting like root beer. The vanilla is subtle but noticeable. However, the base is just so tannic and astringent that it’s making me pucker a little bit. Not sure if this is a different Ceylon than some of their other blends, as I don’t remember it being quite so brisk before. Might have to give it another go with a shorter steep, and if that doesn’t help I’ll try it with oat milk.
Flavors: Acidic, Astringent, Brisk, Cinnamon, Drying, Root Beer, Sarsaparilla, Spices, Sweet, Tannic, Vanilla
Preparation
Sipping this with milk and sugar this morning. It really does make it fruitier, almost kinda jammy in the cup. Gardenia, fruit, milk tea seems like an odd combination, and this did end up an oddball sort of tea. But I like it. Definitely didn’t turn out how I intended.
2025 sipdown no. 36
This is decent. The base is nice enough (I believe the same as their lemon black tea) and the strawberry flavour wasn’t cloying. I absolutely adore a ripe strawberry, but strawberry teas just don’t do it for me. Thanks for sharing Cameron!
Preparation
2025 sipdown no. 34
This has a lovely lemon flavour that comes through clearly. The base is fine, with nothing much to report except that it doesn’t detract from the lemon and isn’t astringent — both of which I appreciate. Thanks Cameron for sharing!
Preparation
Never got around to trying this one from the Summer Fruit collection I bought in May, so I figured I should remedy that.
It’s nice enough. The base is a mix of Keemun and Ceylon, so it has some earthy notes but is also a bit brisk and quite acidic. As for the strawberry, it’s definitely more on the candy side of things, but it does have a nice tang to it that keeps it from being too sweet. I think I will probably enjoy this and the Raspberry version most as milk teas, as the base can be a bit hard on my stomach when taken plain.
Flavors: Acidic, Brisk, Candy, Earthy, Fruity, Strawberry, Sweet, Tangy, Tannic
Preparation
This came in the mail while I was away. I love when I forget about tea orders, it’s fun to have surprises! I was a little disappointed with this one as is but it was really good for a bagged chai (got the tea bags over LL to try). However, I didn’t taste the maple at all till adding sweetener. Without sweetener, 60. With… 80! I think I was hoping for something like the classic DT pumpkin chai or Trader Nicks Pumpkin King.
Flavors: Cardamom, Cinnamon, Maple, Spicy, Sweet, Tea, Vanilla
TTB 2025
I’m not typically a fan of green and black blended tea, but this steeped twice and had a nice smooth profile. The buttery maple is the star here, and I wasn’t sure at first, but the second steep won me over. I’ll take an extra bag for later consumption. Thanks for adding it to the box!
So, I really like this one… but I couldn’t tell you why. Like many of the other reviews, I think that the amount of flavors in this blend make it a bit hard to distinguish, it is quite tasty. I like Rose, I like raspberry, and I like bergamot. So what’s not to like? Sure, I could do with some more bergamot or… maybe I need to find a raspberry Earl Grey blend (let me know if one exists). But hey, maybe its the broken AC in the office making me freezing making mediocre tea surprisingly good or… maybe I’m in the minority of people that would re-purchase this one.
Flavors: Airy, Candy, Floral, Fruity, Raspberry, Rose, Sugar, Syrupy
Well, never mind I guess. Google very aggressively let me know that raspberry Earl Greys are a thing, and I have in fact browsed some before…
There is a wholesale raspberry Earl that I often see at tea shops.
Hmmm which one @CameronB ?
It’s just called Raspberry Earl Grey, here it is at Shanti Tea: https://www.shantitea.ca/home/product/raspberry-earl-grey
Ooh thank you @CameronB.
I… really like this tea. I didn’t think I would considering the unexpected spices… but it is perfectly balanced for me. I guess I’ll need to grab more when I go to Canada next week if I can.
Flavors: Caramelized Sugar, Cinnamon, Clove, Orange, Orange Zest, Spices
TTB 2.0 Still not a big fan of this one. Would be fine on its own. Doesn’t need the added flavoring. Just gives it that artificial metallic tickle that I hate.
TTB: Can I be honest? I hate it when companies use natural or artificial flavor unless they give specifics. It makes it different for those of us with allergies, and honestly, it just shows a lack of transparency.
Dry Aroma: Subtle notes of bergamot and floral notes.
Initial Steeping aroma: More jasmine is coming out now. Not intensely, but enough to give you a smile. Jasmine reminds me of Hawai’i.
Wet tea bag aroma: Nice woody notes with hints of jasmine.
Flavor: Not as appealing as the aroma was. Very little jasmine. No bergamot. Just some nice woody tones. Would probably be nice when some milk would be added but not too much as this one is not that brisk.
I agree with you 100% about those natural or artificial flavoring! Transparency should be paramount in this industry!
It’s definitely a difficult topic. Even those who are better at it still have issues. For example, I recently interviewed the lady who runs Voiltion Tea. For the most part her company is very transparent, but yesterday I ran into an issue with one of her products. It’s called mocha. The precursor to matcha. The problem is a true mocha is not shaded but theirs is…
Hmmm. My understanding is that “shading” the tea leaves for Mo Cha production was a Japanese innovation, when introducing tea to Japan. (I presume “shading” in this context means blocking direct sunlight from falling on the plants, for a period before harvest, to stimulate chlorophyll production thus creating a more vibrant green color.) So it sounds like in your opinion “true Ma Cha” utilises only the original Chinese method, yes? If I’m understanding it correctly, I’m not sure I’d consider that an issue of ingredient transparency, but rather of proprietary process. Perhaps you can illuminate further, if I’m missing something? [see what I did there ;-) ]
Flavouring is very complicated, especially as it pertain to allergens. With the exception of very rare conditions (like some auto-immune disorders), the average person with an allergy is reacting to the protein in food product. Protein is incredibly uncommon as part of what is extracted and present in flavouring. So, if you’re allergic to strawberries you can almost certainly consume strawberry flavouring – natural or otherwise. That’s a big part of why companies don’t have to specify the flavouring type on their packaging beyond whether it’s organic, natural, natural identical (specifically used in Europe as a flavouring designator), WONF, or artificial.
There are flavourings derived from natural sources that are priority allergens. For example, I’ve worked with a natural roasted peanut flavouring. From a food safety/regulation perspective this ingredient did not have to bear any allergen warnings on the product packaging because of the production process of the flavouring. I’ve also seen flavouring where this is not true and the final product does carry either a contains or may contain allergen statement because the protein that triggers an allergic reaction is present in flavouring following production.
Not necessarily advocating for or against listing the flavouring types. From my perspective (biased working in the industry, obviously) there are definitely pros/cons either way. Sometimes specific flavours are used to give the impression of other flavours (ex. peach flavouring is a common inclusion in rose flavoured products) – if you listed the flavouring types you might break that flavour illusion, though. Popcorn flavouring also incredibly common in pastry/bakery blends – but most customers would be confused/concerned seeing popcorn flavouring as a component of their danish or apple pie inspired food/bev. So it’s grey, for sure. You want to evoke a specific taste or feeling but naming what’s contributing to that can sometimes immediately prevent that from happening since that ‘suggestion effect’ can be so powerful.
Obviously the opposite is true too – by telling you the flavouring used it might further plant the perception of that flavour in your mind. So it’s sooooo situational when (from the perspective of the formulator) it’s a pro or a con.
…and that’s not even touching the side where sharing flavouring types can be very bad from a protection of recipe/formulation standpoint. Think about it, if Oreo listed EXACTLY the flavouring types and compositions of its products then what’s to stop all of their other competitors from directly copying their recipes? Often flavouring is the key differentiation between one companies blend and another’s.
(Sorry – I obviously have very strong feelings on this lol)
Thank you for that interesting explanation, Kelly!
That was an awesome read. Thank you, Rosewell! I was not aware of that fact with the allergens, though I do question sometimes still after I have something with flavoring, and then I feel off, but who knows, maybe it’s something else entirely.
On Mo cha vs Matcha. (Nice pun btw XD)
There are other factors beyond shading that also make a big difference. In order to be considered matcha it has to be grown in Japan. It has to be shaded and has to be separated properly before grading (to make it go from aracha to Tencha). Anything else is just powdered tea.
Now with Mo cha the leaves are not shaded. And the biggest difference, even more so than the shading (though this is also a big factor) comes from the fact that historically the leaves were formed into bricks and then powdered. So one could almost say mo cha is closer to a pressed white tea. I don’t know that I would go as far to say dark tea because the broth tends to end up looking more whiteish.
@ Skysamurai, Sorry, I’m totally confused now. I was trying to read up on it all at your recommended (a few months back) site at https://ooika.co/learn/mo-cha-tea-drunk I’m not sure who gets to say that matcha may only come from Japan. That sounds rather ethnocentric for a process that was borrowed from China. But I don’t mind buying champagne that is grown and made in California, either, so go ahead and call me blasphemous. :-) I’m not going to argue in the comments, but at some point it might be helpful for you to raise the issue as a new discussion topic in the Discussions area here on Steepster. Cheers!
PS, my pun was meant to be on “illuminate” vs. shading of plants.
Hmm, I’m not sure that ethnocentric would be the right word for it, as I would be evaluating based on tea here but I think I get what you mean.
As for this topic, it is more about the farmers and less about us consumers. Though we consumers are the ones who tend to mess things up and make it difficult for the farmers. If someone walked up to you and said, “Anything can be tea if it’s a liquid!” You would know that not to be true because only a true tea can come from a Camellia Sinensis. But but your current thought process, Who gets to say that? It makes it difficult. If Japan can put a geographical indicator on matcha, it will greatly help the farmers. I don’t have anything against powdered teas from other places, but I personally think it just shows a lack of fair trade and transparency. I wouldn’t call it blasphemous because it shows that other farmers want to try to be just as good, if not better than, their GI counterparts, but that really hurts those who are in the area with the GI.
And yes. I picked up on illuminate vs shading with the pun. My placement of where I said that was confusing. Sorry about that.
Well shoot…I guess I’m busted for being a hypocrite, because I do stick to the tea/tisane distinction, even though I’m not sure where to place Camellia taliensis infusions. Heh. Anyhow, for matcha, I’m just going to try to follow a sensible convention that minimizes offense and maximizes clarity— once it makes more sense to me. Meanwhile, please continue leading the way!
hehe There are definitely grey areas! And unfortunately, there is not a lot of transparency in the tea industry. Just go look at a wine bottle or coffee bag versus a tea bag. But I guess for me, after going to tea farmers and getting to try plucking, steaming, and rolling (temomi) I want to give the right credit to the right people.
I hate it when companies don’t list “natural flavours” as someone with an severe intolerance. Companies have to label garlic and its products (garlic powder, granulated garlic) separate from spices or herbs, but they do not have to specify if garlic aroma or natural garlic flavouring is used in foods. This is a problem as someone who reacts horribly to a carbohydrate in garlic that is not removed just because the whole bulb isn’t being used.
Additionally, caramel colour can be made with onions, among many other things. I’m lucky to be able to eat onions but many can not. I don’t think it is fair for companies to not have to specify where flavourings or caramel colour derive from just because it isn’t a recognized allergen.
Artificial colour/flavour is actually a godsend for me because it means it is unlikely to/does not contain anything I’m going to react to.
TTB. If one were to judge a tea by smell alone I’d be walking out the door.
Smells like fake caramel and slightly old maple syrup. And I don’t say that lightly because I only buy the good stuff. We have a company here called Faxon Farms that makes fantastic maple syrup. Anyway…
I’m having a hard time getting over the aroma
It hurts my stomach. The liquor color us very nice. Clear and deep rosewood. The aroma has tampered off quite a bit still a bit of the fake caramel but now with slight woody notes. The flavor is… nope. Started off okay. Dark wood noted. Then that fake caramel flavor comes out. Sorry… no. I can’t. I tried a few sips to really make sure that I wasn’t judging the tea by the aroma but I really can’t stand this flavor
That is how I felt about Adagio’s vanilla flavoring in their vanilla black tea. Why can’t they just add some vanilla seed or pulp to the tea leaves? I know it’s expensive, but some things are worth it. But this is highly personal, because I, for example, dislike the taste of real maple. I much prefer a certain HFCS-based pancake sauce over genuine maple syrup. But I would take blueberry sauce over that! Or caramelized bananas over any of them!
