Pickwick

A decent Earl Grey for being in a tea bag. Drinkable but not one I would seek out to buy. The bergamot flavor was probably the best part of the experience. The citrus tasted crisp and fairly clean. When steeped from 2-4 minutes, not sure how long as I was grabbing food, you won’t find much in the way of astringency. Woody flavor and a bit of earthiness but mainly just he bergamot. The aroma is really what brings the score down more. It smells of citrus and cardboard. Not tea related: In Vouliagmeni there is a Lake Vouliagmeni. Now, why would someone who lives in the Land of 10,000 lakes, want to pay money to visit a lake in Greece? I asked myself that too as my husband stood there paying. We soon discovered why. This pristine area is a volcanic lake that maintains a fairly decent temperature year around. It was still a bit brisk to get in but not nearly as cold as some of the pools we tried to swim in ^^; And the main, fun attraction: the nibble fish. Once you got past the tickling sensation it was quite nice. Also amusing to watch people around you.

Decent for a tea bag. Good for you who like to drown your tea in milk/sugar. It is brisk. Somewhat woody. Along the lines of dried wood. Varnish. And bits of metallic notes in the finish but this is mostly covered with the asringency. When the tea bag is opened it reveals chocolate brown coloring, CTC leaf. Pickwick was the tea of choice for the Amarilia Hotel in Vouliagmeni Greece. They had a great breakfast with a honeycomb that they slanted to get honey from.

There are certainly many better Earl Greys, but I actually ran out of flavoured blacks at work (some little of Snowball remains) so I bought this in grocery store with a hope it will be a good easy drinking tea. Moreover, the box was very cute and I have hoped that outer wrappings of the tea bags will be cute as well. They are!

So, I decided to take a mug of it when I have arrived home to test it out.

The aroma of the tea bag itself is pretty much common. Almost nothing. Some herbs. Nothing from tea. Bergamot was somehow muted.

Brewed tea with boiling water and three minutes steep is okay. Orange is actually overpowering the base, but in a still pleasant level, there is some sharp lemon taste too. Sadly, I don’t notice much of bergamot — because the rest of the flavour is the fennel (or anise, or both). Interesting twist.

I think that I will finish the box while sipping in the office. It’s safe bet for those sessions.

The remaining tas of Joy of Tea series are: Ginger Spices, Green Jasmine and Berry Dreams. None of them sound too interesting to me, but maybe I will buy them for the tea bag wrappers.

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
January 2022 → A new tea

I picked up a box of this with my latest igourmet order. I’m a huge fan of strawberry black teas, so I was excited to see it. They didn’t have the variety I expected, but there were some new-to-me teas there that I might want to try at some point.

James loved this one and asked me to immediately add it to the wishlist so that we don’t forget when we run out. He’s already had a few cups. Today was my first, and I have to say that I’m not too impressed. There is a musty smell after steeping, not quite sure what that’s about, and some strawberry candy flavor, but there isn’t really anything exciting about it. I’ve certainly had others that were better.

The bag I had stated Best Before 04 APR 2021, drank nearly 8 months beyond that. No issue with the taste whatsoever. I actually quite like this one. There’s less of the obvious hay-and-apple floral chamomile taste and more of a soothing herbaceous quality.

I had this tea yesterday, some oldie bag founded in the drawer, but it was still full of flavour though it was only in paper bag.

I arrived home 6 am today and now it is 10 am and I have to be “ready” on the lecture via MS Teams. At least it is online and not present! I would be sleeping all the lecture. Actually I am thinking about going to sleep again… it is quite boring lecture (warehouse operations) which is good for my bachelor thesis, but she almost only reads the presentation. Ehhm.

Back to the tea — it is pretty strong in cinnamon in aroma, but when brewed… I think it pretty much is what is it. There is some fruit notes (not that sure about pear, but could be some really ripe one), warming cinnamon and some sweetness from caramel.

Overall quite smooth, missing bit the base, but I can’t ask for everything in such a small tea bag.

I’m having a very old indeed bag of this, made up with twice boiled water because I forgot about it the first time, and then added a splash of cold to bring it down to temperature. It’s only a miracle that it’s not oversteeped to boot. And it’s fine.

I’m having tummy issues and I’m all out of minty. Don’t judge me.

Received this tea bag from postcrossing, from the Netherlands. Apparently back in September.

But, it is pretty clear what this tea is about. Camomile with passion fruit and passion flowers.

And indeed, it is very fruity in aroma. But camomile takes its part very seriously too and is noticeable in aroma. And probably not bad camomile, because it really takes nice pollen scent. Not that weird earthy, herbal aroma.

In taste, after 5 minutes of steeping, there is most prominent the passionfruit. Unfortunately, bit in artificial way. It also make the camomile disappear in taste in a whole. It’s not bad, but… I have expected more herbal, than fruity taste.

Today an exam. 0 points. Really?

Long story short: I made it differently and it would not work if used in different part of program. But still it made my day bitter.

When I came home, I found out that my Farmerleaf order (from 15th April) is waiting for me at customs. There is no tax on it, but it needs to be cleared through customs. So – trip to Prague tomorrow. 164 km on rails one way. At least I will think about something else. Maybe a good thing.

I was not really sure what tea I want to drink, going through my stash of puerhs, tea bags, all teas I have. And then I still ended with family cupboard and found out this one. As there is today +35°C (95 F), this sounds pretty refreshing.

Strawberry – check
Mint – Check

Good start. Both mains are present in aroma as well in taste. Pretty light, yet red colour and clear. I am impressed, usually some dust goes off of the tea bag. Not this time.

It cools down soo slowly.

But the taste is not changing… it is what it says. Strawberry & Mint.
Yep, quite fruity and quite refreshing. Probably iced will be better.

I pay a fortune for Amazon to import this bagged tea for me, and it is worth every penny. The flavor is unparalleled for bagged tea and it makes an absolutely delicious iced tea that doesn’t need a single thing added. However, when I want a special treat, I add 2 oz of Simply Lemonade to a 16 oz cup of this tea iced and it makes for a refreshing drink. Love it!

Sweetish, hard candy flavour. Yes, there is a melon there, but hardly appetizing.
The taste is much more melon-like, but the most dominant note is wet cardboard.
No good. No good at all.

Strong and sweet peach aroma.
There’s also a slight sweetness in taste,plus moderate fruity peach notes and some maltiness in the background.
All in all it’s not bad, but not fruity enough. Would probably taste better as a cold brew.

Cherry and malty notes are well balanced both in aroma and taste. The tea is not overdone with cherry, is very easygoing. Good one.

Very strong blackcurrant aroma plus solid malty notes.
No sweetness in taste, a lot of blackcurrant, strong malty notes, solid warming effect.
Not bad for a Pickwick tea.

very slight straw aromas in aroma and taste, no bitterness nor astringency, not much beside water.

Slight jasmine aroma, slight straw notes from the base green tea.
Strong malty taste with solid jasmine notes.
Not bad, certainly better than I expected and better than an average Pickwick tea.

Strong peppermint aroma, with subtle green tea and citrusy notes in the background.
The taste is well balanced, with slight base tea bitterness, mint and lemon grass/lemon peels.
Really good as far as Pickwick goes (they usually don’t set the bar high…).

Strong aroma, with a lot of lemon and harsh, spicy ginger tones.
A lot of ginger in taste, but sadly more for taste than for spicyness, solid citrus peel undertones, barely a hint of licorice (which is good, because it doesn’t dominate).
Overtall, pretty decent, expecially for Pickwick.

This tea claims that it is a black tea, with green tea jasmine (first time I’m tasting this kind of blend) which it most likely is, but green tea and black is steeped best imo at different temperatures so that is a bit of a challenge if you want the flavours to be at their best.
I decided to steep the golden china completely like a black tea (because I generally like black tea the best, and I make bad decisions on a regular basis) at around 95° C for aprox 3 minutes.
The result of this was a brown tea that tasted very earthy and slightly bitter (put nicely, less nicely it was like dirt), I then added half a teaspoon of sugar to see if that would bring out some more flavour and it was still very earthy, but a bit more woodsy and with a sort of nutty note. And maybe the slightest hint of jasmine (but that could be my imagination)
In conclusion this tea isn’t good, it is actually pretty bad for a pickwick tea, and I won’t get this particular blend again, but the idea of a black of tea with jasmine is attractive to me and I wonder if there are others more succesful than the pickwick. And to be fair the pickwick might be better steeped at a lower temperature than I did in this instance to see if it will be better or bring out more of the jasmine in the blend. Especially the fact that the tea got bitter makes me think that it was steeped at too high a temperature in this instance, and maybe for too long as well.

TL;DR it is a bad tea, not worth the money.

Received two bags from friends in the Netherlands. I have not been a fan of holiday teas in the past, but this was delicious! The fruit and spice were perfectly balanced to my preferences and I used up both bag immediately.