The London Tea Room

The husband left absurdly early today, necessitating separate tea brewing for the two of us. Usually I made a big pot of one tea and split it but today I went ahead and made two different types of tea so that I could experiment a little without the potential of torturing the husband (and so that my tea wouldn’t be room temperature by the time I left the house).

The experiment that I wanted to try was using one of my ‘teacup teas’ and see how they did as ‘travel tumbler’ teas. To me, teas that I enjoy in a teacup – which allows me to smell the tea as I drink it – tend to fall a little short when put in a travel tumbler with a lid. Keemuns are especially unhappy for me in something that prevents smelling the tea while I sip – changes the entire taste. So most of the time for my tumbler, I have to go for flavored teas (which, frankly, I am getting a little tired of) or a breakfast blend, English-style. English-style because the addition of milk and sugar makes the experience more forgiving if the tea gets too bitter sitting in my tumbler for my 40+ minute drive to work.

So today I wanted to try a smoother black tea ‘teacup tea’ that would hopefully not require sugar or milk and still be a pleasant drinking experience. So I grabbed this and crossed my fingers.

It still had that Assam-turning-into-Yunnan-as-it-cools front flavor and it still had a nice, bright Darjeeling end taste. So that’s good. There was no bitterness, even at the end of my 12oz, though the closer I got to the bottom of the tumbler, the more it moved from a Darjeeling ‘bright’ to a Darjeeling ‘tart’. The tea and I never entered Tartness-Land, but we got close enough to see the border guards in the distance. If I had done a 5 minute brew, I imagine we would have gotten our passport stamped if not seen some of the local sites.

So overall, the basics of what made this tea interesting were still there. Starchy front taste when hot, smoothing out as it cooled just a bit and turning earthy. And then, if I took a big swallow, the earthy would throw out some strong cocoa notes. And always finishing with the bright, citrus-or-muscadine end that always screams ‘DARJEELING!’ to me. But even though all the pieces were there, it just wasn’t as… happy as it was out of a cup where I could smell the lovely scents as I drank. Not a huge difference but if this was the first time I had had this tea, I would have given it a lower rating (probably somewhere in the low or mid 70s). But as it is, I’ll leave the rating where it is and just consider this tea a teacup tea that can be put in a tumbler if needed.

So, did you know if you accidentally hit the escape button while typing a review, it all goes away? Apparently so!

Let’s see if I can remember what I wrote and pick up from there….

Upon first impression, the dry leaves smelled like Assam but then as I continued to sniff, they remind me more of a Darjeeling – there is a bit of sharpness that makes me think of the muscatel taste in Darjeelings.

As I’m waiting for the water to boil (oh how I miss my Zojirushi – would it be overkill to bring that on my next road trip?) I Google a bit to see if I can find anything about this estate or tea. Other than the fact that Lupicia sells tea from this estate and that this estate’s tea seems to be in some Kenyan tea blends, I’m not really finding much. If anyone has any good links to share about the variety of tea plant they grow in Kenya and what they do to the leaves, I’d appreciate it! (Or where to buy more of them!)

Brewed up, the tea is a somewhat murky brown. Smells like a stout Yunnan, though. Mmm, tastes like a stout Yunnan, too. It’s very Yunnan like but makes me think of Yunnan Gold with a hint of Irish breakfast. It’s not from brewing it too heavy, though. Now that I have my teacups, I know I’m doing 2.3g/6oz. So this is just a stout tea.

I’m starting to get a bit of that sharpness I smelled that reminded me of a Darjeeling. As it cools, the front taste becomes Darjeeling-esque and the tail has the warm fuzzy tones of a Yunnan almost with a little cocoa taste after the swallow. Very faint though so it is more of a dry cocoa feel. If that makes sense. For all its stoutness it is a smooth tea with zero bitterness. I imagine it would hold up well to milk and sugar if that’s how you roll, but it has enough of the Yunnan-ish taste for me to find that unnecessary.

And now my cup is empty and I am sad. This is a good tea. I imagine that anyone that finds Yunnans somewhat boring or too smooth/mild tasting would enjoy this one. Or someone that finds Darjeelings too sharp, though this is definitely thicker than a Darjeeling. Or maybe this is the tea for the Irish Breakfast set that finds Chinese teas too weak/thin. Or maybe it is a tea for someone that likes all of those and wants to squish them all together into one nummy tea.

One last comment – I can feel the caffeine hitting my blood stream. This definitely fits on the Irish Breakfast side of the caffeine equation as I’ve never felt that Yunnans were particularly caffeinated. WHEE!!!

ETA: 2nd steep at 5 mins. It’s not an overly impressive second steep which is somewhat sad. Still had a Yunnan-esque flavor to it and still stout, but I couldn’t pick up any of the Darjeeling tartness/sharpness anymore which turned the tea into just sort of normal. Maybe like a second steep of an Irish Breakfast made with Chinese blacks.

I went to a tea room today! Whee! It was The London Tea Room (http://www.thelondontearoom.com/) in St. Louis and it was nifty!

They do a lot of the blends in house so I definitely wanted to try one. I MEANT to get the London Tea Room blend but due to a miscommunication (apparently they don’t speak Texan) I ended up with their English Breakfast blend. That’s okay, I’ll deal.

Now, from the rating you might think I didn’t find this an overly redeeming tea. It’s true that I didn’t love the taste of it – found it meh-ish… totally drinkable but not something I need to take home. BUT! It was neat in that I was able to identify what about it I didn’t like. It was that pesky cardboard taste that normal people apparently call ‘malt’. So yes, it was the Assam in it. Apparently, I’m pretty darn picky about my Assam (and the quality of my cardboard). The taste of the Assam was dominant and since it wasn’t as lovely of an Assam as Thomas Sampsom or Assam Harmony, it didn’t really blow my hair back. However, on the instances that I could taste beyond the Assam, it seemed like there was something good back behind there which, looking at the description, was probably the brightness of the Darjeeling trying to poke out. It was just hiding a bit too much. It was easier to find when I didn’t have milk or sugar in the tea, but ultimately I had to doctor the tea a bit because it is only gourmet cardboard that I can have straight and this was just the normal stuff.

I would like to say that the husband got their Earl Grey which was good and insanely fresh tasting in regards to the bergamot – and smooth enough to drink without milk or sugar. And my SIL got the Monk’s Blend which she sugared and milked to an almost insane degree however the sip I was able to steal was delicious and ensured that I bought some of that loose. Anyway, after my pot for one (two cups) of English Breakfast, I was nicely caffeinated and picked up 7 teas from them to take home with me (including the Monk’s Blend). I can’t wait to try those!

Yay tea room! (Wonder if there’s any chance we can go back tomorrow?)

This is everything a good Irish Breakfast should be. Malty, strong, and robust. I can taste the Assam and Kenyans nicely in this.