Williamson Tea

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Recent Tasting Notes

80

This one was an impulsive christmas purchase for my dad, and he really likes it! It’s quite complex for an ‘afternoon tea’, fruity and spicy with a hint of metallic astringency. If I had to guess what type of tea, I’d say it was an Assam, but I have had one Kenyan tea that was this nutty and smooth. That one was in tea bags and its been out of my cupboard for a while. My dad likes this one enough that he wants to purchase more, and I’m glad I took a gamble on tea from Marshalls :)

Flavors: Astringent, Fruity, Metallic, Nutty, Smooth

Courtney

I always look in the tea section at HomeSense here (well, pre-COVID) — sometimes there are unique finds like this!

Michelle

I’m always up for trying a tea, but don’t always end up drinking it all. This one’s a keeper.

Lexie Aleah

I was just at Marshall’s right before Christmas and the one closest doesn’t seem to have much of a tea selection unfortunately. At the same time, I don’t need any more tea right now so it was probably for the best.

Michelle

Lol, the revolving door of sipdowns and ‘ooh there’s a tea I’d like to try’

gmathis

Well said.

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89

Bought it because of the canister in a Marshals, of all places, love the tea.

From their website: “ our seasonal Christmas Blend a sweet fragrant tea that warms the body in the depths of winter, combining black tea from our Kapchorua farm with the aroma of apple and spice.”

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93

It’s nice, but it’s not Builder’s. It is a strong tea if I use two bags in one 8 oz cup and steep for at least 3-4 min, but it doesn’t have the same floral notes that Builder’s does. Still respectable. I’ll take it over Yorkshire, Typhoo, Barry’s, and even, dare I say, PG Tips.

Flavors: Malt

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 45 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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32

Origin: The heart of the Kenyan highlands on a farm powered entirely by renewable energy during the day with the use of solar power.
Ingredients: Kenyan Purple Tea

Aroma: Deep, rich black tea with a sweet edge. Once steeped develops into a sweet caramel based scent.

Flavour: Gentle note of sweet with a spiced fruit hint, that develops seamlessly into a toasted buttery note, resonating the flavour of honey roasted almonds. Further depth is added with a sudden heavy caramel piquancy that is found in the long lasting finish.

Learning Point: Purple tea contains an antioxidant that acts as a PH indicator, turning orange/pink with acidic solutions and a greenish colour for alkaline.

Final Thoughts: Fun to play around with, but the flavour is a little disappointing, with the exception of drinking it iced, which was delightfully light and refreshing. I would love to hear from someone who tried this and loved it, but it’s not something I would personally come back to. Overall, I think purple tea is something every avid tea lover should at least try, just for the experience.

For more visit https://tastethetea.co.uk/2016/10/02/purple-blush/

Flavors: Bitter, Butter, Caramel, Fruity, Honey, Tea

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 45 sec

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72

D is for… Duchess Grey!

I had so many options for “C teas” that seeing my list of “D teas” just left me feeling so restrained. Admittedly I still had a ton of options and I know that there will be days this month that are far more restricted yet, but still…

Picked this one to start because it’s one of those teas that I have a fair amount of but will probably never actively reach for without prompting – so I’m considering this the poke. I see I’ve rated it relatively high (especially for an EG blend – not my favourite) but I didn’t really enjoy this mug at all. Part of that was probably just that I wasn’t feeling an EG overly, but I also just felt like it was very brassy/metallic tasting and heavy handed on the bergamot. Qualities I don’t love in an EG.

If I would have had milk on hand, that’s the route I would have explored. Alas, I did not…

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72

Made this into an Earl Grey vinegar over the weekend, using 2/3 cup of white distilled vinegar, some sprigs of rosemary, and four of the EG teabags. Simple recipe; dump it all in a saucepot and bring to a boil – remove from heat and let keep steeping until cold. Strain and, well, “bam!” you’ve got EG vinegar. I also added in a spoon of lavender honey last minute as well, seeing as lavender goes so well with EG…

Not bad vinegar, but a VERY potent flavour. A little goes a LONG way. I need to remember to bring the mason jar of it into work with me; I’m really curious to see what my coworkers think of it. I think I over did it on the rosemary though; in the future I’d probably only use one or two sprigs instead of three.

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72

I’m slowly working my way through the massive amount of teabags of this I own. It feels like a shame tossing them but I bought this solely for the tin, remember. It’s just not my favourite tea either.

I used three of them earlier this week for a London Fog type latte; there wasn’t any vanilla, so it wasn’t a true London Fog but I did add in a little agave for sweetness, and a chocolate drizzle on the top to try and make it look/feel fancy. So, the sentiment was there. It didn’t taste bad either but what with three tea bags used to make it the bergamot WAS pretty strong.

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72

So I made Earl Grey Zucchini Pecan Bread today!

I used two kinds of Earl Grey in the recipe for twIce the bergamot goodness! The first was Andrews & Dunham’s Mount Gray and you can check out my tasting note for that tea here:

http://steepster.com/roswellstrange/posts/351803#likes

I’ve detailed the process and final product a little more thoroughly there.

Evol Ving Ness

Very inspired, Ms. Strange. Love this.

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72

So today is my first day off in over two weeks…

While mostly I just want to be lazy around the house today, I figured I should probably also do something that I can count as productive. And I decided that productive thing would be baking some bread! Of course, I’m not a real baker so I used a box bread recipe thinger; but I customized it and made it my own.

The main things I added were pureed pumpkin, and of course I had to include tea! In this circumstance I used this Earl Grey and mixed the fannings from two of the tea bags into the batter, and then I swapped out the water for the recipe with a very concentrated Earl Grey brew. Like, five teabags for ten minutes sort of concentrated…

Also, I don’t own a bread pan apparently even though I was SURE I did so I had to improvise a little bit. So, instead of baking my bread in a bread pan I used a roughly loaf of bread shaped/sized casserole dish instead. Thankfully it worked just fine, and now I have delicious Pumpkin Earl Grey bread to snack on for my day off!

The bread is sweet, rich, lightly spiced and has wonderful pumpkin and Earl grey flavours exploding from it with each bite. I cut myself off a thick slice and also melted some Swiss Cheese on it as well, and that only added to the divine, sweet flavour. I’m just loving this combination so much; it’s the best thing I’ve baked in recent memory honestly.

And a picture: https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15541620_10209019867587822_7333098820095302600_n.jpg?oh=5aecc0b175e31f1307d651cd555a4e4b&oe=58B19C28

The tea is the Columbian Bitaco Green Tea from LP’s Regional group buy. Review on that tea and the pairing to come next…

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72

So Duchess Grey tea bath…

Very, very soothing and relaxing with the added bonus of being incredibly aromatic and wonderful smelling. Not that peppermint tea baths, or most of the other ones I’ve tried, haven’t been. Doesn’t have the same tingly sensation on the skin that peppermint tea baths do either; but still very wonderful.

I used four teabags, and my bath water looked and smelled as concentrated as a normal mug of tea would.

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72

So this weekend after we went to Sask Expo, we stopped at Churchill’s in Saskatoon. It’s basically a British Foods store, and Laura REALLY wanted to go because she’s British and it’s one of the only places she can conveniently find a lot of the foods she grew up with.

I’d actually never been before, despite having previously lived in Saskatoon and walking by the store many, many times. I personally ended up grabbing some Pineapple Jam and Red Currant Jam, which I’ve yet to try. I also grabbed the big beautiful Elephant tin of this tea! I remember a while back on the discussion board this company was being discussed, and everyone was in love with the tins. They’re so much prettier in person, and I’ve never seen them anywhere else before (in person, that is) so I took advantage and bought one. For bagged tea, it certainly wasn’t cheap but this is definitely 100% one of those cases of getting a tea purely because of the packaging.

I tried it first thing this morning, and as far as Earl Grey goes (and bagged EG in particular) I actually thought it was pretty good. My understanding is that the difference between Williamson’s Duchess EG and their regular EG is that this uses Kenyan tea as the base? I wouldn’t say you can necessarily say the base is distinct enough that you’d know it’s Kenyan tea without the prior knowledge – but Kenyan black tea is actually quite citrusy as is, so I think that only helps/strengthens the profile of the bergamot in the blend.

I’d call this rich, and just a little sweet with the perfect balance of bergamot and no astringency. It’s smooth, and I’m sure would probably take milk well. That makes for a pretty convenient early morning tea – with gorgeous packaging to boot.

Rasseru

haha pineapple jam! lovely

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15

I bought 3 of the Cru tins of Williamson tea including this one, Earl Grey with Blue Flowers and Zinga Black. Tried all 3 and they are all just very bland. I’ve ended pourig the tea out into one of my own blending tins and adding some stronger teas to get some taste! Smell great and the containers will be great for other loose leaf teas but they just come across as really really weak in flavour and body.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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100

No notes yet. Add one?

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 5 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 4 OZ / 118 ML

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drank Earl Grey by Williamson Tea
345 tasting notes

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45
drank Earl Grey by Williamson Tea
737 tasting notes

Got a sample of this from Carol Who. Took a while to try it since I’m not big on Earl Grey, but I’m coming to the end of my sample bucket. :o So it’s about time I try it.
Kinda bland…nothing really to write home about. But at least I gave it a shot? XD
The rest of this sample will have to find a new home. Thanks for the sample, Carol Who!

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90

Sadly this tea does not come in one of Williamson’s gorgeous elephant caddies – only their teabags do. I snagged this in Selfridges’s Food Hall, where the didn’t have all of Williamson Tea’s selection of loose leaf teas, but they did have all the elephant caddies, for those interested.
I hadn’t tasted many Kenyan teas before this one (one or two, from The Tea House – Covent Garden and from Whittards), since they don’t seem as readily available as loose-leaf tea sold not as part of a blend. So I was really interested in tasting what seems to be Williamson Tea’s speciality – Kenyan Tea.
This is not as strong as I was expecting it to be, compared to my past experiences with Kenyan Tea, and it was more delicate, not just in flavour but in body too. If you don’t like Ceylon, but want something to fill in for the (unfortunate) Ceylon gap in your cupboard, give this a try. You can certainly brew it strong enough for milk, if you insist. It takes it rather well. But it’s best drunk plain, where it’s slightly woodsy taste has a chance to shine.
Is it as strong and malty as Assam? No.
Is it as sparklingly fresh as Ceylon? No.
Is it as delicate as fragrant Darjeeling? No.
But it seems to have combined the best qualities of all three, into something quite unique.
This tea makes me smile every time I drink it. Give it a try, if you get a chance.

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82

I got a 20g sample from my father, so I had to try it as soon as I got it, let’s see!

First infusion was quite very nice! Enjoyed a bit of bitterness, and a hype from the caffeine! I find it a bit too ‘heavy’ (as in caffeine) for a darjeeling tea.

Second infusion was even better! No more caffeine hype though. It was a lot lighter as I expected, but it had a slightly different taste. I believe I tasted some chocolateness there.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 0 sec 3 g 8 OZ / 250 ML

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90

My first taste of Williamson Tea’s range. Bought this at Selfridges (they tend to have a unique variety of teas – it’s worth visiting their food hall for a peek at what they have to offer). I bought one of their gorgeous elephant tea caddies (alas, they only do them for tea bags), and two tins of loose leaf tea – a Tippy Assam and a Kenyan (their specialty). The tin is nice and informative, the tea is delicious and malty, and takes milk well. It brews on the stronger side of Assam, but it is not powerfully astringent, so you can drink it plain as well. A very good Assam, less sweet than F&M’s Assam Superb, and with less depth of flavour than Whittard’s excellent Assam Hazelbank, but nevertheless recommended.

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90

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Another tea from the stash in the flat. Not too bad. Drinkable, but not fantastic. I might still buy some if I see one in a store that comes in one of the elephant tins. Alas, the box in the flat is mere cardboard.

Going to take it easy today. After walking a total of 24 miles over the last three days, I have a blister that covers the bottom of one of my toes. Slow going today.

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85

On this gray, rainy morning my little son and I headed out to the store, and I happened to find this Earl Grey, along with a variety of other Williamson teas. I’m not familiar with that company, but their products looked interesting—mostly Kenyan teas, which immediately piqued my interest. (I love Kenyan black teas! And actually, I’m currently trying hard to wait until I make my “summer tea purchase” to re-stock my cupboard with African teas, but it is so hard to wait…and then THIS came along!) Well, I figured the price was terrific, and although I would have liked to try some of the other teas they had as well, I decided on the Earl Grey because it was the only loose-leaf canister there, and it looked good. And I don’t think I’ve ever had a Kenyan EG. And it is a rainy day, which in my book means it’s an earl grey kind of day. And, as I mentioned, I’ve been craving Kenyan teas so…for all those reasons I felt compelled to buy it.

Now, purchasing teas on a whim like that without prior research into the company and its practices is rare for me, and on the offchance I do make an impulse buy, I have found it is pretty much a hit or miss. But I took my chances on this one, and it turned out to be a hit!

This is a VERY smooth, sweet EG. It lacks the sharpness or tingle you sometimes get from stronger EGs. The first thing that hit me was a lovely sweet orange flavor. Yes, I know that’s the bergamot, but this somehow tasted slightly more orange-y to me than the bergamots in other Earl Greys. It was delicious, though. Different, but delicious. This tea is robust, full bodied, luscious, and absolutely silky smooth. I think the Kenyan base works really well with the bergamot flavor. I would definitely buy this again.

So, for those who like a really strong hit-you-in-face bergamot-y Earl Grey, this would probably not be for you. But for those liking a more mellow cup, this I think would be perfect.

I was surprised to find that no one has reviewed this tea before, and there are only a few Williamson teas on Steepster. It’s too bad, because this one at least is a very enjoyable and affordable tea! If you go on Williamson’s website, they give a closer look at how they process their teas and it’s quite interesting. (I just wonder about pesticide use—that’s always my big concern, and they don’t say their tea is organic)—but other than that it looks like a decent company: they use sustainable farming methods, are Rainforest Alliance Certified, family-owned, and all of their tea is grown right there on their own farms in the Kenyan highlands.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Hesper June

Okay, so this would not be for than.
I like to be slapped in the face with the bergamont:)

Charissa

HAHA! :-D

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100
drank Lifeboat Tea by Williamson Tea
9 tasting notes

It’s difficult to explain the scent and taste of this tea. Is it like a fruity or flowery coffee? Does it smell like spices? I can’t say, and I’ve snuffled at the box for a while now, trying to figure it out. I couldn’t say based on my memory, which was why I went for the box. Sticking my nose in the box and breathing in the scent was pleasant, but not particularly helpful.

The taste of “Lifeboat Tea” is similarly difficult to relate. It’s nice, mellow-tasting, but complex. It’s unique and the aftertaste reminds me of a flower-based tea. It’s a good aftertaste. In fact, I like to sip at this tea slowly, because I enjoy the aftertaste so much in the in-between points. And despite its mellow taste, it provides a good boost of caffeine.

I got it at World Market at $5 for 80 bags. For such a cheap, bagged tea, I’m surprised at the quality. In addition to that, a little bit of the cost goes to charity and there’s a stamp on it saying it’s, “Rainforest Alliance Certified.”

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60
drank Duchess Grey by Williamson Tea
790 tasting notes

Pretty much the same as the Earl Grey from Williamson.

Very, very fine CTC.

It has a stronger bergamot than the Earl Grey did and more flavor as well. Between the two I’d prefer this one, but again, nothing I’ll keep on hand.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 30 sec

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59
drank Earl Grey by Williamson Tea
790 tasting notes

I had to steep 3 bags before I paid enough attention to not make this really bitter. It steeps very quickly since it is a very, very fine CTC. A stronger smell than flavor of bergamot. It’s okay but nothing I’ll keep on hand. Purchased for the tin and at least it is drinkable. :) It would be okay to take along for a meal out since it will likely steep just fine despite non-optimal water temperatures you usually get at restaurants.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 30 sec

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