1704 Tasting Notes
Made the first fire of the season this evening. The kittens – Bart (lithe wacky blacky) and Pickle (chonker sweet tabby) – are stretched out across a couple of floor cushions in front of the stove. Cat thermometer reads comfortable enough to not pester their human slave for more food for going on 6 hours now, which has allowed said slave to relax on the couch and sip a hot toddy made with the best rooibos. So dang smooth. Now to curl up under the blanket while the fire dies down…
Kittens! Sounds like an absolutely delicious evening.
Hotel tea raid. Can’t tell if it’s the dregs from production or actually ground up material. Either way, it brews up very quickly and as expected given the quality – dark golden hay – which is also about how it tastes. Hay and golden syrup with chamomile floral top note. Also – strangely – milky. Can’t say I’ve experienced that before. Perhaps it’s our well water? Or is it tainted with another herb in the mix? Catches in the throat a bit but there’s also this minty-chrysanthemum cooling quality in the chest, which is nice. Big meh. Not looking for a chamomile on steroids for nighttime sipping. This would be better suited for an anxiety-riddled afternoon.
Flavors: Chamomile, Cooling, Drying, Hay, Milky, Pollen, Sweet, Syrupy
Preparation
I’ve definitely noticed a buttery or creamy note from chamomile before so I don’t think it’s just your water. It’s a flavor I really enjoy so I will have to keep an eye out for this one!
Hotel tea raid. Although smooth, the taste is a bit forceful and abrasive. Vegetal, light smoke, dry grass with a tangy sorrel/lemon-like presence at the end. Slight bitterness but that doesn’t play into the abrasive taste. It almost tastes like an assamica sheng that was processed too green. That combined with the CTC leaf leads me to think this is of Indian origin. Or maybe Sri Lankan, though I have no frame of reference for their green teas. Not astringent. Wiry energy. Not good but also not terrible- unless maybe steeped in boiling water!
Flavors: Dry Grass, Lemon, Smoke, Smooth, Tangy, Vegetal
Hotel tea raid. Paper envelope means it’s not the freshest, but it lands somewhere better than Lipton. With 195F – 200F water, it has a rounded, classic black tea taste: copper, malt, wood with hints of smoke, redfruit tone, papery teabag and dried flowers. Smooth, not bitter. It works.
Flavors: Copper, Flowers, Malt, Paper, Red Fruit, Round, Smoke, Smooth, Tea, Wood
Hotel tea raid. The tea is very irritating to my throat. It burns. I’ve had this happen before with other Bigelow black teas. Bummer, because the bergamot oil is decent.
Flavors: Bergamot, Biting, Chemical, Floral, Olive Oil, Tea
What a shame!
Btw, I wrote you a message here on Steepster. Can you please check it out?
Ouch! I don’t think I’ve had a tea burn me before, other than for being too hot! I wonder if there was a variagation in the bergamot peel itself that was ultra-potent? Or maybe Bigelow didn’t blend the oil in well enough and your portion was over-flavored.
I will check in this weekend, Martin :)
TeaEarleGreyHot: it could be the bergamot oil since the decaf version also burned my throat, but I think I recall this happening with one of their black teas that did not have bergamot oil. Regardless, this is not a tea I ever want again :P
Hotel tea raid. Fresh, good, nothing artificial about it. Tastes like tart pomegranate mixed with rosehips. Hibiscus is friendly here. Nice tang tempered with a little sweetness from the blackberry leaf and apple.
Flavors: Pomegranate, Rosehip, Sweet, Tangy, Tart
Hotel tea raid. Fairly flavorless until it cools a bit, then it’s a combination of dry leaves, bread dough and paper. Very meh.
Flavors: Bread Dough, Dry Leaves, Paper
Hotel tea raid. Complex and fresh real bergamot oil. With hot water from the dispenser at work (probably 195F – 200F), it’s solid cup of black tea fannings (or CTC?) and I mean it. Full body with a little tannic grip. A tad smokey, too, which makes it even better on this chilly morning.
For hotel tea, this is pretty good!
Flavors: Bergamot, Smoke, Tea
Preparation
Your Farmer Brothers reviews have been convincing enough I actually did a little sniffing to see it can be directly purchased in less-than-hotel-wholesale quantities. A few options out there.
