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Fairly good tea! Felt good on this very rainy day, almost like a soup (I’ve been really into this Turmeric broth lately, so this feels like a bit more of that). It was all at once very savory due to the turmeric and ginger, but also sweet. It tasted like the most delicous way of caring for one’s health!

In the tin, as one might imagine, the main scent was that of turmeric and ginger.
It also paired wonderfuly with the last of my chili powder pistachios!

I had this lovely tea at a meetup with my local lolita* fashion community! I love myself a ginger tea in any form and if I had to choose, white tea is certainly my favorite.

The ginger came through fairly strong (as one would expect) both in the tin and in the cup, but as most good flavored white tea blends, the ginger surprisingly didn’t overshadow the flavor of the white tea itself. The use of what seemed to be a white peony blend should be the reason for that. I am so terribly sad it seems that The Cultured Cup seems to have discontinued this blend. I am absolutely up for recommendations regarding substitutes.

*lolita fashion is a Japanese fashion that is inspired by Victorian and Rococo fashions. It bears no link to the novel of the same name.

I had three cups of this, and even though the pot went cold after cup 2, I still went for it. I tend to dislike rooibos in its many incarnations, however the mint really mellows it out for me. Not that rooibos isn’t mellow by nature, I just taste a sweet earthiness to it that I find unpleasant without some mint. The chamomile rounds out the entire blend and doesn’t compete with the rooibos for the base, and compliments it rather well.

The scent in the tin is more or less the characteristic apple scent of chamomile and sweet mint with the warmth of the rooibos coming through as well. Perfectly balanced as all things should be! Scent in the cup is more of the same.

All in all, this is certainly a tea I reach for at night, especially when I’m feeling a bit under the weather.

It’s a palatable Irish breakfast, but no matter what I try, the malty flavor is sadly overshadowed by the astringent flavors. Darn you tannins—foiled again! I may pick up some dairy free milk for the remainder of this tea, in order to smooth out the astringency.

It’s so terribly sad, because the scent in the tin promises such a delightful experience that one would like to expect from an Irish Breakfast blend. Malty and warm. Same with the scent in the cup.

Alas, the hunt continues!

I’ve had some bad Earl Grey cremes (looking at you Adagio) and I’ve had some good ones. This one is pretty good! The vanilla does a great job of smoothing out the potential astringency, and makes the bergmont almost orange flavored. The bergamont is very subtle, almost a plesant aftertaste, especially as it cools. In the tin, I get the distinct flavor of Panettone—an Italian Christmas cake and staple tradition in our family. Scent in the cup is nearly purely vanilla. It’s suprisingly good, in my opinion.

Tea tasting used to be a pretty big hobby of mine in the ye olde days of highschool. Although I never stopped loving tea, I did lose that sense of fun in being a tea critique and keeping a journal of my different forays and journies in the world of tea due to circimstance. A few big changes in my life have led me back to rediscovering the things I used to love, and I am so happy this website still exists.

Blog post aside! I tend to shy away from bagged teas, but I would consider the Downton Abbey blends an exception to this rule. Am I suseptible to marketing? Yes, probably. I fit the niche of Victorian/regency era aesthetic loving demographic RoT makes these teas for. I have no shame, but I digress again.

As for the tea. In the tin I get a very creamy scent. Steeped the scent dampens a little bit (dissapointing). It’s a very plesant black tea with caramel flavors, veering into the buttery side. It’s a very comforting dessert tea. Not unpleasently heavy, but leaving me satsfied after having a cup or two. It’s not the most special thing I’ve had, but I will reach for it now and again at work, and as a substitue for my at least once monthly bread pudding cravings!

Decent tea. Not a big fan of teas that already include sweetener, because I prefer my teas (especially herbal) unsweetened. It makes a fine iced tea though.

I usually don’t like rooibos, but I find blends that include some sort of mint to make it more palatable in my opinion. But I’ve never found a mint tea I didn’t like!

So here’s the deal. This was one of the first teas I had, in the form of a Bigelow tea bag and it was nasty crap.

I then had a giant tea trip in which I tried both bagged Twinings and Tazo of this tea. Bitter and astringent. I somehow kept on though, because I never tasted what a halfway decent Earl Grey was supposed to taste like.

That fateful day is nigh.

I sipped this tea and didn’t even realise the fact that it wasn’t disgustingly bitter until I had another cup. I honestly still can’t comprehend how this isn’t tasting bitter to me. It’s probably not even that awesome of an Earl Grey, but in comparison it was awesome to me.

I’m going to sink into my copy of Schubert and a blanket and be content now. Good night you guys.