80
drank Florence by Harney & Sons
46 tasting notes

Appearance: standard dark, broken, black tea leaves, with minimal stems. Liquor: dark brown – more brown than the red I often associate with black teas. Smell: So nice! Loose and brewed, there is a strong hazelnut flavor and underlying cocoa. I keep searching for hazelnut chunks. The smell is amazing. Taste: This is surprisingly sweet without milk or sugar. The hazelnut is quite pleasant, and there’s just enough chocolaty flavor that it could stand in for a hot cocoa. Like many H&S teas, as it cools the flavor develops some citrus notes that don’t really work with the other flavors. I don’t think it needs sugar, but adding it does make it very decadent. Adding milk makes it a really good hot cocoa stand in. This may be my favorite milk and sugar tea so far. Very nice way to start a weekend morning. 8/10

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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Bio

Attorney in San Francisco. Recent convert to tea drinking, but I’m hooked. I also love experimenting with vegetarian food (meaning I rarely use recipes). Long time chocolate lover.

When I review a tea, I will identify the following information: Source – “Name.” Style, including loose, bag, or sachet. Appearance, referring to the appearance of the leaves dry. Liquor, referring to the appearance of the brewed drink. Smell, referring to the brewed liquor. Taste (self-explanatory). Other insights. Finally, I will give it a score from 1 to 10. Anything in the 1-3 range is something that I disliked and am unlikely to consume again. Anything in the 4-6 range is okay; I am not likely going to buy it again, but if I came across it and wasn’t paying (or past my fairly low caffeine tolerance for the day), I probably would consume again. Anything in the 7-9 range is something I liked, and the higher the score the more likely I will try to keep the particular tea around. I intend to use a 10 rating very rarely, and only for the very best.

General notes:

I don’t like milk or sugar in my tea, except for an Indian style chai masala and certain other exceptional cases. Many black teas are blended to be more on the bitter side, and thus to call for sugar to soften and round the flavors. When I think to try sugar in such a black, my review will note any difference between the straight and sugared taste. I’m doing that for the review process, because if something requires sugar, I’m unlikely to commit to it for one of my standard teas. I can’t imagine using sugar in a green, oolong, or white tea, so don’t expect that distinction in reviews of those types.

Location

San Francisco

Website

http://scottjb.wordpress.com

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