Black Currant

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Black Currant, Black Tea, Flavor
Flavors
Berry, Black Currant, Candy, Fruity, Tea, Sweet, Lavender, Berries, Metallic, Perfume
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf, Sachet, Tea Bag
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Naumadd
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 45 sec 2 g 11 oz / 319 ml

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88 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Ugh, computer problems. It is annoying that probably my whole day will be taken up trying to fix and repair things. I need a comforting tea, and preferably one that helps me bust my sample stash....” Read full tasting note
    91
  • “My tea of the afternoon…or with lunch, actually. We have been on a short, last of summer trip this week, and we just happened to be in the neighborhood of the Harney & Son’s Millerton Shop. ...” Read full tasting note
    92
  • “Another backlog from last night – such things will happen when you have people over until far too late lol Ah well, at least a really enjoyable evening. Another tea from the travelling tea box...” Read full tasting note
    71
  • “Fiance and I went and saw Desolation of Smaug last night, and while the Tolkien purist in me wanted to weep, it was an excellent film in it’s own right and I’m sad I have to wait until next year...” Read full tasting note
    79

From Harney & Sons

John’s first flavored tea. It has “big” fruity, berry flavor. This full-bodied tea has become a traditional favorite in fine restaurants all over America.

About Harney & Sons View company

Since 1983 Harney & Sons has been the source for fine teas. We travel the globe to find the best teas and accept only the exceptional. We put our years of experience to work to bring you the best Single-Estate teas, and blends beyond compare.

88 Tasting Notes

91
2201 tasting notes

Ugh, computer problems. It is annoying that probably my whole day will be taken up trying to fix and repair things. I need a comforting tea, and preferably one that helps me bust my sample stash. This fits the bill, as I only have a little of it left after this cup. Probably only enough to throw in a cold-steep blend.

I recently discovered some local-ish black currant juice in my grocery store, which was very exciting as I love black currant but it’s not a common thing here in the states. So I guess it’s kind of a black curranty day since I’m having this tea after I had my black currant juice with breakfast. Mmm, there is something just so utterly comforting about black currant (and thus this tea) to me, which is funny because it’s not like it’s a flavor from my childhood. But it is delicious.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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92
985 tasting notes

My tea of the afternoon…or with lunch, actually. We have been on a short, last of summer trip this week, and we just happened to be in the neighborhood of the Harney & Son’s Millerton Shop. We stopped for lunch and I had Black Currant tea service with a Mike sandwich (ham and gruyere on baguette and grilled). It was lovely, and of course, I had to buy some teas to try out.

JacquelineM

Sounds so lovely (and I also want a Mike sandwich!)!

LadyLondonderry

I envy you with the Mike sandwich! But I’m grateful their menu includes gluten-free selections. When I had lunch at the Soho shop recently I had the Lapsang Gravlax on Rice Crackers with green tea cream cheese, accompanied by a pot of Panyang Congou (shown in my avatar).

JacquelineM

LadyL – that sounds INCREDIBLE! I hope I can make it there soon! There is no excuse once the fall comes!!!

LadyLondonderry

Let’s have a fall mini-meetup there!

Ashley Bain

green tea cream cheese.. that sounds lovely. I’m obsessed with green tea ice cream. And jealous of your stop at the Harney shop!

JacquelineM

That would be wonderful! When I have an idea when I’m going I’ll let you know for sure :) When the humidity drops you will see me!!!!

Indigobloom

green tea icecream, yah!!! so good. I saw a chocolate green tea once but didn’t buy it- haven’t seen it since and now regret that I left it alone!

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71
14982 tasting notes

Another backlog from last night – such things will happen when you have people over until far too late lol Ah well, at least a really enjoyable evening. Another tea from the travelling tea box (and coincidently the 12 days of christmas swap). I’m still rather enjoying this one, though I’d like to try it as a cold brew still. Something about the black base and the black currant makes me feel like this one could be really tasty cold.

gmathis

It’s been a long time since I’ve had it at all, but I remember enjoying it on ice.

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79
615 tasting notes

Fiance and I went and saw Desolation of Smaug last night, and while the Tolkien purist in me wanted to weep, it was an excellent film in it’s own right and I’m sad I have to wait until next year for the next one. It’s a really quite long movie, and we didn’t get out of the theatre until 10:30 from our 7:30 showing. Of course this meant I was up way later than I intended (because who can come home from a movie and just sleep, I mean, really?) and up early to get some things done before next week.

I never did get around to making this one iced, (as this is my last bit of it) but I needed something solidly good but not terribly exciting on this groggy morning and this fit the bill perfectly.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
Shmiracles

i have been surprised at how it’s possible to simultaneously be annoyed and also still love a movie like i do this one. i could go on and on, but for starters, i wanted WAY more Beorn. (can’t wait for the extended version hah)
on the yay side of my movie fun, i brought 3 timolinos holding “bilbo brew” (green), “thorin” (mauve), and “smaug” (black) fandom blends. i’d been waiting all year for that!! cheers bilbo!

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90
150 tasting notes

The smell of Black Currant reminds me of my childhood. My mother never allowed Kool-Aid in the house and soda pop was a rarity. However, she would allow me to drink black currant squash and this made no sense because squash syrup is super sugary. I was always very happy to take advantage of my mother’s clear lapse in sugar policing, and I’d greedily gulp down black currant squash whenever I could get my hands on it.

Black Currant from Harney & Sons is the perfect combination of the black currant I loved as a child and smooth, rich black tea. I adore this tea! I’m enjoying it with almond milk and stevia and it’s improving my afternoon tenfold. A big thank you (((hug))) to SimplyJenW for sharing this fab tea with me.

Also, I feel like I owe my generous Steepster friends an explanation/ apology. Many of you have done tea swaps with me, and I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am for all of the glorious tea I’ve received. I carefully store every tea I get from my tea-pals so that I know who gave me which sample, but I haven’t logged every sample I’ve tried. I always intend to do so, but sometimes I become overwhelmed with “stuff” and I forget to backlog my tea tasting. Please don’t take this as my not being appreciative of the incredible tea-kindness I’ve enjoyed. I just suck sometimes :/

gmathis

To quote Calvin and Hobbes, “There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want to do.” I think most of your donors, swappers, and tea friends would say, “Amen.”

IllBeMother221B

Exactly, I have lots of swaps from folks and I have enjoyed quite a few and sometimes haven’t rated them on steepster for whatever reason. Mostly because there is so much going on in a day there just ins’t time.

Jenn

gmathis I love that you quoted Calvin and Hobbes! You’re a kind soul and you’d best PM me if you ever want to try any of the teas I have in my cupboard. Sharing is caring :)

Jenn

The Purrfect Cup (Little Mew Brew) That makes me feel so much better! You’re my tea-soulsista.

Daisy Chubb

Oh yeah , it never once even crossed my mind for you to log every sample, or for me to log every one of mine! For me anyways, I send samples for your enjoyment. So enjoy! Whatever life brings <3

IllBeMother221B

DaisyChubb that’s why I send samples too.

Jenn

DaisyChubb I have enjoyed all of the samples you sent :) xoxo

gmathis

What a gracious kind bunch you all are! These comments just made my evening after a screamer day.

ashmanra

I am glad you said all this. I have been feeling terrible for not having tried some of my swaps yet. Some of them I am saving for when Sandy gets back ( next week, YAY!) and some I have held onto and forgotten who sent them, so I may not be able to give proper credit! Eep! So thanks for the “forgiven” card! LOL!

Angrboda

I’ve got a number of samples that people have given me lying around still untried. Some of them are before I worked out a proper system to help me remember where they came from, so I have no clue as to who to credit when I get to actually trying them. I just can’t make myself drink them without also posting about them, and I don’t always feel in the mood to write a post, so…

Secondarily, could it be that perhaps your mum was more concerned about all the unnatural colouring agents in the beverages she didn’t like you drinking too much of than she was concerned about sugar contents? Squash sounds to me like something that would contain less of that sort of thing. Just a guess. (My parents were like yours, though. Soda and similar, that was for christmas and birthdays. The end. Any other day it was milk or water or nothing. Take your pick. :) But then again, soda and the like was probably also more expensive back then than it is these days…)

SimplyJenW

I am so glad you liked this one! It is one of my favorites.

And I will add an ‘Amen’. I am definitely in the category of being overwhelmed with the generous samples sent by other Steepsters. I will get to logging a good portion of them, but sometimes you have to wait for the right moment. (Like…since I am not as well versed with oolongs or greens, I need to have some time where I can concentrate on the tea as well as enjoy it.) When I share samples, it is partly that I am curious what you will think, but mostly that I know little bits of tea will make you as happy as I am with little bits of tea. It would be so nice if all of the problems in life could be solved so simply.

Plunkybug

I’m still so new to Steepster that I haven’t even explored the samples/swaps aspect of the site yet, though never quite sure how to go about it anywho. But it looks like there are some pretty awesome things swapped.

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3217 tasting notes

I am going through my tea boxes and such and trying to whittle down the stash. I found a sample packet of this in loose leaf form and it had been opened. Good gracious, is it the same one I tasted two years ago??

I had enough leaves for one medium sized cup. For some reason, I was thinking I had disliked it all those years ago, but my review says we enjoyed it, just not as much as Tower of London. That is pretty accurate with how I feel today. This is good, it has nice berry flavor, but the honey flavor gives an extra little something to ToL that makes it more special to me, plus the fact that EVERYONE was sold out at the time that I first decided I wanted to try ToL and hubby found a tea shop online that had it, ordered it as a surprise, and we drank it together with steepster tea friend Sandy. So the memory adds to the experience of the tea, too!

This is a very good tea hot with no additions, but I bet if you like to add sugar it would be really sweet and fruity, and therefore probably great iced as well.

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88
807 tasting notes

Thank you BoxerMama for this DAY FOUR on the 12 days of Christmas exchange!
This is a really nice black currant in a good black base!
I do like H and S’s teas and this does not disappoint!
It smells really good too!
True to black currant in flavor without being artificial.
I may have to get some of this in the future.
Thank you again I loved the muslin bag you packaged the tea in!
:)

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85
1118 tasting notes

I’ve had quite a few mugs of this tea today. The black currant is nice, but what I really like about this tea is the base tea. It’s strong, smooth and rich. There’s no bitterness. The black currant flavor is nice. It’s not over the top, but it is constantly present.

The more I drink fruit flavored black teas the more I realize I want to taste the fruit, but I don’t want it to drown out the flavor of the tea. Especially when it’s such a good tea.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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100
358 tasting notes

Woohoo, 100th tasting note! I decided to go with a tried and true favorite for this momentous occasion. I came across Harney’s Black Currant when I first was delving into loose leaf tea and I fell in love instantly. The smell of this tea gets me every time – it’s a little musty and reminds me of the aroma of a cute little old man’s tobacco for some reason. I love that you can really taste the strong black tea in this, and that the berry flavor isn’t overwhelming or artificial at all. The longer this tea is steeped, the stronger the berry flavor becomes, with no real bitterness from the black tea. With a little milk and sweetener, it’s my ideal of the perfect cup!

-Dry tea has medium black tea leaves and twigs with a few dried currants.
-Dry leaves smell musty and fruity. Tea liquor aroma is of malty sweet berries.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy dark brown color.
-Robust black tea flavor with a sweet currant finish.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Excellent tea. Perfect cup of strong black tea with a hint of juicy currant berries.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 30 sec
TeaLady441

I still have my sample from you. Looking forward to trying it, but oh… so much tea to try! :P I’ll keep your steeping notes in mind though!

Claire

Gongrats on #100!

Claire

*congrats, even!

Josie Jade

I hope you like it, Cavocorax!

Thanks, Claire! :)

Alphakitty

Congrats on 100!

Josie Jade

Thanks, Alphakitty! :)

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516 tasting notes

Thanks BoxerMama for day #3! My tasting note is late but I drank it on the day. mm I loved the smoothness – I’m always excited to try teas from H&S because they’re so hard to find here!!

This one did not disappoint – very prominent smooth base with sweet black currant notes to add a hint of mystery! Love!

http://www.daisychubb.com/on-the-fourth-day-and-5-golden-rings/

BoxerMama

I have couple H&S teas in my cupboard. if you want to try them I can mail you some after christmas. When I place the order I had no idea what ounces to grams were so I order 7oz(!!!!!) of this and 4oz of everything else. lol

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