Black Currant

At first sip, there is a candy-esque flavour here, but not one that’s too overwhelming. There’s also a slight edge of bitterness, but again, not too bad. As the tea cools, there is a jamminess that comes forward and it’s really quite nice. I could only find this available in a sachet, but that makes it easy to take a few in to work!

This tea is exactly as described: A black tea flavored with black currant. A classic, timeless flavor that I consider a staple in the world of flavored teas. This was actually Harney & Sons’ first flavored tea – created by John Harney.
The black currant flavor is natural but a little on the sweet/perfumey/candy-like side of things rather than tangy. It tastes exactly like the black currant in Paris but here it is completely undisturbed by any other flavors.

The tea itself is your typical Harney & Sons black China base: Smooth and with little to no astringency/bitterness. It is difficult to taste the tea flavor behind the black currant but it is there, so the black currant doesn’t overpower the tea completely. There is a lingering flavor after you have taken a sip that tastes like you’ve taken a bite of a piece of toast with black currant jam, which is very nice. But the initial black currant flavor is more candy-like and perfumey.

I don’t know what else to say – it’s a very nice take on a black currant tea and I recommend it if you are into fruity flavors.

Dry leaves, appearance:
Chinese black tea leaves with dried black currants here and there.

Dry leaves, aroma:
A very pungent black currant aroma. On the sweeter side rather than the tangy side.

Liquor:
Medium to dark brown.

Packaging:
7 oz. loose tea tin.

Today is a day of travel, my Uber is coming to take me to the airport in about 5 hours. I will have a few tasting notes over the next 2 weeks since my Mom does have tea but not a lot of variety so probably only a few.

This tea has taken me through the final stages of packing this morning and while I still have to do some cleaning up and prepping for the cat sitter, at least the packing is done. This tea is quite fruity and delicious. The black currant very distinct and on a good base to hold it up. Despite being a bagged tea, it’s doing quite well with 3 teabags to my oversize beer stein/teamug. Might squeeze out one more tea today after this but no more than that.

My two obsessions are bath and body products and …tea. Of Course! I don’t think I’ve had anything black currant flavored but I love trying Lush Bath and Body products and they have a Comforter bath bomb/bubble bar that smells heavenly. So that’s what I think about when I think of Black Currant. I was just throwing things in my cart, and this went in. I was very curious to try it. And….it tasted familiar. Like this berry Lipton tea. But….it’s not my thing. It’s not bad. But it’s not great either. I saw a few black currants in the tea. So I know they are there. I think it tastes more like flavoring than anything. The black tea is nice. It’s more broken up then I expected. No full leaves here…that’s ok though. It’s a flavored tea. I do like the black tea they use, it’s nice and strong but not overpowering. Overall, probably not something I would buy again. But as always..I was happy to try it. All 4 oz of it- I brewed my last cup today!

A delicious black tea! Reminds me something of the black tea I drank back in Russia, so the memories poured in with every sip. The sweet scent of the currant was warm and inviting, and the tea was strong and vibrant without being too overpowering. Overall, a success!

I bought four ounces of this and ended up swapping or giving away all but two cups’ worth. I wish I’d bought a sample size, but I usually get bigger sizes in order to get the best deal per ounce. Then I have so much tea to work through, it’s silly. I could tell as soon as I smelled the dry leaf that this wouldn’t really be my sort of thing, so I procrastinated trying it. Now, here I go! The berry flavoring they use is just odd to me. I guess it tastes good, but at the same time, it’s so strange. I can’t taste the black tea, only the strange flavoring. I do kind of like this, but I’m not sad that this is the end of the tin. I’m drinking a second steep of it cold right now, and I may prefer it cold.

Home – 12:30 PM

The Great Cupboard Excavation
Untasted teas remaining: 20

So this was interesting. This was actually a tin of sachets, because I have a weakness for Harney’s lovely “HT” line of colorful tins. Plus I can always refill with loose leaf later, and Harney has nice sachets so it’s not an issue. However… These sachets were definitely defective. I took two out and put them in my pot while the water was heating, and then noticed that one of the sachets left in the tin was mostly empty. It had completely split open along one of the seams and the tea had emptied into the tin. Upon further inspection, about 70% of the sachets were already split open, and the other 30% had at least one gap in the seam. Luckily, the two that I had put into my teapot were the latter, so I was able to take them back out without spilling loose tea everywhere.

So I emptied all the sachets into the tin, and now I have loose leaf. XD Obviously it’s not a problem for me, since I prefer loose leaf anyway. But I wonder if I should email Harney & Sons and warn them about this batch… (shrugs)

Anyway… For some reason I really strongly dislike the base tea that Harney uses for these flavored black teas. I don’t remember it being an issue before, as I think I used to like Paris at least. But now it just tastes like chalk to me, and combined with berry flavor it tastes like berry Tums.

Nope.

Going to pass this on to someone else, and not give it a rating (as clearly I have gone quite mad).

This is what’s in my cup this morning. It is an excellent black current tea…I can’t help think something in this tea reminds me of their Paris blend though. Anyways, the base is smooth and the current is simply delicious-nothing artificial tasting.
Not much more to say on this Friday. Looking forward to the weekend and spring time in general. Have a good day Teaps!

I wish I had purchased a larger quantity of this tea. It’s lightly sweet and actually tastes like currant and not some horrible Berryish flavoring. The currant is well balanced with the tea base. I think I like this one better than H&S Paris.

Love me some H & S on a lousy winter weather morning… This one is pleasant enough, though I generally avoid berry-flavored black teas (I think berry flavoring goes better in herbal tisanes, or green tea sometimes). I used one of the silk sachets to make this cuppa.

It’s perfumey and a little metallic-smelling, and steeps an orangey-brown colored liquor.

As per usual with H & S blends, the black tea base is high-quality and rich. It tastes better than it smells— sweet, but in the organic, natural, non-cloying way that actual currants taste. Leaves a pleasant aftertaste.

Probably wouldn’t purchase a whole tin of this, but it’s not bad.