Monk's Blend

I prefer this company’s Monk’s Blend tea over Teopia. This is smooth, slightly fruity and sweet, though not overly sweet. You can taste the hint of vanilla and that unifies the overall flavor. It has a very nice fruity fragrance too, which makes it lovely to stick your nose in your cup for another sip. Best enjoyed hot.

You cannot buy this tea from the company itself or a retail outlet. I think they only sell it commercially, so you have to pick it up at a tea room or restaurant that sells it. I live in Peterborough, Ontario and there are two places to pick this up here; The Magic Rolling Pin and the tea room based out of The Whistlestop Café. You’ll have to look around for a place in your town that sells it.

Crunch time for Christmas! I have a scarf to finish crocheting so I decided I would go for a black tea to accompany me on this journey. Thanks to JennyFur for this tea :).

I steeped this for 3 minutes at boiling. I actually didn’t forget about my tea this time! Also, the leaves in this one expanded very nicely.

First sip:
Hm. It tastes a bit bitter to me, but not too bad. I better look up what is in this blend. uh, natural flavors. I taste some flavors in there, haha.

Finishing off the cup:
I don’t think it tastes too bitter anymore. It is more of a sharp taste. It isn’t my favorite, but it isn’t bad. It is just different. It is a tea I would drink again, however.
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Overall, not bad. I’ve had better, I’ve had worse. I don’t think I would crave this, but I will have it again.

I received this tea from The Metropolitan Tea Company this week, in a package of several samples of their great tea. The blend contains Ceylon tea with natural vanilla and grenadine oils to add flavor and character to the black tea. It also contains calendula and sunflower petals. Story goes that Tibetan monks invented this blend, to keep them alert and ready for their daily toils, and as a stimulant for long periods of meditation and reflection.

The dry leaves are nice, tight little rolled up dark leaves with pretty bits of yellow petals. They smell of vanilla bean infused sugar, and a little, I mean a little, light citrus perfume. It sort of reminds me of Earl Grey in its composition, a great black tea with natural oils added for flavor and embellishment. This is very promising.

The infusion is a reddish-coppery, color. The fragrance is intoxicating. A little robust coffee, notes of vanilla, sweet and hints of floral character. Molasses aroma. Right away, I seem to taste a light, very delicious, but subtle creamy cherry flavor. Toasty, roasty, a little nutty. This is an amazing, full flavored, medium bodied black tea. I like every characteristic, every layer of flavor, the lingering finish, the chocolaty undertone…

Tea drinker’s will love this, and even coffee fanatics might fancy this one. It’s rich, robust, highly flavorful. It is spectacular. One of my new favorites. Thank you Metropolitan Tea Company for introducing me to this traditional tea. It is very, very good.

I didn’t really know what to expect from this tea. It didn’t seem a very compelling tea, as I had always seen it sitting on the shelf as I walked past it in the store. I finally broke down and bought a bag, as I had tried all the other teas.

Upon first opening the bag, a gentle and extremely pleasing aroma fills the air. A very fresh and sweet scent of vanilla and fruit blend quite well with the tea, giving a more after hours cocktail feel. The leaves are long, rolled, and handsomely dark.

My initial steep of 3 minutes, with half a teaspoon of rock sugar, gave a brilliant and bright copper toned brew. The aroma very much like the leaves, fresh, sweet and slightly fruity.

The first couple sips gave me a surprisingly bitter flavor, followed by a sweet subtle fruitiness, which was then followed by a hint of astringency. As surprising as it was, considering how much black tea there is here, it shouldn’t be that surprising.

My second steep of 2 minutes and 45 seconds with new leaves, and this time with a whole teaspoon of rock sugar, gave a darker brew with a stronger sweet and fruity aroma.

The 15 seconds makes such a difference, giving a more flavorful brew. There is much less bitterness and a more subtle floral bouquet. There is something very distinguishing about the toasty sweet and dry textures, with a slight astringency that more compliments the overall flavor.

This tea is wonderfully complex, with so many textures, all working together for your complete enjoyment. I believe I have had this tea five times in the past two days now, which officially makes it a favorite.

Decided after the first sip that this would be much better suited to my tastes with a bit of sugar this afternoon. Lovely tea though; I just like it sweet.

Not only does this tea taste great, but it is great for its original purpose, staying up for long periods of religious meditation. I often stay up for hours just sitting and thinking, and this tea makes you feel awake, but not jittery or how caffeine makes you feel. Regardless, this tea is a great blend of sweet and savory (i especially like the hints of vanilla). I highly recommend this to all fans of traditional teas.

I’ve been curious for awhile about the big wholesaler, Metropolitan Tea Company, so when Culinary Teas — which sources most (all?) of their tea from Met — had free shipping, I sprung for a few samples.

This is my first time trying a Monk’s Blend. I knew it would have grenadine in it, so I guess I was expecting something like liquid maraschino cherries. When I sniffed the bag, it smelled like raspberry candy, and the flavor has a tanginess that strikes me more as raspberry than cherry flavor. There is a light vanilla cream note that, for me, is the highlight of this tea. The base is inoffensive, but definitely unremarkable. I know this tea gets sold both in bagged and loose leaf form. I ordered loose leaf, but no surprise really, the tea still has that standard bagged-quality kind of taste. Something about the blend of flavors reminds me of H&S Paris, but H&S does a far better job on it.

I won’t have any trouble getting this down, but I definitely won’t be going out of my way to get more either, as it’s just pretty run-of-the-mill fare.

This morning I’m sampling Monk’s Blend from Say Tea and Metropolitan Tea Company.

This is a traditional vanilla grenadine blend. The dry leaf smells sweet and fruity. On the palate, there’s a lot of vanilla and grenadine sweetness that emerges mostly as a generic fruitiness. The black base is unremarkable. Smooth at first but at the end of the sip a fair bit of astringency emerges.

Very different from Say Tea’s grenadine orange take on Monk’s Blend, and not quite as complex or enjoyable. I would like a more distinct grenadine flavour and a more noteworthy black base, with less astringency, for this. Maybe a shorter steep would help with the astringency.

Another lovely tea from roswell strange via my wife! this one I took to work this morning as a nice treat as I knew it would be a long long Tuesday. I was very impressed with the base black tea in this one, monks blend has such a distinct flavoring that often I think inferior bases are used and covered by too much flavor. Not so here, the tea is the thing here, as I like it, and the various ingredients are blended in subtly so as not to overwhelm the palette. It is a very mellow cup of tea, a nice way to start a chaotic day!

Went to local tea shop today and decided to try this. It was good. I bought it with cream and sweetened. Oh and I had it iced. It was refreshing , hit the spot, and had a pretty pink color.