1118 Tasting Notes
Tea of the morning. I often reach for this tea when I’ve stayed up too late or am having trouble getting my self moving in the morning. Today, however, I just wanted to enjoy the biscuity flavor and fullness of a good Irish breakfast. Still loving this one.
Preparation
This was my first cup of the day and a great cup to wake up with. I guessed and used four pearls for my 10 oz. mug. It was a good amount of tea. It brewed into a wonderful dark liquid that smelled like crusty french bread. The taste was rich and malty with lots of chocolate-y notes. Excellent. The second steeping produced a cup the was more mellow and much less malty, but the chocolate notes were a bit deeper. Wow, this tea was a treat!
Thank you Angel at Teavivre for the generous sample! This one is going on my shopping list.
This tea was ok. The lime flavor was there. It didn’t have an artificial or candy-like flavor. The Ceylon base was smooth. There was the bright zing I’d expect to get from a lime flavored tea. But even with all of its good points I felt pretty meh about this cup. I’m thinking it’d be much better iced, but I think this one is going in the swap pile so I can pass it along to someone who’ll love it more than me.
This is a decent Darjeeling. Lots of fruity notes and some sweetness. A few sips even reminded me of Fruit Loops cereal which was strange. As the tea cools the muscatel flavor comes to the front which is nice, but there is also something just hinting at bitterness at the end of the sip. I did a four minute steep for this cup. Next time I’ll shorten it by 30 seconds to see if that helps.
This isn’t my favorite Darjeeling, but it is a nice one. I’m glad I have more of it so I can play around some and try to find its sweet spot.
What a unique blend! It seems to hint at so many things and then pull them all together in a truly lovely tea. There’s a light lemon note, some sweetness, a touch of mint, and a bit of smoke. It’s easy to pick out each note, but it’s so much better when I turn my brain off and enjoy the blend of flavors. It does remind me of woods, rivers, and fresh air. In fact, it reminds me of Logan Canyon in Utah. A few times a year my sister and I would wake up early in the morning and hike Mile High Trail so we could watch the sunrise hit the canyon. It was amazing. Back then we brought along a thermos of coffee, but if I could go there now I’d bring this tea. It’d be perfect. Hmmm… I might need to start planning a road trip.
Yesterday my daughter missed the bus, so I ended up driving her to school. I had already steeped a cup of this, so I threw it in a travel mug and headed out the door. My daughter commented on how it smelled a little like a campfire. She was curious enough to try a sip, and while it wasn’t her favorite her comments on it began the most enjoyable discussion about tea, blending tea flavors, and other areas of the world. I kinda wanted to drive past her school so we could keep talking, but I dropped her off because that was the responsible thing to do. We’ll save a hookey day for when the cabin fever really hits us. :)
While this may not be my daughter’s cuppa I enjoyed it quite a bit. One of my favorite aspects of this tea is how smooth it is. Other smokey teas I’ve tried have has some harshness or at least a bit of a rough edge, but there’s none of that here. This is smooth, rich, minty and smokey. Is it bad I’m happy I get it all to myself?
Well, the single digit temperatures finally hit us, so I’ve been drinking copious amounts of hot tea over the past few days. I was really happy to have this in my cup while getting the kids to school. I’ve more or less stopped searching out other Earl Greys because I enjoy this one so much.
Lovely bergamot. Lovely vanilla. Nice, steady base tea. Perfect.
