FORTNUM & MASON ADVENT DAY 10
Ashman is off today so we had an everything bagel and tea in front of the fire. I forewarned him that this would probably be a milk and sugar tea for him and put some on the tea tray. He added it without tasting first. To get an idea of his tastes, he prefers white, oolong, green, and puerh plain and likes Bailin Gong Fu without additions but most other black tea is too astringent for him.
I drank it plain as long as the bagel lasted and found it to be a good tea for breakfast, with good flavor that held up even under the assault of the seasonings on the bagel. It didn’t feel too drying and it wasn’t sour. After the bagel was gone, the astringency was definitely noted and it was really drying my tongue, so I added milk and sugar and enjoyed the last bit quite a lot that way.
Ashman said it was fine, but he felt the body of the tea was not as creamy as he likes it to be when he adds milk and sugar. He said it felt a little watery to him, not in the ratio of leaf to water, but in the actual taste and body of the tea. He said he prefers to add milk to teas that already have a creamy body. He did drink two decent sized mugs of it, so he didn’t hate it. He said he didn’t find it too astringent, but he was having milk in it so probably wouldn’t have picked that up.
