Brett Send Message

Not terrible, not great. Tastes like french vanilla non-dairy creamer.

This is a good tea, but not my favorite. Surprisingly, the Darjeeling muscatel fruity flavor is initially much stronger than the Assam, which adds some body and depth to the Darjeeling. The malty, caramel taste of the Assam comes out more as an aftertaste.

Intense natural strawberry flavor. I also taste the rose, but the mango seems to be lost. The pu’erh flavor is also very much hidden – I don’t taste any fishiness or dirt taste – maybe I added too much sugar in anticipation of that taste. I am not a fan of pu’erhs, but this was a delicious dessert tea.

Another distinctive blend by Harney and Sons! Probably the most complex of the teas of theirs that I have tried: it has the fruity floral taste of the Darjeeling, the rich body of the Assam, and something else which tastes somewhat like Ceylon, and is probably the Nilgiri (which I have not tasted before, either in a blend or by itself). The three flavors go together well, and the finish is somewhat dry and astringent, but not overly so.

Wonderful tart black cherry flavor; reminds me of black forest cake – add a little cocoa or dark chocolate, and it would taste exactly like black forest cake. I really enjoy that the cherry is not artificial, and there is no almond flavor as is common with most cherry flavorings. Just a rich authentic cherry with black tea.

The lemon and caramel flavors are perfectly balanced with the Darjeeling base, which is not overpowered by the added flavors. I don’t like it when added flavorings make it difficult if not impossible to taste the tea base: I might as well not be drinking tea! But Harney and Sons blends the flavorings in this tea in just the right amount to enhance the tea base rather than cover it up.

Good, rich flavor. Tastes much like Twinings Irish Breakfast, which is also an Assam/Ceylon blend. The leaves are not as broken as the Twinings, and are probably of somewhat higher quality. On the other hand, I am not sure that this is worth the extra expense ($10 for a four oz tin vs. $4.99 for 3.53 oz tin of the Twinings. The second steeping was weaker, but it allowed the Ceylon flavor to come out more.

The vanilla flavor in this tea was not as good as Numi Vanilla Decaf; it was less intense, less vanilla-y. It tasted more artificial, like a second-rate vanilla ice cream, rather than like a premium ice cream. I’m sure that Harney and Sons uses real vanilla, so I wonder if they used less vanilla, or the tea base didn’t blend well with the vanilla. Or perhaps decaf tea works better with vanilla than regular tea, since others seem to like Harney’s decaf Vanilla Comoro.

I loved this blend. The mix of Assam and Golden Monkey was perfect; the flavors complemented and enriched each other. I liked Golden Monkey, but did not love it, but the combination with the Assam gave it depth and richness. Flawless!