American Tea Room

This tea is amazing. I drank it with sweetener and frothed milk and it tastes just like a cinnamon roll. Seriously, just like it with the icing and all! So bready and yeasty with cinnamon….mmmmmmmm. How do they do that? This tea is the very best version of having your cake and eating it too because you get to have your breakfast pastry and not get fat.

sitting in the library waiting for hours five, six and seven of classes to start and thought i’d play catch up.

if i go light on the word count i could stop at ‘wow’. add to that ‘damn’ (because i just got a sample size), and ‘jam’ or maybe ‘more!!!!’……. do exclamation points count as extra words?

i have no idea what’s going on with ATR. i don’t now if they’re refining, reviewing, tweaking- all of the above? pretty sure it isn’t my tongue. needless to say they have impressed me immensely lately whereas before they were interesting, but not incredible. goes to show businesses improve and bring their products along for the ride.

this blend is apricot jam. a hint of the stone is detectable, convincing me that it’s fresh in my cup.

awesome. now for some last minute reading……

Thank you Kat Maria! (187)
I brewed it hot and I’m enjoying this fruity green/white, but it’s just a little bit of strawberries, and oddly, a little bit of butter, and comfort, and it’s nice and all that, but I don’t know that I’d take it home to meet my mother or anything like that.

Speaking of… mother’s day this weekend! :O I have little time to dig up some kind of gift and ensure she gets it in time. #failed I bought her tea before but I don’t know that she’s actually drinking it or would want any more. :| And we rarely speak. Ugh. We did take a mold of my 2yo at work, so maybe I can send her a copy of my daughter’s feet? It’ll be late but something like that might be cool.

Ok, back to work. Back to drinking tea!

ETA So all the new Summer teas are out, so I grabbed the Summer pack and mailed that to her (in BC, so it’ll be late). Even if she doesn’t drink a lot of tea, she DOES like iced tea, especial decaf ones! #patsselfonback I also sent her the bubble pineapple mugs bc they’re cute.

huh!

when my atr order came in as always they stashed extra goodies. i stopped when i got to this one. i had flashbacks of the last vanilla mint puerh i’d had which i would STILL swear was heated pepto bismol…..

honestly, i had real concerns. i fiddled with the package and flipped it over… cinnamon. cinnamon? and mint? i still had doubts, just for a different reason now. mint and cinnamon? there was a potential for ‘ew’.

american tea room- this was a great cup! i really enjoyed it! thanks so much =0). no hint of pepto, (sorry i pre-fretted)…. the cinnamon really did the trick! i added cream and turbinado sugar.

i haven’t even been into puerh lately, truly my compliments!

A sample from VariaTEA. I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time, although I’ve never really had the chance until now. I guess that’s why I’ve been saving my sample! I wanted to wait for a day when I’d have the time to enjoy it. Thankfully, it’s as good as I’d hoped. It smells sweet and nutty straight out of the packet, and this only intensifies as it brews. For a first go, I gave 1 tsp of leaves 3.5 minutes in boiling water, and added a splash of milk. It tastes fabulous — absolutely like a fresh piece of brioche, or an almond croissaint! It’s bready and nutty (almond, mostly), with a hint of milky vanilla sweetness and cinnamon spice. The base is fabulously smooth, and its slight maltiness perfectly complements the bready, sweet notes of the flavouring. It’s one of those great flavoured blacks where it’s hard to tell exactly where the flavouring ends and the base begins. Many thanks to VariaTEA for sharing this one with me. I have enough for a couple more cups, but I’ll be hugely sad when this is gone!

T&C TTB#4: This tea. This tea. I knew it would be trouble just from reading the reviews it’s gotten. I kind of dreaded trying it but at the same time, it had to be tried! Yes. It’s as bad as I thought – yet another tea company that I have to add to the list to buy a tea from! :)

This is amazing. Cinnamon-sugar-cream-pastry-wow!

TTBCr2

I’ve had this tea on my wishlist for a while. It sounded amazing. When it showed up in the TTBC, I was super excited.

The dry leaf smelled heavenly. I love brioche bread. Two of my favorite burger joints use brioche for their buns (no cinnamon, etc.) and I love plain brioche as much as with cinnamon. (I hate when they throw raisins in it. Who does that? Why ruin a perfectly wonderful baked good with icky, nasty raisins?) I wasn’t getting a bready scent from the dry leaf, but that seemed okay to me at the time.

Steeped, it smelled nice and cinnamon. Sip. I’m not getting bread. Where’s the bread? Everyone else talked about bread. Is mine broken?

I’m at work, so I replied to a few emails, tracked down a file, sipped again. As it cooled (by no means cold at this point) I was definitely finally starting to get the bready I was looking for. I did some more work, more sips, more heavenly brioche. Yes, this is a cinnamony brioche, but I’m okay with that. Had what was supposed to be a 1 minute conversation with the team lead turn into a 20 minute conversation, and since my mug was almost empty, I now had pretty much cold tea. This tasted like cinnamon toast that has been sitting on the counter long enough to not be warm, but still delicious. Yes. This is exactly what I was looking for. The cooler the tea got, the more bready it got, and the happier Cheri was.

I admit it, at first I was super disappointed with this tea. By the end of the mug, I was very happy. I don’t know how I want to rate it, though, because while I ended happy, I didn’t start there. I’m not sure how I feel about it when I think about it that way. So I’m not going to rate this. I initially removed it from my wishlist, but I think I’ll add it back on. Maybe this tea was older and had been sitting a while, which is why it didn’t have that bread kick at the beginning? Maybe it’s just me. Who knows?

This is why I’m glad I’m participating in these traveling tea boxes.

I feel like I am drinking dessert, but not a dessert that is too sweet. Just comforting spice bread, maybe with a tiny smear of butter. So many times with flavored black teas, the base doesn’t stand up to the added flavors, but that is not the case with this tea. I still taste the tea. The front of the sip is cinnamon, and the aftertaste is where the raisin sneaks in. The almond is not heavy, but I can definitely identify it. It is blended in perfectly. I steeped mine for the recommended four minutes and have just the tiniest bit of astringency, so I might try slightly less next time. I’m really happy that I ordered this again!

Full review and pics at https://tealover.net/2015/05/american-tea-room-brioche/

Thank you to Stephanie for this sample. It is delicious! I get flavors of raisins, pastry, sweet glaze, a hint of cinnamon. The aftertaste is yummy and lingers a long time. This is one I see myself keeping on hand after I drink my collection down a bit.

This tea is from the first round of the great Canadian travelling tea box. There was only enough for one or two cups so I took it out and threw it in my cupboard as I had been wanting to try it for a while. I am just getting to it now, about 7 months later.

I think I would have really liked this if I had tried it when I received it. But after all of the wonderful teas I have had the pleasure to try in the last year, this just doesn’t do it for me.

I received this as a sample from BrewTEAlly Sweet. Oohh my goodness. The dry and wet leaf smell very similar: spicy-sweet, nutty, and bread-like. Like warm pastries, freshly baked bread. The tea gives off a slightly citrusy aroma, which I believe has something to do with the tea base? Hmm. It reminds me of French toast, with its cinnamon and almond flavors. The predominant flavor, however, is bread. Eggy and sweet and delightful. It has a nutty, sugary finish. It’s a light tea despite the 4 minute steep time. No astringency. A good tea for evening time. (:

this is an interesting blend. i plan to use the last of it in a cold steeping experiment….

very vanilla, with green echoes of tie guan yin…. which always makes me think of lychee… =0)

a nice vanilla green- not outstanding, but i cannot explain why. the separate components are great, together they are less so. hmmm.

Sipdown!! (141)

This is better as a cold brew, than it was hot but at the end of the day, it is just not for me. It is sort of like a more muted and more vegetal version of Teavana’s Fruta Bomba. Not bad but not a tea I am sad to say goodbye to. I am glad I got to try it though so thank you Kat_Maria for sharing with me!

Thank you Kat_Maria for sharing. Unfortunately, I brewed this hot and it just tastes like a generic fruit green tea with a vegetal green base. I will try it cold brewed but this is not a promising start. I am starting to feel as though, with the exception of Brioche, I am not a lover of American Tea Room teas and that is okay because you can’t like them all.

Sipdown no. 9 of 2018 (no. 365 total). A sample.

This is a backlog from yesterday while the site was down.

I had hoarded the last of this and after tasting I remember why. It’s delicious. I already had it on the wishlist, but I’d put it there again if there was a prioritization button.

It’s got that wonderful ATR Yunnan in it, and the Assam adds a character that makes this pretty coffee like. Not in its flavor, but in it’s heft and its coffee-likeness, it reminds me of Roastaroma. But about a gazillion times better.

This is yum.

I think I bought this sample because I liked the name (both because of the London neighborhood and because of the movie), but I’m glad I did. It’s a bold, hearty breakfast tea without being heavy. In the packet, I can smell both a bit of sharpness from the Assam and maltiness from the Yunnan. The steeped tea has a sweet, malty aroma and is a clear, mahogany color.

It has been a while since I had the Earl Grey Shanghai, but this reminds me somewhat of the base of that tea (must be the Yunnan) without the bergamot. I definitely get the “woodsy sweetness” of the description, as there’s something very arboreal about the flavor. I’m conscious I’m drinking something made from leaves when drinking this, and it’s a pleasant reminder. I can also get a hint of sweet tobacco.

Definitely many notes in this one, all of which work together nicely. It’s going on the shopping list.

And happy Easter to those who are celebrating.

First of all, thanks to Tea Brat for sending this to me to try. I LOVE cardamom and was looking forward to this tea. Sadly, there is very little cardamom in it. I read a note on this tea by Flowery who called it “undistinguished.” I think that is the perfect description. I’m glad I got to try it – but I made it MUCH better by adding a bunch of my own cardamom to it.

TTB&C #16

I have seen many amazing reviews of this tea, so it was recently added to my wish list. I am glad I got to try this one. The first sip actually reminded me of a snicker doodle. Very cinnamon and almond cookie like. I drank the first half of the cup straight, then decided since I was drinking a dessert tea that I would add some milk and sugar. The milk and sugar really helped bring this to life for me. This is very enjoyable. If I ever order from ATR I might consider adding a small amount of this.

I just received this tea in the mail. It’s the 2014 picking. I brewed it after lunch according to the American Tea Room’s instructions, which is twice as long as I would steep the 2012 Canton Tea Co. version of this tea. I’m not enjoying this anywhere near as well as I enjoyed the Canton version. It’s so much more vegetal, which maybe is partially because it is so fresh. But it doesn’t have the same sweet vanilla, floral, and apricot that made me love Canton’s offering. My other favorite tea from the Darjeeling region was also from 2012. I wonder if that is just coincidence or if that year had an unusually good harvest. I’ll try this again with a shorter steep and a cleaner palate and see how I feel about this then.

okay 1.5 teaspoons in a new ‘normal’ teacup. 5-6 minute steep….. not melon, full on fig. i’ve been snacking on the fig since the steep….. OMG.

AMERICAN TEA ROOM HOW DID YOU DO THIS?!!!!!!???

I ADORE THIS…… must buy more. dammit, think i missed your sale too…… sigh. number’s going UP. wow!

right off the bat thanks need to go to david and jeff at american tea room~ this order was fraught with ghosts in machines and almost didn’t happen. they worked very hard, also very honourably to ensure a smooth result despite hiccups. i appreciate your efforts hugely- thank you both.

this tea. wow! it’s completely named for the smell… exotic, nutty, dark fruit, no flowers at all. i almost didn’t want to drink the tea… i just wanted to sniff it.

the next stage of the testing process: does the smell hold up once water is added? it did! a 4-5 minute steep…. i didn’t want to wait. i paced, which probably looked funny because i’m a clutz on my legs (in my chair i’m just a threat/menace, lol).

i gave a minute or two…. blisters on the tongue not so much fun aaaaaaaand. what’s this? it does not taste like how it smells. what does it, what do i…. um…. hmmm.

this was the smell: https://blackstonemonastery.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/a-red-tent-temple.jpg?w=240&h=300

this is the taste: http://www.organicauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/honeydew-melon-ccflcr-muffet.jpg

i was so confused! okay, i’ll admit- i stomped my foot a bit because i really wanted the tea to taste like that incredible smell!!!! and then i had to go to school for my last psych lab…. i couldn’t stop thinking about the tea i’d left behind. it was very smooth, not cloying or overpowering, really expertly balanced.

i’ve never had a tea remotely like it. the sesame is a perfect accompaniment… nutty but no bitterness like walnuts can sometimes lend.

very, very nice.

american tea room comes up with from remarkably unique blends- i find i don’t always like them, though i usually respect them. this one i both like and respect. i will buy again!

I bought this tea back in November with the intention of trying it out before giving it to my father. It sure does pack a berry flavored punch, I really like the combination of strawberry and currant. The strawberry adds a much needed sweetness to the blend, but doesn’t mask the tartness of the currants. I think this will make a very refreshing iced tea once the weather warms up some, it’s a shame I didn’t keep any more for myself.