American Tea Room

oh shoot i’m sooo behind on tealogging things! i’ve had this about 18 times since i last mentioned i’d had it, it remains my very favoritest flavored black tea. also i believe my favorite-est iced tea, as well. serving me well this hot texas summer!

i’m really not sure there’s anything that could be improved here. this is one of my few 100%s, but man, it’s up there. maybe even 110%. its GPA is a 5.0. its amp is turned up to 11. it is bliss.

It’s kinda yucky out and I’m kinda grumpy this morning – a cup of this just hit the spot!!!

OMG YUM i finally tried this, and oh goodness, it is just about the perfect black tea (for me, natch). APRICOT APRICOT and delicious tea! soooo good!

Thank you VariaTEA for sending me this sample.
I really like this, it reminds me of Cacao from Herbal Infusions.
Mostly cocoa with a little bit of coconut and a hint of vanilla (thankfully I am not getting any of the licorice listed in the ingredients). I steeped this at a pretty low temp and didn’t really get much rooibos flavor – thanks MissB for sharing that tip, it’s really working for me.
All in all, nice little dessert tea. :))

Sipdown no. 54 for the year 2014. It wasn’t an intentional sipdown. I’d intended to have a couple more tastings of this, but the BF really wanted tea because his throat is bothering him so I made a big pot. This time, I shook up the sample packet (not that it probably matters since this is the end of it). I also tried steeping at my usual 4 minutes for black tea today, but determined that this really does require five minutes to bring out full flavor, so after taking a sip I put it back in to steep for another minute.

Pretty much everything I said yesterday held true for my tasting of this today. There’s definitely a sweet, milky caramel-y flavor. The tea base doesn’t come through much for me underneath the sweetness. It’s a good tea and pleasant enough to drink, it’s just not among my favorites either as a black caramel blend or as an American Tea Room flavored tea.

Against my better judgment, I am steeping according to the directions on the sample packet. Five minutes. I suspect in subsequent tastings I’ll back down to four.

I like the addition of the little caramel bits to the mix. Gives it some visual interest. As I’m reading about this tea in the description here on Steepster, I realize I’ve already had a preparation fail. I did not shake the packet to assure consistent flavor across infusions. I suppose that may mean I’ll be writing an entirely different note in the days to come…

There’s definitely a caramel aroma coming from the dry leaves in the packet. Not so much after steeping, though. I mostly smell a sweet “tea” smell. The liquor does have a bit of cloud to it. I didn’t quite get garnet in color, more like a chestnut.

I’ve had other caramel teas and I tend to like caramel flavored teas as a category in general-even in teas such as oolong. I haven’t had another recently to compare this to, but it has an interesting quality that I’m not sure I’ve experienced in other caramels. There’s sort of a milky flavor to the caramel, like milk chocolate, only milk caramel if that makes sense. I get little pops of caramel flavor from time to time which must be from the little caramel bits saturating their immediate vicinity in the tea with their flavor.

I agree with others that this is a rather gentle caramel as they go. It doesn’t have that roasty carmelized sugar flavor that I expect in a caramel flavored tea; it’s more of a plain white sugar sweetness with flashes of caramel intensity from the caramel bits. It has a nice, sweet aftertaste with a hint of caramel to it.

I have to try it after shaking the packet though, before I reach any firm conclusions. Not rating for now.

I usually avoid fruity teas, but I am glad I received this as a complimentary sample.

Martinique is the home of Joséphine, the first wife of Napoleon I, and I associate the name with her childhood memories of a beautiful and colorful island. The tea is, indeed, colorful in appearance, and it smells and tastes colorful! The mango is obvious immediately. I like marigold flowers; their scent is difficult to convey. I could feel it here in the brewed tea—a bright floral note. Without this floral note, the tea would have been boring for me. I had this tea on a gloomy day, but I think it would be best described as a sunny summer day in a cup.

Weird. I’m happy I got a sample of this from VariaTEA instead of buying it because I am not a fan. Nope, nope nooooooo.

I thought I would be too, but it’s just too … huh. I’m not even sure how to describe it. It’s like rotten banana – with that sort of liquorish odor, and it’s thick and woodsy and not chocolate. I’m just going to dump this. (155)

Wow. I don’t know why, but for some reason the taste of this is reminiscent of—pardon me—vomit. Not sure what else I can say.

Mom likes it, so it’s all hers. I won’t be touching it again.

Enjoying a cup of this today after having it in my cupboard for far too long. Mmmm, this is divine. Reminds me of flaky, warm, buttery croissants and other delicious baked goods. It’s got that perfect nudge of spice to compliment the decadent silkiness. If I can’t have fresh pastries, this could definitively be a suitable alternative. Overall lovely, but for some reason I can’t see myself buying more for myself. Can’t figure out why because I really do enjoy this tea.

Really lovely brioche tea on a snowy morning. It jumped out at me, and now I know why – good choice!

Also, Marie Antoinette never said ‘let them eat cake’ – it was someone else entirely, and she mostly likely said ‘let them eat brioche’ (i’m reading this epically long wiki list about popular misconceptions)

I haven’t had the best of luck with ATR rooibos teas, but I’m happy to report this went down easy. Maybe because it’s green rooibos? I hadn’t actually known that existed. If you’re looking for that tropical taste without coconut, this is a solid choice.

It appears I’m the first to taste this, and sadly, it appears I may be the last.

I went to look for this tea on The American Tea Room site, and I can no longer find “Berry Noir” available for purchase. There are other berry teas available from ATR now, but not a single-flavor blackberry.

Which is a shame, because the first thing I noticed when I opened the sample packet was the big honking dried blackberries among the tea leaves and a singularly amazing blackberry smell.

Alas, the poor blackberry. It seems to get short shrift in the berry world, taking a second seat to its more popular cousins, the blueberry, the raspberry and the strawberry. I will admit to putting it in my grocery basket as an afterthought when I’ve been berry shopping. And yet, I’m always very happy when I eat a really juicy blackberry. Though I can’t conjure the taste of blackberry in my mind in the same way I can with its little friends. Perhaps that explains the fate of this tea.

Would that it were not so. The tea’s steeped aroma is a deep, luscious blackberry peacefully co-existing with a mild tea base that I suspect is Ceylon. The liquor, in any case, is very similar in color to the other single fruit blends I’ve tried from ATR.

The taste is remarkable. Really, truly, like having a mouthful of sweet berries with each sip. And since they’re not blue, rasp, straw, or any lesser known berries I’ve tasted, I’m comfortable with the idea that they’re blackberries.

This would definitely go on the shopping list if only it still existed.

Le sigh.

I’m now working off a note I wrote a few weeks back, but I remember tasting this tea vividly, and I wanted to engage Steepster again after an absence caused by moving, the holidays, and being unwell for a few weeks.

Anyway, I didn’t like this tea. I did not hate it. In fact, I found it pleasant. But I didn’t like it, either. It tasted too heavily of spices to me, especially cinnimon, and I tasted very little tea or even pastry-type sweetness. I’ve been interested in this tea in the past, and I’m glad I never bought any for myself. It was very flat for me. I savor and crave complex tea notes, and this was very one-note and boring.

Furthermore, for something with almond slices in it, I tasted no nut qualities in it. I wanted to be confronted with the slightly sweet bit of almond or walnut. Since this is a dessert tea without chocolate (I’m a chocolate sucker) it needed to engage beyond the sweetness it engaged in. since it wasn’t as sweet as I desired from a pastry-themed tea, it needed to taste firmly of great tea. It did not really.

The tea brewed to a gorgeous red-black cup. I know it’s a high quality tea, and it looks and brews like it is. But the flavor profile is uneven and unsophisticated in my opinion.

My sample came from a glorious and amazing box of samples from IfJuly, and I am so appreciative of those samples I can’t really articulate it myself. I’m honored to have been sent so much tea, and I’m hoping I can catch up on a few tasting notes so I can continue to acknowledge IfJuly’s generosity.

I have to join the chorus of love for this blend. It’s crazy delicious, nutty, buttery, toasty, fruity. It reminds me of my early love for Celestial Seasonings Almond Sunset – but better! But here’s the thing. If you’re looking for tea taste, there isn’t too much of it here. This is a GREAT tea for beginning tea drinkers or those not sure how they feel about tea. But still very enjoyable for everyone else too.

I guess I’m just not meant for ATR rooibos teas. This one has a lovely blueberry scent, but there is just something odd to me about the base tea. To demonstrate how terrible I am with descriptions, it just tastes pointier to me that others I’ve had, and with an aftertaste similar to sugar’s, though not as bad. I love Capital’s rooibos teas and will just have to stick with them.

Sipdown (127). Brought this one to class today and just gulped it down during an otherwise very uninteresting lecture. I still can’t believe the complexity of this flavored tea. So cinnamon-y sweet with that buttery feel that really nails the “brioche” part. I even resteeped it, and it surprisingly still packed a punch. Everything that makes me wary of flavored teas (artificial tasting, less resteep-ability, etc.) is not a concern in this tea for me. Sad to see this sample sipped down, but thanks again to bluebelle for letting me try this one out!

After seeing this tea show up on my dashboard in others’ tasting notes so many times, I had to try it for myself! So thank you to bluebelle for sending some my way! Even though I’ve seen people sing praises about this tea, I was still blown away by how spot on it was. The dry leaf smelled like freshly baked pastries. The tea also somehow tastes like freshly baked pastry and cinnamon.
Usually with teas that emulate cakes or other desserts, I feel like there is something missing. Whatever that something is, this tea has it. I guess it just balances well between being overly artificial and being too weakly flavored. I may have to make an order with American Tea Room soon!

Confession: My first tea love, back in high school, was Twinings Blackcurrent. I hadn’t realized it, but my taste buds were hoping for that again here. Well, they didn’t get it, but that could be good or bad depending on your taste. Looking for something that doesn’t hit you over the head with the fruity flavor? This is it. Maybe you prefer a more basic black tea with just a hint of fruit? This is it too. The tea base itself is an odd duck – lighter in flavor, kind of thin, but quite tannic. Not a combination I love personally.

I agree with LynnDC this is surprisingly creamy, with kind of a vanilla warmth to it. I do taste and really enjoy the lavender notes here, though, as usual, I wish these scented/blended teas used a higher quality tea, as this lavender flavor over a sweeter, fuller green would knock my socks off. As it is, I’m happy enough to drink it but don’t expect it to have a permanent home in the stash.

A resteep! I was thoroughly under the impression that blacks don’t resteep, ever. But then I browsed through some tasting notes on this and saw others had done it successfully, so I guess I’ll be trying resteeps with my favorite blacks.

If possible this smells even more like a cinnamon bun this time around! How is this possible?! It’s even more bready and has the smell of that cinnamon glaze that makes a cinnamon bun so good.

It brews up a little lighter than the first time, but it still seems to have held up. The taste reflects the smell: more bready, strong cinnamon, but definitely not a weak steep at all.

ETA: Cooling doesn’t seem to affect the taste much at all, which means it’s delicious both ways. Good to know!

This one is a sample MirandaGou sent me with our recent swap: thank you! I thought this would be a good one to try with breakfast, and my goodness. It smells exactly like a pastry! And, wait for it: it tastes like a pastry. I’m not sure I can say how excited I am about that, because with my wheat intolerance there’s pretty much no substitute for croissants, bear claws, danishes, or anything else you would eye for several minutes at a coffee shop and then feel bad about getting. There’s just no way (that I know of at least) to duplicate the texture without wheat.

This is cinnamon-y, a touch sweet like icing, and there’s a definite flavor of flaky pastry dough. I didn’t think it was possible for a tea to taste like liquid cinnamon buns, but obviously I was wrong. There’s enough in the sample MirandaGou sent for one or two more cups, but I’m already thinking this is going on the favorites list. Mm.

ETA: Tried the last half of the cup with a little milk in it out of curiosity. It makes the bready taste stand out even more and mellows out the spices. Delicious both ways.

Wow. The bergamot is buried in a chemical taste I can’t get past. Not for me.