American Tea Room

Sipdown no. 29 of the year 2014. It’s Saturday and I have a few more sipdowns within reach. W00t!

Steepster continues to be flaky on my likes. I thought I had identified the cause—I thought it didn’t like me “liking” on my phone or tablet, but this morning I noticed I had the same issue when liking on my computer. Then I thought perhaps it was a browser issue so I tried a different one but it continues to be unpredictable. Sorry if I missed anyone. Sigh.

I continue to have very pleasant interactions with this tea. If this tea had a personality, it would be outgoing and warm but not pushy or brash. It’s very inviting, particularly first thing in the morning. On a clean palate, the tea base’s flavor is easily accessible. I’m get the peppery note in the description today. It’s a great wake-up tea.

If it wasn’t for the fact I prefer the Shanghai version, I would run immediately to put this on the shopping list.

ETA: This really deserves a better rating. Just because I’m not buying it doesn’t mean it isn’t excellent. Remedying that now.

Another morning with the Sterling. I’m now within sipdown range but not quite there.

With a bit more distance from the Earl Grey Shanghai, I can really appreciate this one in its own right. Mild, medium-light bodied, somewhat brisk, with bergamot just how I like it (in other words, present, but not too strong).

It is so hard to choose among the many Earl Greys out there. You’d think they’d all be basically the same, but no, they have to make things complicated. ;-) There are some Earl Greys that I’d be happy to never taste again and others that are go-tos in my book. This is just short of go-to. Very nice indeed.

Yesterday morning I had the Earl Grey Shanghai from ATR, so today I thought I’d try this.

In the sample packet there’s the same rich bergamot scent as in the Shanghai, but without the sugary aroma of the Shanghai’s Yunnan base. The leaves are very pretty, that sort of spidery ceylon look, but instead of petals strewn among the leaves, this one has shiny silver needles. Lovely.

The liquor is a light reddish brown, not quite as deep red in color as I’ve come to think of the “ceylon” color. There’s a mild aroma that is slightly spicy, slightly citrus-y, and though I smell the bergamot it’s not overpowering.

The main difference between this and the Earl Grey Shanghai is, to my tastebuds, the tea base. The Yunnan base gives the Shanghai a very substantial body, with a sweet, rich sugar/molasses/cocoa thing going on. The blend of this base, which starts with ceylon, gives the tea a more medium to light body that is still very flavorful, but tastes more like “tea.” It’s hard to think of an analogy that isn’t too hyperbolic. I was thinking the difference between a vanilla shake and cream soda, but that’s too drastic of a contrast. It reminds me of the Lady Grey in body and somewhat in taste, but without the creme.

As with the other ATR Greys, this one doesn’t overwhelm with bergamot. The balance works nicely for me.

I’m a little torn on this one. It’s a fine tea, but I prefer the nommy Yunnan base of the Shanghai. I think if I ordered the Shanghai, the Lavender and the Lady Grey, I would cover the Earl Grey bases with ATR well enough without adding this to the order. However, as always, your mileage may vary—particularly if the Yunnan-based Earl Grey isn’t your thing.

Well this is unexpectedly awesome. Chamomile tea is just okay in my book, something to calm me before bed. But the added verveine greatly improves the flavor – chamomile by itself is just kind of flat but lemony goodness rounds it out a bit and perks it up, and the mint also soothes my belly and leaves a nice aftertaste. This is my new version of chamomile to keep around!

ATR sent me a sample of this with my last order. I like it. It’s sweet without being cloyingly so, and the tea flavor comes through. It’s a little tart, but barely noticeable unless I’m looking for it.

I think this would make a nice iced tea, but I’m enjoying this hot right now. I’m not sure I like this enough to buy more, but it’s very pleasant for a snowed in winter’s day.

In my timolino, also in class and I’ll edit this later because CLASS IS STARTING SOON OKAY BYE.

Dude. this one is really good okay.
I love how it tastes like a cinnamon bun and tastes nice and sweet and beautiful. Definitely a sad sipdown; I want some more!

Smells like almonds with sweet undertones? I don’t even know. The sent right from the package is just very inviting :)
Brewing it SMELLS LIKE TEA. WHO KNEW. With the amount of sleep I got last night, I just expect all my teas to turn into the food that it smells like.
Drinking it, the almond flavour sorta gets lost within the tea. Good! But a wee bit more almond would be nice :)

edit: now that I’m nearing the end of my cup, I’m tasting a bit more almond!

((special shout out to shmiracles for sending this tea my way!))

Sipdown no. 33 of 2014. I don’t expect this will be the last I’ll see of this tea, though.

I still think my “likes” are screwing up. I click them but then when I refresh the page or the next time I go to it, unless the note I liked showed up on the first screen (not after clicking more) it appears the likes are gone and I can click them again. But the don’t stick the second time either.

Anyone know if there’s a workaround for this or a particular browser this doesn’t happen with? I hope it isn’t user error. I’ll feel really dumb.

Mmmm. The sweet, brown sugar/molasses thing going on is just right for this morning. It’s almost like having coffee cake, but without the calories.

A sad goodbye, but only for now.

This is, essentially, the ATR Earl Grey Lavender without the lavender. It’s the same yummy Yunnan base and the same relatively light touch on the bergamot. When I say light touch, understand that I’ve had Earl Greys where I felt afterwards as though bergamot oil was being excreted from my pores. It’s not that the bergamot isn’t present here, it’s that it isn’t taking over the entire experience.

I would never have expected a light touch on the bergamot when I sniffed the sample packet. The scent from the packet is very citrusy and a little floral, though there are no petals to add color to this pretty, dark-leaved tea. Once the tea is steeped, the Yunnan base really comes to the fore of the aroma. I love this smell-brown sugary, leaning almost toward chocolate. It’s the same general idea as the Samovar Earls, which I adore.
The tea color is a gorgeous reddish brown. They call it garnet. It’s not quite that red, but it’s still lovely.

The flavor is what I like most. It’s that brown sugary base that cuts the bergamot and keeps it from veering into perfumed oil territory. It isn’t quite as smooth as I recall the Samovar (with a similar flavor profile) being-it has just a bit of briskness to it. But it’s still right up my personal Earl Grey alley.

Sipdown no. 205. The rest of the sample. In the vein of sipping down things I like.

I steeped this a little shorter than last time, and I didn’t have enough leaf left for a full cup, but it’s still quite nice and peachy. And it’s still available at ATR!

My sample doesn’t say it’s organic, but my guess is it’s just a prior version of the current one which can now be certified as organic. It does identify the tea base as a Ceylon. The base looks and tastes like the base to the Apricot and the Passion Fruit, which I had suspected were Ceylons but felt too rusty to make a call on-I’m glad to know I haven’t completely lost all my knowledge of black tea varieties during my hiatus.

The smell of the dry leaf from the packet is wonderful. It’s reminiscent of the juiciness of the apricot, though this time it’s juicy peach. I once had a wonderful peach pie in which the peach flavor of the peaches was incredible-it was like a heightened version of fresh peach. More peach than actual peaches. That’s what this smells like.

The aroma is a gentler peach plus the Ceylon, and the liquor is that gorgeous reddish color I associate with Ceylons.

The peach flavor tastes just like it smells. The BF, being a fruity tea fan and a peach fan in particular (he loves everything from the fruit off the tree to the ice cream and everything in between), said this was “right up at the top” and asked for more before I’d even finished my cup.

I agree. It’s a great black peach.

I’m bumping the ratings of all the ATR fruits because I’m still feeling my way back into my rating system. They’re all really excellent examples of single fruit blacks so I’m rating accordingly.

Like some of the other ATR scented/flavored teas, the strong point here is the jasmine flavor. Maybe not as full as some so it tends toward the soapier end of things (as opposed to the herbal end of this spectrum of jasmine I apparently have in my head). The underlying green tea does let the jasmine shine but doesn’t contribute much flavor of its own.

I think I was spoiled by the Capital Teas version. You other milk oolong fans know just how special this tea can be, but this one didn’t quite live up to it – but to be fair, it is FAR better than many I’ve tried. This is still quite good. It’s a tough order to describe it, but to compare with Capital’s, this was just less flavorful overall.

I just drank this for the second time, and it grew on me. This time it’s buttery, still with caramel notes, but restrained. Still, in a blind tasting, I might almost believe it’s herbal. The flavor to me is all herbal, but the green tea does mellow the flavors a bit and lend a touch of astringency in a good way.

A nice everyday tea, with a touch of caramel in the peach flavor, bringing warmth to it.

Oh this is an odd duck, and it’s growing on me. I’m really getting the ‘parmesan dusted popcorn’ umami thing now but still with a refreshing quality. It might make a great iced tea. Still probably not a reorder, but I’m happier to keep this ounce in the cabinet, and I’m bumping up the score.

This tea is an odd combination of light and comforting. I’m surprised to see the official description is of a black tea, while the packaging simply calls it ‘lightly oxidized loose leaf’ tea. If I had been given this tea with no description, I might have thought it was a light oolong. It’s a bit delicate for my tastes, but if you like the lighter greens and wouldn’t mind something a touch earthier, this might be a good choice.

Sipdown!! (of sorts as I am sending the rest of my sample to Dexter)

When I opened the package to send some of this away for a swap, the cacao caught my eye. Also, the rooibos smelled a bit strong so I decided to make myself a cup and see what I thought.

Tastewise, this is heavy on the rooibos with a hint of cacao. There is a tad bit of sweetness but tbh, this is not that much better than the Republic of Tea teabags I sent away (a bit better though as I was able to take a few sips before throwing it away as opposed to just one). This cup got poured and the sample got sealed to be shipped away. Hopefully Dexter will have better luck with this.

sipdown! (166…oh yes i WILL get to 160 damnit!)
gross gross gross gross gross gross…OMG GROSS. thank you missB for sending this my way. Let me preface by saying i’m not a hige fan of coconut. I’ve been lucky to find a few blends that have it that i really enjoy because it’s that fresh tasting sort of coconut.

THIS? is that gross oily, smells like feet sort of, not natural at all kind of coconut. It assaults my tastebuds and nose. I took a sip and then couldn’d do anything more.

upside? one more tea off the list of ALL THE TEA! :)

Sipdown no. 50 of 2017 (no. 331 total). A sample.

This is another of the American Tea Room samples that I hoarded after really enjoying it the last time I drank it. But I’m now trying to clear out my old samples — if they’ve accumulated dust, it has to be past time.

Thankfully, ATR still has this tea available for sale, so it’s going on the wish list. I just hope that it’s still available by the time I can justify another tea order.

Despite its age and my neglect, this last bit was lovely, smooth, and naturally sweet with a very distinct passion fruit flavor that blended nicely with the tea base.

I love the name passion fruit, but until recently I wasn’t sure I’d ever eaten one as opposed to just tasting it as an ingredient in juice. Then last summer, we vacationed in Costa Rica, and pretty much every breakfast buffet featured these little guys. Still, it’s not a flavor I grew up with so it isn’t strongly imprinted in my mind. In other words, I am not qualified to say whether a tea accurately captures the essence of passion fruit.

This morning, the BF, who seems to be getting into tea some as a result of the most recent bout of horrible winter illness, asked for something fruity. So I decided to break out my sample of this.

The aroma of the dry leaves from the packet is not as strong and juicy as was the apricot of yesterday, but it’s still very nice-fruity, with a freshness and cleanliness to it. And of course, there are flower petals so I’m happy with the look.

The liquor brews to a reddish amber, almost a mahogany color. I suspect this is the same base used in the apricot. There’s a light, fresh, fruitiness to the aroma.

The taste is very pleasantly fruity without tasting artificial. It fit the bill for the BF’s fruity request. He said, “I’m not sure I taste passion fruit, but I taste fruity and I like it.”

That about sums it up.

As a black tea, it’s…undistinguished, but not bad. The cardamom is nearly nonexistant. It’s a smooth black tea with nice astringency.

Sipdown no. 201. The rest of the sample. I briefly considered trying to do an entire day of avoiding sipdowns. Then I thought maybe I should go the opposite direction and try to do all sipdowns today. Then I decided I was seriously overthinking this and should spend no more time even considering the question.

I have come to a realization, though. I like this so much better than the Adagio Apricot. I know I have a Mariage Freres Apricot in my stash after having done a sort of quasi-inventory project the other day, but really, unless that one is even better, I really see no reason to have multiple apricot teas some of which I like better than others. Why not just have one I really like?

And then, just when I was ready to standardize on this (for now) as my apricot black tea of choice for all the reasons stated in my previous note (and bumped up the rating accordingly), I discovered that this tea is no longer available on the ATR site.

Wwwwhhhhaaaaaaa!

I know I’ve had other apricot flavored blacks-Adagio comes to mind-but it has been a while and now I’m really wondering why.

The aroma of the dry leaf is SO amazing (if you like apricot, which I do). Seriously, it’s downright juicy. It’s sort of between a fresh apricot smell and a dried apricot smell, but not the very dry dried apricots, the plump juicy ones. The dry leaf is also attractive. I am such a sucker for petals in tea. I don’t know what kind these are or whether they are here just for decoration, but either way I love how they look. I also just love the idea of putting petals in tea solely for decoration. If I made teas, I’d do that. ;-)

I have to brush up on my black leaf identification skills to be able to tell what’s in the base. The liquor is a sort of reddish amber, which is what I associate with Ceylons, but I am too rusty to attempt a definitive I.D. here. The aroma of the steeped tea carries over the apricot notes from the dry leaf very nicely. There’s still a juicy apricot quality, which is pretty wonderful, but the tea is present in the aroma as well.

After all of this ramp up, I was a little concerned I might find the taste a let down, but I didn’t have to worry. I taste the apricot front and center. It retains that wonderful juicy component without being overpowering, and that flavor persists into the finish. There’s nothing fake about the apricot flavor, nothing jammy or cloying. The tea flavor takes something of a back seat, but that’s okay with me because the flavor is so well done. There’s some astringency in the aftermath, and that may help to keep the apricot in the aftertaste fresh and sweet.

I like.