American Tea Room

My new Roy Kirkham china has arrived! There’s a picture of it here along with the old cracked one. You can see the crack if you look closely. I haven’t cleaned it yet, obviously, and it appears, now that I look closer at it, that the crack has actually been leaking some, or there wouldn’t be dribbles down the side like that. 1

What better time to try the caramel tea that Auggy sent me? I am even using the cup that goes with it, rather than a mug like a usually do. I tend to prefer the mug because I can empty the whole pot in one go. This way the last half will keep on steeping. But, new china is new china! I couldn’t use a mug for it this very first time. Oh the joys of not having to pour over the sink!

It’s very sweet smelling, but not necessarily caramel sweet at first. It’s more like it’s just a fairly generic, mild black tea with a hefty amount of cane sugar in it. Hm. That’s not really the sort of aroma I want to find in a caramel tea…

I’m afraid the flavour is the same as the aroma. It’s just sweetened tea with a mild base. Ceylon, possibly. It reminds me of Ceylon. The sweetness even comes across more like a naturally occurring sweetness rather than an added flavouring and I’m not sure how I feel about that. It’s really cool that it’s possible to flavour a tea and have it taste like it’s not flavoured at all. On the other hand, I was looking for something caramel flavoured here, and currently this cup is not living up to the expectations I had when I saw the label on the tin. Not even a little bit.

If you are someone who normally sweetens your tea, then I think you would find it unnecessary to do so here. For someone like me who would never dream of adding any sort of sweetening agent ever, it’s coming across as something almost cloying. I haven’t sweetened my tea at all since I was a young child, save for the occasional experiment which usually didn’t work anyway, and right now this cup is reminding me of why I don’t want to start again.

I won’t say I dislike it, because it certainly is drinkable, and perhaps I was supposed to steep it longer than I did, but this is not what I understand a caramel flavoured anything to be. This? This is black tea with sugar in it. That’s it. I’m not even sure I would say it tastes like something that has anything to do with caramel as such. It’s no where near the likes of Kusmi’s caramel or the LPdT Toffee.

The Imperial Breakfast Summer blend from Verdant tea that I enjoyed this morning was more caramel-y than this. And that one wasn’t even flavoured with anything.

1 https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/MbjM_x5Os07M4xcvtjtsqDt0rtk7VScRcTAqR2hWR8Q?feat=directlink

This is another one that came from Auggy. Slowly but surely I’m making my way through her offerings. There are definitely more tried than untried now anyway.

Earl Grey for me have always been somewhat touch and go. I won’t ever grow to love them, but I do seem to be able to tolerate them better today. Just a couple of years ago, I would say I didn’t much like it at all. I believe flavoured teas is the place where Auggy’s and my Taste Twinniness stops. We don’t always appreciate the same flavours. Or maybe it doesn’t stop as such. It just runs parallel. Even if it’s not the same flavourings, we still seem to look for approximately the same qualities. I guess ultimately it probably has to do with the balance between flavour and body, and then, when there is a difference in our tastes regarding a flavoured tea, the recent Burrough’s Brew being a good example, it has more to do with the flavour itself than anything else. If that makes sense.

Anyway, this one smells like a regular Earl Grey. Bergamot-y. That’s it. I’m not sure what the Shanghai element is at this point, and looking up the company’s description doesn’t make me any wiser. Apparently the base is Yunnan on this one, but… Shanghai isn’t anywhere NEAR the Yunnan province! They’re actually on opposite ends of the country. Unless there’s more than one place called Shanghai which I suppose is possible, but… Maybe, since the base is a purely Chinese tea, they just wanted something in the name that was very Chinese? Oh well.

After brewing the aroma is less bergamot-strong and more generally citrus-y. A bit orange-y even. Yes orange. Bergamot and orange. I skimmed through Auggy’s post on it and she mentioned that it reminded her of the Romanoff blend, and I have to say I agree. I’m glad for that orange note. It brightens it all up and makes everything lighter. Bergamot on its own is often a dark and heavy smell, but with the orange addition here it’s positively lively.

It’s still lively in flavour, although the comparison to Romanoff stops there. It’s not the rampant blend of myriads of citrus that Romanoff is, but I wouldn’t say this comes across as a regular Earl Grey either. I believe that must have something to do with the base. Hardly a regular Earl Grey base, is it? But even the flavouring seems different. Whether it just interacts differently with different bases, I can’t say, but it doesn’t have that dusty, prickly, perfume-y bergamot characteristics that are the main reason I don’t normally go much for Earl Grey. Sometimes they even taste like soap! It doesn’t actually come across as bergamot at all. Just… citrus that isn’t any of the more common citrus-fruits. Just generic citrus, with maybe a smidge of bergamot in the background. Not soap-y though.

It’s an Earl Grey that understands how not to make a spectacle of itself. In spite of its fancy and exotic name, it’s down to earth and confident in itself enough to not have to be very loud in the cup. And that is the best way for me to have Earl Grey.

Incredible, and one of the best of its type. As the others have said, it is creamy and chocolaty while also having a slight woody backnote that gives it some structure. Remarkable.

The dry leaf smells a bit like coconut and death. Maybe some weird cough syrup – not cherry but some sort of medicinal fruit. I wasn’t too up on the idea of a fig tea and now I’m downright apprehensive. However, I am feeling bold today. (Or stupid. Sometimes I get the two confused.)

Post-steeping it smells more of coconut and a hay-like cookie. Better. A little scary, but still. Better.

The taste is faintly pu-erh-ish (earth, hay, barn) but it’s not too heavy or thick (which is the issue I seem to have with most cooked pu-erhs). Instead, in the middle of the sip (where the syrupy thickness would start to come in) the coconut kicks in and lightens things up, turning them sweet-but-not-cloying. The finish is still sweet but almost… jaunty. I’m not a huge fan of licorice/anise tasting things so I worried about the fennel in this, but I can’t really pick it out other than a hint of tingle in the back of my throat at the end of the sip. It’s been ages since I’ve had fig so I can’t say if this is appropriately figgy or not. Mostly, I get pu-erh and coconut.

All in all, not a bad tea – definitely not as bad as I feared. For those that like the flavor of pu-erh, this would probably be more successful, but for me, the aroma of pu-erh makes me unconsciously brace myself. Even though the too-heavy syrup I am braced for doesn’t kick in, just the subconscious anticipation of it makes drinking this tea not so relaxing for me.

This does make me want to try a coconut tea from ATR because the coconut aspect to this is nicely sweet, light and creamy. I’d like more of that, please.

MissB has also shared some of this with me. I’ve had a sample from Auggy before. Last year, I think.

I’m having a cup of the new sample now and I find I still agree with myself. It’s very pastry-ish and nutty. I quite like it, but I still don’t think I could drink more than one cup at the time.

This one is another one from the massive pile that Auggy shared with me. I understand that the name refers to some sort of cake or something, and when I read the description of it I was pretty excited to try it. This post is actually a backlog based on hand scribbled notes which I hope to be able to decipher, so this was one of the first of her lot that I tried.

The aroma of the leaves is awesome. It smells like fresh pastry, straight out of the oven. It’s nutty and sweet and warm and slightly spicy, and I was pleased to find that this goes for both the dry leaf and the steeped cup. Almost exactly the same aroma, actually.

In the flavour the picture was almost the same as before, with the same elements to it. It was still quite nutty and a bit spicy, but the pastry note was really the by far largest one of them all where before they had seemed more equal to one another. On the swallow and in the long aftertaste it turned all sugary sweet.

It was a very nice cup, but it’s not something that I think I could have more than one cup of at the time. One was good, but I think more than one, it would just become too much. It’s extremely richly flavoured, this.

This stuff smells fab, I must say. Auggy shared it with me, and I only have to read the description to understand why. This stuff sounds right up my alley!

It reminds me strongly of the orange flavoured pu-erh from Nothing But Tea which I lurve. I must stock up on that again soon! It’s all orangy and slightly rough around the edges, although disappointingly not smoky. It’s supposed to be lightly smoked this stuff in the base.

Well, I think ‘lightly’ is the keyword here. Either that or it’s a tea which comes with a naturally occurring degree of smoky notes. It’s Chinese, so that option isn’t really all that unlikely. I find that a whiff of something smoky is not uncommon in Chinese blacks. I just… I could have wished for it to come out more in the aroma.

That aside, though, as I mentioned initally, it does smell fab. (Charm the Cat appears to find it unbelievably stinky, though. She just made that face like she trying to protect her nose by pulling it into her own skull)

Now, the flavour, however, that’s where all the action is.

Based on the aroma alone, I would have thought it was going to be something quite orange-y but as it turns out the orange is mere adding the highlights on a deliciously smoky black. It’s not quite LS strength smoke, but it’s along those lines, and definitely more smoky than anything that would turn up naturally. Still, once again the keyword is lightly smoked.

At first I get the orange. Lots of orange, but not any sort of fresh orange, really. It’s more something that gives me associations to dried orange slices used as decoration. Those look great and if one were to bite one, I imagine it would taste like this. So orange on a slightly rough and dark body. Then the smoky notes come in on the swallow and the aftertaste.

I should really like to know what the base for this is. I have a suspicion that it might be delish on it’s own as well as in this blend. (And I have a few suspicions of the Anhui sort as I’m getting the impression of something grainy in there. Perhaps blended with a different region to give it a little more darkness and depth)

Also, this base with a red berry flavour. That has the potential to be epic!

Well I bought a bunch of this tea because I got a really good deal on it. This tea smells like that zebra colorful gum, and it kind of tastes that way as well. It tastes like buttery zebra colorful gum, hahaha! It’s not that bad, just a bit too flavorful for my taste. I also didn’t taste the green tea, it was more like a dessert tea.
EDIT: Let me know if anyone wants to try some, I have 4 oz. and really don’t think I’ll be able to drink it all.

Smoky and blood orange? Sign me up! Though the dry leaf smells fully blood orange – I can’t find any smoke. But it’s a really good and true-to-life blood orange smell so I really can’t find it within myself to care one bit that there is no smoke. The blood orange smell is lovely. LOVELY, I say!

The smell of the tea post-steeping isn’t as just-peeled-a-blood-orange delicious. There’s a tannin-ish prickle of maybe-smoke and a hint of orange peel tang and sweetness. Not as intoxicating as sniffing straight from the tin. I find that I want to be a bit disappointed with that, but I’m going to reserve judgement.

The taste is more similar to the smell of the liquid instead of the dry leaf. Brisk is the first word that comes to mind – brisk but with a definite true-citrus-fruit flavor that gives it a little tangy sweetness. I happen to love that orange peel/zest/oil type of orange flavor so I like this but this also has an almost floral edge, especially when very hot. As it cools it’s more juicy orange with a bit of peel, which I think is lovely and much preferred over the almost-floral. And added bonus, slurping brings out a more orange-juice-ish flavor.

When I hear “smoky”, I tend to think of things like Bohea or Lapsang Souchong. I love my is-this-tea-or-a-smoked-ham? smoky teas. So I don’t really think this one is smoky at all. There’s a bit of that smoky prickle at the end of the sip but that’s all I get unless I slurp madly and then I get faint notes of campfire. But just faint.

All in all, though, I have to say that this is a very well done tea. Part of me wants stronger orange and smoke, something to match the strength of the orange smell in the dry leaf, but I think that would make this an entirely different type of tea. As it is, this tea is delightfully mellow and relaxing and rather elegant. I feel fancy just sipping on it. So while I love the strong orange smell of the dry leaf, I kind of love the more subtle and balanced taste of the actual tea. I have a feeling this is going to be one I reach for over and over. Though probably more in the afternoon than first thing in the morning.

So I’m sitting here with a second steep of this tea sitting about two feet away on the table next to me and I have to say: THIS SMELLS SO FANTASTIC! The scent keeps wafting towards me and it smells like a bakery has opened up in our kitchen.

When I first started drinking tea, I loved anything flavored. Flavored teas meshed especially well with my habit of taking a sugared-and-milked tumbler of tea on my morning commute, too. But since getting more into tea and having no more morning commute, I’ve become super-picky about my teas, especially the flavored ones. So it is with my picky hat on that I say: THIS TEA IS DELICIOUS.

It smells like one of those little square flaky pastries, the ones with the cutting across the top and a light icing drizzled over them? I have no idea what they are called but that’s what this tea smells like. Yum. Even the second steep, while smelling more bread-y, smells like fresh sweet pastry.

The taste isn’t as sweet as the smell but it definitely has a lovely almond-paste-ish flavor and some notes of faint, light bready in the first steep. The second steep is leaning more towards a nutty-ish cinnamon & sugar toast but is equally desserty and delicious.

For a flavored tea, this has a nice, full flavor. It’s not a single note tea. Nope, there’s almond and light cinnamon and bread-y and the flavors kind of tumble over each other, making this taste really nuanced and interesting, especially for a flavored tea.

So yeah, even holding this to my extra-critical-of-flavored-teas standard, I must give this a very enthusiastic thumbs up.

I got this as a surprise sample in my swap with the awesome Will Work For Tea! It’s been on my shopping list for a long time, and I’m honestly not quite sure why I didn’t order it before now—I think I just don’t like to pay for shipping unless it’s a big order, and ATR is a bit pricey so I wanted to know I’d love their stuff before committing to a purchase.

The smell of the dry leaves is amazing, like a Parisian bakery. I went to Paris with my mom when I was 15, and I remember how absolutely amazing the pastries were. Soft, buttery, flakey, sweet… just thinking about it makes me hungry. This tea smells like an almond croissant, but it tastes even better. There’s soft, gentle cinnamon, plump raisins, slivers of roasted almonds, and buttery warm bread in every sip, even a hint of pastry cream at the end. How they got tea to taste like a fresh from the oven baked good is beyond me, but it’s heavenly. This is a tea I could drink every day and be happy with!

This is the third sample that Will Work For Tea was so kind to give me!

I finished the last of my final exams today, so I figured I would treat myself with this great tea! The smell of dry leaves is very interesting, I even couldn’t resist eating a small crunchy nut piece :) The smell is a pretty wild mix of sweet nuts, really roasty aroma and green tea.

The taste is very different from the smell. But it still has that really nice roasty taste. And for some reason it reminds me of a cereal from my childhood :)

Overall, I didn’t expect a green tea to turn out so nice in a combination with nuts and roasty taste. I won’t be buying it soon, but it sure will be on my list.

A few years ago, when I first got bitten by the tea bug, I purchased a few oolongs from LifeinTeacup. They were so good that I fell in love with the light oolongs.
But somehow I let the whole oolong range fall to the side this past year. Maybe it’s the few less remarkable oolongs that I subsequently purchased from other vendors or maybe it’s the chinese black tea kick I’ve been on this past year. At any rate, I forgot how much I love a good oolong, how light and sweet they are, how refreshing.

Then this tea came along and reminded of me of all that I love in an oolong. I ordered it because of all the great reviews. It did not disappont!

I don’t really get the milky aspect, but that might be because my oolong tasting skills are a bit rusty. Either way, this tea is delightful. Buttery and vegetal.

The first infusion disappeared way too fast. I think I need another.
What a treat!

Sipdown! This was an ancient sample from LiberTeas, but it still held up! A yummy chocolate rooibos; I had forgotten that it was the cacao shells that were the key factor here. Delicious!

Made a cup of this one (hot) the other night and left it in the fridge to cool to make “iced tea”… it definitely has that characteristic cacao shell flavour, but now that I’ve had straight cacao shells, there’s definitely too much rooibos hindering the delicious cacao flavour. I ended up sweetening it with maple syrup, which tasted pretty decent, but it definitely wasn’t as good as I remember (and I suspect it’s directly related to having had better teas since, not because it’s a bit older!)

Another randomly chosen sample from my box from LiberTEAS! Thank you!

The smell is the most hot chocolate-like of any tea I’ve encountered so far. It’s a very familiar smell. Like homemade hot cocoa! With milk, cocoa powder, and sugar. I should also note that the tea looks quite interesting – rooibos mixed with huge chunks of what look like nut shells! I assume it’s cacao or something (and can’t read the tea description right now).

The familiarity continues into the taste. I’m still thinking it’s homemade hot cocoa, but…. I feel like that’s not quite right. It’s definitely chocolatey/cocoa-y though. Sweet, but not overly so. It’s also a little weaker than I would have liked, but I went with the low end of the infusion range. I can’t detect the rooibos at all, which is fine by me, although I wouldn’t mind some stronger background flavour.

Overall, it’s good and chocolatey, but it is most similar in my mind to 52teas Malted ChocoMate, which I prefer as there’s a stronger, roastier flavour along with the chocolate that just makes it more robust and interesting. Interesting to try regardless though!!

ETA: Second infusion smells quite similar. I’m wondering if this tea is reminding me of DavidsTea’s Chocolate Cake. I don’t think it’s quite the same though. I still feel like somethings missing, like it needs a stronger background flavour to hold up the chocolate so it doesn’t taste so much like chocolate water. I bet this would be better with milk and sugar, but I’m not going to cave…. haha.

Thank you to Melanie for this delightful Sample!
I really enjoy Russian Tea and this is a good one. Sometimes Russian tea can be floral and very sweet and sometimes quite smoky. There are different times Russian tea is served traditionally. Either sitting on the Samovar waiting for a pour all day..a hot pot to ward off the cold in Winter… and then another option for dessert is a floral tea often served with chocolates or a TB. of Jam in the cup to eat along with sipping. So delicious. I steeped and was ready to pour. What to do? This is a slightly smoky and creamy tea with just enough tannin to be perky. There is Blood Orange peel in the mix which did not seem to be there at all in the flavor. I wanted caffeine to ward off a migraine so black tea in the morning was a good call. Then I went further…I added some sugar in a small trial pour and liked it with the creaminess…ah…nice. OK I gave up completely and went to the Frig and got my Bonne Maman Cherry Preserves ( I’m telling the brand because it’s available almost anywhere but Sour Cherry is more traditional) and added a big tablespoon in a full cup of tea. Oh boy this is elegantly! Try it if you have the nerve, I Dare you! GOOD! The smoke still cuts through the Jam and the flavor is not too cherry nor too sweet. Just enough! (Strawberry Jam is ok too) Trying this you can participate in the tradition of another culture and enjoy this sweet dessert tea treat.. only 50 calories! So, this tea with or without adding anything is quite nice.
I would keep this on hand as a basic in my cupboard. My steep time was 4 minutes and I was able to get a good second steep.

Early morning, reaching for a random sample, how about… Notting Hill by American Tea Room. I’ve never been to the neighborhood and I recall being rather bored during the predictable Julia Roberts romantic romp. The name does little for me. Onward to the this yunnan/assam hybrid.

Dry leaf says yunnan. Wet leaf says assam. Liquor scent is a mix. The first half of the sip is all yunnan, nice sweet earthy goodness. Good yunnan, not great. The second half of the sip screams assam with its typical dry, malty taste. Average assam. The after-taste leaves a slightly sweet taste in the front of the mouth (yunnan) and a dry astringency in the back of the mouth toward the throat (assam). Overall, the tea is smooth, which is critical in such a blend. The more I drink this, the more I yearn for the sweet yunnan that’s at the forefront and less for dry assam in the back-half.

This blend does the job as a morning wake-me-up tea, but not too much beyond that. Rather average fare. A few bonus points for being organic. Not something I would run out to buy. Like a Julia Roberts film, this tea is pleasant, yet predictable.

This one is Really good to me i’ll have to try and get some myself, thanks Melanie for sending me this one i like it alot!

Tastes like lightly roasted white flowers with bits of peach. Soft jasmine-like aroma.

There’s a slight nuttiness and tartness in the aftertaste—like chestnuts and cherries. Interesting!

Extreme. This tea is extreme. The vanilla is extreme. Your opinion will be extreme.

Sipping this tea was like drinking straight vanilla extract. Vanilla to the nth degree. Horrid! There is a reason people don’t pour themselves a cup of undiluted vanilla extract. I couldn’t manage to finish my cup and was forced to dump out the rest after only a few sips! This is something I rarely do when tasting. Even if a tea is disliked, I will show some measure of respect by finishing. But this blend: undrinkable. Oh, and the green tea base is not even worth discussing since it is beyond obliterated by the vanilla.

The only reason I’m not giving this tea a score closer to zero is that the person I shared this pot of ‘extreme’ with happened to love it. This totally bizarre individual finished off the rest of pot solo. I don’t understand it, other than to say; this is a tea you will either completely love or hate. There is no in-between. Personally, I detest it, extremely.

This is pretty good. I love chocolate, but usually it’s hard to enjoy in solid form. I think milk chocolate is often too sweet and creamy. Dark chocolate, while preferable, is often too strong to enjoy more than a bit of. It just seems that chocolate is often too intense. Fortunately, this tea allows you to control the strength and sweetness. How cool is that? Very cool.

Smells and tastes very chocolate-y. But the flavor is not too intense so I can drink to my heart’s content. It’s good without sweetener as well, which is how I prefer my drinks. If they are sweetened, I usually get tired of the sweetness at some point and switch to water to wash the sweetness out of my mouth. I know, I’m weird. I got really thirsty when I go to parties sometimes because few people think to stock water since most people are happy to drink juice or soda or other sweet stuff. I should just bring my own water. Is that rude?

Anyways! Tea! Yes, this is good. I have full control of the flavor! This tastes best hot. When it cools, it starts to taste a bit like wood. Is this because it’s made from cocoa husk? Hmm… I had considered trying this with milk, but it’s pretty good without addition, so I’m just gonna keep drinking it. :) I don’t really get much vanilla or rooibos in this, but it’s okay. Still tasty.

Thank you QueenofTarts!

just got this in the mail and it makes a zesty lemony iced tea…delish and perfect for the evening.