American Tea Room

An unopened sample from back in the day. I steeped according to package directions.

The dry leaves range in color from almost forest green to silvery green and smell of earth. The tea is a light color, almost a peachy yellow, and clear.

The flavor comports with my impression of other first flush darjeelings in that it is rounder and mellower than second flush teas in general, without any extremely sharp notes though there’s an undercurrent of wine. I’m also getting stone fruit notes, apricot mostly, and a slight floral note. It’s tasty and gentle.

This came as a sample in my American Tea Room order. It’s fine, but no stand out as gunpowders go. A bit on the light side, with some hay notes. I have yet to find anything from ATR excellent enough to justify their prices — with the exception of Brioche, obviously. That’s how they keep getting me to come back.

The reviews of this sounded tempting, and since I love all things orange and chocolate, I thought this would be a sure-fire win for me. Meh. It’s a kind of ordinary, medium body black tea with a kind of slight metallic bitterness to it. (It was weird but not as unpleasant as it sounds.) I don’t get chocolate from it at all, and the citrus is very faint and vague. This is basically a tea that I’d serve to someone who doesn’t give a darn about tea. It might be worth trying iced. Sometimes I keep a tea around too long before I review it (and I always take that into account), but this was only about a week old so the fault isn’t mine this time!

Sipdown no. 58 of 2017 (no. 339 total). A sample.

A lovely, muscatel-y Darjeeling for the first tea of the morning. There will be more, as I’m off for two whole weeks, and it’s cold.

I’m up earlier than I would have thought on the last day of a long weekend. I was debating whether to just sleep in and forget sending in my exercise for my writing class, which is due in an hour and a half, or to get up and do it. I decided in the end to get up and do it.

I am in a period where writing is a chore, not very enjoyable at all. And since I don’t have to do it, it’s tempting not to. I’m pushing myself through as a character building exercise.

As a warm up, I’m writing about this tea. Another ATR sample.

I haven’t had a darjeeling in a while. I usually like them, but in general Indian teas have a quality that makes me think of them as needing to be spaced out with other things in between. I don’t feel the same about Chinese black teas, and I think it has to do with the intensity and the astringency. Indian teas often have a sharp, penetrating note rather than a round, easy drinking quality — at least for me.

This one has medium sized green-black leaves that smell earthly in the packet. The tea liquor is gorgeous — the sort of red-orange that I used to joke would make a nice color for a sweater. It has a winey aroma, but not too sharp.

The tea is the same. It isn’t as sharp as I’d expected and while I’d hesitate to call it smooth, it is moreso than other darjeelings I’ve had. It has a coffee-like note to it and a medium astringency.

It’s quite enjoyable and I think it would make a lovely iced tea as well. Too bad they no longer have it at ATR.

Sipdown no. 68 of 2017 (no. 349 total). A sample.

This is one of the samples I tried a while back and hoarded. It was time to say goodbye.

Still delish after all these years. Nothing to add to the original note.

Another ATR sample that’s never been opened and apparently no longer available on the web site. I steeped according to the package directions.

The chocolate notes in the dry leaf are even more pronounced in this one than in yesterday’s Qimen Mao Feng, as they are in the aroma of the steeped tea. The color is about the same, perhaps a little less red and a little darker brown-orange.

The flavor is smooth and round, with a depth that wasn’t present in yesterday’s. There’s a more pronounced maltiness to the tea, a bready note to the aroma and flavor. The finish isn’t sugary sweet, but it’s not bitter.

I like the body of this. It has heft to it but isn’t so heavy that it gets dragged down.

Sipdown no. 72 of 2017 (no. 353 total). A sample.

We are binge watching 24 (the original one) as a family, but as I often have trouble sleeping I watch more TV and also read more than anyone else in the fam. Since they don’t want me going ahead on 24 without them, I’m also re-binge watching The Good Wife.

Two, two, two binges at once! I’ll be drinking this while watching the next episode of The Good Wife. Then I really have to exercise.

Anyone else have a Peloton? I don’t know anyone who does so I am only following a couple of people, one of whom is Joshua Malina. I came across his Peloton name in his Twitter feed. He’s much better on the bike than I am. LOL.

This is a never opened ATR sample from way back when. The tea no longer appears to be available on the ATR web site. I steeped for the time and at the temp stated on the packet.

I think Qimen is a variant spelling of Keemun. In any case, the dry leaf looks like Keemun and smell chocolatey with the tiniest hint of smoke.

The tea is on the darker side of medium red-brown and has an arboreal scent that reminds of pine but isn’t pine. The chocolate notes persist in the aroma, but not the smoke.

The tea is brisk and perky, but isn’t light — I think the marketing statement that it’s medium body is right on. It’s not what I think of as malty, which is a bit deeper in flavor and body, but there’s a definite bread note in there. I don’t get much more than a slight hint of smoke.

A pleasant tea that would probably be equally good iced, but alas, I don’t have enough to cold brew and as mentioned, this is no longer available from ATR.

It’s been so long, I can’t remember the Keemuns that knocked my socks off, so I’m rating this a bit in a vacuum as a solid good but not spectacular.

Sipdown no. 21 of 2017 (no. 302 total). A sample.

No bitterness this time, and a pretty unobtrusive accompaniment to the work day. Bumping the rating a bit.

How ’bout that NYC Marathon?

Continuing on my flavored green tear as of late with this sample. I always love how teas with flower petals in them look. The smell of this in the packet is indeed quite melony. Cantaloupe, is what I’m getting.

I saw some notes on murkiness, and my tea has a fair amount of cloud in a dark golden liquor. There’s a mild, and pleasant, melon aroma with just a hint of grassy green tea underneath.

It tastes like it smells, but has a touch of bitterness in the finish. I think with both this and the Immortal Green of yesterday, I am going to cut back the steeping time just a bit next time. I’m not sure that green melon can beat white melon (like ever) but this is a strong second, bitter finish notwithstanding.

Sipdown no. 22 of 2017 (no. 303 total). A sample.

This one was also a nice work tea. It was better when I didn’t think too much about it but just let it play the soundtrack of my morning.

First of all, I love the name. I think I’m going to adopt ’Lil Immortal Green as my rapper name.

I also love the idea of a peach green tea. Remind me that I can’t mention the existence of this to my BF who likes all things peach just slightly more than all things pumpkin.

The smell in the sample packet is a rather generic stone fruit one, but the aroma and flavor of the steeped tea is much less so. I taste the passion fruit more than the peach in this cup, but that could be because of the vagueries of what showed up in my two spoons this morning.

I’m glad I have a bit more to try again. I wanted to love this. And I like it, but two things are keeping me from getting there 100 percent.

The aroma of the steeped tea has a note that I find off-putting. It might be the passion fruit, or it could be the marigold, or a combination of the two. It has a heaviness, almost a pungency, that takes away from what is a rather light fruity taste. I’d prefer if it smelled the way it tasted. Also, I’m detecting a tad more bitterness in the finish than I find happy-making, but that’s a very minor point. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it if not for the aroma, because the contrast between that pungent smell and the flavor highlights it.

Still, this is unique enough that I might consider having some around. But you know, I’ve been saying I’ll come out of lock down for about 3 years now and I’m still not even close.

Very smooth balanced flavor with lots of cinnamon, brown sugar sweetness and very nice body.

Here’s Hoping Teabox – Round Seven- Tea #7
An interesting one – the light black tea really paired well and supported with the tasty fruity flavor here. The description says it is a Ceylon which might be a Ceylon I actually liked, but take the flavor away and I probably would hate it. I’m sure this would be excellent iced. Two tasty steeps. Sorry for the short note, but tasting notes are also helpful for dating a tea in a teabox… then I know when I’ve had it before.

Spicy, fruity smooth. wonderful morning tea

What a silky smooth tea! Wonderful notes of apple, chocolate, coffee, sweetness

Brilliant sun scattering the pouring rain here as I sit in a cafe soaking up their wifi and catching up on posting my scribbled tea notes from the past few days.

This is one punchy kick in the pants tea. The label tells me that it is a premium robust black blend of Indian (Assam and Nilgiri) and a Chinese black. It reminds me of a Damn Fine Teas concoction. Drinking this black and unsweetened, it is just on the verge of wanting an addition, but it is really really good on its own. Rich malty stone fruit. This is one that I’d like to keep around.

From the Here’s Hoping TTB.

The nose is lovely with apricot/floral flavors. Taste is also very good, with the fruit more subdued, but the tea flavor is good as well; a good balance between the two flavors. It may just be I’m getting used to it, but the fruit seemed to fade as I sipped, and a strong astringency began to dominate in the finish. Not bitter, but my whole mouth is puckered up.

The fruit is less obvious in the second steep, but I find that I still enjoy the tea. The fruit is there, just less obvious. I’m also picking up the flowers more, and seeing less astringency in the finish. Overall, a very good tea.

Sipdown! Between being sick for a few weeks and just being sheer lazy, I burned through the rest of this fluffy bag relatively quickly. This is such good peppermint. So cooling and refreshing. ATR sent this to me as a mistake when I ordered something else and it ended up being an awesome thing because I could see myself getting more of this in a future order.

Last fall, ATR sent me this by accident instead of the Peppermint Choco Latte I ordered, but they very promptly sent out the correct one and generously let me keep this, so thank you, ATR! I’m finally getting to this, sadly, but it’s been sealed.

I’m going through a little peppermint binge. I want to try all of my peppermint-related teas iced and make comparisons. The dry leaf smells so refreshing and slightly sweet. Almost like a candy cane. Iced, it loses a bit of that slight sweetness but it doesn’t have any bitterness or other weird undertones. Sign me up, I’m a fan!