American Tea Room

I’m a sucker for long twisted leaves and this tea has them in spades. The instructions call for this tea to be steeped for two minutes but I think it would probably do better a bit longer. As is the tea is sweet with fruity notes and the slightest frisson of cinnamon. I do not taste the maltiness that the package claims. It is an excellent tea. I will definitely put this one on my shopping list.

The tea presents a dark brown liquor. It has a strong malty smell with notes of leather and fruit and the barest hint of smoke. It brews into a powerful wake-up tea with a bitter back note combined with maltiness and a very slight sweetness. It’s not really for me except for those few mornings where I need something truly powerful to wake me up.

This is definitely a quality tea. It is very smooth and mellow. Refined really. It consistent notes of wood, tobacco and honey. It also gave off notes of dark chocolate at hotter temps and was a bit starchy as it cooled. There was a mellow spice on the finish. I love a good Yunnan. This one is pricey but worth it if you like a good Golden Needle.

Indicative of a good Yunnan Golden Needle the taste is very smooth and some of the Yunnan characteristics are somewhat mellow. There are consistent notes of tobacco and honey and even a touch of wood. It also had notes of dark chocolate, starch, and spice. A little malt, a touch of astringency and delightfully rich.

Still awesome.

Mmmm. Uber-fresh, floral, and creamy. This is one of the nicest Bao Zhongs I’ve had in awhile.

Kristin said, “You rooibos haters stay with me. I didn’t taste any rooibos in this tea.” And that was the reason I chose to try it. She was talking to me. I’m the total rooibos hater.

Wow! I’m so glad I put aside my pre-judgement and tried this. It is chocolate and absolutely delicious! Full chocolate taste with no unpleasantness. No bitterness. Little astringency. Not even that awful dusty taste that rooibos often has. Even the aftertaste is yummy. The smell is pure hot cocoa. I will be ordering more of this. Thanks to Kristen’s great review I’ve found a new favorite for the no-caffeine part of my day. Mmmmm!

I rather enjoyed this blend. I am somewhat afraid of certain blends that contain lavender as they sometimes remind me of drinking laundry detergent. This one, however, in no way had that quality. I found this to have a nice mix of lavender and mint with a mellow lemon backdrop. The mint tasted more like spearmint that peppermint to me. This blend was very relaxing and an excellent aromatherapy option.

The loose tea smelled like olives to me! It was very strange, but since I like olives I actually liked the smell.

I think this tea is a pretty good idea (as in, they came up with clever ingredients to achieve the flavor they were going for), and its probably as chocolatey as you can get without actual chocolate pieces in the mix. However, while I enjoyed the cup, I found myself thinking – "if I want something chocolate flavored, I might as well drink hot chocolate! Chocolate is just one of those flavors I don’t think can (or rather, should) be imitated.
To me, it’s like fake sweeteners – either drink real sugar (honey, agave, etc.) or drink/eat something else!

Anyway, this is an enjoyable tea, well made for what it is.

http://sororiteasisters.com/2010/08/23/kabuki-tea-from-american-tea-room/

Today’s Morning Post on SororiTEA Sisters! :)

This smells like Cherry Candy – dry. Post infusion – smells like cherry blossoms and green tea…easy.

It’s highly flavored and yummy hot. Once it turns cold I find it a bit bitter. I don’t mind it cold but prefer this hot!

This infuses to a very distinct Grey-ish yet brighter green. It’s very different than anything I have ever seen in other herbals. The aroma reminds me of a Lavender Lip Balm I once had. I would agree with the product description in saying it’s like Aromatherapy in a cup! The Lemon Balm and Lavender overpower the other ingredients on taste. The Peppermint isn’t overly noticeable. This is an ‘ok’ cup!

Sipdown no. 17 for 2014. First cup of the day. Getting a late start today because I stayed in bed, it being a holiday in the US, and watched the Tivo’d first episode of Sherlock, series III, and the little documentary afterwards.

All that stuff I said yesterday about the flavors having come unbalanced? Today this is working just fine for whatever reason. Isn’t it funny how tea does that? I suspect there’s actually a reason, which is that I used a bit more leaf today.

I’m sorry to see it go and I definitely want to get more, whenever the day comes. Meanwhile, I have lots more ATR samples to try.

The peanuts, by the way, each had a tiny sip and decided this wasn’t for them. Not really surprised, and secretly relieved given the label says caffeine content: high.

I was going through my “already tried” sample box (as opposed to the not yet open sample boxes of which there are many) and was shocked-shocked I say-to find that I had a good bit of this sample left and that it was still in the original packet which was NOT SEALED. The ATR sample bags I got back in the day don’t have a zip lock at the top (have they changed that? if not, they should). Still, that’s no excuse. I could at least have stuck the packet into a zip lock myself, but I didn’t. Sigh.

So I decided I had to drink this asap. I really loved it when I first tried it fresh so I was hoping some of the magic was still there. The dry leaf didn’t have a lot of smell left, though, so I was prepared for the worst.

And the verdict is-this one is best drunk fresh. It’s not that it doesn’t have some decent flavor left in it. There’s a lot of lavender in the flavor and the undercurrent of the Yunnan reminds me of what I loved about it in the first place. But the interplay of flavors seems to have gone off some with age-the bergamot, which was light to begin with is all but gone, and the tea base isn’t quite keeping up with the floral. There’s enough that’s still good about it so that I understand why I loved it, though. Still plan to buy some when I come out of lockdown.

This tea makes you go “yum.”

There is something about yunnan that makes Earl Grey Lavender work really well. I think this is the secret to Samovar’s Earl Lavender success, too.

In the sample packet there’s a pretty strong smell of lavender and that’s about it. But in the cup, that yummy sweet malty yunnan aroma comes out, like syrup or molasses. The lavender mellows a bit, too. There’s a slightly citrus note, but it’s not the main event.

The flavor seems to be stronger on the lavender than the bergamot, but it still gives the impression of an Earl Grey and it is delicious. I don’t think it quite matches the Samovar, but it makes me curious enough about the differences to try a back to back tasting at some point. There are a lot of similarities between the two. I think the Samovar wins for overall smoothness, depth of flavor and complexity, but this has a lot going on, too. The floral aspect is wonderfully aromatic, and the black tea base lends it a bit of seriousness. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I wish the bergamot was just a tad stronger.

Still. Om nom nom nom nom….

I don’t know why I pay a lot of money for chocolate milk these days. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s glorified chocolate milk. I’m going to stick to my Oolongs for awhile.

substantial, slightly pungent.

almost to the end of my bag – very enjoyable, slightly astringent but has more character than other english breakfasts I’ve tried

This is a very nice English Breakfast – definitely astringent but smooth and flavorful. Good with milk and sugar.