Betjeman and Barton

had a cup of this today. It’s a miserable wet, cold, sleety sort of day. I really just want winter to just BE here or for it to go away totally. this in between crap sucks

the only tea i made today….to take to the tea festival but i forgot it and had it when i got home haha. always a fan of this one, smooth, slight vanilla and all around nice relaxing tea.

last tea of the day…too tired to make tea tonight after work and the movie. I love the vanilla in this one – just makes for a really nice cup of black vanilla like tea. Glad i took a chance on this one in paris.

Final Count: 142 (still haven’t had a chance to weigh my cupboard bah!)

this one is growing on me. the more i have it, the more i appreciate it. just a really nice vanilla tea.

love. that is all. so any trips to plan..so little time.

today, this was spot on. caramel, vanilla goodness. thank god it’s almost friday!

I pulled this one out today because even though it’s stupidly hot and humid again, it felt cooler to me and i was looking for something a little more decadent. So glad i picked this one up as it is a nice vanilla tea. Maybe not my all time favourite, which i’d be hard pressed to name i think, but delicious nonetheless.

backlog

sadly this was a few days ago and i remember almost nothing about it. haha soooo yeah let’s pretend i haven’t had it yet

My head hurts. I thought some tea and water would get rid of it this morning but it’s stayed with me through lunch. It’s a fairly mild headache but it’s starting to grate on me a little now.

This tea (one steeped) has a sweet and buttery scent, something fruity and berry like with fudge.

Flavour: Toasted grass and flowers, slightly astringent, sweet berries with a creamy after taste of cocoa nib and nuts. Somewhat perfumed and a little dry. The more I sip the more defined the strawberry flavour becomes.

I’m not usually a fan of these sorts of blends and I approached this one cautiously, however I found to be rather pleasant and though far from perfect it was a nice afternoon tea all the same.

Another sample from Cameron. I’m not familiar with this company at all. The tea smelled like blackberries. It tastes like a “red fruits” flavored black. It’s not bad but not one I want to order either. Thanks Cam!

This is another one from Dexter (I know, she sent me a ton!). I’ve never tried anything from Betjeman and Barton before. The black tea leaves are very small/broken here, and there are lots of little bits of flower petals mixed in with them. Dry scent is actually very fruity and appealing, with a nice tartness that always improves fruity teas for me.

Mm, the steeped tea smells quite fruity as well. I think I can smell strawberry and orange, as well as that strange powdered sugar aroma that I often find in French flavored teas. Hm, I think I may have overleafed a tad, as it has a slight bitter edge. I almost always used 1.5 teaspoons of tea per 8 ounces, but perhaps I should have used less here since the leaves are so broken. Oh well! The fruit flavor is actually quite a bit more mild than I would like it to be, and there’s definitely orange involved but I can’t really distinguish any other specific flavors. And it also has that chalky powdered sugar texture to it that leaves my tongue slightly dry. I don’t love it…

Lovely jasmine tea, though a bit finicky. (Oh, I so love having an excuse to use the word ‘finicky.’ Such a great word…) I do find that to be the case with jasmine teas in general, though. Basically, if I put in a bit too much tea or leave it in a bit too long or make the water too hot, it gets this overpowering flavour somewhere in there, which I associate with jasmine though it doesn’t actually taste like jasmine (I think). And gets a not very nice, strong aftertaste. BUT if made right – so, not too much leaf, not more than about 3 minutes – it’s just pure wondrous perfection.

This one is a another one of my favourites to have with Cream Tea chez moi.

Sipdown! Thanks Sil and Ysaurella :)

I’m with Sil on this one here – not tasting maple nor chestnuts, but instead it’s fairly floral. Well, maybe I can catch a hint of chestnut post-sip, but for such a delicious-sounding combination, this falls rather flat. It’s not bad by any stretch – the floral edges towards fruity, and the base is present but smooth – it’s just not what would be expected.

The dry broken leaf tea has a sharp tang of orange softened by sweet, warm and round fruit notes.

After a 3min25s steep, the tea is wafting scents of baked goods mixed with grainy malt mixed with cherry note softened by the strawberry and peach notes and tempered by the orange.

Orange, malt, and a denser baked good note ( like scones) are the first flavour notes apparent. The tea feels dense in the mouth and could easily take additives. In later sips cherry and strawberry are present in the initial burst of flavour before dissolving into orange. The tea has a strong dose of caffeine and while not astringent feels kind of bracing. Having said that the tea with its dense texture is slightly bready but not overly tannic and is generally smooth. As the tea cools further the sweeter fruit notes become more apparent and balanced with the orange. While I feel no particular need to own this tea, the quality of the base and the subtlety in the flavouring confirms my interest in eventually making as phone order to try more of Betjeman and Barton’s teas. Thanks Dexter for giving me a chance to try one before doing so!

I love this tea so much that I had to try to buy it 4 times, in two different countries (neither of which I live in), just to finally get to the darn thing again after I used up my first 100g. The first three attempts were in their only (huh? why?) Paris shop, which happens to be about 5 minutes away from my Paris-dwelling friend’s house but first time – turned out they are closed on Sundays. Ok, fair enough. Second time – closed on Mondays too! Darn. Third time – closed for the summer holidays. Man… So in the end I went to The Hague for it and it’s so worth it. Tasty tasty tasty.