Bollands

Cold brew, though it’s not the best weather for it. I left it steeping for much longer than I originally intended, so it’s not quite as sweet and delicate as I’d hoped. It is still very tasty though, and quite different to the profile I get from this one when it’s hot. It’s thick with fruity notes, mostly stonefruits, with flowery florals which complement the fruitiness well. Peach, plum, papaya, lychee, white grape, rose, honeysuckle and gardenia all meld together with a rocky mineral backbone which I suspect is more noticeable because of the almost 24 hour steep I gave this. With a pinch of soft brown sugar, this is delicious. Bumping my rating up a couple of points from 75, because I appreciate when a nice tea makes a good cold brew as well as hot. We love a dual purpose!

One of two teas picked up at the weekend on our family trip to Chester to celebrate my grandad’s 70th birthday! Okay, so I’m technically on a no-buy, but I only picked up two new teas, and only 1.5oz in total. It could be worse (and often has!). I’ve only ever tried Butiki’s Oriental Beauty before, and never unflavoured, so was looking forward to trying this and brewed it up as soon as I got home, even though I was feeling crappy from the long coach trip and my stomach didn’t want it. This is a pretty good tea. It tastes more like a black than an oolong, malty and smooth with some almost honeyed notes, and some nuttiness at the end of the sip which I had expected more. My brother tried this and said ‘it just tastes like weak tea’ (meaning any old teabags, though we do usually buy extra strong). I disagree.

The packaging suggested steeping for 2-3 minutes, which I overdid slightly, but didn’t mention the temperature so I guessed at 90. I’m looking forward to playing around with this more to see how changing the steeping parameters changes the notes.