Continental Selection

Black tea with mint flavouring caught me off guard. I thought it was a herbal tea because the front label just says “mint” and the ingredients can only be found online. Weird…

Anyway, I picked this up in Greece over the summer in a hotel breakfast room or something and was quite surprised when I finally brewed it a few months later. I don’t enjoy mint + tea leaves. I prefer just the tea leaves (so you can actually taste them) or a caffeine-free mint tisane. The malty (and a bit citrusy?) black base didn’t go with the mint. Just overall a super odd flavour choice on the part of the company.

Another teabag I picked up from a breakfast buffet in Europe. It is an Indian black tea with mango essence.

I do find the mango flavour quite strong, however it is still a bit artificial and one-dimensional. It wasn’t something I would buy, but it was nice to try since it was free.

I’m drinking this with a dash of vanilla soy milk. I steeped it 5 minutes in hottish water but that wasn’t enough, so I kept it in longer (use boiling water or steep longer if using cooler water). I get some fruity flavour, but I find it fairly weak and muddled. The apricot could be quite a bit stronger (even the dry leaf has no scent except vague black tea).

This is another hotel breakfast buffet teabag I got during my vacation.

I am inexperienced with Nilgiri teas. Really, I haven’t had many single estate or high quality Indian teas. Most of my experience is with bagged teas like this.

This is a malty, slightly sweet (honey) black tea. It tastes smooth, brews up a dark amber colour, and isn’t bitter. I didn’t get the think, malty flavour I like in Indian teas, however I found this makes a pleasant cup. There isn’t anything remarkable about it, but this isn’t a high quality single estate or hand-picked Nilgiri.