English Tea Store

Thanks to Alpha Kitty for this sample, which came as part of our Steepster book club trade.

Tony & I just got back from brunch, & this is a nice afternoon tea: black tea with flavors of strawberry, lemon, & some florals. What’s not to like? Although I tend to drink most of my teas unflavored, I also like variety. This is sort of a hot strawberry lemonade, & would probably be really tasty over ice in the summertime. As I usually do with flavored teas, I added some stevia. There is enough left in the sample for another cup, which I’ll have at home another day, with the addition of french vanilla coconut creamer. I think that will be the icing on the cake!

Backlogging. I believe I got this from Azzrian in part of a holiday gift thank you very much. I taste berry with black tea and abit of sweetness that could be the maple or the sugar I put in. This tea is pretty good the berry a tad tart me but not overwelming,and the black tea tastes pretty good and strong to. I wish i could of tasted more maple though. Thank you very much.

This tea reminds me a little of the Prince of Wales tea, but not as smoky and more drinkable. I added a level spoonful of sugar, no milk.

I see what people mean by malty and bracing, the description fits. I was expecting it to be more like English Breakfast tea, I learned differently very fast.

Because I wanted to sleep tonight but still wanted to drink tea I decided to try out the decaf Earl Grey from my sampler.

I think the double bergamot Earl Grey from ETS has spoiled my tastebuds and the regular dose of bergamot is not going to cut it anymore. This tea has an odd smell and taste to it, maybe it’s because it’s decaf. It’s not so bad that I won’t drink it again, I probably will whenever I want tea that’s not herbal or containing caffeine, but i don’t think I’ll be ordering ETS’s Decaf Earl Grey.

Thanks Azzrian for sharing! After trying another Earl Grey Cream, and now this one, I think I prefer the non-cream Earl Greys, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with this one. I think the quality is fine. For those who like the more subdued flavors of an Earl Grey Cream, it’s worth trying. I steeped it at 2 min. 45 seconds and got no bitterness.

Now I regret having all these packets of samples from English Tea Store…this is not tasty. I even steeped it for 2 1/2 minutes hoping to avoid any problems but it’s bitter and hardly tastes as good as it smells.

In fact the weird briskness/bitterness of this tea makes it oddly taste like fruits and stale bread.

Sadly I am not going to sit around with milk and sugar for this, which may help, as I need to go do some things. Hopefully that makes it drinkable, because it sure isn’t on its own.

I’m back home so I just tried it cold. Still tastes like stale bread, but at least it also tastes like cinnamon now. This may also be relegated to oatmeal.

Okay seriously, naming anything after a Tennessee Williams drama, especially a tea, is a bad idea.

Last night was a good night, I recreated this smoked sausage and vegetable dish my grandma used to always make me when I was a kid. Today is her birthday, so even better timing.

Also pleased I do not have to go to Canada just yet so I can continue having healthcare till I’m 26. Hahaha it’s the month after that that’s the problem next year though. Guess that’s why I’m doing job search work in a class right?? And also we can get to the real issues now like making sure the Formula 1 world championship is decided in this country and goes to my favorite driver.

So I am not actually drinking this tea. I steeped it double strength and then put it in my chocolate oatmeal. I couldn’t decide what to actually use, but I figured all these ETS samples I got would be good, and adding chai of some sort would be perfect.

While obviously it’s hard to taste if the chocolate is really there when you start off with something very chocolatey, the spices are really tasty with chocolate. And I didn’t realize this was an Assam, so there’s definitely a bolder flavor all around in the oatmeal.

I rarely ever eat breakfast when on my own, so this is awesome. My boyfriend always gets me something in the morning but he is in love with Dunkin Donuts and I just feel disgusting eating donuts. So maybe I’ll just start making myself oatmeal with tea already in it.

I still have half the cup but I made a cup of something else in a mug so I’m not sure if I want to try it yet. I think to actually drink it, I’d rather make it on the stovetop in milk and water. Although it is a definite winner for just oatmeal, I have to say.

So I couldn’t decide if this was the raspberry or mango. I added a little sugar and decided it was mango. Delicious, tart, and juicy :)

I received this in my variety pack. It’s good :] Just minty­. I’m actually enjoying trying to figure out which tea I’m drinking. I feel like I’m solving a great mystery!(Yes.. My life is this exciting)

I reviewed this yesterday and it showed up on my tea log but never went to the dashboard as far as I could tell. I am drinking it again today, so I will try again!

This tea was sent by Azzrian and there was so much of it that I had a bit hot and then had enough to chill for three lunch time iced teas! This is fresh and fruity and the green tea has nice presence without being harsh. This is only the second I can remember having from English Tea Store, put the other is one I definitely want to order and I was hoping to find more because that’s how I roll! I like to order more than one tea per company. This one is an excellent candidate for that list!

Thank you, Azzrian! :)

This is a gift from sweet Azzrian. Thank you!

As soon as I smelled this one, I knew I had to try it iced as well as hot! The strawberry scent is so fresh and mouth watering. I did sip a bit hot and it was quite good, but I poured most of it into a pitcher for this afternoon.

Mmmm! This really delivers on the strawberry aroma! It is right there in flavor just as I hoped it would be. No sweetening needed, this is a great iced green, and I am glad to find another tea from ETS since I have been wanting to get some of their Lady Londonderry and needed other tea to add to the order!

Thank you Azzrian!

I am in this weird stage of annoyance right now at the setup and execution of two things…first, Facebook. If I comment on something it completely screws everything up and so like if someone also comments I can’t see what it is, and if I go to it, there are usually no comments, or my comment, but no likes show or anything and it’s like way to keep that thing working.

But more irritating, I really hate keeping track of my teas in a spreadsheet. And I can’t seem to find anything else that works. The good thing is, this can be a project in my business writing class. It’s a project due in 5 weeks so I’ll definitely share it when it’s perfected in case anyone else would like a way to keep track of teas on their computer. I’m just not sure what would be better yet, but I just feel like something meant for numbers doesn’t work as well as something else could.

Anyway, this tea. I had it hot once at a local tea shop, and I quite enjoyed it. I’m having it iced and it is delicious. I think it tastes just like those strawberry candies with the gel inside, wrapped up in foil meant to look like a strawberry. Do those things even have a name out of curiosity?

I know this is a tea that is quite popular for wholesaling, and it’s really not that bad considering it’s so widely available. I definitely like it better cold, and I thought I had ordered some of this from another company, but I guess not. So I’m glad to have it once again!

Thanks Azzrian for the sample of this tea!! it’s rather perfumey and fruity all at once. I knew right away that I would either looooove it, or meh it.
I’m kinda glad that it was a “meh”! as I don’t need another tea necessity in my cupboard :)
Still I’m so glad to have tried it. Another one off my wish list!
As for the tea itself… this was far too floral for me, and not enough cherry (more general fruity/medicinal)
I can see how this might appeal to some EG lovers out there though, maybe enough to loooooooove ;)
The base was a little too clouded for me to determine much about it
Ok yah I’m a little overtired right now. Sorry about the random review!
Rating: 72

This sample came to me by way of Azzrian – thank you very much!

The dry leaves smell quite good – I smell berries!

I brewed up 8 ounces of water and poured over a teaspoon and a half of leaves. Tasting the tea liquor its just a tad bitter for me, so I end up adding a little rock sugar. It mellows out the bite a bit and brings the lemon and berry taste forward. I can see why this is a favorite of Azzrian’s. Thanks for passing a tasting along! :)

I bet this would be tasty as an iced tea!

Did everyone get the email from Frank at Southern Boy Teas? He said he tried making iced tea super fast by boiling some water and slowly pouring it over tea leaves (he used a flavored white) but not letting them sit in the hot water. No steeping! Just the pour over.

I put some sugar in the bottom of a half gallon jar. I boiled about three cups of water and set my ForLife infused basket on the jar. I thought this tea might work well since it is made up of smaller pieces and steeps quickly, becoming bitter easily.

Wowie zowie! It worked! As always, I put it in the fridge to mellow because flavored iced tea always tastes better to me after it sits a while, preferably a day or two in the fridge.

I will most definitely be doing this again. But that reviews only the method, not the tea.

The tea is great hot or iced, very fruity and good even without sugar. But you do have to keep a short steep or it just doesn’t taste good to me.

Sometimes this tea tastes great, sometimes I wonder why I bought it. Today it had a good day. I had my daughter make it with 203F water steeping for three minutes. It was super. The last cup of the pot had that bitter edge that this tea can get because you can’t let it cool and you can’t drink the dregs! While it was fresh and hot, it was delightful.

In case anyone wonders why I often say that my youngest daughter makes the tea, it is because afternoon tea time is served between teaching music lessons. She prepares the tea and plates while I teach so that we can go straight to the table when the lesson is over. Today she made an apple walnut cake for our tea time. She is amazing!

Would I recommend this tea? If you need lots of tea for little money and can pay attention to parameters and make sure it is served in the optimum conditions with no forgiveness needed, then yes. I absolutely do. It is a bargain. If you take your tea plain and may not be able to pay attention while making it or you can’t drink it right away or at least get to reheat it, then no.

I have been drinking a lot of this tea, cold steeped and sweetened with homemade simple syrup. I am logging it today because I tried something a little different. Instead of plain simple syrup, I made a lavender infused syrup to sweeten this. (Lavender is also really good in Tulsi.)

The syrup tastes a lot like Chowan’s Lavender candies or Parma Violets. Added to the strawberry and lemon flavors of Lady Londonderry, it made a really foofy, girly glass of iced tea to go with lunch. I have been craving sodas because it is so hot outside, so I am using cold steeped tea to beat those cravings.

If you don’t like lavender, you wouldn’t like this syrup at all. But if you can handle the floral taste, it is nice switch up for summer tea. I am really enjoying this one cold steeped. I wonder how a vanilla syrup would taste in it? Next experiment!

Other food experimenting is taking place today. I made home made ketchup, and for the first batch I decided to experiment and use malt vinegar in place of white vinegar, and added Penzey’s chili powder and made a few other little changes. It was really good with hamburger meat – more or less it was a sloppy joe. Next up will be actual plain ketchup.

I received this tea first in two separate swaps and liked it a lot. I liked it so much that I ordered a pound, but then I couldn’t recreate the magic of the first cups. It was a little astringent. I was disappointed and really wondering what the heck I was going to do with a whole pound of it.

Yesterday I got the bright idea to cold brew it. I made a bottle of simple syrup in preparation for drinking it today and left it in the fridge for over 24 hours. The results is absolutely delicious, summery, floral+fruity iced tea. It is as clear as can be. The strawberry flavor is wonderful, and the lemon flavor is a lemon candy flavor, not the sour lemon taste you often get in iced tea. That stuff curdles my tongue!

Hubby drank it and said it was good but he liked Razzleberry from 52Teas better. Well, it would be awfully hard to beat Razzleberry. I told him this was waaaaaay cheaper and he said, “Now you’re talking!” Fortunately for him, I have several packs of Razzleberry left, and hope to get some more for this summer.

In the meantime, I can enjoy my cheap stuff with abandon! I like it!

I finally placed that order with English Tea Store! I got Lady Londonderry tea and jelly babies so that youngest can offer them to people when she is wearing her Tom Baker scarf. The tea came very quickly. Customer service was great as the jelly babies are on back order and they called to tell me so, and to ask if I wanted the tea mailed right away at no additional cost! I usually would have told them to save THEIR cost and ship them together but I really wanted this to be here when my daughter’s boyfriend gets here next week from Northern Ireland.

This is the flavor profile he really loves, and hubby likes things like this, too, so I had hubby try it out today. Both hubby and Gavin put milk and sugar in their tea, so hubby’s opinion was valuable to me.

The dry leaf smelled mouth-wateringly candy-ish, like those little Smarties, the American ones, not the UK ones. The tea has a bright berry smell and I am thinking there is probably Darjeeling in this black tea blend.

Mine was fruity and good with both the strawberry and lemon flavors sharing the spotlight. Hubby said he liked his, and the more he drank the more it grew on him. Hooray! Hopefully Gavin will like it, too. I bought a whole pound so I can send some home with him!

Yes, second day in a row drinking this one. It is tea party day! I had enough to make a pot for tea time and it was the first one we served. My guest was thrilled with the aroma and just kept sniffing it and sniffing it! When she finally tasted it, she was just as pleased. “This is really good!”….I think I heard that four or five times throughout that first cup.

Many thanks to Azzrian for introducing me to this lovely surprise!

I came home for lunch today to find a wonderful box of goodies from Azzrian waiting for me! Everything looked so wonderful! I sniffed this pouch and said, “This has to be first!” I brewed it in my JoeMo to take back to work with me after lunch.

The leaves had a beautiful aroma. The wet leaves were bigger than I expected, and the brewed tea smelled just heavenly. I had a coworker sniff the tea when I went back, and I swear her eyes rolled back a little. “Berries!” was her exclamation.

This was seriously delicious tea and I can’t believe the review that said it is about $14 a pound. I think some of this may need to come live at my house! Though touted as a British tea, there is something a little French in its lineage to me, the way the French excel at the art of perfuming. This is perhaps a little lighter on flavorings than some French tea. I would call it a Dammann Freres Light!
This is well worth keeping on hand. Guests will feel truly pampered when you serve it.

Delicious with no additions! The berry flavors will make this a wonderful summer tea, too.