Fairmont

This was what I selected for my pot of tea during our afternoon tea service at the Fairmont.

I’m not usually a Darjeeling with my afternoon tea kind of person, but I wanted to switch things up and take the opportunity to try one of the teas I knew I wouldn’t have any interest in purchasing for myself.

I didn’t inquire so this is on me, but I was hoping for a second flush darjeeling with more body and some muscatel notes but based on the tea that was served I felt like this was probably a first flush. On the lighter and thinner side, with more floral and vegetal notes and a little bit of a soft crispness to the finish. It did taste good and it paired well with most of the lighter finger sandwiches served – but when it came to the more decadent scones and deserts I thought those bolder flavours swallowed the tea up a little bit.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs6baebx3nN/

As I mentioned in my other Fairmont tasting note, the aesthetic of our seating was a little less than desirable so I’ve interspersed my tea photos with photos of the jellyfish from the Salish Center for The Sea which we had visited earlier in the day.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grdMHvIuFtc

Of course, if you’re visiting Victoria the classic afternoon tea that everyone says you have to do is at the Fairmont Empress, so we obviously did that.

Honestly, it was nice but I’ll cut to the chase and say that of the three places we visited for tea in Victoria (and surrounding area) I thought it was the most disappointing overall for what was the highest price tag. Like, by a lot. Tea was good and food was fine, and the piano playing in the background did add to the ambience but the stricter dress code felt restrictive (and classist, a bit) and the service was almost uncomfortably professional. Plus, the seating was more cramped together with just less aesthetically pleasing surroundings. Not a bad time, but we for sure experienced better times.

This was the tea my mom picked for herself, but obviously I had a cup too. It was very, very similar to the one she’d had the day prior at Butchart Gardens – just lemon instead of bergamot. Basically swapping citruses. Still, nicely balanced and a kind of summery take on the more classic flavours offered on their tea menu. What can I say, my mom clearly has a ‘type’ when it comes to the teas she goes for. As we all do, I suppose.

This is much better quality than I anticipated. While it comes bagged, there are large unbroken leaves inside. It makes for a malty orange pekoe tea with citrus and smooth, creamy notes.

Current cuppa!

This is nice; it’s very thick and full bodied with tannic autumnal leaf and malty bread notes. Basically, it’s serving the purpose of why I chose it tonight – it’s a great canvas for the lemon infused creamed honey that I was craving so much. The black tea is a super solid foundation for this sweet and citrus-y honey that compliments all of the other flavours!

Broke out the pumpkin agave tonight and made myself a mug of OP w/ it! I’m actually surprised that I waited this long into the fall to grab the pumpkin agave, adding it to straight black teas is something that I crave a lot during the autumn – especially during Spooktober!! This was good – I find the tea itself a little boring on its own, but it’s a full bodied and bold enough black tea with malty/bready notes that it works so well with the pumpkin flavour. Yummmmyyy!

Drank this one last night, as a latte with some peppermint agave.

I mostly added things to this one in an attempt to make it more interesting; it’s not a bad tea, but it’s pretty run of the mill and I have a lot of it on hand so I’m gonna have to get creative to sip it all down. This wasn’t a bad latte – but very malty, and even with the milk and agave it was still both so full bodied but also so flat…

I’d have loved a more distinct peppermint flavour to make this feel more festive, or at least some different black tea base notes apart from bread-y and malty. With just the two, it just didn’t feel very lively/nuanced. Bleh.

So, along with the new Chais – the launch at DT yesterday came with some new teaware, the return of Pumpkin Pie matcha, and a pumpkin agave. We were sampling out the pumpkin agave in stores the first day it came out so I got to try it – and I have to say that while I’ve enjoyed both the coconut and vanilla agaves this is the first one I’ve ever liked so much that I wanted to have it for at home.

So, call me basic but I’m now the proud owner of some Pumpkin Agave. The question then became what to use it with? Obviously it’s gonna work well with Chai blends or things that already have pumpkin in them – but I want to see what else I can do with it.

Now, this certainly isn’t an adventurous pairing – it makes total sense to me that it would pair nicely with a plain, straight black tea. I kind of just wanted something solid and strong though, and I have so much of this damn black tea that I figured this would be a good way to use some of that leaf. Add a splash of milk on top of the agave and steeped tea and, well, you have something that’s basic as fuck but delicious!

Bring on Autumn guys; I’m prepared sitting here on my porch with my creamy, brisk full bodied malty black tea with sweet, pumpkin pie like goodness! It’s the natural malt and cinnamon notes of the black tea, added milk, and agave that creates that pumpkin pie flavour and honestly? It’s to die for.

It’s gonna be a very pumpkin season, I’m sure.

Latte, with agave.

This was ok; it’s one of the teas that my mom brought back from her BC vacation. It’s was a surprise one though, and not from one of the places I had asked her to check out. Being surprised with tea is usually really lovely – it’s just that she bought A LOT of it. So, there’s a lot of pressure to enjoy it.

I made it as a latte first because if I like it that way then that will be the easiest way to finish it all off – it was ok, very very malty with a hint of nuttyness to it. Even with the agave and creaminess from the milk, there was still this bitter edge to it though. I mean, I wanted to like it so much but that bitter edge…

I don’t know. It’s just maybe a little TOO simple, and with that bitterness I just can’t get as into it as I want to. I’ll try it again and reassess.

This makes a nice iced or hot tea if you like fruity or tangy drinks. I could really taste fresh pineapple as well as a bright orange and lemon.There is some acidity and sourness to this so do make sure you take the tea bag out quickly if you dislike sour teas like I do. Try 20 seconds before you steep longer.

Got back on Tuesday from a Seattle-Portland-Victoria vacation with mom and aunts. One of our stops was at the Willow Stream Spa at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria (can’t vacay without a spa stop, y’know). I picked this up there, untasted and untested.

It’s not bad. If I didn’t have the package description to refer to, I’d swear this was blackcurrant. And it has a distinctly grapey taste as well. It’s smooth and not overly heavy. I’m not sure how they decaffeinate it “on the estate” and how that really differs from doing it somewhere else but it doesn’t really matter to me. I’d have bought this with or without the caffeine just to try it. I don’t see myself reaching for this over my other teas, but I’ll throw a couple of bags in the travel tea snob tea wallet just in case of emergency.

In other tea news, I purchased my first yixing pot while in Seattle. It is highly likely to not be real yixing, but it’s clay and it’s cute. And shortly after that I purchased my second clay pot. Just too cute and too reasonably priced. Seasoning the tortoise and the hare for golden monkey and the dragon for bi luo chun types. Probably don’t need different pots for them since they are similar in flavor profile but, shrug, why not. :) And my auntie got a cool tea for one set for me at Queen Mary in Seattle. I love the unusual handles and that the cup is on a pedestal.

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Had it in the queens tea room on my recent honeymoon bought some and will continue to buy it going forward. I enjoy the taste with both milk and honey. The two people at work really enjoyed it to. If it is good enough for the Queen of England. It is more than good enough for me.

Another goodie from ashmanra. The first adjective that came to mind after a 4-ish minute steep was pure. Crisp. Clean. No thickness on the tongue. It’s got enough strength to qualify as a waker-upper, but no muddiness or bitterness. (My sleepy eyes thank you!)

The girls bought some tea from the hotel while staying in the Fairmont in Toronto, but I think these may have been complimentary tea bags in the room. We had them for breakfast this morning and I was quite surprised at how smooth and nice this is.

The flavoring is really excellent and has an enveloping comforting feel. It smells like maple candy and gives off such an impression of the sweetness of maple syrup that I don’t think I could possibly drink it with sugar. It was an amazing tea bag tea to have on this rainy, blustery morning. The base isn’t very strong but also isn’t watery, and it makes a nice enough carrier for the sweet maple that makes the house feel even cozier now that I am back from an early excursion in the rain and wind. We are dropping from a high of 63F today to a low of 27F tonight.

If I could buy a box of this reasonably priced here, I would, even though I don’t do tea bags normally. I am thinking it is time to experiment with putting maple syrup in some of my tea.

My daughter picked this up in Toronto last year during the tea festival. We served it for tea party with an Italian Cream Cake that youngest made. It went very well with the cake. It is fairly strong but not bitter and not too astringent, has the heft to taste like tea even when you are eating something incredibly sweet and rich like that cake. Malty, bready, breakfasty. And a hint of

I would love to have more of the maple flavor tea they got there. So good….

We have had a solid gray cloud covering all day, with drizzle and rain most of the time, and a bit chilly though nothing compared to what many of you live with. When I got home from taking a friend’s young adult car-less child home from school for them, I needed comfort, and I guess even youngest who had stayed home felt the chill and damp because she asked if we had any Harney Royal English Breakfast on hand.

Since we didn’t, I made this one in its place. I didn’t sweeten it with maple syrup this time, but kept it plain and had went a little light on leaf and time – on purpose – and had it with my leftover Chinese food lunch. It was quite nice. Tomorrow we may get a little snow, but it will certainly be cold and gray again, so I think a big pot with a bit of maple syrup may be in order.

Encouraged by Sil’s comment on Maple Maple, I tried this one with maple syrup as sweetening this morning. I do not normally drink any black tea that requires sugar as I enjoy plain tea more, but some breakfast teas with Assam are a lot better to me with sugar. Hubby was home and i offered him some, too. He rarely drinks black tea since he only likes it with milk and sugar with few exceptions, but he liked this one with maple syrup a lot.

I like that Maple Maple tastes like maple and tastes sweet without any sugar, but since I can’t get more, this is a really nice, comforting replacement. I think Lapsang or Bohea will be even better than this one with maple syrup added. Thanks, Sil!

The girls are home from Canada! Youngest wasn’t ready to come home. She had so much fun and said that Canadians are so nice, she wanted to stay!

This is one of the teas I am allowed to have now, and since youngest is thirsty we made a big pot and had some goat cheese and crackers while she told me all about the trip.

Indian tea and I often don’t get along, but I steeped this for only three minutes and drank it plain. It was good! It was a little malty, a bit bready, with some astringency developing as it sat. It never became undrinkable, and was smoother than PG TIps and breakfast teas of that ilk.

Mine is loose leaf and doesn’t say organic, but I am guessing it is the same tea because it matches this listing in every other way. This one is a little hearty and I may even break out some milk and sugar and enjoy it as I drank tea in the “olden days” a few years ago!

I normally don’t like peppermint tea, but this was really good. It is very mellow in comparison to regular peppermint. If you have a chance to try this tea do so.

If I asked for simply “tea” at a moderately upscale restaurant or hotel, this is about what I would expect. Not pretentious, no particular flavor notes to comment on, just a straight up black tea which, to their credit, has a much smoother finish than more generic pekoes I’ve had. While I don’t typically take my tea British style, something about this blend would make me feel at home tossing in a lump or two of raw sugar and a splash of cream. All the same, probably not worth seeking out if you or someone you know isn’t already visiting a Fairmont resort.

Has a sweet but not overpowering maple sugar aroma and flavor. The tea itself is not as strong as the average black tea. It’s a very soothing tea especially for colder weather, but not a pick-me-up.