Fairmont

This is the last cup of this. Still not superb, though I dont know if its personal taste or age of the tea. In any case, its a sipdown, and I have a cool tea tin to add to my collection.

Wow, this brews up fast and strong, especially for a bagged tea.
Its still a very strong cup of tea, slightly bitter to my taste buds. I dont know if thats the tea itself, or if its the age of this particular tin of tea bags.
Only one more sachet left.

I had tea at the Empress a few years ago. I had forgotten that they sent us home with these neat tins full of tea, until I was rumagging around in my parents tea cupbord a while ago. I spirited this tin home with me, mostly for the neat tin, I must confess.
But I’v got three tea bags of this in the tin, which are now several years old, but I am determined to try them anyway.
Hmm. This brewed up very dark very fast. And the first sip gives me a bitter burst.
Second sip provides a little more roastyness, a hint of something greeny lurking in its depths.
This is strong! I’m not sure. I’m such a sweet tea drinker that this is almost overwhelming. These three tea bags will be an adventure in comfort zones, I can tell.

A nice touch from the Fairmont with their Empress Tea. It’s a a black Orange Pekoe style tea. Nice touch making the tea bags with loose leaf in them. They serve two cups of tea, so a nice serving.

I oversteeped mine though I think. Was slightly astringent. Will try for less time next time, but a nice addition to my morning :)

Ahhhh much better. After having a weak black tea this morning, it’s comforting to come to this. I enjoy this tea and will probably order more of it when I’m out of the tea bags you get.

Classic, delicious black blend!

This is an almost sipdown, I have like 1 cup left of this tea.

I don’t now if I am going to buy it again yet. I have put it on my wishlist, but I want to try some new teas. Right now I am trying to drink through a lot of my current teas and get them down and then look at buying more tea. I have way too many right now and I want to explore more. I have my favourites of course, but I’m not sure if this is one of them.

A good solid black tea though for anyone interested.

Not only has Steepster been gobbling up my likes on everyone’s teas, but I have lost tea logs and on Friday my dashboard was stalled.

Had this one on Saturday morning, needed a robust blend, a wake me up blend. I chose this. I’m thinking I need to stock up on some simple blends. I’ve been eying up Harney and Sons.

I didn’t end up drinking my Day 14 tea yet, but will review both Day 14 and 15 when I do.

Edit: I found the information online finally, but I don’t have an account that is old enough to “edit” teas. I have to wait 1 month apparently booo.

Here’s the update on the tea: FALL HARVEST, India~ black tea Infused with Dried Cranberries and Cinnamon with just the right touch of spice.

Fall Harvest. I love fall – this makes me think of fall. I can’t find any information on their website about the tea because it’s a seasonal blend. So I took a picture and let everyone be the judge of that.

At first sniff: This is very breakfast-y smelling with hints of cinnamon in, but very subtle. You can smell the black tea for sure. You can also see the cranberry and cinnamon pieces.

At first steep: This is very strong. It’s a bold blend, and excellent to take with milk and sugar (or substitute.) I had a hard time finishing my cup today because it’s quite rich. The colour is a deep red brown, looks like it’s almost coloured red, but it’s not. With milk its a red toffee colour.

It could probably do with less time being brewed and it is very dry to the palette. It’s not my favourite, but it’s definitely a good contender for a breakfast tea.

Side note: I know that the Metropolitan Tea Company does a lot of the tea blending for the Fairmont. There are a couple that you can buy on their website and then there are some that are exclusive to the Fairmont. There isn’t much information online about this, it’s mentioned briefly here and there when you google it. I really like their teas, they are affordable and I find them to be nice and natural.

Had this one mid morning with my coconut flour pancakes. I think I must have oversteeped this because it was a bit dry and astringent. I didn’t enjoy it as much today. Will change to 4 mins next time

The more I drink this tea, the more I like it. It’s robust, it’s a marriage of Earl Grey and Breakfast teas, to make a stronger, bolder Earl Grey. The bergamont, however does not overpower.

I’ve been in a simple kind of mood for teas these days. I’m surprising myself that I reclining back to simple flavours. I think I am attributing this to wanting comfort and consistency. Tea can sometimes be inconsistent and downright disappointing, depending on what you’re trying. And with the holidays near, comfort is of essence. I am two days behind on the advent calendar, but I am feeling somewhat uninspired by it.

Bumped up the rating on this one, as I think it deserves it.

The name sounds very fancy. The tin looks very pretty (festive even.)

Dry: There is a smell of Bergamont that fills your nose, but the notes are more subdued compared to your regular Earl Grey. The tea has mixtures of Sri Lankan, Chinese and Indian teas and you can see it very clearly when you take a peek at it. When I take a deep sniff, the Bergamont disappears and I smell what reminds me of Tetley Orange Pekoe, an earthy smell.

Steeped: I smell the earthy qualities first and the Bergamont tickles the tips your nose, rounding off the note. The tea brew up a deep copper red, reminding me of a good English Breakfast tea. It takes milk very well and becomes a handsome toffee coloured tea. As I’ve been reading more and more on here, I’m wondering if I am steeping my teas too long, as I do get a dry smacking feeling on my tongue, much like when I drink a red wine and don’t finish it (I haven’t developed much of a palette for reds yet.) I’m realizing this might be the astringency that everyone is speaking of. It definitely has a malty quality to it and I would definitely agree it’s a “moody” tea.

I picked it today because, like yesterday I wanted a more simple tea, less “flavours” and more complexity in the leaves. I know the Fairmont probably gets ignored for its teas, as people tend to think of them when they think of High Tea, but they do have some nice blends and they are quite affordable. Either way, I have 5 of their teas, with this one being given to me as a gift from a friend because they didn’t enjoy black teas.

I’d say it’s a solid contender for a morning tea, the only reason I didn’t rate it higher is because the after note on it is a bit strong and dry. I will try brewing for less time next time. However, it was frosty and fresh this morning and it was exactly what I wanted. A bold tea that stood out and woke me up. So Good morning :)

Ok so I brought home a couple of tea bags from my conference :) i didn’t drink any decaf black teas while I was there. I wanted to make sure I had caffeine in my tea. Anyways this is a nice medium strength tea. It doesn’t say specifically how it is decaffeinated but I am guessing it is done via the CO2 method as opposed to the chemical method but I don’t know for sure.
I unfortunately added milk and honey to this cup before I tried the tea so I can’t say for sure but I think I could drink this straight or with just a bit of milk. I will have to try that with my other tea bag!

Ok last tea that I tried this weekend at the Empress hotel in Victoria BC that I am going to write about. I tried this during one of my breaks and found the bergamot was quite strong but the base not as strong as I would have liked compared to the scent of the bergamot. Still can’t complain not a bad tea; variations could be due to brewing conditions. I was lucky enough to have quite a selection of fairmont teas to choose from throughout our conference!

This was a nice strong Assam blend…perfect with a bit of milk in my travel mug to take to my lectures this weekend at the Empress. This was a stronger black tea than the Empress Orange Pekoe. Unfortunately I don’t have enough experience telling apart the different types of black teas to describe these teas properly.

Had this one at the Fairmont Banff Springs this weekend with brunch. It had a nice rich flavour for a bagged tea, and totally warmed me up. Very good!

Late in posting this. I actually dug this out during the Olympics when I saw this clip and ended up drinking quite a bit. They attend the tea about halfway through the clip.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35017294/#35558956

Wish that I could say I was lucky enough to go to one of their afternoon teas but… it was a gift for babysitting while relatives combined business with pleasure. It is a very refreshing tea with a little citrus aftertaste – like a mild Earl Grey.

Not a bad tea. I just came back from a convention in Victoria and although I could not afford high tea, they had this tea as a choice for us to brew ourselves during our breaks. The tea bags were labelled Empress orange Pekoe and a salesperson at the fairmont tea store in the Empress told me this was the famous tea served at high tea. Nice basic ceylon type tea…not as strong as I would have liked considering I was sitting in lectures for most of the day.

well bodied cup that I think I enjoy best as a daily drink. Affordable 100g bags are consumed quickly and the ceylon heavy blend is good plain or with cream/milk/sugar. A good base for chai blends or for a standard cup I think this provides a good “English” tea flavor. Not tolerant of over steeping keep the brew time under 4.5 minutes and brewable twice.

This tea is blended by Metropolitan tea company out of Toronto and has a few names Empress, 1908 blend, it is their standard blend available in the shop.

The last Fairmont tea for me to try. The teabag doesn’t smell the best, like the chamomile is dirty or something, so that sketched me out and I almost didn’t bother trying this.

Steeped though, the chamomile sweetens in aroma, and the flavour is overall smoother and sweeter than most of the chamomile teas that I have tried in the past. It doesn’t have that herbal edge that many do, which in a way is good because the flavour isn’t as medicinal. Although this may not taste as fresh and lively as other chamomile tisanes, especially ones that are in loose form, it’s darn good for a bagged one.

I have a really weird relationship with jasmine. Depending on the quality or type, it can smell beautiful or like moth balls. Depending on which other essential oils it’s blended with, it can create a symphony of gorgeousness or an olfactory train wreck. Up until now, every single jasmine tea that I have tried has smelled (and tasted, if you know what I mean) like moth balls. Lush has a shower gel called Flying Fox. It’s a love or hate kind of product, chock-full of jasmine and honeysuckle. Yeah, it’s moth balls for me. And almost every jasmine tea smells like Flying Fox.

This tea is no exception. Actually, to be entirely fair, the smell of the steeped tea isn’t nearly as potent as others I have tried in the past.

The first time I tried this, I steeped the bag for about two minutes in approximately 95°C, and the result was a heady jasmine aroma and flavour. Slight bitterness too due to the fact that I didn’t let the water cool enough before steeping.

But this time, I’ve steeped the bag for not quite two minutes, but allowed the water to cool longer, like maybe a good ten degrees cooler. The result is a much more delicate green tea with barely any heady jasmine at all. The green base is more evident too. Slightly vegetal and zero bitterness. The jasmine barely makes itself known. Cool beans.

Best tasting berry flavored tea I ever had. Most of the berry teas I had were too sour with a slight tinge of berry aroma. This one has a very nice balanace of berries, apple, vanilla, sweetness and tang. Tastes very good without having to add any sugar or honey.

I just moved into a dorm room, and everything from my last place is crammed into this tiny little room. So all my loose teas, strainer, etc are packed away and it’s driving me mad. I was craving black tea a while ago and remember that I shoved the last of my Fairmont teabags at the top of one of my suitcases, so I dug it out, headed to the floor lounge, and whipped up a cup. Wow, their kettle must be from the ‘70s. I’m amazed it even works.

Don’t have any milk or sugar in this, as there isn’t even a fridge to keep milk. This is good as is though. A little malty from the Assam, and it yields a beautiful, deep burnt orange liquor.