Harrods

Harrod’s states, “The core element of the Empire Blend is Assam tea with the subtle characteristics of Nilgiri and Darjeeling.” It is a perfectly servicable black tea, is probably exactly what you’d imagine when you think of a classic British black. It is not particularly complex but is the good quality that Harrod’s is typically known for. Nice finish without bitterness/astringency. Personally, I would not bother with the hassle and expense of sourcing this particular tea outside the UK.

This taste sweet, but somehow doesn’t resemble vanilla very much to me, it’s a bit weird. I drank it plain hot. Guys please tell me how to enjoy this properly because I don’t want to waste them. Would it be better iced?

It feels like a fuller and darker version of Darjeeling, smells good, nice on its own

I love this so much, wanted to get loose leaf but they sold out so it’s in teabag.
Ceylon aroma, strong full-bodied breakfast tea taste. Can’t find the weight of each teabag so I brewed it with 200mL water but turns out too bitter, maybe it’s 2.5g, so I added a little more water in it and it turns out well. I’m fond of strong teas and this one certainly caught me, it has less tannin than its bitterness, and the texture is smooth and a little thick. Definitely a caffeine boost, maybe not everyday but you’d want this from time to time. 1 cup seems a bit too much for me, half a cup would be just right.

Sweet strawberry candy aroma, very cute. It actually taste of a bit of berryish sourness, I drank this hot and look forward in trying it cold too.

Update: very nice if it’s iced, I enjoyed it with some peach syrup

I had a foil wrapped bag in big bags and decided to brew it. Not sure if it is exactly this one, but whatever.

They suggest 3-5 minutes steeping time, but as I saw completely black, opaque liquor after two minutes steeping, I just put it out.

I got a cup which tasted like a common black tea, quite lots of malty taste as well. There was some bitterness, but just right with my short steeping parameters. There were some chocolate notes as well.

Overall, quite mediocre, but not bad at all. It is bagged stuff, afterall.

One of my absolute favorite teas. Big leaves, lots of complexity on the palate. We save this for weekends when we can focus and savor the flavors.

Another old tea bag of unknown age and again – it worked badly. It doesn’t have any jasmine taste or scent left; base tea was rather sweet hay than grassy notes, overall not enjoyable at all.

Broken leaves to tininess.
Classic white tea smell and aroma: honey melon, cucumber.
Long lasting sweet taste.

Oh boy. A nice heartbreaking Formula 1 race is a great way to start the the day. I’ve been drinking a lot of this tea lately. I received it as a Christmas gift. It’s possible that it’s better hot, but I’ve been drinking big pitchers of it cold, and it tastes kind of dirty. Like a more savory herb. Lemon verbena is something that I’ve in general avoided since it sounded like it wouldn’t be too exciting, but I’ll drink this since it’s free. I’ve found that shorter steep times cut down on the dirty taste. And it’s possible that other versions of this tea would taste more pleasant. I just don’t have enough experience to say.

Thank you to Mackie for this sample. I enjoy earthy herbals, so this was a nice hot cup of tea on a very cold day.

Slightly leafy, similar to the flavour of raspberry or nettle leaves. A bit earthy, but in a dried leaf type of way. Very strong flavour of peppermint. It is a nice simple blend, but the peppermint definitely overpowers the natural flavours of the nettle. Still, if you like simple herbal blends, you would probably like this.

I like this tea. It has a nice lemon ginger flavor. It is a good evening tea.

Backlog from yesterday.

I agree with other reviewers here that this tea isn’t 100% reminiscent of chocolate. There’s an underlying yeastiness/breadiness/alkalinity to it that reminds me, at best, of the dark cookie parts of an Oreo cookie (as opposed to the cream filling).

*OMGsrsly" compared this to Ovaltine before; I’m not very familiar with Ovaltine myself, but I think the comparison is accurate.

The taste is somewhat mild, but the smell of this is SUPER jammy. I bet this would taste amazing with some agave nectar added.

A lovely, medium strength tea which definitely has the creaminess the manufacturer’s blurb claims. Initially I noticed the Ceylon and Darjeeling more than the Assam (though that might be because I’ve been drinking blends with more Assam the last few days), it has a pleasant floral aftertaste and some underlying depth without being at all heavy. Second cup I tasted more of the Assam, definitely some malt there, no bitterness and very little astringency. Could easily be drunk all day though perhaps best as an afternoon tea, a full English breakfast or spicy dinner is probably going to obscure the more delicate notes though brewed strong the Assam might stand up to it. All in all a rounded, smooth, elegant blend, very pleasurable.

Thank you, MissB!

To sum up: Harrod’s does not understand what chocolate tastes like.

This is not chocolate.

This is ovaltine or something similar.

Yum. Had my last bit of this yesterday and it was delicious.

That is all I have. So tired. Lunch time nap???

Thank you, MissB!!!

“Best taken without milk.” Pfft, Harrods. You can’t tell me what to do.

2 bags in 16 oz for 3 minutes at 195F.

It doesn’t smell too black curranty, but I have hopes for this tea. If it disappoints, luckily I always have a black currant candy to satiate my craving. :D

Steeped, it smells really lovely. And of course I almost managed to tip my Very Full Octomug onto the floor. whew It’s safe!

I added milk to the tea.

And it’s delicious.

But I think I’ll still have a candy after. Because I can.

Sipdown (120)!

My cupboard number bumped up again because while I was out today (visiting with my Dad, and getting another tattoo done – details to follow in other tasting notes) I stopped at McQuarrie’s and picked up a few different teas on a whim.

This one, however, is one from MissB – and one I was definitely excited about! Boy do I like toffee, caramel, and essentially any other “taffy” like substance. Mmm!

It steeped up a touch bitter, despite a pretty short infusion time, but still had some relatively nice toffee and burnt sugar/brown sugar notes despite that little bit of bitterness. Not too sure I’m a huge fan of the black tea being used, though. Overall it was kind of average, and I’m thinking isn’t going to be terribly memorable in the long run. I much preferred the Black Currant bagged tea which I’m pretty sure was also by this company?

Unrelated – is anyone else watching Netflix’s Daredevil series? I’m on episode seven – and I’m really hooked. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Foggy is played by Elden Henson and I’ve kinda low key had a celebrity crush on him for years now. He should be in more things. He should be in all the things!

Also, I want Matt and the nurse to smoosh their faces into each other…

But not gonna lie; I’m not too terribly familiar with the Daredevil comics – and in fact most of my knowledge of the series stems from Kingpin since he’s a “cross over villain”, if you will, with Spiderman – and Spiderman is totally my jam. The actor who plays Kingpin in this is so amazing too! I sorta hate how much I love him – but he’s fucking adorable with Vanessa with all his shy/tender moments. And then he goes and kills a son of a bitch and is all hardcore…

Super fun to watch! Kinda disappointed that his assistant’s name wasn’t Alistair Smythe though – that would’ve really made me excited/happy. Missed opportunity, guys!

GCTTB 3

This. Is. Delicious.

It is surprising because it is just a generic tea bag. But th flavour is quite good.

There is thick burnt toffee flavour. It is creamy. Only slightly sweet, it isnot overly cloying which is nice. The black base underneath the toffee flavour is bold but not astringent or bitter at all. It lets the toffee shine through. This one tastes very nice, quite a pleasant surprise.

On a side note, this one, to me, smells like roasted carrots. But in case you are wondering, it does not taste like roasted carrots. Not sure how I would feels about roasted toffee carrots…

Sipdown (139)!

Thank you MissB for the sample! I liked the other Harrod’s tea I’ve tried from you, so I definitely was excited for this one. I’m not actually a huge chocolate fan; but I don’t think you can ever really, truly dislike chocolate either.

I had some of the worst cramps I’ve ever had today; so I called in sick. I literally spent 90% of my day on the couch today; I couldn’t move it hurt so bad. Work wants a Sick Note/Doctor’s note – but obviously I didn’t get one. I’m gonna go to the Walk In tomorrow after my tattoo appointment and pick one up, and hopefully that’s good enough for them. I get why employers ask for sick notes occasionally; to keep employees from abusing sick days off. It just, it still seems sorta stupid to me.

On top of your employee missing out on a day’s pay (because face it; the employees with paid days off or who work for salary are not usually the ones asked to get Doctor’s notes), they actually have to pay to get a Doctor’s note. And that can range anywhere from $10-30 here…

One thing that’s been suggested/debated is employers being billed for their employee’s sick notes – and I’m all for that. It still keeps employee’s accountable to almost the same extent, but it doesn’t affect low income earners as directly. And, there are employers who harass employees (I’m not thinking of me right not but another woman I work with) and ask for a sick note every time they don’t show up – even when it’s not frequent! So, that would also deter employers from targeting employees.

Plus, it just takes valuable time out of Doctor’s day! Not to mention, if you’re really too sick to go to work than you’re probably too sick to walk/bus/drive to a clinic, and you’re exposing all sorts of people to your illness too. Ugh.

I don’t know; this is just something I didn’t realize I was passionate about until it sort of hit me that “Damn, I’m really opinionated about this”. Ugh; so not looking forward to sitting in a walk in clinic for, like, two or three hours probably.

Anyway, the tea!

There was something oddly familiar about it; but not anything like other reviewers have mentioned – I wasn’t reminded of barley at all. I thought the smell was so much better than the taste though; it was like a hot, steamy mug of chocolate pudding or rich custard with sweet vanilla like undertones.

That didn’t translate so directly into the taste though; it was more flat with a simpler chocolate flavour. Less rich, if you will. Though having just finished reading Kittenna’s review I can sort of agree that it did taste kind of malty. Not exactly malt – but close enough. Overall; didn’t love this one but certainly didn’t dislike it either!

Backlog.

Another teabag sample from MissB – thanks! I’ve tended to like blackcurrant teas in the past, however I’ve mostly had versions that also have cream flavouring, which this one did not. Sadly, I noticed that and therefore wasn’t a huge fan – although the flavour was definitely strongly blackcurrant, I found it too medicinal (it’s not the flavouring, per se, it’s that blackcurrants taste medicinal). If you enjoy the flavour, however, this is probably a pretty good bagged version, and I would certainly drink it again if I had the opportunity (but I think I’d add some milk and sugar to see how that worked out).

A lovely treat from MissB!

It’s a strong black tea that gives me the impression of butter. It smells sweet, and tastes almost fruity like Sil mentioned.

I’m enjoying it with some organic milk I picked up last night (mmm, tea with milk…). It works really well, and I think the milk amps up the buttery notes and tones down the base tea a bit.

2 bags in 16 oz for 3 minutes at 195F. (Pretty standard for me!)