Hugo Tea Company

From the Round 3 Here’s Hoping TTB

Wow… I like. This is bready and malty with a good bit of heft. This is definitely a tea to get you up and moving in the morning. Lots of strength with no bitterness or astringency. It could easily handle milk and sugar, but I drank my cup plain and found it really enjoyable. This one could easily find its way into my cupboard at a future date.

HHTTB Round 3

This one has a lovely bready, malty quality to it. I also get a bit of chocolate, though only a hint. I bet if I were to take the many suggestions here to steep it at 3 minutes I would get more chocolate flavor, but I’ll refrain since then there wouldn’t be any left for the next person. Definitely glad I got to try this one though.

SSTTB #9.

Yes, a black tea at 8:40 pm. I’m living on the wild side, apparently. Actually, it’s just starting to cool down in my apartment, so I wanted to get in a small cup of something else from the box before I turn to the un-cafs or make something from my cupboard.

I put cream in it. I’m eating some freeze dried strawberries on the side, because I found a packet while I was searching for a tin of cat food (my apartment is a disaster as I’m refinishing some furniture in the living room). Consequently, the tea might be somewhat overshadowed.

It is a nice black tea. It’s not astringent, or bitter. It’s pretty strong, but not as strong as I like my breakfasty teas (mmm, ctc assams). Perhaps a little thin. Nice and malty, some stone fruit flavours maybe, but they’re being taken over by the strawberry bits I have lodged in my teeth.

That’s super sexy, amirite? :D

Would try again. Would get if I ever placed an order. Not a favourite, but as far as I can tell, is really nice.

Sipdown! (107)

Used the yyz method (1m/2m/4m) although I didn’t actually do the third steep this time around. This tea is still very unique, it has that fennel seed herbaceous flavor that I’ve found in a couple others. But I feel like this one is more savory. It’s very dark rye or pumpernickel bread with the seeds over the top. Butter, maybe, but not honey.

Delicious, but not something I absolutely need. :P Thanks to TeaTiff for the sample..

TeaTiff was nice enough to send me a generous sample of this tea. It says on their website that this tea is from Yunnan, but the leaves look Taiwanese to me. They have that long, twisty, spindly look and they’re quite dark. Smells strongly of dry, unsweetened cocoa and honey with some maltiness.

Initially, I followed the directions on Hugo Tea’s website and steeped for 4 minutes. The aroma was malty with honey, but there was also a kind of peppery, herbaceous quality that reminded me of fennel seed. And it turns out, that’s exactly what it tastes like too! Very similar to pumpernickel or rye bread with a strong fennel seed taste, along with some malt and an aftertaste of dry cocoa. Wow, this tea is so unique-tasting! I kept taking sips just to experience the fennel phenomenon again!

After reading some of the notes on here, I decided to also try a 3 minute steep since a lot of people did that and mentioned more chocolate and caramel notes. Aroma was more cocoa and honey and less fennel this time. It definitely tasted less fennel-y, but I didn’t really find a lot more cocoa or honey in there. So I definitely prefer the 4 minute steep! And it’s much more honeyed with just a small amount of sugar. Pumpernickel bread with honey smeared over the top, mmmm!

T&C TTB Tea # 9 – Backlog May 24

I had been interested in trying this one based on everyone else’s reviews. My first attempt was a failure because I brought it to the movies in my stainless steel travel mug….stainless my ass. Those things soak up the taste of whatever you put in them, so now mine is basically a mishmash of all the flavoured teas it has previously contained. I will clearly have to get one for black teas.

I tried to get something out of it but with no luck, the mug just ruined it. I couldn’t even tell what colour it was, it was basically a decent, nondescript black tea. And that was me, nondescribing it.

I did try again with the rest of the leaf, it brewed up a dark liquor, malty with very noticable toasty and roasty notes. Slightly fruity.

I drank it after drinking a fruit smoothie so I’m not sure if that affected anything.

(overleafed a bit, 3 min @ 96 degrees)

I would like to try again sometime! Though I can’t recall if this company has reasonable shipping costs to Canada or not.

Anytime anybody sends me a sample of an earl grey or plum oolong, I give them to Tony. He loves those types of teas, & I don’t. His main standbye is Ahmad’s Earl Grey, of course, he tends to eye my samples with suspicion, hahaha. So I slipped him this one for his first cup of the day, taking a sip so I could comment. The Bergamot is fairly light, & there is a lingering woody aftertaste.
Tony said it was ok, but he likes Ahmad’s better.
This is a sipdown, from Tony’s cupboard, not mine, LOL.

I took this tea to work today – thought I would drink a cup or two and toss the rest back in the box. That didn’t happen. This is fabulous and I drank it all day. It’s big and bold. I didn’t get any chocolate, but it was malty and caramel ? toffee? dunno – something sweet.
I really like this. I don’t think it’s really complex, but it’s interesting enough to drink all day. It’s a great tea that take abuse well – that’s a must for me at work. All in all I was really happy with this one.

SSTTB

This is an interesting black tea. Reminds me a little of a Taiwan black – lighter than a Chinese black (or is Taiwan part of China – suddenly I’m really confused about this), it’s a little fruity, a touch astringent, but well balanced.
This is different than most of the blacks that I really like. I don’t LOVE this, but it’s really good. Happy to have had the opportunity to try it.

SSTTB

I drank this tea while waiting for the plumber to arrive this morning…
feeling anxious that it wouldn’t be a simple fix.
This tea (from my swap with TeaTiff-THANK YOU!!), immediately stopped my mind from swirling with worry…
How can you worry when you’re sipping something like this?!
Malty, with chocolate notes…and so, so smooth.
I love teas with this sort of mouth feel and deep aroma.

The fix was a simple one. The plumber was in and out in no time…and after he left, I looked at my tea cup and said, “You knew, didn’t you? You were trying to tell me to calm down.” Tea is so smart.

SSTTB

This is a malty, malty cup. Definitely my favourite of all the Hugo teas I have tried. Robust but not astringent or bitter. It also has a hint of sweetness that borders on the edge of caramel. Yum!

In other news, I have a 7 pound Yorkie who grunts. Full-on grunts like a pig. Lately she has a new trick of burying her cookies in the backyard which results in three things: (1) she gets covered in mud, (2) our other two dogs fight her for the cookies, and (3) other animals (i.e. raccoons) try to come into our yard in search of cookies. In light of that, my step-dad and my Yorkie are now fighting because he won’t let her outside to bury her cookie. Her response? A steady stream of angry grunts.

SSTTB

So I brewed this up and as I pulled out the steeped leaves, I immediately realized I screwed up as the smell of bergamot (or to borrow from Sil, “blergamot”) filled my nose. Darn it. Oh well, I already made the cup so might as well give it a try, right?

Luckily this one isn’t too bad. It is fairly subtle although more floral than citrusy. Not for me given I am not a lover of the Earl but it is still fun to try all the teas.

SSTTB

This is a pleasant black tea. It has a strong tea base with hints of almost berries and smoke to me. Good but not something I need stocked as I am starting to realize I am still in a transition stage when it comes to my tastes which means I am more prone to like the desserty blacks with malt and caramel and chocolate. Consequently, though I can recognize this is quite good, I don’t think I am at the point in my tea journey yet where I can personally appreciate it. I am grateful to have gotten to try it though.

SSTTB

I don’t think this one is for me at all. It is smooth but as I conclude the sip, a sort of dryness sets in that I am just not loving. Plus, tastewise this is less chocolate and caramel and malt and more wood, if that makes any sense. Oh well, can’t win them all.

I like it though. I like all the Hugo teas I’ve had. Maybe next time I order from them, I’ll try their greens.

So, no one has reviewed this yet? Oh. No pressure then…

It’s a really nice black tea, but that’s to be expected. I haven’t been disappointed by a Hugo tea yet. Unfortunately I’m tired and will probably need to drink this AND the resteep before I’m awake enough to properly review it. It’s a little sweet. A little fruity. I think there’s the slightest hint of smoke too.

This is one of my go-to morning teas and right now I’m going to it. And it is good. See previous notes for more.