Hugo Tea Company

There are many tigers in need of taming today and I am up so much earlier than I want to be. Luckily, I have this to drink. Previous note says it all. I still love it very much.

Hot damn this tea! For tiger-taming indeed. My tea of the morning (3 cups so far – its EARLY) and I couldn’t be happier. This cup is smooth with lots of toasty grain and malt and honey and just general deliciousness. An excellent morning tea. And in case you haven’t already guessed – you gotta have Buck for this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVYFDNc9CHQ

The rest of my review is on my blog: http://mizzprissy.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/full-steam-organic-black-hugo-tea-company/

This is a generous sample from TeaTiff – thank you so much.
I love good quality EG and this tea is the best of both worlds: my beloved yunnan black base and bergamot. It’s strong flavored but nothing artificial about this tea. Deep dark smooth and balanced. 205F 3.5 min produced excellent cup of afternoon tea. Resteep is good too. While bergamot loses its punch but still present. And Yunnans are famous for multiple resteeps.
It is comparable to American Tea Room EG Shanghai.
Thank you so much TeaTiff for the opportunity to try this tea.
On my wish list it goes along with Full-Steam.

Ok i dont want to whine, but seriously. i couldnt not open the tin. Period.
As much as i appreciate tight covers on the tins this is too much. No wonder i havent open it since the end of June. Who has time to struggle in the morning ?!

back to the tea. I really like it. bready, chocolaty, rich, strong ,nice, sweet but not overly. lovely. Made it Western. 3g 8oz 205F 3min. resteep @7min.

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i had a morning cuppa of this tea. i didnt change my mind. it is very good wake up cup. i wonder whats the name of the tea. According to Hugo its Summer Harvest Yunnan tea. i think i should ask them.

This is a generous sample from TeaTiff – thank you !!!
1tsp 8 oz 205F
This tea is everything I need for a morning. It’s full bodied sweet malty dark bitter sweet chocolate with rye bread notes. So many flavors in a cup everchanging. Amazing!!!
Thank you so much TeaTiff for giving me the opportunity to try this fabulous tea!

Jumping around a bit this morning on the chronology because I didn’t want to start the day with a green tea (one more MF sample to drink). But now we come to some of Sil’s swap package, including this tea. Oddly, I got a comment last night from Hugo Tea Company on my previous note (written quite a while ago).

To forstall any bitterness while hot I brewed this one cooler this time, and it seems to have taken care of it. Now the tea is just nicely chocolatey, malty, slightly honeyed, and with nice lightly-toasted grain notes. I was definitely glad to drink this one this morning. A nice example of the kind of Chinese black tea that I tend to enjoy.

I had an early, exhausting morning of teaching and now I’m in a semi-awake afternoon slump. I needed tea! Not just any tea, though, tea to get me going! Full steam ahead? Thanks to Sil for a sample of this one!

At first I was a bit meh about the flavor of this one. While it was still quite hot it was a bit flat and had a bitter edge. As it cooled to warm it got better and better. Suddenly the bitterness is gone and instead there is a nice depth of flavor. It reminds me of a black dragon pearl, except not pearl-ized, so I would guess that this has its roots in a Fengqing black tea. A bit chocolatey, a bit malty, a hint of grains. Overally quite tasty once it cooled, but I am going to ding it a bit for the not so awesome hot flavor. We’ll see how the next cup goes, maybe it’ll get adjusted. But definitely a nice tasty black tea.

So, Sil is safely on the other side of the country, so what better time to do the Great Earl Grey Tea-Off Competition!

I have A&D’s Mount Gray, Hugo’s Grey Line and Justea’s Kathyrne Earl Grey… who will win as the best EG? Will I even notice any differences? Let’s find out!

I started by pouring ½ a perfect DavidsTea’s spoon into 3 different color coded cups. The I poured in roughly 6oz of 205F water, and I steeped them for 4 minutes.

Initial impressions:
I had to re-pour them into different cups because I realized they needed to have the same color inside for comparison. Whoops! So now that they are all in white cups I can tell that the Hugo tea is a much darker colour than the other two. It’s a reddish orange, while the other two are yellow-orange. Justea’s is probably a bit more orange than the A&D.

I sniffed them and they all smelled pretty much the same, except for Justea which was a bit earthier.

First sips:
A&D’s – smooth EG. Nothing to complain about. Bergamot lingers but doesn’t quite cross that too perfumy line.

Hugo’s – not quite so smooth – feels like there’s a little more going on in this cup, although it’s hard to put my finger on it. Bergamot is not quite as present as the A&D cup. I almost get peach or something with it.

Justea’s – this is quite a different animal! It’s musky and dark and the bergamot is fairly strong. Not a subtle cup!

Finishing the cups:
A&D’s seems to be the least complicated of the three. It’s an EG and it knows that and it’s not going to mess around. The base makes me think of a Yunnan black with the subtlest of honey notes, but maybe that’s because I’ve had the other two to compare it with. Overall? A solid EG that I’m guaranteed to enjoy! I know that this one re-steeps well but I’ve only re-used the leaves once.

Hugo’s almost has woody notes to it. At least after trying it after the A&D, that was the most obvious thing I noticed. It smells like lemon too! Along with the woody notes, I still feel like there’s a peach or some kind of fruit note in there. It’s a complex cup. Apparently it’s good for 3 re-steeps too!

Justea’s tea is better once it cools. It loses some of the musk (or whatever it is?) and mellow just a bit. I also can really smell the lemon and it makes me think of lemon cake because of the richness. I definitely enjoy this cup the more I drink of it, but the base tea is one that I’m still not completely used to and it distract me a little bit until I’m at least 1/3 done the cup.

OVERALL: Hugo’s Grey Line seems to be my favourite, although A&D’s Mt Gray is nothing to dismiss. Justea’s Kathryne Grey is enjoyable but one I crave less often due to the base.

Note that this tea is for: "For feeling stately, wearing top-hats, and building empires.”

Well, it’s Friday and I plan to be productive. Yep. Any minute now I’ll log off Steepster and be productive. Yep…

Sooon.

(This is better than that time I click on tumblr instead of twitter and lost an hour though)

This is a great tea. So smooth. Bold but not sour/astringent. I’m looking forward to this tin! Also, I should compare it with my Kenyan EG and Mount Grey from Andrews & Dunham. Yes… Eventually EG sipdown – this should happen.

See, I can be productive?

Thanks go to TeaTiff for a sample of this! The aroma is marvelous! It’s bold with sweet dark chocolate notes. The flavor is bold, malty, and has notes of dark chocolate with a sharp sweetness. This made a wonderful morning cup! Thanks again :]

Part 2 of my Hugo Breakfast Blend comparison…
Whew, much better! The leaf material in this one was much darker, long, & twisty. That alone made me feel better. The resulting tea was a deep mahogany. The formula:
1 tsp + 8oz X 4min
Sweet, smooth, malty, with elements of chocolate, red wine, caramel, & even a twist of orange. The texture is smooth & full, with a bright tingle on the tip of the tongue. It’s also much easier on the tummy!
Full steam wins over Organic Morning’s Journey, without a doubt!
Thanks to TeaTiff for sharing a generous sample of this tea!

I had tried this sample from TeaTiff a while ago when I first got it, but refrained from writing about it until I could have another cup. This morning is rainy and cool, and Full Steam black is just the thing to get me going. It’s sweet, malty, roasty, and robust. I think someone else had mentioned it had some rye bread flavor, and I would agree. Mmmm nice notes of cocoa and rye bread, warm and roasty! Very good! I will have to check out Hugo’s other teas as well because I just might need to place an order!
Thank you, TeaTiff for introducing me to this!

OMG. I really love this. I really, really do. I guess I’m not drinking anything else tonight because I want to resteep it several times. It’s dark and rich, and chocolatey. SO GOOD.

I just love Hugo Teas. I haven’t been disappointed by any of them. They just really know how to do straight black tea blends so well!

They might be awesome for other teas too; I’ve only had their black teas. OMG.

I’m celebrating hitting 210 with this cup. It’s a cup I can savour and enjoy; steep and resteep. I’m not drinking it because it’s in a ziplock bag that’s taking up room, or because I want to decrease my cupboard. I’m drinking it because it’s a vibrant and flavourful tea that feels like an appropriate reward for dropping my cupboard down 35 teas since the 19th and the *Sil*pocalypse.

Now that my cupboard is physically smaller (less fiddly bags around) I’m no longer in sipdown mode. I’ll try and focus on drinking some of my older teas now – I have 7 teas that will be in my cupboard for 1 year in the next two months, and it’s time to drink them to keep things fresh! (Except for Tardis. I still have 3 .5/6oz of that and I doubt it’s going anywhere fast. Mmmmm… Tardis.)

This tea is suited “For Tiger-Taming, Early Mornings, and Getting on with it.”

Yes please! I definitely need some of that – we are going to switch our drivers license over and start the process of transferring the car, and maybe get Ontario health cards too… Uugggh. I hate bureaucracy stuff. I totally need some tiger taming.

This tea helps me feel a little prepared for the day; it’s rich and dark and beautiful. OMG. I get malt, and honey and maybe even a little bit of a spice, like nutmeg or cinnamon that adds a little but of sweetness against all this malt.

Wow. It’s incredible.

Its Presidents Day and my husband and daughter are out of daycare and work, but working in the tech world I still have to go in. Thankfully there was this awesome mini snow storm in KC and I am able to work from “home.” Or in this case b/c the other two are home I am working from the coffee shop down the street that carry’s Hugo Teas! Yep thats right, working from home, sipping on Full Steam and watching the pretty snow get cleaned up while spending my lunch hour with my gal and hubby. What a great Presidents Day.

This is wonderful this morning. Today I am getting some serious malty and cocoa notes. I couldn’t ask for a better cup. I am hoping they let me refill my hot water over and over again today so I can take full advantage of these leaves.

Enjoying the last teaspoon of my first tin of this. Yummy. A less than exciting day at work, this is the pick me up I needed. Warm, malty and delicious. I was able to track down 2 more tins from the Quay, after running into empty shelves at Cosentinos.

I have been sharing this in every swap, but have yet to write a review. I am always really excited when I find something local that is awesome! This is one of them. I can walk a block and pick up a tin and support a local business. So this will be a constant in my cupboard.

This is really hitting the spot this morning. malty, honey, without being to astringent. This tea makes me want to snuggle up with a book right now instead of working, but such is life. I can’t have the book, but I can drink this all day long!

This is one that I took from the SSTTB. Thanks everyone!!!

Drinking it at work today, and I was surprised at how grapey this was – is that the muscatel thing people talk about? Anyway, whatever it is, this is sweet and fruity, but it’s deep and rich enough to be satisfying in the morning.
I’m more of a purest, I’m not huge into the black tea blends, but this a good one. I could drink this again.

Thanks Sil for another interesting sample.
This one is interesting, but more of a miss for me. I was expecting a bold breakfast blend, and this is more gentle and subtle. I don’t think it’s really bad…. just not what I was expecting. It’s ok, but nothing special for me. I don’t think the flavors are jumping out at me. It’s just too mild for my tastes. That’s ok, can’t love all of em… :))

The lovely Nicole sent this to me and I figured having both Hugo blacks in the house was a good excuse for a sipdown and a comparison :)

I prefer this version to the mornings journey, if only because this has more oomph. I only steeped it for 3 mins because I didn’t bother to look anything up. Haha. This is malty and robust…it’s not bitter, it’s not astringent. There’s a flavour hidden in the brew that makes it different from your average every day malty cup. It’s somewhere between sweet and sour and makes my mouth tingle haha. Thanks so much for sharing Nicole!

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This one hit the Sweet spot this morning. I thought it would be fun to compare this older version from Hugo tea with the new version. The orders one was se nt my way by Terri. The first time I had it there was a weird note to it….this time, it’s smooth And delicious with just a slight kick to it. There’s no bitter after taste and on the whole an enjoyable cup, though I won’t bemoan the fact that you can no longer get it. Just happy to have tried it and enjoyed it :)