Murchie's Tea & Coffee

This tea is ok with milk, but like I thought in my last post about this tea it doesn’t really add anything. Some Russian Caravan’s I’ve had (like that lovely one from Lavender Basics – *sniff *) went really nice with milk and actually tasted fuller and took on a slightly sweet note when drunk that way.

You get a big waft of smokey-BBQ when you open the bag and I was afraid that it would be too heavy on the Lapsang Souchong. My fears were allayed however, and while there’s some smoke, it doesn’t take over the tea and drown out all the other flavours. I’m picking up a slightly astringent, tannic sort of note that comes from the Darjeeling I think, aswell as a rounder, mellower flavour that might be from the Keemun.

It’s a nice, well-balanced black tea that goes down smoothly and that doesn’t really seem like it needs a ton of milk and/or sugar. Although I suppose you could add it if you wanted – I don’t think it would wreck the taste or anything.

Sweetening this tea doesn’t seem to really do much for it – if anything it seems to emphasis the sour/acrid aftertaste slightly. So taking this tea with plain milk and nothing else seems to be the way to go.

I was worried that adding milk would destroy this tea, but it actually seems to hold up to it fairly well. It takes off the bitter edge that the plain tea has, which I really appreciate, and it gives the tea flavour reminiscent of an earl grey with some jasmine added to it.

The black tea in this blend definitely seems to dominate the flavour, unfortunately it has a sour-bitter sort of aftertaste and I don’t know if it’s the Ceylon, the added lemon, or the jasmine green. Which ever it is I can’t seem to get rid of it by changing the steeping time, so next time I drink this tea I’ll try it with milk and see if that changes anything.

There weren’t any steeping recs on the box unfortunatly, so I sort of guessed at it. It’s a black/green blend so I didn’t steep it in boiling water. Still, the black tea in the flavour seems to be wanting milk, although I’m afraid that it’ll do horrible things to the green tea in the blend. The jasmine is a nice counterpoint, although I’m not really getting any of the lemon that is supposed to be here too. I’m finding that this tea is a bit astringent for my liking, but I might just need to fiddle with the steeping time a bit.

Used up the last of this; made two cups: one for me and one for my mom.

I called it Operation Murchie’s.

I was faced with a unique opportunity. My geomorphology teacher was feeling fairly under the weather, but forced herself to come into class long enough to answer questions concerning our next lab, as well as give out the compiled Class Stats before leaving to head home and rest.

Thus I found myself with three and a half hours to spare before my statistics class began. My first thought, logically, was “I should go to Murchie’s!” it’s usually a forty minute skytrain trip to get there from home, and only a slightly shorter one from my campus. Thus I’m usually unable to make the trip between classes (unless I fully intended to run to and from stops, and only spend a maximum of about ten minutes in the shop itself). I worked out how much time I should be able to spend, and then headed off.

The trip took barely thirty minutes (less time than it should have!), and here I am. I’d been planning to try the Library Blend for a while (it just SOUNDS deep, earthy and relaxing). I’ve sipped a few of Murchie’s black/green tea blends, but most I found I could only taste the black tea in.

This one is definitely green, although the colour is only slightly paler than the usual black. It’s okay, but I think I like their Queen Victoria better (a green black blend with a bit of lapsang; it tastes mostly black, but you do get hints).

The initial taste is black, but then very green, but it’s got a bold, taste—the black grounds it and keeps it from being TOO vegetable tasting. It smells green too. Overall it’s nice, and I think the name is very fitting (I could see myself sipping this in a library while reading), the taste is lovely (although not overall ‘for me’), and I might just get it again some time.

Murchie’s doesn’t have a wifi connection, so this was typed up in Word while I was there with the intention of posting once I returned to my campus.

I don’t know how hot the water is that they give you, but I think I steeped it roughly around five minutes before removing the teabags.

And THAT’s the last of that. Finished up the rest of this in one, big pot.

I don’t think I have much more to add. The last tasting note I did on this expresses my most recent and final thoughts on this tea. Smokey, still tasty enough to be a good staple, but a little on the “burnt” side.

I let my father sniff this tea, and he’s reevaluated his “bacon” stance and now calls it, more appropriately, “campfire” tea. And actually asked whether or not it would be a good one to drink around the campfire. I think it would be.

I woke up today and decided, “smokey tea”. I then went, sat down, and loaded up Steepster to see when the last time was I’d even made a tasting note on any of the teas I drank, and found that at the top of my Dashboard was one from Rabs on Caravan.

Too bad I had already decided I wouldn’t drink any caravan, because I’m starting to get low on lapsang, so I want to finish that one off. Even though the lapsang I got from Murchie’s, I feel, isn’t actually that great. I love Caravan, but I find this lapsang to be a little burnt, and less smokey. So the faster I finish it off, the faster I can try lapsangs from other places. I can’t decide between Tealicious or Tea Desire yet, though.

I also came across bagged Russian Caravan at my local organic market—five bucks—yesterday, but had to convince myself to put it down and not get it. It was actually what inspired me to start drinking up the rest of my low-quantity smokey teas. I’ll be able to buy it without guilt after I run out. I wanted it for travel, because I no longer make smokey teas in my tea libre. The plastic/rubber seals absorb the scent and it is impossibly hard to get it out. So bagged smokey teas that I can bring with me and just throw into a paper cup with hot water (or even a mug—sometimes I bring one with me places) would be nice, if I don’t have my little teaball with me.

Still got a good few scoops left. This’ one that has lasted a while, because it’s the only one I haven’t been able to share (which I do a lot); nobody wants to try my alleged “bacon tea”.

Having this in between class. I was carrying three tins on me today—Earl Grey, 1001 Nights, and this. My travel tin of Lapsang is almost empty, oh no! I need to go home and refill it.

My Libre has been on and off temperamental today. It leaked the first time, not the second or third, and then I flip it for my smoky tea, and it leaks ALL over the place (and usually it only leaks when it’s on its side, and if you wipe the inside rim before you screw the parts together, it prevents this!). It stopped quickly enough, flipped it back rightside up and it was fine, but then I went and opened it (I waited a few seconds and gave it a few shakes to get rid of water that may have collected in the rim) and it EXPLODED water everywhere. Not a good thing to have near a laptop.

So I LOST some water in the process, but there’s still a drinkable amount here. Baaah.

The cafeteria at my college gives you water at 190 degrees (I know, I checked—got weird looks the whole time standing there with a thermometer in a weird glass travel mug).

Even after this I can’t hate Libre; I just keep blaming the leaks on myself. I probably didn’t wipe the inside enough, or screw the pieces together tight enough, or shake the water out of the cap well enough. I still love you, Libre.

Hmm tea came out a bit watery (funny, considering how much water I lost in the process of making it), but still deep and smoky pine tasting (I love that pineness—it’s weird and sweet), and seriously warming to the soul. The Libre container keeps my hands pleasantly warm and the smokyness of the tea keeps my insides pleasantly warm, and now it’s almost a bad thing because I’m feeling somewhat sleepy as a result, and I want to climb into a sleeping back outside in the fresh air and take a nap.

If I wasn’t so impossibly busy with class and work, I would go camping, I think.

There’s a slight, weird aftertaste in the back of the throat—it’s not bad or good, and I can’t really tell what it is (or if it’s due to the tea, or if it had already been there and I just hadn’t noticed it until now). Barky, I think. Maybe it’s the pine taste.

Also, mmmm smoky breath. My favourite part.

I was afraid I was going to brew this tea and my poor palette would be unable to tell it from Caravan. They certainly smell quite similar. But lapsang smells VERY different once brewed. You can definitely tell that it was smoked over pine. The pine is there. Mmm, campfire. Mostly because pine’s often what we end up throwing on it. I can’t stop sniffing it. It’s very nice.

The taste is definitely weaker than caravan. But I can’t remember—maybe I steeped that one longer. Taste’s quite different. Sweeter. The pine, maybe. Still savoury. When I purchased this, the lady gave me an odd look and asked if I had ever had it before. I suppose I should have seen it coming—people either love or hate this tea. I explained that I had been meaning to try it (she let me sniff it, and it smelt as expected). Mm, I like it. I think I like Russian Caravan more, but maybe I should have just steeped this one longer. It’s got a… deeper flavour though, I think. Tasty.

Just finished this off with my mom. Hurrah! Not sure if I will be getting any more. At least not right now. I think I will use this opportunity to try other Assams.

I decided to try steeping this for two minutes first (I mean, I can always just put the teaball back IN), because I remember a few steepsters saying that assam teas can be very picky, and will turn bitter much faster than others. It was in for two, maybe two and a half minutes, and it already is fairly strong, surprisingly. A bit astringent, but not right out bitter. There’s a somewhat tangy, berry taste at the very back of the mouth when I sip it and let it sit for a moment.

I’m sure this could hold milk very well. I think I found my new morning tea! Except that I only got an ounce of this (just to try), so I’ll have to go back for more.

I can still taste it. Aftertaste. Very nice. Yeah, this really doesn’t need any more than two minutes.

The lady had actually run out of the bagged stuff, so she sent another employee off to fill one of those t-bags with the loose-leaf stuff. She said it was no trouble, although I said I could just have an Earl Grey instead.

It smelt pleasantly of vanilla (evident, but by no means strong; the smell of the actual black tea was much stronger), however I couldn’t taste it at all. At times I thought I did—just barely, at the tip of my tongue or something. But there was definitely a sort of vanillay mouth-feel. That somewhat creamy sensation I guess. Perhaps it should have been steeped at a lower temperature for longer. That may bring it out a bit more. But I’ll never know! Unless I buy some and play around with temperatures and steeping times.

I let it steep for around five and a half minutes, but I don’t really know how hot the water was when she poured it. The tea as a black was nice, but the lack of a vanilla taste was a bit disappointing.

It’s my family blend, so I know I should like it, but I’m really not a fan of jasmine. However, it’s a very straightforwards, enjoyable tea, without too much kick to it. It doesn’t really do anything WONDERFULLY, but it does everything pretty well. It’s also very good when very, very week too, because the aroma and jasmine don’t get overpowered.

I drank this tea with milk as an experiment and it didn’t turn out half bad. The milk makes it tastes like a purely black tea and it kills some of the subtleties of the flavour, but the floral, jasmine notes are still very much present.

I’ve discovered that this tea tastes good when paired with food, particularly starchy food liked toast or nuts, etc. It’s a mild, smooth tea that IMO is great to drink in the afternoon with a snack to boost the energy levels.

I steeped this a touch longer this time and it brought out the black tea a bit more, especially when it was quite hot. It’s not a bad black though, the green tea leavens the astringency and bitterness, and what you get is a nice, light, smooth tea with a hint of sweet jasmine to it. And no notes of jasmine soap, thank you very much! This is a tea that would be spoiled by milk in my opinion, it’s perfectly fine without!