Pickwick

Today an exam. 0 points. Really?

Long story short: I made it differently and it would not work if used in different part of program. But still it made my day bitter.

When I came home, I found out that my Farmerleaf order (from 15th April) is waiting for me at customs. There is no tax on it, but it needs to be cleared through customs. So – trip to Prague tomorrow. 164 km on rails one way. At least I will think about something else. Maybe a good thing.

I was not really sure what tea I want to drink, going through my stash of puerhs, tea bags, all teas I have. And then I still ended with family cupboard and found out this one. As there is today +35°C (95 F), this sounds pretty refreshing.

Strawberry – check
Mint – Check

Good start. Both mains are present in aroma as well in taste. Pretty light, yet red colour and clear. I am impressed, usually some dust goes off of the tea bag. Not this time.

It cools down soo slowly.

But the taste is not changing… it is what it says. Strawberry & Mint.
Yep, quite fruity and quite refreshing. Probably iced will be better.

I pay a fortune for Amazon to import this bagged tea for me, and it is worth every penny. The flavor is unparalleled for bagged tea and it makes an absolutely delicious iced tea that doesn’t need a single thing added. However, when I want a special treat, I add 2 oz of Simply Lemonade to a 16 oz cup of this tea iced and it makes for a refreshing drink. Love it!

Sweetish, hard candy flavour. Yes, there is a melon there, but hardly appetizing.
The taste is much more melon-like, but the most dominant note is wet cardboard.
No good. No good at all.

Strong and sweet peach aroma.
There’s also a slight sweetness in taste,plus moderate fruity peach notes and some maltiness in the background.
All in all it’s not bad, but not fruity enough. Would probably taste better as a cold brew.

Cherry and malty notes are well balanced both in aroma and taste. The tea is not overdone with cherry, is very easygoing. Good one.

Very strong blackcurrant aroma plus solid malty notes.
No sweetness in taste, a lot of blackcurrant, strong malty notes, solid warming effect.
Not bad for a Pickwick tea.

very slight straw aromas in aroma and taste, no bitterness nor astringency, not much beside water.

Slight jasmine aroma, slight straw notes from the base green tea.
Strong malty taste with solid jasmine notes.
Not bad, certainly better than I expected and better than an average Pickwick tea.

Strong peppermint aroma, with subtle green tea and citrusy notes in the background.
The taste is well balanced, with slight base tea bitterness, mint and lemon grass/lemon peels.
Really good as far as Pickwick goes (they usually don’t set the bar high…).

Strong aroma, with a lot of lemon and harsh, spicy ginger tones.
A lot of ginger in taste, but sadly more for taste than for spicyness, solid citrus peel undertones, barely a hint of licorice (which is good, because it doesn’t dominate).
Overtall, pretty decent, expecially for Pickwick.

This tea claims that it is a black tea, with green tea jasmine (first time I’m tasting this kind of blend) which it most likely is, but green tea and black is steeped best imo at different temperatures so that is a bit of a challenge if you want the flavours to be at their best.
I decided to steep the golden china completely like a black tea (because I generally like black tea the best, and I make bad decisions on a regular basis) at around 95° C for aprox 3 minutes.
The result of this was a brown tea that tasted very earthy and slightly bitter (put nicely, less nicely it was like dirt), I then added half a teaspoon of sugar to see if that would bring out some more flavour and it was still very earthy, but a bit more woodsy and with a sort of nutty note. And maybe the slightest hint of jasmine (but that could be my imagination)
In conclusion this tea isn’t good, it is actually pretty bad for a pickwick tea, and I won’t get this particular blend again, but the idea of a black of tea with jasmine is attractive to me and I wonder if there are others more succesful than the pickwick. And to be fair the pickwick might be better steeped at a lower temperature than I did in this instance to see if it will be better or bring out more of the jasmine in the blend. Especially the fact that the tea got bitter makes me think that it was steeped at too high a temperature in this instance, and maybe for too long as well.

TL;DR it is a bad tea, not worth the money.

Received two bags from friends in the Netherlands. I have not been a fan of holiday teas in the past, but this was delicious! The fruit and spice were perfectly balanced to my preferences and I used up both bag immediately.

Nicely balanced strawberry and lemongrass aroma, with slight grassy and straw green tea undertones.
And good taste, slightly tart, fruity.
Much better than majority of Pickwick teas.

Tastes like bitter asscancer.

Surprisingly balanced! Strong earthy and maty notes from base tea, no sweetness, solid orange notes and some spices in the background. Nicely warming and definitely worth repeating!

The aroma is dominated by liquorice, but you can smell some oolong notes.
And the taste? Very sweet from liquorice, that totally shadows everything else.

Very one dimensional tea. There should be 50% liquorice in it, not 70%, because both oolong and black tea are as well nonexistent.

Both aroma and taste are totally dominated by liquorice. I really like it, but I realise that a lot of people can’t stand it.

Strong, sweet aroma of blueberry cake with cinnamon. A bit artificial, but indulging indeed.
Malty base tea, slight blueberry notes, not too strong cinnamon note. Nothing spectacular, but quite passable and drinkable.

Sipdown number 17. This is actually quite good. I find that chamomile is one of those herbs that really can be excellent in a teabag. This particular version is gently sweet with a hint of hay and a lot of that apple-like flavor certain chamomile has. So soothing.

Sipdown number 16! I have completely failed at the advent concept so I am retconning this endeavor into a December sipdown challenge.

This is an ok bagged jasmine. Not as good as loose or even pyramid bags, but not disgusting either. Just meh.