Richard

I had a tea bag version this morning. I did not expect much; I am rather sceptical to tea bag black teas. But I like Ceylon teas.

Anyway, in the mug it comes and let see. They suggest 4 minutes, I did about minute and half. The colour is quite dark, opaque with oil film. By tea bag taken out it looks it was milled very fine.

In aroma it was some kind of cheap black tea, nothing really distinctive, maybe bit malty. When it comes to taste it was much better than I ever expected! It was brewed just right, so no astringency, bitterness or another unpleasant things. It was mellow, chocolate with toffee flavours. But not overwhelming those tastes, there was always black tea based which made it really nice. I am really surprised with this one, not the best black tea I had, but certainly worth a note.

Lots of dust remained in the foil bag, so I hope it is all gone. Well, bold tea after roasted pork sounds good. Dry tea bag smells like common black tea without any extra notes.

Scents were quite nice, bit citrusy, bit malty. Maybe jam notes, but not really much of them.

Palate is quite boring though, nothing really dominant – quite bitter and malty. It is not awfully bitter – which I enjoy, but it´s not a tea I would like to buy whole box.

Colour was clear and dark brown – it is not bad.

Well this tea bag wrapper I have is saying it contains Chinese green tea and temperature 85°C.

The bag smelled mostly after cardboard and hay, which wasn’t too promising, but tea itself is luckily just hay. In taste it is like a tea for jasmine green tea; but without the jasmine, grass seed and cut grass, but not hay yet.

Pretty okay-ish, keeping my old rating 69.

Suggested temperature was 100 °C for green tea? That does not sound right. So I have used about 90 °C I guess. The bag itself when dry is opaque, so I could not see the leaves. But when put in water, it became transparent. Leaves are quite nicely green, not so much brown flecks. They are about 3 milimeter long :D – but for tea bag I think they are quite big. Not just real tea dust as it is common in some other brands. As I have found out tea is from Sri Lanka, imported and packed in Russia and then I bought it here in the Czech Republic.

Anyway, to the tea; I steeped it for suggested 3 minutes nad colour is light yellow-green and apparently very clear. Aroma is of hay, grass and that is all. Taste is pretty basic, green tea. But quite fresh, without any weird tastes. Overall bit above average.

I wonder if loose leaf version uses same quality of tea.

So, another tea from CGFoods.

It seems they have tweaked the blend a bit, as well the tea bag itself. Now it shows preparation instructions and taste is different (or my tastebuds).

It is much more mellow, however very citrusy indeed. The Ceylon base is fine — nothing too much distinctive, but light and citrusy.
Flavour is very lemon-forward. The lemon zest is yeling on you from aroma as well as from taste. It’s like fresh lemon peel was added to Ceylon tea base.
Maybe I had an old tea 3 years ago!

It wasn’t bitter at all and not biting too. Something has changed.
Straightforward lemon tea. Would be good iced I think — classic taste. I am curious about difference between Lord Grey and Royal Lemon. Because I haven’t noticed any bergamot here.

40 → 50

This was disappointing.

Actually there is nothing, but temperature suggestion on foil tea bag. So I had to google, their website did not say anything too. Than I found an importer website – where was 2-6 minutes. Quite variety for black tea bag.

Anyway, in the mug it comes. As dry it smelled like fresh lemons with hints of bergamot. Pretty straightforward. While others prepared their morning coffee, I used same water (stovetop tea kettle). I think it has about 90 °C.

After three minutes steep, tea was dark, opaque and with oil spots. I thought that it is quite enough, so I took the bag out. Aroma was quite strong of crushed tea with little lemon notes. Taste – it was so bitter it was really hard to drink, with biting lemon notes. The lemon probably smooths a bit that bitterness. But overall it was unpleasant.

I am not looking forward to next three tea bags I have from this company.