Taylors of Harrogate

Taylors Earl Grey Leaf Tea is a solid black tea—leagues above any supermarket black tea. I’ve mostly had it hot, boiled for anywhere between 1 and 8 minutes. Served hot, the tea has robust, tannic notes, typically associated with black teas. The oil of bergamot is rather distinct and overpowers the natural taste of the black tea, especially the more you drink. Depending on your position as a traditionalist or connoisseur, this may not be to your liking. Overall, Taylors Earl Grey Leaf Tea is a solid introductory tea everyone can enjoy.

I had this at my internship orientation earlier this week and I really liked it. It’s hard to find a good bagged fruity green tea and the cardamom wasn’t a lie as I could taste it as well. I snagged a couple of bags to take home and some of their other fun flavors from this collection. I saw it’s like $12 something for 48 bags of this collection on Amazon and might have to snag that deal if the other flavors are as good as this one.

After months of drought, a summer’s worth of noisy storms and rain hit about bedtime last night, so I broke out the big guns this morning to propel myself out the door. This is really strong for a bagged tea, and maybe a little astringent for an Assam. (I haven’t steeped it enough times to land on what I consider perfect steeping parameters.) All the same, with milk, it’s doing its job.

Bagged version, again from a grab-it-because-it-isn’t-local grocery run. The scent is deliciously malty and bready, but I used too big a tumbler and too little time on the first run, and it didn’t translate into equivalent flavor. Upped the time and downed the water on this morning’s cup—better, and much, much zippier. I was highly caffeinated until nearly lunchtime.

Just finished a mug of this and, for a bagged Lapsang, it was pretty nice! Definitely had a mineral/metallic kind of twang to the smokiness, but the body was good and I thought the overall intensity of the smoke notes was the exact sort of campfire-adjacent punch I was looking for.

Only real downside, in my opinion, is that it’s so smoky that it actually permeates the overwrap the tea comes in – so definitely not something I’d want to store alongside other teabags. Instead, it will probably go in my special storage area for all my other smoked teas.

Since I have problems with insomnia, yet like to drink tea of an evening, I buy decaffeinated black teas. For this taste test, I am comparing this Taylors of Harrogate Decaffeinated Breakfast Tea with Ty-Phoo Decaf Black Tea. I poured them both right after each other, one teabag per 8oz cup. I am taste testing them black and unsweetened.
This, the Taylors of Harrogate, came in a 50 gram box of 20 teabags. That means each teabag hold 2.5 grams of tea. Even though I have left the bag inside the cup, it does not taste strong or assertive to me.
The box only identifies it as “…seriously flavor-packed teas from the Rift Valley in Southwestern Kenya, then gently decaffeinate the blend using a natural process.”
It is mild as black tea goes. It tastes weaker than the Ty-Phoo Decaf.
Since neither brand really gives much in the way of origins for the teas in their respective blends, there’s not a lot to go on, flavor-wise.
This tea IS good for someone like me, who’s more interested in just having a nice, mild cuppa (or 3) of an evening, so I can enjoy it without worrying I won’t be able to sleep. It’s also good, blended with others. It is not a standout blend, but it works fine for a nightcap cup of tea.
Not too special, but it works for what it is.

TTB teabag. This tasted really nice! I liked how malty it was. I would drink this again. It was really nice with milk and sugar, especially when it cooled.

Single bag from a previous TTB. This ends up a bit watery, but I enjoy the quality of the black tea. It’s a little biscuity and pleasant with sugar and milk. I would use less water if I made this tea again.

Delicious full bodied tea from a bag, who knew?

I have been off my tea game for most of this year. Moving got the best of me and then all of the sudden I started drinking more and more coffee. I’m trying to snap out of it though. I drank tea before work today so thats good. The last of this actually. Its fine. Stands up to milk and sugar. I tried the gold version first but maybe I should have started with the regular? Its ok. Easy every day tea. There are probably other black teas I like more tbh.

I tried a bag from the TTB and then bought a box online. This tea isn’t bad, it has a bit of an astringent bite so you know it is tea, and a nice jammy note at the end. I might prefer Taylor’s Assam for a caffeine kick, but this is a close second for a nice cuppa from a bag.

TTB tea! I’ve seen this tea get a lot of hype on here, so I was excited to see it in the box. I like it! If I drank caffeinated teas daily, I would consider keeping some of this around. It’s mostly malty black tea, and there’s something biscuity and interesting about it. Sweetened with milk, I was really pleased with it.

A sipdown! (M: 7, Y: 7)
Sipdown prompt: A grocery store blend — correct me if wrong?!

And steeped for 2 minutes in 80°C water, so definitely not oversteeped with wrong tea temperature. Thank you anyway for new tea bag wrappers for my collection. That counts and that is a positive thing.

The TTB has arrived! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #9

Okay. I have no idea how they translated a toast into my mug. But they did, and well. It’s indeed a bit burnt side toast, but it is bready.
I have been expecting a bit more from jam. It’s there, but this strawberry jam was just slightly smeared on that, a little burnt toast.

Happy that I have tried it (no milk), but based on that hype all around, maybe I was expecting a bit more. Or I just need to re-try it with milk. But nevertheless, interesting tea and execution was well done. Better than expected.

Sampled from the Strange VariaTea Traveling Tea Box

ExcuUUUuse me, but who give this bagged tea permission to be so delightful?! Goodness.

I recently started my first social work internship and had my final day of orientation/training on Thursday. I brought one of these teabags in my KeepCup, but alas — I could not find a SINGLE WORKING HOT WATER HEATER/KETTLE at the office! There were a few of those dual hot/cold water dispensers, but none seemed to actually heat the water. Cue me holding a cup of lukewarm water with a teabag floating sadly in it.

Reader, I drank it. What else was I to do?! And you know what… it was fine. Surprisingly not bad. I could tell this tea was going to be yummy once I was able to, y’know, brew it properly.

And it was! So yummy and cozy and malty and sweet-but-not-sweet. I’ve gotta get me a box of this.

Got 2 boxes of this for $5 at a Home Goods. This is the best tea I’ve ever had. I don’t know shit about teas to know if this is of quality. If there’s anything similar to this, I’d love to know. I’ve had a cup almost every day since I bought it with a little brown sugar oat milk creamer and it creates this deep almost nutty flavor. I will compare all black teas to this now.

I ordered a gift box of this to try this one and their other two, with some cookies, as it was the cheapest and more fun way — also, I have been spending too much money lately in general last week.

I am not rating this first time as I messed up the brew. I did my 2 2/2 Sherlock Holmes tea pot and put in two bags for some reason at 5 minutes, instead of the usual 1 I do when filling own bag from loose. This made too strong with bitterness so I can’t fairly tell.

I did like well enough besides overdoing it, so will try again. But I do have a whole box to go through, so….

I will say it’s annoying I couldn’t open the box and have these individually sealed to store easier. Also it hurts freshness to me. If any of these become favorites, may find a tin and move the box as a label over it, but who knows. Lack of room and such.

I was not a fan of the cookies in the gift box unless dipped in tea – too hard for my tea. My mixer has been delayed, cannot wait to start baking with it coming. Supposed to be here today – again.

I received this one a couple weeks ago and have had a few hot cups thus far, but thought I’d cold brew it to see if I preferred that. The taste is essentially the same hot or cold brewed. I would say this is very true of toast and jam but, the toast is burnt thanks to an edge of bitterness here.

For my own reference, I’ve tried hot steeping this at 2 minutes, 2.5 minutes, 3 minutes, and 4 minutes.