Taylors of Harrogate

Sipdown!

So excited to have finished this one off! I’ve had it for two years and it was such a large quantity of tea it feels like quite the accomplishment.

Plus, drinking this everyday for a couple weeks has caused it to grow on me. You’ll be missed, rose tea.

(But probably not replaced in such a large quantity.)

My new job doesn’t offer free coffee and tea like my last one.This has been good in two ways: 1) I’m no longer anxiety-riddled to a non-functional state by coffee and 2) I’m bringing in lots of tea to drink up. I’m loving fillable tea bags because then I can package up a week’s worth of tea for work all at once and prepare it with no mess. Win win win.

Because this one has been hanging around forever, I packed up the rest of it as a work tea. Shamelessly gunning for a sipdown. It’s way more tea than I expected (and I gave so much away!) and it’s … well, let’s just say I’ve got a bad habit of oversteeping my work teas and this one does not go gently into the night.

When I oversteep, it tastes like old lady perfume. Literally, like drinking a bottle of perfume. The floral from the rose is gross and overwhelming. Steeped for two minutes (and when there’s fewer chunks of flower in the tea), it’s smooth and has a tolerable background of rose.

I know I liked this one originally, but I’m not really enjoying it. I don’t think floral is for me and I can’t wait to be done with this one. Dropping my rating accordingly. :-/

One of my friends sent me this as a Christmas present. It’s her favorite tea and she wanted me to try it. I had some last night as an after dinner tea.

Dry, this tea is overwhelmingly floral. Like, old lady perfume floral. I really don’t like the smell as it’s too close to potpurri for me. Steeped, some of the floral smell lingers, though it’s not as pronounced or off-putting as the dry leaf.

Based on smell alone, I was expecting to really dislike this one. Unfortunate, too, because I have four ounces of it. I took a cautious sip … and it’s good. Really good. The floral softens the black tea and makes it almost-sweet. It’s very smooth and pleasant to drink. I think I might make this my new breakfast tea …

This is my favorite bagged black tea, and one I always make sure to have in my cupboard. It isn’t the absolute best Assam, but it’s quick and lovely with or without sugar.

Not really much I can say about this. It’s pretty bland and tasteless but it’ll do if you have no other decaff tea and can’t have any more caffeine. I’ve certainly had worse.

This is one of my all time favourite black teas. Have to have a cup of this with breakfast.

Today was one of those days when I was just in the mood for a black tea first thing in the morning. It’s a comfort, and a delight sometimes.

I’ve used two joined teabags with about a litre of water, about half the strength that it technically should be. Still managed to seem quite strong (and a bit oversteeped) at five minutes on its own. Adding milk lets the richness come out without the bitterness. I thought it may be even better with some sweetener, but adding honey doesn’t seem to be the right decision this time around.

In all, not my absolute favourite straight black out there, but good, solid, and robust nonetheless.

My house always has this in stock. A very good, high quality black tea that can drunk in any way. If I’m drinking for fun, I often steep this moderately strong, and then add milk and sugar for a nice hot work drink. On days where I have a paper to write or edit, I go through at least 3 to 4 cups a day. On mornings (or nights) where I need to be caffeinated, I steep this very strongly and sip it black. For some odd reason it keeps me awake better than coffee without the headaches, so I like it for this reason.

I’m surprised at some of the lower ratings on here, but most of them seem to be written by people who prefer fruity or chai teas. If you enjoy a simple black tea, this is a great tea to have at home.

A strong dark tea that does seem to go well with breakfast. Not overly bitter. Current box does not have the bright sweet notes that our previous box had, which I think I liked a bit better. Have drunk it plain so far, but will try it with milk and sugar.

A few years back, the water around where they grow the leaves for Assam tea was infested with cholera. Some of the growers were being responsible, and some were being awful, not proving any other water for the tea harvesters to drink. I could not be a part of this, so I wrote all the growers to find out their practices. Taylors was on top of the situation, taking good care of their work force, and not only that, the woman I was in communication with was so kind and pleasant that ever since, just for that reason alone, I have used this tea as my work morning rush-out-the-door tea.

I also happen to love it, and I didn’t realize until I read the comments how much caffeine it has. But as a night owl, that is a plus :)

Woo wee this one is strong but good!

Whoa! I wanted to like Lapsang Souchong – a grandmother figure from my childhood always drank it – but this is just too smokey for me. I can’t get past the smoke to discern any other flavors. Is Taylors of Harrogate representative? Is there anything out there that like a Lapsang Souchong but a little more approachable?

Rather unexpectedly, I found this at Whole Foods. It’s not as spectacular as the other Assams I currently have in my cupboard, but it’s got a kind of soft, sweet raisin note that’s very pleasant when sweetened with a light honey. A nice evening tea.

One cup of this in the morning and I’m definitely ready to face the day. Extremely bold, this is not for the faint of heart when it comes to an English Breakfast tea. Brews to a beautiful reddish brown color with a malty aroma and taste. I look forward to my morning cup every day, it hasn’t disappointed me yet.

This has been my go-to tea since I started university two and a half years ago – now my whole family drink it! I’ve only been in Canada a couple of months and was sure I wouldn’t be able to find it, so my parents posted me a package full. This is fantastic when dragging yourself out of bed in the morning – the scent as it brews is therapeutic. I love a full-bodied tea and this is one of the strongest and most delicious I’ve tasted. Perfect with breakfast, and then in the afternoon – especially when you need the energy for studying like I do!

Ahhhhh, yes. This is more my speed this morning. I don’t know what I was thinking, messing around with a fruity green. I need something that will get my motor running.

This is perfect. A stout, hardy, nutty, full-bodied black tea. This stuff packs a wallop with flavor, and is just an all-around perfect “wake the hell up” tea.

Ooooo-eeeee, as a former coffee-drinker, I can say with utmost certainty that this is the closest thing to it that the tea world has to offer. High-test stuff. The flavor is a very strong and robust nutty-astringent combo that hits you like a brick wall. Personally, I like my teas straight-up, but adding a splash of milk and/ or some honey definitely doesn’t hurt this one.

I treat this tea like I would my boss. With respect.

I can’t drink coffee anymore since I weaned myself off of it. It just has so much caffeine in it. Doesn’t matter if I drink it at 8:30 am or 8:30 pm. I will sleep very badly in either case. So instead, when I need that extra kick in the pants to get myself going in the morning, I drink either yerba mate, or lately, this stuff.

I know you’re supposed to add milk to this tea for taste’s sake, but I also know that adding milk to tea negates any health benefits it may otherwise have provided. And, since tea is pretty much the only healthy thing I’ve been ingesting lately, I figured this morning that I’d better drink this straight.

It’s bitter, it’s astringent, it’s nutty, it’s in-your-face… And I love it. Maybe it’s my Scottish blood saying this, but there’s something fortifying for the soul in the strong aftertaste of this tea. It makes English breakfast tea seem wimpy by comparison, which I’m sure many Scottish people would be delighted to hear.

I’m thinking this will become a staple in my tea chest from now on.

The box says that this tea is best with milk in it. Usually, I’m not one to obey the box- You companies aren’t the bossa me! But I had this one again this morning, and this time I decided to add skim milk to it, just to give Taylors of Harrogate the benefit of the doubt.

Conclusion: Obey the box. The milk takes the bitter edge off of the flavor, without drowning out the nutty flavor or the richness of the tea, which surprised me.

Brrrrr! It’s freezing outside lately. Plus, I managed to piss off the guy behind me TWICE on the way back from picking up my groceries, so much so that he honked at me both times. Plus, I had already been honked at by someone else. So my nerves are a little frazzled at the moment, and I feel like an idiot. I need a mug of hot tea.

I bought a box of these sachets because:
1. I love black tea.
2. I can never not buy tea while grocery shopping.
3. I’ve heard of English breakfast and Irish breakfast, but not Scottish breakfast, and I am of Scottish descent and very proud of it, so therefore it automatically appealed to me.

So into the basket they went.

Steeping- it smells like it’s going to be a delicious black tea, and the color is a beautiful deep red.

Sipping- Mmmmm! It’s nutty and stout. It leaves a slightly bitter taste in my mouth, but I LOVE it. This is better than English breakfast for sure. Soooo much more earthy and flavorful. And I can tell already that it packs a punch in the caffeine department. Wow. Perfect pick-me-up tea on a blustery, overcast fall day like today.

And it’s also lifting my spirits, which can only give it more merit.

Workmen’s tea at workmen prices, it’s red, robust, great with milk, and a real wake-up. It’s a quick steep and rich with flavor.

Perfectly satisfactory earl grey in a pinch, but I prefer EG at night time, so I tend towards the decaf.