Taylors of Harrogate

Zero energy this morning. So hard to get up!
This will never be a favorite, and I wont be getting more when it is done. But I found the acceptable formula for drinking it. Small amount of tea, light steep, and milk. And usually I don’t like my tea with milk!
Well, it helped to wake me up, so that’s good.

Steepster! I have returned to you! My computer died a dramatic death on Saturday, so thank goodness I backed up my documents.
I now have a new computer, which is very shiny and somewhat intimidating, and I am happy to have returned to the internet.
So happy to be back to Steepster!

For my fellow tea drinkers in the U.S. Happy 4th of July! I’m going to hunt down the best thrift store sales in the area, do my writing, and then go to visit my family and have the annual bbq.
And no work! Thats always a good thing.
Hopefully I shall have several cups of tea as well.

Its time for tea experimentation. Please, if you would, imagine a lab coat, goggles, and test tubes full of tea.
Now that we’ve all conjured up the correct mental image, I can get down to experimentation.
I used less tea, as my first experiment, just a tiny amount, less than I thought would be useful, but its worked well.
I also steeped it for just three minutes, which is two minutes less than I’d done before, and that also improves the flavor.
This will never be a favorite, but its much imporved this way. Though I’m still drinking it with milk.

This continues my teas that I’m not crazy about, are granuels, and are improved with milk. I dont normally like milk in my tea, but my little creamer is getting quite a workout this week.
Improved with the milk, but I’m still finding bitterness luring around in it. Next time perhaps a cooler water temp.

I’ve returned to my desire to drink more “meh” teas. To sip them down, move them out of my cupboard and never think of them again. I have a few teas that I’ve only had once, and have been languishing. And my palatte may have changed, so its time to try again.
Er, nope. I am still finding this bitter, and not particularly complex or interesting. I think it would be improved with milk, but I’m out of milk at the moment. I’m usually a person who likes my tea black, but this might improve with additions.

Bought a tin of this on a whim. Eh. I’m not going to repeat that. Its got a strong enough flavor, and isn’t exactly unpleasant, but its far from my favorite, and the little granule balls of tea are a bit unsettling. Next time I’ll add a little milk and sugar and see if that improves the pot.

This is a lovely little tea that tastes just like a bowl of raspberries and cream. I tried it plain and with a bit of sugar, and they both tasted great, so I think it’s just a matter of personal taste. I don’t know what everyone is complaining about. It didn’t taste “stale” when I made it, it tasted like one of my favorite desserts. Anyway, I would definitely drink this again, especially as a dessert tea. I suspect it would also be wonderful as an iced tea.

today’s breakfast cup~

I love darjeelings. I drank it without milk. Next time I may steep it slightly less. It is an enjoyable darjeeling blend. Certainly there are much better estate darjeelings, but if you are looking for a robust everyday darjeeling this is a good option.

THE SHIRE CAN’T HANDLE THIS.

Not a light, but pleasant tea from South Africa. It has an assamic flavour, and a light sweetness. One can notice maybe spices, cocoa flavour. Nice for after lunch.

Not entirely thrilled with this one, but overall it is fairly decent. I have this in teabag form so I’m not sure if the loose tea would be slightly different or not.

I drink this with milk and some kind of sweetener (brn sugar, honey, or agave depending on the day) and it is a nice morning tea. However it doesn’t have the depth of body that I was expecting, which is a little disappointing. The mouth feel isn’t anything to write home about either. Because I like my breakfast teas super strong, I usually leave the bag in while I’m drinking so that it continues to steep. I won’t be drinking this without milk as it’s a little too thin as it is. I was really hoping to like this Scottish Breakfast, but it’s a little too bland for me to get really excited over it.

Jasmine is great, this is my daily bedtime drinker. Simply boil water, plop in a teabag. No sugar, honey, milk or other sweetener is needed.
That was easy.

7/11/2013 – 50 Teabags take a lot of time to sipdown, but so far I’ve enjoyed this tea. This is a bagged tea that has no staples, string, or tag.
I really found that Taylors of Harrogate has a nice selection of teas that are affordable, in local grocery stores, and tasty.

I usually go for the Organic Numi Green Jasmine, but I couldn’t find it in my local grocery store for some reason! So I picked this up instead, and am happy to report that it’s really very good. Tastes almost exactly the same as the Numi version, maybe even better. Although I had to steep it longer than usual. High quality taste for a reasonable price. Can’t go wrong.

Yorkshire tea is by far my favorite tea throughout the day and in the morning. It’s a strong and robust tea that is perfect with some milk and a tiny bit of sugar. It’s always a great way to wake up in the morning. The loose leaf is good too.

Also, I applaud Taylors of Harrogate for exceptional customer service. I liked them on facebook just because they had an interesting page and have some nice stuff and on any question I’ve had they’ve responded promptly and were always quite nice.

Overall my favorite. :D Though a bit difficult to find the in the US. :(

I’m adding another note for this one and increasing my rating because it was SO SO GOOD this morning.

I steeped it for 5 minutes in my favorite ceramic travel mug, added 1 heaping teaspoon of sugar and two teaspoons of very upscale coffeemate original liquid creamer and headed off on my hour long nightmare commute.

With my tea thus fancily prepared, I took a sip. And it was heavenly. (Heavenly the way Dunkin Donuts coffee is heavenly, but heavenly nonetheless). Thick, malty, and overly sweetened and ‘creamy’, just what I needed to go sit in bumper to bumper traffic and contemplate how much I dislike my job.

This has replaced PGTips for my strong morning cup, it brews up less minerally and I’m quite taken with the beautiful color.

I’ve been drinking this with milk and demerara sugar on the looong, miserable drive to work in the morning. I like it. It’s smooth and dark and malty. But, it has this underlying vegetable soup taste that I just can’t ignore. I know tea is a plant and I need to stop kvetching about a plant tasting planty, but I don’t see myself stopping any time soon when black teas taste green. I also like teas with a little more bite than this, at least for the morning. But I could see it being more appropriate for a later time of day, when I’m looking more for relaxation. I’ll definitely finish this, but it isn’t going onto my buy it again list unless my opinion softens as I drink my way through the box.

It is a pretty tea though- a deep rich red that blooms out of the bag as soon as it is plopped in. My SO pronounced it ‘beautiful’ and it is.

I’ve steeped this at boiling up to 5 minutes and it hasn’t gone tart.

(Unrelated to tea taste: I wanted teabags to toss in a travel mug in the morning for the drive to work because I ain’t got time fo looseleaf in the morning. I expected strings. There aren’t any strings! Egad! I asked my SO if she would sew strings on each tea bag for me and she said no but offered to staple them on. I just know I’d choke on a staple.)

Not a fan of lapsang souchong, my father loves this brand though. When brewed it almost smells like smoked mozzarella.