Tea Centre of Stockholm

This seems to be the place where most people have entered tasting notes for The Tea Centre of Stockholm’s Söderblandning. There are at least two other places at Steepster, one of which includes the umlaut in the name (would it be obnoxious for me to add one to this entry? would it make the tea impossible for others to find using the Steepster search function?), but which is devoid of any reviews, and another which qualifies Söderblandning as Söderblandning Black. Well, my can, discovered in the process of excavating my humble residence of ten years, as I attempt to prepare for The Historic Move, definitely contains a blend of black teas—both China and Ceylon—scented with dried flower petals and fruits.

I cannot actually figure out what the fruits here are. They are supposed to be “tropical”, but I’m not sure whether mango and papaya are implicated or not. It’s possible that they change the recipe from year to year, as The Centre of Stockholm seems a bit evasive as to the ingredients. The fruit flavor is definitely detectable, but it’s that same somewhat vague “fruitiness” which often characterizes fruity black blends—at least to my palate. During my www fact-finding mission, I was happy to learn that this emporium uses only natural flavors, so that’s good news. No scary lab experiments here!

On a further positive note, the black tea base (both China and Ceylon) is quite good as the amber-colored liquor does taste nice with nothing added to it. I’ll definitely be trying this fruity blend many more times in the future, as I have now cracked upon a brand new, formerly sealed can brim with 125 grams—less about 3 from this pot! I suspect that Söderblandning will make an excellent iced tea. We shall see, since summer is just around the bend…

This was a sample from a friend, and it has languished for a while in my sample tin, inside a plain plastic bag. So maybe not ideal conditions for the tea condition. Or something.

I find myself very underwhelmed by this tea. It looks like the most beautiful tea ever, particularly when being brewed, floating on water. Many many different flower leaves (i.e. leaves, which might explain why I find the result weak), bits of citrus peel. Just amazing. Though the tea itself is rather broken and small.

The dry leaf smells amazing as well – a strong fruity-floral, like good perfume.

It brews nice, just a hint of astringency. But I do not get much taste (besides a kind of floral taste) on the tongue, and the body is quite thin. Maybe I used the wrong dose, it is so full of fillers I should have upped the dose even more than I did.

Oh my. This came from Missy and Dylan and as soon as I smelled the dry tea in the bag I knew I was saving it for tea party day.

I made a key lime pie from fresh key limes, cut up some fresh strawberries, and made a cookie plate as well.

This was the first tea I served and oh. my. goodness. This is so close to Dammann Freres’ Coquelicot Gourmand. This is a complex, elegant tea with such wonderful pastry flavors. This would be a great dessert all by itself, with nary a thing added. My guest absolutely loved it, hated the darjeeling we tried next, like the Keemun Hao Ya A, then asked for more of this!

This was a hit, and I am delighted that there is enough for one more whole pot!

Thank you, Missy and Dylan! My daughter is in Raleigh today and hopefully will have time to pick up the Asian Pear Green Tea I promised you!

Thanks, Dylan and Missy for sharing the love. Should you ever feel compelled to order a large crate of this stuff again, please count me in. This tea has lovely citrus notes and is full bodied enough to stand up to that. This tea is very smooth. I’m fairly certain I could drink this all day. The specific gravity of this tea is slightly higher than other similar teas which gives it an interestingly soft denseness. This tea is entirely drinkable.

Thanks to Dylan and Missy I can not only add a tasting note but pretty much add this as “in my cupboard” with the amount they sent me! Thank you! It is stormy here and “they” say it is going to be one of the worst storms in history – if you don’t see me around that may be why! One of our dogs, our little papillon, shakes like a leaf when it storms and can’t breathe and we need to sedate her. She is already shaking terribly and it is not even thundering yet. ANYWAY point is and was that this is a great tea to curl up on the sofa with! I am going to enjoy it very much and just relax tonight.
Creamy, non astringent, vanilla, waiting for floral to peek out some, we shall see. :)

For the right audience, this is probably an inspiring, amazing tea. However, this tea and my expectation of this tea are kind of in two different rooms, not talking to each other.

This is an amazingly deep and flavorful blend. The base teas are very smooth and enjoyable. The most abundant flavor to me is a variety of floral notes. I’m not a fan of floral tea, and my experience with them is relatively small (due in no small part to my general dislike). However, this tea pulls floral off extremely well. The floral is apparent, but not too aggressive. It’s there as part of the tea, not an overpowering perfume above it. Its very well done, and I applaud Sweden (yes, all of Sweden) for this blend actually being a obviously floral blend that I truly, deeply enjoy.

The fruit flavors take a much more subdued backseat with the floral notes. It’s probably a feat of magic to have orange peel in the background of a blend, I can taste it… but somehow it’s an aftertaste. The fruitiness of this tea lingers in your mouth a little while after the floral tastes have departed. I think I taste something more tropical, possibly pineapple, in the blend as well.

Like I said, this tea is very complex and a very enjoyable blend. Overall, the price wasn’t too expensive. I ordered 250g (total) in two cute, decorative tins for approximately $30 (including shipping from Sweden, mind you). However, it doesn’t blow my not-currently-equipped socks off.

I would highly recommend this tea to anyone who enjoys floral teas, it’s just that floral teas aren’t my ‘thing’. I will definitely enjoy this while I have it, but I don’t know that I’ll buy it again.

It will just be some tea blend that I used to drink ;)

An interesting tea with an interesting name. Dylan says the name isn’t interesting so I had to shout out the name. Pretty fun to say.

Nice light woodsy tea coming through the floral scent. I’m not so good with flowers so I can’t point out which flowers. They aren’t perfume-y though, I think they add a sweet touch. Very nice blend so far. Tropical fruit I can agree with. I think maybe pineapple, mango or papaya. There is a citrus note so maybe just the pineapple. Maybe it has a hint of lemon. Scooby doo where are you!?

I like this one except for the picture it conjures up, me with silver hair. Perhaps I’ll shave my hair off before I get to that point.

A fruity, tropical, tastefully calming tea. Very enjoyable during any part of the day.

Love this tea! Very fruity and delish fragerance. very pure ingrediants, i have the loose bag and nice big pieces are in its and bright flowers. Tea is not overpoweringly strong like some black ceylon teas, feels of very high quality leaves, and leave plenty of room for complex over flavors of fruit and flowers. Powerful flavor so i usualy steep once lightly, then keep repeating for longer. One of my favorite teas but i only found it the once and it was very expensive, 13 for 100gs, but thats what high quality complex teas like this cost. It is extreemly similiar, except less sweet, than many of the teavana teas which are also pricey.