Tea Shop of East West Company

This one is sooo good. Can’t stop drinking it.

After a big lunch, I usually crave for this tea. I just love it.

Not the best Earl Grey I´ve ever tried, but there´s nothing too much wrong with it either. To be honest, I forgot all about my tea when it was steeping, so it might have been too bitter, but it wasn´t : it was still quite bergamotty (although not in the degrees I love), and very floral. Enjoyed it. Next time I´ll make sure to steep it less time, and maybe it changes positively.

Queued post, written March 26th 2014

I found myself really wanting something black and raspberry flavoured, so I went rummaging through the ENORMOUS AMOUNTS of teas I haven’t tried yet. It’s got way out of hand. I’ve decided I’m not allowed to get new stuff until I’ve produced posts about a significant amount of them. Preferably all.

I didn’t have anything that was definitely raspberry black. I’ve got some raspberry herbals, but that’s not what I’m after. I want black. There are a great many number of blends with names that tell me nothing about what’s in them, and it’s very possible that some of those are raspberry-y, but I didn’t want to go and look up a hundred samples only to find none of them had raspberry. I remembered this one, however, that Anna shared with me, and I could remember that the name means forest fruits from when I had received it and looked it up. I decided that it was the closest thing I got to a raspberry black and went with it.

I have to say it smells more blackberry-y than raspberry-y, but that’s okay. I think it’ll satisfy this sudden raspberry lust just as well. I don’t often get these very specific ideas of what I want very often. Usually it’s just in the realm of ‘I fancy something flavoured, what have we got…?’

Oh yes, this shall do nicely. Again, it’s more blackberry-y and black currant-y than raspberry-y, but it’s close enough. It’s quite sweet and not too forcefully flavoured. Still tastes like tea, tea being the dominant flavour. That is the balance I prefer in flavoured teas. Flavoured, but not too much so. I’m enjoying this very much.

(Not surprisingly, and confirming the hypothesis we’ve made of being taste opposites rather than taste twins when it comes to black teas, Anna didn’t much care for this one. I’ve started to take a mediocre rating from Anna as a sign that I might be interested.)

Thanks to J.C. for this tea. I figured if I was going to have another cup of black tea I should get it over with before Noon and then the decafs will have to begin.

Ceylons can be a bit hit or miss for me. I have found some of them to be way too brisk but others are good. This was a pleasant surprise. The cup brews up to be a nice dark amber color. There is a definite “brightness” here but it is also exceedingly mellow and lacks any bitter characteristics. I am getting the woody note, it definitely seems earthy but I don’t know if I’m detecting a balsamic flavor like the company describes.

I tried it plain and then with soymilk and definitely preferred it plain. This is a really good ceylon, I’m glad I got to try it.

This is a sample Anna so kindly sent me. I wonder if it´s another of those german blends which cross Europe and show up a bit everywhere in every small tea shop, or if it´s something specifically spanish.

This is kind of a generic black tea with red fruits (and little bits of herbs? strawberry leaves?), and while I am interested in trying it (trying everything), it´s pretty much a dud with me. I prepared it more or less like normal, and while it brewed I was doing a couple other things, I poured it and absentmindedly sipped. For a few seconds I could not remember which tea this was and was thinking it was some tisane, but no. It´s got a really really weak body, and a kind of tartness astringency I do not like, plus the berry flavour is a chewing-gum berry flavour (I´m trying to call it artifical, I guess). It does not have much fillers, so i do not understand how it came out so well, wimpish.

Thank you very much for the intention anyway Anna – this is interesting, seriously, and helps me to appreciate more other teas (like for example Dammann´s, yes Dammann´s !, 4 Fruits Rouges tea which is a so much better at all levels version of this. Dammann, all is forgiven!)7

Edit – and it cooled down, and it´s even worse, bumping down the rating (Anna, sorry! I think it is not your puppy I am kicking, but still feeling guilty)

Happy Valentines Day to all!

Another tea from the first round of the EU travelling tea box. I’m at my parents house now for 4 or 5 days and I grabbed a load of random samples to bring with me, but also made sure I have some nice unflavoured tea too should the mood arise.

I’m off out in a bit for a lovely Valentines dinner at my favourite local vegetarian restaurant. Plus out of the blue this morning I received a cheque for £200 from the tax company because I overpaid in 2009, since I packed my business in this year it’s a very welcomed surprise. And on valentines day too.

Anyway back to the tea, serving this one with a cheese scone.

Once steeped the tea is a lovely red colour and has a sweet, perfumed berry aroma.

This tastes sweet and sugary, like candied fruit pieces, but it’s also somewhat perfumed. The fruit tastes like a mixture of berries and apple and though it is sweet it also has some sour notes.

It’s a nice tea but nothing out of the ordinary, I don’t think I will remember this one above any other generic fruit blend. But it’s always nice to try new teas.

I did only get a sample of this, when I was buying a tea gift for a friend. I need to say I really liked this tea. It was very fruity and flowery in its taste. The sweetness what the first thing I noticed and I will get a package of this later on. But as a preview it was really perfect.

I’m cheating just a bit – I had this before, but as an after-dinner tea to accompany raspberry sorbet. It turned the whole thing into the most berryful of orgies, so I didn’t bother with a tasting note.

I still find flavoured black teas slightly overwhelming at times. There’s just so much of everything. Then again, black teas get away with things a green tea never could. This makes them so much harder for me to analyze using scent alone.

In the case of Fruites del bosc, the forest fruits in question are very present in the nose; the berry aroma is deep and rich and tart, which is nice enough, but there’s just so much of it.

In a green tea, or an infusion of some kind, this kind of berry would probably end up tasting like a mouth/noseful of chemicals when steeped. The black tea, on the other hand, rounds off the flavouring nicely. The base tea is very present scent wise in the cup, but the taste is more subdued. The individual berry notes are mostly lost, and the end result is a somewhat generic, impersonal berry. I would have enjoyed some more character, and maybe a little less tartness.

And, I guess, an element of surprise. This tea is exactly what it says it is, and though it may seem unfair to detract points for honesty, I do love a good trickster.

[Gifted by my friend T, who got it for me in Barcelona in August 2013.]

Another tea from Shelley_Lorraine! Thanks, again!

Figured I’d try this one because it has chamomile and mint. My stomach’s been really bugging me. The dry leaf smells heavily of lavender and chamomile. I still haven’t decided if I like lavender. I really want to (mostly because it’s purple), but I’m starting to think it’s not for me.

The liquor tastes again mostly of lavender and chamomile. There are faint mint undertones that mellow out the grassy/hay aspects of the other two herbs. This really makes a difference compared to other blends I’ve had that are heavy on the lavender. It prevents it from being too overwhelming.

A pleasant tea, but definitely not something I think I’d order for myself.

cheetah_pita picked up this tea when she was on vacation in Spain (awesome!) and she sent a sample to me in a mystery swap. It is a great tea if you’re into chamomile. I’ve decided that chamomile isn’t my thing. I had some chamomile teas when I was a kid and I vaguely remember not liking them too much, but I had forgotten what chamomile tastes like since then. cheetah_pita sent me two chamomile teas and I must thank her for giving me the opportunity to confirm whether or not I really disliked it as I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to find out otherwise.

I don’t quite dislike it in the way I dislike jasmine or coconut in that I can drink a chamomile tea if someone offers it to me and I wont have to fight myself over making faces and gagging. But I’ll probably never make a chamomile tea for myself.

This La Siesta blend also has mint and other herbs and spices. The chamomile comes through pretty strong, but so does the mint, I think. I can also just barely detect some lavender. The flavors are a good match

Medium to dark oxidised. Clean plum and lychee at the start, developing into roastyness. Crisp apple notes in the roasty finish. Gentle spice and astringency on the aftertaste.

A good loose-leaf green tea, softened by vanilla – quite biscuity and soft, smelling and tasting strongly of marzipan. I really like this as a late morning or mid afternoon tea – it would taste great with a delicate lemon shortbread. I wouldn’t drink it in great quantity, but nice for a relaxing moment.

Just a shame I only got a taster amount of it from Tea Shop in Madrid – I can’t exactly pop back for more!

Last year my family and I went to Spain for our summer vacation. I had a really good time being a tourist and enjoying everything Spain had to offer (delicious food, art, culture, etc). But, one of the most exciting parts of the trip (for me that is..) was finding the “Tea Shop” in the Madrid airport. Sadly, it was at the end of the trip and I was about out of my Euros so I was only able to purchase 1 tea… This one!

I had made it once a looong time ago, and it got lost in my tea cabinet. Since I am on vacation today and it is beautiful and sunny outside I made an entire pitcher full of this tea iced! : )

I used 8 teaspoons of this tea for 64oz of boiling hot water. I let it cool down (didn’t actually ice it, just cooled it down and refrigerated it) and sweetened it with 3 packets of Splenda.

The dry leaves have fewer pieces of carrot and orange in it than the picture suggests. The smell of the leaves is bursting with orange smell. Smells just like fresh orange juice!

The resulting brew smells just like the leaves with a bit of rooibos in the background. The color is dark orange, a fitting color for orange tea!

The flavor is what blew me away. Just enough sour to make me think of fresh oranges and enough creaminess (from the rooibos) to make it enjoyable as a tea. And the best part, in my opinion, was that you could actually taste the carrots! I love orange juice with carrot juice! It was a pleasant surprise when I found the carrot taste, I actually wasn’t expecting it to be there!

I am glad I went ahead and bought 100g of this tea! I will miss it when it is gone… Maybe one day when I go to Spain again I will be able to get some more…

Ok, time to stop writing about tea and go out and enjoy the sun with my boyfriend! : )

smells great! very tasty