The Tea Centre

Interesting looking twisty leaves that produce a pale yellow liquor. First steeping was as directed, two minutes at 70C, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the result. I expected this tea to be delicate, and it is, but I also found it a bit dull and lacking in flavour. I left the second steeping half a minute longer and this allowed a bit more flavour to come through, along with a very slight astringent note, which also helped. Not bad, but it misses the mark with me. I find that a premium grade dragonwell delivers a lot more when I’m in the mood for a good Chinese green.

Smooth enough, but turned on me after I came in from a smoke.

The aroma of this tea was encouraging, but like the other vanilla greens I’ve tried, this one was really let down by the flavour. The taste was smooth, but barely there. The hunt continues…

I tried this tea for the first time this afternoon. It was lovely.

I often find breakfast teas a little heavier than most, a little intense, very full-bodied flavour. This was different. It was a black tea, and I had it quite milky with honey. It was quite sweet, quite soft, and I found it a very contemplative tea. The more I drank, the more I daydreamed. Maybe I just had my head in the clouds to begin with, but I adored this tea.

I think I’ll go back and buy it. I loved the finish, I thought it had a very distinct flavour, and was pleased that it didn’t have an overpowering aftertaste. I’d drink this tea any time.

I had Cherry Ripe tea with a very good friend of mine today.

And while I’m not a fan of the chocolate bar, I loved the sound of the flavours and notes in this tea. Firstly, smell this tea before you drink it. It has the most wonderful scent. Some comments on the company’s website are reading like it smells much better than it tastes, but I can’t say I agree.

I could taste the coconut, with undertones of chocolate and the sharpness of the cranberry. The overall colour was a lovely apricot/gold and the flavours were all well-balanced and none overpowered the other. If I had one criticism it would be that it was easy to tell it was a flavoured black tea, but considering that was what I ordered it’s hardly a critique.

I like this tea. Coconut is one of my favourite flavours to have in a black tea so I’ll keep it in mind when ordering or purchasing again.

I was looking to buy T2’s toasty warm oolong but they are sold out everywhere and the sales people seem to be confused about whether it has been discontinued or not. This is a nice alternative, the oolong base is more on the green side than the T2 version which is nice but I’d prefer it without the addition of flowers.

I had this in store so only had the one steeping. I’m interested to see how the flavour might change with multiple brews.

So I…lifted as much information as I could about this tea from the company’s website but because they change their teas and suppliers fairly regularly, this is as much as I could gather.

This tea looked lovely as it flowered, with a distinctive olive green and a splash of red in the centre, it was a lovely experience to watch it bloom. The waitress described this tea as a ‘soft jasmine.’ Soft indeed. I was quite disappointed with this tea, but perhaps I haven’t had enough jasmine tea? It…had a taste, but often the notes and flavour was quickly lost.

It was warm, and delicate and lovely to drink it out of a glass, but overall a little underwhelming. It wasn’t the worst tea I’ve had, and I would drink it again if offered it. I’m a little on the fence about this tea, though. Maybe I should try again? I would like to. This tea is soft, and delicate, and maybe I just didn’t approach it in the right way? I expected something totally different. I think I’ll try more jasmine teas and return to this tea later.

It has a certain soft, ethereal quality, and I’ll focus on that when I next drink it.

EDIT: My expectations for this tea was based on the fact that it reminded both my friend and I of Percy Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias. It’s difficult to correlate the imagery of the poem (sand, heat, the desert) with such a mellow, subtle jasmine blend. But I’m willing to try again.

I had this with my lovely, darling friend this afternoon.

It was a nice chai. I feel I’ve certainly had better, but it had the distinct chai taste and was high quality. The cinnamon and ginger make it a little bit spicy, and the rose petals add something slightly more fragrant. I just feel that I’ve had better chais before, I think you can add many flavours into a chai blend and have it still totally balanced. That’s one of the great things about chai tea.

It’s not my favourite, but that being said, if it was offered I would happily drink it. It’s a lovely basic chai, and it’s also possible my friend and I didn’t prepare and brew it as we were supposed to. (The instructions are quite specific on the company’s page, but we had no idea.) As always I had this chai with milk and honey, and let it brew for five minutes. I was happy with this chai – it’s simple, fragrant and strong.

A lovely mild white tea. I brewed with tap water this time around and the earthy flavour of my water overpowered the tea a bit. I much prefer it made on filtered water.

I was trying to brew this to get a tiny bit more astringency out of it. I upped the temperature by 5C and steep time by 30 seconds and I’m sipping a completely different drink!

I got more astringency than I bargained for, less sweetness and a fuller bodied almost malty flavour. Overall the flavours are much flatter than my previous brew and astringent enough that if I don’t chug it down while still very hot, I’m not going to enjoy it as it cools. Next time I’ll stick to 85C and try 3 minutes.

It just goes to show how temperamental some teas can be.

Finally have this one at home. I’m not great and describing the more subtle tasting notes in tea but this is hands down my favourite tea right now. It is smooth and sweet in the mouth with that musky 2nd flush darjeeling taste.

The slight smokiness that I experienced last time is gone and I wonder if the cafe hadn’t quite washed out the pot after some russian caravan. I like it even more on this tasting so never mind :)

I know that 1st flush darjeelings command a higher price and more prestige but I haven’t come across one that I like more than this. I do have a new one in my cupboard to try later this week so we’ll see.

A really wonderful darjeeling with an almost smoky taste. I ordered off the menu in the cafe so don’t know the brewing specifics of this tasting but will experiment at home soon.

This was a favourite off the tea menu in the cafe so when I saw it was being discontinued I snapped up a few packets. Unfortunately for me I am now at the very end of my stash.

It has a really wonderful fresh flavour, a little fruity and not too astringent. I’m sad that it is gone but am really looking forward to exploring other Darjeelings now.

This tea seemed really exciting on paper – Siberian ginseng, liquorice, peppermint and spearmint (I love those herbs) rose petals, and some other things I had never heard of before. The rose petals added hints of pink that made it look lovely while it was brewing, and it smelled delicious, but on trying it I was sorely disappointed.

It had an odd twang to it and an even stranger aftertaste. It tasted almost like steeped dishwater, and while it was drinkable I didn’t enjoy it. Perhaps it was because my friend and didn’t brew it for as long as we should have (it does have a longer brewing time) but I was sad that I really couldn’t taste the peppermint or spearmint, and those are two of my favourite ingredients to any herbal tea.

Looking at other reviews on the company website, I can tell you that this is purely just a matter of personal taste, but on top of that I didn’t feel any of the benefits the tea promised. I didn’t quite understand the tea, I couldn’t quite follow its notes and flavours and I felt no better for having tried it.

When you try it make sure you have it without milk, and I wish you the best of luck when you do!

I tried this tea for the first time today, and felt that it was lovely. While it’s not a very complex tea, it is toasty and tasty. I brewed it for four minutes and was satisfied with the result. The only criticism I have is that it smells so much stronger than the final product.

However, I feel like the safflowers add another layer and they look lovely and in the loose-leaf mixture. The overall colour is gorgeous, and the smell of it brewing is charming, whimsical and sweet.

I reordered this since my last review because I found myself craving it but I am less enthused this time around. I am still enjoying it but this batch is sweeter and less tart. I keep longing for the sourness of my last packet.

Maybe I just scooped up too many of the sweet caramel lumpy things in this steeping.

For me this is a bit of an odd one, it is delicious but I never seem to reach for it. The apple component is tart which is a nice change from very sweet fruit flavoured teas and tastes great with the cinnamon.

I’m not sure how to feel about this tea. I find the orange and cinnamon didn’t balance and gave the body a strange substance. I’m generally a fan of these types of flavours, and was looking forward to trying it. Perhaps I’ve misinterpreted it, and while it was spiced and definitely had a flavour I felt a little lost when I drank this tea.

There were notes, but they were obscured by an imbalance of flavours, however, reading other reviews on it on the Tea Centre website I feel like this tea is probably not a personal favourite of mine. Don’t let this review put you off, I just thought I’d add my two cents.

This is a great coconut tea with a good, steady black tea base. Its ingredients look a little underwhelming, especially when some mixes can contain fruit pieces, flowers, spices and flavouring – but I can promise you if you try this tea you won’t regret it.

It blends very nicely with milk and provides an interesting twist on the typical cup of tea. The aroma of this tea while brewing is delicious, and its taste is unmistakable.

This tea is lovely, toasty and evokes images and scents of a more ‘classic’ Christmas. The cloves and almonds definitely give it body. It has distinct fruity notes with the orange and apple pieces but because it’s quite strong you really don’t need to brew it for more than three minutes.

It’s quite spicy and has a hint of marzipan, making it a wonderful wintery blend.

Had this with a very good friend of mine the other day. It was a very warm tea, with vanilla and rose undertones. It had a lovely dark crimson colour and a delicious rose aroma as well. It is certainly a dessert tea, or an afternoon tea, but the overall character is very cosy and relaxed.

I had it with honey, but the tea is quite sweet enough on its own.

I liked this tea, but felt that it lacked body. I loved the vanilla and apricot undertones – maybe I should have brewed it for longer…but I felt that it was warm, inviting and comforting.

I did have this tea black with honey, and still felt that it lacked solidity and structure, but I know it’s a very popular tea and with some tweaking could be a lovely blend.

Lovely tea, lovely flavour but sometimes it has a tendency to be over-powering or easily become bitter, however its cosy caramel and cinnamon palette can definitely be recommended. I would certainly sweeten this tea with something like honey or sugar, purely because its black base can be tart.

Don’t brew this tea for too long, 3-5 minutes and you should avoid the problems of an overly-potent black base and bitter-almond aftertaste.