The Tea House - Covent Garden

This is my go-to in my house for making something for some one who is sick (like head cold). Essentially, it is an herbal spice blend but less christmas-y. (Ingredients are: Cinnamon Pieces, Licorice Root, Ginger Pieces, Fennel, Orange Peel, Cardamom pods) I add honey, and Oatly to make the latte. My current stash is probably way old now but it does a pretty good job for a chai still. I looked on the website where I got this tea and luckily they still are around and making this blend. Though, I need to sipdown the rest of my chai blends before I spend the money to ship from the UK to US.

Preparation: Latte
Tasting Note: It is really, really warming. The licorice root provides a little sweetness, the cinnamon and cardamom warmth and ginger and provides some spice. I don’t drink this straight normally based on personal preferences.

This is one of those teas I buy on an impulse, and then store away, to discover quite a while later, grr.
A shame and often a waste of money, but here, I have the impression that the loose tea has maintained its quality better than in other cases. Without any temperature indication on the pouch, I brew a heaped teaspoon of tea at 80ºC, and after 2 minutes it turns out really nicely.
A lot of taste for a white tea (also quite rich in colour), with even a smoky hint, but also a sweet touch to it, very well balanced. In short, a white tea I can really enjoy on its own.

This is a really weird Genmaicha to me.

It has a bit hole in the back of the throat. You’ve got taste and textures around the cheeks and tongue and towards the round back of your mouth but right up in the back of the throat where there is usually a lot of taste or finish this one gives a mental impression of a hole in the flavor wall.

I doubt I’m being clear here.

Let’s just say there’s a noticeable nothing on the back of my throat with this one so far.

The rice has a dark tone than averagely found. It’s more mid or forward tongue and a mahogany-without-the-red color taste of roasted instead of the brighter colored toasted tastes you find in genmaichas. It gives you a weird pause as it hits sort of heavy.

Not bad, just unexpected and unusual.

The green is more the tip of the tongue and sides of the mouth. Sort of a pond-algae color and flavor, both… trailing to darker in the cheeks.

The tea gives a watery pool feel below the tongue but doesn’t give off an astringent tang to cause it.

I get a minor pressure touch to the center inside of my bottom lip as texture while the overall mouth feel is fairly large, round, and grainy. Not a clearer mental image than that.

Light golden sweetness around the outer gums on the sides of the mouth.

It fades slowly into a sort of sharper sweet-tarts plant greenness taste in the front of the mouth and darker more dense green color through the rest of the mouth as it’s finish.

That hole at the back after several swallows is still there but a very faint finish of toasted scent is noticed when focused on.

It’s yummy but weird.

- Added a little later:
As the tea cools further the green flavor becomes stronger and sharper, filling more of the overall.

This, my friends, is a gulpable by accident one. As in, “wow, I like the taste of this enough it causes lack of pause”.

It is very smooth, a fair bit smoky without being intense, more than. Medium. Mouth feel, a slight hay sweetness.

The flavour is soft golden I’d say. Wow like this one.

A lot of body and taste for a white still maintaining that slight feeling of delicacy.

My measurements on grams to. Water are rough due to on the go life.

Despite being both single estate and TGFOP1 this tea is cheaper than standard Fortnum and Mason Assam… Oh, well. I’m having it with milk-and-sugar today, so I won’t rate it yet, just note that it’s a pleasant tea that isn’t aggressive enough to hold out against milk-and-sugar.

The Tea House – Covent Garden are experts in fairly priced decent (and slightly better sometimes) tea, and this is no different. The blurb is a little hmm… but otherwise this is a good, everyday Keemun for a good, everyday price. No sweetening needed, as it isn’t astringent, and it has a slightly woody taste to it that adds a little interest to the brew. Large, mature leaves with nary a bud, but again, for the price and the taste you couldn’t expect much more.
It’s raining here today (enough of a rarity still to get everyone’s attention), so this tea was a just the thing.

Queued post, written April 29th 2014

I got this one out of one of the EU TTBs, although I must admit I cannot remember which round it was. It was with equal parts trepidition and curiosity that I took some of it.

Once upon a time I had an orange blossom oolong which was utterly delightful. I can’t remember which company it was from, but I believe it may have been Shang Tea. Last year I thought I wanted one again and while I was shopping with Jenier I noticed they had one, so in the basket it went. Unfortunately that was an all round disappointing experience as it turned out to have a lot of jasmine in it and next to no actual orange blossoms of any sort. I can’t abide jasmine. It’s like drinking perfume. I’m sure I must have looked this one up before taking some of it, so I feel confident that it doesn’t say anything about jasmine.

Still, though. It might be stealth jasmine.

Steepsterites, I am traumatised by previous experiences with stealth jasmine! It’s not as bad as stealth hibiscus, but it’s up there!

It smells floral and vaguely citrus-y. Good! Nothing here that makes me think of jasmine. I can also pick up some of the base which seems to have a cocoa-y note to it. I think that suits the orange blossoms quite well.

Hooray! No stealth jasmine! No obvious jasmine either! Instead, something floral and citrus-y on a clear dark oolong base. This is not a tea which has been doused in perfume and flowers. It’s scented, not flavoured, it feels like, and I feel like I’m first and foremost drinking a dark, relatively strong and quite cocoa-y oolong. A Wuyi one, perhaps? It doesn’t say, so I can’t know for certain, but it strikes me as one (in my quite limited oolong experience).

I find with a tea like this it’s important to be aware of what you’re drinking. If you expect something orange-flavoured, you’re going to be disappointed. Because it isn’t. It’s not orange. It never has been orange, it never will be orange. It’s orange blossom and that’s not at all the same thing. Scented, not flavoured, and first and foremost it’s the oolong rather than the flowers. It’s a common mistake to make, which is why I’m pointing it out. I’ve done it before myself. It’s probably wrong of me to refer to the oolong as the ‘base’ at all, really.

This is not on par with the memory I have of that by now nearly legendary orange blossom oolong of yore which may of may not have been a Shang, but to be honest, it’s possible that I’ve built that one up in my mind to such a degree at this point that even if I had the very same one tomorrow, it would not be as good as I remembered. On its own terms however, this is a very pleasant tea indeed.

I really enjoyed the apple flavor in this tea. It was simple and fruity, and it was sweet without being candy-like sweet. This was a fun tea to have in my cupboard, but I’m happy to be able to call this a sipdown.

September Sipdowns: 19

I took this tea with me while I ran errands this evening. I over steeped it, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as last time, but it was still a drinkable cup. Most of the apple flavor was lost, but what was there was tasty.

from HHTTB2

I like this one. It’s nice and sweet with a good apple flavor. The base tea is unremarkable, but that’s ok. The nice apple taste makes this one worth sipping.

At the request of a coworker we had this builder’s brew today. A powerful tea which I can drink only with milk and sugar, as it is so strong. A decent morning brew.

Another busy morning at work, so when I had a breather, I brewed a super strong cup of this and had it with milk and sugar. I needed a morning kick, and this tea delivers.
It also has the added effect of reminding me of the cute Tea House Covent Garden shop.

A powerful Assam blend to kickstart the day with :)
Had this with milk and sugar, and it was very tasty. The Tea House Covent Garden is one of the tea stores that I always visit in London, and I don’t intend to skip them this year too.
I wish there was a store like that here – decent tea and decent prices. Not the highest echelon of tea, but not garbage either. Just nice everyday companions that don’t break the bank and don’t taste like mud.

A colleague asked me to brew this, when we were mussing over which tea would do best for our mid morning brew. He has a penchant for strong teas, particularly Assams, and so the choice was not surprising. A strong, heady tea, with a great bass of a maltiness, this tea promises and delivers a is a heady kick of caffeine to the hiney :)

A big bold assam blend that was dirt cheap, and yet is pretty good. Drank it plain, and made four cups easily out of one tsp. Malty, slightly spicy, well in the strong range of teas.

A good, solid Assam, at a very good price. This isn’t a “knock your socks off” Assam, but it’s a good tea nonetheless. Had it plain, and it stood to the test.

A number of years ago, me and some friends climbed the foothills of Mount Juktas, all the way up to Anemospilia. Ancient Minoan temple, human sacrifice, high priestesses – you know the drill. The weather was insane – Crete in January is rarely delightful weather wise, but this was a year of unprecedented winter storms. We were soaked just stepping out of the car and the hill was a muddy mess, but we got to the top eventually. It was maddeningly beautiful, of course. Sacred sites are best experienced like that; rain pouring, wind howling.

But hey, even the most intrepid explorers need lunch, so after carefully considering the layout of the bones and artifacts and contesting most of the conclusions drawn by former archaeologists (that’s how you’re supposed to do it) we left and eventually ended up at this tiny restaurant in an equally tiny village. We were very wet and very hungry. There was no menu, but we asked for whatever they had, which turned out to be bread, and olives, and this cheese I’ll never forget, and some other things that are even more beside the point, and then these little deep-fried fish.

Being Scandinavian, I’ve eaten various fish in the most horrifying preparations you could possibly dream up, but it just never occurred to me that you’d actually eat the whole thing. I always left the little tail end and the head. It just seemed more polite to the fish, you know? But then my friend turned to me, and said, ‘But the head is the best part!’ And she was right. And since that day, I always eat the whole thing of whatever is served, unless I’m expressly told otherwise.

This is just a very roundabout way of saying that I’m not very squeamish… and that this tea tastes exactly like small, deep-fried fish. And their heads. It smells like it too. I quite enjoy both the scent and the flavour, but it’s very confusing to experience it in liquid form, and not accompanied by the crunchiness I’m used to.

To me, there is nothing even remotely resembling orange in this cup; it’s a sipful of charcoaly, deep-fried sea creature. Even if it’s not for me, I have to say how I love the surprises some of these swap teas have given me – it’s been an unexpected treat not having the smallest clue what to expect from the brew.

Thanks to whoever shared this!

[Sample from the EU Travelling Box, autumn 2013.]

Yellow teas are a rarity in my cupboard, and in the shops that I normally buy tea in, so when I saw this in The Tea House, Covent Garden, London on my latest visit there, of course I had to snag a 50g packet. The leaves are whole, and huge, and need weighing, to know just how much to use. I brewed it at 70C, as I would a white tea, and the black, light green, yellow, brown leaves opened with a flourish. This tea tastes like a sweet, slightly smokey sheng, with fruit tinges (apricot, a little grape) that round off each sip. The yellow liquid of the tea matches the tea’s name, and makes for a nice evening cup. An interesting experience, which I will likely repeat.

Tea #35 from HHTTB2

Even though this is labelled Sweet Apple it still ended up being sweeter than I was expecting. The first sip made me grimace a bit (more of surprise than distaste), as the sip started as a pretty typical flavored black tea with light apple flavor then I suddenly wind end up with apple juice sweetness in the back of my throat.

Other then the initial surprise sweetness, this is an okay apple tea. The black base is unobtrusive, but unremarkable in flavor. It holds the cup together well. And the apples remind me of mushy baked apples, which, while not my thing, might be awesome for someone else. I need some clove and cinnamon when apples are played like this.

This is becoming an office favourite (in place of my F&M Keemun, that has run out and I haven’t had time to replace), with a fruity sparkly presence that reminds me of a bubbly, bouncy young woman. This tea can actually stand milk, but it really mutes it down, and that’s a shame. Not a tea for relaxing, but a tea for getting up and hugging people and doing great good things in the world.

Got the guys in the office to try white tea for the first time. Win! This is a rather strong flavoured Bai Mu Dan, with a pronounced cucumber taste that is very refreshing and makes me want to cold brew it. It brews a light golden green, and is a great introduction to white teas. Naturally sweet and requires no sweetener (and milk will absolutely kill it). Yum

Sipdown! I’ve been drinking this most of the morning and it’s pretty tasty and convenient! Smoky, earthy and strong with some sweet notes – over all a good cup to start the morning…that was sooo long ago!

sipdown! this is a pretty tasty yellow tea. It’s not overly strong. I wish there was a bit more sweetness to it, but it’s not too bad. There’s a bit of fruitiness to this that is nice, though as the sup cools, that blends into the background of things.

YAY! 200! now to get a few more in to account for the verdant blends i’ll be getting in a couple weeks.

sipdown! though apparently i forgot to add this one to my cupboard. This is a pretty decent black tea that i’m happy to try. It sounds like i really need to visit london…SOON!