Fortnum & Mason Advent Calendar 2021 – Day 4
I feel like a lot of tea companies don’t seem to put much thought into the order of the teas in their advent calendars. Take this one, for instance – four black teas in a row, three of which were breakfast-type blends. I know there are plenty of flavored and other types of tea in this advent, so why so much repetition? And B&B had a similar issue for me, with herbal tisanes for the first three days. Anyway, it’s odd.
This is a pleasant enough tea. It’s Assam, which I prefer over Ceylon generally, so it doesn’t taste like Lipton to me. But it is fairly generic. There’s a nice maltiness of course, just a hint of raisin. Not much else though, making it a rather boring cuppa. Some astringency on the tail end, but nothing extreme. Then again, I did keep the steep quite short.
Added a healthy drizzle of extra creamy oat milk to the second half, which smooths it out a bit. Still, nothing to write home about. In fact it might be my least favorite so far?
Flavors: Dry Leaves, Malt, Raisins, Tannic