Organic Assam

Until last night, I had forgotten just how many samples of tea from Harney & Sons I had lying around the house. I knew that I had several, I just didn’t realize how many. I also somehow acquired more samples of this tea than any other. I made it my breakfast tea this morning.

I brewed this tea in sachet form. Again, I’m guessing that there was about one teaspoon of tea in there. I brewed this tea for 5 minutes in 8 ounces of 212 F water. I did not attempt additional infusions.

After infusion, the liquor showed a relatively dark amber in the cup. It was neither as dark nor as murky as some Assam teas I have tried in the past. On the nose, I picked up pleasant aromas of cream, roasted nuts, malt, leather, caramel, toffee, and molasses. In the mouth, I noted delicate notes of cream, roasted nuts, toast, leather, caramel, toffee, molasses, malt, and cocoa. The finish seemed to emphasize toast, cream, roasted nut, and caramel notes, though I also noted a slight astringency that became pronounced on the back of the throat.

I’m kind of surprised, but I really liked this Assam more than expected. It is a very basic tea, but it is also not nearly as harsh as some of the other Assam teas I have tried. For me, Assam is one of those things that I really enjoy, but I have to be in the mood for it. Sometimes it’s a little sharp and sometimes it’s a little bland. This tea falls between those two extremes. I found it very approachable.

Definitely a darker note to this tea. A little malty or earthy. Good for starting the day off with a mild kick.

Tea of the morning, I didn’t get to make anything before I left the house this morning. Thankfully I had this on hand at work. Not much to say about it. It’s good and it certainly wakes me up. But it was hard to place any distinct flavors in this one.

It’s a rainy weekend here in the Old Dominion. Rainy weekends call for cozy teas, and man oh man this is one cozy tea! I’m watching an old Jimmy Stewart movie on Turner Classics and sipping this. It’s very smooth with lots of natural sweetness. Lovely notes of caramel, honey and burnt sugar. Nice and malty. No rough edges whatsoever. I love that it’s organic too!

For the St. Patty’s day free shipping deal I picked up a few sample packs I had been eyeing for awhile. I figured it was a good way to get these without conning myself into ordering more tea. This is one of the free samples that Harney and Sons threw in for me to try. This is a no fuss, good cup of Assam. Nothing fancy about it. It hits some of the usual notes, malty and a tad fruity. This cup seems to add just the right about of astringency to make you remember you are drinking a strong cup. Well done! I would be interested in trying this in loose form at some point.

Another of the samples from Harney and Sons. Wow. I’m blown away. I’m still fairly new to tea, and this is the first time I’ve had loose, unflavored, unblended Assam. I was expecting glorified Lipton, if I’m to be quite honest. But instead I got rich burnt sugar, like molasses rich, with the slightest astringency so the taste sticks in my mouth. I may never drink my beloved twinings breakfast blends again. I love this so much.

I just have a couple of samples left to try from my Harney & Sons order, and this is one of them! I’ve been becoming more and more interested in both Assam and Ceylon teas since I tried some really yummy examples. So here’s another Assam for me to sample! First off, the leaves look like they were small to begin with, and they’re also very broken. Dry scent is amazingly rich honey along with some malt. I was originally going to steep this for 3 minutes, but I went to check on it early and saw that it was quite dark already, so I took it out at 2.5 minutes instead.

The steeped tea smells malty and sweet with some raisin and a touch of honey. Wow, I’m glad I didn’t let this steep longer. It definitely has that Assam-like intensity that borders on bitterness but isn’t quite the same. The dried fruit aspect is fairly strong with this tea, which is nice. Sadly, I don’t really taste much honey, especially given how strong the dry scent was. Otherwise it’s just strong on the malt and a touch astringent. A perfectly nice Assam, but I think I would’ve appreciated it more if I hadn’t smelled the dry tea first! :P

I’m in Vegas for a few days, and it was handy that I had this tea in sachets to grab and stuff into my carry-on. I got to my first Starbucks and just ordered a $.54 cup of hot water…. And got the best drink I’ve had in a Starbucks cup ever! It actually tasted like tea leaves! Life away from home is different, so I don’t ever expect a good cup of tea… I expect reasonable. These Harney sachets are good…. Not fabulous, but good. A bit malty, a bit loamy… Just good. Good to travel with, good to rely on for a good cup of tea. I will keep these stashed in my cupboard for exactly this reason.

1 pyramid sachet for 300mL water @100C, steeped five minutes, drunk bare.

I got this as a sample with my Harney & Sons order some months ago and just found it while tidying my tea cupboard.

A juicy Assam, but light in body: no heft, and not very much malt. I thought the liquor looked pale as it steeped, so I went five minutes, which might have been a mistake: the tea is bitter. It’s okay. It’s not an Assam I’d go out of my way to order, though.

Good, good, good. Not one of my top picks, but it has a nice flavor. It is one we go back to every now and again.