St. Petersburg

So I work Friday nights, every week, for 4 hours. Just me, my manager, and a yoga teacher. So we decided to start something new. Tea parties!
Yep, last night we brought in some of our favs, a teapot and some bubble teacups. And drank tea all night :) Ah yes. So I swapped some teas with her and came home with this Kusmi blend. I’ve been so excited to try Kusmi!

Ooh I’m enjoying it! On first scent it smelled like a fancy Earl Grey but despite my un-fondness of Earl Grey this one’s yummy. It’s not overwhelmingly bergamot-y.

And she gave me the rest of her tin of this – so a pretty tin and a yummy tea! I’m so lucky! Good day :)

Update February 22/13: Having this one this morning before my day begins. This is my first cup of black tea in a while. Yum! But that’s my last cup of this one, does that mean sipdown? Now I just need to find some Prince Vladimir.

Still more from Nicole. Thank you! I feel like I have a decent handle on Kusmi’s general approach and that will help me a lot when I place an order this fall with them (there was a Groupon-y voucher thing for them a while back and I ordered it, so it’s just a matter of deciding what to use it on at some point within a year).

The smell of this one brewing (EDIT: and the finished taste!) is kind of blowing my mind in that it’s evoking the vividest memories, like Proustian level, of being a little girl playing up in my attic playroom all afternoon before supper—something about the smell, I think it’s the vanilla mixed with berry/general fruitiness, and some nebulous flowery element, that particular combination reminds me of the smell of My Little Ponies, scratch n sniff stickers, and scented Strawberry Shortcake figurines from the ‘80s. Complete with that little bit of a plastic element (sounds offputting but isn’t somehow). Wow.

I paid altogether too much for a Kusmi sample set simply because it was the second time I’d run into one in a week. I’m surprised my willpower stuck with me that first time, and it certainly didn’t this time. The tins are so beautiful! Pretty packaging always gets me.

This is one I really wanted to try. It sounded delightful, even though there’s a lot going on. The tea is crisp and bright and there is that red berry flavour off the top, subtle caramel sweetness at the end, and a little citrus throughout. It feels very summery. Fitting, since a carnival suddenly set up shop and closed down a large chunk of my street with no explanation this weekend. It’s been a weird set of sounds to have in the background for the past few days. And it’s disorienting leaving your building and seeing a bouncy castle. Okay, I’ve just looked it up and I think this was Taste of Little Italy? I was certainly fooled as I saw no delicious food, only carnival games and a train ride. I should’ve walked further west.

Kusmi sampler 2/5 St. Petersburg
With caramel, red fruit and bergamot I am enjoying this quite a lot this morning. It is more mellow and less perfumey, citrusy than the Prince Vladimir of yesterday. Caramel gives it a slightly sweet note. Yes, there is berry here but very subtle. Again, lots of bergamot is not really my favorite thing but the blend here is really quite nice… mmm. I could get used to this! Really quite a nice way to wake up…

Another sample courtesy of the lovely High Adventure
The dry leaf smelled like…candy?
Once brewed it comes off more fruity in smell.
Taste is bright and fruity.
It really reminds me of summertime!
I wonder how it would taste cold brewed?
But, right now, I am enjoying this hot on this bright June morn.

Smooth and easily recognized caramel flavor, complemented/sophisticated by the pitch-perfect level of bergamot, which is subtle. I’d prefer more depth of flavor, but it is a nice, easily drinkable tea. Astringent on the finish. Thanks to Crystal for tossing this into the swap!

Finishing up the rest of this sample! Bright and fruity, with sweet caramel. Not picking up any vanilla today. Would possibly consider getting this myself… Although I’d like to try every last Kusmi Russian blend I can get my hands on, first.

Kusmi’s St Petersburg reminds me on some sips of a monks blend with its mix of vanilla, from the caramel, and red fruit, but as I drink further on you get a more dominant tang and a hint of floral from the bergamot.

The caramel is buttery and creamy with a hint of vanilla and I can see why people love Kusmi’s Caramel tea. Later on in the cup, I smell the red fruit more than I taste it. There are hints of cherry and currant and blackberry.

The base is quiet and unassuming, it is quite smoooth and sweet but it doesn’t seem to have a great deal of complexity. There is a touch of bitterness that adds a bit of depth to the tea but otherwise is fairly thin. The flavour of this tea is fairly subtle it is not strongly sweet or creamy.

The second and third steeps are more bergamot and red fruit, with the caramel fading and the bergamot leaving a tingling on the tongue and it tastes at times slightly metallic.

The kusmi tins are certainly useful and fairly beautiful and the tea comes wrapped in folded plastic inside with a nice presentation.

This is a pleasant tea that makes a nice afternoon tea especially for those who may appreciate a lighter bergamot earl grey with deeper fruit tones. I think I still prefer a tea that has a stronger more flavourful base underneath it.

Had some of this while watching tv tonight. I love just sipping this tea everytime I have it because it’s like having a liquid hug. And since nights are getting colder, I could use a few more hugs.

Still an old favorite of mine. I had bought it blind from Kusmi, and didn’t regret it. I do love bergamot. I find it interesting how I’m just noticing now how similar this is to Harney and Son’s Paris tea, which I also love. I will have to do a taste test sometime. At the very least a sniff test, once my sick little nose is back to operating at 100%.