Tsarevna

AJRimmer Advent Day 21

To be honest, I drank this in a hurry on my way out the door this morning. It came across as a pretty basic chai blend…enjoyable, but not memorable.

1 sachet for 250mL water 90C steeped 4 minutes, drunk bare.

So I had one lone little sachet of Tsarevna as a free sample in a recent Kusmi order. Ho hum, I thought, another spiced black tea, probably just some stale cinnamon. Another spiced black tea with orange — Stash is hard to beat there. Another chai wannabe that just fails. Another …

Then I opened the sachet.

Somehow, Tsarevna smells like no other orange spiced black tea I’ve ever had.

The licorice is really good here, subtle (for liquorice) and playing support for the other flavours: sweet, sweet oranges with no bitter pith, really warm cinnamon, and some cardamom.

It’s not a chai. It’s not an orange spiced tea. It’s entirely itself.

The tea base is light and not at all tannic, light-bodied, no bitterness or astringency, so I’m gonna guess it’s a China black tea. And that’s just fine, because the tea plays well with the orange and spices, and, most amazingly, neither dominates the other.

Impressed.

Finally finishing the last tea from last year’s advent calendars, just in time for the new season to start. This was a mini tin, but I ended up sharing all but the last serving. This smells really good, but the chai flavors didn’t turn out quite as strong as I had hoped. I can’t tell exactly what spices I taste since they’re a bit subtle. It’s okay, but I expected more.

Heavy spices with a hint of orange. Definitely something I need to be in a very particular mood to want to steep up, but on this particular very snowy and cold afternoon it was exactly the cozy spiced cuppa I needed.

Kusmi Advent Day 24

Overall, I wasn’t a huge fan of the Kusmi advent and I don’t think I’d get it in future years. I didn’t find any of the blends that exciting, and there were none that I would repurchase. The advent was lovely, though and I enjoyed the cute little tins.

As for this blend. Another ‘meh’ for me. I’m mainly getting licorice and cinnamon. Not something I need more of.

Kusmi Advent Calendar – Day 24

Ooh, an adorable little mini tin of this today! And the design is so cute, it matches the advent calendar – teal with gold foil accents. The dry leaf smells surprisingly fruity given it’s mostly a spice tea.

It’s pretty good. I do get the orange, though I feel like I’m tasting other fruits as well (none are listed). It’s a nice sweet orange, which is a pleasant change-up from most orange spice teas. It almost reminds me of those yummy orange slice gummies that are covered in sugar. There’s a soft anise note here as well, along with ginger, cinnamon, and clove. I really like that the clove isn’t the strongest spice, as I’m really bored of the whole “orange & clove” flavor profile. It’s a little Juicy Fruit-y, but I think that’s just a flavor that I tend to find when orange is combined with ginger…

As far as the Kusmi advent overall, it was definitely the prettiest of the bunch, with a lovely soft touch finish. I loved the detail of how the sachets were in perfectly-sized little recesses, with a raised border around them. I will say I was a bit disappointed in the selection, there were a few too many fruit tisanes, which I don’t think is representative of Kusmi’s offerings as a whole. And only Anastasia and White Anastasia for Russian blends! Where’s the St. Petersburg?! Anyway, the teas were certainly high quality, and the colorful wrappers put a smile on my face in the morning. I found the $45 price somewhat reasonable, especially with the two mini-tins.

(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJMA9FugSnn/)

Advent Day 24

Mini tin! Yay! I’m glad this was included in the advent. I had been wanting to try it. It has a really rich caramel scent. Spiced orange dominates the sip. Lots of clove and cardamom. This is pretty nice. It’s well rounded, flavorful, interesting and I get to have more cups of this because mini tin! The tin has the same pretty shades of teal that the advent has.

I’ve only had a few Kusmi teas before. Sweet Love was a really tasty chai and there was another smoky tea that I enjoyed. I was really hoping to get to try a wide variety of their blends in this advent and get a better ides of the company’s style, but I don’t feel like it was well represented. It felt like they were pushing the Lov brand blends a bit and I was hoping for more of their classics. The hibiscus really killed several days for me too. The packaging was gorgeous, there were two mini tins and a couple of tea accessories that someone new to tea would find useful. Overall it was a decent value and a fun experience.

Another tea from exchange meeting – and exchanged this one. So, I do not know how old it could be. Hopefully, not so much, but when it is wrapped in foil, I hope it would not be bad.

When brewed, it smells nice. Mostly orange zest and bit of spices. In taste t is similar, but I expected much more pronounced spices. It was like earl grey, but with quite weak base black tea and little bit of spices. Nothing very distinctive. I expected much more stronger tastes. But overall it was nice, mellow tea..

First thought: Smells nice. Second thought: There are a lot of tiny crumbly bits in this, couldn’t Kusmi have used something a little closer to whole leaf tea? … Okay, I managed not to get any of those in my teacup, that’s a good thing(I made a whole pot of it). Now, the taste. Orange is there, also licorice and anise, but where are the ginger and cinnamon? … Ah, there they are. Just barely. It seems like Kusmi made a chai that needs some extra spices ??

Spicy, very aromatic. Owerpowering. Spicy chai and orange. Cardemmom, cloves, less cinamon. Black tea. Very smooth blend, very cozy. Milk and sugars are a must – Treat it like a chai.