Experience buying from Harney & Sons http://steepster.com/places/2779-harney-and-sons-online-millerton-new-york
Date of Purchase/Date of Steeping: Bought sample in December 2011; brewed up late-May 2012.
Appearance and Aroma of dry leaf: strong, wonderfully fruity smell (similar to a Darjeeling?) with a hint of a roasted aroma; small, beautifully curled light and dark brown leaves (similar to a quality Yunnan).
Brewing guidelines: almost 5 full TSP tea for 4 cups water; loose in my new ceramic four-cup teapot; stevia added; I used my standard Chinese red tea steeping times and temperatures, steeped five times.
Color and Aroma of tea liquor: Beautiful, clear dark-red color with a faint malty aroma.
Flavor of tea liquor: Good! Similar to an Assam—it was clearly malty—but with a definite Chinese red tea flavor profile (somewhat like a Yunnan, possibly in its sweetness?). Good flavor up through the third steeping, some on the forth, with just a hint of flavor on the fifth.
Appearance and Aroma of wet leaf: A few largish-looking stems but few broken pieces and plenty of nice buds in the wet leaf; I smelled it just after the first steeping and it had a wonderfully sweet aroma.
Value: $3 for the sample, but otherwise $22 / 3OZ. This is clearly a quality tea, but that price-tag is too steep for me (as in, expensive, that is); there are to be plenty of other teashops that carry quality Chinese red teas for a price better than $7/OZ (but maybe none with precisely this kind of flavor profile, hmm?).
Overall: I spontaneously brewed up this sample today, it being the last in the bunch I bought from H&S toward the end of last year. On a side note: having now had about ten Teas from H&S I have to say I am impressed with their offerings such that every Tea (NOT including their tizanes) I have tried has been of commendable quality. As I mentioned in Value this is clearly a quality Chinese red tea. Strangely enough in color and flavor this tea somewhat reminds me of a red ale I helped to home-brew just a few days ago; I like that. I am not willing to pay the normal price for this tea, but still, I’m glad I had a chance to experience it.
Preparation
Comments
Yes, very interesting indeed to discover a tea that reminds me of beer (in more ways than one).
I asked the friend I brew with what the difference is between a red ale and a standard ale, and he said some of the grains are roasted (there were a total of five different grains for the red ale we just brewed up and he said two of those were roasted) and thus a little darker in color (and it must do something to the flavor also, although other than supposing it is more ‘roasted’, I can’t really say). I hope you don’t mind the brief blurb there about beer-making!
no no I find it fascinating!! Did you put alot of hops and barley in there? (I’m allergic to hops, kindof)
I’m glad you find it fascinating.
I don’t remember seeing any barley on the ingredients list (the grains come in one really big bag), but there were three different packets of hops that look like green pellets that are added toward the end of the brewing process, and they have the shape of the, uh, stuff that rabbits ‘gift’ to the world hours after a good meal of grass; I know, weird.
Allergic to hops? Bummer. An India Pale Ale is one of my favorite beers, and they are very hop-y (Hey! Sounds like, hoppy, as in, a fitting adjective for those furry, long-eared mammals; maybe that’s why the hops pellets look that way!).
I don’t have the web address of the place he buys the kits from, but Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrewing#Homebrewing_kits lists barley as a part of what commonly goes into the mash. So, it’s probably hiding somewhere in that big ’ol bag of grains. : )
lol if your hoppy and you know if it drink yer beer! (I mean tea!!)
I do miss drinking my beers though. All of a sudden the hops starting tasting far too bitter and hard to swallow. I’m told in time I will be back to normal. One can hope!
red ale?! interesting!
Yes, very interesting indeed to discover a tea that reminds me of beer (in more ways than one).
I asked the friend I brew with what the difference is between a red ale and a standard ale, and he said some of the grains are roasted (there were a total of five different grains for the red ale we just brewed up and he said two of those were roasted) and thus a little darker in color (and it must do something to the flavor also, although other than supposing it is more ‘roasted’, I can’t really say). I hope you don’t mind the brief blurb there about beer-making!
no no I find it fascinating!! Did you put alot of hops and barley in there? (I’m allergic to hops, kindof)
I’m glad you find it fascinating.
I don’t remember seeing any barley on the ingredients list (the grains come in one really big bag), but there were three different packets of hops that look like green pellets that are added toward the end of the brewing process, and they have the shape of the, uh, stuff that rabbits ‘gift’ to the world hours after a good meal of grass; I know, weird.
Allergic to hops? Bummer. An India Pale Ale is one of my favorite beers, and they are very hop-y (Hey! Sounds like, hoppy, as in, a fitting adjective for those furry, long-eared mammals; maybe that’s why the hops pellets look that way!).
I don’t have the web address of the place he buys the kits from, but Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrewing#Homebrewing_kits lists barley as a part of what commonly goes into the mash. So, it’s probably hiding somewhere in that big ’ol bag of grains. : )
lol if your hoppy and you know if it drink yer beer! (I mean tea!!)
I do miss drinking my beers though. All of a sudden the hops starting tasting far too bitter and hard to swallow. I’m told in time I will be back to normal. One can hope!
Yes, you can always hope. Good luck!