257 Tasting Notes
Finishing this one off today. I’ve been on a mission for the past year(!) to empty my cupboard of accumulated tea. I’m getting close…except I keep getting “donations” of other’s unwanted tea.
Anyway, finishing this one today…one last steeps worth sitting in a babyfood jar. Wow, is it different than the English Breakfast I finished yesterday! Strong, earthy flavor. Not bitter though. Makes me think of Autumn…appropriate since we had our first hard freeze last night.
I have been drinking this for a couple of months now…it is my “don’t have time, don’t want to take time” grab a tea bag remedy right now. Definitly still in my favorites list, still looking for more. The lemon, when brewed up a bit long, reminds me of lemon scented Pledge furniture polish…ya, not a real good thing..even a bit “waxy” :(
As Earl Grey’s go, this is pretty far down on my list of preffered options…although ANY tea is preferrable to NO tea…well, unless its roobios (blech!). Brews strong on a “normal” cup, you can easily get two from the K-cup. I usually brew a 12oz run followed immediately by an espresso cycle to top off the mug.
Encouraged by my experience with Dilmah Earl Grey tea bags, I picked this up at the dollar store ($2.00/30ct tea bags). Brewed for 3 1/2 minutes with boiling water. I could smell the lemon in the steam. Has nice, even citrus lemon flavor. Not harsh like lemon rind or lemon oil. Everything the package claimed to be and a fine tea too.
Preparation
This was a Christmas present…sort of a stocking stuffer. I was expecting trash tea; I got a gold mine! I love Ceylon teas and this was advertised as a pure Ceylon based Earl Grey. The tea has a wonderful, sharp, acidic bite with a nice citrusy bergamot scent. For what is probably a bargin basement box of tea, I am much impressed.
Preparation
A friend got a sample of this and I got to finish off his sample. I’m not sorry there isn’t any left. The dry tea smells clearly of dried blueberries. That is important, because I know that (to me) blueberry juice is just a sweet ho-hum… On to the tea…
It brewed up surprisingly dark for an herbal, reddish like a Ceylon. Blueberry = Sweet in my mind. This tea wasn’t sweet — It was sour! A direct kick to the back edges of my tounge with no apologies. The true components of the tea shine through…rose hips and hibiscus (I looked it up). I don’t get blueberries out of the this — I get cranberries! There were a lot of dried apple pieces, easily 1/3rd of the bulk of the tea mix. I didn’t detect any apple flavor directly..the other components were just too bold, but I think the apple smoothed over the sour components and kept the result from being puckering sour.
Bottom line: I’d drink this again, but I think blueberry isn’t an accurate representation of what it delivers.
Preparation
Had this with lunch yesterday…its not what I expected. If it has “orange” in the name, I expect orange in the flavor. Didn’t get that, not a single peice of orange peel in the tea bag; what I got was a bit of flowery jasmine and smooth vanilla creme. Still quite nice with my Chinese food lunch, but I consider it a bit of a “bait-and-switch”.
Brewed very light in the cup, I blame the instant hot water tap with being not hot enough…that and the bags a bit skimpy.
Royal Tea B.O.P [the blue tin] is a ceylon blend brought back from Sri Lanka by a workmate. This is advertised as a pure high grown ceylon blend and it delivers everything you’d expect. Brews clear and bright in the cup with a hit of red in the brown. Light in the mouth with a nice astringency and good flavor. A nice bite without being bitter.