A sample from Miss B! This was my early evening cup last night, and I was expecting a fairly mild flavour. I’ve not found a hazelnut tea that particularly struck me before, but this one was quite an eye opener. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 4 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk, because it brewed up pretty dark.
It’s quite a straightforward tea in many ways. The flavour is fairly simple and one-note, and it’s definitely not the kind of tea where there’s a lot going on and you really have to think about what you’re tasting. This tea, basically, is exactly what it promises to be; hazelnut on a smooth, mellow black base. It’s rich and nutty to taste, and it is specifically hazelnut that I can taste, rather than just generic “nut”. The hazelnut flavour emerges mostly in the mid-sip, and then there’s the slight bitterness of hazelnut skin in the aftertaste. It didn’t strike me as a particularly sweet tea, and the base wasn’t malty, so there’s nothing to conflict with the richness of the hazelnut and the slightly savoury vibe that can have. I did find that the flavour seemed to strengthen as the tea cooled, which was a pleasant surprise. Possibly this one would make a good cold brew, although I don’t have enough leaf at the moment to try that out. I enjoyed this one a lot more than I anticipated, though, and so it would be a possible future purchase for me. Maybe one day I’ll get to test my cold brew theory with this tea! In the meantime, I shall enjoy a second hot cup before I have to say goodbye. I’m really glad I had the opportunity to try this one, because I’m not sure I would have picked it out of my own accord.
