For my 900th tasting note, I thought I’d taste a tea I haven’t tried before.
When I look at my tea stash, it’s pretty clear that most of what I have is black tea or oolong. I have far fewer green teas and fruit or herbals. I may have more white tea than I do green tea. I don’t know whether this accurately reflects the mix of what I bought, but I think not. I do love black tea, but I can’t drink it much after 1 in the afternoon, and I love oolongs, but I don’t always have time to do them justice, so I don’t drink them as much. Greens, whites and herbals/fruits are probably the ones I drink more often because of time of day considerations, but I also think I just bought fewer of them.
In any case, I have a lot of Todd & Holland samples, many of which are black teas. This is one of them. It’s malty-smoky in the package with surprisingly light colored green leaves. The liquor color is a dark sienna color and clear, quite lovely. It has a sweet, malty aroma with berry and chocolate notes.
The taste isn’t as sweet as the aroma, and there is a bit of smoke in the flavor but it isn’t strong. Like the aroma, the flavor has a maltiness and both fruity and chocolate notes. The fruit note is something on the order of blackberry or rasperry, or perhaps black cherry, and the chocolate is a lighter, mild note suggestive of milk chocolate.
It’s very tasty and it has a lot of “personality.” I can’t quite figure out whether I’ve tasted something similar in a Harney Blend, or whether it was some other tea company, but the flavor is familiar.
Am I the only person who finds it almost impossible to keep track of all the black tea blends I like, particularly over long stretches of time?
Flavors: Berries, Chocolate, Malt
Preparation
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Woot, woot, 900!
(I still remember your 666 not that long ago!)
YAY for 900!! Congrats :)
Wow 900!!!
Haha, and thanks. TF, I looked for a good musical interlude for 900 but came up empty.
I’m still far from it, but I’m already thinking of a great Spartan melody for my 300th, lol!
(If such a thing exists!)
Congrats Morgana!
Congrats!! :)
Congratulations! And I’m kind of the same with black blends. They always dominate my stash, but my problem is that while I’m good at keeping track at which ones I like, it’s hard to drink down the ones I don’t care for because I have so much and want to just reach for the ones I favour haha.
Yay 900! I have a spreadsheet where I mark “rebuy” as yes, no or maybe. And I write short tasting notes into a notes column. So I can sort by yes and company, then read what I had to say and see if I really want them or not.
I have a spread sheet that I update & then print out every month, then I check teas off as I drink them. If it’s something I want to re-order, I make note of it. I never make it through all of them, ever, LOL.
Fjellrev, you can send them all to Sil…mwahahahaha
Haha yes! But not just the ones I don’t care for because that would be mean. I tried it once already but it’s so damn hard to find something in my cupboard that she hasn’t tried already. I’d do the same with you but I’m sure you’re a billion steps ahead of me too. ;)
900 notes? Congrats!
Thanks all. Yeah, I should do a spread sheet. My problem is that most of the ones I’ve tasted lately and liked fall on the right hand part of the bell curve where they’re all bunched up. Ugh. I can be counted on to over buy rather than weed out. LOL
Woot, woot, 900!
(I still remember your 666 not that long ago!)
YAY for 900!! Congrats :)
Wow 900!!!
Haha, and thanks. TF, I looked for a good musical interlude for 900 but came up empty.
I’m still far from it, but I’m already thinking of a great Spartan melody for my 300th, lol!
(If such a thing exists!)
Congrats Morgana!
Congrats!! :)
Congratulations! And I’m kind of the same with black blends. They always dominate my stash, but my problem is that while I’m good at keeping track at which ones I like, it’s hard to drink down the ones I don’t care for because I have so much and want to just reach for the ones I favour haha.
Yay 900! I have a spreadsheet where I mark “rebuy” as yes, no or maybe. And I write short tasting notes into a notes column. So I can sort by yes and company, then read what I had to say and see if I really want them or not.
I have a spread sheet that I update & then print out every month, then I check teas off as I drink them. If it’s something I want to re-order, I make note of it. I never make it through all of them, ever, LOL.
Fjellrev, you can send them all to Sil…mwahahahaha
Haha yes! But not just the ones I don’t care for because that would be mean. I tried it once already but it’s so damn hard to find something in my cupboard that she hasn’t tried already. I’d do the same with you but I’m sure you’re a billion steps ahead of me too. ;)
900 notes? Congrats!
Thanks all. Yeah, I should do a spread sheet. My problem is that most of the ones I’ve tasted lately and liked fall on the right hand part of the bell curve where they’re all bunched up. Ugh. I can be counted on to over buy rather than weed out. LOL