This morning, youngest and I took some time to enjoy a couple of tea samples from Harney and Sons 2015 offerings. She wanted to start with black tea since she had just gotten out of bed. We used a gong fu set and aroma cup set, but we were steeping just over a teaspoon of leaf for four minutes in boiling water. We made four steeps in all.
The package let out a burst of bready aroma as soon a it was opened. It was so fresh. The steeped tea had an amazing scent in the aroma cup – pure sweet potato complete with brown sugar and the barest hint of cinnamon. Maybe even a touch of butter.
The liquor is pale for a black tea. The flavor is not “pale.” I consider this to be a light bodied tea but the flavor is pure and sweet. I do not taste a lot of the classic “tea” flavor with bread and malt as the scent made me think I might. I believe it would be a terrible injustice to add sugar or especially milk to this tea. It doesn’t need it, and I think it would suffer for it, but since I don’t add anything to my tea anyway, perhaps other people would feel differently.
If you could give someone the essence of a holiday sweet potato dish in a cup, this is it. I would compare it to a fine Golden Monkey (and there is none finer than Harney’s) that has had the breadiness reduced and the malt removed.
After trying a cup of it on its own, I had it with one square of a Godiva strawberry truffle bar. The first sip after the chocolate as heavenly, so I know this is going to pair beautifully with sweets and tidbits at tea time!
Subsequent steeps are pale but flavorful.
Love this one! But your review, plus the Harney coupon in my email forced me to buy a pound of Golden Monkey. Yeah, ‘forced’. ;)