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I knew it. I knew it yesterday when I had my first pot. This morning I was going to try something new from the big box o’goodies sent by Doulton, but Baker Street had its hooks in me. I tried to turn away, but like magnet and steel it pulled me over to the kitchen island, away from the other tea. I tried to resist….well, not for long! And it was perfect this morning with my cheese toast and mustard. This is labeled afternoon tea, but just like Queen Catherine, I love it in the morning with milk and sugar. The level of smoke is just right for me. The first time I smelled a dry lapsang I was horrified and said I would NEVER try that. Then I tried one and found it sweet and light, then I tried another…Is this something that escalates over time, and eventually you love more and more smoke in your tea? This is is smokey, but not over the top smokey, though not light on the smoke either. It is just right for when I want smokey tea! Thank you, Doulton! I will spend many a morning tipping my cup to you with the generous portion you sent!

Oh my! Oh my! Doulton’s tea arrived today and I have never seen such a box of tea! It felt like Christmas in July! And since my daughter just left London, and sent me photos of Baker Street and of Speedy’s from the new Sherlock Holmes, I decided this had to be the first tea I try!

Since there was darjeeling in the mix, I decided to go with a slightly shorter steep time. The steeped tea smells sweetly smokey. The smoke is not too strong – definitely smokier than Queen Catherine but not as smokey as Wuyi Shan Lapsang. The tea is sweet and smooth. I took part of it plain, and since youngest and I were having it with grilled cheese I also tried it with milk and sugar. I think I like it best with additions and it was a wonderful complement to the meal. The brightness of the darjeeling is there, with the slightest, and I do mean SLIGHTEST, tingle to the tongue when the tea is plain. This was not noticeable with milk added. I can see how someone could easily crave this tea. It has body and presence. Thank you, thank you, Doulton, for all the excitement that is buzzing in my house today!

Even youngest tried it and liked it fairly well, and she really doesn’t do smokey tea.

I wasn’t going to review this one again, but tonight I decided to do something different. I didn’t really have anything I wanted to drink with supper and a good bit of this was still left in the tetsubin. I put a little sugar in a tall glass, poured some of the still hot tea over it, stirred, and put in a bit of ice. Delicious! These leaves went a long way. I had steeped, then resteeped and added that to the tetsubin, and some of it was left from yesterday. The tea still had plenty of strength.

Though my guest loved La Belle Helene best of these two today (we didn’t compare them to Golden Monkey, nothing compares to Golden Monkey!) this tea was especially good to me today. I tasted some breadiness or something I really hadn’t picked up on before. It went especially well with our tea treats. It was paired with homemade brownies, from freshly ground wheat, naturally, that were served with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and cherries. The tea was an excellent complement to such hearty, flavorful fare and didn’t fade at all, but held its own. Excellent tea today! I won’t bother to post another review of Harney Golden Monkey. Everyone knows how I feel about that!

I tried this one with great trepidation today. After the last Dammann Freres tea from summit tea being so horrible I had to pour it out, I wasn’t going to serve this one at tea time unless I knew it was good. I tried a little sip prior to our guest arriving.

Oh joy! This was delicious! My guest thought so too, and even liked it more than Keemun Mao Feng, which is really apples to oranges bit tells you that this was pretty good tea!

As delicious as it was, and I had two or three cups of it, when it started to get cold it became astringent and it really wasn’t very good, but while moderately hot is was excellent.

Youngest and I are having rat lunch, which Jacqueline and a few others will know is grilled cheese sandwich with tea. We are supplementing with fresh cherries, blueberries, and peaches, as well as some new cheese for youngest to try. I have been trying to get her to try REAL parmesan for a while now, and today was the day. She loved it!

Accompanying it all is Golden Monkey, one of our favorite in the whole wide world teas. I am taking mine plain and enjoying the honeyed-caramel sweetness, while youngest is taking it with milk and sugar for a more breakfast tea type of treat.

Just inhaling the aroma of this tea is a treat for me. I think my eyes roll back in my head a little when I do, for sheer ecstasy.

Woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck. Physical therapy at eleven. What better way to prepare than with a cuppa the Queen? She has shaken me by the collar, told me to get it going, and then patted me on the head. Ever so lightly smoky, naturally sweet, good with milk and sugar in the morning if you wish, but also delicious plain! No tins next time, this will definitely be a pound bag.

I have only had a few pu-er teas, and they were unflavored ones. I did like them, although I can’t say I ever woke up in the morning thinking, “Gee, I sure would love a cup of pu-er right now!”. Black tea still holds the highest place in my tea heart!

This particular flavored pu- er could change all that. Today I was having it with a friend and we had a but of moderately strong cheese with it. Something in the tea flavor was really shining through, and had a minty quality without being mint, rather hard to describe, but that high note was singing out over the taste of the cheese. Looking it up, I realized it must be the fennel in this. I have never cooked with fennel. My only experience with it is when I go buy plants in the spring and I run my hands over all the herbs and enjoy the scent. This is really excellent. I would never have known it was pu-er, so if you love pu-er already this one may disappoint you. But if you love fig and fennel, I think this is a very tasty choice. It is a unique and enjoyable cup of tea. Thank you, Quiltguppy!

Sandy and I decided to each have milk oolong for our impromptu tea party tonight. I still had a wee bit of my swap from QG left, and Sandy had ordered some from The Rabbit Hole in Sydney, since she is doctoring the Outback right now. Both our teas had a lovely creaminess and this tea has such lovely floral notes. The aroma is definitely floral. I think I figured out why my cotton napkin made me crave this throughout my meal last week. Hubby bought scented spray starch and that was why my napkin smelled like flowers! This is a very nice oolong! Many thanks to Quiltguppy for the generous sample!

I used to dislike hazelnut. I gave away any and all Ferrero Rocher chocolates given to me. Then I had Florence. At first I liked it a little, then a lot, then I started craving it. I thought it would be a great tea for the Rose Scented addition experiments. I think I like this! I used three teaspoons of Florence and one teaspoon of Rose Scented. You might think those proportions wouldn’t have much impact, but it really does change the flavor. Florence has deep, dark flavors to me, and the addition of that small amount of rose really brightens it. I drank it both with and without milk and sugar, and it was equally good both ways.