217 Tasting Notes
I really do love London Tea Club! The club provides the cutest little samples test tubes that are big enough for one large pot or 2 cups of tea which is enough for me to get a good idea of the tea and doesn’t add to my ginormous stash already hidden in every nook and cranny of my house and office!!
I’ve never had a monks blend before so I was very interested to try this tea! When I first started drinking all those years ago I used always order a fire engines which is lemonade vodka and grenadine so this was kind of like going back to my roots but in tea form!
Happy to say this taste nothing like an alcoholic fire engine!! It does have some serious vanilla and pomegranate notes which is a super tasty and slightly unusual combination for me – I don’t think I’ve had another pomegranate tea!
Definitely another delicious win for the London Tea Company and something I will seriously consider restocking when I finally (if ever) get this stash under control!
Oh delicious roasty amazingness where have you been all my life? Brewed up in my little yixing pot, you make my mouth water in anticipating of every single sip, my tastebuds sing as you hit my tongue and my tummy sighs in simple delight at the end of your trip! You taste like walking through a fir tree forest in autumn just before sunset – all wood, sweetness, the lightest touch of spice, a hint of leather (or is it tobacco??) and a creamy mouth feel. Its just a pity your so darn expensive but then again your ability to steep many many times reduces your cost per sip and lets be honest, even six steeps in you still taste pretty darn amazing. Worth every penny!
So I finally managed to get my husband over the hump and on the mend from this flu and it looks like all of my compassion and voluntary nursing has been rewarded by my immune systems surrender and slow demise to the same tyrant virus… Thanks a lot immune system!! So instead of being at work this afternoon I’m working from home which at least has the benefit of being in close proximity to my tea stash… Before my taste buds go the same way as the immune system I decided to commiserate my impending doom with this tea…. Mmmm… opening the packet I’m greeted by a malty cocoa scent… brewed its big malt, honey, baked bread flavors with a slight hint of sweet potato… I may have to hoard the rest of this until I’m feeling better!
Holy Crud! How did I get up to 320+ teas?!?!?!
So I guess someone on our international flight decided to be super sweet and share their cold/flu because my poor hubby has been sick as a dog for the last two days which could be managed with sleep, recouperation and chicken soup except he’s got this insane work thing going on at the moment and he’s walked back into 12 hour days onto of evening networking events… So I’m making him this tea with honey every chance I get which is really helping his scratchy throat and cough a bunch… I never would of thought to mix this with honey but it actually adds a nice touch of sweetness to the delicious toasty popcorn flavor… A favorite of mine and glad it’s helping the hubby cope with evil illness
This jet lag is killing me!! It was not a super productive day today but at least I did get out of my pjs for a couple of hours to grab groceries and head to the gym… After that it was straight back into the comfy ‘clothes’! I’ve been drinking through a number of teas today to sustain wakefulness and this tea caught my eye this afternoon because, hello, how can you go past a tea called Guil-T?? Brewed up this tea taste a little like liquid chocolate or better yet, like chocolate milk!! Cocoa pieces, vanilla bean… Oh my lord it’s amazing!! Can’t wait to try it iced!
I’m laying in bed at 9:40 am jet lagged as hell contemplating what I’m going to do today and I must admit sit around in my pjs drink tea and binge watch tv is winning right now but I know I’m going to have to get up at some point and at least buy groceries if I want to eat at all today… Lucky I preplanned prior to my trip well enough that I at least have milk in the fridge and so I’m celebrating my return to the states and more importantly to my own very comfortable bed with a cup of my favorite Aussie tea!!
Melbourne breakfast is a real winner for me! Full of warm vanilla flavors and malty tea goodness with just a slight chocolate end note, this is still my favorite lay in bed all morning and do nothing tea! Good thing I filled my suitcase full of bags and bags of this deliciousness to keep me stocked up for a few months!
The hubby and I hoofed it up to Hahndorf this afternoon for a cuppa, a german pastry or two and a quick trip to the Beerenberg Farm and happened to stop by a little cafe that sold this by the pot. Since this is one of the teas I almost purchased a couple of days ago while at the T Bar in the CBD I decided to give it a try…. This tea was full of all spice, cardamom, cloves and vanilla and gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside even though I’m not a huge fan of these types of spicy flavors in tea. I could imagine sitting around the fireplace, snow falling outside, reading a book and sipping on a large pot of this…. In the 34C weather it was a little too warming but I can completely understand why this is one of T Bars most popular blends!
$48 AUD for 30 grams of tea seems a little steep until I converted it back into what I’ve been paying in USD which puts this at $36USD which sounds slightly better EXCEPT for the fact that although I live in the U.S. I’m actually paid in AUD so all this has done is make me realize just how much money I’m suddenly spending on tea since the Aussie dollar has dropped from $1.10 US to 0.75c US in the last four months!! That tea buying hiatus is looking more and more appealing… Sigh!!
T2 has this tea as a sample pot at the counter and I couldn’t help but pour myself a little taste while waiting to purchase my bags and bags and bags of Melbourne Breakfast tea (the staple go to tea in my house!). I sipped and poured myself another taste as the sales assistant spun me a story about where this tea originated from and how 600 tea plants were brought into New Zealand twenty years ago and how only a handful survived through customs making this tea very rare…. As I sipped and tasted the malt, barley, honey and cocoa notes I wa convinced into buying a tin of this pretty amazing tea! Since then I’ve steeped at home and found the same delicious notes accompanied by an almost woodsy or pine note and as the tea stands up well to three or four sweepings I guess the $48 is a little easier to swallow
So apparently, four days after release, this tea is sold out across Australia!! Which I kinda understand… I mean, green tea and chocolate… What an interesting combination! Who wouldn’t want to give this a try??
I’ve been trekking all across Adelaide trying to find this tea for my Aunt and unfortunately have competely struck out… Although the last store I tried yesterday did sneak me a couple of small bagged samples so at least we’re all getting to try it before we head home!
This tea is pretty interesting! I can’t really taste the green tea or any of the flavors I usually associate with this type of leaf. I do get considerable amounts of brown sugar, berries, hazelnut and cocoa or chocolate which I usually associate with flavored black teas not greens!!
I can understand why this tea sold out so quickly!! Fingers crossed the Melbourne stores restock and have some boxes available before we leave!
