English Tea Store

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Recent Tasting Notes

60

Sadly, this one didn’t taste special to me. It mostly just tasted like black tea with maybe a bit of flavor, but it wasn’t distinct enough to say what it should have been. I wouldn’t recommend this one because if I’m going to have a plainish black tea, there are so many other choices of better quality.

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80

Pretty good. It is worth the extra money for the pai mu tan white tea, though. If I hadn’t experienced the pai mu tan white tea beforehand, I suppose could have been one of my staple teas.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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70

I didn’t love the scent of this one, but the flavor is pretty nice! It’s like a blueberry pineapple mixture. It’s a bit fake tasting, but decent, especially when compared to many of their other fruit blends. Still not great compared with other brands, but decent for ETS.

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70
drank Godiva Roche by English Tea Store
2284 tasting notes

Although the chocolate flavor isn’t too deep, this is tasty enough. Chocolate and rooibos combine to create a decent flavor. It’s not very exciting, but it’s okay. I like the rooibos they use. If you’re looking for a chocolate tea though, this really isn’t the one.

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65

I didn’t love this one at first, but I left it in the fridge and took it to work in the morning, which seemed to help mellow any weird flavors it had. It turned into a pretty generic fruit tea. Couldn’t really say what fruit it’s supposed to be. It’s not too sour, just not too special either.

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83

The ingredients in this are so fun looking – cucumber/zucchini?! They don’t list the ingredients, so I’m not sure. The result is a flavor that’s light and interesting, however it’s also interrupted with a bit of mildly distracting tartness from the other ingredients. I wish it could have had only that light, fresh flavor, but it does all combine to produce quite the satisfying brew.

tea-sipper

They are annoying being so mysterious with their ingredients!

Roswell Strange

This is such a good tisane – it’s a catalog blend from Wollenhaupt, so you can find it carried in a lot of different tea shops. I buy mine from a company called Cuppa’T Specialty Teas. It’s also got tomato in it!

Roswell Strange

Here’s the ingredients list: Apple bits, rosehips, tomato, cucumber, lemon, lime, orange, and natural flavour.

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68

After my billionth cup of Earl Grey this month, I needed something different. (No, I’m not knocking the EG, I just realized that my selection as of late has been rather one dimensional.)

Anyway, in pouch, this smells extremely medicinal. I’m getting straight-up Robutussin scent from this. It’s worrisome, but we shall see how much of that translates.

The bag lists the brewing instructions as “190-212F, 3 minutes”… which, for something being billed as a breed of jasmine green, seemed like a horrible life decision in the making. So this was brewed at 165F, 2min.

Flavor is… different. There is a strong punch of sweetness that gets right in your face. I’m guessing that’s the Lichee (I don’t think I’ve ever had Lichee tea before?) I’m happy to say it doesn’t taste like robutussin. There’s a decent amount of warm grass flavor to this, as the green tea base is happily present. However, the jasmine seems lacking. I think the lichee is drowning out the jasmine, which is unfortunate. It also tastes pretty artificial, which is something I have noticed in several of these English Tea Store teas. I mean, it’s drinkable, but it’s not great. I would love to try some different, more natural lichee teas from a different company. Something that doesn’t have a lingering flavor of Hawaiian Punch (like this does).

Overall: It’s ok. Not good. Definitely not great. But it’s average. I’ll give it a C-

Flavors: Artificial, Fruit Punch, Sweet, Sweet, Warm Grass

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 2 min, 0 sec 3 g 12 OZ / 354 ML

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53

There’s an alcohol flavor in here that can be pretty strong. To my tastes at least. The strawberry is there as well, and I like the rooibos, but I think, due to the off-putting background flavor, I wouldn’t have this again. There are much better strawberry options.

tea-sipper

What are your favorite strawberry teas?

AJRimmer

My absolute favorite is wild strawberry from Adagio. It makes the most amazing iced tea (though it’s been a few years since I’ve had it now, so I hope it lives up to my memory when I re-purchase it eventually). Recently, I also really enjoyed strawberry achoo from Tea Revv. I definitely prefer ones that just have fruit and no rooibos or tea.

tea-sipper

on to the wishlist they go :D

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Ok, So I’m not writing this review while drinking it. I drank this last night but didn’t write it up. As such, this is going to be short.

Basically, if this is supposed to be pumpkin spice… well, they missed pumpkin spice by a very long way. However, what it DOES taste like is caramel corn. You know, like that caramel crusted popcorn you get in the tins for Christmas. That is exactly what this managed to hit on the nose. I’m really not sure how you aim for pumpkin spice and hit caramel corn instead, but it’s a delicious tea. I love the sweetness and creaminess. It makes a great dessert tea.

Basically, it’s a pretty tasty tea… if you were looking for caramel corn and not pumpkin spice.

Flavors: Caramel, Cream, Sweet

Preparation
12 OZ / 354 ML
Roswell Strange

It’s all good – I rarely write my tasting notes while drinking the tea. I sometimes keep jot notes about the tea in a journal if I reeaalllyy want to remember something about the tea, but other than that I keep a queue of tasting notes I need to write in an excel file on my laptop, and just delete them from the list after I’ve written them (relying on my memory for the note).

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95

Ok, so I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of this one. It smells so dang strong in the bag that I was sure it would be overpowering.

Nope. This is wonderful. It is very clearly cucumber melon, with a pronounced natural sweetness, and a good balance of the cukes and the melons. It’s just so delish. The flavor also lingers so it doesn’t just fill you with flavor on the sip, but afterward, the flavor dances on your tongue and sticks around for a while. This is just… wow. Great stuff. This may be a permanent addition to my collection.

Absolutely glorious tea. A+

Flavors: Cantaloupe, Cucumber, Honeydew, Melon, Sweet

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 2 min, 0 sec 12 OZ / 354 ML

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Ok, attempt #2 at my first ever Darjeeling!

So, quick note, when I pulled this out of my drawer, I didn’t realize it was a Darjeeling. I know the title of the tea is “Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling” but the label simply reads “Margaret’s Hope” which, until now, I didn’t realize was a type of Darjeeling. I now remember buying this specifically to try as my first ever Darjeeling tea, but since last month, I had forgotten about that and mistook it for a black tea. So, the first cup I had of this was prepared as a standard black tea. Big surprise, it wasn’t that good. This is a review of the tea prepped as it was meant to be made.

Taste this time is… delightful. I’m getting fruity notes right away, with a touch of sweetness. I’m also getting notes of leather as well, and a hint of tobacco. There is noticeable astringency (I believe that’s what it is) that results in a drying sensation in the mouth post sip. However, it isn’t at all unpleasant. No need to add anything to this, it’s lovely on its own. By the way, the aroma of the liquor has a strong grape-like scent. I’m not noticing it as much in the flavor, however.

Honestly, I’m certain I’m getting everything wrong on this. I’ve never had darjeeling before and therefore, I’m a newbie at trying to describe it. At least with the Earl Grey’s I’ve been reviewing I have something to go by. This here is uncharted territory. That said, I do enjoy this tea, and I think I may well try to branch out into other darjeelings in the future.

Flavors: Astringent, Fruity, Grapes, Leather

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
derk

“Taste this time is… delightful.” “Honestly, I’m certain I’m getting everything wrong on this.”

Sounds to me like you got it right ;)

Martin Bednář

If the tea is good on its own, then you prepared it well. And as well it is good tea :) Because bad tea will be bad on its own as well.

ashmanra

I did the same! My first darjeeling was a disaster and I thought I didn’t like darjeeling, but I had made it all wrong. My next one was Margaret’s Hope, 2nd flush I believe, and it was good! Glad you had a good tea day!

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Well, time for yet another Earl Grey!

This time, it’s the English Tea Store’s “Earl Grey Cream”. It’s important to note that this is the loose leaf, non-organic blend. Apparently there are three different types of Earl Grey Cream that ETS sells, and this is the one I have.

Examination of the loose leave I see plenty of those lovely blue strands I love so much. You can smell the bergamot, but that’s about it.
I brewed this western (of course) for the first steep of 2:30. I can’t give exact measurements because currently, my tea-spoon is missing, so I’ve been trying to eyeball it. (I tend not to use the scale for smaller leaf teas, it gets everywhere, including INSIDE the scale!) Also, one of these days I’m going to invest in a water thermometer and temp test my Keurig, but that day isn’t today. So, for a ballpark estimate, say 2:30/205F/2tsp/16oz.

Taste unaltered is nice enough. You get a lovely bit of zesty citrus, accompanied by the usual floral note, but it seems balanced. Surprisingly, I can’t taste any cream flavor specifically. I’m searching for it, but the only difference between this and my usual earl greys is that the bergamot isn’t as bitey. Let’s add a Splenda.

Ok, so adding a Splenda, and I can almost taste the cream. It’s very subtle. Mostly, the creaminess just serves to temper most of the bite from the bergamot. It makes for a lovely mellow cup. It isn’t the most mellow I’ve had yet, and certainly not the creamiest, but it’s really decent. Actually, considering some of the ones I’ve tried lately, I’d even call it a touch above decent. It’s good, but not great. Somewhere in the range of a B-Minus. It’s easily a passing grade, but it’s only a tick or two above average. It’s somewhat disappointing considering how awesome the Lavender Earl Grey was. That one was a home run for me, while this one is more like a double. But, I am determined to try as many of these Earl Grey teas as I can get my hands on, so this is just another one for the list.

Bottom line: It’s good, but not great. It’s a solid Earl Grey, but somewhat lacking for an Earl Grey Cream. If you’re looking for that quintessential EGC, look elsewhere. This one is only slightly above average; no Holy Grail here. Sorry.

Flavors: Bergamot, Floral

Preparation
2 min, 30 sec

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82

Ok, so another new tea!

I’ve made my point very clear about wanting to try all the Earl Grey I can acquire, so when I saw this on ETS, I had to get some. I only got a sample, but I’m happy to say that English Tea Store samples are fairly decent sized! So yay!

Right off the bat, you can smell a heavy floral from this in the dry leaf. I mean SERIOUS floral! The brewing instructions on the bag are pretty vague, so I made it like a normal Earl Grey, 205F/2:30/2tsp/16oz

The aroma of tea is also floral. I’m eager to try this once it cools a bit, I love a floral tea. Taste without sweetener is… mmm, that’s good. The black tea base is present, but not powerful or overwhelming, and certainly not bitter. The bergamot is lovely, without being biting. And that lavender! The balance of flavors is nice here, and I really don’t want to add my usual sweetener to this, I’m loving it that much. It’s not sweet, mind you. Not by a long shot. But the lovely blend of florals is so delicious.

So what’s the final word? This is extremely floral. I know I keep using that word, but I cannot emphasize this enough. It’s not floral like the last one I tried (Kyoto Cherry Rose) which tasted like perfume. This is a balanced floral, strong, but not fake tasting. However, if you aren’t a fan of strong floral flavor, avoid this. You probably won’t like it. But if you are like me and have a need to ‘eat a bouquet’ now and then, go for it. It’s lovely and I think once the sample runs out, I will have to get a full-sized packet of this.

Good stuff.

Flavors: Bergamot, Floral, Lavender

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML
LuckyMe

Sounds delicious. I wonder how it would fare in a latte.

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80

Bath and Body Works

That is immediately what this tea makes me think of. There’s a good possibility I oversteeped AND overleafed (for some reason I didn’t really measure either, no idea why), but the bottom line is this tastes exactly like if Bath and Body Works made a green tea.

That said, I am a BnBW ADDICT, and oops, I’m loving this. I use their products on a daily basis from soaps to body wash to body spray etc, and I’d be lying if I said I never considered what they might taste like. Now I know. So I’m telling you now, this tea is definitely not for everyone, heck it’s probably not for most. It’s a mild sencha green flavor with the cherry and rose both turned up to 11. Y’all know how I love my Splenda, and I’m drinking this straight no problem. It’s that pleasing to me.

I feel as though this review will turn more people off this tea than not, but I wanted to be honest, so here you go. I recommend it, but only to weirdos like me.

Flavors: Cherry, Floral, Rose, Sweet

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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75

Made a cup of this at work this morning. I enjoy the added stuff to the blend, but I’m not big on the tea base. I noted “malted cinnamon fireball candies,” but left it at that. It was early, so I didn’t really sit too long on taking notes.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Malt

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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94

This one was a wild card when I bought a box of teas to sample from ETS. I thought either I will feel like I’m drinking a hot soupy bath & body works type of fake cucumber or it will be the more epic version of cucumber water. Lucky for me, I found it to be the later. Of course I made this iced. Of course I also made it more watery than probably intended, but, the cucumber flavoring still pack a punch. It’s my new favorite iced tea.

Flavors: Cucumber, Green, Melon

Preparation
0 OZ / 0 ML

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82

I bought a sampler and this was included. The delightful aroma was apparent immediately. After brewing, it was beautiful in color. I added my usual sweetener and cream. It’s a perfect tea to start my day of teaching 8 year olds. Delicious. I’ll be ordering a larger bag next time.

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99

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Thursday, June 17th: National Eat Your Vegetables Day Tea #1

additional notes:  Seemed like a go-to tea for veggie day and a good excuse to have this favorite the first time this year.  What took so long?   $4.95 for four ounces on the site right now!  You can’t beat that price.  However, melon flavor is fading MUCH quicker than the last sample I had (from Mastress Alita) and I consider this tea new enough.

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99

So I technically had Shakespeare’s version of this tea thanks to Mastress Alita (thanks again!). But I love it so much I had to stock up and English Tea Store has the same blend. It’s on sale for the month at an already amazing price. I’m also happy to report that the tea still tastes the same! CUCUMBER. MELON. I’m always happy when different harvests are similar. So many cucumber slices, whoa! Also, 52Teas had a blend similar to this one (the general idea anyway) that I also love.
I’ve been eating a ton of actual cucumber from the garden lately, as I’m the only one around here that can tolerate cucumber…. and the garden will give about… FORTY or so cucumbers this year. So I made a cucumber dip today. And I’ll be making little tea sandwiches at some point. I also just like dunking some cucumber pieces in a dip of cream cheese, sour cream, and a bit of olive oil. Nothing too fancy. Also, one blueberry bush in the yard (spindly in my opinion) had about three pints of blueberries over the course of a month. I absolutely appreciate that blueberries don’t all turn blue at once… it’s gradual so you can enjoy blueberries for about a month even with one plant, if you’re willing to look every 2-3 days.

Flavors: Cucumber, Melon

AJRimmer

I love cucumber sandwiches! We do it one way with mayo, salt, and pepper, and a second way with cream cheese and dill!

Mastress Alita

Well, it should taste the same, Shakespeare’s sources it from English Tea Store. :-P Few tea shops make their own blends vs. outsourcing.

Kawaii433

Sounds really good, tea-sipper. I love cucumbers with vinegar, salt, and pepper. I’m also a huge an of tzatziki dressing.

tea-sipper

Mastress Alita – I knew it was the same source, thanks to you telling me that before, but I’m always worried with harvests possibly changing over the years. So I was just glad I didn’t seem to find a difference. :D

AJRimmer & Kawaii – I’m starving now, I got to go find something to eat (already had some cucumbers today) haha

derk

Cucumbers are wonderful <3

tea-sipper

haha derk. I don’t LOVE cucumbers… they were supposed to be for my bro but he can’t eat 40 of them. Yikes. I guess I have a newfound love for them now? And many of my fam are allergic to them so I kind of thought I would be too. I guess not! Well, some are now on a table next to the road for anyone to take. :D

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69
drank Blackforest by English Tea Store
42 tasting notes

I’m glad I finally found an English Tea Store tea that I still like. Lately, I’ve been finding that many of their blends which I once enjoyed now taste artificial and chemical to me.

Anyway, when making this tea I heated the water to about 200° and steeped it for 3-4 minutes. I then added 1/2 tsp of sweetener and some half & half. The tea was yummy. I definitely tasted chocolate cake and cherries with little artificial flavors. It reminded me of a black forest flavored snack cake, the kind sold in cellophane wrapped two packs.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t necessarily have a gourmet palate, but I found this to be an enjoyable blend and it scratched my itch for something sweet and dessertish.

Flavors: Cake, Cherry, Chocolate

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 15 sec 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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52

I’m not sure if they changed the formulation of this tea or if my tastes have changed since the last time I tried it. I remember liking it and reordered it. I looked forward to drinking it only to be disappointed when I did.

For some reason, although I could taste the maple and some floral and fruity notes, the overwhelming taste I got from this tea was artificial and chemical. I tried it with different sweetener, with and without half & half, I tried different steep times and water temperatures but nothing made a difference.

I definitely liked this tea at one time but either it changed or I did and I no longer enjoy drinking it.

Flavors: Artificial, Fruity, Maple Syrup

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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80

Custom advent calendar day one! My good friend Sara brought me my first ever advent calendar of any kind, and it’s a tea a day! The teas aren’t numbered. It’s luck-of-the-draw. So I grabbed a tea for today! They have been pre-measured for steeping with 12 ounces, and she gave me a lovely Pusheen mug to drink them from. Also, it looks like I have two samples of each tea! Oh, the bag was 2.5 grams. I’ve only just noticed that Steepster doesn’t use decimals there.

Still, it’s a very limited amount; there are a lot of teas; and my memory isn’t that great. I’d better do a tasting note for each of these!

The smells of the leaf and the brewed cup are primarily black tea and fruity. I had to set it aside for a few minutes after brewing so I don’t burn my tongue. I’m sensitive like that.

The taste is a nice one-two punch of black tea and fruitiness. Possibly strawberry. The black tea and fruity flavors are together in a proper harmony as I sit in a gazebo surrounded by a flower garden, while cats and children run around and play and somehow don’t trample the flowers. At least, that’s how it tastes to me. That reminds me, there is a bit of a floral note too. The pleasant flavor lingers on my tongue for several minutes after drinking it. Thanks, Sara!

Flavors: Floral, Fruity, Strawberry, Tea

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 g 12 OZ / 354 ML
Mastress Alita

Oh, I sipped that one down within the last month.

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26

A Berry Frui-tea July! This is one of the earliest teas I ever got when I first got into loose leaf teas, and I think it was the first white tea I ever tried. I purchased it from a tea shop in Campbell, California, called Steepers, but have since figured out that they wholesaled the blend from English Tea Store, along with several of their other blends (and I got very ripped off from the mark-up! Ah well, I was new to tea and honestly didn’t know better…)

I had told the owner I liked flavored blends, so she recommended this one. English Tea Store describes it as “reminiscent of premium 2nd flush Darjeelings with a light fruit finish.” I’ll admit I have tasted hardly any darjeelings, and certainly not enough to even know a second flush from a first flush, but this tea almost nearly turned me off from ever trying any other white teas or darjeelings back in those early days, I disliked it so much, hahaha! It just tasted so vegetal, but with this strong, very artificial apricot/peach flavor over the top, and the two contrasting flavors of this particular vegetal note that at the time I couldn’t even describe with this overwhelming strong artificial fruit flavor (and I’m not really a fan of strong artificial flavoring to begin with) just didn’t mix for me. I shoved it in the back of a cupboard and didn’t touch it for a long time.

Not long ago I tried it again, as my palate has developed a lot with a lot more tea drinking (especially of other white teas, which I’ve found quite tasty). I still wasn’t really a fan of this tea, but didn’t find it as horribly off-putting as I once had (I could at least finish the cup). That vegetal flavor was definitely the taste of autumn leaves, and I still didn’t really find that slightly astringent earthy leaf flavor mixed with stone fruits very pleasant. It was much more drinkable iced, but still not my favorite. It really reminded me of TeaSource’s Machu Peach-u, which I also didn’t really find to be my cup of tea, but between the two, I at least found TeaSource’s Machu Peach-u to have a much more natural-tasting peach flavor. I was able to sip-down Machu Peach-u in a few quarts of iced tea to clear it out of my house (even though I didn’t really like that autumn leaf taste) while the bag of this tea I had to gift to my mom (I knew that her and my stepdad enjoyed Machu Peach-u and figured it was a close enough taste match they’d probably get some use out of it).

I wonder what is causing the white tea in this blend and Machu Peach-u to have that autumn leaf taste when no other white tea I’ve tried has that flavor? I do notice neither of these specify the kind of white tea used (it seems most of the fruity whites I enjoy tend to specify they use Bai Mu Dan, so I know I enjoy that tea, and I really don’t think either of these could be using that as a base). Could it be Shou Mei? If anyone schooled in the art of whites knows, enlighten me!

Flavors: Apricot, Astringent, Autumn Leaf Pile, Peach, Stonefruit, Vegetal, Wet Earth

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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82

A Berry Frui-tea July! This is a blend I originally sampled over a year ago from Tea Chai Te, but when I needed to replenish my stock, I opted to get a cheap 4 oz. bag from English Tea Store.

The black tea is infused with lemon balm, dried strawberries, and lemon and strawberry flavoring to give it this lovely fruity/citrus flavor. The leaf has a really nice fragrance that reminds me of lemon sorbet with a bit of a sweet berry topping. Typically this blend uses a Ceylon base (and I’m fairly certain the original Tea Chai Te version I had used Ceylon leaf), but it appears that English Tea Store is using an Assam/Ceylon blend for its base.

The base is medium-bodied with a malty flavor that has lots of citrus notes, like taking a cuppa black tea with a wedge of lemon. The strawberry notes are a bit more subtle, but there is a sweeter hint of berry at the back of the tongue right at the finish. The strawberry seems to add just a touch of natural sweetness more than anything, so the citrus feels more rounded rather than tart. This is a very smooth tea as long as you don’t overleaf and mind your steep time, without bitterness, very subtle astringency, and complimented nicely by its flavor rather than feeling overpowered by it. It’s one of my favorites warm or iced. The citrus flavor works in its favor as a steaming cup with a dash of honey, or chilled over a glass of ice. I also have a quart mixed up Arnold Palmer style with some lemonade to try tomorrow… I can’t imagine that could go wrong!

Flavors: Citrus, Lemon, Malt, Smooth, Strawberry

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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