Fortnum & Mason

I love this mint tea. Not too strong, not too overwhelming. Just right!

This is a morning staple.

I’m a little confused by Fortnum & Mason’s categorization of this tea as black, as I put pouchong generally in between green and oolong.

The aroma is subtle – and to me, the best part. Like with all floral teas (rose petal, etc.), it’s a complex tea. The flavor isn’t for everyone. I like it, but it’s a tea I would not drink every day. Rather, I’d save it for violet season or other celebratory occasions.

sample from variaTEA and an opportunity to try this one again at a shorter steep – thankfully i remembered that’s what i wanted to do. it’s still nothing to fall in love with imo, but it’s a much better cup with a short steep.

VariaTEA allowed me the chance to try this one again. At 3 mins last time i had it, it was too bitter. At 2 mins, this is a better cup but still not a tea i need. This is a milk and sugar sort of brew imo, which is maybe why my mom loves it haha

Had this earlier today from mom’s stash of tea. While its not a bad little cup, it was a little too bitter for me at 3mins. I likely won’t get another chance to have some but if I did I’d try 2.5 minutes with water just a little cooler, to see if that helps. I much prefer the breakfast tea I have from fortnums to this one but it was good to try.

This is a bold Assam. Not for it the mellowness of meeker Assams, or the timidness of Assam blends. You will get a sharp caffeine kick from drinking it, and the malty flavours are coupled with a brisk bitterness and a notable astringency that loves to be tamed by milk-and-sugar. Today I’m drinking it with a bit of maple syrup, since I want to feel at least some of its invigorating bitterness, and no milk. It is a great morning companion that I may have to relegate to the office, since it is getting woefully neglected at home.
The caddy is the wonderful F&M caddy (very beautiful, extremely functional, great for stacking), and the dry leaves are a mosaic of warm walnut brown with flashes of gold in between. It smells deliciously dusky, as if warning of you of the potent kick that it holds.

For now there’s a ceasefire, which is good. Let’s see how long it holds. Yesterday wasn’t great with two terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, and a coworker’s son that is in critical condition in hospital. He’s been stabilized, but is still far from recovery.
Where there is tea there is hope.

Sipdown of the small caddy that I brought to work, but I still have some left at home. This is one of the most popular teas in the office, particularly in the mornings. I don’t think I’ve ever had any other tea disappear so quickly. I’m planning to restock the office caddy tomorrow.

Backlogging a morning cup with milk and sugar from Thursday morning. I’ve still not had enough time with this tea to properly rate it. It’s strong, malty, smooth and takes milk and sugar very well. I’ve yet to drink it plain – once I will, I’ll probably rate it. I have a friend at work that loves Assam, and he adores this tea. I’ll try to dedicate more time to it this week, to see if it’s worth restocking or not.

One of the best Earl Greys out there.

This is one of my favourite teas. I grew up drinking Chinese tea black and strong so I’m not always big on the floral/flower mixes (looking at you David’s Tea). I do love me a good chai, and this tea even with its lack of distinct spices, reminds me of it. It tastes wonderful with milk, but I’ll brew it strong hot and cold without anything. The saffron is light and so is the hint of orange. Wonderful tea. I’ve been trying to make mine last a long time because I no longer have access to it.

Thank you adagio_breeze for this sample.

It’s 12:22am and I’m watching Street Trash on the Horror Channel. My dad showed this film to me around 13 years ago and I have loved it ever since. It’s just ridiculous in terms of gore and blood, think purple, blue and green with standard red. Like Play Doh horror lol.

Anyway this Yunnan is mostly dark brown but there are a few golden tips to liven it up. Scent is mild but sweet and malty.

Once steeped this tea is dark golden red/brown in colour and has a rich, sweet and malted aroma. Still on the subtle side really.

Very sweet and velvety smooth with dark fruited (like mature currants) and malty. It’s very sweet like dark treacle with a hint of smoke.

The overall blend is nice but shall never beat my beloved golden tip Yunnan. Still as an everyday tea it’s very tasty. Plus also suitable for re-steeping :)

Tea of the morning…..

I have been eyeing this tea for a long time. While overseas ordering from Fortnum was a complete bust, I was able to purchase this one in person at Williams-Sonoma. I guess my curiosity won out over my feelings about the poor experience of ordering directly from them. I am very much willing to try any Earl as long as it is easy to obtain. I just happened to be at the mall this past weekend, so it was not even a special trip. I also picked up some sachets of Harney Organic English Breakfast for travel. I only travel with bagged tea anymore as the rest of the gear is kind of cumbersome. Yes, I have gone soft. Gone are the days of hardcore brewing no matter where I am. Convenience wins out most of the time.

The main reason why this tea intrigued me so was that it was a China black base. In reading the package it calls the base a “predominantly China blend”. I was kind of surprised at the leaf size. It seems pretty smallish like a BOP or even smaller. They are very dark and the smell of bergamot is bright and citrusy. The first pot I made had quite a bit of dust (now wet) in the bottom of my cup, meaning that it made it out of the infuser and then escaped the teapot. I guess I am not super pleased about the leaf quality for the price I paid. In the US it is about $16 for 125g. Lupicia is a much better value, but the shipping kills it for me since their Earl Grey is pretty much the only tea I would rebuy from there right now.

As for taste, it is very good. The tea base does make a rich cup of tea. The bergamot reads a little less bright than Lupicia, but not as musty (sorry about that descriptor, but I can’t think of a better way to describe it) as some Earls. I do like the packaging. Not sure if it would make the rebuy list, yet, but I am glad I finally got around to trying it. It is a good, solid cup of tea. (Rating started at 87)

Usual teapot method.

Edit to add: All of the dust in the bottom of my cup makes it pretty bitter by the end of the pot. I will drink this, but not replace it. Glad I tried it, though. (Rating took a serious hit by the end of the pot. Since the tea I brewed was measured from the top of the tin, I am pretty sure this is as good as it gets. Dust will be worse by the bottom of the tin.)

Fortunately the family members I visited F&M with were very happy with my tea-enthusiasm and were so kind as to let me try all their teas as well!! I didn’t order this one, though I suggested it.

The very first tea I ever tried with ‘orchid’ in the name was a Mighty Leaf ‘orchid oolong’ years ago that tasted absolutely foul to me. It had artificial orchid flavouring AND malt in it after close inspection, horribly artificially sweet and over-rich, so I was skeptical of this even though I was so excited to try a single estate tea of such high quality. Thankfully the scent confirmed the taste and my goodness, what a pleasure to drink.

This brew came out light amber in the cup with an unmistakeable scent of roast chestnuts. Now I have an oolong flavoured with roast chestnuts that doesn’t even match up to this! The flavours were nuts: literally, nuts. Pecans, more roast chestnuts, with a honeyed tinge, like the name, although I couldn’t possibly say where the orchid came from. The liquor was impeccably smooth and rich but the end was so astringent and left my mouth so dry that it seemed to beg me to drink more. I hadn’t expected such strong astringency with the light body of the tea, to be honest. This was an absolute treat.

Just had the pleasure this afternoon of being treated to afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason, to top off a touristy day since it’s not often my relatives visit from France :) This is the one I picked after much deliberation (the staff confirmed that the tea is served with the leaves still in the pot, so a green tea or anything more delicate was out of the question. Pity! I wanted to try a green single estate tea…) -As it was an afternoon tea after all, I thought a black tea would be best.

And how lovely it was! A fresh but rich orange blossom scent that came through with the smooth China tea, and the more robust flavours of the Indian tea really hung in the mouth along with the perfume of the orange. It was a good balance of fruit and floral flavours since I find orange blossom often leans too heavily one way or another. I had planned to drink the first cup black and then add milk, but it was so delicious I asked for some lemon slices and continued to drink through my pot black with a squeeze of lemon. Absolutely perfect addition to the meal.

A solid Earl Grey.

An enjoyable blend for the morning cup. I drank it without milk. It was pungent and strong. No distinctive flavor that jumps out or lingers. A good choice if you want a standard English style black tea that is of sufficient quality to drink without milk.

So, I definitely need more black teas at the office, apparently. Good thing my H&S order is being shipped directly here! (Not that I’m trying to hide it from my bf per se…. but more variety here will be nice!)

This is an interesting tea. It almost reminds me of a green with some of the notes. Odd! And it’s slightly bitter, but I guess that’s the muscatel notes you would expect from a Darjeeling? It’s a little grassy, but I’m getting honey too. Very pleasant, but not for daily consumption.

Oh and this is 1 cup away from a sipdown! I’m at 124 now, (assuming nothing arrived in the mail today), so I’m pretty happy about that! :) Of course I’ve got 10 from Butiki and 8 from Harney&Sons coming, as well as a bunch from Terri. My work is never done! Bwahahah

Thank you to Adagio Breeze for the chance to try this one!

Unfortunately, I can’t find the online listing for this infusion anymore (no longer of the F&M site), so I’m kind of winging it here in trying to figure out what’s in it. Surprisingly, the coriander seems to be a minor component. There’s lots of “stuff” in this mix that I can’t ID — something that looks like cinnamon maybe? I’ll try to remember to take a close-up photo after work.

Steeped, the smell is pretty mild. Mostly just…generically sweet smelling. Color of the liquor is dark red, like a glass of Cabernet. It tastes sweet. Really sweet – and, sadly, artificially so. Not tasting anything that I can pick out as the clean, citrusy taste of coriander seeds, but I wonder if it’s just because my taste buds are too overwhelmed by sweetness to detect other notes.
As it cools, I’m tasting something tart that tastes suspiciously like hibiscus. Blech.

Decided to use the steeping parameters recommended by DavidsTea for their coriander tisane, and went with a long steep at 208 F.

ETA: Dug through the dry infusion, and I’m now 98.6% sure there’s hibiscus in there. Or else something that both tastes and looks an awful lot like it!

This is an excellent tea, although not what I expected. The tin says that it is “Composed of the finest growths obtainable from Ceylon and Darjeeling,” but if I didn’t know better I would say it has the distinctive taste of Mei Zhan, a Chinese red (black) tea. Whatever it is, I will be enjoying many pots from this lovely tin.

Thank you very much NofarS for this sample.

After my manic cupboard searching which was made much easier thanks to yesterdays cleaning I came across this Darjeeling sample. Just what I have been looking for.

The leaves are crisp and pungent with thick floral and perfumey musk tones. Certainly one of the strongest Darjeelings that I have sniffed.

Once steeped the tea is light brown and orange in colour and has a musky floral and fruity aroma.

Flavour is delicate in terms of flowers and fruit but thick on wood and musk. It is very perfumey with some dryness but light enough to still be refreshing. It also has a slightly sour tang but it quickly subsides. I actually brewed this one a little weaker than I usually would based primarily on it’s very strong raw scent. I’m glad I did because the levels are ok, it’s not as floral as I was hoping for but nice by all accounts.

I am still on the hunt for the perfect Darjeeling….

This is certainly one of my favourites.

I was in London a few weeks ago, and went to one of my “tea heavens”—Fortnum & Mason. I picked up this gem and let me tell you, it’s pretty perfect.

It’s slightly citrus-y, complemented by bergamot. The nice thing about this one is that the citrus-bergamot flavoures don’t overpower the tea. Seriously, this is one well balanced blend.

Happy to have it in my cupboard now, so I have a little cup of London every morning!