Kusmi Tea

Smooth and seamless, but I prefer other Kusmi teas to this one.

I was not impressed with this tea. Yes I love the smell of violet, but the tea did not smell or taste fresh and alive to me. Almost stale and muted.

I’m revisiting a lot of my old teas in an attempt to use them up before they go stale. Looking back on my old note on this tea I’m a bit surprised to find that this time I can in fact taste the red fruits that I couldn’t before. They’re subtle but similar to the grenadine flavour in a Monk’s Blend.

It’s been awhile since I drank this tea. I dug out the tin because I’m sending soem to Wombatgirl, so I figured I’d have some while I was at it.

My initially assessment of the tea was pretty accurate as it turns out. This mostly tastes like an earl grey – I can taste the pungency of the bergamot and maybe some other citrus fruit, and I can pick up the vanilla notes now that I added a splash of skim milk to my tea. But as for the caramel and red fruits? Sorry, no dice. Maybe I need to steep it longer.

The dry tea smells like a straight earl grey, the pungently citrus scent of bergamot pretty much all I could smell. When the water was poured it a sweeter, more berry like quality came through.

To me the tea still tastes mostly like an earl grey tea, although the bergamot is sweeter and there’s a bit of a smoother, creamy quality to it. As it cooled I also caught hint of the red fruits but I didn’t really taste much caramel – I could smell it but my tongue just wasn’t catching it.

The color of the tea is so dark orange that its almost brown.

It smells of fruit, citrus, vanilla, carmell, candy and spice like… pepper?
It taste sweet and spicey.
It had a weird aftertaste though – smookey and salty.
Weird because the smell indicate something else intirely.

…A very smooth tea. Does it ever get bitter?
Was a little suprised about the taste. I had a feeling that if I stripped this tea of all the aromas, I would end up with a tea that tasted like St. Petersburg. And if I stripped the tea from the blend itself, I would wind up with a chai tea and a bublegum.

Intrigued.

When making this, a small amount of tea and short steeping time gives the best result.
That is – if you prefer a sweet tea. If you like all the smookey spicey part, be generous ;)

Interesting…not for the faint of heart (perhaps for the faint of smell, though) Luckily I’m accustomed to the smell of edible seaweed, but it isn’t my favorite aroma. The taste of this tea is fine, not over-powered by the seaweed. I like the idea that it might have some good antioxidant properties (how much? I don’t know, really, but I’m all up for placebo effect too). Loving the cloth teabag!

I had this tea for the first time in Paris of all places (!!), and I don’t know if it was the overall Paris experience that sent me over the edge, but this tea is so perfect. The packaging is so well designed too! I’d never tasted any thing like it, and indeed, it is wonderful on its own or with a small dash of cream and honey. The citrus, vanilla, and bergamot blend together beautifully. I can imagine drinking this both in winter and summertime. Finally found a loose leaf tin for a reasonable price at Monsieur Marcel’s at The Grove in Hollywood, CA. Thank you Kusmi!

Trying this one again this evening… There isn’t the opening tang of bergamot present but what I do find as I smell the dried leaves is a berry or dark cherry perhaps? I’m not one for the caramel note but I am secure in the soothing characteristics of vanilla.
I let it steep for 4.5 to 5 minutes as I was desirous of a dark tea this evening. Feeling overwhelmed at the moment and moody… this might fit the bill. The addition of milk was a perfect touch and yet it doesn’t mask the bergamot and citrus notes fully.

There is much to say on this cup but I will leave off for the moment. The grumpies have got me and if I smoked tonight would be a two cigarette or fine cigar sort of night. I mean it no injustice as this is a very handsome tea. Ciao

If you look at the ingredients on the side of the cannister of many of the Kusmi flavored black tea blends you may be surprised to note that a large number of them read as “Earl Grey” + some additional ingredients. I’m no expert, but I take this to mean that Kusmi likes to use their Earl Grey as a base for many of their blends. Given that I love Earl Grey and I also love Kusmi teas I ordered this with high expectations. I’m sad to say this was a big letdown. Its not a bad Earl Grey, its just that the bergamot is so mild you can barely taste it. In fact to my palate this tea came across as almost bland! I suppose this is to be expected of Kusmi, because they seldom make tea with overpowering flavors, I just found it disappointing. Because of its mediocrity (but non-badness) I have to rate this one right down the middle.

This is a downright yummy tea from Kusmi. I like to call this a “dessert tea” becaus thats just what it reminds me of, dessert. When sugar and milk are added it has a taste similar to fruit dipped in caramel. This is a great tea to serve to guests after a meal.

As of writing this I have two teas that are tied for the honor of “my favorite breakfast tea”. One is the Irish Breakfast from Adagio, the second is this one. The leaves have a rich earthy aroma with just a hint of smoke that can be a real eye-opener early in the morning. After steeping the brew has a nice dark color with a rich malty taste that really helps to fire up the senses and kick-start your day. If you like a rich full-bodied tea with complexity to use as a coffee replacement in the morning, you should give this one a try!

This was a pretty decent holiday blend. I guess I was expecting a stronger taste of “holiday spice” (cinamon, nutmeg, etc), but this came across really mild to me (which I suppose is something I’ve come to expect from Kusmi). On their website the description for this tea says it “tastes like a Christmas cake”, and I think its a very apt description. This does taste like a Christmas cake (specifically it reminds me of a fruitcake). If you like the idea of a tea that tastes similar to a holiday fruitcake, then this is the tea for you. I personally found it to be a good but not outstanding blend. I may reorder this at Christmas time just for the novelty of it one year, but I don’t consider this good enough to become a holiday tradition at my home.

I got a sample on this Russian Evening because I was looking for a good decaffeinated “plain tea” (just tea, with no fancy flavoring) to drink at night before I go to bed. I’m a big fan of the Russian Morning by Kusmi, so I was hoping for a similar experience from this. I’m sorry to say I was very disappointed by this blend. I hate to be harsh, but to my palate this came across as a mix of Darjeeling and Ceylon that had been over-steeped, re-dried and re-packaged. Again, I hate to be harsh (because I am such a big fan of Kusmi) but this tea just did not work for me at all.

One of my favorite “fruit tea” flavors is currant. Seeing the red currant in this really drew me in so I gave it a try. The best part about this tea is the flavors of the “4 fruits” are an excellent compliment to one another but to me the currant essence stands out above the rest. Also like most Kusmi teas the “flavoring” or “essence” (in this case) is toned down and pairs up with the signature “smoothness” of the Kusmi black Chinese tea quite nicely. The end result is nice toned-down “fruit tea” that does not fall into the “tastes like kool-aid” trap that bogs down many other fruit-flavored teas. Highly recommended!

I’m not a big green tea drinker, but I am a sucker for gunpowder green tea + spearmint. Something about the combination of that “vegetable green” taste and mint just soothes me. The low stimulant factor makes it a great nighttime tea too. For two years I purchased Moroccan Mint from Teavana to satisfy my gunpowder green + spearmint cravings. Kusmi included a sample of this in one of my orders and one taste had me hooked. I tossed out the Teavana blend in favor of this and never looked back!

This is a decent Chai, just not outstanding. It has the signature “smoothness” of a Kusmi tea and that could be one reason I can’t rate this one higher. That smooth lack of tannin I love so much in other Kusmi teas does not seem to serve this one well. I like my Chai’s bond, sassy and full of flavor. This one was just a bit too subdued for my tastes (it almost seemed bland by comparison to other Chai’s I’ve had). If a smooth and mild Chai is your thing though, this is the tea for you!

This one I have to ride the fence on. I’m still not sure if I really like it or not! The first time I brewed a pot I was really put off by the sheer strength of the “citrus” smell. I put the word “citrus” in quotes because the smell is clearly “citrus” in nature, but not one of the citrus essences used in the tea (bergamot, lemon, lime and orange blossom) really stands out above the rest. Instead I was left with with an aroma is so complex, it wound up reminding me of some sort of cheap citrus-based furniture polish or floor cleaner (harsh, but true). Normally teas using some form of citrus as flavoring are my favorite, so I had high hopes for this one and maybe that was its undoing. What saved this from being a total disaster for me was I wound up getting a pretty nasty cold the week after this arrived. Being a hardcore tea-drinker I like to whip up a black tea with honey and lemon when I get the sniffles. Since this one already had MAJOR citrus content anyway, and I did not want it to go to waste I just brewed up a pot and added some honey + milk. It wound up doing such a good job soothing me when was ill it has now become a staple at my house for when allergies and viruses attack!!! So I hate to say this is a great “sick-time” tea, but for me that’s exactly what it has become. So if you’re sick or just a huge fan of strong (yet unidentifiable) citrus flavors in your tea, give this one a shot.

I gave this a go and (sorry to everyone who loved it) but I honestly found the flavor very odd and just not very good. The novelty of the licorice was not lost on me though. I did find it fun to take a sip, and then feel the natural “sweetness” build in the back of my mouth. That was certainly a very interesting experience. However, on the basis of pure taste alone, I did not find this blend very appealing. I could just be a victim of my own palate here though, as I’m not very partial to herbals. Make no mistake, although this blend does contain some black tea, it consists predominately of the other herbal ingredients (ginseng and liquorice roots, spices, guarana seed and pink pepper). Maybe that’s why it put me off. At the very least I can use the remaining tea from my sample canister for a quick “pick-me-up” (guarana seed has double the caffeine of a coffee bean). If someone would like to suggest some sort of alternate preparation method, I’d be happy to revisit it.

As my other tasting notes indicate, I’m a big fan of Kusmi teas. Given that this is listed on their site as one of their most popular teas of course I was obligated to give it a go. I can honestly say I’ve never experienced a tea quite like Prince Vladimir. From the initial aroma to the final brew, it is a decidedly unique tea. In fact, the first time I opened the canister in the presence of one of my friends and he had a whiff, he asked me if the contents were legal!!! Like most Kusmi teas, the final brew is very smooth with virtually no bitterness and the spices are easily discernible on the palate with or without adding sugar or milk. In my opinion it is the unique nature of this tea that is its most endearing quality (as opposed to the taste alone, which is still quite good). Its always fun keep some on-hand to expose my “non-hot-tea drinking friends” to “something different”. This is just a fun tea, period.

Delicious wish english muffins or a nice sourdough toast. Lovely aroma, with nice citrus tones. Perfect for a cool morning.