1403 Tasting Notes
Taking a break from the more froufrou French teas I’ve been drinking lately. Though to be fair, yesterday’s almond orange flower water pastry tea was not all that froufrou.
This tea arrived in my sampler box from the Quebec Online Tea Festival/ Festival du The Quebec. One of the few black teas, just saying.
The dry leaf is hardy and wiry. The leaves are longish.
I was rather surprised that this is smoky: medium smoky, in my humble opinion. The smokiness is juxtaposed with like a honey sweetness, a winning combination.
And oddly enough, it is the second tea I am seeing here today smoked on guava leaves. Who knew?
Really rather lovely. Smoky, sweet, full-bodied, malty. Easy to drink.
I will have no difficulty finishing off this packet of tea.
This tea is a bit finicky.
However, when you get right, and when it cools to just the right temperature, the rewards are great.
The cup becomes very very very close, if not identical, to Brioche by the now defunct American Tea Room. A blend that I, and many others, adored.
I wish the base were ever so slightly different, but I’ll take it.
Ohh, Brioche was so delightful!
Since “Brioche” is a catalog wholesaler blend, it is still out there from other companies. “Almond Biscotti” seems to be the most commonly used name, but an ingredients search can bring up others.
I find the Almond Sugar Cookie blend from Simpson & Vail quite similar too.
Good to know. I missed out on American Tea Room, but remember everyone on here loving “Brioche”!
Orange and maybe almond.. As I work my way through the cup, this orange almond becomes orange blossom water scented marzipan.
I think I may have binged on orange-flavoured teas recently.
The base is quite harsh in a Ceylon-kind of way (though i haven’t checked details).
Edit—the ingredients list a blend of black teas.
For future reference, I would suggest shorter cooler steeps.
Likely will be far better with milk. Though it becomes more and more tasty as it cools and the flavours settle.
I have some oat nog handy, but am undecided about making a commitment to that just yet.
We’ve (well, far more Lex than I) have become obsessed with the oat nog!
Ohh, which brand? Do you drink milk too or just non-dairy?
We’re vegan – no dairy at all. We love the Earth’s Own one! The So Delicious one is pretty good, but we like the EO better. :)
Oh good! That’s the one I bought. I haven’t tried it before, so can’t compare.
Oat Milk is my new favourite “milk” and Earth;s Own is goood (especially the barista version); need to pick up and try some of that Oat Nog..
Hmm, there’s a barista version? Wondering what that might mean.
Day two of Scottish Morn.
I like that there’s a bit of plaid ribbon tape running across the lid of this tin, differentiating it from other H & S tins and making it easy to find.
No milk. No eggnog. No additions.
Just strong and feisty.
I am taking the edge off with some raspberry cookies from the French bakery.
My “Plan A” was to order several blends and pure black varieties from H&S with Scottish Morn most definitely on that list. Then came “Plan 2” to just start diving right in with greater tea exploration and order some blends and pure black varieties from Arbor Teas. That turned into “Plan 2B” to order all of the pure black varieties from Arbor Teas. Then the “Hit the Road Plan” was to head into KC (nearby) and get some Shang Teas from the store front there. But what happened was the H&S order that I did not plan for wherein I picked a variety besides just black teas which they claim are among their top sellers, and then move on to many other things outside of H&S after that so as to not look like some sort of H&S fan. But now I am rethinking those future plans and this is on the future H&S order if things actually go to “plan”.
Hahaha, tea shopping like a boss. :)
I’ve been in tea world for a while now, but my first H & S order was only this year. Of course, I lost my mind. With a couple of exceptions, no regrets.
btw, they currently have a buy two tins, get one free thing going on.
Eh, the idea was to have this with eggnog for a punchy morning sweet brew, but the eggnog had gone off. Boo.
Today was the second day of the online Quebec Tea Festival, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Exhausted again.
In lieu of attending the festival, I took out one of my festival sampler boxes and tried a piece of this.
Quite tasty balance of 72% organic fair trade chocolate, organic theine, and wintergreen extract.
I was quite excited about chocolate with tea being included in the box, but I didn’t know which flavour. Mint is usually my last choice, so I wouldn’t have opted for this one with wintergreen though it is delicious.
I will have no difficulty finishing this teeny box of chocolate tiles.
I had no idea there was such a festival – neat!
That chocolate sounds really good! However, I like minty things.
Ms. Strange posted about tea boxes for the festival being available in November. It was a very brief purchase window.
I posted about it in one or two tea posts a couple of weeks ago
It’s a cool way to discover local tea companies and support them. I’ll be posting more as I make my way through my boxes.
Happening now. https://www.facebook.com/festivalduthe/
Also, the boxes are here. https://en.festivalduthequebec.com/boutique
It seems they are still available if anyone is interested.
Great. Just great. My tea kettle has been erratic. It started turning itself off just after I pressed the on button for it to boil. I found a workaround.
Now, a new level of just great. It has begun turning itself off before it reaches boiling. Infuriating because when I touch the kettle, it feels hot, so I think it has boiled. But when I pour the not-yet-boiled water over my leaf, it doesn’t quite steep.
Ugh.
Ok, so now about the tea. I let the not-yet-boiled water sit with the leaf for a few hours. Now, of course, the tea is cold. I added milk. Now it is even colder.
Never mind, still delicious but cold.
A friend dropped off some freshly baked cookies. YAY COOKIES!
Maybe I’ll have one or two with my cold tea.
Misbehaving kettles are the worst. I hope you’re able to get a replacement if you need one.
My kettle is behaving strangely as well! Three beeps, and nothing. No heating, nothing. Unplug and plug back in, it works. Heat water a second time, no beep when it reaches temperature. Just the solid light instead of flashing. I have a back up kettle in the attic, I am hoping the base of that one will fix the problem because the issue with the back up kettle is that it leaks at the handle if you fill past the .75 liter mark. Both Cuisinart. Probably out of warranty now, it has to be…
Thank you, Leafhopper. I don’t plan on being without a functional kettle for long. It sucks.
Ashmanra, sorry that you are being aggravated with similar too. Mine is a temperature-controlled silver Breville (i think). It’s not that old but likely the warranty has expired too. I don’t actually need a temperature-controlled kettle because I never bother with that function. I just control the water my own way (if the kettle actually boils the water).
We are tea people. We need functioning kettles. Jeez.
Also, it’s just one more thing on the tall stack of things. End rant.
And that’s why I use stovetop kettle. The electrical ones never survived more than an year here. Dunno why.
But I can understand you getting mad.
Thanks, Martin. Not mad, just irritated (which I guess is just a matter of degree).
Florence again because it was out and It was easy.
Today, however, I am drinking it with milk and unsweetened.
The chocolate aspect of the blend comes through a bit more with just milk, lending it a chocolate milk feeling with a hint of nuttiness. More of the base comes through as well, as opposed to with the eggnog addition, so there is more of an impression of drinking tea.
There was a dusting of snow overnight. I’ve been making an effort to go for morning walks, even brief ones with the intention of self-rehabilitation. I wonder how cold and/or slippery it is out there. I wonder whether I will actually get dressed and out the door.
I’m hoping to reinstate the walking habit while I’m off for Christmas break! The way my work day is arranged, it’s hard to find daylight to walk in during the week.
Mmm. Florence is among the many H&S teas I’d like to reacquire at some point. Sounds delicious.
Good luck with going for a walk – I’d love to be motivated enough to do the same, but I’m currently not, haha.
This is the issue: energy and motivation. Waking up feeling like the living dead doesn’t help. The point is to get some movement going on but also to get direct sunlight, such as it is, to nudge circadian rhythm along. Sigh.
I have some workout tapes available, energy, motivation, and free space. Sigh. We’ll get there, we’ll get there.
Re Florence, I like it. Aim for the 20% off or better sale to take the edge off shipping. I ordered all the things.
I enjoy this gentle little Qi Gong exercise! I have moved on to other variations and learned a few new or more difficult moves (not many), but she makes me smile! Maybe you would like to try it sometime just for a change!
I love qi gong. Thank you. I will try it.
Another one! Neat! I have a feeling I like this method.
Yeah, I am really enjoying this tea. I’ve been drinking it all day. Smooth. And another bonus is that it seems near impossible to oversteep.
Good to know! Going to need to check out this one sometime in the new year..
I also appreciate how this tea’s name clearly states the country of origin. Mariage Freres was all “this is from Southern Africa”. I cried geography tears lol
Geography tears—lol!
Also, it seems that the boxes are still available. :)
https://en.festivalduthequebec.com/boutique
I am particularly enthusiastic about the caramel infused with tea though, honestly, everything so far has come as a welcome surprise. (though I am not a huge fan of the RTD teas.)
Mmm… did you get the “Découverte” one? It’s extremely tempting.
Yes, yes, I did. Though this tea is from the grand cru sampler. Each one is quite tempting in its own way. And I felt that I was behind on my matcha experience, so I got that one too. /facepalm/
There are cool surprises in these boxes, ie. things I didn’t really know I wanted until I got them. :)
If you decide to get one/some, try the KELLY15 code for 15% off. It probably still works.
The last time I was in Montreal, I discovered quite an amazing range of tisanes. I guess it is a thing there. Not that I am that much drawn to them normally. However, they are so delicious. These boxes have a nice variety of them: floral and foresty. Another perk.
I too am behind in my matcha experience.. I am you here, but in the past, and I’m determined to repeat the same mistakes/happy accidents.