Assam Superb

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 the tea that my father used to always bring back from his business trips to London, and I’m always going to love it probably more than it deserves. A nice strong Assam!

a friend gave me this marvelous tea. it’s rare that i can find a tea that is strong enough, but this one gets there.

Ashmanra shared enough of this for me to have it three ways: super high-octane overleafed unleaded, a baby mild second steep, and one properly tended cuppa.

Either way, I was a little surprised to see such small leaves from a classy F & M selection. Not quite PG Tips CTC size, but close. Which resulted in plain old British breakfast tea without much subtlety—just like me and just like I like it. Very smooth, not much bite, very drinkable straight up without additives—although I added a dried orange slice to the baby mild steep and it was delicious.

FORTNUM & MASON ADVENT DAY 10

Ashman is off today so we had an everything bagel and tea in front of the fire. I forewarned him that this would probably be a milk and sugar tea for him and put some on the tea tray. He added it without tasting first. To get an idea of his tastes, he prefers white, oolong, green, and puerh plain and likes Bailin Gong Fu without additions but most other black tea is too astringent for him.

I drank it plain as long as the bagel lasted and found it to be a good tea for breakfast, with good flavor that held up even under the assault of the seasonings on the bagel. It didn’t feel too drying and it wasn’t sour. After the bagel was gone, the astringency was definitely noted and it was really drying my tongue, so I added milk and sugar and enjoyed the last bit quite a lot that way.

Ashman said it was fine, but he felt the body of the tea was not as creamy as he likes it to be when he adds milk and sugar. He said it felt a little watery to him, not in the ratio of leaf to water, but in the actual taste and body of the tea. He said he prefers to add milk to teas that already have a creamy body. He did drink two decent sized mugs of it, so he didn’t hate it. He said he didn’t find it too astringent, but he was having milk in it so probably wouldn’t have picked that up.

Sipdown! (37 | 37)

Another one I’ve been enjoying with milk and sugar lately. Apparently I’m on a tea with additions kick?

Anyway, having this last cuppa plain. I’m rather partial to Assam over Ceylon generally, and that’s the case here as well. This has a nice rich yet smooth malty flavor, pops of tart dried fruit and bottom notes of caramelized dark brown sugar. There is a touch of astringency at the tail end, despite my somewhat short steep. But it’s not enough to be distracting.

A pleasant Assam but not necessarily something I would specifically order. Enjoyed it while I had it though. :) I’m only at 5/24 for Fortnum sipdowns, heh…

It appears this was likely from VariaTEA, so thank you!

I drank it this morning; found it to basically be a decent bagged black. I was pretty good on the infusion time, and didn’t find it terribly astringent, though assams are not generally my black of choice as I don’t care for the flavour profile. It had some strength, and flavour, but lacked in the chocolate/raisin/delicious black tea notes. Kinda stoked to have found a few of these teabags though; I may stash them somewhere useful in the event that I have a guest who wants “normal tea”, because I of course do not stock Red Rose or anything like that, and who wants to waste good Chinese blacks on such people? Haha.

Trying again with a shorter steep time. It still comes out very dark and bold. The smokiness is more in the aroma than the taste now. The bitterness has calmed, but it still stands up for itself. I bet I could get a second cup from these tea bags and have it come out even stronger than the first.

I wish the amounts of tea we fill in weren’t just in tsp or g. There should be a button for bags and tablespoons.

EDIT: Y’all, the caffeine in this is outta control. It’s going to be an herbal-only evening for me. Bzzzzz!

My sweet wife was due some merchandise credits at the Williams Sonoma store. She so very nicely picked up this tea for me with her credits.

Assam is not my favorite tea as I prefer the Chinese products over those from India. I can’t always find Assam teas that are robust enough for my palate. However, I always try to experience new teas with an open mind. Hopefully, this Assam will be a great one.

My container for this tea was different than the one in the picture. It was also metal but round with a narrower neck. The cap had a cool plastic and reusable inner seal underneath it.

The unbrewed short brown leaves had the familiar aroma of Assam. I steeped them for five minutes at 212 degrees. The finished product was the color of maple syrup. The smell was sweet and malty.

The flavor had a sweet malty edge to it. I thought I detected a slight twinge of astringency during the first sip but it dissipated quickly and didn’t return.

I liked this Assam. It had sufficient tea flavor to keep my taste buds interested. I enjoyed the sweetness and malty emphasis in the taste. Some Assams have just tasted like weak tea to me. There was no unpleasant bitterness in the brief aftertaste. If you also are on the fence about Assam, you might want to take a chance on this one!

A friend of mine got me this as part of my holiday gift/care package when I was going through some rough times with my family. It’s not something I would have picked for myself because I am pretty picky about my straight black teas, though as far as blacks go, I have found success with Assams so I was hoping this would be the same. I took to brewing it but the directed parameters made me rather hesitant (3 mins in boiling water) especially when I saw the color of the tea getting very dark, very fast. So, I let the water cool and ended up brewing it for probably closer to 2 minutes. Unfortunately, despite the rich color, the result is pretty bland. What I am getting is a hint of smooth malt but overall it is coming off pretty monotone. Luckily I have many more tea bags to play around with in order to get this right.