Eight at the Fort

Sample Sipdown! (SRP #14)

Special thanks to Scott for the tea, and the fact that he sent enough so that I could try it a few times. I really like this one, and will likely buy some once I get a handle on the inventory.

Complex and well rounded. Very satisfying. This is my hard core black tea of the day! And I made a whole pot this time!

Well that’s the end of this sample packet unfortunately. This is another one I’m adding to my get-again list; I’m completely in love with the smoothness and the complexity of this tea. It’s rare to find a blend of tea types that works so well. I especially love all the cute little, perfect, bright-green buds that float to the surface after the tea has been steeping for a little while.

I’ve had this one before and found it quite pleasant. QuiltGuppy included it in my recent package, so I’m reunited and all that. I couldn’t remember anything about it though, so I went back and read my previous post about it. Had a bit of a laugh as it seems I wrote that one shortly after the time I cut my finger quite badly and had to try and cope with nine-finger typing for a while. I remember it as having gone better than that. O.o

Anyway, back then I described it as being somewhat two-faced; one part Darjeeling-y and one part Assam-y, with the chasm between them never quite bridged, and gave it 80 points. Let’s see if I’m in agreement with myself.

There’s definitely nothing two-faced about the aroma. It’s thick and honeyed, but with a strong floral/spicy aspect to it. Again the former from the Assam-y part, the latter from the Darjeeling-y part. However, they seem quite well meshed here, each complimenting the other, and the strength and honey-notes are taming the Darjeeling-esque grasssy spicyness that I normally don’t care for quite well.

It looks like, however, this is very similar to my experience the first time.

As is the experience of the flavour. It’s still somewhat polar, with Team Assam on one end of the spectrum and Team Darjeeling on the other, with everything else in the middle trying and failing to mediate.

And yet, I do still quite like it, and I do still think it’s worth 80 points. Having cooled a little, the malty, honeyed notes of Team Assam is really coming forward and that makes it a surprisingly sweet sip. Like sweet sweet.

Before you think it’s deeply sugary, however, there is a strong floral note here, which covers the whole thing up. Like a sort of curtain that you have to go through before you can really get to the good stuff, but the two otherwise not having anything to do with one another.

If that floral aspect had been more involved with the ‘rest’ of the flavour, I would have piled some more points on this one. Seeing as it isn’t, though… 80 is still a pretty good score.

Eight at the Fort, you win.

I dropped the temperature like it was hot [hahaha, I crack myself up] down to 180 and the difference was exponentially better. There’s still some bitterness to it that rides on the swallow, but it’s much weaker in this cup, and therefore more manageable for me. I get some astringency from it, but not as much as I have from some other teas.

There’s some maltiness at parts, but it’s very light and it comes and goes. On the whole, I’d almost call it yeasty. In fact, it kind of reminds me of bread. It’s got a savory quality to it, but also a fleeting sweetness. Kind of like challah.

Eight at the Fort is a nice, solid tea. It’s not plain, but in the way that it doesn’t rely on any additional flavoring or frills like other teas do, it stands firm. It’s your favorite cable-knit sweater. The kind of tea that you drink when you aren’t necessarily seeking anything specific, but want something you like.

I’ve wanted to try this tea for a while now. It’s one of those teas that I always seem to forget to put in my shopping cart when I’m shopping on Harney’s site, and after I’ve placed the order, I’m like “oh yeah! I wanted to order that!” This time, it was one of the first teas that I put in my cart so I wouldn’t forget.

After brewing this (but before tasting it) I was reading through some of the tasting notes, and I wish I would have lowered the temperature a little based upon what I read. But, let’s hope it will still turn out ok…

Wow! It’s so rich and full-flavored. Very nicely rounded.

I like this much better than I thought I would, and I was pretty sure I’d enjoy it!

So I didn’t exactly have a metric ton’s worth of luck the last time I made this puppy up so I thought I’d give it another go and use the hubby as a guinea pig to see if his tastes agreed with the tea more than mine. I also decided to brew this like a regular black even though there’s obviously other goodies in there. I could say it was something like I was experimenting to see what flavors I wanted to pull out of the tea, but in all honestly, the Zojirushi was set on 208, so I just used that. Apparently when I get lots of sleep, my mind is even groggier than when I get very little sleep.

This cup is actually more successful. But that’s only been on sips 2+. Sip one, things hit me why I wasn’t a big fan. Good brisk start to the sip, watery bland finish. That’s what did it for me the other time I had this – the taste at the end of the sip. It tastes raw and weak and thin. So I got that this time, made a face, then put the cup down for a bit while I checked out the flurry of activity that happened on here while I was asleep.

Letting it sit seems to have been beneficial in some ways since the raw, thin flavor is now gone from the sip but now there is a hint of bitterness right at the tail. It’s not unpleasant though, so I’m cool with it (others might not like it though). Fortunately, I’m drinking this out of my new 15oz mug so I can let the tea sit for a while without it getting cold. Which means to me, I’m only going to enjoy this tea in large quantities, when I can let it sit long enough to make that end taste transition but still remain a bit hot.

Still not a favorite tea or something that I’ll have to get in the future but definitely a more successful steep for me this time around. Gave the rating a nudge upwards as a thank you. The husband is quite enjoying his cup, though, saying it reminds him of a good morning coffee that he would actually like (neither of us are big coffee fans). He even went so far as to ask if it had Darjeeling and Keemun in it. I’d probably guess so and that helped me with that bitter flavor I get at the end – Darjeeling. Not sure what the raw, green flavor at the end previously was though, but now that I’ve let my mug cool a little too much while discussing Calibre sorting with the husband, I seem to be getting a little of that rawness back.

The husband also stated that he was a bit torn on this tea because it is awesome but borders on being a touch bitter at some times. He even went so far as to give it a low 5/5 stars. Which for him is huge. So yeah, apparently I’m the freak that doesn’t enjoy this tea.

Oh well.

I think this is a love or hate tea. Personally, I love it. Eight at the Fort is very complex tasting…smoky, malty, robust, earthy, slightly sweet. I could go on on and on. The mix of leaves is interesting and pretty to look at. This tea also holds up to milk and sugar very well. Super tasty! The caffeine content must be fairly high, because this is one of the few teas that I get a little jolt out of.
A HUGE thank you goes out to Takgoti for including this little gem in one of our swaps. She just exudes awesomeness. :)
If you like black teas with a little meat on the ribs, than this one is perfect. Nothing sissy ‘bout Eight at the Fort. He’ll smack ya around. Plus, the name is really cool. My husband appreciated the story behind the name and I think he felt special drinking it. And that’s cool. A big win…and a place on my shopping list for Eight at the Fort.

This really is a different blend. The dry tea looks very intriguing with different colors and lengths of leaf. It has a complex aroma that includes strong black tea, grassy green tea, and premises of fruit and flower. How was it going to taste?

I got this in a sampler size from Harney & Sons and may have to invest in a full tin. Eight at the Fort develops into a very strong and delicious blend of flavors. After about half my mug, I added some sugar and milk and I think I like it better with the additions, but it’s perfectly good without them.

Harney and Sons reveals that this is “A blend of eight different teas (keemun, assam, oolong, ceylon, yunnan, darjeeling, nilgiri, and silver tips).”

I was, at first, afraid that this tea was too ambitious and that it would not work, but I should trust Harney & Sons. It works as a good strong tea that would be excellent for both morning and afternoon. And what a fantastic name!

Another sample that I’m hoping technically doesn’t break my moratorium against black/green tea blends. This one has oolong, but the only thing that’s listed in the ingredients that could conceivably refer to a green tea is “silver tips” and looking at the Harney site, I’m guessing this is a Ceylon white, not a green. At least the only tea they seem to have with the words “silver tips” in the name available on the site is a white tea.

One of the nice things about Steepster (among a litany of nice things) is that you can take a look at how others have steeped something that seems potentially mysterious in what it wants as its parameters. Since H&S steeped this at 205 for 4 minutes, that’s what I’m doing.

I’ve just had several Harney blends with Assam in them in a row, and in the sample packet, this one has a lot in common with the others in terms of fragrance. It’s got that underlying earthy, loamy smell to it. There’s a little sharpness that may be from the oolong, and something that adds a sort of fresh smell. I’m wondering if that’s the Silver Tips.

The tea’s aroma is an amazing swirl of different teas. It’s like that scene in the movie of the Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy watches out the window as various personages, animals and farm equipment fly by and (at least the people) wave. I feel like I’m waving at a malty sweet Yunnan (hi, how are ya?) and then a vaguely smoky Keemun (how’s it goin’?) and then a slightly woody, fruity Ceylon (dude, what up?), and then a fruity, toasty something that could be Oolong or could be Darjeeling or could be something else entirely (hello, hello, whoever you are!). I don’t think I’ve had Nilgiri before but I’m sure it’s flying by as well. (Thanks for stopping by!)

And delicious! I think it’s the Yunnan that gives this a fuller bodied feel than the other blends I’ve had today, Elyse and Palm Court, but rather than heading toward a stout breakfast type tea as something with this body could, it has a sort of an upswing toward a mid-range of flavor that is easy on the taste buds and the stomach. I think it’s the Oolong and Darjeeling that are mainly responsible for this uplift, but it could be the Silver Tips as well. I’m getting no bitterness, some astringency but just enough to make it interesting. The aftertaste has a little smoke, some sweetness, and a kind of bready/green note that is difficult to describe.

I’m really glad that H&S was able to pull off such an amazingly ambitious blend. In lesser hands this story could have had a sad ending. I am very pleasantly surprised at how much I like this one!

ETA: The lingering aftertaste is really lovely, both sweet and refreshing. Bumping up a couple of points for the wonderful reminder over time.

Mm, this is yummy. It feels smooth as you drink it, and like some other Harney blends you only register an astringency in that it builds up gradually so that by the end of the cup you’ve got a thick, woody feel in the mouth; it’s only then that you realize it’s been coated in tannins. It’s not unpleasant either, because yeah, there’s a smoothness at the front. Complexity too—there aren’t many, but when I meted out the dry leaf I saw a few long silvery-green tips. There’s something cleanly floral, something Darjeelingish, and quietly in the background a sturdy spine of Assam or Keemun or something like that, just that hint of bitterness and brick-y chocolate. I could definitely drink this again. Might be a reorder.