Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
This tea is really tasty. The white tea is soft and smooth. It has a delicate, sweet flavor and it offers an interesting contrast to the tart and tangy flavor of black currant.
It’s a fairly simple blend – just white tea and black currants – but it tastes great!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have been on a 52Teas kick lately. I can’t help it! I love the unique variety of flavors they have and offer. I am currently staring at my maple Cheesecake TieGuan Yin and wondering if I should splurge and dive into it or wait for another time.
Today I was more in the mood for a white tea so I went with 52Teas Black Currant White Peony, a tea where the dry leaf has has a very similar smell somewhat mulled red wine. I prepped this one at work so I thought I’d share a cuppa with my co-worker. She couldn’t wait to try it.
I prepped this up per the instructions on the package (water at 170F & steep for about 3 1/2 minutes) and I poured us a couple mug fulls. We both instantly remarked at how that mulled wine aroma was still there with the brew and how delicious it smelled.
We took our first sips and wow our eyes lit up. This is exactly the tea you want to be drinking on a dark and dreary day like we are experiencing today. This tea delivers a simple yet satisfying flavor of sweet yet tangy berries (from the black currants), slight notes of a flora hint now and again, all wrapped up with a lovely wine aftertaste. Really lovely. This is one I could see sharing with friends at afternoon tea with a biscuit or two.
Can’t really say enough good things about this one. A depature from the complicated and unique tea blends that 52Teas offers. As much as I love those teas, I love this one just as much. Sometimes the most simplest teas are the most satisfying.
Festive Garden from Palais des thes
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Palais des thes
Tea Description:
A delicious herbal tea of fruits and plants, Festive garden blends cocoa, orange, and grapes and tastes like a candy store at Christmas.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have to say, steeping- this tea has a unique aroma coming from it. The description fits it perfectly. It smells like a candy store where there are a bunch of sweet treats all mixed together. Just from the dry leaf alone I can pick up what smells like bubble gum, cotton candy, and suckers with a grape and orange twist. Very unique indeed!
This is my first experience with Palais des thes. I’ve always wanted to try tea from them in the past but have never really come across it or think about the company when I’m looking for my next tea fix. I was excited to see this offering in my last set of teas to review.
This unique blend consists of 7 different fruits and plants and is just so much fun to look at. This is one of those teas that just put you in a happy mood while you are steeping it. I brewed this up with water prepped at boiling and allowed the herbal tea to brew for about 5 minutes. The tea was a lovely light pink or rose color. This tea just screamed for an afternoon tea time with proper biscuits and cookies. Or even to be served at a little girl’s tea party.
I allowed the tea to cool for a few moments and took a sip. What I am greeted with is a flavor that really reminded me of the aroma I was getting from the dry leaf. I swear this tea tastes like a bubblegum cotton candy mix with a slight hint of a chocolate undertone. A very unique herbal tea. That taste tho doesn’t seem like one that fits a hot tea very well so I tossed in a few iced cubes to see how this tea would play out as iced and also a lemon wedge.
The iced cubes seemed to really intensify the chocolate flavors. Those seem to be the first ones I’m now greeted with instead of the bubblegum cotton candy mix. That being said, the iced tea with lemon didn’t work out so well so I took the lemon wedge out and just enjoyed the unique cuppa I had. I wish this would be a great iced bubble gum cotton candy flavor like I was getting from the hot tea but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Regardless, this is one unique cuppa tea that takes you on a tasting adventure for sure!
Superfine Tan Yang Gong Fu Black Tea from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Origin: Tanyang Village (坦洋村) in Fu’an, Fujian, China
Ingredients: Tea buds with pure leaves
Harvest time: May, 2012
Taste: It presents slight aroma of sweet potato when brewed; tastes smooth and mellow with sweet aftertaste
Being the first one among Fujian’s three best Gong Fu Black Teas (Bai Lin Gong Fu, Zheng He Gong Fu, Tan Yang Gong Fu), Tan Yang Gong Fu Black Tea has tight and thin leaves, looks glossy, which could be seen from TeaVivre’s product photo. When looking at this tea, the golden pekoe is particularly eye-catching, strongly connected to its high quality. Under the effect of photosynthesis, fresh buds contain the largest amount of beneficial substances than other parts. Moreover, the traditional making method of black tea has retained the nutrition in the most volume.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Superfine Tan Yang Gong Fu Black Tea from Teavivre offers quite a different experience. It has a lot of the same flavor notes that one gets from a Fujian black tea such as sweet potato, malt, and cocoa but Superfine Tan Gong Fu is much lighter both in flavor and mouthfeel.
It is quite relaxing and soothing in the way it makes me feel thus a good afternoon or early evening black. I don’t think I would particularly select this tea for morning as I find it brings about a tea high state rather than the wake up call I need.
As I sipped on this tea I found myself so relaxed, and spaced out that I checked my blood sugar (I’m type 1 diabetic) just to be sure I was not running too high. High blood sugars often mimic a spaced out state of dizziness and being sleepy. My blood sugar was perfectly fine. Outside of aliens having zapped my brain I am pretty sure it was the tea. I have had tea highs before, generally with pu’erh but now and then I get it in other leaf types. This is one of those times.
The tea itself is rather sweet and has a fruit nectar note to it. There is also very much a pipe tobacco note within this tea as I have noticed a couple of other reviews mentioning. It causes the throat to feel a bit dry after the sip, a little scratchy too but that feeling does not last too long.
Seriously – I keep spacing out writing this review so I am going to close by saying – a truly unique experience. I am very glad that I had a sample of it from my last Teavivre order.
Mim Estate from English Tea Store
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black, Darjeeling
Where to Buy: English Tea Store
Tea Description:
Mim Estate from English Tea Store: This is a 2nd flush Darjeeling, grown at 6800 feet above sea level. The tea has a distinctive Muscatel character, with a hint of currant and an almost wine-like taste. It come from Mim in northern India, where you can see the tip of mount Everest on a clear day.
Due to the superb taste and limited production of Darjeelings, these teas are quite expensive. There are many who wish to take advantage of the high prices and as a result there are Darjeeling blends. Regrettably these blends are quite often very poor copies of Darjeeling and in some cases only contain 10% true Darjeeling teas; the balance made up from other production areas. A true estate Darjeeling is your guarantee of quality and genuine Darjeeling tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Mim Estate from English Tea Store, while good, is not my all time favorite Darjeeling from Mim Estate. I do love the English Tea Store and have been very happy with most all of my purchases there. I won’t try to suggest I know the difference between one tea from Mim Estate to the next. To me if the tea comes from Mim they should all be comparable right? Perhaps not. This is an area of my tea education I need to do more research on.
I know that English Tea Store states that they are selling a true darjeeling and I have no doubt of the accuracy of that as I have found the English Tea Store to be reputable and having excellent customer service. Perhaps I have been spoiled by the impostors and simply prefer those or perhaps I have been very blessed to have some beyond excellent darjeeling. Whatever the case may be I find this Mim Darjeeling to be good, very good, but not excellent.
Now please, don’t get me wrong, this tea is quite good! It is robust, has the muscatel note, but I would prefer a bit stronger on the muscatel. I have also found some Darjeeling to be somewhat peachy in flavor and I adore that note, which this tends to be lacking. There is just the right amount of astringency however which is notable as a positive.
It is a smooth tea, perfect for morning or afternoon with some tea sandwiches. I am having a cucumber sandwich with mine today and it is lovely. I think however the reason it is so lovely with my sandwiches is because it is fairly bland and does not compete with my otherwise mellow food flavors.
Overall this is noticeably darjeeling and a good robust cup with the right amount of astringency, a mellow muscatel note, and a typical darjeeling drying effect, excellent for food pairings, but I don’t think I would enjoy it as much as a tea to sip on without a meal.
Lady Londonderry from English Tea Store
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: English Tea Store
Tea Description:
Our Lady Londonderry Tea is a delightful afternoon tea with a malty floral flavor and hints of strawberry and lemon. This tea is made from black tea, dried orange, daisy white, and natural flavors. This tea is delicious hot or iced, and either way, your family and guests will feel like royalty!
Tea has been a British delicacy for hundreds of years. Royalty, lifestyle, and tea have long been connected. Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza brought the tradition of tea to Britain after she married Prince Charles II. She served it to her aristocratic friends at Court, and soon it became fashionable in London to have afternoon tea. With its light and elegant flavor, Lady Londonderry would have been a hit with ladies and gentlemen!
For the best brew, Lady Londonderry Black Tea should steep in water that has been brought to a rolling boil for 2-5 minutes.
50% or more of this tea comes from estates that are part of the Ethical Tea Partnership. The ETP is an initiative started within the tea industry to monitor and regulate living and working conditions on estates around the world.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea has pleased and delighted so many, just even judging on those I shared this tea with in tea swaps, everyone has commented back raving reviews, and good times shared with others and this tea! One lovely lady had a sweet tea party with her daughter and granddaughter, and this is the perfect tea for that! Lady Londonderry steeps to a really intense looking reddish brown cup which you would think by looking at it would really have a strong “in your face” flavor or be really robust but it’s a dainty tea. However it boasts such wonderful flavor offerings that it has also been enjoyed by the men I have shared it with as well! Now, if you are a male reading this and feel its too much of a girly tea for you, just simply order it as a gift for your wife or girlfriend and she will love you for it and you can sneak it from her!
Lady Londonderry is wonderful hot, and excellent iced it has such divine fruity and floral flavors in a rich base that does not get covered by all the added goodness!
While there is no added sweeteners to this tea, it is lightly sweet yet not so sweet that you could not add sweetener of your own, also it takes to milk or cream quite well!
You may not want to add any cream though as in my opinion it already has a sweet creamy flavor and mouthfeel! Add to that the berry notes, along with a light citrus taste, and the best silky malt base flavor that just floats around and dances playfully on your taste buds like butterflies in a garden of flowers.
When I first bought this tea and tried it, I clung to it ravenously! I was sure I would never want to share this tea – letting the cat out of the bag about just how good it is. Yes I wanted to be selfish and savor it all myself, but in time, I realized something this wonderful should not be kept to oneself. It was truly MEANT to be a tea to be shared with others. A tea deserving of everyone experiencing its loveliness. The Lady, as I call this tea, is perfection in a cup. She melds all of her qualities perfectly into this mysterious brew that everyone seems to get a slightly different taste from. Just like women, this tea is complex, but gentle, and LADY-like.
Its interesting that sometimes when reviewing teas, some of the most difficult to review are those that I adore so much. I believe that is because when I really love a tea it is because it is so unexplainable! Some things we just need to try for ourselves.
Lady Londonderry however has been one of my long time favorite teas and has a permanent place in my collection!
I also love the English Tea Store, their pricing is excellent, they have a wide array of tea ware, and treats, and their tea selection is amazing, not to mention the pricing is shockingly affordable! Some have reported that shipping is a little slower than most places but I feel that it is well worth the wait!