Manhattan

Tea Information:

Leaf Type: Black

Tea Description:

We are introducing our SoHo Blend in honor of our new shop in Manhattan. Emeric Harney, the shop’s host, came up with this flavored black tea concoction. Our SoHo Tea is a beautifully delicious blend of black tea with chocolate, coconut and vanilla flavors, and amaranth petals.

Learn more about this blend here.

Taster’s Review:

When I read the description of this SoHo Black Tea Blend from Harney & Sons, I really wanted to try it. Chocolate? Coconut? And Vanilla? That sounds too yummy to pass up. It sounds like … a candy bar in tea form! After checking through my reviews though, it would seem that I’ve reviewed this tea previously … so, consider this my second voyage with this tea.

The fragrance of the brewed tea is incredible. I can smell all the components: the rich chocolate notes, the creamy vanilla, and the sweet scent of coconut. I can even smell the earthy notes of the black tea in the background. I even smell very faint hints of flower, although these are somewhat obscured by the chocolate-y tones, which seems to be the most prominent aroma in this cup.

And this is a tasty tea. Unfortunately, it’s just not … quite as rich as I expected it to be. The body falls kind of flat and thin. Perhaps a more robust black tea base would help … something rich and malty like an Assam? Something with some heft that will not only support the chocolate, vanilla and coconut flavors, but also elevate them.

It’s not a bad tea. It has an agreeable flavor … I can taste the chocolate and the coconut and the vanilla notes. I can even taste the black tea. But, everything is just sort of … lacking in gusto. It’s a thin chocolate taste and you know me, I like a rich chocolate-y flavor. The coconut and the vanilla meld together to create a unified creamy note that’s a little bit coconut-y and a little bit vanilla-ish, but both of these flavors have the capability of producing a really rich, creamy flavor and I’m just not getting that from the sip.

Like I said, it’s a tasty, decently flavored tea, very much like my first experience, although I think maybe I liked it better the first time around than maybe the second. I guess it just goes to show that our palates change!

liberteas

Anne (aka the Mad Tea Artist) has celebrated her 29th birthday for many years now. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her hubby and her youngest daughter. Her oldest daughter is married and has bestowed Anne with the proud title of "Gramma" and her grandson is about the cutest boy you ever did see. Anne started her journey with tea as a casual drinker and became more serious about her tea drinking when she realized that she couldn't drink coffee. Shortly thereafter, she started becoming obsessed with the beverage and she started creating small-batch, artisan blends of tea that she sold online as LiberTEAS. After a few years, she realized she wasn't cut out to be the sole proprietor of a business so she closed LiberTEAS and started reviewing teas online. She met Jennifer through another blog that they both reviewed for and they decided to start their own review blog. This review blog! Throughout her journey as a tea reviewer, she discovered 52Teas and became enamored with the idea of creating a new tea every week. When the founder of 52Teas decided he wanted to move on, he offered the business to Anne but knowing that she wasn't cut out to be a sole proprietor, she instead offered the company to her oldest daughter who employs her as the Mad Tea Artist for 52Teas!

This post was posted in Black Tea