Tea away from home can be a scary proposition. Tea in a public kitchen – scarier.
Needing a cup of tea at a gathering recently, I gulped and inquired as to where the ladies were getting their tea. I was led to a communal kitchen with a metal box containing assorted and sundry tea bags of unknown age and doubtful quality. But lo and behold, tucked in the box was a bag which proved to be Harney and Sons sachets! This, I can trust.
I had never tried Scottish Morn so given my dodgy tummy that sometimes rebels at Assam origin teas I was a little hesitant. Still, it was sure to be the best quality tea available here and I gave it a shot. I enjoy Harney’s Ceylon teas so that was another point in favor of trying this one as it is a blend of Assam and Ceylon.
In spite of my fears that it would be too strong – there was no milk or sugar available and I had no timer – it was quite nice. The water was boiling temperature and the time I guesstimated at 3 minutes. Any diehard strong breakfast tea lovers could go for five minutes and have a blast. You do you.
I saved the sachet in a tiny paper cup and resteeped it an hour later for a second mug, quite satisfactory. Note that Harney’s tea bags are intended for about six or so ounces of tea while the sachets are made with a mug in mind and can do twelve ounces very nicely. Keep this in mind when you are purchasing tea from them, because I USUALLY get 24 ounces of tea from each sachet, and that takes many teas from reasonable to BARGAIN!
The Assam was the dominant flavor, malty and bready, moderately brisk, and the Ceylon brightened and smoothed the cup. It was very drinkable plain and would easily take milk and sugar. It is considered a morning tea but I drank it at night with no food accompanying it and found it enjoyable.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Harney and Sons
Description
Scottish Morn is a strong tea, perhaps our very strongest. When you stand up your spoon in this tea, it might just stand straight. A portion of Scottish Morn & Scottish Afternoon sales goes to support the charitable endeavors of the American-Scottish Foundation®.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Monk’s Meditaton/Piper and Leaf -ashmanra
This was gifted to me by a friend who was curious about the blend but who isn’t really into black tea much anymore. She tried it and passed it on for me to taste.
It smells wonderfully fruity and sweet in the pouch!
I tried it hot first, and….wow. I actually did a slightly short steep of four minutes but this hits hard. The black tea is strong, builder’s tea strong, and might be just right for someone who adds milk and sugar, but I (and my friend) do not. To be fair, I have yet to meet a Monk’s Blend style tea that I liked, as they all came out too astringent or bitter for me, even with the fruit flavors. I love certain Ceylon teas, but others are a “no, thanks” for me.
I have never had catnip by itself but I read that it is woody and strong, and eventually minty notes will steep out. Maybe the catnip is also lending some bitter edge to this.
The grenadine is delightfully fruity, though, and with food this was okay. It is too astringent for my tastes to try to drink it without food – or sugar – to mitigate it.
Most tea of any decent quality can be manipulated to be at least drinkable no matter what your personal preferences are. I decided to cold steep this and see how it goes as a fruity iced tea.
I made simple syrup so we could each add sweetness to our iced tea as we like.
This is the way to go on this one for me! It cold steeped well in the fridge, and after about four hours of chilling and releasing those lovely grenadine notes, I poured it into mason jars and took it to the patio with a hearty dollop of simple syrup in each serving. Very nice this way, and might be just right for lovers of Monk’s Blend teas!
I will be saving some to pass back to my friend so she can try it cold steeped. It is really is the way to go with this one for me!
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Piper and Leaf
Description
Ingredients: Ceylon Black Tea, Catnip, Organic Grenadine Flavor, Calendula Petals
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Witer White Earl Grey/Harney and Sons
Earl Grey is one of the most well known hot teas amongst the general tea dabbling population. Even non-tea drinkers have heard of it, while staring blankly at you if you mention oolong.
Bit of trivia – Sir Patrick Stewart wanted his character on Star Trek to drink Lapsang Souchong, but producers said no one had ever heard of it and they wouldn’t know what it was. They insisted on Earl Grey being the drink of choice for Captain Picard and now Sir Patrick has Earl Grey out the proverbial wazoo sent to him by fans. For heaven’s sake, someone send the man some Lapsang!
Moving on. I don’t love Earl Grey but I like it occasionally. I especially don’t love Earl Grey made with Ceylon tea as the base because I feel the naturally lemon flavored base is too much when combined with the citrus-y Earl Grey. I prefer a good Keemun under my bergamot. And one does feel so elegant when one is drinking it!
I got curious about this Earl on a white tea base and ordered it. I went with sachets for ease even though I usually do loose leaf.
The bergamot is pretty forward here. I read the occasional review of some teas where it is claimed that the bergamot is light enough not to scare the haters, but this one definitely has it in the forefront. If you hate bergamot, I don’t think you are going to love this. But the white tea base lacks astringency and briskness that could make it overdone, so I find this far more drinkable than most Earls. If you love or even just like bergamot, I think this is worth a try. It gets a thumbs up from me, and the resteep is even better.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Harney and Sons
Description
A perennial favorite, our Winter White Earl Grey gives an evergreen classic a deliciously light twist. Beautiful Chinese Mutan White tea forms the base of this blend, providing light floral elements and a delicately grassy note. Natural lemony bergamot oil gives deep, multifaceted citrus qualities to the blend. A pleasant blend perfect for enjoying whenever the wish for something a bit different strikes.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Trappist Monk Blend Organic Black Tea from Fraser Tea. . . .
When I first started drinking loose leaf tea, someone sent me a sample of a monk’s blend. I don’t remember what company made it, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with it. I never did seek out any to buy, but I didn’t hate it. It just didn’t do much for me.
A traditional monk’s blend tea is black tea with vanilla and pomegranate, or grenadine, if you will.
This Trappist Monk Blend is far more complex. Blueberries, Michigan cherries, caramel flavor instead of vanilla, and lots more!
Did I mention that it is ORGANIC? This is a real point of passion for the brothers who founded this company. That raises the price, as would be expected with quality ingredients, but I resteeped my sachet and got a really great second cup, with almost no noticeable decrease in flavor or color.
The base is a smooth assam, so a nice bit of caffeine but not at all rough enough to need sugar. I thought it was delicious just as it is. I am guessing it would make a great iced tea, with or without sweetener, as well.
I found it to be more full-flavored than the monk’s blend from years ago. The assam and caramel lay down some nice deep bass lines, the stone fruits give us our sparkling middle notes, and calendula provides the treble. Cornflower makes it all a little sweeter.
This is a variation on monk’s blend that I can get behind!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Fraser Tea
Description
A unique twist on the tradition of Monk’s Blend tea, our Trappist Monk Organic Black Tea melds Michigan cherries with exotic vanilla and sweet caramel organic flavor and is crafted from the highest quality Assam tea. Through bold flavors, that are tempered with zesty orange peel, pomegranate and grenadine, the essence of this tea takes on a rich sweetness. We named this blend after the Trappist monks whose order our father was a member. Choose this organic black tea to help increase alertness and focus, we wish you a healthy mind, body and spirit with each cup.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Tea 24 Advent Calendar 2018 from Tea Revv. . .
Nothing says holidays like starting each day with a surprise gift. Advent calendars are literally the gift that keeps on giving. Usually they are filled with chocolate but for the tea lover on your list, I recommend checking out the Tea 24 Advent Calendar 2018 by Tea Revv.
Tea Revv was kind enough to send me a sneak peak of their upcoming advent calendar and just from the looks I was excited. The advent calendar box was smaller than I anticipated but its true when they say good things come in small packages! The box is beautifully designed with geometric snow-capped mountains and two little geometric penguins. It certainly evokes the idea of winter and fun.
Inside are 24 small satchets with 2 cups of loose leaf tea each. The satchets are all stacked on top of each other, with the Day 1 tea on top. One thing I
will say is that those who like the surprise of opening a door or scratching off a label to discover what the tea of the day is will not get that here. As you pull out one satchet, the next day’s satchet is right there with all the details of the tea. For me, the surprise factor is not essential and I actually like having all the details about the tea (including ingredients and brewing instructions) conveniently in front of me. In addition, the satchets are sleek and carry the geometric theme throughout with colorful and fun holiday images.
One other face-value perk of Tea Revv’s Tea Advent Calendar is it’s price. Relative to other companies offering advent calendars, Tea Revv is not very expensive and thus a great gift for every budget.
Now, how can I talk about a tea calendar without discussing some of the teas? I pulled out a couple of teas just to get a feel for the different blends the calendar has to offer. There is a lot of black teas and warming winter/holiday ingredients. Chai lovers would certainly be pleased. However, there are also fruit tisanes, rooibos blends, green teas, etc. Something for everyone.
One of the first teas I tried was the Day 1 tea, Frosted Fruit Spice. Frosted Fruit Spice is a black tea with cinnamon, ginger, apple, cloves, cinnamon quillings, amaranth petals, safflower petals, and natural flavors. The dry leaf and steeped tea have a deliciously sweet and spiced fruit smell. It has me thinking of fruit filling in a winter-themed fruit pie. Flavorwise, that spiced fruit pie filling transfers over to the taste though more subtle than the scent would suggest. Mostly that is because there is a floral component that is strongly coming through and conflicting with the pie filling. The floral picks up some of the base tea which gives it a bit of a drying effect. I don’t love that drying but the spiced fruit component is really tasty and the reason I keep reaching for my mug and with a splash of milk that is the flavor that is highlighted with the floral and drying drowned out.
I also tried Ginger Green. Ginger Green is a much simpler blend which simply combines green tea and ginger pieces. I was curious to try something other than a black blend and this is the first non-black tea I grabbed from the pile on my table. Now I should preface this by saying I am not a green tea lover and for that reason this tea will never be my favorite. With that said, I should note that it is actually a nice tea. The ginger has just the right amount of flavor and burn to keep things interesting against the green tea base. The base has a lot of umami flavor. Usually greens are grassy but to me this has more of a seaweed flavor. It took my by surprise but also had a richness to it that is more consistent with the winter theme of this tea advent calendar box.
All in all, I have enjoyed the teas I have tried so far and I am just getting started. I look forward to exploring all the blends this calendar has to offer.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Tea Advent Calendar
Where to Buy: Tea Revv
Description
2018 Blends Include: Chilly Willy Chai, Cranberry Apple, Notorious Eggnog, English Breakfast, Coffee Lover, Spiced Apple, Christmas Cake, Ice Cream Earl Grey, Relax, Ruby Amaretto, Golden Turmeric, Gingerbread Man, Belly Bestie, Pumpkin Pie Chai, Irish Cream Breakfast, Rum Pud, Snowballs, Christmas Eve tea, Breakfast Pancakes, Ginger Green, Chocolate tea, Ruby Chai, Achooo, & Frosted Fruit Spice.
Winter is here. But fear not. Defrost those hands kick back relax with Tea 24. 24 seasonal loose leaf tea blends! Each sachet has its own winter illustration packaged in a beautifully designed box. All designs produced in-house. Each sachet contains enough tea for two cups or one large mug. Brewing advice on front of sachets.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
