Tea tasting: David's Tea Pink Flamingo

David's Pink Flamingo herbal tea is a tisane composed of hibiscus blossoms, apple pieces, carrot flakes, blackberry leaves, eucalyptus leaves, lemongrass, beetroot pieces, and freeze-dried tangerine/orange slices.  It is, as advertised, bright pink when brewed.

The aroma is extremely fruity, very reminiscent of pink grapefruit.  The flavor has a similar citrus bite, although less obviously grapefruit-like.  There was something slightly off about the plain brewed flavor -- the fruits just didn't balance out in a way that made my happy.

Adding a teaspoon of honey, however, righted the balance.  The touch of honey smoothed out the grapefruit-like sharpness and left a tasty, slightly sweet, blend of several fruits with a predominant citrus note.

I think this tea would be spectacular iced, where the tangy sharpness would play better.

Tea tasting: Stash's Christmas in Paris Herbal Tea

I'm generally not a fan of Stash brand teas; there's always something slightly off about them, at least to my palate.  But I decided to give Christmas in Paris a try in the spirit of the season.  Because remember, I drink bad tea so you don't have to.

All in all, it's not bad.  The flavor is a blend of lavender and peppermint with slight overtones of cocoa.  The cocoa comes out far more strongly in the aroma than in the taste.   It's an interesting flavor but there's something missing.  I want something more assertive, maybe some stronger cocoa tones?

Honey doesn't do anything for it.  However, when I'm out shopping tomorrow I'm going to pick up candy canes -- I bet melting a candy cane in this would be awesome.

Tea Tasting: Zhena's Lemon Jasmine Green Tea

Zhena's Lemon Jasmine Green Tea was terribly disappointing.  Maybe it was just an old sample package.   But there wasn't much in the way of either lemon or jasmine in the tea flavor.  It was just insipid -- a sort of vaguely sweet green without much in the way of character.  If there's jasmine in there anywhere, it's not enough that I noticed it.   I'd drink it if it were the choice between this and, say, Lipton, but I would not go out of my way to buy or drink this tea otherwise.

Tea experiments: Tea and booze, part the first

Inspired by the Canadian "blueberry tea," I decided to try some of my own tea and alcohol combos.   Today's experiment is Celestial Seasonings' Cinnamon Apple Spice, a tea I generally find slightly too sweet, mixed with ice cider.  Ice cider (also known as cidre de glace) is a liquor made by fermenting the juice of frozen apples or frozen apple juice.  It's a big thing in Montreal, which is how I discovered it.

Ice cider is smooth, sweet and not fizzy, all of which really work for me.  The combo of the ice cider in the hot apple tea is excellent.  The slight bite of the cider blends well with the sweetness of the tea.  The apple flavor very strong, but it never descends into the cloying sweetness of apple juice.   This combo is definitely a keeper, assuming my minions bring me back more ice cider from Canada.

Tea Tasting: Zhena's Gypsy Tea Ambrosia White Plum

I've been putting off my write-up of Zhena's Ambrosia White Plum tea because it is a very hard tea to pin down.   I can smell the plum and rose elements in the aroma.  It's hard to taste them, however.  I get an initial sweet flavor, but as the tea settles into my mouth the tea flavors themselves overwhelm any sweetness or fruit flavor.  The rose petals supposedly mixed in the tea are completely undetectable.

I don't like it or dislike it.  It's simply odd.  I don't object to drinking it, but I am unlikely to buy it again after I finish the sample I was given.

Thanks to +Rachel Wertheimer for this sample!

"Arabic Mint Tea"

+Christine Dalessio and +Stacey Rothrock Steinfeld  tried out a restaurant on Wednesday that billed itself as "Lebanese Fusion Cuisine."   Among the drinks advertised on their menu was "Arabic Mint Tea."  Of course, I had to try it.

My former favorite restaurant, Pamir, now unfortunately closed, had an excellent mint tea drink made from a good black tea with extra muddled mint that had to be strained off unless you wanted mint leaves in your teeth for three days.  This "Arabic Mint Tea" did not live up to that.

It was good, don't get me wrong, but its potential to be so much better made it disappointing.  First of all, the base for the tea was regular old off-the-shelf Lipton black, which nearly made me cry right in the restaurant.   Rather than muddling the mint, they stuck a mint sprig the size of my hand in with the tea bag, and then added hot water.   While I love mint well enough that it was a nice drink on a cold, damp night, it could have been done so much better with a decent black tea.  Muddling the mint in the glass (like they do for mojitos) would have enhanced the mint flavor far more than just dumping half a mint plant into a mug.

For those curious, the restaurant in question was La'Mezza in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.   The appetizers were better than the entrees, and the menu was smallish.  Of the last two "not-Pamir" restaurants we've tried, this one is very much in second place.

Canadian "Blueberry Tea" is not really

During our trip to Nova Scotia this past weekend, I encountered something called "blueberry tea."  It was described to me as standard black hot tea mixed with a combination of liquors that caused it to taste like blueberry.   I didn't have occasion to try the blueberry tea at Friday night's dinner, but I couldn't pass it up when we saw it a second time on Saturday.

So, along with +Lisa Goldthwaite , +Jody Livingston and +Clark Wright , we ordered the blueberry tea as an experiment.  It was an experiment of dubious success.

The liquors added to the tea in this instance were Grand Marnier and Amaretto.  In no portion of this universe should the combination of Grand Marnier and Amaretto taste anything like blueberry.   And, for the most part, it did not.   +Jody Livingston  and +Clark Wright noticed some blueberry aftertaste and a little blueberry in the aroma.  I caught the slight hint of blueberry in the aroma, but the taste was all tea and almond from the Amaretto.   The drink was improved by icing, but it still did not taste like blueberry enough to qualify as "blueberry tea."

In hindsight, I likely should have steeped the tea for longer.  It was Tetley, so I probably could have steeped it for 5 minutes instead of 3, without its becoming undrinkable.

The failure of the blueberry tea experiment led us to a discussion of what other types of alcoholic teas might be worth concocting.  We have a few ideas that we will test out over the course of the winter.

Tea tasting: Adagio's Snowbud Tea

Adagio describes its Snowbud white tea as follows: "White tea from the Fujian province of China. An airy, light tea, which yields a cup worthy of its name: very delicate body, with a clean, barely sweet aroma and effervescent texture."   It is all of these things.  I also get a grassy flavor with a nice clean mouth feel.  It's a great palate-cleansing tea.

A little bit of good honey makes the brew light, sunny and golden.  Over-sweetening would kill the subtlety of flavor that makes this tea special.

Tea tasting: Adagio's Chocolate Chai

I am not a huge fan of either chocolate or chai, but +Kay White is, and I got a sample package to share with her the next time we were together.

Adagio's Chocolate Chai is a wonderfully aromatic brew.  It's spicy and rich.  You want to inhale deeply and roll around the scent in your lungs.  The cardamom, clove and cinnamon come out very strongly in the scent and in the flavor.  Unfortunately, the chocolate was somewhat muted by the lack of any milk to add to the tea.  I don't ever put milk in my tea and I didn't plan ahead.   Clearly I'm going to have to get another sample, and buy some milk while I'm at it.

Tea Tasting: Teavana's Youthberry White Tea

I'm not entirely sure why they call it "Youthberry."   It's a white tea with a lot of different mixed fruits -- red currants, açai berry, hibiscus, rose petals, candied pineapple, mango pieces and Fuji and golden delicious apples.  

The resulting tisane is sharp, bright and fruity.  The tart fruits come out more prominently than the sweet fruits, unless I add honey.   This is one of the few teas where I really want the sweetener to even out the flavors.  Also be very careful not to over-cook this one with a hotter water than is appropriate for white tea.  White teas are best at 175 degrees.  If you use hotter water, it makes the resulting tisane less flavorful.

Teavana recommends blending the Youthberry with its Wild Orange Blossom herbal tea and even sells it pre-blended.    I like the blended version better than the straight Youthberry.  It's a smoother flavor, with a better balance between the sweet and tart aspects.

Tea tasting: Dong Yang Dong Bei Green Tea

Dong Yang Dong Bei, sometimes called Dong Yang Dony Bei, is a type of green tea, rather than a particular brand.  It's a long-leaf tea grown in the Dong Bei mountains in northeast China.

I borrowed a sample from my co-worker, a fellow tea fan, who picked it up from a local shop.  It's a nice green tea, smooth and a little malty, not too bitter as long as it is brewed correctly.  Many people identify a strong floral note, but I'm not getting that in the tea I'm drinking.  I keep coming back to malty or leafy.  Above all it's a soothing tea.  There's no harshness to it.  It goes down like a warm hug.

Tea Tasting: Oriental Route tea, from Thailand

+Wendy Marques brought me back tea from one of her trips to Thailand.  She has been waiting patiently for hot tea season to come around for me to sample it.  I finally did so this morning.

This is a fascinating tea.  It's very high quality black tea mixed with cinnamon sugar, jasmine, rose petals, sunflower petals and cornflower blossoms.  There are multiple layers of flavor going on, and they shift depending on the temperature of the tea, whether honey is added, and what you are eating with the tea.  The easiest notes to notice are the rose and cinnamon, but after a moment, you can also taste something like sunflower seeds.  It tasted slightly different with my morning bagel (a little more flowery) than it did with my afternoon snack of almonds and dried cranberries (more cinnamon and cardamon notes).  The taste also varied depending on the type of honey I used to sweeten it.  The buckwheat honey emphasized the cinnamon, while the clover honey strengthened the rose and cornflower.

I cannot say how much I love this tea.  Drinking it is an adventure.  I'm definitely going to have to see if it's available anywhere in the U.S.  Or hope +Wendy Marques goes back to Thailand some time soon.

Flying Pig Team Room, Milford, PA

Last Saturday, my mother and I went and tried Flying Pig Tea Room, in Milford, PA.  It's a fairly new establishment, open about a year.  It is only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  It doesn't have a website, but does have a presence on G+ and Facebook.

It's a small space, fortunately well marked with signs, containing about 8-10 tables (it was hard to tell whether one large group was a single table or two tables pulled together).  The decor is a modern spin on the over-decorated Victorian aesthetic, with knick-knacks on every available flat surface.  There are hats and feather boas (!) for those inclined to dress up for their tea.  Reservations are strongly recommended as the tables fill up quickly and were never empty the entire time we were there.

The tea and food menu are small-ish, but satisfying.  Someone very familiar with tea brands (like me) will recognize the selection as relying heavily on Republic of Tea's brands.  This is not a bad thing: Republic of Tea has a lot of excellent selections.  I was particularly pleased to see their Raspberry Quince Black on the tea menu, as I've had a great deal of difficulty finding that blend in my usual stores.

Tea is available by the glass, in small pots and in large pots.  I had a small pot of Raspberry Quince Black.  My mother had a small pot of the Vanilla Coconut White.  Both were excellent teas.  The Vanilla Coconut had a rich aroma but a lighter and more delicate taste, and none of the watery tendencies I've often found in white teas badly brewed.  Like most Republic of Tea blends, the primary flavor of the Raspberry Quince black was black tea, with the tart and sweet notes of the fruits solidly in the background.  I love raspberry flavors, and the quince is a great additional note.

Flying Pig also serves several blends of iced tea.  I tried the mango, which was both pleasant and refreshing, although the mango flavor could have been stronger.  It was served in a large mug like a handled mason jar, and I very much appreciated the size of the serving.

My mother ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, which was nicely sized and grilled like a panini.  I had a savory quiche lorraine with an adequate green salad.  I waffled between ordered the quiche and ordering a chicken salad with apples and raisins -- I went for the warm meal because it was a nasty rainy day.  I look forward to trying the chicken salad.

We were both so full that neither of tried any of the offerings on the small dessert menu.

For a small start-up tea room, it was a good, comfortable experience.  I recommend it for people traveling through the Milford, PA area to go antiquing or visit the Poconos.  

Tea tasting: Zhena's Pomegranate Rose Green Tea

One of my readers kindly gave me a sampler of Zhena's tea blends to review.  Today's cup was Pomegranate Rose Green Tea.  I was somewhat dubious about this one -- done badly it could have been like drinking bad potpourri.

I was very lucky.  The Pomegranate Rose Green Tea is a nicely grassy green tea with the slightly sweet flavor of pomegranate lingering in the background.  I honestly did not and do not taste the rose elements at all.  At most, there's a slightly floral perfume to the brewed tea that could, I suppose, possibly suggest roses.  It's important to watch the brewing time one this tea.  If steeped too long it goes quite quickly into bitterness.  

A little bit of honey is a nice addition.  It enhances the pomegranate flavor.

My Favorite Tea House

Other tea houses have nicer, more sophisticated decor.  Other tea houses have more complex menus.  But hands down, Sally Lunn's Tea Room  in Chester, NJ is my sentimental favorite tea house for now and pretty much ever.

I discovered Sally Lunn's about 15 years ago.  It is tucked into a back street in the antiques district of Chester, NJ.  You can't see it from the street, and from the outside it looks like a frowsy old lady antique shop.  That impression won't much change when you go inside.  The tables are covered in long lace table cloths.  The walls are packed with china tea cups and weird antiques, most of which are for sale (and some of which are surprisingly valuable as I recently discovered).  Most men walking into Sally Lunn's immediately feel that they are about to be the bull in the proverb.

The waitresses are generally college-age or high school females dressed in long skirts and aprons.  On days when the shop is not packed, service is pretty good.  However, on high traffic days, like Mother's Day, they frequently get overwhelmed and forget things like drink refills.

There is a six-page tea menu, and I have never had case where the tea I wanted was out of stock.  There are a number of very good in-house blends of black teas as well as the standard flavored and herbals.  They also make a spectacular aromatic chai.  For those who are not tea fans, the shop carries lemonades and a delightfully refreshing lemon-lavender drink.

The menu is so very very very British.  There is a ploughman's lunch with Branston pickle, an astoundingly good cottage pie (shepherd's pie), as well as the traditional tea sandwiches like cucumber and shrimp salad.  One of my favorite dishes is the ham and brie on wheat bread with apple butter.  Most dishes come with a side salad.  The fruit and Caesar salads are very good, but if you are a cheese lover do not skip the green salad with Stilton cheese dressing.

The scones are a dream.  The come, of course, with Devon cream and strawberry jam.   There are generally about 6-7 different types of scones a day, hitting most of the usual flavors and an occasional seasonal flavor like pumpkin or peach.

Save room to sample the wide variety of profoundly British desserts, including multiple different kinds of trifles and treacle pie.   I have literally never had a bad dessert here.

Sally Lunn's carries many of its teas in loose form for purchase.  It sells tea paraphernalia and a number of British food products.

It is not a perfect or high end dining experience by any means.  As I mentioned, the servers can get overwhelmed when the shop is very busy.  There is a single one-seater bathroom which makes for long lines on busy days.  Also, the shop is not really designed for very large parties.  For a group of 6 or less, you'll have better luck.

Nevertheless, I love this place.  It's homey and quirky and adorkable.  The cottage pie is one of the single best pieces of comfort food I've ever eaten.   There are places with better food and places with more elegance, but Sally Lunn's is like family.

Bad Tea Chronicles: Steaz Iced Green Tea with Raspberry

I saw Steaz Iced Green Tea with Raspberry  in the supermarket when buying lunch today, and decided to give it a try.  It is canned iced tea that advertises itself as naturally sweetened and zero calories.   I am here to put you all on notice.  If you see a Steaz Iced Green Tea with Rapsberry in your vicinity, run.  Run far, run fast, and don't look back because it might see you.  If you have a can in your possession now, put a stake through its heart and bury it at the crossroads in a ring of rock salt.

It is awful.  Pure awful in a can.  I took one gulp and promptly began looking for some way to wipe the taste off my tongue.  I am contemplating eating a bag of Doritos because that unnatural flavor is the only thing I can think of that might be enough to kill off this lingering repulsive aftertaste.

My single gulp was a bizarre combination of overly sickeningly sweet and overly grassy, with a dose of strangely chemical backtaste.  It's like what I imagine a SweeTart would taste like after being rolled in grass, dipped in the Passaic River, and then put back in my mouth.  I don't know if it was the sweetener or if the tea had simply gone bad in the can (although "drink by" date is in 2016), or if it is simply the height of manufactured awfulness, but I advise never ever drinking this, even on a dare.

Tea tasting: Zhena's Gypsy Tea Raspberry Earl Grey

As the weather move from iced tea season into hot tea season, more reviews should be happening.

Zhena's Gypsy Tea is a brand I've not tried before, and the notion of a Raspberry Earl Grey was so unusual that I thought it worth trying.  It was either going to be delightful or awful, and who better to take the bullet for my reading public by drinking bad tea so you don't have to?

This combination should not work.  Bergamot oil, the main flavoring in Earl Grey, is a citrus oil.  You would expect raspberry and citrus to be overly sweet.  And you would be completely wrong.

This tea uses a properly light hand with both the Bergamot oil and the raspberry, yielding a highly drinkable and smoothly flavored tea.  The raspberry notes come out in the aftertaste rather than as a sweet element in the beginning.  I am going to try adding some raspberry honey tomorrow and see what interesting things that does to the flavor.

Tea House: Tea at A Taste of Britain

Snuggled in a high-end strip mall in Wayne, PA is A Taste of Britain, a tea shop with a small adjacent gift shop carrying British food products.   There are about a dozen tables in a sunny room with sleek but calming decor, including art by local artists.  It was an excellent experience (and not just for the lovely company of +Cathy Griswold and +Wendy Marques) and I grade this tea house with a solid A.

The service was attentive without being overbearing.  +Wendy Marques  got stuck in traffic and was late, but our server was more than happy to bring us initial drinks and let us wait for her without trying to hustle us along.  She was also nicely knowledgeable about the various tea options on the menu.

The tea menu offered a variety of options for every palate.  I started the day with a deep, rich Kenya black.  I hadn't had Kenya tea before and was quite pleased.  I think the mention of "subtle fruit notes" in the menu oversells the strength of those notes, though.  Let's just say they were pretty darn subtle.

For my second pot of tea of the day, I ordered "White Tea with Raspberry & Ginger," which the menu described as "Tangy and complex, with dried raspberries and ginger, subtly spiced with cardamom, star anise, and cloves."  This was utterly enchanting.   So much so that I bought a quarter pound to take home.  It was like a delicate fruity gingerbread.

In addition to tea, they also do spritzers made from soda water/tonic and fruited cordials.

For a mere $18.00, I ordered a full afternoon tea that was heartier and more filling than some meals I've had.  The sandwiches were flavorful and savory -- a classic cucumber sandwich with some nice herbs, an interesting cheese and chutney on wheat toast, a flavorful chicken salad and something else I'm not currently remembering.   The scone was everything a scone should be, rich and substantial and full of flavor.  I ended up taking the mini-pastries from the tea home because I was too full to eat them.  They didn't travel well, but that my have been because I left them in a muggy car for a couple of hours.

We also had an excellent appetizer of mushrooms in a hot cheese sauce flavored with mustard, with flatbread pieces for dipping.  I must figure out how to make this, as mushrooms and cheese are some of my favorite things in the universe.

I highly recommend A Taste of Britain to people in the greater Philadelphia area.  I look forward to a chance to go back again.

Bottled iced tea: Honest Tea Peach White Tea

This working for a living thing has slowed down my ability to write about tea.  Drat it all   :-)

As I've talked about before, finding bottled iced tea that is not far too sweet is a significant challenge.  I'm pleased to report I've found another one that is highly drinkable, refreshing and only very lightly sweetened.

Honest Tea's Peach White iced tea is billed as "just a tad sweet" and, for a nice change of pace, that description is accurate.  There is a hint of peach and a hit of unflavored sweetness and the nice bitter tang of tea over it all.  It manages to be palate-cleansing like a good tea should be without making me want to reach for an insulin shot.

Tea House: Terra at the Isabel Rose

I apologize for the long delay in posting something new: it's been a busy couple of months in the rest of my life.

On Monday, along with +Stacey Rothrock Steinfeld , +Christine Dalessio and Jenny, we went to Terra at the Isabel Rose, a team room in the Montclair Public Library in Montclair, NJ.   It's a very small space, with about six tables.  It offers a lunch menu as well as an afternoon tea.

We did the afternoon full tea, which features a large pot of tea, an assortment of finger sandwiches, a scone with all of the usual fixings, and a selection of desserts and fruit.  I was somewhat disappointed in the sandwiches -- they were well done but could have used a bit more flavoring.  The cucumber sandwich, for example, would have benefited from some herbs or mint to combat the blandness.  But the scones and desserts were spot on.  If I go back, I think I'd try the standard lunch menu, which looked far more interesting.

The tea menu was large and diverse.  I was unhappy that some of the odder selections I wanted to try were not in stock.  But I was ultimately quite happy with the Buccaneer blend, featuring (coconut, chocolate bits, vanilla, rooibos, Nilgiri black).  The flavors blended nicely, but they needed a teaspoon of honey to come together properly.

+Stacey Rothrock Steinfeld tried an herbal blend called Chaucer's Cup, which featured mango, rose hips and rooibos.  The rooibos elements were too strong for me, reminding me too much of childhood cough medicine.

I also had an excellent coconut-infused black iced tea.  The coconut elements came out most strongly in the aroma rather than in the flavor itself.  In taste, it was a good, strong black with the fruity notes of coconut playing underneath.

I didn't get a chance to try their bubble tea, unfortunately.

Service was friendly, chatty but perilously slow.  I had joined the other ladies on my lunch hour and it ended up as a nearly 3-hour absence from the office.  Good tea service walks a fine line between rushing you and letting you chat to your heart's content.  This was just slow - we weren't getting service quickly enough to make the decision whether to stay or go.  As a result, I ended up not trying some additional tea flavors that I would have liked to sample.

All in all, I'd give Terra at Isabel Rose a solid B, with many nice features but room for improvement.

Bottled Iced Tea: Inko's Honeydew White Tea

The third bottle of bottled iced tea I purchased and consumed today was by far the one that pleased me most.  Unlike Inko's White Peach, the Honeydew White Tea is not too sweet.  There's some sweetness, but it is tempered by the flavor of honeydew melon.  I can taste the tea in this one, mingling nicely with the rounded green flavor of the melon, and without excess sugar.

So far Inko's is 2 for 3 on its bottled teas.

Bottled Iced Tea: Inko's White Peach

Inko's White Blueberry Tea was pretty good.  The White Peach is merely mediocre.  It suffers from the common failing of being too sweet, more like a tea-flavored fruit punch than actual white tea put on ice.  The flavoring isn't even noticeably peach-like or fruity.  It's simply sweet.

I'm disappointed and will not be picking up a second bottle of Inko's White Peach.

Bottled Iced Tea: Gold Peak Unsweetened

At last!  A bottled iced tea whose primary defect is not being overly sweet.  Gold Peak Unsweetened has the sharp bite of true black tea, the nicely bitter tang that clears your palate and refreshes.  In short, it's bottled tea that tastes like tea, not like whatever the trendy flavoring du jour happens to be.  Unfortunately, it's not particularly good black tea.  It's got one note, without any of the complexities that a good black can have even when iced.

Several local diners and restaurants are now also carrying it in carafes.  In that form, it has a little more character than the bottled form, but just a little.

That being said, if you want a bottled tea that tastes like actual tea without needing to spend a fortune, Gold Peak Unsweetened does the job.

Bottled Iced Tea: Gold Peak Green Tea

My quest for a bottled tea that rises above adequate continues without success.  As I suspected it would.

Gold Peak Green Tea is sweetened, which is less than optimal, but at least it's sweetened with sugar instead of HFC.  It's about medium sweet -- less than Snapple and far far less than the average "sweet tea."  The sweetness is fairly mellow, but it still cuts out anything resembling the taste of green tea.  All in all, Gold Peak Green Tea falls under the heading of "adequately drinkable"

Adequate Commercial Iced Tea

When I am desperately thirsty and/or needing caffeine, my threshold for iced tea is not high.  If it is cold, liquid, contains caffeine and doesn't taste like slightly diluted fructose syrup, I'll probably drink it.  As thirsty and in need of caffeine sort of defines my morning state, I drink a lot of commercial iced tea in the summer.

Commercial teas that meet my threshold of adequately drinkable can be found at Dunkin' Donuts, Panera and (yes really) Starbucks.  They get the job done without actively offending my palate.  Not that this is high praise, of course.

Good iced tea has to be made in smaller batches.  I've yet to find a mass-produced tea, even one that is brewed with leaves, that is truly flavorful and satisfying.

Bottled Iced Tea: Inko's Blueberry White Tea

At long last I have found a bottled iced tea that is not overly sweet.  Inko's makes a couple of different kinds of bottle white teas.  Yesterday I sampled their Blueberry White with pleasant results.

Inko's Blueberry White was nicely bodied, although not as strong as a black iced.  It had enough of a bite to let me know I was drinking tea.  Most of the sweetness came from the white tea itself and the very light blueberry flavors.  The tea contains fructose crystals, but not the dreaded High Fructose Corn Syrup that renders so many things undrinkably awful.   The blueberry is balanced to the strength of the tea.

I will definitely try the rest of Inko's bottled white teas based on its Blueberry White.

Bottled Iced Tea: Sweet Leaf Citrus Green Tea

I always make a point of looking for bottled iced teas that contain sugar rather than High Fructose Corn Syrup or artificial sweeteners.  Today's find was from a company called Sweet Leaf, which has a line of bottled iced teas found in Supermarkets With Pretensions (Kings, Wegmann's, etc.).

I decided to try the Citrus Green Tea because the other options in the store today were a tea/lemonade blend and sweet tea, neither of which I like.

Unfortunately, this tea suffers from the all-too common sin of being far too sweet for my taste.  It's sweeter than similar products from Lipton or Snapple.  I don't taste citrus -- I simply taste sweet.  Tea is supposed to have at least a little bitter bite.  It's not supposed to taste like Kool Aid.  I found this bottle about as off-putting as my one ill-fated attempt to drink real Texas sweet tea.  I managed to finish the bottle only by cutting it with my unfinished, cold, and slightly stale morning cup of English Breakfast.   Doing so only improved the taste, which is never a good sign.[1]

I will not be purchasing this flavor again, but I'm willing to give other flavors of Sweet Leaf a try (within limits).


[1] In one of those moments of Shark Pit legend, +Jeff Berry mixed Bodine's Twisted Tea (another vile concoction whose sole virtue was the amusement value of the awful faces people made after consuming it) with cold stale black coffee, and found that it only improved the flavor of both.   I thought fondly upon this moment as I poured half a bottle of Sweet Leaf Citrus Green Tea into the dregs of my morning cuppa, complete with Lynyrd Skynyrd song playing on my mental soundtrack.

Tea Tasting: Lipton's Blackberry Vanilla Herbal

Lipton is attempting to upscale its tea, and is now offering herbal teas in trendy little silk sachets.  At this time of year, I go through herbal tea bags like napkins in order to maintain a supply of iced tea in the house.  So I figured why not try Lipton's Blackberry Vanilla Herbal.

I'm pleased to report that it's not awful.  It's not amazing.  But it's perfectly adequate for making iced tea that will be quickly consumed over the course of a long weekend.  It's primarily a fruity flavor with a fruity aroma.  The vanilla comes out as an aftertaste rather than as part of the main flavor.  I would have blended it differently, mixing the vanilla so it works in concert with the fruit flavors.  Even so, it does all right for a cheap commercial herbal.

Putting in extra sweetener is a mistake.  Adding sugar turns an adequate brew into a nasty bit of "bug juice" like what they used to serve at camp.

Bad Tea Chronicles: Snapple Straight Up Tea

Snapple is testing a new product -- it is called "Straight Up Tea."  It claims to be lightly sweetened, using sugar, with no flavoring.  It is, in a word, repulsive.

It is too sweet to be a good unsweetened tea.  Although Snapple claims to have used sugar and actual tea leaves, this atrocious brew does not taste at all like tea sweetened with sugar.  It tastes like bad off-brand iced tea mix.  There is none of the refreshing slightly bitter tang of tea.  It's got a waxy and chemical mouth feel, almost what I'd imagine licking a freshly polished coffee table feels like.

I would drink Snapple Straight Up Tea again if the other choices were human blood or a slow death from thirst.  Although even then, only reluctantly.

Tea tasting: Ice Wine Tea

While in Canada this weekend, I picked up ice wine flavored black tea.  Ice wine is a type of sweet dessert wine made from grapes still frozen on the vine.

The tea is delightful tasting. A flavor akin to sweet white wine is layered over the black tea.  However, the aroma is a little too floral for me.   Even iced, it has a strong floral smell.   I'll finish the box, but I won't seek out this brand again.  I'm curious whether another brand might be less flowery.

Tea Tasting: Harney & Sons' Jane's Garden Tea

I have a whole bunch of new teas to sample and discuss, so there should be more frequent blog posts over the next several weeks.

This tea was a gift, purchased for me because part of the proceeds go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Jane's Garden is a green tea with rose petals.  Based on my past experience with rose-scented and -flavored teas, I was skeptical.  Fortunately, this is a far better rose tea than the previous ones I had tried.  The scent is calming, rather than overly sweet.  While the taste is sweeter than the usual green tea, it's not overly floral and has some grassy tones too.

Tea thoughts

"Americans think we Brits drink tea because we’re polite and genteel or something, whereas we really drink it because it’s a stimulant and it’s hot enough to sterilize cholera bacteria."  -- Charles Stross

Tea Tasting: Cuppa Cake Tea Lemon Chiffon

Apologies for the long silence.  Life happens.

Today's tasting is from the Cuppa Cake Teas line made by Republic of Tea: Cuppa Cake Tea Lemon Chiffon.   It bills itself as caffeine-free green rooibos with lemon, vanilla and coconut.

I'd never heard of green rooibos.  After doing a little research, I found that "green" rooibos is rooibos treated according to the same method as green tea leaves.  I like it far better than the usual red rooibos, which I find has an unpleasant chalky undertone.

The Lemon Chiffon is an odd tea.  I know what it wants to be -- a sort of liquid lemon meringue pie.  It does and doesn't quite achieve that.  There's something missing, at least for me.  There should be a richer, more golden flavor here.  It's one of the few teas that I find needs a little bit of sweetening in order to achieve its best flavor when I drink it hot.  If iced, the flavor profile tends more towards the coconut and I don't need sweetener.

All in all, my jury is still out on this tea.  I want to experiment with adding some agave syrup or other kinds of sweetener and see how those play out.

Dunkin' Donuts' Iced Green Tea

I have no idea whether Dunkin' Donuts has released iced green tea nationally or whether it's still in the regional experiment stage.  But I drank it, so I'm talking about it.

It was adequate.  Utterly, utterly adequate.  A little bitterness in the finish, but otherwise pretty much unremarkable.  It served the essential purpose of hydrating me without introducing too much caffeine, while having more of a flavor than water.  Probably its greatest virtue was the fact that I could get it without sugar, unlike many of the bottled iced green teas on the market.   I would drink it again voluntarily.

Regardless of how uninspiring I found Dunkin' Donuts' iced green tea, I am thankful for the fact that iced tea has become a "thing" now.  I've never found carbonated beverages palatable, which doesn't leave a lot of options in the cold soft drink department.

Not quite tea: British Chip Shop, Haddonfield, NJ

+Kay White  and I have been trying to go out together for tea since some time in November, but schedules, weather and a troublesome car have thwarted us.  And life thwarted us slightly again: one shop was closed for the Easter holiday and the other had really limited hours.

Instead we went to a place called the British Chip Shop in Haddonfield, NJ, which was great, even though not exactly tea.   The soups -- tomato with bacon and potato leek - were amazing.  The tomato soup had all the right smokey notes from the bacon.  The potato leek was nicely salty with cream.

I had some of the best fish and chips I've had since the old school places in Kearney closed down.  There was some flavorful malt vinegar on the table; with the right amount of salt it was artery-clogging Brit/Scot heaven.

Despite the excellence of the chips, I made sure to save room for dessert -- a strawberry shortcake trifle.

In short, the British Chip Shop warmed my little Anglo-Scot heart, despite the absence of tea.

(This is not to say they didn't have tea at all; but it was a nice enough day that I wanted normal black iced tea not hot tea.  They carry Taylor's hot teas, so perhaps at a future visit.).

Iced Tea at Last!

I've made two brews specifically for icing in the last few days, which is wonderful because I'm so terribly over winter.

First, Republic of Tea's Downtown Abbey English Rose is precisely as delicious in iced tea form as I'd hoped.  The sharper rose hip and hibiscus notes come out slightly more when this brew is iced.

Second, Celestial Seasoning's Black Cherry Berry makes an excellent fruity brew that is not too sweet and not too tart.  A dash of orange-flavored sugar yields a bright and sweet cool drink.

Bottle Iced Tea: POM Pomegranate Peach Passion White Tea

It's finally warm here in the wilds of NJ, and I'm celebrating the day by reviewing bottled iced tea.  POM makes several bottled iced teas with pomegranate as a main ingredient.  Today I picked up Pomegranate Peach Passion White Tea.

Although it claims to be tea, there's very little tea flavoring here.  There's an ending bit of tea-like bitterness but the primary flavor is sweet and fruity.  There's no high fructose corn syrup, which makes it tolerably sweet rather than sickly sweet.  The sweetness comes from fruit juices and extracts.

The other "flaw" with the tea lies in its low caffeine content.   This is, at best, a refreshing afternoon or evening fruit punch.  Don't get me wrong: I like it.  But it isn't tea.

Tea tasting: Republic of Tea's Downton Abbey English Rose

I am a bad Anglophile.  I've just never been able to warm up to Downton Abbey.  Even my great love of Dame Maggie Smith hasn't gotten me through an episode.  Ah well.  You may heap your scorn upon me.

I was given a tin of Republic of Tea's Downton Abbey English Rose herbal (http://www.republicoftea.com/downton-abbey-english-rose-tea/p/V20177/) and was quite skeptical.  It bills itself as a blend of raspberry, hibiscus and rose hips.   Regular readers know my dislike of strong hibiscus flavors in tea.  There's something too tart and astringent about hibiscus; it needs to be handled carefully.

I was pleasantly surprised by the English Rose.  The overwhelming flavor is a mellow, smooth raspberry.  There's some tartness from the hibiscus, but it's only the barest hint.  There's also none of the overwhelming potpourri rose aroma that I found in the last "rose" tea from Republic of Tea that I tried.

I like the smoothness; I can't imagine wanting to sweeten this tea.  I'm going to make a pot for icing when the weather finally turns spring-like this weekend.  It expect it will be excellent.

Adagio's Wild Strawberry Herbal

It's unseasonably cold today with another winter storm on the way, and I am in dire need of something spring-like.  So I opened my sample of Adagio's Wild Strawberry (http://www.adagio.com/herbal/wild_strawberry.html) herbal tea.   It has a rich, fruity aroma that smells more of apples and hibiscus than strawberries.   When brewed, however, it has a lush, mellow flavor with just a hint of sweetness.  There are no strong hisbiscus notes, which I tend to dislike, and very little aftertaste of any kind.

Adagio recommends using heaping tablespoons when brewing this tea and I agree.  I find that about one and a half teaspoons produces a nice flavor.

I don't think the brew needs sweetening, but in the interests of science, I tried a cup with a teaspoon of honey.  It's not my favorite honeyed tea (that remains the blood orange herbal I reviewed several months ago) but it has a nice fruit punchy quality.

I look forward to the day when drinking this blend iced is an option.

Tea tasting: Harney & Sons's Fruits d'Alsace

I'm drinking a delightful cup of Harney & Sons's Fruits d'Alsace black tea (https://www.harney.com/fruits-d-alsace.html).   It's a quality black with a light fruity overtone.  I can't pick out the individual fruits.  There's definitely something citrus, but there are a number of other tones as well.   The fruit is not the star of the show, so that's one of the reasons why parsing the exact fruit is difficult.

Tea disasters

I just narrowly escaped a tea disaster.   I had brewed the water and poured it over 3 balls of Teavana's Black Dragon Pearl, which has a brewing time of 3-5 minutes.

Then I got on a call for work.

Twenty minutes later, I returned to find the tea still brewing in the ball . . .

I am pleased to report that the tea remained eminently drinkable, not bitter at all, and very flavorful without being overwhelming.  It needed only a little refreshing with about 1/4 cup boiling water to make it the temperature I like.

However, this got me thinking about tea mistakes and disasters.  We've all had them, whether it be from under-brewing, over-brewing, bad tea or bad things put into tea.   What was your worst or funniest tea disaster/mistake?

Harney & Sons bottled teas

I was quite surprised to discover that Harney & Sons is selling bottled iced teas.  I found them at the local Supermarket With Pretensions, but they were not any more expensive than a bottle of Snapple.  You can also buy them on-line in cases of 12.  (https://www.harney.com/bottled-beverages/iced-teas.html).

I tried the Black Tea with Black Currant, which I found to be sweeter than I generally like my black teas, but nowhere near as sweet as a Snapple or Lipton bottled tea.  It was sweetened with cane sugar, rather than High Fructose Corn Syrup.  To my mind real sugar always produces a better quality of sweetness.  The black currant added just a bit of fruity flavor over the tea.  While it didn't excite me as the best drink ever, I will definitely pick up the Harney & Sons Black Tea with Black Currant as long as it continues to be in the same price range as other bottled iced teas.

I also tried the Green Tea with Coconut, which I liked a great deal.  Again, there was a light bit of sweetness provided by cane sugar.  The coconut flavor balanced out any bitterness from the green tea without eliminating the inherent flavor of the tea.  As between the two, unless I need the caffeine, I'll take the Green Tea with Coconut over the Black Tea with Black Currant all the time.

Tropical Greens

I very much enjoy the blending of tropical fruit tastes with green tea.  The grassy tones of the green tea pair exceptionally well with the brightness of tropical fruits.  I'm currently drinking a delightful tropical blend from David's Teas.  Unfortunately, they don't seem to carry this particular blend any more.  So I'll tell you that it is a grassy green with pineapple and coconut notes.  Since David's seems to have a seasonal rotation of teas, I'm hopeful they will bring it back in the spring or early summer.

Meanwhile, here are a few easy-to-find  tropical greens for your consideration:

Mighty Leaf's Green Tea Tropical (http://www.mightyleaf.com/loose-tea_green-tea/green-tea-tropical-green-tea/) isn't specific about the "tropical" flavors it includes, other than bits of pineapple.  The aroma is entirely fruity; I don't detect anything like coconut or lemongrass in either the scent or taste.  The taste is a complex green that nicely treads the line between floral and grassy, with elegant fruity overtones.  Any grocery that carries Mighty Leaf generally will carry this blend.

Harney & Sons Tropical Green (https://www.harney.com/tropical-green.html) has coconut, lemongrass and pineapple at play along with a fruity-toned green tea.  The aroma is more heavily fruited than the taste, but it is still makes for a complex, refreshing cup.  I have been able to find this blend in Barnes & Noble fairly regularly.

Revolution's Tropical Green (http://www.revolutiontea.com/16-Count-boxes/Tropical-Green-Tea-16-count) also focuses on pineapple, but uses a slightly different base green than the other two.  The resulting blend is sweeter, but less fruity.

All of these teas are wonderful hot or iced.  I tend to brew them slightly longer if I am planning to make iced tea with them.

Tea tasting: Harney & Sons' Royal Wedding Tea (updated)

Harney & Sons was commissioned to create a tea commemorating the wedding of William and Kate in 2011, and this is what they made.  Their website bills it as a "union of Chinese mutan white tea buds, almond, coconut, vanilla, and a floral abundance of pink rosebuds and petals."  (https://www.harney.com/royal-wedding.html).  Almond and vanilla are two of my favorite flavors, so how could I resist?

I'm not sure how they did it, but the flavor notes in the Royal Wedding tea blend extraordinarily well. I cannot pick out the almond or vanilla separately.  There's a little innate sweetness, plus a tiny bit of floral, plus another tiny bit of something that I can't quite identify.  It's a very subtle tea.  Fans of strongly-flavored blends will be disappointed.  I like it quite a lot, but it is definitely tea to be enjoyed for its own sake.  It doesn't pair well with any strongly flavored food because it gets overshadowed easily.  I don't know how well it would ice -- I'd think you'd lose the best flavors.

After a little experimentation, for my usual large-ish cup of tea, I found the optimal preparation seems to be two level teaspoons of tea, water at 180 degrees, brew time four minute.


Updated!  I recently bought some bagged Royal Wedding tea, and I've found it quite fussy to deal with.  In 2 out of 3 brewings, I managed to either let it steep too long or let the water get too hot.  It's unusual for tea in bags to be more of a pain in the butt than loose tea, so this was worth noting.  Maybe I'll just cut open all the bags and dump the contents into a big sealable tin.

Tea tasting: Adagio's Vanilla Oolong

This morning's pot was Adagio's Vanilla Oolong (http://www.adagio.com/oolong/vanilla_oolong.html).  Although the website advertises the tea in terms of sugar cookies, I can't imagine a less sugar-cookie like vanilla tea.  It has a wonderful vanilla aroma, but its taste isn't sweet.  It's got flavor notes akin to the smell of baked sugar.  I liked its complexity and character.   I'm going to make sure I make the next pot on a morning when I have two brain cells to rub together so that I can appreciate it more fully than I did this morning.

I think this tea would be spectacular iced, particularly with a little bit of the sweet vanilla-flavored syrups that are often used for coffee drinks.

I'm going to buy a larger package of it and experiment with it a bit.  I think it could also be excellent with a little bit of cinnamon and sugar for sweetening, or with a vanilla creme honey.

Tea tasting: Adagio's White Teas Revisited

It turns out that one of the other attorneys at my new job is also a tea junkie.  She suggested that I may be "overcooking" my white teas, which is why I am finding them flavorless.

So I went back to the White Peach and White Blueberry from Adagio I had sampled earlier in the month, and made sure to watch the water temperature very carefully.  I realized that since I'd been making single cups of white tea for me, rather than pots of tea, I had let the water fully boil in the pot.  Instead, I now cut off the water temperature at 185 degrees.  It made a substantial difference.

Brewed at the proper temperature, the white tea had flavor and character.  It still wasn't a strong flavor -- it was light and only softly flavored with peach or blueberry.  But it wasn't the weak and feeble brew that I'd gotten by infusing the tea at 212 degrees, as I'd mistakenly been doing.

I'm still more of a fan of full-bodied flavors in tea.  But brewing Adagio's White Teas properly has improved their flavor to the point where I'd buy them again for occasional drinking.

So here's your lesson:  even a true tea geek can mess up a proper cup of tea by not paying attention.  Take your time.  It's worth doing right.

Tea tasting: Harney & Sons' Organic Passion Plum

After two tastings of insipid white teas, I was in the mood for something bold and flavorful, so I went to the sample of Harney & Sons' Organic Passion Plum (https://www.harney.com/organic-passion-plum.html), which promised me "Sweet fruit flavors with a spicy twist from the cinnamon, as well as hibiscus and citrus flavors."  This herbal tisane is made from hibiscus, cinnamon, rose hips, orange peel, ginger and passion fruit.  All else being equal, I figured it was unlikely to be boring.

The aroma is far from boring.  It smells like Christmas plum pudding, a lovely blend of fruit and cinnamon.  And the brew is a gorgeous deep red purple color that makes me think about buying velvet.

The taste, thank God, is not boring.  It is fruity, complex and surprisingly plum-like for having no plum in the tisane.   The cinnamon and the hibiscus come out strongly in the aftertaste.  The hibiscus in particular adds this weird tartness in the finish, but adding honey cures that quite nicely.

My one complaint is that the tea is a little gritty because the cinnamon added to the tisane is finer than the strainer of the T-1000.  If I buy more of this tea, which I might, I will make it with the paper tea pouches to avoid this problem.

Adagio's White Blueberry

I am beginning to notice a trend with Adagio's white teas.  They need far more than the recommended steeping time to have any character or flavor at all.   I wonder if perhaps my definition of a "heaping tablespoon" is different from theirs.

The aroma of Adagio's White Blueberry (http://www.adagio.com/white/white_blueberry.html) was, as with the White Peach, by far the best part of the tea.  It had a rich, fruity scent that did not fulfill its promise when it came to taste.  By steeping it for about twice the recommended 3-5 minutes, I managed to get flavors of both tea and blueberry out of it, but even then it was only the slightest of notes.  Adding sweetener only gave me the flavor of honey; it didn't enhance the tea or the blueberry in any significant way.

I will finish my sample package, but I won't be buying this again.

Adagio's White Peach

White tea can often been flavorless if not brewed correctly.  For white tea with flavors, I often steep it longer than recommended.  I steeped this one for 7 minutes rather than the recommended 5.

Adagio's White Peach (http://www.adagio.com/white/white_peach.html) starts off with an amazing aroma when brewing.  It's like summer in a cup of hot water.  The flavor unfortunately does not follow through on the splendid aroma.   It's only very lightly peach-flavored and even more lightly tea-flavored.  I want more from a tea -- I want real flavors in my mouth.  White Peach is good enough, but only just.

Guest review: Bad tea chronicles

From the noble and redoubtable +Jody Livingston

"I have a Tassimo coffee maker, courtesy of my lovely friend Lorree, who's move out of the country necessitated divesting herself of her appliances. Since I like both coffee and tea, I ordered an assortment of both from Amazon. I got the Twinnings Tea Sampler. I won't get it again. Tea should not be made with a Tassimo. It's just not properly brewed. However, the Chai was the worst, and not because of the machine. The machine would not have made it the sickly sweet, chemical tasting mess that I drank. Even trying to doctor it with cream failed to save it. I finally just threw it down the sink and made myself a cup of Kona to appease my taste buds.

By the way, if you ever want to hack your Tassimo so you can brew your own coffee, rather than constantly paying through the nose for their non-reusable pods, give me a shout. All it takes is a pen, a Dremel tool and stopper."

Tea tasting: Adagio's Earl Grey Moonlight

I had written previously about variants on the traditional Earl Grey tea.  Adagio's Earl Grey Moonlight (http://www.adagio.com/black/earl_grey_moonlight.html) calls itself a "cream" blend.  Perusing their website, I think this means that they added some sort of non-dairy cream flavoring to the tea blend.  They have also added vanilla.

The aroma is quite charming.  It has the citrus-y notes of traditional Earl Grey, muted by just the slightest hint of vanilla.  The taste is not significantly different from classic Earl Grey.  The vanilla and cream notes are noticeable only in the finish, providing a mellowing after the initial sharp floral tang of the Bergamot.  I think this tea would appeal to fans of Twinings Lady Grey and other lighter Earl Grey blends.  Personally, I would have liked a stronger vanilla and/or cream element.

A Visit to the Tropics

We've got a foot of snow and freezing rain now coming down on top of it here at Mt. Mackyntoich, so it seems the ideal day to talk about some tropical teas.

For my morning dosage of caffeine I started out with Republic of Tea's Passion Fruit Papaya Black (http://www.republicoftea.com/passionfruit-papaya-black/p/V00589/).  As with most of the Republic of Tea blacks, the flavoring is light and subtle.  While the papaya in particular is noticeable in the aroma and taste, this is not a sweet tea.  It retains the clean tones of black tea while keeping the sweet notes of the fruits in the background.

Celestial Seasonings (http://www.celestialseasonings.com/products) tends to be the entry level brand for herbal tisanes, inexpensive and found in most supermarkets. Nevertheless, it's got quite a few very nice blends with interesting flavors.  Today I'm drinking their Tropic of Strawberry. Unfortunately, it's been discontinued (http://www.celestialseasonings.com/products/discontinued), but I have to praise its virtues even so.  It's got the bright flavor of strawberry with an unexpected aftertaste and aroma of coconut.  Every time I drink it I think of Hawaii.  It lacks the complexity and intensity of up-market brand strawberry tisanes, but if you manage to find yourself an unopened box somewhere, I recommend picking it up.

The other tropic-inspired herbal tea for the day is Republic of Tea's Key Lime Hibiscus (http://www.republicoftea.com/key-lime-hibiscus-tea/p/V00687/).  I have a very uneasy relationship with hibiscus-based tisanes.  Hibiscus teas are made from the sepals of the Hibiscus sabdariffa plant (also sometimes called a roselle).  Used with too heavy a hand, I find that hibiscus makes tisanes too sickly sweet.  In the case of the Key Lime Hibiscus blend, the tart, sharp taste of the lime cuts particularly well through the hibiscus, keeping the flavor from trending into the ranges I dislike.  It's another bright, sharp, sunny tea, excellent hot and superb iced.   A tiny bit of sweetener deepens the flavor.  I experimented by adding True Lime powder (http://www.truelemon.com/true-lime) when brewing the base for the iced tea, and it was wonderful for a lime-lover like me.

Tea tasting: Harney & Sons' Paris black tea

Harney & Sons' Paris black tea blend (https://www.harney.com/paris-tea.html) will appeal to anyone who likes Earl Grey.  It's quite aromatic, with a touch of oil of Bergamot in its blend.  But on top of the Bergamot are notes of vanilla and caramel, along with a sort of malty-fruity quality to the tea.  It is inherently sweet, but not overly so.

I happen to have received this tea in sachet form, instead of loose.  Fair warning that opening the sachet yields a very sugary, somewhat overdone aroma.  That quality is not reflected in the aroma or flavor of the tea.

This tea would be excellent for afternoons, and would go extremely well with baked goods.  In short, it's made for tea parties.

Tea tasting: Harney & Sons' Hot Cinnamon Spice

Do you like cinnamon?  A lot?  Do you like the intense, spicy flavors of Indian or Middle Eastern food?  Then Harney & Sons' Hot Cinnamon Spice tea (https://www.harney.com/hot-cinnamon-spice-tea.html) is for you.

This is a bold, assertive tea.  Hot Cinnamon Spice is a blend of black tea, three types of cinnamon, orange peel, and sweet cloves.  No sugar has been added and even +Robert Peterson , most avid fan of Texas sweet tea, finds that no sugar is needed.  It's incredibly cinnamon-y -- the aroma almost knocks you down and takes your lunch money.  It's got a spicy bite over the top of the tea flavor.  This is not a gentle, soothing drink. It's a late afternoon or after dinner pick-me-up.

For me, drinking this tea is very much a mood thing.  I'm not always in the mood to have three types of cinnamon take my lunch money.  I can get the same flavors, in different and far gentler proportions, from Harney & Sons' Holiday tea blend (https://www.harney.com/hrp-holiday-tea.html).  By and large, I prefer the more gingerbread-like flavors of the Holiday tea, which incorporates almonds and uses a far lighter hand with the cinnamon.  But for nights when I am working late, or when I need to drive home tired after a late-night dinner, Hot Cinnamon Spice can be a great, energizing, pick-me up.  It comes in both regular and decaf, but I honestly can't see the point of drinking this in decaf form.

I'm not a huge fan of Indian food, but I imagine the Hot Cinnamon Spice would go exceptionally well with it.   It goes really well with steak dinners, for sure.

Tea tasting: Twinings' Winter Spice Herbal Tea

I'm a big fan of Twinings for solid, basic tea.  In years past, their Winter Spice herbal (http://www.twiningsusashop.com/winter-spice.html) has been a nice mellow tisane.  This year, however, it seems to have taken a steep fall-off in quality.

It's supposed to be a blend of apple and camomile, with hints of cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.  In earlier years, it's been a bright, sunny and warm cuppa, slightly suggestive of apple strudel but not overly sweet.  It was a great match for winter baking, with the cinnamon notes carrying through.

Unfortunately, the two cups I just made have tasted like hot water that has been passed vaguely in the vicinity of an apple and then shown some camomile flowers.  They were nasty and insipid.   I'm terribly disappointed.  Maybe I got a very old box and the tisane has aged too much to brew well.  Maybe Twinings is "reformulating" again, which never goes well for them. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030922/Earl-Grey-drinkers-dismiss-new-recipe-affront-tea.html)

Putting two teabags into my mug has made the tea palatable, but still a shadow of its former self.  Throwing out tea is anathema in most cases, but this one has got to go.

"Tea, Earl Grey, hot"

Of all of the flavored black teas, Earl Grey tea is probably the most well known and the easiest to find.  It also carries a certain geek cred because it was the favorite drink of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard.

The tea is generally thought to be named after Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of England (b. 1764, d. 1845), but this claim is increasingly disputed. (http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/earlgreytea.htm ; http://www.tea.co.uk/news-article/a-grey-area:-all-about-earl-grey)   Twinings advertises that is has been making Earl Grey tea since the 1830s. (http://www.twiningsusashop.com/earl-grey.html).  However, Jacksons of Picadilly, another British tea institution, also claims to be the maker of the original Earl Grey blend.  (http://www.twiningsusashop.com/earl-grey.html).

Earl Grey tea is black tea flavored with oil of bergamot.  Oil of bergamot is extracted from the bergamot orange, a citrus fruit. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergamot_orange; http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61711/bergamot-orange) .  Bergamot oil combined with black tea produces a flavorful, aromatic brew that is well-known to any serious tea-drinker.   Applied with too heavy a hand it becomes unbearably perfume-y.

Twinings (http://www.twiningsusashop.com/earl-grey.html) is likely the best-known maker of Earl Grey tea imported to the U.S., and can be counted on to produce a solid, flavorful cuppa.  It's got all the right floral and citrus notes without letting the bergamot overwhelm the taste of the tea.  Twinings tried to reformulate its classic blend in 2011, but like New Coke, that attempt was met with tea-drinker outrage, and the original blend was brought back.  (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100102578/earl-grey-tea-is-back-twinings-gives-in-to-outraged-tea-drinkers/)

I've sampled a number of other companies' Earl Greys as well:

Mighty Leaf (http://www.mightyleaf.com/Best-Sellers/Organic-Earl-Grey-Black-Tea-Pouches/#Organic-Earl-Grey--15-pouches-cello-wrap) seems to go heavier on the bergamot oil than Twinings does, but stays on the acceptable side of the balance between tea and flavoring.

Republic of Tea (http://www.republicoftea.com/earl-greyer-black-tea/p/V00583/) produces a nicely balanced blend that is fair competition for Twinings.

Harney & Sons (https://www.harney.com/harney-teas/black-tea-aab3238922bcc25a6f606eb525ffdc56/flavored-black-teas.html) makes two different blends of Earl Grey -- the Imperial and the Supreme.  I'm quite fond of the Imperial, which is the "standard" Earl Grey.  The Supreme is billed as using a higher quality tea, and I look forward to trying it.

My current Earl Grey of choice is from Taylors of Harrogate (http://www.taylorsofharrogate.co.uk/subcattea.asp?catid=119), which carries some of my current favorite black teas.  The quality of the black tea is more than a match for the bergamot in this one, creating a subtle mix of flavors that can soothe even the worst afternoon.

I've got a sample pouch of Adagio's Earl Grey Moonlight blend waiting to be opened.  I'll report on this one separately.

For me, Bigelow's and Stash's Earl Grey blends are the definition of imbalanced, over-perfumed teas.  They use too heavy a hand with the bergamot, and the result is somewhat like drinking straight bergamot oil that has been passed over a tea leaf a few times.

For those who want a less perfumed tea, in the 1990s Twinings developed "Lady Grey tea," a blend using less bergamot oil but adding lemon and orange peel oils.   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Grey_(tea)).  Other companies also make "Lady Grey" or "Mrs. Earl Grey" or otherwise modified Earl Grey teas using reduced levels of bergamot and additional flavors such as lavender or other citrus fruits.  For me it's a mood thing.  Some days, there is simply nothing quite as soothing and satisfying as a steaming cup of Earl Grey.  Lady Grey is a lighter, brisker taste, more for everyday drinking than savoring.

Tea tasting: David's Teas' Stormy Night

Now that my taste buds have returned, I was all ready to do a full review of a tea worth tasting.  Unfortunately, this very interesting tea isn't currently available from David's.  It may be seasonal, or it may be that it simply was not very popular.  I picked it up in May in Quebec City.

The tea smells like German chocolate cake -- chocolate, cinnamon and coconut, with a hint of vanilla.  Cinnamon and coconut dominate the flavor when brewed mildly.  When brewed more strongly, the chocolate chunks mixed in with the leaves can make the tea seem muddy. but they do intensify the chocolate flavor.  The chocolate chunks also make cleaning out the tea ball or tea strainer quite the pain in the butt.

This is really an afternoon or evening tea; I can't see being able to appreciate something this complex in the morning.  Since I try to avoid caffeine in the afternoon and evening, I don't dip into Stormy Night very often.

If your taste runs this way, and David's decides to bring it back, it's worth picking up a small pouch.

Tea-flavored things that aren't tea

I apologize for the lack of tea tasting for the past week.  I've had a horrid head cold and my sense of taste is completely off.

Trying to soothe my itchy, scratchy throat, I cracked open a package of Bali's Best Green Tea Latte candies that I was given for the holidays.  (http://www.fusiongourmet.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=1_4).  They're very interesting and could easily become addictive.  They remind me a lot of green tea ice cream.  And I love green tea ice cream (which is unexpected, given that I hate milk in tea).  The slightly bitter herbal taste combined with the smooth creamy texture is unlike anything else.

Green tea ice cream is something I used to find only in Asian restaurants or small specialty ice cream stores.  However, Hagen-Daaz now sells green tea ice cream (http://www.haagendazs.com/Products/Product/2781).  It can be found in most of the middle- to high-end grocery stores around me.

I've found a couple of recipes for cooking with tea as an ingredient.  Bromley's website has some interesting ideas that I intend to try: http://www.bromleytea.com/recipes.html

If anyone else attempts any of these recipes, please let me know so I can share it with the group!

Guest review: Adagio's Dragonwell Green

+Camille des Jardins  has provided me with another guest review, this time for Dragonwell Green (http://www.adagio.com/green/dragonwell.html) :

"I first tried Dragonwell tea many many years ago, when I first realized that tea was a Thing, and started to pay more attention. Mom had discovered Stash Tea, and was finding all sorts of interesting varities. I wanted to try Dragonwell because of the name. And it sounded good, but mostly because dragon. I don't remember if I liked it or not. Figured I'd try it again, given the opportunity.

Adagio's Dragonwell brews a pale green cup of tea when done according to recommendations. Earthy, 'green' scent, but not super strong. Lovely light, slightly smoky flavor. Nicely warming after shoveling the walkway in single-digit temperatures. I forgot about the second steeping I had started in the evening with the morning's tea leaves for about 10 minutes, and figured I'd ruined it, but there is none of the bitterness I usually associate with over-steeped green tea, and the flavor is just as nice as the morning's cup. A wonderful, wonderful tea."

Tea tasting: Teavana's Black Dragon Pearl

In keeping with the theme of unflavored teas, today's tea is Teavana's Black Dragon Pearl (http://www.teavana.com/the-teas/black-teas/p/black-dragon-pearls-black-tea).  It's a lovely, textured black tea, with a malty undertone.  The tea is presented in little rolled "pearls" of about 30 leaves.  It takes about 3 of the little pearls to make a medium brew for a 16-oz cup.   Using more or fewer pearls will make a stronger or weaker cup with a slightly different flavor profile.

This is also a tea that can be re-used after the first brewing.  I've used the same leaves up to three times without negatively impacting the flavor of the tea.  It is slightly different on each brewing, but tasty nevertheless.  The first brewing is maltier, the later brewings are more simple.

The website claims it has chocolate tones, but I don't taste them.

Tea for those who don't like flavored teas

I've been focusing primarily on flavored teas and up-market blends.  Today I want to talk about how to find good, basic tea for people who don't like or want flavors or who simply want to be able to buy something off the shelf in the market.

You can never go wrong with Twinings for simple, basic tea.  Twinings English Breakfast and Twinings Irish Breakfast are good, solid, basic teas, without non-tea flavors.  They can be found in pretty much every supermarket I've ever visited.  Both are blends; Irish Breakfast tea tends to have a heavier mix of Assam tea than English Breakfast.   If you're able to find it, Twinings does sell a pure Assam tea that is excellent.  I've not been able to find it in supermarkets, but Amazon sells it for $12.00 for 50 bags.  (http://www.amazon.com/Twinings-Assam-Strong-Mighty-Bags/dp/B004YADQZI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389729465&sr=8-1&keywords=Twinings+Assam)

Mighty Leaf carries some excellent basic black teas, including Organic Breakfast and Darjeeling Estate (http://www.mightyleaf.com/tea-pouches_black-tea-classic/).  I've been able to find Mighty Leaf in stores like Shop Rite, King's and Wegmans.  Mighty Leaf's Organic Black is my go-to tea for when +Rhiannon theCurious , who loves extremely strong dark tea, visits.

Republic of Tea's British Breakfast (http://www.republicoftea.com/british-breakfast-black-tea/p/V00586/) can also be counted on to deliver a flavorful, solid, dependably quality cuppa.  I find that Republic of Tea blends are very good for busy people who can't always watch the clock to take the tea bag out.  I've gotten called to an hour-long meeting just after making a cup of tea, and found the resulting cup to be highly drinkable despite having left the tea bag in.

I find Bigelow's teas to be very hit or miss.  Some are excellent; some are cloying, nasty and over-flavored ("Constant Comment" being the ur-example of a bad Bigelow tea).  Still, Bigelow's basic blacks are a huge step above having to drink Lipton.

Starbuck's Tazo Awake tea is serviceable if nothing better is available, but you need to be very careful about how long that tea bag steeps.  It moves quickly into undrinkable sludge if brewed too long, and there's a small window of opportunity between "not strong enough" and sludge.

Revisiting White Cucumber Tea

I brewed the remainder of the Adagio White Cucumber Tea (http://www.adagio.com/white/white_cucumber.html), choosing the option for the strongest brew.  I then chilled it and served it iced.  What a vast improvement on the hot version!  Stepping up the brewing strength increased the tea flavor of the white tea.  Serving it iced made the cucumber flavor elements refreshing, not soupy.  For people who are fond of grassy teas, I think White Cucumber iced tea would work particularly well with mint.

Tea tasting: Tea Forté's Raspberry Nectar

Tea Forté does an excellent job with fruity teas, making them sweet and flavorful without becoming cloying.  Their Raspberry Nectar (http://www.teaforte.com/store/gourmet-tea/herbal-tea/raspberry-nectar/) is no exception.  It is rich and brilliant with raspberry flavor.  I dislike having too much hibiscus in my fruit teas; this blend uses the hibiscus well without letting it take over the taste completely.  Raspberry nectar indeed.  Hot or iced, it's got a nice tart-sweet fruity glow.

Adding sweetener to this tea would be far too much.  It doesn't require it; the natural raspberry flavor is sweet enough.  However, I'm wondering what a bit of raspberry syrup, like the kinds they use in coffee shops, would do to this tea.  

Tea tasting: Various vanilla teas

I adore vanilla.  A good vanilla is one of my favorite flavors.  Vanilla flavored tea is always assured to make me happy.  Rather than focus on one tea today, I'm going to talk about my favorite go-to vanilla teas.

Harney & Sons' Vanilla Comoro (https://www.harney.com/vanilla-comoro.html) is a decaffeinated vanilla black tea.  It's a great after-dinner tea.  The decaffeination process doesn't destroy the quality of the tea.  It has a strong vanilla scent that puts me in mind of butter cookies, but a lighter vanilla flavor once brewed.  It's smooth and silky, good both hot and iced.

Republic of Tea's Vanilla Almond Black (http://www.republicoftea.com/vanilla-almond-black-tea/p/V00582/) has a far less heavy hand with the vanilla scent and flavor.  The vanilla and almond are both background notes behind the tea. This is a vanilla-flavored tea for people who generally don't like flavored teas.   I also like Republic of Tea's blacks because they don't get bitter if you happen to get called away and can't pull the tea bag out in time.

Mighty Leaf's Vanilla Bean (http://www.mightyleaf.com/tea-pouches_flavored-black-tea/vanilla-bean-black-tea-pouches/) falls in between the strong flavor of Harney & Sons and the very light flavor of Republic of Tea. The vanilla aroma is of medium strength and there's more distinct vanilla smoothness in the taste and mouth feel.  Mighty Leaf's tea pouches allow for larger tea leaves in the bags, enhancing the black tea taste.  I believe that the Vanilla Bean is available in both regular and decaf.

Twinings French Vanilla Chai (http://www.twiningsusashop.com/french-vanilla-chai.html) is a perfectly serviceable chai with strong vanilla notes.  

Twinings Camomiles, Honey and Vanilla (http://www.twiningsusashop.com/camomile-honey-vanilla.html) is a gentle and soothing blend which nicely balances the vanilla and honey notes without overwhelming the camomile.

Tea tasting: Adagio's White Cucumber

With Adagio's offering $2 samples, I decided to break out of my tea comfort zone a bit and try its White Cucumber tea.  (https://www.adagio.com/white/white_cucumber.html).  Here's how the website describes it:

"Stay cool with this refreshing, spa-inspired blend of cucumber and premium Chinese white tea. Vegetal aroma (think cucumber appetizers at a middle eastern restaurant), with a pleasantly dry, green melon finish. Excellent over ice, this unexpected pairing will leave you relaxed and centered; a lot more convenient than placing cucumber slices on your eyelids."

Unfortunately, this is a tea FAIL.  While we're not talking diner Tetley, White Cucumber is definitely not something I'll be drinking voluntarily once the sample runs out.  I will experiment with the last of the sample size to get rid of it.  Or possibly just kiss those $2 goodbye.

That "vegetal aroma" touted by the website is akin to the unspeakable stench created when one opens a bag of salad left at the bottom of the crisper for far too long.  I opened the package and nearly dumped the whole thing in sheer self-defense.  Fortunately, the tea does not taste anything like that awful stink.

The tea also doesn't taste much like good white tea.  It tastes like cucumber water.  While cucumber water is refreshing to drink iced during the hell of a steamy August, I recommend against drinking it hot while the country is in the grips of a Polar Vortex.  I don't get tea or melon flavor out of this mixture at all.

In the interests of science I'm going to brew it again and try it iced, and possibly with sweetener, although I can't image that putting sugar on cucumbers will taste good.  Tea shouldn't put me in mind of how much I want ranch dressing, but that's all that the White Cucumber brew accomplishes.

Tea experiments: Teavana's White Chocolate Peppermint + Crushed Candy Canes

With Polarvortexmaggedon settling in here on the East Coast, the folks here at Mt. Mackyntoich were in dire need of warm, soothing tea.  As an experiment, I made a pot of Teavana's White Chocolate Peppermint Rooibos (previously reviewed on this blog at http://alysteaparty.blogspot.com/2013/12/tea-tasting-teavana-white-chocolate.html).  I then crushed leftover candy canes into our mugs and poured the tea over them.  I used about half of a large size candy cane for myself, and a whole candy cane for +Robert Peterson , who likes his tea much much sweeter than I do.

It worked splendidly.  The candy cane emphasized the peppermint aspect of the tea without losing the white chocolate undertone.  The whole drink was made richer, like a fine minty-sweet dessert.

Tea tasting: Adagio's Almond Oolong

The flavor of almonds is not to everyone's taste.  But if you are a fan of marzipan or almond cookies (which I am), then Adagio's Almond Oolong (http://www.adagio.com/oolong/almond_oolong.html) is a delight.

Opening the package yields an overwhelming scent of sweet almond, like opening a package of good marzipan.  The aroma of the brewed tea is subtler and lighter, fortunately, because even loving almond I don't think I'd be able to drink something as almondy as the scent of the raw tea.

Oolongs are full-bodied teas with an interesting array of flavor notes of their own depending on the exact preparation.  The almond flavoring and the oolong work well together; a less assertive tea would be overwhelmed.  The almond heightens the sweeter tones of the oolong and adds a smoothness after the initial tang of the tea.

I don't like what sweetener does to this tea; it unbalances the flavors.  I tried sweetening it both with honey and Sugar in the Raw (http://www.intheraw.com/products/sugar-in-the-raw/), but neither did anything good to the taste.

 I also definitely think this tea is best hot.  It's a soothing, gentle flavor mix that wants warmth.

Drinking this tea makes me want to go into the kitchen and bake either sugar or almond cookies.

Guest review: Strawberry Lychee black tea

Today's guest review is from +Jody Livingston

"I was given a box of Strawberry Lychee tropical black tea from Hawaiian Islands Tea Company by the author of this blog. It's quite nice.

The nose is stronger than the taste, which is good, since it is quite strong with a very prominent strawberry note and a more subtle lychee fragrance. The tea, once made is more subdued. I took it with a teaspoon of local honey. It has a clean mouth feel with a soft taste of strawberry hitting first. The lychee taste sneaks in after and lingers a bit. But is is the taste of the tea that is primary, and it's not a sharp tea, more of a comfortable evening tea.

Overall it's not as fruity as I expected it to be, but I think it benefits from that. The tea itself is the star."

Bad tea chronicles

On the way home from an SCA event last night, a group of us stopped at a diner in New Paltz, NY.  This diner had been selected more or less by throwing a pin at a map, so I wasn't expecting much.  

Even those very low expectations were crushed and mangled utterly by the cups of hot tea we were served.  I have been far too spoiled by drinking nothing but good tea for the last several months.  Mere off-the-shelf Tetley tea was just nasty.  Above and beyond the bitter bite of cheap orange pekoe, it had a nasty back-taste that reminded me a bit of coffee grounds.

On the other hands, the fried zucchini was excellent.

Tea tasting: Adagio's Casablanca Twist

Adagio's website describes its Casablanca Twist (https://www.adagio.com/green/casablanca_twist.html) thusly: "An interesting twist on classic Moroccan Mint tea, which traditionally combines Gunpowder green tea from China with fresh mint. We kept the latter, and replaced the smoky notes of Gunpowder with the muscatel highlights of a Darjeeling from India. The result is very a refreshing cup, with bold, cool minty notes, smooth and relaxing texture and flavor. Very intriguing cup."

The website description is spot on.   The mingling of the mint with the Darjeeling is an excellent pairing, producing a refreshing taste that goes down easily.  There's the vagueness hint of natural sweetness underlying the taste of the mint and the Darjeeling.

Adding honey doesn't do much for the flavor.  Too much honey overwhelms the clean, bright tones of the mint.   The flavor doesn't seem strong enough to be good over ice; and given the current weather in these parts I'm not likely to try it iced any time soon.