Harney & Sons' Tower of London

 If I had to pick one and only one flavored black to drink for the rest of my life (the horror!), it would be Harney & Sons' Tower of London blend.  

Ingredients: Black tea, oolong tea, vanilla, black currant, caramel flavors, bergamot oil, honey flavor.

First of all, as someone who is not the biggest fan of bergamot, let me assure the rest of my bergamot-haters out there that I cannot taste it in this tea AT ALL.

What I get from this tea is the black currant and the honey, with just a shade of vanilla.  There is the tiniest bit of natural sweetness.  Before I looked at the ingredient label, I would have said there was black cherry of some kind in here too, but there isn't.  It's dark, subtle with its flavoring and still tastes like good black tea more than anything else.  All of the flavors come together into a truly elegant mix.  I have never found another tea quite like it.  

The instructions call for a 5-minute steep and it definitely wants that long.  The few times I've gotten called away and left the tea bag in, I have come back to a strong brew but never a bitter one.  Those who like sweetener or milk in their tea tell me it holds up to both admirably.

Harney & Sons' Capri

 Harney & Sons is one of my all-around favorite tea blenders.  I've never had a bad tea blend from them.  I'm pleased to say their Capri blend continues the trend.

It's billed as "Reminiscent of Isola di Capri in Italy, Capri combines dried figs, tart lemon, with a hint of vanilla. A wonderful naturally flavored black tea just as miraculous at the coastal scenes from the island!"

Ingredients: Black tea, lemon peel, dried figs, fig flavor, vanilla flavor, lemon flavor. Contains natural flavors. 

The aroma in the tin is very subtle, mostly tea.  The Harney website suggests a 5-minute steep, which is long for a black, but they've never steered me wrong before.   

The 5-minute steep turns out to be just about right.  Brewed for that length, I can taste the lemon and fig notes very lightly amid the good quality black tea.   Brewed for a shorter time, those notes disappear entirely.  Don't get me wrong, this is good tea.  It tastes good, very bright.  But those specific individual flavor notes mentioned in the write-up are hard to discern.  

This tea stands up for  second brewing, also very good, also featuring a nice blend of the flavors with no particular note standing out more than any other.

I need to play around with this tea a little bit.  Maybe honey.  Maybe different kinds of honey.  Hmmm.

Adagio's April in Paris

 A spring-themed tea seems odd for this time of year, but it's a new release and incorporates some of my favorite flavors, so here we are.   Adagio Teas can be very very good or very very mediocre, depending on the blend, so let's see what this one turns out to be.

April in Paris bills itself as "black and oolong teas, with sweet pomegranate, vanilla, and light touches of bergamot and caramel flavors."  I'm not sure what makes this particularly Parisian, but whatever.  Opening the sample package, I'm smacked in the face by a sugary caramel smell that reminds me immediately of Kraft caramels at Halloween.  This is not entirely a good memory - that much sweetness makes my teeth hurt.

Instructions say brew at 212 F for 3 minutes, and I did that.  I'm starting out brewing it straight - no sugar, no milk, no honey, etc.  Yes, 2.5-3 minutes is exactly the right steep.  I fumbled the timing on the first cup and ruined it by brewing it too long.

Even without tea, the brew is slightly sweet.  It's neither fruity nor caramel-y, but the bergamot is definitely right there and the vanilla is bringing up the rear.  Putting honey in it brings out the caramel and the pomegranate somewhat more.  The bergamot is pushed back to the aftertaste, but not far enough.  

I wish this blend balanced better.  There's so many flavor notes, but the bergamot is bullying them all.  Bergamot is an asshole.  I think the tea would be better without any bergamot at ALL.  Pomegranate, vanilla and caramel would be more than enough.

I'm going to give this one a B- for a great idea but a very meh execution.  It's not BAD.  It's simply not all it could be.  

I may experiment blending this tea with a strong vanilla tea and find out what happens.

Tea & Absinthe's The Road So Far

 Tea & Absinthe does "geeky teas" and tea-related products, including many teas inspired by TV shows.  I've reviewed a few of their Dr. Who-themed teas before.  If you know anything about me and my guilty TV pleasures, you know I'm a huge fan of the show Supernatural and therefore had to try their The Road So Far blend, inspired by the show.  

Ingredients: Black tea, brittle pieces (sugar, hazelnuts, invert sugar), maple flavoring, blackberries, blackberry leaves

There are visible chunks of brittle as well as full dried blackberries in the tea blend which is always a good sign.  I went for a 3.5 minute steep, although Tea & Absinthe's website says it can be steeped up to 5 minutes. 

It's got a tiny bit of a smokey aroma to start, sort of like carmelizing maple syrup.  I'm not a huge fan of maple unless it's done exactly right, so I'm a little dubious, but willing to give it a try.   That slightly smokey quality carries over into the brewed tea.  It's nowhere near as smokey as a gunpowder or lapsang souchong - just the slightest hint of smoke, like a hint of burning leaves on an autumn night.

The maple flavoring comes out more strongly in the aroma than in the tea itself.  When brewed, the blackberry/maple/hazelnut flavors all blend together into a single unique whole.  It's not sweet at all.  Autumn is a good metaphor for this tea because that's the feeling it evokes - darkness, a hint of smoke, the crackle of fallen leaves, Halloween.  

I think it wants honey, so I'll update this post after I try another cup with honey in it.

Oh yes!  Honey makes it all work so much better.  I added a teaspoon of clover honey to my 12 oz cup of tea and steeped for 4.0 minutes.  I liked this tea without honey, but adding honey makes all the disparate flavor elements come together so much better.  The very light smokiness becomes more of an aftertaste than the front and center quality it was without the honey.  The blackberry notes are enhanced.  The honey makes the maple and brittle notes rounder.  

I'm going to call this a B+ tea without the honey, but an A- tea with.

Here we go again!

 After many requests, I'm going to give regular blogging about tea another try.  So watch this space for upcoming tea reviews, tea shop reviews, and general info about all things tea and tea-related.