Tea and Absinthe's TARDIS 10 tea

A lovely friend sent me a number of samples, including today's TARDIS 10 black tea from Tea and Absinthe, a geeky tea company.  "TARDIS 10" is, of course, a reference to Doctor Who and specifically to the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant.

TARDIS 10 is a blend of black tea flavored with coconut and banana.  I was dubious about banana in tea, but you know what?  It really really works.  It shouldn't work.  But it does, it really does.  I drank it iced because it's dreadfully hot out in NJ right now, and I think it's probably best iced instead of hot.   The coconut is the strongest flavor element, followed by the tea flavors, with the banana lurking in the background waving insouciantly.   It's like a black tea daiquiri and I mean that in the best way possible.

I'd be careful with over-steeping this one.  Two to 2.5 minutes was enough, even for icing.  More than that and the tea notes are likely to get a little bitter.

I imagine this tea would work really well sweetened.  I'm going to try it tomorrow with the amber sugar so that I get the brown sugar/molasses notes.  I also imagine that this iced tea would work astoundingly well with rum, but someone else will have to try that experiment.

Addendum:  Yep, amber sugar works amazingly well, and I don't even like sweet tea most of the time.  I imagine Sugar in the Raw would get the same flavor.

Tiesta Tea's Passion Berry Jolt

A new tea company to me, another fruity black tea to try for making iced tea.  Tiesta Tea's Passion Berry Jolt is a black tea base with maté added for the "jolt" plus pieces of raspberry, pineapple and passion fruit.   It's darn okay.   It does, however, pack sufficient punch that a pot (3.5 glasses of iced tea) gets me through a 12-hour work day.  So that's a thing.

This tea needs a right proper steep to get enough flavor to hold up to icing.  Unless it's steeped for 4-5 minutes, it's largely flavorless.

The flavor is good enough.  It's generically fruity, without distinct tones of any particular fruit.  If I squint, I can get the pineapple and/or passion fruit.  This tea isn't bad, it's simply missing something that would make it really excellent. I won't go out of my way to buy it again.

Ahmad Tea's Mango Magic Black

In the summer, I like fruity black teas to use for making iced tea.  I'm very very pleased with Ahmad Tea's Mango Magic black tea for this purpose.   The underlying black tea is good quality.  It doesn't go bitter when I get interrupted by work and end up over-steeping it.  The Ahmad Teas website says it's a Kenyan black.  I've heard a lot of good things about Kenyan teas and need to try more of them.

The mango flavor is wielded with a medium hand.  It's not too sweet but it is strong enough to come out in the aroma of the brew even after it's iced.  Flavorwise, it definitely stands up to icing.  I can taste both the tea flavors and the mango flavors distinctly.  It's a summery and delightful drink, particularly welcome on gray, muggy rainy days like today. 

I haven't tried the tea hot yet.  It might be a little overly fruity side for drinking as hot tea.

Guest Review: Adagio's Honeybush Blueberry Pancake Tea

A great guest review from my good friend Karen V.

I happened to see this highlighted on Adagio's website the last time I was restocking my collection of Alys' teas (my namesake chai remains the only thing with dried coconut in it that I actually like). In a momentary departure from rationality, I bought 3oz. This... is a lot of tea. But, I really like blueberry pancakes, and for some reason it sounded really appealing at the time, even though I am not a fan of maple syrup-flavoring (real syrup is fine, but any other form factor is not).

"Staying in? Pajamas on? We have just the tea for you! Juicy blueberries and the yummy taste of maple syrup blended with our naturally sweet Honeybush tea make for a delicious anytime breakfast treat. Settle in and binge watch - Honeybush Blueberry Pancake tea has you covered! (Herbal Tea | No caffeine)"

It arrived, and I looked at the size of the bag and thought, "I really hope I like this..." Then I opened the bag, and... what is that smell? It's sort of like burnt maple syrup, not in a caramelized way, but in a charred-to-a-crisp sorta way. This is not promising. It does not smell any better on subsequent sniffs.

But! I will try anything once, and it was unlikely to cause me lasting harm. Besides, we all know that some teas smell and taste very differently. So, I waited until I just kind of wanted a cup of tea, not when I *needed* one, because if it was awful I didn't want to hesitate to dump it down the sink.

I wish I could provide an entertaining description of a spit-take, but the tea is actually quite drinkable. It tastes absolutely nothing like a blueberry pancake, with or without syrup. It doesn't really taste like rooibos, either. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but despite a good foundation in advanced math, I still can't tell you what that whole taste is. I can't pick out any descriptive words, other than "satisfying." It's drinkable, and moreover it is voluntarily drinkable. I've drunk several cups by now, and I like it. I just don't have any idea what I'm tasting. It's rather the same whether milk is added or not. I haven't tried sweetener -- it hasn't seemed to need it, and I'm a little worried it might highlight some syrupy notes. 

So, a solid 7/10. I'll drink the whole bag, and I might even consider getting it again. Usually I go for chai-flavorings in my rooibos, and this one has a totally different flavor profile. 

Nautilus Tea Company's Cherry Bomb Green

Nautilus Tea Company is a new company to me, so I was very excited to try to sample of their tea that I'd been gifted.  I really quite enjoyed it and I'll be looking into more of their products.

Cherry Bomb is a green tea with cherry (duh) and rose petals.  It's a wonderfully indulgent cuppa.  The scent of the blend is like dried cherries (no surprise, that's a major ingredient) and, when brewed, the tea echoes that aroma.  It's cherry flavor without being sweet.  It reminds me of the rick black cherries that I find in farm stands around here (NJ) in mid-June.  Under the cherries is a nice quality green tea that doesn't get too bitter, as some of the cheaper quality greens do.

Although there are rose petals in the tisane, I don't get any rose or floral notes in the tea.   If you're someone who likes sweetener in your tea, I imagine this would handle sugar or honey nicely. 

Coming off a couple of gray and rainy days here, this was a wonderful, summery treat.

Harney & Sons Royal Palace Tea

Having finished off some boxes/tins of existing tea, I was able to crack open my tin of Harney & Sons' Royal Palace Tea today.  It's a solidly good, but not amazing, blend of black tea with lemon and grapefruit notes.  (No bergamot, which is good because I'm still recovering from my last unfortunate run-in with bergamot earlier this week.)

The lemon flavor isn't too heavy and the grapefruit tone makes a nice change from the usual citrus teas.  Even when I accidentally over-steeped (15 minutes!)  a cup, the tea didn't become bitter and the citrus flavors didn't become overly sweet or cloying.  That's a sign of good quality blending.  This tea will appeal to people who like the "Lady Grey" blends.  It doesn't blow my doors off, but it's a fine quality tea worth drinking.

Teadrops' Rose Earl Grey

A wonderful friend[1] send me some packages from teadrops.com   The site describes its product thusly:

Tea Drops are organic, pressed teas that dissolve in hot water. Think a bath bomb, but it's tea and 20% less waste than a tea bag. Tea Drops are made with actual tea leaves, spices, and lightly sweetened with organic cane sugar.

I am . . . dubious about the concept.  I am concerned that I'm looking at slightly dressed up powdered iced tea mix circa 1977.  But hey, it could work.

Today, I tried the Rose Earl Grey and, unfortunately, I must report total and utter tea fail.  It can best be described as drinking hot potpourri, or what I imagine it would feel like if an entire aisle of Bath & Body Works invaded my mouth.  The bergamot is too far heavy, the rose is too chemically, and the sweetening is overpowering.   "Lightly sweetened" my ass.   Plus, this tea brew is grainy.  I've consumed a fair number of tea leaves in my tea-drinking life, but grainy tea?  It's not supposed to be grainy.

I now have half a cup of this dreck on my desk and I'm wondering what to do with it.

Hmmm. I wonder how it would taste if I cut this hot mess 50/50 with unsweetened strong back tea.

A few minutes later:  mixing the teadrop brew 50/50 with very strong black tea (Twinings Darjeeling) makes the whole thing drinkable.  It dials down both the sweetness and the overwhelming bergamot.  The rose tones are still too artificial for me.  However, it's drinkable enough that if there are any more these drops in the box, I know how to make them acceptable caffeine delivery devices.

If you like sweet tea, this "teadrop" is going to work so much better for you than it did for me.  Fundamentally, I want my tea to taste primarily like tea.  This didn't.

June 1, 2020:  A mix of the teadrop plus 2 plain black tea bags plus 1300 ml of water makes a very acceptable iced tea blend.



[1]  The awfulness of this tea is in no way a reflection on the wonderfulness of the person who sent it to me.  She's great.