Doulton Send Message

Mokalbari Estate was my morning black tea today. A strong Indian tea with a heady and delicious taste, I could recommend this as a reliable daily morning brew. The resteep help up and was strong but not bitter, even though I gave it a couple of extra minutes.

In very broad strokes, I tend to think of a new tea in four broad categories: 1) intoxicating and I want to reorder it immediately, 2) very impressive and I’ll keep it on my list to reorder. I want to drink it again, 3) What’s all the fuss about? This tea is OK, but I don’t get the rave reviews or the outpourings of adoration. I can live without it, and finally 4) What fresh hell is this? What travesty has ended up in my mouth?

Mokalbari Estate is certainly a 2. It inspires me to try more Indian tea and to move away from drinking too much tea that has Count Chocula, Froot Loops, and Kiwi Pineapple Breadpudding Wine overtones.

The American Tea Room provides really speedy service. I know that I’ve said it before, but it bears mentioning again.

Thank you so much to RICKY for sending me this sample. I have to agree with the other assessments here. I think that this is a really reliable, traditional type of tea that you could offer to anyone without causing dismay.
While there is nothing utterly distinctive about it, the merit comes from a good strong smooth taste with nicely balanced flavors.

I should always have a tea like this around to serve when eating a really strongly flavored food or to serve people who don’t like green tea or flavored tea.

I ordered a sample of this from the American Tea Room because I liked the description. Either because of or in spite of Julia Roberts, Notting Hill remains a nifty neighborhood in London. In my mind, really, Notting Hill is the place where some of Iris Murdoch’s “knottier” and sometimes “naughtier” characters live (in a pre-upscaled world). And yes! We are dressed like Sherlock Holmes with cape and deer-stalker hat.

American Tea Room has provided a perfectly apt description of this tea and I cannot do any better. It seems like a gentleman’s tea brewed in the country estates for those days when you need a really strong brew with your kippers, grilled kidneys, and marmelade.

Delicious!

Until I discovered Steepster I always thought that London was the epicenter for tea. Notting Hill by American Tea Room reminds me of that sense. This is the kind of tea that might be served to the men whilst the women have a lighter blend in a Victorian novel. It tastes of the outdoors. It tastes as if we are marching through somewhat boggy fields on our way to the hunt. Or to fish.

I decided to place an order with the American Tea Room late Sunday night; on Friday they’ve delivered. I have quite a few of their teas now. I went for “Brioche” first. Their descriptive copy is not an exaggeration. The aroma as I opened the bag was magnificent. It was like entering a “snobby” (i.e. good) bakery and zoning in on the almond croissants.

The brewed tea is very bakey-cakey and the flavors of almond, cinnamon, and vanilla dance about in a nice solid black suspension. I think that it probably has a medium amount of caffeine—perhaps not the strongest brew for first thing in the morning, but great for the rest of the day.

As I near the end of the cup, I long for more already. I feel as if I’ve actually consumed a nice chunk of almond croissant. So far I’m loving the American Tea Room with their wide variety of teas and their speedy delivery service.

In my reviews, you must always keep in mind that I’ve got a sweet tooth and a love of novelty. I love almonds, vanilla, and cinnamon flavors a lot. Indeed, my second son was cursed with the nickname of “Almond Stick” because his older brother called slivered almonds “almond sticks”. It seemed clever at the time.

It is delightful to get great carbohydrate satisfaction without reaching for an actual pastry.

Thank you, Cait, for the sample. I’m liking this tea.

The dry tea was alarming because it reeked of maraschino cherries. I loved that odor when I was 8 years old and prone to stealing one or two of these cherries from a jar my parents kept in the refrigerator. I suspect that they had had them around since prohibition. The problem with my petty thievery was that all 5 of my siblings were also drawn to the maraschino cherries, also stole a few, and hence our family suffered through Maraschino-Gate after my parents commenced a Select Committee to nab the magpie amongst their offspring. But I digress.

To this day, I find the odor a bit alarming because it is redolent of child-hood busts and childhood disappointments.

Through the alchemy of boiled water, the maraschino cherry odor disappeared and now I am drinking something that is certainly a vanilla caramel. It is sweet and rich and of course it’s a dessert tea (I take my dessert teas at all times of the day). I don’t know if I will buy this, but the tea does make me want to investigate more black caramel teas. Good cup! I’m ready for seconds.

This tea is from the TTB. I am not totally certain it is Harney & Sons. The tea came in a small attractive black tin with a picture and an elegant description: “A simple Chinese black tea that has been made over 200 years. The brew is a nice easy-going tea that is round in the mouth. It is a favorite at our Tasting Room where its simple charms are appreciated.” These words do not come up via a Google search, although the first two sentence do come up as a description of tea sold at the Cincinnatian Hotel for afternoon tea.

This small black tin resembles a miniature Harney & Sons tin and has the same type of black tape so I’m going to assume that it is likely to be a Harney & Sons tea with different and creative packaging.
I took it from the TTB because there was so little. It was a very skimpy teaspoon.
With tea, I am like Julia Child with cooking wines and liquers. I tend to add more than the “recipe” calls for. I taste the dry leaf; I fool around a lot. The dry leaves here were about 3/4 of what I would use for one serving. Keeping that in mind, I used less water and did not make a full cup.

The results are pretty decent. It seems to be a very smooth, medium-bodied “basic black” with a pleasant aroma. Perhaps its biggest virtue is that it is not offensive in any way, but it also lacks some of those distinctive properties that make me fall in love with certain blends. I wish I had some more of this to muse upon.

Upton’s catalogue notes that this tea is also known as “Buddha’s Tea” so I got a 12g. sample in order to see what the jolly wise one drinks. Foucha Imperial strikes me as a green tea without too much attitude. I’ve been sampling some green tea with very high accolades and rave reviews of late. This tea does well without being showy. The tea does have a smooth buttery taste but with some restraint—it’s not enough “butter” to make me think of a “coronary by green tea”. It’s got the typical vegetal taste—-more freshly mown grass than deep fields of spinach, however.

Mae West says “I like restraint, if it doesn’t go too far.” So too with Foucha Imperial. The restraint does not go too far so it’s a very satisfying green experience. I would call it a very sincere green but not a pyrotechnical one. Sometimes less is more.

I like this although I’ll try teas with slightly fewer calories. Honest Tea does make good products; I like their work ethic and the messages under the bottle tops. Now that I’ve successfully brewed some of my own iced tea I will stock this in case of emergency outings.

In spite of the sweetness, this is far better than other sweetened bottled teas and has less sugar.

I enjoyed this very much. I got the strawberry aroma and the taste, although I was not feeling the cake, which is fine with me. I was pleased and I will remember this tea if I feel a need to buy strawberry tea—you never know. I generally think that The NecessiTeas does a very good job with flavored teas.

I got a sample of this from Cait. So far, it’s a bit disappointing but that might be because I’ve been drinking very high-quality green teas and this seems like an abrupt switch. It’s possibly like switching from butter to margerine.

It tastes like a generic black tea. It does not have the bitterness that one might get from a tea like Lipton. The apricot aroma creeps out a bit but I cannot pick up at all of the orange, rose hips, mango, or cinnamon. It’s odd but not unpleasing that gentle little apricot is triumphing over the much more intense flavors—-I’d usually expect cinnamon or rose hips to eat up all the apricot.

So a tribute to the plucky little apricot aroma which does not quite make it into the taste. I have more of this tea blend and will revisit.