Michelle Butler Hallett Send Message

Made for me at a DavidsTea location.

Reasonably well-balanced, but steep it too long (a very subjective measurement) and the mint will dominate. The ooloing undertones are lovely, but I’m not crazy about the lemongrass and mint together.

Rating: 70

1 bag for 250mL boiling water. Bare. Sampled at 5 minutes and then at 8 minutes.

Every now and then I still buy bagged tea at the supermarket. It’s usually a disappointment, but the Just Us tea intrigued me. Just Us is a small coffee roaster and tea importing co-operative in Nova Scotia. The Just Us coffees are pretty good, and I was low on a basic black tea blend, and, after some time outside in the fog, right in the mood for a proper cup of TEA. Just Us Maritime Breakfast one says it’s all India black tea — yay — from TPI. I like Kenya and China and Ceylon blacks, but sometimes only Indian black tea will do.

The Maritime Breakfast is a fairly small teabag filled with fannings. I felt a letdown when I saw that. But the scent — there’s a nice pinch of Darjeeling in this blend, the muscatel sharpness unmistakable.

So I steeped it, one little teabag to strictly 250mL/8oz of boiling water, for 5 minutes.

Maritime Breakfast brews up dark and fast, like Tetley, but the comparison ends there. The Just Us blend smells earthy (Assam?) and a bit sharp (Darjeeling?). There’s some maltiness and heft and an astringent finish that, if you steep it to 8 minutes (like i did when I got distacted) is really pronounced. The finish is mineral and sweet — oh, that’s gottabe Darjeeling, even if a low quality — with some wood notes. At 8 minutes, the liquor is very dark, almost coffee-like, and opaque. Strong without being bitter. For a black tea blend in general, quite nice if you like India tea. For a supermarket baggie blend stuffed with fannings, it’s great. It’s also fairly cheap. It also reminds me a lot of what ‘regular tea’ tasted like when I was a kid, before many manufacturers seemed to switch more to Kenya and Ceylon in their blends. Or maybe I’m just imagining that.

If you like a strong cuppa, I wouldn’t steep a bag in a big mug; it really is a fairly stingy serving of tea.

Rating: 85.

1.5 tsp for 400mL water @ 82C, steeped two minues.

This blend smelled so seductive.

And it’s not fair that I am trying this one after a really good gyokuro.

I want to like this one. It sounds so damn healthy.

But sweet adorable citrus pith, this is BITTER. Bitter, bitter, pill-dissolved-in-your-mouth bitter. And unpredicatably so: some sips are just slightly bitter, others make me scowl. I rarely sweeten teas or tisanes, but I’m gonna have to here.

I am guessing the dandelion root and orange peel are riding roughshod.

Can’t rate this fairly til I try it sweetened.

Made for me at a DavidsTea store.

Swoon.

Normally after I swoon, I write ‘THUD’, but you can’t thud into layers of buttery greens. Exquisitely good. I’ve only had oolongs so buttery. And the green tasting notes: like brussells sprouts before you pick up the bitterness. I was expecting it to be good, but it was fabulous. And best of all, the water wasn’t too hot (which has been a problem at my local DT).

Rating: 100.

1.5 tsp for 250mL water.

Not bad. Genuine ginger in here, for sure, but it still hasn’t got the kick of a blend from last winter’s collection — called Electric Lemon, maybe? Something is cooling the ginger in blend, almost like a mute in a trumpet. I’d keep some on hand for a medicinal tea, but I wouldn’t bother with this for pleasure.

Rating: 60.

1.5 tsp for 250 mL water.

Meh. Smells and looks lovely — I like roses — but the rosehip is so sour … almost like vinegar. That note ruins the whole experience for me. Could detect no coconut at all; in fact, I was surprised to find it on the ingredient list.

Rating: 20.

1 tsp for 250mL tea, water @ 82C (roughly) for 5 minutes.

Okay, now that I know this is primarily apples and stuff, with green tea as the third last ingredient, I know what to expect: a really tasty apple cider that’s not horrendously sweet. But it doesn’t taste of green tea, either. Provided you aren’t expecting anything remotely like green tea, this is a lovely hot apple cinnamon drink. And water temp — yeah. I treated this like a green tea and enjoyed the result more than what got made for me at a DavidsTea with too-hot water.

1 tsp for 250mL water @ 100C. Steeped 4 minutes.

(I got the Winter Collection sampler pack for a Christmas gift and am sampling all of it today at work. I enjoyed a pot of Apres Ski, then a cup of Hot Toboggan, which was great this time as I knew to expect apple cider and not green tea. Am now on the Snow Bunny. Alpine Punch, already sampled, is home, waiting for me to toss it out.)

A good body to the tea, which complements the slight nuttiness. I don’t get much banana flavour, just a slight aroma. I love walnuts, so I enjoy the almost-bitter walnut aftertaste. I’d think this one could get bitter fast if steeped beyond 4 minutes. I like it, but I doubt I’ll buy it on my own.

4 tsp for 750mL tea, 3 minute steep, 100C water.

Okay, there’s got to be a batch issue with Apres Ski. This time I made it from a 25g packet in the Winter Collection set, which I got as a gift, and it’s totally different: no fermented smell or taste, just some decent China (?) black and some sweet figs and a bit of spiciness from the cinnamon. Very agreeable. Balanced and a bit luxurious. A totally different liquor from what I drank last time, which was made for me at a DavidsTea store. This batch is lovely.