Michelle Butler Hallett Send Message

6 tsp for 1000mL tea, Breville, 3 minute steep with basket cycle on. 85

A tasty blend, but not as complex and bright and I remember. I first tried some about a year ago and got the BAM effect. Not this time. I guess different batches going into the blend would affect that.

One thing that does bug me a bit about the copy: The company talks about tasting Darjeeling when putting this blend together, but there is no Darjeeling in the blend. It’s a mix of Yunnan, Keemun, Assam and Uva teas. That’s been revised on the packet I just got but is still on the site.

For a breakfast blend, it’s a bit on the strong side; the Keemun plays hard here. The Assam gifts some heft, but the tea is not overly malty. The Yunnan smooths it out. It’s really good, especially when compared to many “breakfast” blends out there, “breakfast” being another way of saying “floor sweepings,” I sometimes think. I like this much more than David’s Orange Pekoe and enjoy this blend when I just want some good black tea.

1TB for 450mL water. 6 minute steep, 98C water. Rating: 95.

Yum. I wasn’t expecting this to live up to the hype, but yeah, it’s really nice. A bit Darjeeling-y, which is not a surprise, given that the tea comes from Nepal. But’s it’s not a Darjeeling. This tea has a slight woody tang but no serious astringency. The mouthfeel and body remind me of Yunnan rather than any of the India teas. Sweet notes, too.

2 tsp for 500mL water, steeped 6 minutes. Rating: 88.

Wow! Serious honey, and, as another reviewer has noted, something fuzzy, like pollen and like bees themselves. I love honeybush but find it can get a bit monotonous on its own; here, blended, it nearly steals the show. Delicious without being sickly sweet. I do not taste the mate at all, though I can just pick out the green rooibos, which I quite like and have gotten fond of in the Super Chocolate blend. I am waiting for any mate buzz, which would be very welcome today. A very clean finish, no cloy, no bitterness. So far, win win.

(IE9 doesn’t let me access the slider bars, so I type out my rating stats.)

3TB for 1000mL, steeped in a Breville @ White-Strong with the basket cycle on.

I may have tried to stretch these leaves too far. It is a fluffy tea, so you need a little more than you might be used to. So mine’s a bit thin today. The leaves are also a bit stale, as I’ve been hoarding this one.

When these leaves are fresh, you get a really intriguing white tea with bits of Darjeeling muscatel and faint woodiness. Those notes sneak up on you; at first sip, this seems to be a fairly ordinary white tea. Enjoyable, but measure carefully and don’t keep the leaves around too long.

Rating: 87.

1 TB for 450mL water, bare.

Tastes like mouldy leaves.

Second sip, I think I get some lemongrass … maybe.

Seriously, I wonder if I have a bad batch. This is nasty.

Steep time: 3 min. Water temp: 82. Rating: 0.

3TB for 1 gourd, no sweetener at first. Rating: 90.

Loose tea at the Bulk Barn? Loose tea at the Bulk Barn? Well, all right, I’ll look into that. They carry a decent selection of unusual bagged teas, including some hard-to-find Stash blends, plus the usual groaning shelves of Celestial Seasonings. In the past, they’ve kept ghostly teabags, all very gossamer, in those transparent bins where light can ruin them. (Gah!) The new loose teas are also in transparent bins, but the bins have magnetic seals, so they shouldn’t get too stale, too fast.

Some of the new loose teas are quite pretty to look at, including this one. The greens of the mate leaves and the lemon grass are quite vibrant, and the yellow petals strewn throughout add some contrast.

Taste: a quite acceptable green mate that is NOT overpowered by the lemongrass. I’d expected this to be a mouthful-o-lemongrass and so only bought 40 cents worth to try. The mate is crisp and very green in taste, in-your-face leafy, and the lemongrass complements that nicely. The mate will get bitter if forgotten in the gourd while you go fold a load of laundry, but add some sweetener and fresh warm water and all is well again.

The bin I bought from is pretty fresh, and the mate offers a decent lift. Overall, a pleasant surprise.

For me, too malty, too sharp, too heavy … though, oddly, if you steep it to death, it develops sweet notes. I will drink it if nothing else is available, and I’ll drink it and like it if visiting a friend and this is what they have. My biggest problem with Tetley is how I associate with being hospitalized. A covered cup of warm water and a Tetley tea bag would come up on the tray, and I would steep the Tetley a good 15 minutes and then knock it back, trying to get a clearer head and fight back the stupid-making effects of pain meds.

5 tsp for 1100mL water, strong (3-minute steep) black tea setting with basket cycle in the Breville. Drunk bare. Rating: 100.

Yeah, I found a few extra pennies and scarfed up some more HB. Today it’s mostly chewy Yunnan and winey Keemun, creamy heft and faint smoke. One of my favourite blends EVER.

I also promised an empty tin to a young Star Wars fan I know. But I’ve got to drink the tea first. Win-win.

1 TB for 450mL water, bare, boiling water, 4-minute steep. Rating: 85.

I’ve drunk a lot of orange spice black tea over the years. Bigelow’s Constant Comment and Stash Orange Spice come to mind. A few years ago, Stash changed the kind or oranges they use, and now that tea knocks me flat with wonderful orange flavour … but the black tea base they use is not the best.

This Orange Spice, from my local teashop, is much better balanced. You can smell the organes right though the bag, of course, and you can also smell the lime leaves. The cinnamon complements but does not dominate. And best of all, the Ceylon used is mellow and gentle, lending an overall surprising creaminess to the mouth-fell.

I don’t usually count flavoured black teas in my favourites, but this one is really good.

5 tsp for 4 cups of the in a Breville One Touch Teamaker, 4-minutes steep, basket/agitate cycle on.

Much more of a scent of distant flowers on the tea today, nuances of bread and — er — roses. But not perfume roses, almost toasted roses, with some malt a few octaves down. Hard to describe. Delicious.