A C Perch's

Okay, so you know how frustrating it can be if someone keeps calling you the wrong name or constantly mixes you up with your sibling, or something along those lines? Right.

Well, words have feelings, too.

Pallet

This is an image of a pallet: https://bit.ly/3emkvSz

Palette

This is an image of a palette: https://bit.ly/2NuuN7v

Palate

Yes. Mouthfeels.

I bet these three words feel like Amy Adams and Isla Fisher and some other tiny, strawberry blonde actress who gets mixed up with the other two all the time.

On to the tea. This smells vaguely of fruity black tea, but without any specific, discernible fruit character. ‘Random berry’, I’d say. Steeped, the scent continues to be subtle, a subtlety that carries through into the sip.

What I really like about this one, and that I feel I often complain about in other black berry (not blackberry) teas, is that it’s not tart or sour at all. The flavour is simply blackberry (with hints of blueberry, as per usual, as the two flavour profiles are really difficult for me to keep apart in dried/tea form) and a very natural-tasting, smooth one, at that.

I’m not a huge berry tea fan, and this one doesn’t have the complexity I usually go for, but I like it a whole lot nonetheless. It’s just one of those teas, I guess. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that it made me crave scones with berry jam and clotted cream (and the works, really) something crazy and there’s just no way that is happening anytime soon.

Thanks for sharing this, Ang!

[Sample from the EU Travelling Box, autumn 2013.]

I am completely confused by this tea. Picking it out blindly (see my note on Vanilla from Fru P) I thought it was a pu’erh, or something along those lines – it definitely didn’t smell like almond, or even bitter almond. So imagine my surprise when I read the label and realized it was ACP’s almond tea that I’ve seen on the shelf numerous times and considered trying out.

Brewed, it has an oatmealy scent – I kid you not. There is the vaguest note of bitter almond, but so vague that I mistakenly – and I will admit this only to you – actually dipped the tip of my nose into the tea trying to chase the elusive scent strand down. We will not speak of this further.

Taste wise, it’s equally confusing. I taste only tea – a fairly non-descript black base. And then, if I close my eyes and very intently focus on almonds and almond slivers and marzipan and other almondy things, then maybe, just maybe, I can catch the slightest note of something vaguely resembling… plums?

No, I give up. This tea is out to get me, I can feel it. It’s clearly gaslighting me!

(Again – thanks, Ang!)

[Sample from the EU Travelling Box, autumn 2013.]

Thank you Angrboda for this sample tea!

The Arctic wind swept down through the Rocky Mountains yesterday afternoon…whoosh!
I stepped out of my Tea Shop, driving 3 miles home…just as the first snowkles began to fall. Perfect timing!
On went the Christmas lights and a movie! http://flic.kr/p/dEPKHb

I was waiting for a proper snow day to kick back and drink tea while watching the Wintry Wonderland through my large picture window.

This morning, I woke up early…wrapped myself in a fuzzy pink robe and poked my head through the curtains to view the pristine white blanket of snow over everything. Top to bottom white!

I don’t need to leave home for days. With temperatures predicted to be in the teens and and minus zero, I’ll stay home!

Comfort and Joy!

Lapsang Souchong fits the scene…Christmas lights on the tree, wreath over the fireplace, teapots out on display. http://flic.kr/p/dETRv6

I’m a Lapsang Souchong when-the-mood-is-right sort of person. I cook with LS often but drink it on rarely.

I have to say that this TEA is semi-mild and entirely smooth.
Very smooth actually!
It’s not boring or flat. Sometimes I think lapsang souchongs are toned down and become boring as though someone sprinkled a little smoke on an average black tea. That isn’t the case here.

Rich, smooth with a hint of citrus…no sooty aftertaste or bitterness a very good drinkable tea.

Had a mug with cream and sugar…loved the flavor…um. Sweet with a smoky hint of saltiness.

The Arctic Blast is rolling across North America, heading East…and if you can grab some Lapsang Souchong…take a break and look out the window at the splendor of Winter, keeping warm with a friendly cup of smoky tea!

So for my very first attempt with this tea, I (gasp) followed the instructions against both my better judgment and Angrboda’s recommendation. There are at least two more brews to get out of this sample, so it seemed like a good place to start.

Following the instructions in this case, resulted in an 80C-steep for a whopping 8 minutes. Yes, eight. And yes. This is bitter, but far from as bitter as expected. What is less appealing is the metallic taste that sometimes seems so hard to avoid in ACP’s greens – but it evaporates once the brew cools off a little.

But I get ahead of myself a little – the dry tea smells very pleasant, there’s a nice balance between the orange and the strawberry, but the fruit notes are a little too candy-esque for me and my devotion to natural fruit flavours.

But yeah – next time this will need to steep for a shorter time, because right now this tea is half bitter and half fruit candy; two main flavour features that don’t marry particularly well.

[Sample gifted by my sweet friend T, October 2013.]

Uhm, nom. This smells delicious in the bag, like a bamboo caramel fruit cup (although I have a feeling that particular flavour combination wouldn’t exactly fly out of the fruit cup aisle).

I kind of adore this, although I steeped it very sloppily, so it might just be a happy mistake. I mainly get bamboo and pineapple – a big, bold, juicy mid-mouth bamboo-pineapple, no drably elusive aftertaste phantasm.

Now I really want to try this iced. And also see if I can tease a few more fruit notes out of it with a longer steeping time.

[Sample gifted by my sweet friend T, October 2013.]

So this is Bailey Cream, not Bailey’s Cream, and in the English description on the website they don’t even bother with the capital letter. So what exactly is a ‘bailey’? At least the Danish copy is a little more forthcoming: Cremet Bailey the. So silly – why not just call it Irish Cream instead of doing a half-assed attempt at capitalizing on a brand name?

It smells good in the bag – I tried a gentle hand with this one, a 90C, 5-minute steep, but I don’t know if it did the leaf any favours. The first taste is cookie for sure, but a burnt chocolate cookie – like those little crusts forgotten on the baking sheet.

And that’s sort of it, really; there’s a promise of some creamy vanilla in the nose, but in the cup, this is entirely elusive.

I’ll give what remains of the sample – two cups, or so – a chance of redemption through steeping variations.

[Sample gifted by my sweet friend T, October 2013.]

Hm, interesting – I didn’t have high hopes for the White Mulberry (Like, what’s a white mulberry, anyway? What’s its purpose?) and there were no reviews to read, really, but I ended up absolutely loving it – this one, on the other hand, was talked up by a certain T, so I thought it would be something similar to White Temple. (All these ACP whites!)

But… it’s really not. I think this would really shine as an iced tea, though, much like White Temple. Steeped hot, however, it comes off a little flighty.

Elderflower is tricky – I used to make concentrate every year, using it for sorbets and ice creams and lemonades and cakes and whatnot, so I know my elderflower notes; and this is good – a good elderflower. (I just used ‘elderflower’ three times in one sentence! Is there a special prize?) However, it’s so very subtle when hot that this delicately balanced little flavouring is nearly lost.

In terms of the pomegranate I know is supposed to be in here, I don’t really know. The aftertaste is more one of fruity candy than pom, to my palate. Any other flavour notes are sort of swallowed up by this lingering sweetness.

But yeah – iced. Next time, definitely.

[Sample gifted by my sweet friend T, October 2013.]

When I got to the Perch shop in Aarhus were I live during the autumn, it was one of these perfect days. I had got a lot of good response on my MA thesis and lots of funny assignments on my internship, that I got downtown to buy something new to drink for my evening-studies. And what is more perfect than go to Perch to buy new teas and some ginger cookies?

Anyway, when I got in to the shop, the woman behind the desk laughed for herself. (I had been there two days a week since their opening to buy new teas so well, and I believed I went there the day before as well.) When I smelled the tea I got seduces by it sweet scent. It was hypontic and heavy in a way I never smelled before. I bought it and the first thing I did was to made a large cup, I got my book about the Scandinavian design that I was suppose to read and took a seat on the large bench on the balcony, in the sun.

I smelled the tea and the sweetness was so dominant and so hypnotic. In my first sip, I could taste the fudge, the cream. The second steep was more fruity, still fudge and caramel but a fruitiness of something I never been tasting before. Even if I got seduced by its scent in the shop, I lost myself after tasting it. I fell in love completely! This one is really a favorite that I need to have at home. It’s one of my most-have teas. If you are able to get to Perch, try it. It’s so interesting and so good. Love at first sight!

I’ve been drinking this one for a couple of weeks. I bought it when I was looking after my White Symphony tea and I couldn’t in the shop decide which of those two that were the one (The special takeaway cup) I was looking for so that’s why I bought both. But The special one was the White Symphony.

If I should talk about this tea, I am still confused because I have no clue of what I think. When I smelled it I loved the strong scent of Black Currant, but when I were tasting it, after been drinking White Temple, White Symphony and White Mulberry which are my absolute favorites of Perch’s teas, this one were quite boring. I like it though but its just tea for me. It doesn’t give me the wow-feeling. But still it’s drinkable. When I don’t like so much is that the flavor is so mild and for someone who likes milk and sugar in their tea, I think this one would be a good morning tea, or night tea before going to sleep. I haven’t tried this one as an ice tea, but I think it can be okey.

Have acquired a tiny little stress-related tic in my left eyelid. It’s tiny, but it’s driving me up the wall. Don’t feel particularly stressed, but there’s always a certain constant level of stress these days because of Reasons. I don’t dare tell you about that yet. Mustn’t jinx it.

Having this again this afternoon. This time I took care to only use about two thirds of the leaf I used last time, and it yielded a much better result. The creme note came out very clearly, the coconut note was about the same as before, and I quite clearly got some elderflower notes as well. Best of all, that courgette-y aftertaste of the white tea in the blend was much diminished.

This felt like rather a larger change then these sorts of adjustments usually result in, so I’m giving it a few more points.

Once again the new Perch’s shop has let me down. Some of you may recall having heard me complain about how the girl in the shop the first time I was there told me that the minimum amount was still 100g. I was so disappointed and decided to whine about it on their facebook page. A representative of the company then told me on Facebook that I would be welcome to buy less than 100g at almost the same time as a former colleague of mine replied to my message saying that she had had no trouble buying less than 100g of something the day before in the same shop. Today I was then told by a different person in the shop minimum 100g again. She didn’t seem very interested in what I had been told on Facebook previously, so I had to get the full 100g again. I didn’t have my phone on me, so I couldn’t show it to her anyway. I reckon it’s no use making a fuss about it in the shop. If two different people have told me this, then that’s likely what they’ve been told by their boss and they wouldn’t be allowed to let me have my way either way. So I have whined about it on Facebook again, requested a clear answer as to who’s right or wrong and if I should be allowed to buy less than 100g at the time, then could this please be communicated out to the personel? So now we’ll just have to see what happens next.

Otherwise I’ll just continue shopping via their website in the comfort of my own home where I don’t have to squint to read the squiggly old-fashioned text on rather shiny brass-coloured tins. I have an awfully difficult time seeing it. I’ve loved this shop. I would like to continue to love this shop. Right now they’re not really making that very easy for me.

This is a new blend from AC Perchs, and when I first saw it announced on their facebook page I thought it would be flavoured with mandarins, as in the little citrus fruits that look like miniature oranges. Turns out it isn’t. (It’s not flavoured with Chinese imperial civil servants either) It’s even more interesting because it has coconut, creme and elderflower. The coconut and creme, I can take it or leave it, but I love things that are elderflower-flavoured. Elderflower cordial is one of the best things to ever come into existance.

It’s not truly a green base, though, because it has white tea blended in as well. I can taste this as well by the courgette-y, walnut-y aftertaste. I haven’t been too keen on white teas lately, which I’m about to be somewhat challenged on. The other one I got to day is a white base… Oh well! This one does have that courgette-y aspect that is part of why I don’t much care for white, but it’s fairly subdued and only on the aftertaste, so it’s not really a big deal in a blend like this.

I’m also getting the coconut on the aftertaste, but not in large amounts. It mixes in well with the notes and almost manages to hide among them while in a peculiar way still being quite strong. It’s like strong and subtle simultaneously. How does that work?

The coconut is particularly clear on the actual sip, though, and the creme is also showing up there. The creme is more a feeling rather than a flavour really. I quite like that. I once had a cream flavoured tea and it seemed to me to be a waste of both tea and flavouring because I could have achieved the exact same result with a simple plain black tea and adding a smidge of cream myself. In this blend, however, I’m not getting that feeling, so that’s the ideal creme-ness for me.

The elderflower is a lot more difficult to pin down. I can’t really take a sip and say ‘that note there is elderflower’. It’s more sort of all over the place, a diffuse sort of elderflower-y cloud permeating through everything else. I should have liked this note to be a little clearer, but then again, I really like elderflower.

Husband says he really enjoyed this one. He says it reminds him of something but he couldn’t think what it was.

I think I may have over-leafed a little bit on this cup though, so it might be possible to bring this note out better. I also suspect that this is a blend that would perform rather well as a cold brew. I must remember to try this as well. It really does need a little more experimentation. For that reason, the rating might change in the future. I’m quite pleased with it right now, though.

So after steeping that White Mulberry for 6 minutes, it wasn’t too daunting to leave this in the basket for 8, in accordance with the instructions on the bag.

Dry, this tea smells sweet and fruity. It’s very pretty, all long leaves and flower petals. In the cup, it’s all blackcurrant. And nicely done, too – it’s very present both in the nose and in the sip. The elderberry would have been a nice companion, though – again, this is me and my search for those complex, surprising trickster teas.

I’m definitely enjoying this one, though, and I look forward to trying it iced.

[Sample gifted by my sweet friend T, October 2013.]

It’s no coincidence I picked this as my second tea to try from that massive gift batch from T – rhubarb is something I love growing in my garden and cooking with – I’ll even get excited about rhubarb cordials and lemonades, but in tea? Firstly, I feel much of the complexity of the rhubarb flavour is lost in a warm beverage, and secondly, it’s just a really hard one to mimic.

So seeing how that White Mulberry floored me, I figured I’d just go with this one now, or T will demand my firstborn or something.

There is actually a convincing, albeit elusive note of rhubarb in the dry tea. This doesn’t really stay with the brewed tea, however, and in the cup, the flavour is very subtle. It’s very astringent, bordering on bitter, and completely lacks the creaminess I expect from a cream-labeled tea.

However, I think this is one of those greens that are extremely sensitive to brewing – there are no specific instructions on the site, and T did hers at 80C/6 minutes, so I went for 80C/3 minutes, which seemed like a fair middle ground.

I’m definitely going to experiment with what’s left of the sample, but I doubt I’ll ever be able to squeeze the complexity of flavour I want out of it – much like that quince tea from Kränku, this is a bit of a one-trick pony, and an easily spooked one at that.

[Sample gifted by my sweet friend T, October 2013.]

Again, I cheated a little. I surreptitiously emptied the tiny tiny sample left of this that I’d been clinging to into the extra super pretty Lupicia tin I got in October. Poof, gone! Because thanks to T. and her unsurpassed Christmas gift giving skills I now have a full tin’s worth of this. I could not be happier about that, as I absolutely love it.

So good. There’s so much melon in the nose, but then when I taste it, there’s a whole new set of unexpected flavours.

[Sample polished off in Rome, December 2013.]
[Gifted by my sweet friend T. in Rome, December 2013.]

I’m feeling a little like Veronica Mars here (channeling Goodfellas), but this really is one of those, just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in! moments.

You know – you sit there, all smug, having logged all the teas in your cupboard. And then it happens. Mail time. SBLAM! Your lovely darling friend T… sends you more T. And you have 11 new samples.

I’m overly excited about the whole thing, so I’ll just get right to it.

The dry tea is beautiful, with strands of colour, the occasional amber chunk of something or other, and long, slender leaves – even after having bravely traveled to me in an envelope! In terms of scent, White Mulberry carries a strong note of fudgey sweetness. As it steeps (at a recommended 8 minutes/80C) this turns into a maltier, more full-bodied fudge, which bears a strong resemblance to Mariage Impérial (!) albeit (and predictably) with a vegetal base note.

In the cup, I’m really loving this. It’s weird and complex and a little confusing; just how I like ‘em. There’s some tartness right at the beginning of the sip, then it dissolves into a charmingly ambiguous vegetal note that then, in its turn, slides straight into something surprisingly malty.

I absolutely love it – but not as much as I love you, T – thank you, you’re the best; you really made my day with this. <3!

[Sample gifted by my sweet friend T, October 2013.]

For the moment I discover A C Perch teas, and during the weeks that I’ve been living in Denmark I have bought ten different teas, but i believe it will be more. Anyway. White Temple is one of my favorites of Perch teas.

When you smell on the tea, its fresh and fruity in its scent. I can feel a dominant scent of papaya and mango. When you drink the tea the sweet mango taste is strong. In the aftertaste the orange and papaya brings forward the freshness in the drink.

White temple is also perfect with fruit especially pears. It is a very fresh combination.

This one is the tea that I am drinking when I’m working. Especially when I work with my creative stuff. I like this one a lot, because the taste is kind of bittersweet. At first you can taste the rhubarb which are kind of sour but sweet, after that it gets like a bittersweet after-taste. The mix between bitter and sweet makes it very interesting.

It also fits with cookies and desserts with ginger, lemon and chili. I tried it with A.C Perch Ginger cookies and the tea really emphasize the spiciness in the ginger. Try it with lemon and ginger cupcakes. Just a suggestion.

I don’t like Baileys normally but the Bailey Cream tea was surprisingly good. The flavour of vanilla and caramel dominates and sometimes it feels like drinking a cookie. It is perfect as an evening tea or on really cold nights.

I have been drinking this tea three times now and it’s so delicious that I can’t stop drinking it. When I smelled on the tea at A C Perch Tea Shop, my first thought was candy. The tea had a sweet but sourish and fresh scent. I think it’s because of the pomegranate and elderflower. First time I tasted it was as a takeaway and from the first sip I loved it. The flavour of pomegranate comes as an aftertaste, which makes the tea even more interesting and more tasty. At first I didn’t catch the name of the tea and I was searching for the “right one” for a couple of days until I found it. When I finally got it, I loved it even more. So this one I can really recommend. I prefer to drink the tea warm but it’s also good as an ice tea and lukewarm.

So the new AC Perchs shop opened on Friday! YAAAAY! I stopped in there on my way home from work this afternoon. Work. Yes. Nose to the grindstone once again. I want more summer holiday as I was not finished with it thank you very much. Anyway. I was rather looking forward to this shop opening as it’s one of my favourite places to shop online even though I have to get at least 100 grams of each item. I was hoping with a real shop where they would measure it out on scales for me, I could get less at a time, and maybe have a sample of whichever tea I might be interested in but not certain I would care about.

Well. Tough bloody luck. I was told I could still only get a minimum of 100 grams. And yeah, I could get samples, there were a basket of pre-packed ones to choose from, which at a glance of course turned out to be the same ones as they offer online.

I’m having a really hard time wrapping my head around the logic of this, and I have to say I’m now feeling rather disappointed.

So, having spent a few minutes scouting out all the things I’d have liked to get samples of, I was forced to control myself with one certainty (vanilla, which I would probably have got in that amount anyway, as self lurves vanilla black and even if it was Awesome, it’d definitely get used) and one new one which is this one.

It smells like marcipan and sweeties both before and after steeping. I reckon this would be pretty good around Christmas as it reminds me strongly of Christmas marcipan confectionary.

I’m expecting a marcipan-y taste as well now. Creamy and sweet and sort of thick-ish. I’m fearing that it’ll turn out to be a lot more sort of raw almond-y, which like other nuts, can be slightly astringent in flavour. For me, anyway. (This is why I don’t much care for hazelnuts on their own. Feels like chewing wood)

Strangely enough, it’s sort of a middle-y thing between the two. It’s definitely thickish and creamy and somewhat sweet, but it’s not particularly marcipan-y. It strikes me as rather more nutty than marcipan-y, but doesn’t have the astringency that I was afraid of.

I had to have a few sips before I could come to any conclusion on this, but I think I’ve decided that I rather like it as it is, BUT that, like vanilla, it will probably be excellent as a ‘mixer’ with other flavoured teas as well. I want to try it with my hazelnut brittle!

And another cold-steeped pitcher of this gone. Mostly posting this to say I steeped it for maybe 12 hours, rather than the usual 24, and that the longer steep definitely works better for drawing out the flavours. I use fairly little leaf, though, so I’m sure you can up that to balance it better.

Still so hot I haven’t even managed to have a cup of real tea today. It didn’t really rain that much yesterday, and now they’re saying it’s going to rain for SEVEN days straight starting tomorrow. Everyone else is all, ‘Boo!’, and I’m all, ‘TEA TIME!!!’

I love rain.

A whole pitcher of this, cold-steeped…

…also gone.

Poof. Just like that.