Ambessa (by Harney & Sons)

Something about this tea makes me think of comfort for a sore throat, even when I feel fine. I decided tonight I would try it to help soothe my throat before bed. I don’t know why, but lingonberry reminds me of medicine, a good medicine, some kind of menthol or camphor. It smells and tastes like a comfort tea for colds and flu.

The warmth does help, I just wish there was a way to keep sipping hot tea while lying in my back falling asleep. Ah well, one more cup and then I will smear on some Mentholatum and hit the hay. I wish I could pour it in my ear to see if that would open it up…

Yay! I finally get to try this one! Back when the Ambessa line first came out, Russel generously sent me some of the teas. They were great, but this wasn’t available just yet and I really wanted to try it. Then I put myself on a small buying restriction until I can get some of my tea stash drunk up, but today I got to break my rule.

If I go somewhere like the Fresh Market or A Southern Season or Tin Roof Teas, I allow myself to buy a SMALL amount of tea. I nabbed this one today at The Fresh Market.

I have never had lingonberries, and I don’t think I had even heard of them before this blend. The tin smelled sweet and fruity. And while I am loving the tea, it has thrown me for a loop because no one can smell what I am smelling.

When I poured my cup, right away I thought of cough syrup, eucalyptus, rosemary, or those little cedar berries that are all bumpy. I thought of Mentholatum. I tasted rosemary and eucalyptus, mild and smooth. I handed the cup to my daughters and asked them to smell it. They said it just smells like tea to them. One of them sipped. She said it tasted like something from the yard. I think she means the giant rosemary bush, and doesn’t realize it! Husband said it tasted fruity to him,

Maybe something is wrong with my sense of taste and smell, which wouldn’t be too surprising since I have a stuffy nose.

So does anyone else think lingonberries have a savory aroma like rosemary? I can really see myself craving this tea as a comfort tea when I have a cold or don’t feel well. I must like it pretty well. I am about to finish 20 ounces and I just got started.

awww my boss gave me one of her tea bags :)
i get to tell her this is tea # 497.
she will probably be confused. but it will mean i’ll get to talk about tea for maybe 5 min instead of work. so win win!
the tea is very meh. smells way better than it tastes.

(kinda related i had a chocolate peanut butter beer yesterday) https://untappd.s3.amazonaws.com/photo/2013_09_11/4dfa180d4133cc7fd5c56240e8f03191_640x640.jpg

Choco and nut work very nice here(nut flavor is a little bit more dominant here on my palate),plus the tea taste mild,even when I keep the teabag in the cup for more than 10 minutes,it doesn’t go bitter or too much.So I would like to use the same teabag to make a second or a third brew for some longer time,and it works out quite good.

Since it reminded me of a nice cup of chocolate milk or pecan flavored milk when I was a kid,I tried a splash of milk ,and some honey ——but it turned out this blend is best drink plain I think.
Plus,I know there are Calendula officinalis here,from whose Hydrosol I I used to get a lot of chocolate scents~!So maybe I should buy some of this flower alone to try blending some interesting teas .

Having a cup this morning, and since I anticipated the smokiness, it’s far less overwhelming. Also goes well with Biscoff cookies!

Smokier than I would have guessed, but an interesting cup. More notes with future tastings.

I had a cup of this yesterday afternoon. Sadly, I wasn’t impressed. It reminded me of a cup of warm water with a little berry flavor in the background. I’m glad that I just bought a tagalong tin of this in my recent Harneys order. I’m going to have to make a cup for the fiancee when he gets home and see if he likes it any better.

-Silken pyramid teabag.
-Teabag smells of green tea and tart berries. Tea liquor aroma is very faintly of sweet berries.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium green color.
-Fresh vegetal green tea flavor and finish. Extremely light tart berry aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Poor tea. Very weak flavored cup. Tastes like warm water with a faint berry flavor.

Sipdown, this is a sample from Sil. Thanks!
It is a tasty cup, not something I’d buy, but a tasty treat on a saturday afternoon.

Well that’s sad that nobody’s gotten to this one yet. I’ve been lusting after it since the Ambessa teas came out. Good lord I love me some Marcus Samuelsson. I once almost attended some Buick event here to get to just watch him cook. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-avuddQQwKaY/T3310OgSOAI/AAAAAAAACNE/AR8yGdd6tRI/s1600/edun-pioneers-marcus-samuelsson.jpg You’re welcome.

I love lingonberry flavored things. Especially that drink at IKEA. But I hate the IKEA here so I am now missing out on it. When I got my big H&S order yesterday, I couldn’t help but open this (I’m trying to hold off on everything else though), and oh it just smells sooooo good. And the smell is the same in the cup too, it’s killing me to not be able to drink it because it’s still too hot!

It’s really rather light. I even steeped it for three minutes. The lingonberry flavor is there, but the green tea isn’t. At least hot. Eventually I let it cool off and it’s a lot better cold. Definitely tastes like green tea, and the lingonberry REALLY pops. Nice and tart. Will definitely have to give this a shot cold brewed.

Out of curiosity I checked the menus for Samuelsson’s restaurant in Harlem, a pot of this is $6. I wonder how they make it there! Because if I was given a $6 pot of tea that tasted how this did hot, I would not be very pleased.

Oh also the tin is so nice. I love that it’s matte.

Word to the wise: there will be times when life is messy and the weather stinks and you are weary…too weary to make educated tea decisions. When those occasions arise, it is prudent to keep good, easy-to-steep bagged tea on hand. No thinkie, just dunkie and go. And if it’s as good and fruit-nutty as this one, you’ll never know you didn’t fuss with loose leaf.

The more I drink this, the more I am in culinary awe of the maker: who sat down and thought Aprcots + chocolate = (approximately) nuts? Loving it with milk this morning. Have y’all tried this?

Tried this with a little milk this morning. Gives it a lovely nice, creamy texture—apricots, chocolate and cream. Sounds odd; tastes superb.

In the interest of frugality (and the fact that I love this stuff hot), I cold-steeped a small second steep out of the same sachet in the fridge.

Second time around, there’s more choco than apricot, which isn’t the proportion I was hoping for. (I was hoping that the fruity taste would hold out, chilled.)

Didn’t stop me from drinking it all, though.

How this, according to its label, contains no nuts, is a puzzle. Being a Bear of Very Little Brain, I plan not to overload my overloaded synapses thinking on it too awfully hard.

Instead, I shall revel in the unique apri-chocolateness of this lovely and unusual tea and not ask too many questions. You could smell this steeping clear across the kitchen this morning.

Anybody try it iced yet?

Husband and I took a much-needed, irresponsible, AWOL, just-us day in Northwest Arkansas today. Discovered The Fresh Market in Rogers, which is the identical twin of a Whole Foods with a different name slapped on the front.

The “big names” in the tea aisle made me dance and giggle—Steven Smith Teamaker! Two Leaves and a Bud! Adagio! Harney and Sons! And a handful of Ambessa tins, one of which just had to come home with us. A treat I can’t wait to break into.

1000? How’d that happen? Somebody’s spending too much time flitting online, huh?

This was my treat to myself after nearly breaking my back loading up building plans and blueprints for Fed Ex. It was like wrestling a flat, contentious moose.

And a treat it is, thank you, ashmanra. The chocolate-peanutty against apricotty-marigoldy is unusual, but mighty tasty!

Thanks to ashmanra for the sample! I now have a 20-sachet tin of this stuff on order, along with two of the other varieties offered by Harney’s Ambessa Tea. (The Lingonberry Green is out of stock, boo-hoo.) If you go to the Harney’s website, search for the keyword Ambessa to see all 4.

I guess I am a sucker for chocolate teas. This reminds me very much of Florence, which I love. Maybe after I get my tin of this I’ll have a chocolate tasting day between ChocoNut, Florence, and Love Tea #7.

I drank this without any additives like sweetener or milk or cream, and it’s so smooth and rich that it doesn’t need any. It is best before cooling, but I’ll bet it would make an excellent iced tea latte with a bit of agave and some half-and-half.

I left the sachet in the cup and it never got bitter on me. Of course, I drank it pretty quickly…

And the dry tea smells lovely, too.

This was the second tea I shared with my friend today. She loved the aroma – it is very rich.

The chocolate aspect of this tea is not milk chocolate but rather unsweetened cocoa or one of the really dark chocolates. The peanut flavor isn’t peanut butter-y, but roasted peanut. The tea has a double personality. It is rich and dark and deep, and then something happens… the apricot adds a lingering taste that is sweet and sunshine-y.

We had a moment like the pie scene in the movie “Never Been Kissed.” We were going to try to make some additional notes on the tea and when I opened the lid to sniff the aroma again and peered in the pot it was empty. WHERE DID OUR TEA GO??? I was shocked that it was all gone! My friend burst out laughing. Apparently, we were really throwing this one back!

This was her favorite tea today. Apparently, that sweet and lingering aftertaste really won her over! As a former coffee-only drinker, the dark notes also held a lot of attraction for her.

This was the final tea served at tea party today. I didn’t want food interfering with tasting this one so I held it in reserve.

This is a free sample provided by Russel Allyn and Harney and Sons. Many thanks!

The aroma is definitely predominantly chocolate, but the taste is much more. I didn’t remember exactly what I read about this blend other than chocolate, caramel, and peanut. I tasted all those things but there was something more. That something was keeping the dark chocolate from being a cloying taste and lending a bright flavor that made this rich dessert tea really dance for the palate. I wondered if it could be an extra lemon-y Ceylon base but that wasn’t it. The tea base was so smooth and wasn’t quite the same as that sort of Ceylon, which can be a little astringent. Besides, this was sunny-bright, not citrus-bright.

I looked at the official description. Apricots! That was the bright, sunny flavor! There are also marigold petals, but I don’t know how much flavor they add or exactly what the flavor they add would taste like. They may have imparted some brightness to the dark chocolate as well.

Another winner for the new Ambessa line of teas by H&S!

When I first saw the name of this one, I came up short. Whaaaaat? That’s an odd name for tea, thought I. Then….oh! Old World Haarlem! So Dutch tea which means probably a little smoky with bergamot added! This made my mouth water, because honestly I have become a little disenchanted with some of my Earls and just don’t enjoy bergamot as much as I used to. The thought of bergamot with smoke, though….now I was drooling!

These are sachets, so I used my biggest mug, which isn’t very big by big mug standards but was about the right size for this. There MUST be some oolong in this (is that right, Russel?) because I have never seen black tea alone swell this much in a sachet. This is one DARK cup of tea! And oh joy, joy! This is a nice, fresh take on Earl that is definitely worth having on shelf.

The black tea base makes itself known very well, and it is a good base, too! I passed the cup around for all the teens to sniff. “Honeysuckle? Bread! Maybe a little chocolate? A little grain!”

I gave it a good, solid slurp like Michael talks about in his book. Is that the bergamot, or is there a little lemony Ceylon in this, too?

I drank mine plain, but this could easily handle milk and sugar if that was your bent. Don’t overlook this as just another Earl Grey. If you like Earl Grey tea, I think this one is with trying. I bet it would be great iced, too!

Edited to add: I decided to try it with sugar since that is how my daughter’s bf will probably drink it and I plan to send him some. I don’t usually add sugar, and personally I liked this better without it. The citrus and floral flavors are enough!

Then I iced the remaining sweet tea and…..OH YES! Very nice!

Further edited to add! – so I was wrong! I said the name perplexed me because I couldn’t think of a flavor that would be identified with Harlem in New York, so I decided it must be Haarlem and the famous smoky Dutch tea this was referring to. Well, it is probably both! The chef who designed this blend has a restaurant in Harlem! Definitely look up his bio. He seems like an amazing young man with an amazing life. Born in Ethiopa, contracted tuberculosis along with his sister and mother, adopted (his sister, too) after his mother died of the disease and raised in Sweden, taught to cook by what must have been an amazing grandmother, studied culinary arts in Sweden and France, and now has a restaurant in New York. These blends are even more special to me now, seeing all the things that each flavor encompasses for him! Bravo to your blends and your spirit! How inspiring!

I’ve never had a fresh lingonberry, but I do love the preserves that IKEA sells. Lingonberry tea sounded too awesome to pass up. Who could resist the awesomely designed packaging?

Unfortunately, I think I prefer the packaging to the tea itself. The flavor of the lingonberry is a bit too artificial for my tastes. It’s quite sweet in a somewhat unappealing cotton candy-like way. The sencha is very vegetal and maybe a bit too grassy to be paired with the lingonberry.

I’m glad I only invested in a tagalong tin. While I’d love to repurpose the full sized tin into something awesome, I don’t think I could have soldiered through all 20 sachets.

I love chocolate, and I love tea, but there’s just something about choclate teas that I sometimes just don’t get. When placing my last H&S order, I picked up 3 of the 4 Ambessa teas thoroughly convinced that I probably wasn’t going to like this one. I decided to give it a try because dark chocolate, peanut, and apricot sounded like a potentially awesome mix.

Fast forward three months, and I’m just now trying this out for the first time. I was in a rush to go to a meeting, so I grabbed a bag of tea and my mug, and filled up using the hot water dispenser in the conference room (don’t judge!). The entire meeting I couldn’t help but wonder what ingredient made this tea so damn tasty. See, after three months I’d forgotten why I even decided to order this. As if I needed another sign that my tea hoarding is a problem!

The secret to this tea’s deliciousness is the apricots. They add a sweetness that just works so well with the other ingredients. The chocolate is very subtle in flavor but has a pretty strong aroma. I didn’t taste a strong peanut flavor, but there were definitely some nutty notes. Overall, a tasty tea.

Sipdown! 49/365

Meh. This smelled good when I brewed it up, but the flavour is pretty artificial. Yes, it is “chocolate” and “nut”, but it is heavily overshadowed by a plasticky flavouring taste. Apparently I wasn’t a huge fan when I first had it either.

Sipdown! Probably similar thoughts to last time on this one – I can taste some chocolate and nuttiness, but it’s not all that strong. The base is pretty smooth, but overall it comes across as a fairly standard dessert-flavoured black. That is, drinkable enough, but without the decadence that I really want from this sort of tea.