Charleston Tea Plantation

Quoting a tasting note from JacquelineM directly:

“This is another one that I think people with “bergamot problems” would like. :)”

Bingo. I am often bergamot-avoidant (bergamotley challenged?), though I stand by my statement that all good tea drinkers need to have an Earl Grey variety in their repertoire. Had this pyramid sample from ashmanra handy at work, had my little liquid creamer pack at the ready to tone down the flavor, and surprise! I didn’t need it. This is good black tea foremost; bergamot hindmost. I’d drink more, and that’s saying something for an EG.

I have had a bunch of different teas from the Charleston Tea Plantation sitting in a drawer, and with the exception of Plantation Peach – which was YUMMY! especially iced – I have failed to taste them! Gmathis inspired me this morning. When I saw her review of this tea, I thought, “Hey, I have that!”

I used two sachets in an 18 ounce Stump pot and steeped for three minutes. The liquor was orange/ amber. There is a light sweet potato scent that intensifies when your kid adds a bucket of sugar to her cup! As is my habit, I took it plain first because it was my first time drinking it, and it was a smooth enough cup of tea to be taken without milk. There is a slight hint of breakfast tea bite that would probably be stronger if you want it just by adding more tea or increasing your steep time. Not bad, and it comes from an island just a few hours drive from me that I still haven’t managed to visit!

I tried it next with a bit of sugar, and I thought it odd that sugar increased the sense of bite. If you like an Assam to kick your butt into gear, you would like that! Next I added a splash of milk to smooth that bite. It was a decent cup of tea that way as well.

Overall, I think I liked it best absolutely plain. My daughters were not wild about it, but they add LOTS of sugar and milk to most of their teas so they tend to like things with more Assam in them.

Came on here to remove this from my cupboard and saw that my last review of it said I wasn’t going to add it to my cupboard because we were going through it so fast. Well, it took about four months after all because I started going for hard sipdowns of my oldest tea to clear them out and have made satisfying progress.

At the beach, this tasted great. My first pitcher at home seemed to lose the peach flavor quickly. I made a gallon pitcher iced and sweetened today and I find the level of peach flavor very satisfying and not overwhelming. I know at least one reviewer had found it to be too perfumed and artificial peachy but so far, everyone who has tried it here – hot or iced – has liked it a lot.

Sipdown! And my shelves and baskets are looking much more organized!

I am not going to add this to my cupboard because we are turning it into iced tea so fast that I will be removing it very soon.

I bought this on our beach trip and made a couple of gallons of iced tea. It was peachy and everyone loved it. This tea is no longer available here where I live, so I have to buy it out of town.

Now that we are home, the peach flavor is disappearing from the tea shortly after I make it. I will try using more leaf and not making two gallons at a time and see if that helps.

It is great peach flavor most of the time, so I don’t know what is going on with it. It isn’t just me, a guest said she didn’t taste the peach either. Oh well!

Backlogging from yesterday: I made a pitcher of this tea Saturday so it would have time to chill and the flavors meld before the Labor Day cook out. It was lightly sweetened. One young guest, who is accustomed to the syrupy sweet southern iced tea that is predominant here, said she loved the peach but it wasn’t sweet enough for her. I have grown accustomed to tea that is lightly sweetened or u sweetened, so the level of sugar was fine.

Surprisingly, I think I like this better than Midsummer’s Peach, probably because of the additional heft of the base. It is pretty close!

Charleston Tea Plantation has been consistently good. I think I have had about four of their teas now.

This is the loose leaf version. I gave instructions to my youngest to only give this about three minutes since the leaf particles are rather small. I must say it came out rather nicely and the peach flavor was quite good. This is definitely going to be my lunchtime iced tea when the horrible heat hits this summer. The tea base is strong enough to stand up to the flavoring, the peach flavor tastes natural, and it is great without additions.

One of our writers’ group members dropped by with his wife today to get to know our little American Dingo we are fostering as they are thinking about adopting her. The wife had toured the plantation in Charleston about a month ago, and brought this as a gift. What a lovely surprise!

The first thing I noticed was that the aroma was far more natural than Midsummer Peach by H&S. This really smells like a fresh, juicy peach. I think I need to open my bag of Harney Sachets and let them breathe a little! There is a decided artificial aroma to them. Not this one!

Steeped, this is a very good cuppa. As I drank it, I couldn’t help fantasizing about hot summer weather and tall glasses of fruity iced tea. So I iced the rest of the pot! Delicious! I will definitely be making big pitchers of iced tea with this when summer rolls around.

The peach isn’t as subtle as I expected it would be in the iced version. It still comes through very well. The tea itself is a tiny bit astringent, not in a bad way…a lot like the base for Mango Black Iced that 52teas had last year. (That was so excellent by the way that I will personally beg Frank to make it available again next summer.)

MegWesley is my roommate, so we tried this tea together today. I found that it had a very vegetative taste to it, but it was nonetheless a very drinkable and enjoyable tea. It was certainly one of the more interesting teas I’ve tried and I’ll have to try more… when I’m in the right mood for it.

Looks like I liked this when I had my first sample about a year ago; I’m liking it even better this morning. It has some dark and just-barely sweet cocoa personality that’s kin to super-fine estate teas from outside the U.S.

All the Charleston Plantation teas I’ve tried have rated a pretty good or better, but at least for this morning, this is nearing superlative.

Nice, gentle, smooth, a little sweet. Enjoying mine without milk. It’s been a while since I’ve had Charleston Tea Plantation’s American Classic, but I think this is the better of the two—less of a sharp tang on the tongue.

P.S. Ices down nicely, too.

I’ve managed to pick up a little spring cold, and knew I wouldn’t be tasting right today. I chose this tea for the citrus, and was sad but not surprised it tasted like…berries! It was still enjoyable and soothing, which is all that matters :) It was my last spoonful from Jaime’s generous sample. Thanks again!!!

I put some Rosy Earl Grey in for the next steep and…yep. Berries. I guess having everything taste like berries is a pretty good way to have your tastebuds wackadoo!

Today is a very, very Earl Grey day for me :) I decided that I simply must have more tea today, and remembered I had the Governor Gray that Jaime sent me here at work!

It’s delightful! Really light and – I don’t know – the word refreshing comes to mind. The tea and the bergamot flavoring combine for a very lemony taste. A perfect afternoon tea. This is another one that I think people with “bergamot problems” would like. :)

I also think it’s REALLY neat to try an American grown tea!! I have to put the Charleston Tea Plantation on the little radar in my head as a place to go for a really cool road trip. Look! http://www.charlestonteaplantation.com/About-Us.aspx

Thank you once again Jaime! Not only a good tea but an interesting tidbit of Americana!

I didn’t even know America had a tea plantation! While vacationing in South Carolina I happened across this, and, being me, had to buy some. I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised at the taste of it. Don’t steep it too long, as it’s heavier than most, but it’s a perfectly drinkable standard black. This tea is bland if you’re used to flavored teas or other malty/oaky/bright/coppery blacks, but I do recommend picking up a box if you’re in that neighborhood, if only for the novelty.

I picked this one up in Chapel Hill, too. The only bottled tea that I’ve ever really had (and that was at least five or so years ago) was peach Snapple tea. I used to really like it. I’ve also been really interested in the Charleston Tea Plantation since I first learned of it. The other day a colleague picked up a DVD from the plantation for me, which was great fun and is keeping this spot in the forefront of my memory.

So, when I saw they had a peach tea, I thought it’d be lovely for iced tea at this time of year. And I really think it was! I carried a bottle of it around with me at Earth Day and it was refreshing and tasty. It was just barely sweetened with sugar in the raw, which I think brought out the peach. Yum!

I haven’t been writing as many tasting notes lately.. but I’m still drinking the same amount of tea.. they have just been the old favorites!

Thanks so much Erin, for sending some of this one to try. This is definitely a better black tea base than most teabags (not that I’m strictly teabags at this point!) The leaves really fill up the teabag. I’m not in love with the bergamot though. There is an off flavor that tastes like something I can’t quite place. Maybe a tangy asparagus or brussel sprout? I have no idea why. I think it reminds me of the earl gray that almost scared me away for good.. but now I know there are plenty of better ones out there. Luckily I only have the one bag! I appreciate being able to try it anyway.

Cuppa the afternoon…..

I received this tea as a gift for being a good dog sitter last week. I have to say, I was pretty excited, even though this is bagged tea. I am thinking some loose leaf from Charleston is on my wish list. I do find it very good and satisfying. I would not call it a tea for my tea snob days, but it is a very basic black. I am thinking it would also make a stellar iced tea. It is so cool to have tea grown within driving distance of my house, even if it is a 10 hour drive!

Mug method using only 8 oz of water and one tea bag.

thanks so much Erin, for sending a couple of these Bigelow Charleston Tea Plantation teabags to try a while back. Bigelow is one of the teabag brands I like, so I expected to like these! This pyramid bag seems to have more leaves than their other teabags. Sadly, I think I overbrewed it by a couple minutes. The taste was still fine, but I think it might have been better and with more raspberry flavor if I didn’t have it brewing for so long. There is a nice sweet raspberry scent and slight flavor, but not much. The black tea is definitely a step up from Bigelow’s usual bags, but I don’t think they are usually anything to complain about. I’ve been trying to write tasting notes for teas people have been kind enough to send me… I’m slowly making my way! I really just have a list of teas I haven’t written tasting notes for though.

I’m having a cup of this with my breakfast this morning, since I’ve had such good experiences with my other Charleston Tea Plantation teas the past two days. This one is probably my least favorite out of all of them. That’s not because this isn’t a great tea, but I just prefer raspberry and mint flavors more than peach. The peach flavor in this tea is similar to the Rockville Raspberry flavor in that it reminds me almost of a jelly or jam like peach taste. And you can taste the black tea too, which always makes me happy. This really is a good cup of tea!

-Dry blend has small pieces of black tea leaves and twigs.
-Dry leaves smell lightly of black tea and peaches. Tea liquor aroma is of sweet peaches.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium golden brown color.
-Malty flavor with a juicy peach finish.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. Nice black tea base with a ripe peach flavor.

A refreshing minty aroma wafts out of this tea tin as you open it. It reminds me of the way that a fresh mint plant smells. The flavor is perfect – simple, fresh, sweet mint. I had a cup of this iced at the Charleston Tea Plantation and it was heavenly on a hot and humid day. There is nothing artificial in the mint flavor of this tea. Although I like strong black teas best, this is my favorite green tea by far!

-Dry blend has small pieces of greenish brown tea leaves.
-Dry leaves smell strongly of spearmint. Tea liquor aroma is of green tea and sweet mint.
-Tea liquor aroma is a clear dark yellow color.
-Fresh mint flavor with a sweet and cooling finish.
-Best with sweetener.
-Excellent tea. A refreshing cup of natural sweet mint.

Yesterday I started my spring break off right. . . by having allergy testing done. It was not much fun and I took Benadryl and slept pretty much the rest of the day. So this morning I needed an extra special tea to get me back into my routine.

We visited the Charleston Tea Plantation last April and it was wonderful! Everything is so beautiful there, and we loved seeing all of the tea plants and then watching how they are made into tea. Of course we picked up a few tins of tea while we were there, and this was one of the flavors. The smell of it isn’t overwhelmingly of raspberry, just a nice light black tea with a little berry aroma. The black tea is definitely still noticeable in the flavor as well, with a deep, sweet raspberry finish. It’s not the truest of raspberry flavors, but it doesn’t have any artificial fake notes to it. It’s more like a raspberry jelly or candy taste, I think. Kind of like the raspberry filling in a piece of chocolate. Overall a wonderful cup of tea and just what I needed to start the day.

-Dry blend has small pieces of black tea leaves and twigs.
-Dry leaves smell lightly of black tea and raspberry. Tea liquor aroma is of sweet raspberries.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium golden brown color.
-Malty flavor with a deep raspberry finish.
-Best with sweetener. Milk optional.
-Very good tea. Nice black tea base with a raspberry candy flavor.

I was a bit worried at first as this tea smelled STRONGLY of seaweed while in the bag, but it is quite nice brewed! Nothing too special, but I am enjoying my cup. Vegetal, smooth- maybe just a hint of the seaweed in the background… maybe that’s why they call it island green ;)