English Tea Store

This was one of the first blends with which I ventured away from straight black tea. It just sounded interesting. And so….PROPER. Sure, I had tasted mango tea, and almond tea, and vanilla. But this was something totally different. I didn’t have a wide-brimmed hat but I figured I would try it anyway.

It is incredibly light and fragrant, but it still tastes like tea. Some fragrant teas taste overwhelmingly like their fragrance, but this one does not. I like this in the afternoon or the evening. The smell always brings a smile to my face, and I can picture myself sitting in a manicured garden sipping in the sunshine and eating little lemon cookies. Even though I’m usually just sitting on my couch watching junk television.

Special thanks to Alphakitty for this one!
I’m fairly certain the English Tea Store version is the same at the Metro’Tea Company’s version of this. I really like that one so – of course – I like this one, too! Maple, Berry, Vanilla flavors…all subtle but lovely! Thanks so much for this, Aphlakitty!

This was another sample I specifically requested from miss Azzrian. Thanks again for the swap.

I like the darker notes of roasted oolong here. I think dark oolongs are my favorite, so far. So I tend to think of tea as vegetal when it’s not flavored because I feel like I get a bit of “plant” taste. I feel like it’s happened right after a heavy rain. You know the way the yard smells after it’s just poured down and the sun pops out. Every thing is clean and perky, that is what I get with this.

I tasted the plain liquid in my mug.

Was it…caramel?

What did I taste?

It was…vanilla? cream?

What was it…licorice? Yes.

And what else….flowers?

Yes It was like drinking nectar from…what kind of flower…

Honey Suckles, like the ones back home in California…yet these suckles were made with licorice…

Red or Black…black licorice for sure…

Sweet and cream were added.

What was it…Creamy? Caramely?

It was…light…bright…yet heavy like twilight…

What was that flavor…Licorice? flowers? creamy caramel? All of the above, I think.

The flavors were wet and heavy in my mouth with an aftertaste of…cream? No…more like melted caramel…

It was like laying in a pasture of colorful flowers, petals tickling my nose and scattering over my body…The aroma of nectar…The hum of bees over my head…A gentle breeze…

Then I swallowed.

Everything vanished.

I took another sip…

I was back in that pasture, full of delight.

I swallowed and it vanished again.

I had no choice but to keep sipping away at the sweet liquid until it was gone…

This tea was very calming and just perfect for a boring and hazy night on the couch all alone.

Azzrian sent some of this to me and it smells AMAZING! Thanks so much!

I can’t get over how much I am mesmerized by the aroma! Ah!!!

This has just the right amount of strawberry and the green tea base is sweet and even.

It’s fruity without that dreaded hibiscus! YAY!

This is really wonderful! Both hot and cold!

Today I’m going to try some samples Azzrian sent me. Thanks! She was very considerate in her choices. Now I get to try another pu-erh. :D

Caramel and toffee are right up front. They are balanced by a salty flavor. The contrast is balanced really well and is quite pleasant. Underneath, I taste leather and horses. This tastes like my grandpa’s tack barn used to smell. Since that was one of my favorite places to be as a child, this brings back many happy memories. I learned to catch critters and snakes in there. I learned how to ride and befriend a horse there. I just had some quality time with my grandpa. I think pu-erh and I shall be friends. Thanks again Azzrian.

I’m not quite a fan of flavoured blends, but this one is a great experience. The caramel/toffee gives a nice twist to the pu-erh base

It’s a little late to be drinking something this strong, but oh well! I only had a few options today since I am visiting my aunt and I brought a handful of samples with me. This was one of them, and I read “caramel toffee” and was sold!

The smell in the bag is very caramel-y and dessert-y, but steeped it smells more like a normal pu-erh. I was kind of expecting this to be a “light” or wussy pu-erh like companies often use for blending, but this has that nice earthy smell and a rich, forest floor taste. Hay, dirt, musty… but you know, in a good way. The caramel is sweet and subtle. This brews up as dark as coffee, and it also tastes a lot like coffee—or rather, like some sort of fancy latte. Rich, dark, malty, sweet, a very nice tea though not one for every day.

Thanks to Azzrian I was able to try this one!!!

I’ve had Metropolitan Tea’s Angel Dreams before and really liked it. I think the reason I enjoyed it was the Maple paired with the (Black)Berry. I see by this description this is similar. It DOES taste different, tho! I can taste more Berry…and it looks like it’s WILDBerry and not necessarily BLACKBerry-specific. I’m ok with this. The berry flavor is yummy. I’m not tasting as much Maple – hardly any – in this one…but I’m appreciating the differences in this tea. The Berry is moreso the focus. It also seems to lack the cream and smoothness that I remember from the other brand. Again, that’s ok…I treasure the difference. I don’t want to compare – because they DO taste quite different – but can’t help it because of the word-association with the name, I suppose.

This black tea base is stronger, too! After some extended thought…The Black Tea Base and the Wild Berries really make this tea it’s own! It’s a great morning tea that happens to be flavored…but it could make a nice kick-in-the-pants tea if you need to get up and moving in the middle of the afternoon, too! ALSO…as this cools, naturally, at room temp, I’m finding it would make a darn-skippy iced tea, too!

Thumbs UP on the cup and a smile on my face!

This is one of my favorite teas. I’m not normally a big fan of floral teas or anything herbal, but something about the smell and taste of this one instantly relaxes me. It’s now my default tea when I have a long day at work and I need to unwind. Tastes fantastic, nice and robust and zesty, and the aromatherapy is a nice bonus.

Azzrian sent me some more of this and it tasted completely different from my last go-around with it. That and I over infused…eeeeek…my bad.

Thanks tho, Azzrian :) You know I’m a Buckingham Palace Garden Party Fan :)

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Buckingham Palace Garden Tea so I’m really excited Azzrian sent me some of this! Thanks so much!

This has a nice-medium-strength black tea base with mellow yet juicy orangy notes that are delicious AND subtle flowery notes. I’ve read that some people have found this too floral-tasting but I really like it and normally aren’t overly-jazzed about floral teas. Perhaps I didn’t infuse for as long as they did.

As it cool at room temp for just 2 to 3 mins – it grows a tad sweeter.

I do really like this! It’s a goodie!

Special Thanks to Azzrian for this one!!!

This is a softer EG or at the very least toned down by the cream. The cream is very nicely done. I have found other companies tend to over-due it with the cream in EG Cream type flavored teas but this is VERY GOOD.

YUP!! This is a goodie!

Azzrian was awesome and sent me a bit of this! Thanks so much!!!

Dry – this smelled a little citrusy but also a little like loganberries or currants.

Wet – this smelled more like an herbal-lemon.

It has a deep-rich red/brown color to it that is very vibrant and lovely.

It’s a nice medium strength SWEETER type black tea taste on the tongue. It does have a mouth-watering citrus-berry combo that is almost like a sweet and/or fruity wine-type tingle on your tongue!

Thumbs up! Thanks again Azzrian!

I’ve finally added a large portion of this to my stash! Drinking it with some milk & sugar while hanging out with my kitty. He keeps sticking his nose in it, I guess it smells good to cats too! It is so so delicious, one of my favorite everyday teas. Up there with Paris for sure! Thanks so much to Azzrian for introducing me to this awesome tea.

Thanks to the very generous Azzrian for this sample! I mentioned offhand that I forgot to add it to my order at ETS and she offered to send me some, and I am SO glad I got to try this. This tea is enchanting! Usually I can pick out individual flavors quite well, but here they all blend so perfectly you just get hints of them: berry, citrus, floral, even some honey notes. With no additions it’s a bit sweet, but a natural sweetness that seems to come from the berry flavor. The floral is so light, almost airy, and the citrus is nicely in the background and not overpowering at all. Everything here is in perfect harmony: I can see why it has so many great reviews!

I love lavender. Half of the houses on my block have a big bush growing in the front yard, so everything smells of it in summer. It’s a smell I associate both with childhood and with sophistication, since it’s French and thus fancy (or at least my kid brain thought so!). Of course I love lavender tea, especially when combined with earl grey whose citrusty notes seem to balance out lavender’s floral nature well.

This blend is pretty heavy on the lavender, which personally I love. It’s very floral and rich, but you can still taste the bergamot and tea base. My favorite of the lavender greys I have tried by far!

I have been neglecting my Steepster friends! NaNoWriMo has kind of taken over my life, and every time I think about writing a tasting note my brain goes “noooo, you could use those 200+ words in your book!” I shamefully admit that I haven’t even kept up with everyone else’s tasting notes!

But on the bright side I should hit 36k words tonight—I am actually shooting for about 80k words instead of 50k, which should be enough to wrap up my plot. And then I get to do national novel editing month, haha. Anyway, I’ve been drinking this tea hot and iced kind of nonstop. It’s become my inspiration tea. I grew up on Earl Grey so when I think of ‘tea’ it is the first thing that comes to mind, and this is one of my absolute favorite kinds. Plus, you know, it’s nice to have a tea with a name based on a book when you’re writing!

I caved and bought a larger quantity of this in my recent ETS order, it’s just so delicious! A wonderful twist on Earl Grey, not as rich as an EGC but with just the right amount of sweetness and light floral undertones.

This tea is the reason I ended up placing an order at English Tea Store, since I seem unable to resist teas with clever literature references in the name. Not that there’s a big market for that, but come on… Dorian Grey! A tea of fleeing beauty! Their “samples” are a full ounce so I ended up with quite a bit of a ton of different teas (I got 3 “sample packs”), but this is the one I’ve been wanting to try the most. It’s too hot for tea, really, but today that isn’t going to stop me!

I love earl grey and pretty much any variation of it (as long as it’s not, like, rooibos banana earl grey) but I have yet to have one with caramel. I was worried this would be a bit dessert-y instead of a nice afternoon tea, but the caramel is pretty light here. Sometimes caramel teas can get a little heavy, but the taste is quite soft and almost airy here. I found the same thing true of their chocolate mint—sweet teas, but not enough to push them into dessert territory. This looks like a very floral blend with tons of whole dried flowers (it’s so pretty!) but the floral tones are also quite soft and subtle. The bergamot is also there of course, since it is an earl grey after all! And the base is nice and malty, but not too overpowering and with no bitterness or astringency.

This strikes me as a very romantic cup, both because of the name and the wonderful melding of flavors. Soft, subtle, gentle, and warming. Definitely one of the best earl greys I’ve tried!

Thank you to Azzrian for the lovely sample.

So after I researched for a bit how long to properly brew this, I’m not sure how long I steeped this for since I was doing other things at the time and forgot to time it. Oops. My guess is around 4 minutes.

It’s not bad for a type of tea I normally don’t like. Not quite as flavorful as the puerh cafe I had a little bit ago, but I’m going to try and steep it again for longer to see if I can taste the flavor more. It’s definitely drinkable, and it’s not too bad as an iced tea, either. In fact, I might like it better iced. It’s a LOT like coffee.

This tastes like a liquid thin mint. Lightly chocolatey, very minty, a hint of creaminess. Sugary-sweet too, since I added a ton! Hey, it’s a dessert tea. There’s not really a whole lot of “tea” going on thought… there’s that standard “tea” flavor in the background but no stand-out notes. However, I find myself liking ETS’ base black for blends like this. Some companies (I’m looking at you, Adagio) have ones that steep up bitter unless you get it just right. For something like chocolate mint tea I want something easy that I don’t have to fuss over or baby.

So I’m finally able to drink tea again after a week’s hiatus and I am separated from my stash! Right after a swap full of new goodies too. Ah well, at least my box from ETS arrived while I am away! Their samplers are BIG, given the price I thought they’d be teeny packets but they’re decently sized. 1-2 ounces of each, and the samples come out to well under $1 each.

This is an odd tea. It’s very strongly vanilla-y with some mellow spices. Not a bold chai by any means, it’s more like “lightly spiced vanilla” than “vanilla chai” but I like it. Lots of cinnamon, a bit of clove and ginger. It’s the vanilla that is at the forefront, and it’s almost creamy too. Very nice for late nights, minus the caffeine. The base is pretty innocuous, with a nice “tea” taste but nothing really to stand out.

The weird part is the sensation I get drinking this. You know that juicy feeling when you first bite into a slice of watermelon? It’s like that (minus the watermelon flavor)! Seriously, very strange. Kind of refreshing, actually, though this took some getting used to. So this is more like “Juicy Spiced Vanilla… with some tea.”

I had ordered this for a friend of mine who isn’t too keen on tea, but seems to like fruity tisanes like this one. I didn’t tell her it was a children’s tea. :)

Well, after I gave this to her, she was nice enough to open the pouch and give me enough to brew a cup of it for myself so that I could try it, since this is one I hadn’t yet tried.

I’m not crazy about hibiscus, but I was hopeful that there was enough other ingredients in this to keep the tisane interesting. But after I steeped it for five minutes, it looked like hibiscus … which worried me.

Fortunately, the hibiscus adds a lot of color to this but not a lot of its syrupy texture or tart flavor. Yes, there is some tartness, but, some of the other flavors balance that out a bit, making this a pleasant sweet-yet-tart kind of tisane. It has a candy-like taste to it, reminding me a bit of sweet-tarts. I don’t taste much of the individual fruit… but I am enjoying the way they all sort of meld together. I can also taste the rose which is a nice surprise.

It’s a little tart, a little sweet, a little fruity and a little floral. Overall, an enjoyable cuppa, but not something I’d drink on a regular basis.