English Tea Store

This review is for the bagged version of this tea. I’ve never had Keemun Panda before, so I don’t have anything to compare this to. To me this tea tastes malty and smoky. I am not really getting a winey or fruity flavor out of it. The flavor is good, just not what I was expecting. The teabags from this company contain a lot of tea and produce a very strong cup, so be careful not to oversteep. Prepared with stevia.

Just like the store’s description says, the taste of this tea is closer to a black than a white…. My first steeping was for 1 minute – it was a pretty dark amber and pretty bitter… I dumped it out right away.

The second steeping I put it in for less than 30 seconds and it actually wasn’t terrible. Still, steeping it for such a short time meant that it was pretty mild and not really complex.

Overall I don’t really like this tea… It’s not really complex or what I’m looking for in a white tea. Also, the pieces are so small that it’s almost a powder – this makes steeping a bit more difficult, and almost impossible if you don’t have an infusor basket.

I feel like I should enjoy this tea more, but I’m not even really excited about steeping it again. The taste isn’t exactly bad, but it’s not what I like in a white tea.

The taste is smokey with a little bitterness at the end. The appearance of the dry tea is actually really interesting rolled into little columns, but I thought the taste was a bit disappointing. If you really like smokey teas, this might be a good choice for you, though.

Ok, so I’m pretty sure that this tea is incorrectly advertised as a white tea, because it doesn’t taste like a white at all. Let me preface this rating by saying that I DON’T like fruity teas as a general rule, but I wouldn’t normally decrease my rating unless the fruit flavor was overpowering.

Bottom line:
This tasted like a cheap black tea with some mango chunks thrown in…. The mango flavor wasn’t overpowering, but the tea flavor was horrible. It was just bitterness mixed with mango, despite the fact that I steeped it at a low temperature in order to avoid that bitterness… it didn’t work. I gave this tea away to one of my friends who seemed to actually like it – so apparently others don’t find it as bad as I do.

This is yet another tea I received in a sample pack from the English Tea Store. This one is pretty disappointing – I don’t have a HUGE amount of experience with white teas (probably only a total of 6 or 7), but this one is the worst by far. It has very little sweetness and even a bitter aftertaste. Even the fact that I brewed it pretty light didn’t reduce the bitterness. English Tea Store’s Pai Mu Tan (白牡丹) while not incredibly impressive, is still much better than this.

This is the third tea that I’ve tasted from English Tea Store… I haven’t been incredibly impressed so far, but this tea actually wasn’t that bad. I would buy it again simply because it’s pretty cheap and good enough to drink on a daily basis, but not really good enough to impress anyone.

Additional notes:
I just tried this tea again so that I could get a better grasp of the taste, but I’m having trouble figuring it out. Overall, it’s very smooth and mild with just a touch of sweetness. It lacks strong floral aromas/flavors that usually turn me off, so that’s a plus. Ultimately, it has that normal “white tea” flavor, but nothing really special. My overall rating is based on the combination of the average flavor and the very low price. At approximately $4 for 2 oz or $12 for 8 oz, this tea can be useful simply to add a little volume to the average tea collection. Also, I noticed that my 1oz sample seems like it’s enough to make at least 5 small pots (5 steeps each), so that’s really cost-efficient.

I like a strong tea and Scottish Breakfast fits the bill. Steeped in boiling water for 4-5 minutes it tastes wonderful. The taste is that of the Scottish Highands, at least its how I imagine it to be. If you like a strong black tea, this is a must try

I am not usually a fan of anything peach, but this tea doesn’t reek of the heavy peach flavor one sometimes gets. The aroma of the dry leaves reminded me of Harney and Sons Cherry Blossom, in fact. Though it is a white tea, it brewed up slightly darker than many of the greens I drink – a lovely color in the cup. I drank this with a student who loves greens and is only just now trying whites, and we both liked it very much. I still love black the most, but having greens and whites on Wednesdays is really expanding my palate! I would definitely recommend this tea to green and white tea lovers.

Very thin, featureless Darjeeling. Not bad though.

Shfifty-five.

A perfect Earl Grey Cream for a fair price. Absolutely one of my favorite teas to drink anytime of the day.

Smooth and fresh tasting. A nice Nilgiri.

I decided to revisit this tea…see longer/1st impression post prior to this attempt.

I infused with the ol’ "Less is more’ philosophy…because of my thoughts last time. Oddly enough…it seemed to work.

This seems to be one of the FEW teas that I enjoy weaker.

I don’t think I would buy this, personally, but I am really happy this turned out better this time. I still haven’t tried it ICED. This was HOT…a little less than a T of loose leaf for about 3 mins or less. Not bad. Still very cinnamon…but I can taste the green tea this time as well. It’s even a little cake-like, but just a hint.

My first attempt I didn’t rate…It’s not going to be super high but it’s much better this time around so I will rate it now…

Received this in a swap. I don’t think this tea is for me. It’s not awful but I just don’t think it’s for me. It’s like someone put a FIREBALL in Green Tea. Now…normally I would think this would be a semi-novel idea BUT it just doesn’t seem to work out like it should. I’m told from the person who sent this to me it makes a KILLER Iced Tea so maybe that’s the key. I don’t know if I am ready to give up on it yet but I probably won’t try it again hot…maybe iced. No rating at this time

This tea didn’t taste too much like a Darjeeling, except in the aftertaste. I was also surprised how small the leafs where. I did 2 teaspoons for 20 oz of water. The tea leafs expanded a whole lot; so much so that they rose above the water (this teapot has a tiny strainer :( But even for it the expansion of the leafs were significant. It’s kinda weird to say one of the biggest things that stood out to me about this tea was the growth of the leafs during steeping but that’s really what it is. I wasn’t too fond of the tea. It was bitter but that could be mostly controlled by the steeping time and water temperature. There are many better Darjeeling teas out there but this one was dirt cheap so I bought it. I think it was $5 for 8oz. For that price you can’t beat that quantity.

I really want to like this tea. I just can’t get it to taste like it did the first time I made it.
I used 2 teaspoons for an 8 oz cup. It wasn’t as mellow as the first few cups I steeped. The delightful after-notes weren’t as noticeable. I’ll use less tea for the next cup and leave the 3 minutes steep time and the same water temperature.

I’m upping my rating on this tea. It is really good. It has this really nice natural sweet taste to it. Really smooth. I would say it’s a winey tea. No signs of any bitter tastes to it, which is huge. Gotta be one of my favorite black teas. This is a winner.

Sweet aroma. Slightly malty like an Assam but not as malty. Back notes are earthy/pine. I put about a 1/4 teaspoon of sugar in it but won’t be doing that again. Could be good steep a little longer. Maybe 2 minutes 30 seconds. If you like malty teas this is a good one.

I cannot say enough good things about this tea. The price is great, and so is the taste. I brew some of this almost daily to drink as iced tea. It is one of those unique teas that just tastes better iced than hot. (at least for me!) I recommend this one.

I started buying this tea years ago, and I used to get it in bags. I don’t know if it was just the crop at the time, but it was great. I am just finishing off my latest purchase, and the quality has dropped significantly. It is not just this order though, the quality has been declining for a while. Maybe they will boost their quality again.