English Tea Store

This is my go-to tea, I drink it all the time and had to start buying big bags. It’s delicious, soothing, like wrapping up in a cozy blanket on a chilly night. Strong vanilla flavor with a hint of grenadine in taste and scent, and sometimes I add a spoon of honey. The health perks of the calendula are a nice bonus.

I’m drinking this before work today while the rain comes and goes. I haven’t been feeling well lately, so I’ve been mostly drinking various ripe puerh teas; however, I was in the mood to try something a little different this morning.

I must say that this isn’t the best tea, but it is definitely a treat to be had from the usual tea. I rarely drink flavored teas anymore, but there are moments where that’s all I need/want.

Notes: Slightly bitter, mildly fruity/floral on its own. You can slightly taste the grenadine. I added 1/2 tsp of raw sugar to the cup to hopefully cut a little bit of the bitterness from the tea; which worked well, I think. There are rare occasions that I’ll add a bit of sugar to the tea, but this is one of those teas that does much better with some…..

Cold brewed the last of this just to get rid of it, and as a last-ditch attempt to make it good because I really don’t like it hot. Surprisingly… it’s kind of great?! The base is bordering on bitter, which is unsurprising because I left it for a really long steep (probably ~48 hours in the fridge) but it actually balances out the vanilla and grenadine well this way, stopping it from being sickly. The black tea is most dominant in the sip, but then afterwards it fades away and the fruity grenadine really pops, so much so that I can actually feel it becoming more and more pronounced in the seconds after the sip. It tastes more like caramelised strawberry to me than pomegranate, though my mam insists she tastes pomegranate. I could actually drink this pretty regularly I think, which is not something I ever thought I’d say about this tea. I almost wish I’d tried cold steeping it before I gave away my 100g bag! Upping my rating dramatically from 38 – I’m pretty sure I’m gonna double it. I’m glad I found a way I enjoy it and this tea and I can part ways as friends. We probably won’t see each other again, but if we do, we will greet one another with a warm hug instead of turning around and walking in the opposite direction.

Found some more of this in my stash a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been putting off drinking it because of how sick I got of it last time. I brewed up a cup this morning with breakfast because I couldn’t be bothered to go hunting through my focus box for something else, and it’s actually not as bad as I’d expected. Like I’d previously noted the base gets astringent fast, which means I took this with milk, which means the fruity flavours were muted more than I’d have liked. I tried a few sips before adding the milk though, and got more of a strawberry note than a pomegranate one. The vanilla isn’t as strong as it used to be, so I did enjoy this more (me being a staunch vanilla-hater), and I’m going to change my rating from 32 to reflect that. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad either. It’s deserving of an average rating, but I’m still keeping in mind how quickly I soured on this tea and how much even the thought of it made me want to never drink it again.

Sipdown 82/393

I received this in a swap from KittyLovesTea.

I’ve had this tea several times from different companies, and I’m fairly sure it’s all from the same supplier. I even bought a big bag of it from a local tea shop when I lived back in Huddersfield, but I ended up giving it away to a friend because I just wasn’t a fan. I know a lot of people really like this, including my friend who I gave the bag to, but it just doesn’t play into my personal preferences. The black tea base is astringent enough that I have to add milk, which doesn’t seem to go with the fruitiness, but can’t be helped. Speaking of fruitiness, I wouldn’t be able to pick out pomegranate specifically, and it does have more of a generic fruitiness which reminds me of fruit punch. The vanilla here is the main reason I’m not a fan of this tea, though – it’s a pretty strong note which overpowers the fruit element and turns it into a hard boiled sweets sort of taste, which even for me became too sweet almost immediately. Fans of vanilla would probably really like this, but since I’m decidedly against vanilla in large quantities it just wasn’t for me.

Something else I’ll add: my first cup wasn’t actually too bad, but the more I drank it the more I wanted to never drink it again. Maybe it’s just because I had such a large quantity, but this is a tea I got sick of quickly.

Another sipdown (and we are back to tealogging in real time, sorry for the flood of reviews), and I think unfortunately this has succumbed to age. I’m getting that kind of woody rooibos funk but not a whole lot of strawberry. Disappointing.

My husband wanted a bag of Scottish Caramel Toffee puerh, so I decided to add a bag of this sencha to the order. I’m not a big fan of English Tea store teas. They are a good price, but it’s a “get what you pay for” kind of deal. I’ve gotten too spoiled with my tea options the past few years, so cheap tea is rarely my first choice. But, we are on a tight budget atm, I was placing the order anyway, and I was fresh out of green tea. So, I figured, what the heck?

It’s drinkable. I’ll definitely finish the bag. But it won’t be a repurchase. The flavor is oddly metallic. Theres a grassiness hiding in there, but the metallic flavor dominates.

This was a nice, inexpensive and basic Kenyan black tea. It becomes very bitter quite quickly, so keep the steep time down.

Monk’s Blend is a smooth and light tea. It has a nice caramel and vanilla quality to it; yet, there is the slight earthiness that comes with black tea.

The tea leaves are very uniform and do not break apart making the leaf easy to separate from the water. The taste is… like black tea lol. It is rich with flowery notes. The most interesting aspect is the dark colour of the leaves after brewing.

From the EUTTB

After the complexity of the last tea I was kinda exhausted and a little tea drunk, so I’m having this one as it’s a fairly straightforward tea I don’t have to think too much about. I wasn’t expecting much, as I’m usually not the biggest fan of chocolate flavouring in teas, but this one I could tell from the scent was going to be better, and I’m pleased to report that it is! It’s still not the most chocolatey thing I’ve ever tasted, but it’s a whole lot better than the majority of chocolate teas. It actually smells like chocolate, which surprised me, but once brewing the Ceylon takes over. It doesn’t smell overly strong, and I was surprised by how bitter it went after only 3 minutes of brewing. Not my favourite black tea base, but once I added a splash of milk and just over half a teaspoon of vanilla sugar the bitterness was no longer detectable. Just what I wanted, really – something I can happily drink without having to think much about it.

I bought a pack of three of these guys and sent two off without trying the one I kept first. Well, I tried it tonight and now I know that I was probably wrong to send them off. First of all, I am unable to find this one on the store site but Amazon sells it (super overpriced at $19 for three pieces at .05oz)

As I tried to take my third sip this is what I decided: This is not an oolong tea and with the temperatures that I brewed it at this ‘oolong’ tea is semi burnt which gives a funky taste. The water I used was 180f which is not an issue for even the greenest oolongs I’ve had, but for the green tea that is used on this tea it wasn’t the prescribed bating conditions.

This led me to a fun discovery via Googl’ing stuff to find this: http://www.tealaden.com/department/tea-drops-flowering-teas-350.cfm
They have an oolong one… I may have to try theirs.
Then I watched this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1vgITST_xE
Let me ask this question: If anyone referenced tampon at any point of any tea process would it be really awkward for you?

From the EU TTB

I’m a bit of a sucker for a chocolate tea, so I was pleased to see this one in the box. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk.

To taste, it’s pretty good. There’s chocolate, all right, although it’s a little on the artificial side. The base is a little overpowering, I’d say. I can taste more ceylon, with its classic citrussy notes, than I can flavouring. It’s like a chocolate biscuit dipped in tea. The more I sip, the more I’m reminded of Adagio’s Chocolate Chip, which also has a ceylon base and a slightly artificial chocolate flavour. It’s nice, but not the best chocolate tea I’ve ever tasted.

I’m on the fence with this one. I bought several teas from The English Tea Store and this one by far is the best of them. There is something in this tea I can’t quite put my finger on – then I read the reviews here about it having a floral taste. Ah, that’s it. I am not a fan of floral teas. This one is subtle with the floral and I still find it drinkable. I will finish my supply out but it will not be a re-order for me.

This is a hardy green tea, consistent and forgiving; a good beginning green tea for brewing gong-fu style. The pellets stay fresh for rather a long time, and the flavor is strong. If you’re looking for a light green tea, this is not it. This is a rigid flavor, grassy at first, then becoming nutty and sweet. Perfect for sipping in the rain, with the smell of wet grass. Astringency patiently increases with each steeping. The oak-woody undertone is pleasant, and there is a relaxing hint of cannabis.

Overall, a very affordable, really cheap green tea that doesn’t offer much but a strong, enjoyable brew. Nothing special, but just what to expect. It is very important not to use water that is too hot, despite it’s hardiness, and steep shorter as with other greens.

This is a lovely Earl Grey! Very aromatic and the caramel adds just enough sweetness to make this tea a wonderful after dinner tea. One of my personal favorites and a tea that is consistently in my rotation.

This tea looks nice and smells decent but the flavor is a disappointment as the chai chokes the green tea to death in your cup as it steeps. This brews a rather dry and rough cup with a dark green tea taste as if it has sat in your tea for longer than you left it (yes, that bitter taste)

This is a happy, pleasant tea. Floral, sweet, perfect for breakfast…which is how I’m having it now. I really like this, best tea I’ve had in a while.

My absolute favorite!

Backlog:

A really nice tea. The black tea base is smooth and malty. It’s rich and flavorful but not overly aggressive. An excellent afternoon tea.

Soft floral notes. Delightful notes of strawberry and soft hints of citrus. The flavoring here is very delicate – this is a tea first and a flavored tea second, if you know what I mean. It focuses first on the tea, and then the tea is accented with soft flavors. The lemon is delicate but uplifting.

Not an overly astringent tea but it is slightly dry at the finish. Smooth and sweet until the finish where it becomes lightly dry.

Backlog:

I wish I would have read the description of this tea before I tried the sampling of the tea that I had, because I thought it was a straight black tea and not a blend of black and green teas. I steeped it in boiling water for 3 minutes and this imparted some bitterness to the cup (I think the green didn’t like that I overlooked it and it acted out in my teacup.)

Even with the bitterness, it isn’t a bad tasting tea but it could certainly be better.

I love the aroma – the combination of bergamot and jasmine are delightful. I like the way these two elements play with one another in the cup. The tangy bergamot is an interesting contrast to the sweet, exotic floral notes.

The Assam is bold and the aforementioned bitterness may be there because of the Assam or it may be that the green tea acted out as I said before. I don’t get a lot of green tea flavor in the presence of the stronger Assam.

Overall, it’s alright, but I think it’d be better if I’d brewed it differently. Therefore I won’t rate it numerically.

We ordered some of this because it was cheaper than Yorkshire Gold, so we thought we’d give it a try. Although Yorkshire Gold is still my favorite CTC breakfast-style tea, this is very close. It’s strong, hearty, complex, and delicious.

I like this tea, but I think, as reviewed earlier, the base tea provides a more “tea with vanilla flavour” than a “vanilla chai”. It’s good though and definitely worth checking out if you enjoy vanilla.

To me, this tea is smooth and yummy! I love rooibos, as I get the feeling of tea without the caffeine in the evenings. My new tea plan is to drink a different rooibos each night to calm down before bed.
I brewed it for about 10 minutes. My first impression was that it was a little weak, but that is because I have been mainly drinking black teas. After a few sips, I picked up cocoa and vanilla flavors. Then I added a splash of almond milk and a pinch of sugar. The caramel flavor really popped out at that point. It almost tasted like a milky way candy bar. Very soothing as well. I will be drinking and ordering this tea often.