English Tea Store

Thank you Azzrian!

I am in this weird stage of annoyance right now at the setup and execution of two things…first, Facebook. If I comment on something it completely screws everything up and so like if someone also comments I can’t see what it is, and if I go to it, there are usually no comments, or my comment, but no likes show or anything and it’s like way to keep that thing working.

But more irritating, I really hate keeping track of my teas in a spreadsheet. And I can’t seem to find anything else that works. The good thing is, this can be a project in my business writing class. It’s a project due in 5 weeks so I’ll definitely share it when it’s perfected in case anyone else would like a way to keep track of teas on their computer. I’m just not sure what would be better yet, but I just feel like something meant for numbers doesn’t work as well as something else could.

Anyway, this tea. I had it hot once at a local tea shop, and I quite enjoyed it. I’m having it iced and it is delicious. I think it tastes just like those strawberry candies with the gel inside, wrapped up in foil meant to look like a strawberry. Do those things even have a name out of curiosity?

I know this is a tea that is quite popular for wholesaling, and it’s really not that bad considering it’s so widely available. I definitely like it better cold, and I thought I had ordered some of this from another company, but I guess not. So I’m glad to have it once again!

Thanks Azzrian for the sample of this tea!! it’s rather perfumey and fruity all at once. I knew right away that I would either looooove it, or meh it.
I’m kinda glad that it was a “meh”! as I don’t need another tea necessity in my cupboard :)
Still I’m so glad to have tried it. Another one off my wish list!
As for the tea itself… this was far too floral for me, and not enough cherry (more general fruity/medicinal)
I can see how this might appeal to some EG lovers out there though, maybe enough to loooooooove ;)
The base was a little too clouded for me to determine much about it
Ok yah I’m a little overtired right now. Sorry about the random review!
Rating: 72

This sample came to me by way of Azzrian – thank you very much!

The dry leaves smell quite good – I smell berries!

I brewed up 8 ounces of water and poured over a teaspoon and a half of leaves. Tasting the tea liquor its just a tad bitter for me, so I end up adding a little rock sugar. It mellows out the bite a bit and brings the lemon and berry taste forward. I can see why this is a favorite of Azzrian’s. Thanks for passing a tasting along! :)

I bet this would be tasty as an iced tea!

Did everyone get the email from Frank at Southern Boy Teas? He said he tried making iced tea super fast by boiling some water and slowly pouring it over tea leaves (he used a flavored white) but not letting them sit in the hot water. No steeping! Just the pour over.

I put some sugar in the bottom of a half gallon jar. I boiled about three cups of water and set my ForLife infused basket on the jar. I thought this tea might work well since it is made up of smaller pieces and steeps quickly, becoming bitter easily.

Wowie zowie! It worked! As always, I put it in the fridge to mellow because flavored iced tea always tastes better to me after it sits a while, preferably a day or two in the fridge.

I will most definitely be doing this again. But that reviews only the method, not the tea.

The tea is great hot or iced, very fruity and good even without sugar. But you do have to keep a short steep or it just doesn’t taste good to me.

Sometimes this tea tastes great, sometimes I wonder why I bought it. Today it had a good day. I had my daughter make it with 203F water steeping for three minutes. It was super. The last cup of the pot had that bitter edge that this tea can get because you can’t let it cool and you can’t drink the dregs! While it was fresh and hot, it was delightful.

In case anyone wonders why I often say that my youngest daughter makes the tea, it is because afternoon tea time is served between teaching music lessons. She prepares the tea and plates while I teach so that we can go straight to the table when the lesson is over. Today she made an apple walnut cake for our tea time. She is amazing!

Would I recommend this tea? If you need lots of tea for little money and can pay attention to parameters and make sure it is served in the optimum conditions with no forgiveness needed, then yes. I absolutely do. It is a bargain. If you take your tea plain and may not be able to pay attention while making it or you can’t drink it right away or at least get to reheat it, then no.

I have been drinking a lot of this tea, cold steeped and sweetened with homemade simple syrup. I am logging it today because I tried something a little different. Instead of plain simple syrup, I made a lavender infused syrup to sweeten this. (Lavender is also really good in Tulsi.)

The syrup tastes a lot like Chowan’s Lavender candies or Parma Violets. Added to the strawberry and lemon flavors of Lady Londonderry, it made a really foofy, girly glass of iced tea to go with lunch. I have been craving sodas because it is so hot outside, so I am using cold steeped tea to beat those cravings.

If you don’t like lavender, you wouldn’t like this syrup at all. But if you can handle the floral taste, it is nice switch up for summer tea. I am really enjoying this one cold steeped. I wonder how a vanilla syrup would taste in it? Next experiment!

Other food experimenting is taking place today. I made home made ketchup, and for the first batch I decided to experiment and use malt vinegar in place of white vinegar, and added Penzey’s chili powder and made a few other little changes. It was really good with hamburger meat – more or less it was a sloppy joe. Next up will be actual plain ketchup.

I received this tea first in two separate swaps and liked it a lot. I liked it so much that I ordered a pound, but then I couldn’t recreate the magic of the first cups. It was a little astringent. I was disappointed and really wondering what the heck I was going to do with a whole pound of it.

Yesterday I got the bright idea to cold brew it. I made a bottle of simple syrup in preparation for drinking it today and left it in the fridge for over 24 hours. The results is absolutely delicious, summery, floral+fruity iced tea. It is as clear as can be. The strawberry flavor is wonderful, and the lemon flavor is a lemon candy flavor, not the sour lemon taste you often get in iced tea. That stuff curdles my tongue!

Hubby drank it and said it was good but he liked Razzleberry from 52Teas better. Well, it would be awfully hard to beat Razzleberry. I told him this was waaaaaay cheaper and he said, “Now you’re talking!” Fortunately for him, I have several packs of Razzleberry left, and hope to get some more for this summer.

In the meantime, I can enjoy my cheap stuff with abandon! I like it!

I finally placed that order with English Tea Store! I got Lady Londonderry tea and jelly babies so that youngest can offer them to people when she is wearing her Tom Baker scarf. The tea came very quickly. Customer service was great as the jelly babies are on back order and they called to tell me so, and to ask if I wanted the tea mailed right away at no additional cost! I usually would have told them to save THEIR cost and ship them together but I really wanted this to be here when my daughter’s boyfriend gets here next week from Northern Ireland.

This is the flavor profile he really loves, and hubby likes things like this, too, so I had hubby try it out today. Both hubby and Gavin put milk and sugar in their tea, so hubby’s opinion was valuable to me.

The dry leaf smelled mouth-wateringly candy-ish, like those little Smarties, the American ones, not the UK ones. The tea has a bright berry smell and I am thinking there is probably Darjeeling in this black tea blend.

Mine was fruity and good with both the strawberry and lemon flavors sharing the spotlight. Hubby said he liked his, and the more he drank the more it grew on him. Hooray! Hopefully Gavin will like it, too. I bought a whole pound so I can send some home with him!

Yes, second day in a row drinking this one. It is tea party day! I had enough to make a pot for tea time and it was the first one we served. My guest was thrilled with the aroma and just kept sniffing it and sniffing it! When she finally tasted it, she was just as pleased. “This is really good!”….I think I heard that four or five times throughout that first cup.

Many thanks to Azzrian for introducing me to this lovely surprise!

I came home for lunch today to find a wonderful box of goodies from Azzrian waiting for me! Everything looked so wonderful! I sniffed this pouch and said, “This has to be first!” I brewed it in my JoeMo to take back to work with me after lunch.

The leaves had a beautiful aroma. The wet leaves were bigger than I expected, and the brewed tea smelled just heavenly. I had a coworker sniff the tea when I went back, and I swear her eyes rolled back a little. “Berries!” was her exclamation.

This was seriously delicious tea and I can’t believe the review that said it is about $14 a pound. I think some of this may need to come live at my house! Though touted as a British tea, there is something a little French in its lineage to me, the way the French excel at the art of perfuming. This is perhaps a little lighter on flavorings than some French tea. I would call it a Dammann Freres Light!
This is well worth keeping on hand. Guests will feel truly pampered when you serve it.

Delicious with no additions! The berry flavors will make this a wonderful summer tea, too.

When I found we would be coming to the States, I immediately placed an order on Amazon for a teapot I’d been eying that they wouldn’t ship to Canada. I also got a book for De, a cloth tea strainer, and a bag of this tea.

To break in my beautiful new tea for one set, I made a cuppa this. The cooler it got, the more pronounced the vanilla became. I liked it more as it cooled, it became richer and tastier. I need to try it again, though, before I rate.

One of my favorite “all-around” teas. I drink this tea any time of day or night, sometimes with milk and sugar, sometimes plain.

Sipdown! Because we are cooking with tea tonight! Oh yeah!on the menu some braised chicken with smokey tea, maple, onions, garlic, sugar, tomatoes with a side of rice…. Hpefully this turns out ok :)

TRAVELLING TEA BOX!
So while i may not be drinking this exactly…i AM having it in the soup recipe i tried tonight and it’s delicious! The tea adds a smokey flavour to the soup without overpowering it :) Not sure how i’ll manage this one straight though but i figured in cooking first…move up to drinking it straight. My first official go at this whole smokey tea thing :)