Fortnum & Mason

This is certainly one of my favourites.

I was in London a few weeks ago, and went to one of my “tea heavens”—Fortnum & Mason. I picked up this gem and let me tell you, it’s pretty perfect.

It’s slightly citrus-y, complemented by bergamot. The nice thing about this one is that the citrus-bergamot flavoures don’t overpower the tea. Seriously, this is one well balanced blend.

Happy to have it in my cupboard now, so I have a little cup of London every morning!

Another tea from a swap with Sil.

This is a bold breakfast blend. The assam is malty. I want to say its robust, but I would not normally have used that term to describe it until I read the description. There is a roasty taste to it and there is a very slight sweetness to the tea, but it does leave a bitter aftertaste.

This does make a good breakfast tea, gives a kick to start the day.

Thanks again Sil!

It’s a good quality daily drink Darjeeling. A light and refreshing tea, it has a gentle, smooth taste; smells pretty good, too.

Like what is said: Darjeeling and Assam aren’t usually combined. I personally am not fully convinced by this blend.
The dry tea smell great, whilst the tea liquid doesn’t smell much. It’s defitely not bad tea, just I couldn’t see the point of it. The light fragrant of Darjeeling is not pronounced, and the richness of Assam is not enough there. There is a astrigency in mouth which is not much balanced by the ‘remain flavour’. In the end you kind of have to put in a little bit milk, but it’s also a bit too light for adding milk…
I don’t know, or there’s a way to brew it nicely?
Again, I really like the smell of dry tea though.

It’s an expensive tea. London Harrods also sell Dikom estate Assam in their golden tin series, but maybe this one is higher level. I got 50g, steeped a little amount in half cup of hot water (can’t get hot enough water in my office so might try another temp next time).
It has the dark amber colour of Assam tea, also the malty, or say a bit mature, woody or earthy smell of Assam. Other than that, it almost tastes like a very good Darjeeling 2nd flush: sweet and smooth, almost no astrigency, and a nice ‘remain taste’ in mouth and throat. The remain taste is obviously Assam though.
I didn’t drink it with sugar and milk, and I wouldn’t want to put them in this tea. It’s tasty enough to drink it alone, and I don’t think milk will do much good for this quite luxury tea.

Compare to F&M’s Darjeeling Green, the Green Ceylon has much taste as a tea. Surely the processing methods are different, I guess the Green Ceylon got a bit ‘fire’ to remove the raw greeny smell and release more flavour. It tastes interesting as a green tea: golden color liquid with a hint of green, smells refreshing and tastes balanced. The sweetness back the throat is quite pronounced. The second brew is also very nice. More elegant than some strong Chinese green tea, but not as weak as Darjeeling green. One of my favorite green tea.

The question is: why you would want to try a Darjeeling Green??

This tea has a very ‘green’ leaf smell, well, it actually looks very green. That fresh but over-raw smell gone after putting in hot water… but no much other scent coming out. The tea taste alright, slightly bitter and quite a bit of astrigency. A tiny bit of sweetness. In general, very very light, and if you over brew it (over time of over amount of leaves), the astrigency becomes too pronuonced. I have tried a much more expensive Darjeeling Green, which is better but not that better. I guess it’s just how Darjeeling Green is like.

For all the F&M tea I have tried, this one is probably the only one smell most constant for dry leaf and tea liquid—- in a good way.
It’s a fragrant tea, not the floral or fruity smell, but a pleasantly mature, not over smokey scent. Although the liquid is quite dark in color, it’s surprisingly not over astrigent and actually quite tasty.

It is not said that which estate or which flush this tea from. I guess it’s a blend so the flavour might vary every year. The one I got is an old one that expires in autumn of 2013 (which I got it half-price).
I think lower temp works for me for fine darjeeling tea. When using slightly lower temp, I found this tea has an elegant smell and soft sweetness, astringency basically not exist. A light sweetness stays at throat but not too strong. More ‘easy-drinking’ than certain more expensive estate darjeeling. The best temp to drink is when it’s warm.
Very happy about this tea.

Mucho gracias to Sil for this sample!
I am really liking this blend. Uber yummy!! Reminds me of the Strawberry tea I bought from Pippins last summer, and still have a smidge left of, but it’s lost all it’s flavour since I didn’t have a tin for it and so ended up storing it in it’s gold foil baggie.
Anyhow, I digress.
This tea tastes just like a strawberry campino candy! Creamy and sweet. Yum. I love that it was amazing without any additives, but just a touch of sugar, as in 1/3 tsp, made it into a truly decadent dessert. I should have waited til later in the day haha.
The black base is nice as well, standing up to the flavouring. In some ways I think it is very similar to the 52Teas black base, only smoother and not so abrasive.

I think I have only ever had a tea or two from this company that is why I chose to swipe it from the ’here’s hoping ’traveling tea box today! I will be replacing it with something else. In the meantime I wanted to share with you my findings on this tea while I was sipping it!

Right away I noticed the vibrant maroon type glow this tea had once it was infused! It’s a gorgeous color! The aroma is somewhat bakey and croissant like but also a little like sun dried tomatoes. YUM!

The flavor is a little woodsy but also a bit minerally – like ‘stones’ almost like some oolongs I have tried. There is a sturdy black tea finish that has a hint of bitterness to it – but in a good way.

I really like this tea – the flavor is full and rich in spots – but I have the say the aroma is what makes me want to continue drinking it! Ahhhhh!

This is a fantastic blend. The citrus is quite strong as soon as you open it (which I like), and is prominent in the taste. I only steeped it for 4 minutes, though I think it could’ve stood a little longer. I had it with one milk. Will add more notes for sugar/steeping time.

bwahahahaha go go gadget sipdown! I had this with a splash of cream and sweetner this afternoon while packaging up tea for friends. While i’ve enjoyed this one a bunch i am super happy to be sipping down another of my oldest teas! With any luck i’ll get through Feb 13 teas before i hit 2014 :)

Brew from this morning, no sipdowns today but i am working on some of my larger amounts of tea :) Still delicious and tasty for me!

Another one from the morning! I figured i’d try and get through some of my “older” teas that i have in larger quantities instead of getting to sipdowns today since i have 3 major goals that i’m trying to focus on at the moment
1) drink my 52 teas down instead of hoarding them
2) drink older stuff that’s been around for the longest (though that’s still all less than a year old)
3) get to 150 teas by november 1st

This falls somewhere in the range of old-er teas with large quantities. I really like the strawberry flavour of this one – i think i actually prefer this one to “marco polo” from MF as this is a less picky tea. It’s not a strawberry cream tea but it is strawberry black. Either way, i still enjoy this one a lot!

Cold brew of this one to try it out since i have a GIANT TIN of this! 4.4 ounces to be precise minus what i’ve managed to drink, swap and share :) I figured if i enjoyed it as a cold brew, this would be a good one to drink all summer – maybe with some marco polo as well.

the verdict? this isn’t half bad! i think i’ll be drinking more of this that way…especially if it’s going to be this hot all week!!!!!

anyone want my job? it pays well..and the people i work with are great…

I’ve been home for about 20 mins…which coincidentally is 12 hours after i arrived at work this morning. And i have a call at 9pm with china to discuss some things for a project, and then tomorrow i’ve got to back up someone else on the team with their project in the evening. I’m thinking…working from home on friday!

I pulled this one out this morning to have since it’s been a little while and it’s still as good as ever. As far as strawberry black teas go, though is one of my favourites.

Had some of this today while running a few tea related errands :) I like that the strawberry doesn’t overpower the black tea base, though i wish id had a bit of sweetner to add to it just to see how that changes the blend. next time maybe! Overall i will enjoy drinking this one :)

sipdown! YAY! maybe when i pick up my teavivre order tonight i won’t be above 150. maybe. Had this to kick off the morning with a splash of maple syrup to make it a little tastier. there’s a bit of snow falling here over the past couple of days so i am LOVING IT! nothing says winter like getting to wear my rubber boots to work everyday. :)

not a repurchase but nothing i would turn up my nose at in future :)

well i’m sure you’ll get sick of seeing this in my tasting notes but i’ve got another few mornings of starting out with this one to finish off the tin. It’s from feb of last year and makes up a couple of my oldest teas so i’m trying to knock those down AND get to 150 before the year is out. so drink it in the mornings, i will! :) glad it’s at least a decent cup of tea :)

Another tea from this morning – this time brewed so that i could compare it against the breakfast blend that FuzzyP sent me. This one is not a repurchase for me. I don’t mind it, but there’s a bitterness to the cup that i prefer not to be drinking :) I like how robust it is but man…compared against the one from fuzzyP…

mmmm another tea from this morning that accompanied me to the mall. I added a splash of maple syrup to this one and again, it made me happy. While not my favourite blend from fortnum, it is still pretty decent!

mmmm…it still counts as drinking it in the morning if it’s a minute before noon…right? :)

Brisk and malty and just a good average cup for a tough day!

Another one from last night – one of my friends isn’t feeling well so he risked asking me to make him tea. He ended up drinking this one but added a bit of triple sec and rum? i think it was to it…followed by some honey. It actually made for a pretty tasty cup of tea! A little strong for my tastes (in the alcohol department) but something i’d be willing to try again just for fun!