Harney & Sons

Steepster seems to be back up and running this morning. Let’s see if I break it again with my next review!

I drank this a while ago, but didn’t post a review since I thought I had another bag. That was my only one, however, so I’m basically going from memory. I remember steeping this teabag at 205F for 5, 8, and 10 minutes, plus a long soak overnight.

The tea smelled primarily of sweet mint, with a touch of lemon from the verbena. All four steeps were heavy on the mint, which was sweet, powerful, and slightly earthy, without the muddiness found in some peppermint teas. The verbena added a bit of lemon and herbaceousness, but was definitely overwhelmed by the mint.

Though this sadly didn’t make me giddy, it was a nice, relaxing tisane. Thanks, Derk, for the chance to try it.

Blech. This is a very flavorless tea. If that’s what they mean by “earthy” in the description of Rooibos teas, I’m gonna have to steer clear. It’s a bummer because I like the idea of a nice decaffeinated chai to occasionally and the night with. My search will have to continue. This is also the first Barney & Sons tea I’ve had that his disappointed me so much.

I have to say SIPDOWN and THANK YOU ashmanra!
I had this tea earlier, but I was so numb so I wasn’t writing any notes to it and as I wanted something sweet. And if possible, less caffeine as it is already an evening.

I really like this blend. The dry aroma reminds me Granko (milk/water soluble cocoa drink, similar to Benco as Wiki says so)

I have asked my Swiss friend with Italian roots if there is some difference between Tiramisu from Venezia and others and she just doesn’t know! But she liked the concept of liquid Tiramisu.

I have bit oversteeped this tea probably, as it is drying and way too roasty probably.I have used the boiling water as well, apparently it wasn’t the most clever thing (they suggest 175°F).

Ehhm, I really like it, though it won’t be on top of teas I had. But great afternoon-evening drink when you want something creamy-bitter-sweet something but you have only teas.

I wonder why it has got so bad reviews. Thank you derk (White Antlers?) for this pleasant experience of tea bag.

Well, it is pure linden tea. I woke up feeling having little common cold and linden should help. Won’t rate the medical purposes, maybe I just warmed up and it’s better, maybe it’s Linden, maybe it’s hot drink, maybe it is just wamer enviroment.

Ehhm, okay the tea… it’s quite flavourful, honey and herbal; decently floral and sweet.

I DO like it! It’s better than chamomile. By the way, it’s Czech national tree :)

Hello, fellow Steepsters! It’s great to be back! I posted my last review 10 months ago. I don’t need to tell you what a crazy year this has been. I hope you all are staying safe and healthy. One of the personal consequences of the pandemic was it pushed me into full retirement when my employer laid off/furloughed 90 percent of the staff in March. I was already semi-retired so I’m enjoying the extra free time and not complaining. Now, onto the reason I am here…

I read about this tea on the Harney & Sons website. I was somewhat fascinated by its history. To quote the Harney folks:

“Amba Thieves Tea is handmade brisk black tea with a storied past. Years ago, all tea had to go to the owners. However some ladies plucked the tea and then made a crude and strong black tea in their hut. They were ‘Thieves.’”

The tea was highly rated on the website and sold at a reasonable price. For these reasons, I was moved to order a one pound bag of the blend.

When I opened up the bag, the aroma was full and rich and obviously a blend of several players. The short brown and black tea leaves were without uniformity and really did resemble leaves “plucked” from an agglomeration of black teas.

I steeped the leaves for five minutes at 212 degrees. The finished product had a color like dark molasses. The smoking smell was quite pronounced and pleasant, but indiscernible as a specific ceylon black tea.

The flavor of this blend is fabulous, with both sweet and fruity attributes. It is robust and full-bodied. It has everything that I hope for in a black tea. Astringency is little to none. The aftertaste is amiable without lingering bitterness.

This is an excellent tea that I intend to add to my morning black tea rotation. It matters nothing to me that I can’t be blindfolded and identify the origin and composition of this terrific concoction.

This is our go to Earl Grey. Everything about it works for our household. A great take on the classic formula, the additions of lavender just balance things out quite nicely. The lavender’s there but not overpowering at all.

Well-balanced, smooth Earl Grey with noticeable bergamot oil. Good mellow cup.

It’s been my cheap and easy accessible choice for a bit over here. Plus I’m lazy and enjoy the re-steeps. Herbaceous and buttery, pretty savory. Not bad, my roommate and I quite enjoyed. I think the best flavor comes from 2nd and 3rd re-steep. If the water is too hot I think it takes on a more vegetal flavor, more astringent? On the hunt for others. :D

This year I am really digging this tea. It is Hot Cinnamon Spice touched with a little mellow sweetness, and I have been moving towards it just about every morning. It’s giving me a lively little jolt, just what the doctor ordered.

I must have had this before…. yes? But Steepster is not forthcoming with previous tasting notes, so maybe not? It seems impossible that I have not, but here we are!
This is like a version of hot cinnamon spice that is a touch more mellow. I like it, but can’t say I have a whole lot of the apple flavor. But not that I say that, I do get a very strong sense of apple cider-ness.
In any case, so far, so good!

I have a caffeine sensitivity, so I’m stuck drinking only decaf tea. The packaging on this tea seems to have changed since the tin is now light brown. It is titled “Decaf Hot Cinnamon” and contains decaf black tea, orange peel, natural & artificial cinnamon flavor, cinnamon, cloves.

It’s been a good 15 years since I drank a cup of the old stand by Good Earth spiced black tea that you could buy in their restaurants. It’s a dead ringer for my memory of that tea. (The company has since changed hands and I imagine the recipe for their teas have changed over the years.) And like that tea, you aren’t drinking this for the quality of the black tea, but rather for the rather brutal kick of cinnamon and clove that comes with it. There’s nothing subtle about this tea, that’s for certain! Perhaps it will mellow in the canister over time. For what it is, it’s great. I don’t always want to be dragged out to the back 40 and cudgeled with an oversized cinnamon stick, but when I do, I know what tin to open.

I can post again! Yay!

I’m working on Saturdays for the foreseeable future, so this is the start of my short weekend. I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile, and I’m not disappointed. Cinnamon is the main flavor, much like Hot Cinnamon Spice, but it’s not quite as strong as HCS. The apple flavor comes at the end of the sip. It’s more fresh apple than apple pie, which I like. All in all a simple tea but a delicious one.

A sample from ashmanra I finally decided to try. THANK YOU! As I am first one who steeps this and drinks it here on this wonderful site, I am bit nervous about it, because I feel bit confused about the tea.

I took three teaspoons, but tea was quite fluffy, so it is actually rather two.

I have steeped it for quite long, 4 or maybe 5 minutes. It brews classical brown black colour typical for black teas. Aroma wasn’t much noticeable, so I have hoped that taste would be better. Unfortuantely, from black currant flavor, vanilla flavor, bergamot oil, caramel flavor I noticed only hints of black currant, rather it was quite malty, robust tea, no vanilla nor bergamot. Hints of caramel sweetness was there but maybe I have expected it way stronger!

I had no expectations, as I had no idea what flavour it should be. But it is certainly dismal in terms of flavoured tea. And those notes? No, I don’t think they are in. Maybe next time?

It is probably this one. There was a small pouch in a box from ashmanra, thank you! Small pouch without a label; and label was attached on the side of the box. But it was “Winter White” while it wasn’t it as I had apparently Winter White earlier (and rated). Why I haven’t took the another free label and haven’t attached it right after I seen them free, I don’t know. All others have their labels attached.

This tea is delight, steeped for long 5 minutes and it was still smooth. I liked the bergamot, although it was kinda weak for me; and base was flavourful and nice tea notes. The last thing I noticed (but could be affected by ice cream which accompanied me with this session) was orange. I had orange/chocolate ice cream and it reminded me a lot that chocolate dipped orange from derk I received about year ago.

I guess I will try it without the ice cream as well :)

Today is a day of travel, my Uber is coming to take me to the airport in about 5 hours. I will have a few tasting notes over the next 2 weeks since my Mom does have tea but not a lot of variety so probably only a few.

This tea has taken me through the final stages of packing this morning and while I still have to do some cleaning up and prepping for the cat sitter, at least the packing is done. This tea is quite fruity and delicious. The black currant very distinct and on a good base to hold it up. Despite being a bagged tea, it’s doing quite well with 3 teabags to my oversize beer stein/teamug. Might squeeze out one more tea today after this but no more than that.

Chemically smelling and tasting. This was not good. Disappointing, because I love bourbon.

A tea bag from ashmanra. Thank you!

I am quite surprised it is so underrated. Actually people really hate it. I don’t see it that bad! Maybe I am much more used to drink those hibi blends.

It was actually quite tasty for me. It was mostly hibiscus, that’s right, but I noticed quite lots of raspberries, fresh and ripe. It was bit tart, as I have expected, but rasperries were genuine for me. Haven’t noticed any artificial flavours.

I look into ingredients list now and there should be spearmint and peppermint but haven’t noticed them at all.

Overall decent tea. Certainly not one of the best, but I can imagine it offering it to others :), at least it got actual fruit notes.

This was part of my large order from Harney. I’ve come to find I really like flavored teas. Mostly black tea but I like to switch it up for variety too. This tea is pretty nice. It smells like the berry go ghurts I used to have as a kid. It smellls super good. I’ll just open the tin sometimes to catch a whiff. So far I’ve found if I like the way a tea smells, I’ll like the way it tastes. And that is definitely true. I don’t think it tastes like blueberry, but faintly reminds me of it. Kinda. It’s best cooled down but not necessarily cold. I like to brew it up and let it mellow about an hour before I drink. Not once have I even been tempted to add sugar which is great. It has lemongrass which I was worried about but honestly I can’t taste it. It also has vanilla and cornflowers for visual interest I guess. The “green” tea is nice, mellow and not astringent. And lots and lots of actual tea. Some companies will make flavored tea with barely any tea. Not the case here

This is a solid flavorful Earl Grey tea. I’ve actually used it to bake and make Earl Grey ice cream. It’s nice because I often get two infusions out of it without any issues and it’s strong enough to get the flavors without being overwhelming.

tasty, but not my favourite version of earl grey. i won’t be getting more once it’s done. the tin is nice but takes up way way too much space for the amount of tea in it, though i may fill it with a bunch of looseleaf when finished. i also keep overleafing it despite it being bags, need to move down to a different sized mug, i think.

otherwise tasty, definitely extra. a good choice for the beginning of fall.

Quite a lovely tea here, considering I bought it off of amazon. Definitely shades of Earl Grey but with a lovely complex aftertaste. I used the bagged variety, 3 teabags in my repurposed beer stein/tea mug with milk and sugar. The sugar really helps bring out all the flavours, although I know it’s not for everyone.

Been a while, hope to see some old friends on here. I’m drinking a lot of tea these days so I’ll try to be as active as I can. I’m glad this site is reviving though, I missed it.

Sad to say it’s SIPDOWN but certainly thanks a lot ashmanra!

Drinking while watching 130th Velká Pardubická steeplechase held in city I study, but this time it was without public speacators. It is as well only horse run I actually watch. It is really difficult course and unfortunately many horses don’t make it to the finish.

To the tea. Well, it is very nice. The base is wonderful and well present. It’s smooth, and the vanilla flavour is nice and as well, well present. It even tastes nice and not artificial, though I have expected more creamy taste (I should try it with cream next time), but it was certainly nice exprience and good caffeine-free tea.

Well, this is tea from ashmanra again. Thank you!

Well, although without caffeine, it was very delicious tea.

Bold base, although it was only carrier of nice creamy and vanilla flavours. There isn’t much to write more :). It was smooth, enjoyable; maybe I have expected more of the vanilla though. But at least it wasn’t sickly sweet.