Harney & Sons

This came by way of swap with OhFancyThat, longer ago than I’d care to admit.

I like Harney and Sons, but I’m very picky with chocolate teas, and theirs are not among the ones I typically enjoy. They have that artificial almost cocoa butter flavour which I don’t enjoy. Having said that though, I don’t mind it so much in this tea. SoHo is a chocolate and coconut tea, and I find that the ‘cocoa butter’ note I get from the H&S chocolate flavouring pairs pretty nicely with the coconut note. I really like coconut teas too, which does help quite a bit. The base is only slightly astringent after 4 minutes steeping, and not in a bad way – it works to temper the sweetness of the buttery coconut just enough that it isn’t sickly. Overall it’s not my favourite from Harney, but it might be my favourite of their chocolate teas. I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy more, but I would drink it again if I were offered a cup.

Sipdown 220/399.

FANTASTIC.

Tastes like an almond cookie.

Harney And Sons is one of my new and most favourite tea brands, for certain.

I’m surprised that this tea is in the system, AND there’s a rating, but there isn’t any tasting notes for it. Was that me?
Contrary to what you might think from the name, this is not a flavored matcha. This is instead a green tea, with white peach flavoring, and matcha dusted over it. Green tea with matcha dusted over the tea is one of the few types of tea I prefer in the teabag form. I just feel that the allocation of matcha per serving is more evenly dispersed that way. But then again, I also resteep these teabags pretty frequently, and the taste of the tea doesn’t suffer for having less matcha in the cup.
Today I had it iced. Filled up my little 25oz thermos with ice, and brewed one teabag to 16oz of hot water. Surprisingly this did not overflow, but that might have been a different story if I used crushed instead of cubed ice.
The tea is lovely hot or iced. Iced, it has a pleasant and not overwhelmingly fruity white peach fragrance. The tea is not astringent, and slightly grassy.

Thanks for the sample, Peach! Finally getting around to trying this one a whole year later. I was cooking and ended up oversteeping this, which made the first brew bitter, but the flavoring is still tasty. I’m enjoying it more when it’s cold and I’ve added almond milk and lots of sugar. I brewed the resteep more carefully and noticed some toastiness. The next time I had this tea, I had it without milk, and that was nice and desserty. I don’t think this tea is special enough to buy, but I’m glad I finally tried it! It’s not really like tiramisu, just a light dessert tea.

A decent black tea with mostly coconut notes and some lingering toasty notes in the background. It’s fairly tasty as far as coconut goes, nothing fake or artificial as an aftertaste, but it really is a one note tea. Some sips I get a little of the the toasty sesame coming through, not on the first steep, the second is where the coconut turns pleasantly toasty. No bitterness here, I bet this would do well grandpa style in a go cup all day. Not usually the type of tea I gravitate to, but I’ll add it to my tea bag travel stash and sip it down :)

Cold Brew!

cold brewed it in a medium Mason jar for 36 hours.
It is bright red from the hibiscus and the rose hips. It tasted like strawberry and kiwi – a bit artificial but that it is what I was expecting so I am not disappointed by that. The flavors are coming out strong. It is very tart and slightly bitter and thick because of tisane to water ratio. I was expecting it to be weak like other fruit teas so I went a little scoop happy. I would add a bit less of the tisane or add more water the next time I make it. This tea unlike other fruit infusions from different brands is not as sweet which is lovely. There are no artificial sweetners or sugary fruits in it which makes it so I can consume more of it without having the sweetness invade my taste buds

Hot Latte with rice milk

The dry leaves say they include oolong and black tea and lavender buds. I could not spot the oolong. There were a some camouflaged lavender buds.
The dry smell is intoxicating. It smells very floral and of vanilla.
The bergamot flavor was really mellow and disappears into the background with the milk. There is a floral note but it is more of a general floral note. I wanted the early grey to stand out more and be stronger. I may try to add more leaves next time for a stronger earl grey flavor. Other than that, overall It was creamy and comforting. It was be wonderful to have on a cold winter day.

The main flavor is the slightly astringent black tea with a bit of apple and a bit of cinnamon. I wish the flavors were stronger. As it is, it’s an okay tea, but not fantastic. Maybe if it had a caramel element it would be more enjoyable. I just wanted more flavor.

Tons of addictive flavor

I made homemade pineapple jam recently and I’m obsessed, I wish I had done a full batch instead of a half batch of the jam. Right now I have little pancakes in the freezer (I made a double batch when I do get around to making pancakes, and stick the excess in the freezer for quick snacks), and my late afternoon snack today is little pancakes (warmed up in the air fryer), topped with plain yogurt and pineapple jam, and paired with some tea. Yummy.

A thermos of the queen joined today with this little snack. The warm pancakes and tea paired with the cold yogurt and jam made fun little notes all together. The experience was sweet, tart, creamy, bread, butter, malty… I would recommend. Maybe next time I’ll try it with sour cream to amp up the tartness profile from the yogurt, or buy a tarter yogurt. Queen Catherine hardly any gives me any astringency ever, but it played nicely off the slight natural astringency of the pineapple

This happened AGAIN, I forgot how much Steepster just randomly exits out of the window sometimes in the middle of write a long tasting note. I need to get back into the habit of writing in a different window and copying over.

The long-short of my long but sadly lost review: Loose tea tin arrived! 2tsp per 16oz is very very overleafed for me. BUT makes for a good milk tea base when iced with honey and milk.

Who’s excited for the memorial day weekend? Me! It’s my first holiday since the start of the new year, and my company is ‘essential’ healthcare devices and I can’t work from home so while I don’t have cabin fever, I do need a break. Maybe I’ll convince my sisters to go cherry picking…

This was recommended to me a few months ago on their website although at the time I was looking at black teas more along the lines of Irish Breakfast. I got the 50ct of teabags and I just reordered for a tin of loose. I don’t know what it is about this tea that is so comforting and yet invigorating. I usually don’t drink much black tea, but Queen Catherine definitely makes me more curious to other similar blends.

On the other hand, let’s see how it goes with the loose leaf, especially since I’ve learned more recently that I tend to underleaf by most people’s standards. I feel like the teabags are good from everything from a single mug to a 25oz thermos.

Would buy again in SMALL quantities and use sparingly. This tea is so overpoweringly sweet I feel my taste buds recoiling and shriveling up. I really like the taste and mouthfeel without considering the sweetness, but it’s pretty undrinkable unless watered down.

Edit: Just drinking this for the 3rd time. DO NOT TRICK YOURSELF INTO BUYING THIS AGAIN!! DON’T DO IT!! IT’S NOT WORTH IT!! IT’S DISGUSTING

Would buy again in moderate quantities and make staple in my tea trove. Very easy to drink. The smell reminds me of the London candle from BBW. Sachet form is nice but loose leaf is certainly preferred.

One of the better gunpowder greens out there. Tightly rolled and smoky.

Nice and sweet. The tuos are super tightly packed so takes some work with a pick for single drinkers

Quite strange – smells like boiled spinach and tastes like melted salty butter. Much prefer Mandala Tea’s version.