Harrods

Another old tea bag of unknown age and again – it worked badly. It doesn’t have any jasmine taste or scent left; base tea was rather sweet hay than grassy notes, overall not enjoyable at all.

Broken leaves to tininess.
Classic white tea smell and aroma: honey melon, cucumber.
Long lasting sweet taste.

Oh boy. A nice heartbreaking Formula 1 race is a great way to start the the day. I’ve been drinking a lot of this tea lately. I received it as a Christmas gift. It’s possible that it’s better hot, but I’ve been drinking big pitchers of it cold, and it tastes kind of dirty. Like a more savory herb. Lemon verbena is something that I’ve in general avoided since it sounded like it wouldn’t be too exciting, but I’ll drink this since it’s free. I’ve found that shorter steep times cut down on the dirty taste. And it’s possible that other versions of this tea would taste more pleasant. I just don’t have enough experience to say.

Thank you to Mackie for this sample. I enjoy earthy herbals, so this was a nice hot cup of tea on a very cold day.

Slightly leafy, similar to the flavour of raspberry or nettle leaves. A bit earthy, but in a dried leaf type of way. Very strong flavour of peppermint. It is a nice simple blend, but the peppermint definitely overpowers the natural flavours of the nettle. Still, if you like simple herbal blends, you would probably like this.

I like this tea. It has a nice lemon ginger flavor. It is a good evening tea.

Backlog from yesterday.

I agree with other reviewers here that this tea isn’t 100% reminiscent of chocolate. There’s an underlying yeastiness/breadiness/alkalinity to it that reminds me, at best, of the dark cookie parts of an Oreo cookie (as opposed to the cream filling).

*OMGsrsly" compared this to Ovaltine before; I’m not very familiar with Ovaltine myself, but I think the comparison is accurate.

The taste is somewhat mild, but the smell of this is SUPER jammy. I bet this would taste amazing with some agave nectar added.

A lovely, medium strength tea which definitely has the creaminess the manufacturer’s blurb claims. Initially I noticed the Ceylon and Darjeeling more than the Assam (though that might be because I’ve been drinking blends with more Assam the last few days), it has a pleasant floral aftertaste and some underlying depth without being at all heavy. Second cup I tasted more of the Assam, definitely some malt there, no bitterness and very little astringency. Could easily be drunk all day though perhaps best as an afternoon tea, a full English breakfast or spicy dinner is probably going to obscure the more delicate notes though brewed strong the Assam might stand up to it. All in all a rounded, smooth, elegant blend, very pleasurable.

Thank you, MissB!

To sum up: Harrod’s does not understand what chocolate tastes like.

This is not chocolate.

This is ovaltine or something similar.

Yum. Had my last bit of this yesterday and it was delicious.

That is all I have. So tired. Lunch time nap???

Thank you, MissB!!!

“Best taken without milk.” Pfft, Harrods. You can’t tell me what to do.

2 bags in 16 oz for 3 minutes at 195F.

It doesn’t smell too black curranty, but I have hopes for this tea. If it disappoints, luckily I always have a black currant candy to satiate my craving. :D

Steeped, it smells really lovely. And of course I almost managed to tip my Very Full Octomug onto the floor. whew It’s safe!

I added milk to the tea.

And it’s delicious.

But I think I’ll still have a candy after. Because I can.

Sipdown (120)!

My cupboard number bumped up again because while I was out today (visiting with my Dad, and getting another tattoo done – details to follow in other tasting notes) I stopped at McQuarrie’s and picked up a few different teas on a whim.

This one, however, is one from MissB – and one I was definitely excited about! Boy do I like toffee, caramel, and essentially any other “taffy” like substance. Mmm!

It steeped up a touch bitter, despite a pretty short infusion time, but still had some relatively nice toffee and burnt sugar/brown sugar notes despite that little bit of bitterness. Not too sure I’m a huge fan of the black tea being used, though. Overall it was kind of average, and I’m thinking isn’t going to be terribly memorable in the long run. I much preferred the Black Currant bagged tea which I’m pretty sure was also by this company?

Unrelated – is anyone else watching Netflix’s Daredevil series? I’m on episode seven – and I’m really hooked. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Foggy is played by Elden Henson and I’ve kinda low key had a celebrity crush on him for years now. He should be in more things. He should be in all the things!

Also, I want Matt and the nurse to smoosh their faces into each other…

But not gonna lie; I’m not too terribly familiar with the Daredevil comics – and in fact most of my knowledge of the series stems from Kingpin since he’s a “cross over villain”, if you will, with Spiderman – and Spiderman is totally my jam. The actor who plays Kingpin in this is so amazing too! I sorta hate how much I love him – but he’s fucking adorable with Vanessa with all his shy/tender moments. And then he goes and kills a son of a bitch and is all hardcore…

Super fun to watch! Kinda disappointed that his assistant’s name wasn’t Alistair Smythe though – that would’ve really made me excited/happy. Missed opportunity, guys!

GCTTB 3

This. Is. Delicious.

It is surprising because it is just a generic tea bag. But th flavour is quite good.

There is thick burnt toffee flavour. It is creamy. Only slightly sweet, it isnot overly cloying which is nice. The black base underneath the toffee flavour is bold but not astringent or bitter at all. It lets the toffee shine through. This one tastes very nice, quite a pleasant surprise.

On a side note, this one, to me, smells like roasted carrots. But in case you are wondering, it does not taste like roasted carrots. Not sure how I would feels about roasted toffee carrots…

Sipdown (139)!

Thank you MissB for the sample! I liked the other Harrod’s tea I’ve tried from you, so I definitely was excited for this one. I’m not actually a huge chocolate fan; but I don’t think you can ever really, truly dislike chocolate either.

I had some of the worst cramps I’ve ever had today; so I called in sick. I literally spent 90% of my day on the couch today; I couldn’t move it hurt so bad. Work wants a Sick Note/Doctor’s note – but obviously I didn’t get one. I’m gonna go to the Walk In tomorrow after my tattoo appointment and pick one up, and hopefully that’s good enough for them. I get why employers ask for sick notes occasionally; to keep employees from abusing sick days off. It just, it still seems sorta stupid to me.

On top of your employee missing out on a day’s pay (because face it; the employees with paid days off or who work for salary are not usually the ones asked to get Doctor’s notes), they actually have to pay to get a Doctor’s note. And that can range anywhere from $10-30 here…

One thing that’s been suggested/debated is employers being billed for their employee’s sick notes – and I’m all for that. It still keeps employee’s accountable to almost the same extent, but it doesn’t affect low income earners as directly. And, there are employers who harass employees (I’m not thinking of me right not but another woman I work with) and ask for a sick note every time they don’t show up – even when it’s not frequent! So, that would also deter employers from targeting employees.

Plus, it just takes valuable time out of Doctor’s day! Not to mention, if you’re really too sick to go to work than you’re probably too sick to walk/bus/drive to a clinic, and you’re exposing all sorts of people to your illness too. Ugh.

I don’t know; this is just something I didn’t realize I was passionate about until it sort of hit me that “Damn, I’m really opinionated about this”. Ugh; so not looking forward to sitting in a walk in clinic for, like, two or three hours probably.

Anyway, the tea!

There was something oddly familiar about it; but not anything like other reviewers have mentioned – I wasn’t reminded of barley at all. I thought the smell was so much better than the taste though; it was like a hot, steamy mug of chocolate pudding or rich custard with sweet vanilla like undertones.

That didn’t translate so directly into the taste though; it was more flat with a simpler chocolate flavour. Less rich, if you will. Though having just finished reading Kittenna’s review I can sort of agree that it did taste kind of malty. Not exactly malt – but close enough. Overall; didn’t love this one but certainly didn’t dislike it either!

Backlog.

Another teabag sample from MissB – thanks! I’ve tended to like blackcurrant teas in the past, however I’ve mostly had versions that also have cream flavouring, which this one did not. Sadly, I noticed that and therefore wasn’t a huge fan – although the flavour was definitely strongly blackcurrant, I found it too medicinal (it’s not the flavouring, per se, it’s that blackcurrants taste medicinal). If you enjoy the flavour, however, this is probably a pretty good bagged version, and I would certainly drink it again if I had the opportunity (but I think I’d add some milk and sugar to see how that worked out).

A lovely treat from MissB!

It’s a strong black tea that gives me the impression of butter. It smells sweet, and tastes almost fruity like Sil mentioned.

I’m enjoying it with some organic milk I picked up last night (mmm, tea with milk…). It works really well, and I think the milk amps up the buttery notes and tones down the base tea a bit.

2 bags in 16 oz for 3 minutes at 195F. (Pretty standard for me!)

Sipdown (148)!

I feel like I’m probably going to be drinking a lot of bagged teas on the way to work for a little while; today I got a box of samples from Sil and MissB – 35 new teas to be specific, many of which were bagged. I’m super excited to get to explore them all; they all, yes even the bagged tea, seem quite interesting!

When I realized just how much bagged tea I had, though, I decided to bring the majority of my older and neglected bagged teas in to work – I know that a lot of the staff will appreciate having some tea to drink on break; currently we’ve just got coffee in our staff room and the tea we sell at the Coffee Bar is gross Lipton. Plus, it’s good for me too because easier sipdowns!

This was the first of MissB’s bagged tea samples that I decided to try; it seemed like the most unique of the samples – and I definitely like black currants!

Dry, this doesn’t smell like anything. However, once the boiling water hit the tea bag all I could smell was black currants; almost jammy, but not quite sweet enough to be a jam. I kept my steep time pretty short; I know that black currant has a tendency to turn medicinal very, very quickly and that’s definitely not what I wanted. The flavour was spot on for black currants; and thankfully didn’t taste medicinal at all to me. It was a very monotone flavour; but I didn’t really expect it to be otherwise anyway nor was there anything that indicated it would be otherwise.

It definitely didn’t have a lot natural sweetness; just a tiny bit of agave probably would’ve made it pop a little more. Still, this was really enjoyable and different, and I really liked it! I wonder if there are any Canadian retailers that sell this brand? I’ve never seen or even heard about it until today…

Swooning for tea here! yep. call me a groupie.
I love black currant tea. And this one is no exception. It’s sweet and berry like with just a hint of tart and works well with the base black.
I didn’t add any sugar at all, and it was almost too sweet. I would have loved a smidge more tartness.
Now all of that aside, I’m starting to understand the Harrod’s line more. There is a background note I can’t quite identify that I remember from the chocolate Harrod’s tea. Definitely a “black tea” note, something almost hinting at bitterness but more in the way it hits the palate, as I don’t taste any bitter at all. I keep wanting to say its even a tad earthy but that doesn’t make any sense at all. Ah well, if I ever come across more I’ll be sure to play around with it!
So yum!! Thanks MissB!

Bagged toffee/caramel teas always seem to have this thickness to them that is just a little off putting and this is no exception. The base just takes over leaving very little room for toffee richness. Thank you for sharing MissB but I don’t think this is one I’ll seek out again.

The taste of this one is familiar but I can’t put my finger on what it reminds me of. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s chocolate. Instead I am picking up a more yeasty or barleyish flavor. Oh, it sorta reminds me of a burnt chocolate babka. It’s not something I’ll be seeking out again but it was fun to try so thank you for the share MissB!!

This is my first sipdown from my newest Sil bag, enjoyed in the bubble bath. This tea traveled from MissB to Sil to me. It’s juicy & sweet (if you sweeten it, which I did). I planted 3 varieties of currants last spring, black, yellow, & pink. I’ve only ever had dried currants, & black currant flavored teas, so it should be interesting!

No idea how I didn’t add this to the database when I originally grabbed it. Can’t seem to buy it on their website, and when I was in their store, it was only available as a bagged, boxed tea. With the Brits so fascinated by anything blackcurrant (I don’t get it), I thought it would be a decent addition to my fix. Had my bag the other day (pretty sure I sent off the rest to Sil to distribute), and it was… okay. Fruity, full bodied, nothing to write home about — although I guess with this review, I technically am writing home about it.

Lots of hmmmms these days. Not a bad one. Just… Hmmmm.
This is good, and there IS toffee there. But it takes some getting used to. At first I felt as if there was something missing from the toffee, as if it was hollow. Adding a bit of sugar helped. I didn’t think milk was necessary. It’s somewhat creamy on its own. It is a bit sticky tasting, so I suppose that part is apt!
Would I have this again? Yes, as a treat! Would I buy a whole box of it? I’m honestly not sure. Maybe. Ok so a tiny box.
Thanks MissB!