Kusmi Tea

A million THANK YOU’s to Angrboda!!!! I received your lovely package today! YOU ROCK!

This is the classic case of “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone”
Therefore…upping the rating!

BOY! I’ve MISSED YOU Caramel from Kusmi!
Thanks again! Angrboda!!!!

I know by this time of day I usually move on to Greens, Whites, Rooibos, Minty, etc types but I can’t stop tasting the lovely teas AUGGY sent me! So…here’s another one!

This doesn’t smell like FAKE Caramel…that’s a plus. Not that I am a Caramel Pro by any means. Actually, I’m not really one to usually choose caramel flavored anything…but…there have been some teas I have had recently that have been quite good and they’ve contained Caramel! So…

This flavored tea is soothing and somewhat sweet. The black tea isn’t overpowering nor is it bitter. The Caramel isn’t too in-your-face and it seems to go with the Black tea perfectly. What a union! This is nice!

Another tuck-in from Doulton…thank you for widening my horizons :o)

Green tea + lemongrass is a winner combo for me, but the mate (which I also like, separately) makes this one come out with a Pine-Sol whang. Of course, if it’s doing to my insides what Pine-Sol does to my nasty kitchen floor, the health benefits may outweigh the industrial flavor.

Doulton tucked one of these into her Shirley Temple package - I’m loving the little muslin tea bags (anybody remember Gold Rush bubble gum?) - and the “tasty and competent” rating previously posted stands. I didn’t pay close attention and let the water get too hot, boiled it instead of the 90C recommendation on the tag.

I’m getting a lot more almondy-cakey flavor than I am fruit and spices, but if I just had a piece of my mom’s fruit’n’apple cake right now, this would be a perfect match.

Amendment/addition: I tossed the back half of the mug on ice at lunchtime and tasted about twice the amount of spice. Usually it’s the other way around. Hmmm.

Yes, Im still here =)
Used too much internet, so my better half “grounded” me. You won’t belive how much I had to pay on our phonebill… let’s just say I’m near damn broke. Luckly, I have collected a HUUUGE amount of tea in my three year long fascination of tea. Food? Clothes? Chocolat? I can live without for some time… But life without tea? NEVER.

Started on the school again. They have a cup-with-a-lid policy. It means no fluid must enter the class without a secure lid on it. No prob for soda drinkers and healthy geeks with bottles. Huge prob for my starbuckmug without a lid. So, yesterday I invested on a HUGE travelmug by Bodum. Did I mention it was HUGE? It’s huge. And green. I am happy.

The tea menu for today is all green starting with this almond tea…

: I like it.

In the beginning, the taste was a little off. Too hot water, made the nuance disappear.
Luckly the saying “Time heals all wounds” seems to fit on hot water too. About a lection after my steeping, the tea revealed the yummy taste of almond. OR marcipan <3 potato potato. It taste good!

Note to self: Lower the heat for next cup.

I almost didn’t have any tea at all this evening.

Thoughts went to the yet untried new TeaSpring things and the rest of the Nothing But Tea sampler box. I’m just too tired to even consider writing a proper post, so I thought it better to wait. The samples only make one cup, but I wouldn’t break into the TeaSpring ones without posting on the first try. Even if it was just taking notes to post later. It seems like it would be cheating, you know?

And then, after a ridiculously long time, I realised that I could always just make one of the tried and true instead. So that’s what I did.

See you later, Steepsterites. I’ll go and pass out somewhere.

This is bergamot, red fruit and caramel. As a rule, I’m a fan of red fruit, so I’m feeling positive about this one. I’ve tried this once before where it didn’t go so well so I didn’t rate it then. I’ve been more careful this time. Considering that my Irish Breakfast session was a bit of tea-fail involving a forgotten pot, a cup gone cold and a severe oversteep, so I only really got the half pot it took me to write the post, I’m not sure what I was thinking here. You’d think on days like these I’d be going for something more well-known and less annoying if it goes wrong.

It smells very very nice. Red fruit-y, yes indeed. Cherries or strawberries, I think. Possibly both. There is also a very sweet caramel-y aroma on top of it all, and you sort of have to smell your way through that to get to the fruit notes. It doesn’t smell at all citrus-y this time so it would seem that this takes longer to come out in the aroma. I definitely caught citrus the first time a week ago when I oversteeped it. No red fruits then, though.

Odd flavour. I can pick up all four major notes that are supposed to be there. The red fruit, the bergamot, the caramel and the vanilla. It’s just that I’m not really sure how well I think these things suit each other. Take the red fruit, for example. Red fruit and citrus is good. Red fruit and caramel, I can do that too. Red fruit and vanilla is also nice. Red fruit and citrus and caramel and vanilla is just… odd. A little crowded maybe. That said, I’m not sure you could leave any of them out either. Which would you take out? Wouldn’t the result just be kind of really weakling-y boring? I think it would.

This is a really strange situation of a blend that doesn’t entirely work, but I like that it doesn’t work. And if I like it, then that must mean it works, because something that doesn’t work shouldn’t be very nice or at the most mediocre. But this is definitely better than just mediocre. So it both works and it doesn’t work at all, all at the same time and for the same reasons. It’s paradox tea. It’s probably best to try not to think too much about it.

So what’s the absolute primary note here? The fruit, definitely, with a bit of vanilla to not make it too tart. And just after that there is the caramel. I also have Kusmi’s caramel black, and I think being familiar with that one is an advantage when drinking this. Underneath all that is the bergamot with a slightly dusty bottom mostly on the swallow.

I think I’m liking this, but I haven’t decided yet if I want to buy more of it. It’s not impossible, so I’m putting it on the shopping list. I can always take it off later if I change my mind.

I AM SUCH A SPOILED SPOILED SPOILED PERSON, I’M JUST SAYING! flails

Had to get that out of my system. :p

Also from the Kusmi sampler pack we have this one, which has citrus and caramel. Funny sort of combination. Not one I would have been able to come up with on my own.

Totally caught up in the being spoiled and in having strawberries with milk for dessert, I forgot to pay attention to leaf smell and predictably to steeping time. So I don’t know if this post will be entirely accurate.

It does smell like some sort of citrus flavoured caramel. It’s kind of weird and kind of natural at the same time. The two smells merge quite well, the citrus taking some of the heaviness out of the caramel.

Tastewise, there’s definitely some oversteep damage here. There’s a bitterness to the swallow that I’m sure is not supposed to be there. A bit like a mix of soap and overcooked bergamot.

So I’m not going to give it any points yet. I want to try it properly first, but given the aroma, I’m feeling pretty hopeful about this one.

Another decupboarding. Soon I’ll have nothing left at all! I am SO allowed to shop tea when I come home from the England trip of DOOM.

(And a completely unrelated note to those who have in the past contacted me via gmail chat. This should (hopefully) no longer be possible. See my bio section for new contact info if you feel so inclined.)

I’m having a cup of this now and I had a cup of Kusmi’s St Petersburg earlier. I really like both, but I can’t decide which of the two I like best. They’re very very similar but still different enough to be different.

I want to buy a tin of one of them (when I’m no longer forbidden to buy tea of course) but which one??? Don’t say ‘get one of both’, please. They may both be yummy and there may be a difference between them, but there still similar enough that I don’t really need both of them at the same time.

Since I can’t decide which is better, and I also rated them very similarly originally (one at 88 and one at 84 or something like that), I’m adjusting both their ratings to an average. It seems like the right thing to do.

I’ve noticed that I’ve added this one to my steepster shopping list, though. I don’t know if I’ve added the St Petersburg also, but if I haven’t, maybe I should let that be a clue from fate and get this one?

Stitches came out today and everything’s healing very nicely, the nurse said. The fingertip is still somewhat numb, but she said I shouldn’t be surprised or alarmed if it continues to be for a good long while still.

I believe a celebratory yummy tea is in order. Cheers, Steepsterites.

JacquelineM inspired me to try this one, which I think is the last of the Kusmi sampler that I haven’t tried yet.

This stuff smells awesome! It’s mildly spicy and very fruity, and it’s not even citrus-fruity, it smells much sweeter. I think that must be the vanilla. All together it smells, bizarrely, a bit like Dr Pepper. (Stop laughing, it does!) After steeping the Dr Pepper smell goes away and it’s mainly a mild spicyness and some fruity sweetness which has taken on a more citrus-y aspect.

Hey, this is really nice! It’s slightly spicy and clove-y just in the beginning but then when I swallow the citrus sort of gently comes out and spreads over my mouth. It’s almost a little tingly. I’m not sure where the vanilla is but I think it’s hiding behind the cloves and being a little shy.

This is not something that knocks me off my feet with wow-ness, but it’s definitely something that I could see myself reaching for again and again, and I believe this may end up in a tin purchase.

Now I’ll just have to try the St Petersburg again and get it right, but so far, I believe this one is my favourite of the five. It’s very nice.

I had a sample tin of this two years ago, in that Russian Blends sample sets, and back then I rather liked this one. But I finished the sample and didn’t pay any further attention to it.

Untill recently when it suddenly got inside my head that I wanted it again. I mean I wanted it! So after going around for a while with that want in the back of my head, just to see if it would stick around or go away or what, I finally decided that it was staying and not just a passing thought.

So I bought me a tin.

Drinking this now is like meeting up with a friend I haven’t seen in a long time. Everything I said in those posts of a few years ago still stands.

Decupboarded.

This is one of those things that I like more and more every time I try it. I haven’t fiddled with the rating yet, because although I like it more, I’m not sure I want to give it all that many more points. I think I put it a little high to begin with, so I’m only adjusting it up a few points this time.

That said, I have made it a wee bit too strong this time, but that was merely in effort to not have half a teaspoon of leaves left. It’s turned out heavy on the bergamot, to the point where it comes close to overpowering the other fruits with it’s dark dustyness.

If I make sure to drink it slooooooowly and in smaaaaaaaaall sips, I can still find the other two, though. Not so much the mandarin, that’s only if I’m lucky, but the orange is peeping through as a fruity fresh sweetness.

If I just drink it at normal rate and sip-size, though, it might as well have been any old Earl Grey. That’s a bit of a shame. It really didn’t carry the slightly larger leaf amount all that well at all. Last time I had it, the mandarin came out in spades, and I find that knowing it can do that, I miss it now.

I’m not sure if it’s one I want to invest in again now that the sample is gone. But I am considering it.

What’s this about an earthquake in Canada? Should we be concerned about our canadian steepsterites?

Anyway, I asked the boyfriend what tea we were having as I couldn’t really decide, and he was having Earl Grey. I don’t have any real EGs at the moment, but I have some of the Russian Kusmis. That’s close enough.

I picked this one because it’s one that has been largely overlooked in my sample basket, to the point of me actually being surprised at how full the sample tin still was.

(…and making tea is quicker if one turns the kettle on. Right.)

I can pick up the bergamot in the leaves as usual. It IS a fairly easy note to find. But today I’m also getting the mandarin quite clearly. That’s new, I couldn’t fully discern that before. Not sure about the orange there. I think I can find it, but I’m not entirely certain.

Tastewise it’s the same as before. The bergamot is laying down a solid foundation and on top of that the orange and mandarin keeping the brightness levels up. I’m getting the orange quite clearly here. Less so the mandarin.

Moving right along, here we have something citrus-y. Looks like Russian = Citrus, preferably bergamot in Kusmi-Land.

Okay, I’m beginning to develop a linking for citrus. Still not an Earl Grey fan as such though, but none of these are plain Earl Greys which I think may be what makes the difference.

This one is kind of mild. There’s the heavy bergamot on the bottom but it’s not very pronounced at first. On top there are the other citrus flavours, and they are really what is holding the flavour up.

As the cup cools the bergamot comes out more and the other citrus flavours take a step back, so it’s kind of a double feature this one.

I quite like it.

The liquor of this tea is a bright amber, almost copper color. Quite nice to see on this stormy day.

The aroma reminds me of bergamot with a slight caramel hint to it.

In taste Troika is much more lemon than bergamot to my tongue. When I slurp it it I taste a bit of honey mixed with the lemon flavor and a nice, mildly sweet black tea. I’m enjoying this blend, I like how mellow and not so in your face the flavors are. Which is strange, as I usually like in your face, but the mild citrus is enough for me to really enjoy this tea.

Many thanks to Lori for sending a sample of this my way :)

A big thank you to the quiet life for this sample!!

First sniff of leaves – cloves!! Ahhh! Reminds me of being 14 years old and going to all ages punk shows full of clove cigarette smoke. To this day, all I have to do is smell cloves and I’m instantly full of Anger and Too Much Eyeliner!!! I can’t keep up, I can’t keep up, I can’t keep up! Out of step! With the wooooooorld!!!! (ooops, it’s not 1983! step AWAY from the Minor Threat record (yes I still have it. yes I still listen to it. Shut up!!)

I steeped it at two minutes because I planned to have it with no milk and just a touch of sugar. That was a good call – it’s definitely a “without milk” tea. I’m getting cloves and caramel in a smooth tea base. I’m not tasting any citrus or any of the other flavors that are said to be blended in, which is ok by me :) I’m enjoying Clove Nostalgia Land. But! I think it can take 3 minutes, and I will try that next time.

I decided to do a resteep for the heck of it, at 5 minutes. Not bad! Less tea. Clove-y! Just added another small pinch of sugar.

Final thoughts: Great tea for work where I sometimes want a black tea but don’t want to worry about having milk around. I want to look into some more Kusmi teas for exactly this purpose! Very very very enjoyable!

I forgot I had a teabag of this, a freebie thrown in to my Kusmi order. So sure, why not? Which means that this log is a review of the teabag more than the tea itself (because I already know I like the tea).

This teabag is funky. It’s a rectangle and made of a not-very-tight-mesh muslin-like material. It doesn’t really give the leaves room to expand; theoretically the leaves could expand into the top of the rectangle, but they don’t. Instead they clump down at the bottom of the rectangle and form a pretty hard-packed ball o’ leaf when steeping.

The smell is simply delicious but the taste is a bit harsher than the loose leaf version – not quite so smooth and silky. The caramel also isn’t hitting me as strongly as it did in the loose leaf version so it’s coming across more fruity than caramel-covered fruit. It’s still a tasty tea though and doesn’t require any additives to smooth it out.

Is the loose leaf better? Yes. But not by a ton.
Would I buy the teabag version? No. The loose mesh of the bag material lets little bits of tea scatter about my counter top which means that the bag really isn’t all that neat or convenient, the only real reason I’d go for bags. Also, the lack of expansion room available kind of makes me frown, though I suppose since that doesn’t really seem to impact the taste of the tea, I can’t hold it against it. (Of course, I am assuming that the increased harshness and slight flavor change is due to broken leaves in the teabag, not a lack of room.)

Based on this single bag experience, Kusmi seems to do (weird but ultimately) decent teabags. Don’t think I’d go out of my way to get something in bag form but I wouldn’t turn it down.

Sadly, I am decupboarding this one today. This tea (and Troika) will definitely be repurchased once I am allowed to buy tea again. I really enjoy the rich feel of this tea – the feel of it plus the fruity, creamy, caramel-y sweetness just makes this tea a treat to drink.

I think the caramel and the red fruits in this tea combine in such a way that makes it taste like tea lightly flavored with red berry syrup. There’s no tartness usually associated with things red berry-ish and it ends on a sweet, light caramel note. Quite a tasty little tea, one that can handle a morning in my travel tumbler without additives (which seems to be a bit harder than succeeding in an additive-less state in a cup). This tea won’t be the reason I place my next Kusmi order, but when the time comes I will certainly be adding a tin of this to my cart.

And it’s another tasty and straightforward Kusmi tea!

The tea smells like mixed berries (strawberries and raspberries mostly) covered in caramel sauce. And you know, it pretty much tastes like that too. It’s a rich, decedent tea with a smooth tea taste throughout, a very strong caramel tail (probably easily identified because I’ve had Kusmi’s caramel tea, not sure if I would have picked it out otherwise) and a refreshing berry whoosh after the sip. It’s dessert-like but in a heavy, rich cheesecake sort of way not a light, fluffy cupcake sort of way.

I add a little sugar half way down my cup and it seem to bring the bergamot out a little, the caramel out a lot and hide the berry a bit but it also made it an over-the-top sweet – like a heavy cheesecake covered in frosting. A bit much for me even if all the tastes were good (and they were). Overall, I prefer it unsweetened because it doesn’t overwhelm but if you’ve got a big sweet tooth, throw a little sugar into this puppy!

As seems to be typical for Kusmi, this is smooth tea with no nuances and, while I didn’t know how the flavors would combine, it tastes really nummy. I don’t think this will become my favorite tea ever or anything but I can see it having a steady spot on my pantry shelf.

The second steep (4:30) is a little more berry, a little less caramel and overall not quite as thick/rich/heavy. But still good!