Metropolitan Tea Company
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I originally broke this tea out this morning only to find, after I had brewed a cup, that there wasn’t a drop of milk in the house. Woe! And Jillian was a sad panda. :(
Fortunately the boyfriend went shopping and picked a jug of skim milk up along with the stuff for supper, so I gave this tea another try this evening and based my review and rating on that second attempt.
The spices in the tea were strong enough to tickle my nose when I opened the bag. It’s a good, balanced mix with cardamom, cloves, and ginger being foremost, and the vanilla bringing smooth, sweet notes to the tea. It’s a very ‘classic’ chai taste with the vanilla adding a little bit ‘extra’. It doesn’t take over the tea, but instead acts as a nice accent to the spices.
This would be a good candidate to make a traditional-style chai with, I’m betting. I’ll have to try it one morning when I’m not too rushed. :)
Preparation
I won this as part of Tea-Oh’s facebook contest a few weeks ago. I wish I knew what all of the ingredients were, as something in it is just not sitting right with my tongue. Maybe it’s that I used skim milk instead of the richer soy or half and half, maybe it’s the CTC sized leaves, it just wasn’t a tea for me.
I’m looking to give this tea another home. Roughly 50g left. It is similar to Adagio’s masala chai with some added roseblooms. PM me or leave a comment if you would like this tea forwarded to you to try. I really think other chai lovers may enjoy it. I just think I’ll stick with my favorite chai with chocolate-52teas for awhile.
Preparation
I would love to try this…Would that be ok?
Sure, that would be just fine. I’d be curious to see what you think of it. I think my expectations were too high for this tea.
Thanks, I love rose reminds me of India so I have a feeling this may work for me. Do you have my address?
Yes. I just checked to make sure, I’ll get it out this week! Cofftea-good suggestion. I may save 2tsp to try that way.
Cool, thanks :-)
Sounds like a very interesting tea. With a name like that, you really do need to know the ingredients!
The ingredients—which I’ll update the tea to reflect—ARE a bit odd: Black tea, chopped & powdered ginger, chopped & powdered cardamom, chopped & powdered coriander, chopped & powdered cinnamon, chopped cloves, chopped black pepper, rosepetals, lavender, and jasmine buds.
My purveyor has it (then again he has 700 teas :P and just as many glassware options :P) and he’s wonderful about having all the directions and ingredients, good thing since lavender=allergen, along with chrysanthemum, linden flower, even ginger for some (I prefer punjab region chai—no ginger or very little, lots of cardamom as the key one, sometimes really complex ie curry and rampe leaves but ALWAYS cardamom :D).
Holy crap, I love your purveyor! :)
He’s online, too, though you’ll have to ask about some things like his in-house blends, big high-altitude silk road pu’ehr cakes at all ages and prizes (black and green alike), etc… angelinasteas.com :) He’s AMAZING and heh take this example… but don’t DARE tell him he’s underpriced… Lady Hannah’s Whole Fruit (my sister was getting it for me and shipping it to where I currently am—home is always home, though!), which smelled so incredible she went back and got more (plus my cat’s name is Hannah… it is fate since I was needing some herbal/fruit teas for cold summer no-caffeine, not-sugarybleh drinks)… the Tea Table, I believe, is what it originally was listed as—the reviewer mentioned who had it as the tea of the month… and check the price per ounce… see how much you have to get to even come NEAR Angelina’s prices… seriously, tell him Laura B with Hannah Cat sent you if you do order. He deserves, as a former prize tea judge, to stay in business in this economy, especially since he’s one of very few who’ll carry things like Silk Road Prize Teas, who’ll try out TeaGuys in MA and have Te Teas and even “other” teas people love like PG Tips (though I have this hunch he doesn’t keep THAT in the home cupboard!). He KNOWS his art and is always excited to talk about it from what I have experienced (my sister did encounter him stressed out once and almost hugged him except he was so stressed he’d probably flip despite being North Carolina :P). Too many people just get into tea for the profit; plenty don’t even DRINK tea, let alone know nuances. Anyway, go look at his basic-but-huuuge online assortment and ask him about things like his citrus bouquet or Chief Judge or Meridian blends… and always let him know who sent you. It helps him know that the advertising needed is HERE with yappy people like ME :D
This Matcha is a bit sweeter than the Izu Matcha I tasted a couple of days ago. This one has a nice amount of froth, but not quite as frothy as the Izu.
Sweet, vegetative with a nice, full flavor. It coats the palate deliciously.
It also disappears from the chawan rather quickly.
This doesn’t have the boldness as other Buckingham Palace Party Teas I have tried have. I can taste both the black and the green teas tho. I can taste the hints of earl grey likeness and can taste the jasmine a little too. This is pretty good…was hoping for a little bolder on the black tea tho.
This tea is like Communism. Good in theory, the craps in practice. Perhaps its the quality of the Matcha they used in this blend but basicly its like drinking any ordinary Jasmine tea, except this one has a colour closer to muddy water. Yes its brown not green.
This tea is a good party trick. When I whip out my iced tea pitcher filled with this Peach Apricot iced tea, it draws stares. And then, after tasting, smiles. Real iced tea is so nice to serve at a summer party.
It steeps to a beautiful golden red color and it smells like a peach orchard. A few orange or lemon slices help fancy it up, but the flavor is all there already. It is not too strong on the apricot side of things, which is nice. Because who wants to drink apricot iced tea?
As a warm tea the aromas outweigh the flavoring, until you add sugar or honey.
Really, really nice balance of the two flavors. Not too much of one or the other; perfect peach-i-cot.
The little brown rabbit next to the work picnic table kept eyeing me while I was sipping and smiling. I offered him some, but he wasn’t real interested.
Sounds like the Rabbit missed out! Maybe he was more of a White Tea fan…or Oooooooolong?!
I would have laughed if you said he drank it… maybe he needs something green like matcha.
This is one of the better blends that Metropolitan Tea offers. In fact, I used to create a similar blend that I called “Summer’s Harvest.” This blend is so very much like that one, that I hardly miss my Summer’s Harvest at all.
bunnies do like fruit, but my bunnies have not been too keen on tea either
Let’s see…wasn’t it chamomile that Mama Cottontail offered Peter when he went belly-up after a buffet in Mr. McGregor’s garden? I’m a little rusty on my Beatrix Potter.
So everybody seemed to be having froot tea today, and I was filled with the urge to have some myself, but! I had no fruity tea! It’s all desserts, or minty stuff, or earl greys, or straight blacks or chais or…well, not fruity anyway.
But then I found this! I mean, it’s still a black, but it’s at least blueberry flavored, so that’s you know, close enough. This was a souvenir from mum’s trip to Alaska, and other than being charmed by the fact that the name is stupidly long (Story aside! When I was an undergrad I was in a program called Plan II, which was an interdisciplinary honors program that offered a general education and was characterized by the fact that all of it’s classes had ridiculously long names, let me try to remember some of them for you: Religious Sectarianism And Civil Violence in Modern Times; Emerging Selves: The Autobiographical Impulse in Women’s Writing; War Games, Military Intelligence And Other Oxymorons. They were ALL LIKE THAT. Ever since, I have had a weakness for things with stupidly long names) I was somewhat skeptical. Icewine? Yeah, sure ok. I am not even sure that is a real drink (it is).
The tea (it’s in bags, I know, ew) doesn’t really smell like anything except black tea. Once steeped though, I start to get the blueberry. And indeed, if it were just called blueberry tea, it would be great! Exactly what it says on the box! Well-balanced! And I’m a big fan of blueberries, so awesome all around! But…where’s the Icewine? Now, as revealed by my skepticism of it existing, I have no idea how Icewine tastes, so that COULD be the problem. But when the box says “contains real icewine” on the side, you are expecting something noticeable! Oh well, at least it’s tasty.
Preparation
This tea came and went very quickly. I bought it last month and ended up drinking a few bags and sent a bunch to tea buddies because they were curious! I think I only one 1 or 2 bags left.
Since one of the themes/trends on Steepster today is MAPLE – I thought I would continue on with this lil gem.
I see another trend today is HONEYBEE – might have to pull that one out later!
I just have to say I LOVE STEEPSTER and the STEEPSTERITIES!!!!
I must say this tea surprised me in more ways than one!
The aroma is delightful. Mostly a sugary Maple scent with the tea scent to back it up.
It’s Medium Brown in color.
Yes, it’s bagged tea, but it’s quite good!
I can taste primarily the Maple but it’s not overpowering. I can taste the blueberry a bit as well. I sort of reminds me of blueberry pancakes with maple syrup minus the pancakes. YUM!
Because I’m feeling quite rushed today I went to warm-up my cup and noticed that the 2nd steep on the same bag worked out pretty well if you are in a pinch.
The 2nd steep seems the maple taste is a little less and the blueberry a little more.
There’s just something about the Maple/Blueberry pair…I didn’t think I would like it – but I really do. This is a great flavored tea/treat in a bag….great for days on the go!!!
I received a few sample bags from the lady who owns the store here locally that sells Metro. Tea…YAY!
This is my first time trying this flavor by them. It’s nice.
It ‘brews’ a deep brown and is fairly bold and malty for a bagged tea! I think I just might have to purchase a box to have on standby when I am in a hurry or too lazy to do loose leaf! LOL
A great tea day!
Just bought this today…thanks to LiberTEAs little Metro-Tea push earlier! LOL
I was looking for something different…that I haven’t tried and could buy quick – locally…this was staring at me. Not sure why but it did.
Upon first sniff you could certainly smell the cranberry! Once I started to steep it lost a lot of it’s scent. It’s medium to dark brown in color.
The Cranberry taste brings more of a bittery-type flavoring to the black VS a more tarty-fruit taste…which is ok by me. I would personally classify this as a medium strength bagged tea. And it’s fairly good! I bought it locally and had a nice chat with the store owner…she’s considering opening up a tea shop within her ‘already-there store’. I hope she does.
This morning, I took the simple approach and reached for a black tea in a tea bag as I have an early morning (well, early for me, anyways) appointment. This is my very last of this tea that I received in a swap.
This is not my favorite Metropolitan Tea, and as a tea purveyor I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to taste quite a bit from them. But I do like this tea, don’t get me wrong. I’m just not a big fan of grape flavor, which seems to also apply to wine-flavored teas such as this one. Not that I dislike it, let’s just say that I generally pass up the grape flavored skittles in favor of the other flavors.
Anyways… this is a good tea, and a very intriguing flavor. It does have a wine-like quality to it which always seems to cause me to do a double take. You’d think by now I’d get used to it, as I’ve tried quite a few “wine” infused teas, but, that fermented taste is always just a little surprising – in a good way – to me.
It is a weird tea to drink in the morning though, it’s much better suited for meal-time or in the afternoon, in my opinion. However, this was the first black tea I grabbed, so I went with it. A pleasant tea experience, overall.
