Murchie's Tea & Coffee

This makes an amazing iced tea. Super fruity and lots of great stone fruit and champagne flavours. Extremely flavourful, resteeps well several times (cold brewed 3 times and all three steeps were great).

Brewed gongfu style 30s/5s/6s/9s – 180-170 F, 2g in 50 ml gaiwan.

Aroma of the dry leaf was fairly smoky, so I was pleasantly surprised that the first infusion came across as more sweet than smoky. The flavor definitely improved with the second and third infusions as some slight astringent notes came out to complement the sweetness and the body filled out. The third infusion even brought with it a faint hint of lemon.

Though Murchie’s calls this a green tea, it both tasted and appeared much darker than what I’m accustomed to with greens. Liquor is a medium-dark yellow orange, and the leaves are a deep, deep, brown green. I’d imagine some of this is due to bruising that may occur in the rolling process. None of this is a particularly bad thing as it tastes just fine, but if you’re looking for the freshness and vegetal taste of greens I’d suggest you look eslewhere. Overall a nice enough tea, but not one I’ll be racing back to.

Gaiwan drinkers be warned, as the leaves aren’t fully open on the first infusion they can easily stop up your pour if you aren’t careful!

The smell of this tea is so enticing. I wish I could smell it every second of the day.
While brewing, the tea fills the room with a sweet maple scent that is so inviting. The brewed tea is very black tea forward and the maple scent is gone from the tea. I get a slight maple note at the back end but its all black tea forward.
I have yet to try it with milk. Maybe that will bring out other flavors from the tea?

Probably a shame to review this when it’s sold out. But I’ve still got a little left in my personal cupboard.

This was such an interesting tea to drink, and to look at. Most fine-pluck tippy teas have a smattering of gold tips amongst black tips. But with this one, each individual leaf has some gold and some black on it. Very careful sorting, almost all of them delicate whole buds.

Brewed this in a gaiwan, rough steeps of 15-20 seconds as I like a strong black. The cup is a deep red (the photo doesn’t do it justice, that’s much too light unless you’re intentionally trying to brew it light), and if you catch it in the light, you can see the fuzz from the leaves floating. The smell and taste is remarkably unique to me—burnt sugar and/or buckwheat honey is the best I can describe it. Very rich and sweet, with a kind of syrupy mouthfeel that lingers. Lighter steeps almost bring out a muscatel, winey note, alike but very different to any Darjeeling I’ve ever had. There are little notes of… I want to say grain or malt that verge into the ‘burnt sugar’ description.

I find this doesn’t get bitter, but it can get STRONG, due to the small size of the leaf material. Second steep really filled my mouth and nose with aroma. Wine. Fruit? Something of that sort, thick honey—it was given the name ‘honeysuckle’ at the importer-level due to that unmistakable syrupy honey flavour; I specifically wrote down ‘buckwheat honey’ in my own notes, because if anyone has ever tried THAT. It’s downright molassesy, and definitely still applies here.

The muscatel/wine notes in particular come through at the end of the sip, sort of lingering on the tongue.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCho90IgiVP/

I’ve tried a few different Rooibos EG’s and haven’t liked a single one thus far. I’ve had this one in my cupboard for ages and have yet to have tried it, probably because of my bad track record with bergamot on rooibos. However, I’m out of a black lavender EG and that was what I was craving to go with my lemon poppyseed cookie, so I finally decided to try this. Maybe the lavender made a big difference, because I actually didn’t mind this. The bergamot tastes a little grapefruity, but doesn’t come across too sour, even on the lighter base. The lavender is lovely and strongly floral, and pairs well with the strong citrus flavor of the bergamot. The rooibos is a strong flavor, a bit woody, hay-like, and sweet. I wouldn’t select this over a good black lavender EG, but this is surprisingly suitable for a rooibos alternative when I have traditionally hated bergamot paired with rooibos.

Made a pot for myself. Lightly Floral and the lavender flavor comes out pretty well. The black tea base is smooth and light. It works together pretty well. Really desserty and delightful

First time having this tea. Brewed for 3 mins in boiling water.

The dry leaves smell exactly like a strawberry shortcake. I would eat it if i could. The leaves are shiny and heavy as if there is a lot of artificial flavoring - although you can already tell that by the smell.

The brewed tea – smells more like a black tea and less like a dessert.
The taste of the tea is like strawberry flavored cake or cookies— not ones that use fresh strawberry . This would be good with some milk and sugar ,which might help enhance the strawberry flavor and give you the creaminess of a cake.
I am drinking this tea plain and it is perfectly fine. The black tea is smooth and very refreshing. The aftertaste of this tea leaves a wonderful artificial strawberry flavor.
If you have ever eaten the pink frosting/ strawberry flavored cream biscuits or pocky sticks, that’s the artificial strawberry flavor I am getting.

SIpdown! go me! almost the end of July and i’m still working through my samples and smaller quantities. Mostly i’m just glad i’m drinking tea haha Thanks again for this one omgsrsly been enjoying it a lot

Been drinking this one a lot from omgsrsly it’s the right sort of every day tea that doesn’t give me anything to complain about and just eases me in to the day. Will be sad when this one is gone but i have a few more cups to enjoy before then