Murchie's Tea & Coffee

A strong tea that, unfortunately, doesn’t taste like much of anything to me. I do enjoy using this tea as a black base when mixing with some green teas, but as a solo act, it leaves much to be desired.

I like the vanilla flavours in this tea, but the tea itself seems very strong and easy to oversteep. It’s still my second favourite tea and I do enjoy drinking it :)

Really delicious black tea. The Ceylon and Jasmine come through but the lemon (thankfully) is very slight and does not overpower. Sometimes a touch of bitterness (astringency?) but haven’t experienced this lately. This has become my “default” black tea and my parents have started swapping this in place of their old orange pekoe.

Merchie’s made this blend in honor of the recent royal nuptials, so please imagine me wearing a ridiculous hat.

This is a black and green tea blend as Merchie’s has become famous for. This is where the weirdness comes in, something about the combination of Ceylon and jasmine teas with citrus makes this tea smell like pine to me. Pine sap, that kind of pine. Trying to push that out of my mind… the infusion is a dark red and the aroma is floral-ish and citrus-y. My first sip is a bit bitter and when I expect to get a spicy note or astringency from the Ceylon, the jasmine pushes in and mellows the flavor out. There are some floral notes from the jasmine but the rose petals are undetectable. I’m left with an odd pine sappy aftertaste.

Almond milk and stevia helped my second ½ cup of tea out, but not enough to make me ever crave this tea. Bollocks! I really wanted to like this one.

I need a good kick in the pants because my productivity has come to a screeching halt. I would typically rely on my good friend Queen Catherine to pull me by the ear and make me snap to, but alas I’m out of THE QUEEN. How did this happen?!

I’m hoping that another queen might be able to help me out of my evening malise. Queen Victoria may not be quite as feisty as Queen Catherine, but she’s no slouch! Queen Victoria is an icreadible blend of green and black teas with the sweetness of jasmine and the smoky goodness of Lapsang Souchong.

Two cups later… I’ve not gotten the swift kick in the pants that I needed, but I do feel like I’ve gotten a stern talking to. We will be recomending this tea (the royal we).

I expect there is more Murchie’s Library Blend tea in my blood stream than actual blood, given how much of a staple this tea is for my daily routine. A fresh, light-tasting green-black that has a very green smell; I enjoy it with a bit of honey and milk, both for breakfast and as an afternoon treat. Careful not to drink it with boiling water, though.

Finished this one off.

You can definitely taste the bancha. It’s forward in the tea, with the black more in the background and supplementing the taste wonderfully. It’s a little sweet, either from the mocha brandy flavouring described, or the candy pink elephants.

I think it all ties together very well, though.

Finished this off. I’m still off the impression that there is no actual green tea in this, despite it even being listed under the Green-Black blend on Murchie’s website. It’s nice, and there isn’t so much rose as to turn me off, but I won’t get it again. It didn’t really jump out at me.

I’ve been duped! Rose wasn’t listed anywhere as an ingredient, and the sample they had out for sniffing had no rose petals in it either.

Also, they seem to hint that it’s a green and black blend, but I didn’t see any signs of green.

It smells of citrus and jasmine, as expected. Not much rose, because I was careful to keep the petals out of my teaspoon as I scooped it into the strainer. There’s also what looks like dried thistle in here. Huh.

Brewed is a citrus smell with a touch of jasmine. The taste is a good ceylon with a touch of citrus, and this bizzare verging-on-spice taste that I can only conclude may possibly be the thistle. It’s rather pleasant, though.

I’m a little disappointed that Murchie’s fallen into adding candy and decorative items to their teas recently. Most of the new ‘specialty’ limited-time ones are like that. I picked up “Lucky Elephant” as well, despite it having candy pink elephants in it. I thought the roasted bancha mixed with black tea sounded interesting (and, apparently, mocha flavours…). Somehow in my mind, something called “Lucky Elephant” should be more traditional.

Back to this tea… It looks like I prevented the rose from ruining the experience, but I won’t know for sure until it’s cooled enough. It could still get bitter.

I’ve been gone from my part-time job so long (three months) I have no idea what our uniform looks like. Plus we’ve completely changed season in my absence, so we’ll have a whole new line of clothes. Fun. I’ll have no idea where anything is.

Rating this a medium-positive for now. I like it, but I haven’t decided my full opinion on it yet. I drank tea instead of eating breakfast.

Take this review with a grain of salt, as I am about as inexperienced at reviewing tea as a person can get. :) I ordered this tea some months ago and have enjoyed it regularly in the mornings with breakfast or in the afternoons, just as a little pick-me-up. It’s a green-black blend, which I have discovered is my favorite, but it is very easy to “over-steep” this tea, as I discovered this morning. Three minutes seems to be the magic number for my finicky palate, but alas, I let it go to five while getting ready for work, and the black flavors completely overwhelmed the green. Oh well, live and learn.

Thank you LiberTEAS for this sample too. First impression on opening the bag…holy blueberries! As it was steeping folks stopped in my office to ask what I was making this time. :) Apparently the blueberry smell carried in the building. The taste? Pretty amazing. I’m loving the mix of blueberry and green tea I think I’m getting here. Pretty refreshing on this chilly and rainy afternoon.

I don’t quite recall how this sample tasted other than it was notable enough for me to consider puting it on my shopping list.

I have had this tea numerous times since I purchased it way back in June and each time it has been delicious. Today, I went for something a little different; rather than having this tea “neat” or “plain” or “unadulterated” I added 1oz of hazelnut cream.

It was like a chocolate hazelnut “London Fog” only a touch too sweet; I think next time I will either add only a 1/2oz of hazelnut cream or trying and find something less sweet, regular cream might be just enough sweetness for this chocolate powerhouse of tea.

My head is killing me, my feet are cold, it is raining outside and Shaw has yet to fix the cable issue they created two weeks ago… Time to infuse some chocolate feel good, have some painkillers and crawl into bed with a good read on my Kobo…

This time the first infusion I noticed the vanilla taste right off, mmmmm, made me want to curl up and sleep! The second infusion was all black tea, but thankfully not scortched black tea.

I am a bit of a cranky pants this morning and this was the first tea I reached for, I hope it is able to lift me from my duldrums!

I am not sure if I steeped this tea correctly or if I have just had too many caffinated teas today, but it is not my most favourite tea at this time, but still superior to other teas I have purchased from Murchie’s.

A second attempt later on, might be in order.

Not overly memorable, and was quickly forgotten.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this blueberry tea! It is really quite pleasant. The blueberry tea flavor is light enough so that the green tea can be tasted: I’m getting a sweet, nutty flavor from the green tea as well as a hint of creamy butter taste. It is only slightly vegetative. The blueberry flavor tastes authentic and not chemical-icky tasting.

Nice!

I want to thank Jillian for this one! :)
It’s a light olive green color post-infusion and it smells AWESOME!

The green tea flavor is lovely and the blueberry isn’t over the top intense but a great pairing with the green tea! I really like this!! No grassy aftertaste, either! Always a plus!!!! YUM!

This’ the last of this. Still delicious, although the bitter coffee beans come to the front.

This tea smells delicious. Like coffee cake.

Slightly cloudy in the cup. I don’t know if I can write a competent review right now. Not really feeling up to it. But there’s a coffee bitterness flavour (not too strong, thankfully), with a touch of chocoloateness and vanilla, maybe. Mmmm. Makes me want tiramisu.

I chose this tea over their Christmas tea, which seemed to be mostly spices and orange (why is orange such a Christmas Tea Blend flavour? Has anyone else noticed this? What’s christmasy about oranges? I find apples far more christmasy). So I picked this up. They got a whole bunch of dessert teas, actually.

Also picked up a tea for a friend in the US, who’s a big friend of Murchie’s. Have to figure out how to ship packages so I can send it to her…

I figure this would be nice with milk and sweetner. Although the flavours are a bit on the faint side. Sweetner might bring them out a bit more.