Murchie's Tea & Coffee

I realized that I hadn’t put away the used jasmine green leaves (A&D) from yesterday. They’d dried perfectly (no spinagyness), so I threw the teaball into fresh hot water with a bag of this as well in a double-sized mug. The jasmine was STILL pretty strong smelling for the second steep, so I ended up taking it out at three minutes and leaving the Ceylon in for an additional two.

The result reminds me a bit of Murchie’s Library Blend. I think I’m just a sucker for black-green blends. The initial sip is green and jasmine, the black coming in when you swallow and breath out. The jasmine is lending more of a floral sweetness instead of completely taking over the tea.

Yiiiick, I just made the mistake of throwing two teabags of this into a too-small pot. I thought it was big enough for two, but apparently I was wrong. The tea got bitter FAST (four minutes!?), and it was STRONG. Very bitter and too strong, and yuck—even with milk and honey, there was nothing I could do. Never again shall I use more than one teabag. Not unless the pot exceeds four cups capacity at LEAST.

This morning, this is my Wake Up AJ, Wake Up And Finish Your Geomorphology Report. And sadly, it is not doing its job as well as I had hoped. I need an assam. Something stronger and biting. All I have is Irish Breakfast, however this was three bags in a large pot, and I only HAD… three bags of Irish Breakfast left, and I didn’t want to use them all up just like that.

I can hear the helicopters circling for the torch passing by my house today. I should pop out and see how close they’re heading by my house; I missed them the other day when they ran past my campus.

I hope this doesn’t effect me getting to class on time.

I’ve taken to drinking this every day in the morning, now. It has a bit of bite to it, even with milk and a bit of honey. It’s not a bad thing. It wakes me up in the morning.

Steeping this tea now, with an English muffin—that just popped from the toaster.

Mmm, English muffins…

Anyways, I picked this up at Murchie’s yesterday, which is so small and quaint, and when I entered the store, I immediately wished I had brought a book. I’m sure I will return—they have all sorts of little cakes, and I love the whole tea experience of getting a pot on a silver platter. It was very nice.

I decided to try making tea another way today; you see, the pot I have is very old, the outside paint turned brown from use. I read that filtered water is better to use over tap water (I don’t see why I had to read this—it makes obvious sense, after all), and I thought perhaps to try that. However, I assume the inside of my kettle is probably coated with enough lime scale and the sort that poring filtered water into it would negate the idea of using filtered water complete. So instead I put a mug of it into the microwave. I realized there was really no way to decide if the temperature was anywhere near where I wanted it to be, and so I used the Five Second Finger Test. How long does the water take to scald your finger? I waited until it did it instantly, and then hoped for the best (that puts it somewhere over 60c, at least [140F]). It took slightly longer for the nice rich tea colour to come out, so I can only assume the water wasn’t QUITE hot enough. I would buy my own personal kettle for tea use, but I’m sure everyone in my house would think me crazy.

I opened the tin of bags and the wondrous tea smell was nice, and strong and I took a few sniffs. On that note, the tin is PERFECT for loose leaf, so I have no idea why they decided to package their bagged teas this way. Not only does it have a tight fitting lid, but just under the lid is a SECOND lid that pushes INSIDE the tin, for extra freshness. And since the “Uva Ceylon” is just a sticker, I think I’m going to keep this tin and reuse it for loose leaf afterwards. Definitely.

The tea smells nice, and brings back memories of my great grandma. It’s odd, because it almost seems like I can smell a bit of honey. But I think it’s just the normal smell of the tea reminding me OF honey. The wet bag smells a little earthy as well.

Tea’s still a little too hot to taste much. But first sip I tasted something somewhat green. Or well, leafy. Second sip, and it tastes a little sour.

Aah, perfect, no bitterness. Joy! Although it feels a bit weak. Most likely due to too low of a temperature, I’m sure. I still think I’m getting that metallicy water taste. Maybe I should try bottled water instead of my filtered stuff. I don’t know when the last time was that that filter was changed.

A bit of honey to see what it does to the taste… I can barely taste the honey, but I think it brought out the tea flavour more. Mm. Maybe I’ll try two teabags next time. I think I like it. Heck, maybe I’ll pack a few bags to bring to work and drink on my break.

Bit of milk… Removes the metallic taste, which brings the teaness forward. Tasty.

Urgh, that’s the problem with using a large-holed filter with a finer-leafed tea – the bottom of the cup gets muddy.

I’m tasting a bit of sweetness from the sencha this time, so apparently a shorter steep is better for this tea.

I steeped it less and got a bit more grass and bit less burnt popcorn. I noticed that it also has a bit of a smoother feel in the mouth aswell. Interesting, I think I like it more at this steeping time.

I suppose it isn’t really fair to compare this to last night’s Ryokucha, but I can’t help noticing that this tea lacks depth of flavour. It’s got body and strong savory notes, but it’s very much a one-note tea. There’s a burst of toasted grain flavour and then….nothing. I have to say that even compared to the generic supermarket-bought genmaicha they serve at the sushi bar this looses out. It’s not a bad tea, it’s just that I’ve had better incarnations of it.

The green teas leaves are quite small and fine-looking from what I can see and the smell is sort of a green, grassy scent – like you’d get after mowing the lawn and the clipping had been left in the sun to dry a bit. The smell changed radically when I added water, turning into something that was a cross between puff-wheat cereal and burnt popcorn.

It tasted a bit like the smell – though not so much burnt popcorn, but it’s a savory sort of taste.

This morning I added the water to the teabag and stared at the cup in a zombie-like state without realizing I’d forgotten to set the timer. I guess that’s a sign that I really need the caffeine! *head-desk *

I really enjoy the citrusiness of this tea; I think I can pick up some orange and lemon flavours in addition to the usual bergamot. Yum.

Backlogging from yesterday morning:
I fully admit that my brain was still fogged-over with slumber when I drank this, so I wasn’t exactly giving the tea my sharpest analysis. But I was able to process the fact that a dash of skim milk makes this tea taste very nice indeed. ;)

This tea has more punch to it than Twinning’s Lady Grey, but it’s still light enough to drink without adding milk or anything else.

I drank it with some milk this morning and surprisingly found that I liked it much better. The mango is still pretty subtle but it lends a bit of a fruity sweetness to the tea that’s quite nice. Actually I shouldn’t be that surprised – Murchie’s specializes in English-style teas which are generally best with milk and/or sugar.

Uping the rating a couple points.

I tried lengthening the steeping time of the tea but that seems to bring out the flavour of the Ceylon rather than the flavour of the mango. Hrmph!

I like the scent of this – it’s quite tantalizingly fruity. There aren’t any mango pieces in it, to my disapointment, but according to the seller they use ‘real mango oil’ in this tea, so I suppose that gives it some authenticity.

I took the first sip of tea while it was still quite hot and I didin’t really taste much except the Ceylon base. Naturally I felt rather cheated, but when I let the tea cool down a bit the mango flavour started to come in. It’s not very strong, more like a pleasent hint to compliment the black tea than the main event.

Not bad, but I was expecting a bit more out of this tea than I got.

Moar Backlogging:

Another tea I had while I was in Vancouver. The downtown has a couple of nice tea shops within a small area so naturally I made it my mission to check them out. I sat down to lunch at Murchie’s with a pot of this tea and a chicken salad croissant.

This is a very light, smooth tea that has little to no astringency or harshness. It also goes well with a splash of milk. It’s maybe a little ‘normal’ tasting for me, though I imagine that drinkers of traditional, straight black tea would think that it’s quite good.

I received two boxes of this for Xmas. Whoo-hoo! It’s even better than the Afternoon black teas and light years better than their Darjeeling. I don’t think it’s as good as the 1894 blend, but then it’s been a couple of years since I had that. Could it be that my memory is playing tricks on me?

Anyway, each bag is strong enough to make two average sized cups or one big honkin’ big cup (or small teapot). I also got a honkin’ big tea mug for Xmas which pictures of my dog on it. If I ever disappear for long stretches at a time from Steepster, you know where I am.

Spoils you for other tea. I think I’d kill for this tea, but I haven’t been put to the test yet.

Not as robust as Murchie’s English Breakfast tea, but better than most American brands. Keep an eye out for the expiration date. Needs only a little milk or cream. Because Muchie’s now only has one official shop, some grocery and beverage suppliers seem to be clearing their warehouses.

Incredibly boring tea… flavourless and bland.

Pretty mild but flavourful, I like this as an iced tea.