Savoy Tea Co

This one is earning a place in my heart for “favorite flavored green comfort tea” (as opposed to “favorite unflavored green comfort tea” and “favorite comfort tea ever” and… Now that you think of it, I don’t believe I want a tea that I can’t consider a comfort tea.)

The green tea basket in my kitchen gets the least traffic—-so it’s always a happy surprise to paw through it and discover something I forgot was there.

I’ve written about this one several times; if you had to roll those tasting notes into one, it would boil down to this: the sweetest, most dessert-y green tea I think I’ve ever tasted. Syrupy and fruity and pleasant on what’s turning out to be a chilly June afternoon.

White cake with key lime frosting only makes this betterer. (Not a typo. It’s worthy of the extra er.) Sweet, authentic-tasting fruit flavor against the green tea. Sooooo good.

Ahhh! Now this is plausible cherry flavor, still a little sweet and syrupy, but the dried pineapple balances it nicely. And whaddya know? Son who calls tea “water with aftertaste” actually had a cup with me. That alone makes it worthwhile.

(I think I’m turning into the mommy from “Love You Forever” when the son grows up.)

Happy surprise: liked the sample so much I got a 4 ounce pouch when we were in NW Ark. at Christmas—room for great big blobs of dried pineapple and (I think) the cherries that weren’t in the teeny packet.

Gooooood stuff.

Mini-Christmas with sister and elderly folks today, and I served this in tiny little handle-less cups (Mom eats and drinks like a bird). Got a very polite “Well, that’s interesting” from Mom; but my sister loved it. I sent the rest home with her and…well, shoot…I’ll just have to get more.

My current favorite flavored green. A pleasant Christmas-compatible candied fruit sweetness to it. I don’t know that Savoy blends its own tea, but I’m not sure where they get stuff for private labeling. Not a mystery I have to work too hard to unravel now that the shop has its own website (http://www.savoytea.com/) and I’m planning a run in a few days.

Some shaved coconut added a little body, if not strong coconut flavor, to a second steep. Still mighty tasty.

I’m really digging this little blend. Was just the right topper-offer for take-out lo mein tonight. Not changing previous descriptors a bit…lovely candied-fruit sweetness that reminds me of good Christmas fruitcake.

Hubby took a sniff and wondered what it would be like with a little shaved coconut thrown in. Still enough left to give that a try soon.

This was another “it just smelled good” treat from my husband’s unscheduled trip through the Savoy shop. And does it ever! Very sweet and tropical—I can see why it reeled him in.

Enjoying my first cup right now, and I think it’s one of the sweetest flavored green teas I’ve ever tried. Reminds me a lot of candied fruitcake fruit, which I love and eat straight out of the tub. Leans significantly to the cherry side.

I’m thinking a little additional sugar and this would be a really nice dessert alternative or a nice pairing with my mom’s apple cake. (Hey, Mom…would you feel up to baking…?)

Low temp and short steep (175, less than 3 minutes).

Of course I needed this tonight. Hopefully it’ll keep me out of the minature Hershey bars intended for our miniature and eerie visitors. This tisane tastes spookily like Apple Jacks. Wish they made a black tea version.

Not much of a second steeper. Still smells great, but after 10-12 minutes the first time around, we’ve squoze about all the juice we can get out of those Granny Smiths.

Savoy Tea Company is a cozy little shop on the Promenade in Rogers, Arkansas. Bulk and custom-packaged teas, cupcakes, tea goodies and accessories, just a storehouse of things near and dear to our hearts.

As I was browsing, husband was a couple of paces behind me, he checked out the “sniffer” jar of this one, and when my back was turned, I discovered a sample pack in the shopping basket :)

This smells so good, sweet apples and toffee, it took a good deal of willpower not to chew it and swallow it whole. It took even more to wait the full…10…minutes recommended for a full-strength steep.

The steeped stuff is the color of a clementine orange rind. The texture is light, but the flavor is (paused to think about it, but my sweetie pegged it for me) Apple Jacks! (I knew I’ve kept him around for 27 years…today…for a reason!)

I’m thinking that with a little half-and-half I would have me a lovely little cup of cereal milk. And decaf at that.

Just getting home from a wonderful day with my awesome aunt, I thought I’d give the tea she had bought me for Christmas a try. At first I wasn’t sure, because mostly I drink herbal teas. But the aroma made my mouth water. i let it steep for the least amount of time it said, and it tastes just like fruit plate, I guess would be the right way to say the taste. I took a little taste when it was done without sugar, and it tasted fine, but I found a small, very small amount of sugar makes all the flavor come out perfectly. Thank you very much Aunt Mswhatsit!!! :D

About a week ago, I went to Savoy Tea Company to renew my supply of their Paris Morning and pick out some new teas. The nice lady behind the counter asked if I was looking for anything in particular and I said I was interested in seasonal blends for autumn and the holidays. She pulled out a tin of this tea. One whiff and I had to have it.
In the package it smells deliciously minty with hints of butter and vanilla. Brewed up hot, it smells like some kind of fabulous.
At this point, I’d like to state that I am something of an uncultured barbarian where black tea is concerned. I’ve sampled lots of bitter, rancid, seriously nasty, and probably inferior examples of it. Most of the blends on my shelf are either simple herbals or blends of green tea and other stuff. It’s only in the past few years that my husband, a native Ozark hillbilly, brought me around to an appreciation of the syrup-y goodness of southern sweet tea. There followed a gradual appreciation for some of the better black teas in small and very occasional doses, but none of the obsession shown by any of the true connoisseurs on this site. Indeed, I’ve found myself scratching my head and puzzling over a few of their reviews. “What’s with all the nuance and esoterica? It’s just black tea!”
This was not JUST black tea. Despite the label making no claims of anything exotic, I’m pretty darn sure the base black tea used is quite a few levels above any black tea I’ve ever tasted. The scent coming from my cup was less minty than the dry mix, and it was complex and wonderful, as was the taste.
Yeah, I know, there was also mint in there and “natural candy cane flavor” you know, from the sugar plum forest where candy canes grow on trees. I drink a lot of mint blends and this was a very nice one, it’s minty-ness pleasant but not distracting. This is, in my opinion, a very well put together blend, and the whole combination works harmoniously.
But wow, that black tea! Complex, smooth, even having (I can’t believe I’m saying this) a little of that malty-ness I keep hearing people make reference to. Yet it’s so well fitted to the blend I wouldn’t have noticed all this except that usually I don’t find black tea remarkable at all.
All you black tea enthusiasts can now have a hearty laugh at my expense. I’ve just been assimilated.
Anyway, I had this blend without cream or sugar and found it interesting enough to stand alone. Just for yuks and grins I added a bit of sugar towards the end and found it makes a fabulously complex sweet tea as well. No cream for me though…the idea seems strangely sacrilegious to me, though I couldn’t say why.
The blend was lovely hot and I am looking forward to trying it cold brewed sometime to see how it fares by that method.

When I was shopping for Autumn teas, the scent of this one grabbed my attention. You know the aroma that wafts towards you from a candied almond stand? Yeah, just like that, with a hint of apples as well. I didn’t so much want to brew the stuff as eat it, but I curbed my enthusiasm and put the package in my tea cupboard.

Lately, I’ve been cold brewing my teas but this one called for a nice hot steep instead. Disregarding the directions (which I later learned call for 10-12 minute steep…who knew?) I gave it the customary three minutes and sampled it. It seemed weak, so I added some coconut milk (I don’t use dairy much) and a bit of sweetener, then on a whim, put the little tea cage spoon thingy (Ok, so I’m a greenhorn at this) back in to steep some more, and sat down to watch Dr Who until the tea cooled a bit. The flavors intensified and between the extra steeping, the richness of the coconut milk, and the sweetener, it became a lovely warm cup of autumn comfort. I’m going to have to get some more of this as the nights get colder. Yum.

My disappointment at seeing the bottom of the cup was modified a bit when I noticed all those re-hydrated apples among the source material, gave them an experimental nibble, and realized there really wasn’t anything in this tea that wasn’t safe to eat. So I did follow through with my original impulse to munch on some of the tea. And it wasn’t bad, though munching on leftover steepings may not be everybody’s cup…well, you know…
In conclusion, I rather liked this tea, but don’t disregard the directions-It needs a good long steeping to bring out the flavors. And a little added sweetening and richness don’t hurt either.