Taylors of Harrogate

This… This was the best black tea, bagged or otherwise, that I’ve ever had. Oh my lanta. Drank it with a splash of skim. It tasted… it tasted like brownies. I don’t know how else to describe it. Chocolatey and earthy and rich and creamy and comforting.

It. Was. So. Good.
I need to buy some ASAP.

This is possibly my favourite fruit blend. I usually really dislike fruit blends but the rose makes this drink excellent. Refreshing and comforting, great all year round. Always have a box of this with me

Bought this on Amazon the other day for those times when I can’t have caffeine. This is one strong tea. It’s not exactly bitter but I am not sure how to describe it. I won’t actually be having this with breakfast because in the morning I still drink caffeinated tea. But I could see drinking this with breakfast if I totally abstained from caffeine. It is not great mind you but not that bad either.

Brewed two tea bags in 16oz of boiling water for 3 min.

A proper brew indeed. My go-to black tea.

FYI…This tasting note refers to the loose leaf version of this tea.

This is the third and last of the Taylors teas that I picked up last weekend. I hope it will be the best. So far, I haven’t been thrilled by their offerings. The first two I reviewed here weren’t very exciting. Oh well, I’m putting on my open-minded pants now.

Let’s cut right to the chase. This tea was packaged like the two Taylors teas I already tried: metal container, inner foil wrapper. The unbrewed tea leaves were short and dark brown. However, they didn’t have the through-the-grinder appearance of the others. This might be attributed to the fact that this is black China tea versus orange pekoe.

I’ve imbibed a lot of black Earl Grey teas lately so the smell of bergamot is acutely registered in my nostrils. The unbrewed leaves of this blend, though, had a bergamot-like aroma that my nose hadn’t encountered before. The smell was definitely bergamot but it had additional flowery attributes. At first, I wondered if there were chemical or other additives, but the container label clearly stated that, other than black China tea, the only other ingredient was NATURAL oil of bergamot.

As usual, I followed the company’s brewing instructions for the initial trial. I set the Breville tea maker on 212 degrees for five minutes. The brewed blend was dark amber in color. The aroma was faintly syrupy.

The taste of this tea was fruity and sweet. I don’t know if I could pick this flavor out of a lineup as bergamot, but I did like it. It was mellow, smooth, and slightly honeyed. What’s not to like?

There was no astringency (unlike the other two Taylors teas) and the entire cup (minus the vessel) went down very smoothly and easily. The aftertaste was affable with only a brief hang time.

My hopes were realized this morning. This is definitely my favorite of the three Taylors teas. I will drink all of the contents of the other two Taylors containers, but I will be smiling while I finish this one.

Here’s another Taylors tea that I picked up this weekend at the World Market store. To be honest, I purchased them because all of the Taylors selections were only $9.99 each for 4.4 ounces of tea. I can’t resist a good tea sale.

I tried out the Taylors Tea Room blend yesterday and I’m starting to see a pattern. The leaves are very finely ground. The packaging says the leaves are hand rolled in the traditional British way. I wonder if they are hand rolled and machine ground.

As I was saying, this tea had many of the same unbrewed characteristics as yesterday’s blend: metal container, short brown ground-up-looking leaves, and rich tea aroma.

I brewed the leaves at 212 degrees for five minutes. Taylors’ brewing instructions also seem to be standard for their teas.

The steeped color was a dark amber. The odor was faint with tea attributes only.

The flavor contained (again, like their Tea Room variety) only semi-robust tea characteristics. There was nothing more or less. This blend is said to contain two types of orange pekoe so maybe I shouldn’t have expected anything more exciting. I would have been willing to lower my expectations if this blend hadn’t also contained a bite of astringency.

So, to sum up my Taylors English Breakfast Leaf Tea experience:

o Ho-hum tea taste
o More than a hint of astringency
o Not horrible but booooriiiiing

I saw a few Taylors tea selections this weekend at a very reasonable price at our World Market store. I had heard of Taylors but hadn’t sampled their wares.

When I removed the lid on the metal container of this one and snipped open the inner foil packaging, I was surprised by how ground up the tea leaves appeared. They were brown and extremely fine, almost like powder. I would expect this characteristic if I cut open a tea bag. The aroma was potent and rich, more like Chinese tea than an Indian and African blend.

As always, I followed the manufacturer’s brewing instructions on the initial launch. In this case, that meant 212 degrees for five minutes.

The brewed liquid color was dark, almost like black coffee, except for the golden highlights. The smell was nondescript.

The flavor was plain and simply, like tea. No undertones or harmonious or complementary taste attributes materialized. It just tasted like tea. If you were to ask me what kind of tea flavor appeared, I would say Darjeeling was the dominant flavor. The Rooibos was not shouting to me. At best, the blended African tea flavor was only knocking on the door.

The overall flavor power was good but it was offset by a twinge of astringency. This slight bitterness remained on my tongue and kept slapping around my taste buds.

I am not wild about this blend but I will probably drink all of it. I don’t hate it but I don’t love it either. I will most likely mix it with other livelier black teas. It’s just a little dull and featureless on its own.

Aroma: The smell is amazing, filling the room sweet rhubarb and vanilla notes.

Flavour: An amazing fruity iced tea, but also creates a gorgeous tea when brewed hot too! The flavour is obviously fruity, but there’s also a wild mix of sweet vanilla, sour rhubarb and a light musty hint of hibiscus. Its melodic and captivating. However, it it’s disapointing that the rhubarb taste comes from flavourings.

For more visit www.TastetheTea.co.uk

What was I thinking expecting loose leaf tea from a tea bag company? Having said that, I think if I can find a fine sieve, this tea will be similar to the bagged version. The price was right at 7.50 for 250g! The size of particle is similar to Twinings English Breakfast. It also tastes better. Little dark right now, so will work on tweaking the brew. By the way, a good tip is that fine teas are much heavier, so use 1/2 as much otherwise you will end up with bitter tea.

I bought this, since I was missing an afternoon tea shop I visited in Denver. There I had brisk, lush Scottish Breakfast. I thought this tea would fulfill some of that feeling.

Maybe it’s going from loose leaf to bagged, but this tea was just blah to me. Just astringent and one note. I only had one cup, and decided to use the rest of the tea to make for kombucha.

For a bagged tea, it’ll do. I think I would prefer other “grocery store” British blends to this.

This one is so good. It really does taste like blackberry juice, not straight-up hibiscus like so many fruity tisanes, and while I could do with the elderflower being a little stronger I can occasionally catch a hint of that floral goodness on the end of the sip. I love this iced, and I’m going to be sad when I use up my box. If only it were available in the US—I know it’s on Amazon, but I don’t shop there and even if I did it appears to be going for something crazy like $20/box. Please please please add this blend to your US distribution list, Taylors of Harrogate!

I picked this one up at Walmart for $6 Cdn. The box contained 40 bags, and they are the old fashioned style of teabags that we had growing up, not individually wrapped.

As it was hot outside, I decided to do a glass of iced tea, after walking to buy the tea bags.

I used 2 tea bags and 250 mL of boiling water. That’s about 6 grams of tea. Then I filled up a big bowl with ice and poured the tea in. That was enough to make one extra large cup. I squeezed in part of a lime as well. I also added sugar.

The first thing I noticed right away was the colour. Immediately after pouring in the water you see the most beautiful gold tea colour.

The flavour was light and drinkeable. I didn’t find it strong like Liptons.

The review for the hot version will follow. Special thanks to Stockman for suggesting this tea.

For the hot version, I decided to go with two tea bags and 250 mL of water and then added some cold water after. The tea had a good flavour.

I also tried ot hot with lots of milk and sugar. I found it a bit week, even using two tea bags. The asssam in my cupboard was tastier. I will continue to try thus tea as I have lots left.

The last of my Taylors of Harrogate samples. This is probably the one I enjoyed most out of the three I tried. It has a pleasant buttermint vibe going on, and it also reminds me of spearmint softmints which are just…the best. The sencha base is smooth and unobtrusive, allowing the mint and vanilla flavours to shine.

As green teas go, this one’s pretty perfect in my book. No bitterness or astringency, flavourful, lives up to its name. It’s a teabag, which I don’t usually go for, but it’s convenient and since I’m really busy at work at the moment, that suits me!

I’d drink this one again. I’d actually really like to try it cold brewed.

My second sample from Taylors of Harrogate. One thing I will say about these is that they smell amazing while they’re brewing. This one is pretty much spot on rhubarb and custard, and it’s a real shame that they don’t taste as good at they smell!

This one is also a fruit tea, and has the same hibiscus/rosehip base as Sour Cherry. It’s that tell-tale red colour pretty much straightaway. The initial sip is very tart and a touch sour (thank you, hibi!), but there’s a distinctive creamy rhubarb flavour in the midsip that’s really almost dessert-like and quite delicious. It lingers well into the aftertaste, too. Rhubarb seems like a pretty rare flavour in tea, at least in the UK, so this is one I’d happily drink again if given the opportunity.

My samples came with a card that lists the rest of the range, and the Rose Lemonade immediately captured my attention. There’s also a green tea with grapefruit and lime that I’d quite like to try. I’ve got one more sample to try – green tea and sweet mint, and I’m looking forward to that one because spearmint is one of my favourite things! I like that Taylors are trying to do a few unusual combinations as well as the stuff you’d expect, but what I’d really like is a fruit blend that doesn’t use hibiscus as a base. It’s a lifelong dream, I know.

This came as a free sample from Taylors of Harrogate. It’s a fruit tea, in a bag, and its predictably heavy on the hibiscus. It takes on that tell-tale bright red hue pretty much straight away, and it’s mostly all I can taste, at least initially. There is some cherry in the mid-sip, but it’s more fleeting than I would have hoped. It reminds me a bit of cherry throat sweets – soothers, or tunes, or something along those lines. It’s a little bit sour, but I think that’s mostly the hibiscus and rosehip. I get flashes of liquorice and aniseed, which are a little odd, but they do add a sweetness that helps to pull the tart, sour hibiscus back a bit and make this a palatable cup. Really, though, it’s not particularly well balanced, and there are definitely much better fruit teas out there. I’m glad I had the opportunity to try this one, but it wouldn’t be one I’d go out and buy in quantity.

I’m not well versed in actual British teas, so this one was a shot in the dark when I was at World Market. I’ll have this one when I feel like having something strong, with milk and sugar. As close as I’ll ever get to a “cuppa.”

Herbal infusions are by far in the minority in my tea cupboard, probably because during my childhood my mother used to prepare me all sorts of herbal teas she put together with herbs she had previously picked and dried, and I have already had enough for an entire lifetime ;-) But ginger is very useful when you´re suffering from a sore throat, so I decided to give this infusion a try. Very often, whenever ginger is added to a dish or a drink, it overwhelms it completely; therefore, I prefer to be careful using it. The tea makers of Taylors of Harrogate seem to have had the same care, as the ginger is balanced very well by the lemongrass. As far as I am concerned, the resulting herbal tea is rich, tasty and perfectly alright to please people who not normally drink herbal teas. it managed to convince me!

Bought a great little sample box of 10 teabags at Gene’s Sausages (important, since this is an excellent deli, and I don’t want to forget where I found this). Made 5 bags in one coffee carafe full of water. Can’t have too much caffeine, so did not brew as long or strong as I might have, especially having read other reviews of it being strong . Even kind of weakly brewed, this has an assertive presence, which I like in my black teas. Sometime when I haven’t been plagued by muscle cramps, I’ll have a cup made more strongly, since taste-wise I do prefer that, and can tell this will suit very nicely.

Picked this tea up at my local Whole Foods store. It was at least as expensive as tea bought online. It is somewhat malty and has another flavor that I don’t know how to describe. The cashier at Whole Foods said I could return it if I didn’t like it. It’s not exactly bad it’s just got a flavor I’m not sure I like. This was the only brand of loose leaf tea the store carried so I just had to try one. Their coffee was much more reasonably priced.

I steeped this tea one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 minutes.

I’ve been drinking this a lot lately, in order to sipdown older teas. I purchased this about two years ago at the Discount Outlet near the house. The D.O. carries overstock from Amazon and various stores around Northeastern Ohio. They often have tea priced down a lot, but it’s rare to find tea there because of people like me, who buy the stock out, and give it away to friends and family. I’m looking at the tin and I bought this at $1.99 for 125g.

Anyway, the tea is pretty basic, but it’s a good tea to have when you’re on the go, storing it in bags, or need a quick fix. It’s a tea that I put cream or sugar and/or both in, depending on the day/my mood. I’d like to drink this more often, and may make the habit of doing so in the mornings. That, or see if my father will take it for himself.

This is a nice tea for today, since it is snowing and cold outside (who has ever heard of April snow showers brings May flowers?). I’m not planning on heading to bed early tonight, nor getting up early tomorrow, so I’d figure that it’s okay to drink the “hard” stuff. Ha-ha. Then again, I’m still coming down from the drunkenness which the ’07 W2T Basic Raw Pu-erh sample that LP had given me (a review on that later).

Being new to the world of tea reviewing, I decided to start off with this one. Why? I felt like drinking some today and figured this one was as good as any with which to start. It’s not bad. In fact, I rather like it. That being said, I can also understand why teas of this type are something of a niche product here in the U.S. where the style is somewhat rarer than the more approachable English and Irish breakfast teas.

For my first glass, I decided to avoid additions of cream, milk, or sugar and steeped the tea for approximately 5 minutes. On its own, the tea presents a rather odd aroma. I perceived scents of caramel, molasses, moss, and wood. In the mouth, the tea is heavy and almost chewy with powerful notes of wood, nuts, caramel malt, molasses, moss, and toast. The aftertaste is similarly powerful, but unlike the body which presents a mixture of earthiness and sweetness, the aftertaste is biting and astringent.

Knowing that this style is not meant to be consumed without an addition of milk or cream, I decided to prepare another glass at the same temperature with the same steep time, but of course with a small amount of milk added. I tend to prefer my tea without additives, but the milk did seem to tame some of the rough edges here. The caramel and molasses sweetness was enhanced on the nose, and in the mouth, the flavors became smoother, more rounded, and more nuanced with less of an astringent finish.

As mentioned above, I rather like this, but I tend to have something of a sentimental attachment to Old World brands. This definitely is not a tea that is truly approachable on its own. It has a heaviness, earthiness, and astringency that is definitely going to put off fans of milder and/or more balanced blends. Still, I think I could get used to having this with or in place of breakfast most mornings.

Very strong taste

I drink this tea every morning and absolutely love it. I’m quite picky when it comes to black teas and really enjoy the blend of flavours in this tea. I wish it was available in larger boxes here in Canada, but I got a 240 bag box whilst in England this past summer and have already finished half of it by myself in less than five months. The perfect tea for a proper brew!