The London Tea Room

Sipdown! And still pretty tasty. I had low expectations given that it’s probably over 7 years old and has been in a baggie for the last 6 or so, but it was actually quite pleasant. Delicious black currant flavour on a solid base.

Yum. Drank some of this a looooooong while ago. It was good, but I don’t find a great deal of difference between most black currant/cream blacks. Still have some left, so I’ll write in more detail when I drink it again (although I assume I have another note on this somewhere)…

To celebrate having gone to bed at a decent hour AND having woken up on time (in spite of the fact that I’ve done nothing productive since then), I decided to have a nice cup of black tea! And what better to have than a surprise sample given to me by Azzrian: the Naughty Vicar!

The dry tea smells a bit fruity and rich. Mmmm.

Steeped, it smells exactly like some sort of familiar candy! Perhaps sour berry gummy candies? The $0.05 ones? I can’t quite place it, but it is SO familiar. And yay, it tastes true to the aroma! Not sweet, but it tastes like those candies, backed by a light black base (it might have been stronger had I steeped it longer than 3 minutes, but I’m SO wary of oversteeping right now).

This is pretty good! Not a tea I’d rush to go out and buy myself, but I doubt I’ll have any difficulty finishing it. Thanks Azzrian!

I got this as a lovely surprise from Azzrian – thanks so much! It even gave the package it came in a lovely, fruity aroma.

I brewed this for 3 mins on the nose as I have a tendency to over-steep black teas. This is highly fragrant when brewed and yields light, juicy blackberry notes. I can sit by this and enjoy the aroma drifting over from the cup.

With the first sips, the taste is more floral and less juicy than other flavoured teas I’ve tried, and the black tea seems smoother and (as another reviewer pointed out below), tastes of good quality. I think this would be something I’d have as a breakfast blend on days as a change from Cream of Earl Grey. As I get further down the cup, it’s growing on me more and more. The slight sweetness reminds me of chewy sweets I used to have in the UK as a kid (in a good way).

This may be a fine tea but I am not fond of Lemongrass and this tea has a very strong lemongrass flavor to it. One of my least favorite teas thus far.

One of my favorites thus far. Perfect amount of mint and a perfect balance of berry. I love a good mint tea – this mint is not overpowering but present for sure. The berry comes through first then the mint follows perfectly on the aftertaste.

Sipdown. It was lovely. Stayed fresh considering it is one of the first loose leaf teas I ever purchased. London Tea Room seems to have a ton of new teas. I think I will hit them next month for an order.
This … was delicious!

Every time I have this tea I think “this is a dependable tea” and it is. I have to raise the rating now for that. I have been tempted to many times and have stated in the past that I just could not taste the oolong in the tea but I think I am getting more experienced and appreciative of quality tea. I have said before that this tea would only taste like water without the coconut but now I feel differently. I can admit I was wrong. It is still not a punch in the face tea but you know I have had some that are and the punch was not that wonderful. This tea is one I find that I go to for real comfort. Sometimes that is necessary. Like an old pair of shoes that you know will be comfy all day shopping in or your best friends shoulder. Nothing wrong with that! Its simple, basic, and soothing with great flavor BOTH in the coconut AND the oolong!

I was tempted to raise my rating because this is such a dependable standby. Creamy mouthfeel, no astringency, excellent aftertaste, and the smell is wonderful, reminds me of that tanning oil I used as a kid before I knew how bad that stuff was for me.
The only real issue I have with this tea is that the green tea flavor itself is understated and no matter how natural and wonderful the coconut flavor is – without that flavor, the creaminess, it would be like drinking water.
With that aside I do enjoy this cup when craving something creamy and coconutty.
Edited to add: Oh and I decided NOT to raise the rating due to this!

Lovely Coconut taste but wish it were a tad stronger tea. Still working with trying to get the perfect brew out of it. Have followed brewing instructions – next time will add more tea and see if I get more flavor.

The first time I logged this was 11 months ago when I first got started on Steepster. I have tried hundreds of teas since then but this one still holds up to being a really excellent tea.
Fruity, a creamy mouthfeel, good with or without sugar and creamer, even just a tiny tiny bit smokey.
A rich full cup.
I still love you Monks Blend and that is more than I can say for many of my “first teas”.

My morning cup.

Time for a trusted favorite.
I have had a MEH tea morning. First I tried re-steeping a tea from yesterday but alas it was done. Too bad as it was only a sample that I had and it was OHHH SO GOOD!
Then I tried a chocolate mint tea that was just BLECH! Dumped that.
Then ran daughter to work and took an iced tea with me but it was too early for iced for me and my tummy was upset and needed warm so I came home and decided to go for something I knew would be satisfying.
Getting used to a new schedule (day time schedule) is difficult. I don’t know if I am just lacking sleep and run down or coming down with something. Tummy has been upset for a few days.
Monk’s blend is a good standby. Its not my all time favorite black by any means but it is trustworthy.
I added a little sugar this morning to curb the smokiness though – tummy still was not totally happy with that.

This is one of my favorite teas from The London Tea Room … bear in mind that the only loose leaf I have other than ONE is from The London Tea Room. Also the first place I have ever really tried loose leaf tea from. Regardless of all the teas I bought from them – this is one of my favorites. Tonight for the first time I have tired it with a little milk. I have had it straight, I have had it with honey, and with sugar in the raw. Tonight I added sugar in the raw and milk. VERY YUM! It seems fruity and a little smoky with the milk and of course creamy. Now I have not added milk to many teas, if any that I recall so maybe this is normal but it makes it very much like a dessert tea. Now I just want to brew a pot and have it without the milk and do a closer comparison!

Wow I can’t believe I have no tasting note on this one!
I had to go back to my roots of loose leaf today.
This is one of the fist loose leaf teas I ever had in my stash before I had a stash even!
I got this while in St. Louis for my daughter’s neuro surgery appt. (one of many) – we were lucky enough to be able to go to The London Tea Room! We all loved every moment of our time there – wonderful place!
This tea reminds me of the struggles we all went though and the good times as well.
We love St. Louis so many positive changes happened there for my Emma and our family!
Happy dance.
This tea is smokey and fruity.
It has a little bit of a Lapsang Souchong flavor to it but only slightly and please don’t be discouraged if you don’t like LS – London Tea Room does not even mention if the black base is an LS but I just sort of get that smokey thing from it – but only a touch. It is more sweet and vanilla.
Great berry flavor.
I do have to say I have never tasted anything else like it!
If you want something new and different in a black tea this is the one to order!

This tea just makes me happy. Reminds me of the Renaissance – woodsy smoky flavors with a light berry undertone which is perfect. Add a little sugar in the raw or not – its great both ways. Wonderful LS base. The berry notes are not over the top.

I drank this one a few days ago, but with work pressing in on all sides and stifling my tea drinking efforts, I haven’t had the chance to really log it until today.

So, first off, big shout out to Auggy for sharing this with me! She brought this back from a trip to the London Tea Room, so I was pretty excited to try it.

First things first – I’ve never had a Kenyan tea, but Auggy described this to me as a blend/cross between Yunnan, Darjeeling, and Assam.

The leaves here aren’t the largest, and the smell coming off of them is interestingly fruity. In a Darjeeling sort of way, but mixed with a darker tea smell. That black tea smell. Malty and earthy and full.

I steeped this one up, and boy is the cup a dark red and quite a bit murky too! The taste is… interesting. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, days later. At peak hotness, this one really tastes like an Assam. Malty and strong and bracing. Very eye-opening stuff. There’s a tiny pipsqueak peep of Darjeeling that grows and grows as this tea cools.

By mildly hot, this one tastes like a weird mix of Yunnan and Darjeeling, with the Assam only slightly echoing in the background. The Yunnan provides this sort of earth tone, while the Darjeeling brightens things up with a fruity, grape/currant type taste.

There’s so many weird things going on here, that I’m sort of flabbergasted as to how to rate this one. It almost reminds me of SerendipiTea’s Autumnal Darjeeling in the super-crazy-magic flavor changing.

I feel like such a bore right now, but I’m so tired from work lately that I’m not really focusing and the synapses aren’t quite firing the way that they used to. Also, with the shrinking amount of sleep I’ve been getting, I’m finding that tea is more likely to upset my stomach, and I haven’t been feeling well in general.

Le sigh.

This smells nice. Sweet and warm and cuddly. A bit like cinnamon toast without the cinnamon. So basically buttered, sugared bread. Mmm. I actually think the vanilla is corresponding to the butter and sugar thing. There’s another, almost blackberry preserves note in there. Very faint. I’m guessing it is the currant? I have no idea what a currant really is or tastes like (other than it is a fruit) so I’m not sure if that is how currant is supposed to smell, but that’s what I’m going with.

Taste-wise, it’s not as sweet as the smell. I’m picking up more of the blackberry-which-is-probably-actually-currant taste, especially at the end – it is the main aftertaste, very fruity – and not so much on the vanilla. It’s nice and I think a pretty easy to like tea, but I want something more dessert like. So for the remaining 8-ish ounces, I’m putting in a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of milk.

Hello berries! It’s very fruity now. Almost a mix of grape and blackberry jelly – not preserves but the sweeter jelly (might want to back off on the sugar next time just a bit). The front taste is very grape jelly and then a more blackberry taste comes in on the end. Yep, this would qualify as a dessert tea now.

Okay, this is not a complex cup. Sure, there is tea in there but it’s a backdrop for the fruity taste, especially once doctored. Straight it is darker, richer… more of an average-ish morning feeling blend with a fruity addition. It seems like a better quality tea base than a lot of flavored blends (I’m thinking Adagio here, which I don’t really enjoy their flavored stuff without milk and sugar) and very sippable with no additions, but it’s nothing more than on the good side of standard. The milk and sugar makes it very dessert-y though. The tea moves fully to the background and dark berries just do a little chorus line dance in the front of it, sequins flashing. Yeah, not a fancy or nuanced cup. But nice flavors and so I’m liking it.

On Monday, I made a cup of this but I came down with a headache and a fever and I felt like I wanted to vomit, so instead of activating plan A [studying and drinking tea], I activated plan B [sleep until my next class]. Consequently, this cup went cold.

Today, I decided it deserved a take two, so I made a cup of it.

It says “blend,” so I can only assume that there are multiple types of tea in this. I tasted what I thought might be some Ceylon, and than I got some nearing intense bitterness that made me think Darjeeling. The bitterness wasn’t as strong as a previous encounter with the Autumnal Darjeeling Auggy sent me, but it was familiar enough that it made me “hurm.”

I became even more suspicious when that bitterness began to sweeten in the aftertaste, and then as it cooled a bit more became even more indicative of that muscat taste.

Upon reading the description of this tea, I’m somewhat confused because I didn’t get any Keemun out of it. I didn’t really spend a lot of time smelling the leaves or the tea. I don’t know why, as I seem to be very much all about that lately. Anyway, I’ve got enough left of this to play around a bit, so I’ll be doing that.

Sorry this log is lacking in complete thoughts and cohesiveness. All I wrote down from my drink earlier today was:

DARJEELING.
ceylon?

And combined with the fact that Craig Ferguson is talking at the screen with an alligator puppet in a Cajun-Scottish accent, it’s making this difficult.

Okay, I’m done.

My last of this tea and I’m impatient for the water to cool so I’m using the opportunity to try this at a higher temperature. It seemed like a good tea for after the flavorful pasta that was lunch. The higher temperature brings out more of the lapsang souchong and makes the berry slide a bit into the background to where it is a strong note of sweetness instead of an overly berry note. I think I prefer it at this temperature, actually. Really quite nice. Still not quite where I need to make a purchase specifically for this tea, but if I’d toss it in my cart if there were other things I’d be getting.
2.5g/6oz

I’m down to one more cup of leaves after this one. I kind of wish I had more even though I would prefer a different berry flavor. But at the same time, I don’t think I actually want to buy any more. I need a company to offer something like this but maybe with strawberry or another berry and to also have lots of other teas I love so that I can throw this one in an order. Because it is worth being added to an order, but not quite worth making an order. If that makes sense.

Anyway, could have brewed it a little longer but I didn’t and it is still nice. Very fruity but with a nice smoky note in the background. I like this one because it is a smoky tea, but it is sweet and soft at the same time. Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I brewed Samovar’s Russian Breakfast blend the way I brew this one… That could be interesting.
2.6g/6oz

I’m still sick. The thing that’s really killing me is my cough makes my chest burn. It’s not fun. I’m not exactly sure why I thought this tea would be a good idea, but I did. Perhaps it’s the chest burn that translates to drinking a tea that makes me think of Crunch Berries on fire. In a good way.

Also on the plus side, even with my head stuffy and gross, I can still smell this tea. Yay for smell! I have to wonder though, if it tasted this mild the first time I had this. I’m going to say no and that my taste buds are messed up a bit. But I can taste smoky and a little berry so that’s good.

I’m pretty tempted to bump up my rating of this since I’ve been having little cravings for it. But I’m going to wait until my taste buds and sense of smell are back up to par.

No vendor directions on brewing, but since this has green in it, I went with that. The leaf smells berry-ier than I anticipated. Berries over a campfire maybe? Which would probably smell a bit more like burning so maybe just eating berries next to a campfire. Sometimes the berry seems to dominate, sometimes the campfire. But even when the campfire dominates, it’s a sweet campfire because of the berry under-note. I can’t really pick out the vanilla but that’s probably because it is blending with the berry, giving it kind of a creamy berry smell instead of a tart berry smell.

Once brewed though, the tea seems to decide to let the lapsang souchong smell have center stage, but the berry scent is still a big supporting character. Though it does seem to also show of the… fake-ness of the berry. It also smells a little cough syrup-y. Almost. I think the vanilla creamy saves it from that.

Sipping is… odd. The flavor seems to rapidly seesaw between sweet smoky and sweet berry (thankfully no cough syrup memories are being evoked – in fact it tastes more natural than the tea smells). The flavors seem to work nicely together though. It’s weird but it works. There is distinct berry and distinct smoke but both are sweet and that sweetness ties them together.

The aftertaste in particular reminds me of something I can’t peg but that something makes me think that this would be a good iced tea. So perhaps it reminds me of some flavored bottled tea I’ve had? But without the artificial sweetners added because this yea is pretty sweet by itself. It actually tastes likes I’ve put a bit of sugar in it already.

Now here’s the one thing that keeps me from loving this tea. I’m just not a huge berry-flavoring fan. I love strawberries and blackberries, but after that I’m kind of eh. And this is more of a raspberry taste. However, the husband loves raspberries so I had him try some of this. He was able to pick out the berry and the lapsang souchong almost instantly. After a few more sips he said that he could see himself enjoying a big ole hot mug of this though he had a slight concern that the smoky would build and he doesn’t really like lapsang souchong (from my cup I didn’t notice any build up so I don’t think that would be a problem).

Anyway, he gave it a 4/5 stars to my 3/5 stars. But my rating drops that one star just because of the type of berry. As far as the slider rating goes, this one is tough. I like how the flavors work together and I really do think the balance is quite nice so it rates rather high on that. But personally, I’m not in love with the tea because of the type of berry and that’s all on me. But this is my rating scale so I’m going to rate it on the subjective, personal side of things instead of the objective side of things. Because that’s how I roll.

My thoughts on this feel similar to Auggy’s, so since she sent me this tea I’m going to do a small homage to one of her prior logs. Here we go.

Hmm…Auggy sent this. Intriguing. Have I tried a CTC before?

…
…
…

I don’t think so. Hee, they look like coffee grounds.

Sniff, sniff.

I don’t smell anything.

Sniff, sniff!

…Dirt? Light dirt? What the what, am I congested?

Shrug. Pour.

I’m bored. Are they expanding? They’re not. Wait… Nevermind, nope. Is it done yet? How cold is it outside? 25? Poop. Is it done yet? I want to see Avatar again. I need to make cookies. Oh, laundry.

…
…
…

Finally!

Pull out infuser. Hold up the basket.

Sniff, sniff.

Okay, now I really don’t smell anything.

Hold up the cup.

Sniff, sniff.

…Keemun?

Tilt head. Furrow brow. Blow on liquid.

…

Sip.

OUCH!

Still not cool enough.

Checking the weather… Scanning the newspaper… Tapping my foot… Making a sandwich…mmm…ham.

What the world. Needs now. Is love. Sweet love. It’s the only thiiing. That there’s just. Too little of. Ah damn it, this is going to be stuck in my head all day, isn’t it?

Check the cup.

Better?

Sip.

Mm, okay. It’s kind of…sweet. But also malty. Bake-y? Oh. OH! Bitter. BITTER!!!

Okay. Hrm.

Tentative sip.

Swish, swish.

Okay. Kinda sweet at the front of the tongue. Sort of flat at the sides. Let’s try the back…

BITTER.

Gulp.

BITTER! Breathe. Oooh. That’s kind of sweet. Kind of…darjeeling sweet. Especially if I concentrate on the center of my tongue. I wonder what’ll happen if I move to the back…

BITTER!!!

Well, that was both predictable and stupid.

Is this the reeeeeal liiiiife? Is it just faaaantasssssy?

NO.

…
…
…

What the world. Needs now.

DAMN IT!

Sip.

Lather, rinse, repeat. I think I need to try this again, either with additives or a shorter steep time, or both, or whatever. It was interesting. I wouldn’t necessarily call it enjoyable. Overall, it reminded me of a keemun. A very near over-steeped keemun. I hope you enjoyed the rather censored journey into my brain. Thanks Auggy, I’ll be logging this again, I’m sure.