The London Tea Room

oh god. i don’t know what’s worse…the oolong or the coconut. DEAR GOD NO! :) sooo sample from terri, and even though i was pretty sure that was going to be my reaction, i figured what the heck, i’ll give it a try. Especially after quite enjoying the coconut mango tea from last night.

the rest of this is going to kittenna whether she wants it or not…because i said so. Only enough for a cup but it needs a good home.

So sorry terri…lol at least i tried! not rating this since it really is because of my preferences and NOT because this is a terrible cup of tea.

yay peach flavored things!
idk guys. i was also saving this one. cuz, peach oolong, hello yes please. i love peach. i love oolong. go tea!
but i’m pretty sure it has hibiscus in it. just a little. no biggie. however the rest of the tea is so mild that it really comes out. my brewed cup was pink. and not a brown or greenish tea color at all.
ARG! AGAIN it seems like i’m complaining! all my notes sound complainey to me today. i really don’t mean it. i’ll open with something even more positive, how’s that. okay.
it’s good for summer i’m sure. i mean that’s what summer is for right?! fruity fresh teas!
also maybe sun burns.
thank you for this cheery taste Sil !

sipdown! (201) i had a cup of this yesterday and another earlier this afternoon… tooo much bergamot for me. but i do like the smokiness with this one. :) Thanks terri!

This is my last ‘new’ tea to try from The London Tea Room, right before we go back to St. Louis for a visit in July! This one smells so crispy and refreshing – very pepperminty with a floral note. The brewed tea has more of a perfumey rose aroma with a hint of cool peppermint. The green and white teas stand out more than I had anticipated in the flavor. There is a grassy flavor with a subdued, earthy floral finish. The aftertaste is of cooling peppermint and it lingers in the mouth for a while. While I am enjoying this cup, I don’t think that this one that I will reach for regularly, but maybe for a nice cup every once in awhile. I think it would be a soothing cup before bed, as long as it doesn’t have too much caffeine in it. The flavors intensify nicely as the cup cools. I think I’ll put this one in my tea mug during the summer to have hot tea that is not too heavy. I do like the floralness of it, it’s slightly like drinking a flower garden. :)

-Dry blend has a mixture of medium and large green tea and peppermint leaves with pink rose petals and blue lavender petals.
-Dry leaves smell floral with a note of clean peppermint. Tea liquor aroma is of perfumey rose with a hint of cool peppermint.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium yellow color.
-Grassy flavor with an earthy floral finish. Cooling peppermint aftertaste that lingers.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. Floral flavor with a refreshing hint of peppermint.

I picked this one up last summer from the London Tea Room and it was my first experience with pu-erh and mate. My fiancee and I were hoping for a smooth, chocolatey flavored chai, but it wasn’t quite as we expected. I’m rating it today so I can pass it along to someone who will hopefully appreciate it more. The dry leaves smell very sharply of a spicy cocoa. The description mentions a Ayurvedic long pepper, so I am guessing this is the reason for the spicy aroma. The tea liquor is a rather thick, dark brown color with an oily sheen on top. The flavor is overwhelmingly of pepper. A little of the vanilla comes out when sweetener is added, but it is still followed up by a strong pepper taste. It honestly is like drinking liquid black pepper, bleh. This one is just not for me!

-Dry blend is a mixture of small broken black and green leaves, pieces of bark/wood, twigs and coconut slivers.
-Dry leaves smell like sharp, spicy cocoa. Tea liquor aroma is very earthy and peppery.
-Tea liquor is a thick dark brown color with an oily sheen on top.
-Subtle cocoa flavor with an overwhelmingly strong peppery finish.
-Best with sweetener.
-Poor tea. Sweetener brings out the vanilla notes, but the primary flavor is overwhelmingly of pepper.

This is another one that I’ve had for far too long without rating it. We’re going to St. Louis in July, so I am looking forward to visiting The London Tea Room again for lunch and to purchase some new teas. Overall, I’ve been very impressed with their blends, and my Mom loves their 5th of November tea. My goal before then is to get through the rest of this tea drawer (and box of samples) so that I have room to add some new teas in.

This tea is very pretty, with big twisted green tea leaves. The dry leaves smell strongly of sweet coconut. It’s kind of like a coconut flake or toasted coconut smell, rather than fresh coconut. The tea’s aroma smells more like fresh coconut, which is exactly what the flavor of this tea is. There is a nice creamy coconut aftertaste too. I added a little sweetener and it made the tea so much better in my opinion. It’s a smooth cup with a mouth-filling sweet coconut flavor. I think I prefer Queen Mary’s Coconut Baozhong just slightly over this one.

-Dry blend has large twisted green tea leaves and twigs.
-Dry leaves smell strongly of sweet toasted coconut. Tea liquor aroma is of fresh coconut.
-Tea liquor is a clear pale yellow color.
-Fresh coconut flavor and finish. Creamy coconut aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. Smooth and creamy sweet coconut flavor.

Hello Steepsterites! Remember I did Project Ceylon earlier this year, in which I tried a bunch of different Ceylon teas and tried to work out if there was a pattern to which ones I liked and which ones I liked less? That was fun. Let’s do it again!

I spent some time pondering whether to do Project Africa or Project Assam. Both sounded interesting to me. African teas have interested me for a while, but I’ve never done much about learning the area, and I’ve been in a bit of an Assam-y mood recently. In the end I decided Project Africa sounded more interesting. We are seeing more and more single estate loose leaf out there, and from more and more different countries it seems. Kenya still heavily in the lead, but others are definitely getting out there as well. It’s a shame I didn’t decide to do this yesterday, since I just discovered Jenier Teas yesterday and accidentally AHEM WELL, moving right along! At any rate, they had a LOT of different Kenyan teas and a few from other African countries as well, so samples shouldn’t be too difficult to find.

I already had this one that Sil very generously shared with me. And it was generous because it was actually a sample that had been shared with her by Terri HarpLady, so I had told her to only send me some if there really was enough to share. Lucky for me, there was.

This tea comes from the Kaproret estate, which was highly difficult to find on the map. All I got when searching for Kaproret were two different primary schools that weren’t even that close together, and I couldn’t see anything on the sattelite photo that looked like tea fields. That was a great help during Project Ceylon, because tea fields are pretty easy to recognise from the air. Turns out that they aren’t so easily recognisable in Kenya, because they have a layout which is much in straight lines on square fields, making them look like any other kind of green field. Further Google investigation then revealed that it’s part of the Kericho tea districts, where I found a name tag that just said ‘Tea Gardens’, but no further explanations of which gardens were there and what they were called. So I put the marker there. Seemed to be the right area and as good a place as any. And nowhere near those other two primary schools. While searching I did find a different and name-tagged tea estate, so I put a pin in it, just in case I need to find it again later.

The aroma is quite grainy and malty and it has a sort of Assam feel to it somehow. It’s like it just has a something that tells me Assam. Seriously, you could totally fool me with this. If I’d been given this without knowing what it was, Assam would be my first guess. Makes me wonder if I should do Project Assam hot on the heels of Project Africa… The grain is stronger than in most Assams though, so it does stand out. A little bit. Not enough that I’d notice if I didn’t know better, but there is a small difference there. It smells like it can really pack a good punch.

The flavour is surprisingly fruity sweet right at first. Reminds me a little of plums or apricot, although that still feels a bit like a stretch. Then the grain and malt comes into play and it is indeed a quite strong tea. It’s no wonder ctc-ed Kenyan is often used to beef up the blends in certain inferior teabags that we could mention. It’s strong and it lays down a heavy bottom.

Underneath the flavour there is a mild to moderate degree of astringency, which once again reminds me of Assam. That and the strength are really the only things about the flavour that reminds me of Assam, unlike what I noticed in the aroma. It’s not so much, though, that it feels like drinking ashes and it’s fairly well balanced with the strength of the flavour.

As it cools down a little more, it changes character completely. It loses the fruit-y sweet aspect I noticed right at first and instead takes on a strong Yunnan-like note of hay. The very note that makes me less interested in golden Yunnans. Where did that come from?

This is a different beast entirely from my usual Chinese blacks. I’m quite enjoying how strong it is, but I think I could have lived without the Yunnan-y aspect. This is one that I preferred while it was still piping hot.

Reference map: https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211803378882467968316.0004dd9c2591ff5d7d6bf&msa=0&ll=-0.394539,35.252938&spn=0.014741,0.021651 (This is what I get when I check the ‘short URL’ box. Deal with it…)

(Edited to add in a forgotten word, the absense of which totally changed the meaning of the sentence)

sipdown (280) Another thanks to terri that i’m getting to try. I know i’m bringing home at least 3 teas this weekend from my parents place so i need to get down at least another 3 after this so that i feel like i’m making progress in getting to 200 lol.

This is a neat blend because it’s got a variety of teas in it. it’s a bit astringent but not overly so.

Another sipdown today! I also get to pack away a bit of my matcha for a friend so new flavours get to be opened soon! yay! I like this one a bunch. I think the vanilla helps to temper the black currant flavour and make it a bit more enjoyable that the harney and sons version. thanks again for this one terri!

thank you terriharplady I think i prefer this black currant version to the Harney’s version that i’ve had. This one has a little stronger flavour, the addition of a bit of vanilla and it smells wonderful! the black base doesn’t overwhelm the black currant flavour and there’s no astringency here to ruin anything. I have a bit left so i might try cold brewing this to see what that does to this one :)

Terri sent more of this my way and I think i love it a little more than the first time. Bumping the rating up a bit but i am going to pass the rest of this on to someone who hasn’t had a chance to try it. Sharing is caring! This + maple made my day when we went out to the nerd store to pick up a game!

Sipdown! Had a cup of this in the morning before leaving the house. Another fine keemun shared by terri! :)

mmmm another tasty black courtesy of Terriharplady! This is a pretty enjoyable keemun. I think, as I have more of them, i’m coming to learn that i tend to prefer assams over keemuns, though i don’t find keemuns objectionable. I like the maltiness of this particular keemun. There isn’t a lot of smoke happening in this tea, which is nice as i don’t need much of that this morning. There is some though, and it adds a nice depth to this tea. Overall a pretty decent little number!

sipdown! a sil sized cup for me and a share with a friend :) Thanks terri for sending some of this my way. For an oolong? this ain’t half bad…for a peach tea, there’s a bit of an after taste here that is sitting funny in my mouth this morning. I’m not sure if that has anything to do with my sinuses being messed up, but it’s not my favourite taste. That being said though, it’s not a bad taste, just an after taste that it’s my fav. Overall this is a pretty decent tea. I like that the peach has a bit of sour too it, as if they’re slightly on the unripe side. But not enough to detract from the peach taste. thanks again terri!

sipdown!

this tea confuses me. It’s smokey but is also full of berry? There’s something in the blend as well that is making me sneeze but i couldn’t tell you what. Overall this is a pretty tasty blend though i think i prefer my smoke without the berry flavour. I do like the texture of this smoke however. I also don’t really grasp the vanilla that is hiding in here somewhere. However, this was an excellent large sil mug full of fun! Thanks terri!

SIPDOWN! thanks agin for sharing this one with me terri. I taste more of the bergamot today which is making for a not as nice taste at the end of my sip, but nothing i can’t live with :) Happy yo try this one – i think the london tea room might need to be a place to order from in the future given how i’ve been feeling about a lot of their teas that terri has sent.

Oh… this is really good. And apparently has bergamot…but not in the way that i dislike bergamot. It’s more like the bergamot that’s in the upton tea that i enjoy.

i’m exausted today. No idea why i came in today. should have worked from home. Looks like my other half made enough of a stink at work today that they’ve given him the time off again..so back to planning mode lol. eesh!

edit: oh yeah..the tea? delicious berry taste, though not so much with the vaniilla. I do like how this one blends together though it’s berry without being overly sweet or too generically fruity.

Sipdown! I think i may need to pick some of this up, though it might be a toss up between this one and the kenyan blend that terri sent me Either way this is a really nice every day sort of black tea. Not too much going on, but no astringency and a just a smooth blend for those everyday moments.

Backlogs incoming since it’s been a busy day. I’m exausted and want to go to bed but i just got off the phone with china and i really want to track my teas before i forget. :)

I have devised a plan for getting through all the teas that terri sent me by putting any random tea from her straight blacks into my morning rotation. The other tea can be whatever. This morning it was this one. Let me tell you, i’m pretty sure i really enjoyed this one as a basic breakfast tea that is a really nice even keel sort of morning tea. There is none of that morning tea acidic taste that makes me go ick.

I have one more small cup of this left that i’ll have when i have more time to sit and focus. This was soooo many hours ago. but it was good.

SIPDOWN! (257)

thanks again terri for this one! I quiet enjoyed having this one again today as the weather is cold and rainy and dreary outside. :)

mmmm another win from terriharplady!

I am thoroughly enjoying this one tonight. I’m sure i really should be cutting back tonight but i’m so happy that i got my tea cupboards organized that i’m having fun picking teas out. The orange flavour in this one is really citrusy and delicious. there’s nothing artificial about the flavouring in this one and I am enjoying how it blends with puerh base. so good!

Mmmmmm thanks Terri! Another tasty black tea. I had this earlier in the day and it was a great start to the day :)

Oh man. Thank you terriharplady!
THIS is a black that is not for those who don’t like rich, bold blacks. Now, is there a lot going on with this tea like say a laoshan black? Nope but it’s got a great character to it and a delicious bold black flavour that i really enjoyed this morning. It’s not a malty black or a chocolate black, but it’s smooth, not astringent and most importantly – delicious. Thank you terri!