The London Tea Room

Nothing on the agenda for today except lots of homework and lots of tea. The tea leaves for this one smell really strongly of bergamot, but the tea itself smells like black tea and mostly a strong, tangy orange aroma. If I hadn’t known there was bergamot in this tea beforehand it probably wouldn’t have jumped out at me in the flavor either. It’s a smooth, malty black tea with a bright, citrusy orange finish. There is a very small bergamot aftertaste, but it’s not all that noticeable. I like this one!

-Dry blend has large light brown tea leaves with pieces of dried orange peel.
-Dry leaves smell strongly of bergamot with a hint of orange. Tea liquor aroma is of black tea and orange.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy dark brown color.
-Smooth malty flavor with a citrusy orange finish. Slight bergamot aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. Black tea with a tart orange flavor. Very little bergamot.

Last cup of the evening. Today has been productive, I got my tea cupboard organized and all of my new tins labelled. Spring break is over, so tomorrow it’s back to school and this will be a very busy week indeed!

I’m kind of obsessed with trying plum flavored teas, so this one was a must have when we visited The London Tea Room. It steeps up to a really pretty dark purple color. The flavor is different than expected, as the plum is very tangy and tart. Sadly, there is a strange artificial taste in the finish. I tried adding a little milk to see if that would help diminish the fake flavor, but the milk curdled, so I threw out that cup and started over. Adding just sweetener helps a little, but that icky plasticky taste is still there. Really unfortunate, since the plum flavor is so nice!

-Dry blend is a trail mix of dried fruit and pieces of cinnamon bark.
-Dry blend smells like sweet plum with a hint of cinnamon. Tea liquor aroma is of spicy cinnamon and fruit.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy dark purple color.
-Tart plum flavor with an artificial finish. Warm cinnamon aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Poor tea. Tart plum flavor with a strong artificial note.

This tea has a little bit of everything I love in it – chocolate, orange, vanilla and toasted croissant in a black tea – ahhhhhh. This was the first London Tea Room blend that I had when we went to have lunch there last summer and it fully met my expectations. I love that it is a really robust black tea with some sweet notes with a nice, buttery croissant taste thrown in. There’s something really comforting about it. I could drink this tea all day long and be perfectly content!

-Dry blend has medium black and brown tea leaves with a few pieces of orange peel.
-Dry leaves smell lightly of black tea and orange. Tea liquor aroma is of rich chocolate and sweet vanilla.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark brown color.
-Robust chocolate and orange flavor with a buttery croissant finish.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. A sweet and toasty cup.

I am so painfully behind on logging my teas. I’ve been drinking a lot, but for some reason I am lacking the motivation to log them all. Well, I must push through and try to catch up! Starting with this, which I got in the book club swap with Terri HarpLady and am sipping right now!

I was planning on a gongfu session with one of the new(ish) Verdant oolongs, but I’ve been eating painfully healthy recently so screw it, I’m making a latte! Not that lattes are particularly bad for you, I’ve been using less and less sugar in mine recently. 1 cup milk, 1 cup water, a tiny squeeze of honey, and my sample of this lovely blend which reminds me wonderfully of my beloved Paris.

This is creamy with a delicious berry note, so smooth and tasty! As a latte it’s just to die for, like a fancy dressed up london fog. And perfect for the book we are reading, An American Heiress. Blackcurrant always reads as a very European taste to me (probably because of those hard candies that come in the fancy gold tins), so I can close my eyes and imagine myself in a British castle, hanging out in front of a roaring fire instead of a boring old tv!

Thank you Terri harplady for this wonderful brew:)
This is soooo tasty, I have added it to my shopping list. This is smooth, fragrant and essentially delicious.

This is still a really tasty Keemun, with notes of brown sugar, very light smoke, & a certain flavor in it reminds me of condensed canned milk. It’s nicely sweet, rich, & enjoyable.

I was up bright & early both yesterday & today, & out in the garden, trellising tomatoes.
This isn’t their first trellising of the year, but a much more critical one, as there are tons of fruit already set, & I’ve been neglecting them for a few weeks, so their was serious Urban Sprawl going on. Through a serious of branches, bamboo, string, rope, etc, some of them are now in a much more organized way.

I carried a cup of this around with me during the first round of tying things up, a pleasant wake me up, but it turned out to not agree with my tummy, so when I started getting queasy I had to come in & fix myself some breakfast before I could finish my cup.
Still tasty though!

A nice rich cup of lighty smoky sweetness.
This is day 2 of feeling weird in the afternoon. Yesterday I went to the Farmer’s Market. There is a chick who sells homemade ice cream, including non dairy ice cream, so I got one of her ice cream sandwiches, & it was pretty damn good! Strawberry Mango coconut milk ice cream, sandwiched between 2 homemade gluten free meringue cookies.
Shortly after eating it, every taste bud on my tongue swelled up & I started feeling weird.
I’m pretty positive she uses all natural ingredients, & I honestly don’t know if this was a results of:
1 – something in the ice cream…I recently had a similar reaction to pineapple
2 – the last cup of tea I drank yesterday. I’m not going to divulge it’s name, & I doubt that was it, although the actual tongue swelling started while I was drinking it.
3 – some air born allergy, which is also likely, at least for the ‘feeling weird’ part. Case in point, I started today feeling pretty good, but after going outside I’ve developed a headache & inability to focus, & about the only thing I can envision doing now is taking a nap.
Or maybe drinking some Sheng…

I guess I’m in a Keemun mood today!
Maybe because it’s a satisfying no-nonsense type of tea that I can just make a cup or pot of & enjoy, without too much effort.
Yeah, I think that might be it!

First cup of the day, I reached into one of the black tea shelves & just grabbed something, & this was it! A decent cup to start my day, although I’m aching for something bolder now.
In a little while I’ll begin For the Love of Pearls, the great pearl sip-off. But first I have an appointment at 11:00, so it will have to wait. Anyone else who is participating is welcome to start without me though.

Another tea for the Qimen Quandery
I was out & about today, & stopped by the London Tea Room, which recently moved to the Tower Grove neighborhood (for those familiar with St. Louis, which is probably almost nobody). It is now much closer to my house (in the Maplewood neighborhood), & I’m in that area fairly often, usually on Fridays. So I stopped by there, with plans of having lunch & tea, because that’s what I usually do when I go there. Sadly, they no longer have a full kitchen, so they only serve quiche & a few other already prepped things. They still have lots of scones & such, but with all of my allergies etc, there was nothing for me to eat. I still drank a pot of tea, & then picked up a couple of oz each of the following:
Keemun – which I’ve been drinking. It’s what I think of, when I think of a Keemun: a little pine smoke, a little brown sugar, a nice middle body, no highs, but not overly bold or bassy.
Kenyan Kaproret Estate – to share with the BBBB & NofarS
Jubilee – for Tony – it’s basically an earl grey plus orange, he loves it.
Parisian Breakfast – Black tea, orange, vanilla, & chocolate, as I recall…

Including the Taiwanese Oolong I received as a gift, this bumps my total back up to 331.
Thus ends my Qimen Quandery for now. There are now 5 in my collection, & although I enjoyed all of them, I’d say my 2 favorites are Verdant’s Qimen Anhui, & Teavivre’s Organic Superfine Fragrant.

Sipdown!
This was nicely smokey today!

First cup of the day, believe it or not. I’m kind of getting a late start on things today :)
Sweet, earthy, smokey, tasty.

First cup of the day. I’ve been drinking aLOT of Assam lately. This is a nice contrast, though not nearly so bold. A little smokey, kind of a brown sugar taste.

One of the Verdant reserve TOMC teas is a Keemun, which I’ve sampled but have not yet written about. I thought maybe I’d drink my way through several Keemuns that I have, to create more of a reference point, & then sample it again.

Finally I’m home, in my PJs with my wool toe sox on, in my nice cozy house, drinking TEA!
The gig went great, I even made a couple videos of myself with my iPhone. The quality of the sound is probably crappy (I haven’t actually looked, LOL), but if you’d like to see them, I uploaded the to FB to share the love.
It snowed the whole time I played, so moving my equipment home sucked. But now I am sitting here, drinking tea, eating leftover stew, and enjoying the evening.
This Keemun is tasty, a bit smokey & sweet. That smokey character seemed like the perfect thing for a damp chill.

Good first cuppa.
It’s an interesting flavor, a little malty, a little smoky, & little sweet. Not too bold, but I got other stuff for that!
I stayed up late last night creating a page in my laptop that is basically a catalog of every tea I have. Then I updated my cupboard on Steepster, so, for the people that I having pending trades with, check it out, send me a message, & lets get this ball ROLLING, baby!

I like this Keemun. Truthfully I like the one from TeaVivre better I think, but this one is nice too. Honestly, they are 2 completely different teas. This one has a hint of smoke, a nice body, & although I’m drinking it straight up, I know from experience that it is also good with a little stevia, & even a little almond or coconut milk occasionally.

My pre-Bubble Bath cup of tea!
Today I am noticing the smokiness of this tea, & it is good!
Interestingly, it is completely different from the Keemun I got from TeaVivre, which, sadly, I am now out of.

I’m at the London tea room in St. Louis, enjoying a pot of Keemun while they fill my order. My tea swapping group in the book club is going to be thrilled with my selections, I think!
This Keemun is tasty, with a little smoke & a rich toasted brown sugar taste.

Hmm. . .I steeped this one twice today. I expected it to be a bold, strong cup since it was nearly coffee like in colour. But, there was something lacking. The berry was nice, but it didn’t give me what I was looking for. Happy to have tried it though!

Sipdown from Terri HarpLady! Thanks! It’s taken me forever to get to it, I know… AND I have a package for you going out next week! :)

It’s a smooth black tea blend. I think I prefer flavored blacks in general, but this was a good afternoon knitting tea.

I’ve had this tea for forever and this is my first time trying it. It was one of those teas that I was so sure of in the store that I just had to purchase it, but after getting home I would smell it and be like why did I buy this again? I used some of this in the 12 days of tea gift that I made for my Mom for Christmas and this was her most favorite out of all the teas, she absolutely loved it. The dry leaves smell overwhelmingly smokey, and I’m not quite sure if I’ll like that as a flavor or not. There is a nice hint of vanilla and berries in the smell also that makes it nice. The flavor is overwhelmingly woodsy with a very strong smokey finish. The berry and vanilla flavors come out more as the cup cools, and there is a nice tartness to the berry flavor. I just can’t get past that lingering smokiness that is left in my mouth! Although I probably will be giving the rest of this bag to my Mom, I wouldn’t mind having a mug of this tea to enjoy outside at night around the fire pit. Unfortunately we don’t use our fire pit very often, so I won’t be purchasing more any time soon!

-Dry leaves are small and black with a few dried fruit pieces.
-Dry blend smells very smokey with an undertone of berries and vanilla. Tea liquor aroma is strongly smokey.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark brown color.
-Strong, woodsy flavor with a hint of berry tartness. Lingering smokey finish.
-Best with sweetener.
-Good tea. Intense smokey flavor. Vanilla flavor becomes more pronounced as the cup cools. Sweetener enhances the nice berry flavor.

It reminds me of the sweet smell of pipe tobacco.