Todd & Holland

This is a sample I’ve tasted before but apparently never written about. It’s no longer showing as available on the Todd & Holland web site.

What I like most about this is the aftertaste. It’s fresh, clean. It’s like what Clorets should make your mouth feel like but doesn’t. A green freshness that makes me think of chlorophyll.

The tea itself is a pale golden yellow and clear, and it has an aroma that could be hay or could be sweet grass. It tastes a little less sweet than it smells, with a briskness to the mouthfeel that adds to impression of freshness in the aftertaste.

It’s enjoyable, but not really distinctive. Then again, I don’t think my palate is sophisticated enough to discern the differences in senchas except in very broad strokes. I can distinguish grassy from vegetal and sweet from savory, and I can sometimes identify the taste of specific vegetables in the vegetal ones. Beyond that, I get a bit lost.

Sipdown no. 11 of 2017 (no. 292 total). A sample.

Today was so crazy at work I barely noticed this, which is unfortunate as I quite like it. But then again, sometimes it’s nice to have teas that aren’t high maintenance.

This is a sample that has been hermetically sealed since I got it. The dry leaves look pretty much like what you see in the picture, but what’s interesting is the way they smell. They have a sort of toasty greenness to them that’s unusual.

The tea is greenish-gold and clear, and it has a buttery, vegetal aroma that’s a bit like asparagus.

The flavor is similar to the aroma. It’s richer than that of many greens, and quite pleasant. If the Todd & Holland Japanese green teas make refreshing teas for work, this Chinese one seems better suited to a relaxing evening environment. Still, I’ll probably drink it at work, since that’s where I am most of the day.

Sipdown no. 8 of 2017 (no. 289 total). A sample.

It was indeed a nice take-it-to-work tea while it lasted. Soothing to sip, but unobtrusive.

This is a sample I tried once before but never wrote about.

It’s a yellow-gold color with a bit of a haze to the liquor.

The flavor is delicate, grassy, sweet, and even has a tinge of butter to it with a slightly bitter (but pleasantly so) finish.

Refreshing, but calming. Flavorful, but in a subtle way. It will make a good work tea because it doesn’t call attention to itself.

Sipdown no. 9 of 2017 (no. 290 total). A sample.

Okay, I’m cheating a little — I am planning to have the very last bit of this tomorrow to take to work, but I won’t have time to record it then. I feel 99 percent confident that it will be a sipdown tomorrow, though, because I’ve already got it in the Breville, primed to be steeped in the morning.

My first note on this one is only a few days old, and I expect there’s not a lot I’ll have to add to that one.

Todd & Holland doesn’t have this on their page anymore, so I can’t provide a picture or a description from them for this entry. This is a sample I got a while back. It was sealed up and never opened and has been in a cool dry place since I got it, which may be why it has preserved its aroma and flavor.

The dry leaves are quite beautiful. Deep, rich green, with a very fine, silky, soft-looking texture. In the packet there’s a juicy “green” smell, somewhere between grass and vegetable.

The tea is a medium yellow, sort of a light gold, and clear. The aroma is of warm, sweet grass.

In trying to describe the taste, I find myself thinking in synesthetic terms. The tea tastes golden, not silver, by which I mean it’s a warm taste rather than a fresh one. It’s a snuggly flavor. Very pleasant, but delicate to the point where it is probably best drunk alone. Strong flavors in food, such as marinara would not pair well here.

It’s too bad that it’s no longer on the site. It’s a lovely tea.

This is currently my favorite flavored black tea. The mix of ‘cool’ herbs puts me strongly in mind of winter; if snow could have a flavor, this would be it. It works well both hot and iced.

Sipdown no. 69 of 2016 (no. 280 total). A sample.

Really sorry to see this one go. Not much to add to my previous note other than that I will be very sad when my Japanese greens are all gone.

I seem to have two sample packets of this, and I’m trying to open up some alternatives for my green teas to take to work so cracked open one of the samples today.

This is a surprisingly complex sencha. Often they seem to me to have a single note of grass or hay, but this one smells like rice and edamame in the packet and like all sorts of things after steeping. There’s a salt note that’s interesting, a salty flavor but without actual salt. It’s more vegetal than most senchas I’ve had, and a bit more astringent. There’s definitely a drying to the mouth in the aftersip.

It’s light yellow in color in the cup.

A very enjoyable tea. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be available from Todd & Holland anymore.

Sipdown no. 1 of 2018! Wow. Happy New Year!

This is sipdown no. 357 total since I started counting them down. It’s a sample.

It was the only tea I had yesterday because I honestly thought I was dying. I had had bad digestional issues so I took some Immodium, which I thought was going to kill me — I felt like I had a huge knot in my stomach all day, made worse by the clenching my muscles were doing because I was terribly tense about the huge knot in my stomach.

So technically I could count it as yesterday’s sipdown and still be in 2017, but that would be way too OCD for words.

It was delicious, though. I’m putting it on the wishlist.

Opened up a new sample packet of this just now. Wonderful smell in the packet. Almost chocolatey, earthy, a little bit like dark chocolate baked goods. The steeped tea aroma is smooth and a tad sweet. It’s like the standard American notion of black tea, a bit reminiscent of Lipton.

The liquor isn’t as reddish as I generally expect from Ceylons. It’s a sort of brown-orange.

The flavor is quite mellow and smooth, not what I’d call “brisk” really though there is some astringency. It has a slightly metallic note, which is interesting. And though there is a honey note, it isn’t particularly sweet in the sip.

I like this one a lot. I think it would make a great iced tea as well.

Sipdown no. 27 of 2016 (no. 238 total). The rest of the sample.

Started the new job today! I didn’t have much tea today because I haven’t brought any into the office yet, but it’s on the agenda.

This is my after dinner drink tonight. I didn’t mention in my previous note that I have never had Pear Helene (the dessert) to my knowledge, so I can’t say whether this is true to its name.

I can, however, say that I quite like it.

I haven’t had that many pear teas or tisanes, but this seems to me a very true pear flavor. The blend has some things in it that look like chocolate chards. It is pretty much all chocolate and pear all the time, from the smell of the dry tisane, to the smell of the steeped tisane to the taste.

If I make a Todd & Holland order, this will definitely be a part of it.

Sipdown no. 20 of 2016 (no. 231 total). A sample. This is a chunky blend, and the sample was really only enough to yield four cups. The BF was interested in trying this so I just made the entire thing.

In the packet I definitely see the apple and the almonds. The smell from the packet is very similar to that of T&H’s Amaretti Cookie, and I’m wondering whether it will turn out to taste like that. I hope so.

It has an unusual colored liquor. Peach, or maybe melon? A light yellowish-pink. The aroma is wonderful. Very like the Amaretti Cookie/Almond Biscotti/Brioche profile.

The flavor is way more interesting than the aroma would have led me to believe. There is citrus (lemon?) on the front end of the sip that rapidly dissipates and spreads out into a gently flavored tisane that is in fact quite reminiscent of the various almond pastry teas. But it’s not as simple as that; there’s also a freshness and lightness to the tisane that makes it extremely pleasant to drink late at night. It’s not something that sits heavy in the stomach. The cinnamon, fortunately, while tasteable, isn’t overpowering.

I’m really impressed by this one.

Sipdown no. 23 of 2016 (no. 234 total). The rest of the sample.

Another weak tea day (as in the consumption of tea was weak, rather than the tea itself) because of further house cleaning and a rather lengthy nap this afternoon, followed by the baking of cookies (I found as part of the cleaning a jar of cookie mix that a neighbor had made as a holiday present a while back that never got made and now has been) and the cooking of dinner while the Democratic debate was on in the background.

The BF wanted an herbal and I started down the list with a Todd & Holland Pear Helene sample that we haven’t tried yet, which he nixed. This was the second one I mentioned and I was sort of surprised he picked it, but also sort of glad as it means another sipdown.

It’s definitely got a medicinal thing going on, and is mostly peppermint, but if you’re in the mood for a truly herbal herbal rather than a rooibos or a fruit blend, or are looking for a palatable tummy soother, this isn’t bad. I probably wouldn’t drink it often and would likely save it mostly for tummy upsets so I doubt I’ll order it. Refresh by Tazo is a better mint in my view, and mint alone is plenty soothing when I have an upset stomach so I’m not sure I see the need to add this to the cupboard permanently.

Backlogging from last night. Another tisane sample cracked open.

The BF’s tummy was upset and this looked like a promising tummy soother. It seemed to work for him.

Flavor wise, it’s mostly peppermint. The ginger and lemon are discernible, more ginger than lemon, but it’s more about the mint than anything else.

It was nothing special flavorwise, but gets big points for being soothing in a medicinal sort of way.

Sipdown no. 28 of 2016 (no. 239 total). The rest of the sample.

The BF was disappointed in the small amount of Pear Helene in the pot, so I made four cups worth of this, which was what was left in the sample pouch.

Not the best of the Todd & Holland tisanes, but a nice orange. I agree with my initial assessment that it isn’t fakey fakey in flavor or a weird orange like baby aspirin.

Breaking open a new tisane sample. I’m getting close to the end of my tisanes, which will open up all sorts of buying opportunities. LOL

This is a chunky fruit blend. The orange “edges” are the biggest chunks, followed by the strawberries. I can see the lemongrass as well.

It has a pretty decent orange smell in the packet. Not medicinal, not tang-like. The hibiscus gives it a gorgeous garnet color. The aroma is orange, and pretty tempting.

The taste is pretty interesting. There’s a slight bitterness, but it doesn’t taste like it’s from the hibiscus. It tastes like it’s from the orange peel. I wouldn’t call it particularly sour, or particularly sweet, but it’s actually pretty pleasant. The orange flavor isn’t as strong as I’d like. I taste the strawberry in there, and I wish that I didn’t, or alternatively that it was billed as orange-strawberry. If there was more orange, I’d be totally sold on this.

I’m weird in that one of my favorite flavors for things is orange. Since I don’t often see orange flavored tisanes, this might be one for the buy pile.

Sipdown no. 11 of 2016 (no. 232 total). The rest of the sample.

Damn, that was fast. I was finishing my cup of this when no. 2 and the BF both asked to taste it and both requested that I make more immediately.

Now, it is gone.

Time to try a new tisane. I have a few samples left, as the collection continues to get whittled down.

In the packet, it smells like some sort of baked good. Gingerbread, maybe? It’s not so chocolatey that I’d identify it as a chocolate aroma. The mixture looks heavy on the chocolate and caramel pieces and light on the honeybush and rosebuds.

Steeped, it smells boozy. A liqueur smell. Kahlua, maybe, though it has been a while since I had Kahlua. It has a tea-colored liquor that’s remarkably clear given the various sugary things in it that undoubtedly melted when steeped.

Fortunately, it doesn’t taste boozy. Well, at least not in the sip. There’s a bit of liqueur flavor in the aftertaste. The sip is mostly caramel, with some vaguely cocoa notes. It’s smooth and tasty, and a bit on the subtle side which I think improves it over what it might taste like if it was the sort of thing that hit you over the head. I can’t really taste the honeybush, which is a plus.

I was going to say I couldn’t really taste the torte, either, which would be a minus. But as it cools, I do get a suggestion of baked goods. Not as strong as the one in the Amaretti Cookie, but it is there.

This is the sort of thing I would have gone nuts for a few years back when I was marveling at the fact that a drink could taste like a decadent dessert without the calories. It’s good enough that it’s tempting me back toward desserty non-fruit tisanes tonight.

For that I rate it high, but I’m not sure it’s enough to make me completely buck my trend of late to crave fruity tisanes instead of desserty chocolate, caramel, cake, etc. ones.

Sipdown no. 6 of 2016 (no. 227 total). The rest of the sample.

So here’s a question. When you’re tasting tea do you ever perceive distance in taste? I know some people taste colors, etc. but I noticed that I taste depths and heights. I find myself often saying something is “deep” or “on the surface” or has “high” notes. It’s like taking a VR walk through the taste, I guess, or it feels a little bit like that. Hmmm.

OK. This time I’m going to be a bit more systematic about what I noticed about this tea.

It’s got tippy leaves that smell earthy in the packet, and not smoky, though there is keemun in this. The steeped tea is a clear, reddish chestnut color, and has a malty, sweet aroma. I recall it being smoother the first time I tried it. Today I’m getting a bit of assam throat grab, but not enough to be bothersome. There’s some astringency in the sip, but the aftertaste is more cooling than drying.

I am working on a project to clean up my home office and right now it seems sort of insurmountable, though I’ve definitely made progress. Good thing I’m binge watching Veronica Mars, so I have something to do when I can’t take the organizing any more.