Whittard of Chelsea

This is a lovely blend. I received this sample a while ago so I think it is not as strong of a flavor as it is originally meant to be. This is a nice black tea blend that does well without additives. It has a certain warmth to it as well as a slight fruity and sweet backdrop. Good tea with some mild astringency.

5g / 200ml glaspot.
Single infusion 2m @ 100C

A bit on the strong side, but only light astringancy. couldnt help but taste blueberry?!? Decent black with a light punch ^^

Someone brought us a caddy of this to work, having been to London and knowing that me and my cubicle colleague love tea, he thought that this would be a nice gift. It is, although I wish he’d asked before buying – there are better and more interesting teas to be had in London than this one. Even Whittard has better blends. BTW, this is the second Earl Grey tea caddy that people have brought us as gifts (the first one being a tiny Ahmad Tea earl grey shaped like a red telephone booth).
First thing’s first- this tea came in a dark blue caddy that is both beautiful and practical.
Once you open the caddy you are assaulted by an overpowering scent of BERGAMOT. If there’s a kind of demon that finds bergamot as offensive as vampires supposedly find garlic, then he would run for his life once the caddy was opened. This is an in your face, “I’m an Earl Grey TEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAH!” kind of tea. I was a little bit scared of brewing it, but the guys really wanted a taste, so I reluctantly brewed a cup.
This tea has a definite Ceylon base, and if there was a Chinese tea in the mix, it didn’t come through. It’s a strong, hearty tea, with a strong but thankfully not overpowering bergamot flavour. It still ranks last among the Earl Greys that I’ve tried, but at least it’s drinkable. If you like strong flavours, this is for you. I’d rather have Twinnings Earl Grey for about half the price than this tea.

Tea #5 from HHTTB2

According to my friends, I may be insanely picky about my Darjeelings (PFFFT who am I kidding I absolutely am), but even without that kicking in, these leaves don’t look nearly as nice as what I’m used to. There’s also no information on their website regarding origin, so I’m guessing that this is a blend of several estates.

All that said, this turned out okay.

I used my typical Darjeeling parameters (below) and was greeted with a really delicate cup that wasn’t particularly Darjeeling-y. It has that lovely, kind of grapey-fruity, subtley earthy smell, delicately floral smell that I love, but the taste wound up being too much floral with a touch of earthiness and a metallic twang. This would actually be a good Darjeeling for people who don’t like Darjeelings, because the flavor is so light.

I felt like having a cup of green this afternoon, so I made a small pot of this one that Auggy has shared with me. It was Husband’s choice. Once again we were amused by how well-travelled this tea is. English company all the way from the US. :D

The leaf smells very EG-y and I didn’t really pick up much of the base tea at all. I’m not surprised at that. I find it’s often the case with flavoured tea that isn’t black or to some extent oolong (depending on the type of oolong) that the flavouring drowns the smell of the tea. I have learned, however, that this does not really have to be something to cause concern. After steeping, it smells much more green and EG in balance with each other.

I’ve always had a bit of difficulty with the whole EG Green concept because bergamot is a strong flavour in itself so I’ve never really understood how the mixture with something more delicate could possibly work. It just never fails to surprise me when it does. The bergamot in this is actually relatively mild (for bergamot) and it does make me feel like I’m drinking green tea rather than hot water with dusty bergamot in it, which is always my worry with these things.

I don’t really drink much in the way of green tea and when I do buy one it’s usually because it’s flavoured with something that sounds really nice. Earl Grey has just never really been in that category for me, so although this is nice enough, it’s not something I would go out and buy for myself.

Yes a rhubarb tea! This one has real lumps of rhubarb in it too!

Rhubarb & Cream has a real rhubarb flavor that mostly takes like undercooked rhubarb pie filling. I do like the rhubarb tang in this tea however wished there was more creamy flavor present.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/rhubarb-cream-tea-whittard-chelsea-oolong-owl-tea-review/

Tea #7 from Another Traveling Tea Box

So I wanted to give a straight tea a shot and grabbed this one because the name was interesting. Didn’t smell like much, but being in the sort of packaging it was, I didn’t expect to smell much other the rest of the box’s scents.

Brewed I was getting a thick malty smell with green beans(?) which was strange. I didn’t get any green bean taste, but it was rather mulch-y/bark tasting to me. Bleh.

Tea #36 from Another Traveling Tea Box

A really solid Assam. It’s bold with caramel-ly malt notes and subtle sweet fruitness. Yum.

Folks that like Assam should give this one a go.

Tea #31 from Another Traveling Tea Box

I don’t generally drink assam, but I’m glad I got to try this one. It is making me reconsider what I use for iced tea, I think this would be absolutely wonderful iced. It has a subtle sweetness to it followed up by a slightly malty note at the end. I wish there had been more of this in the TTB so I could try it as a cold steep.

I am so excited I found veggies my birds will eat. They’re so stubborn I just wanna shove it in their beaks and be like EAT. In any case, they eat acorn squash (uncooked and cut into chunks) and jalapenos (with all the seeds left in). Gandalf gets super stoked over jalapeno time. It’s pretty comical.

When I first steeped this up today, I had to doublecheck my parameters because all I smelled was bergamot. Holy man. Luckily it was the same cup as before. Mild base, mild bergamot, mild floral. This would work anytime of day, really. It’s just a lovely aromatic mild cup.

I received this one, with thanks, from KallieBoo!

The flavors here harmonize well and this makes a rather nice cup. The base is a very mild black base, with mild bergamot and delicate floral notes at the tail of the sip.

Thanks again!

Hmmm, I drank all my DT Earl of Lemon, so I was happy to get this tea. I always have a lemon tea kicking around for sick days or lemon ice tea cravings.

This one has a good lemon flavor with a bit of floral interest, however has a tart dryness going on. Pretty good natural flavors too. Overall not bad though it could do without that dryness.

Full review with pics on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/lemon-rose-white-tea-whittard-chelsea/

Hmm.. tea brick?

Thank you adagio breeze for this sample.

Watching series 2 of Luther and going through some samples to help clear my cupboard. Served this tea with only a drop of soy milk.

Flavour is softer than expected with a slight smokiness and malted with little to no astringency or harshness. A little too weak for me, I used 1tsp of leaves so next time I will try it with 1.5tsp or maybe even 2tsp and see how it bares as a breakfast tea. Still it’s an average Russian Caravan blend and worth trying.

Sipdown! i really like this one! The tea is smooth, with a slight astringency. There’s a gentle citrus flavour. I would happily drink this one again!

sipdown! i’m running behind with my tasting notes…“early” night testing for work and now i have additional testing to do. I’ve been drinking a bunch of teas this morning but i haven’t had a second to start logging them. this was one of my earliest teas. An assam that is bold, malty but also fruity and sweet.

I sort of lucked into this rich, strong, traditional tea. I bought it on sale at a discount grocer for .99 a pouch. When first opening the pouch, the aroma is beautifully rich and malty , with a hint of citrus from the Ceylon. After pouring my water over the leaves the aroma of course intensified. I also detected a bit of spice and currant aromas mixed in. The color is a nice rich mahogany. Now for the flavor, I found it to be just what I wanted. It is rich,warm and inviting, I know inviting, what does that mean, that isn’t a flavor. Well, to me it tasted like an inviting room feels.There were hints of malt,spice and citrus mixed in the with richness of black tea. I believe this to be a nice tea anytime you want a bit of comfort mixed with a bit of pick me up.

SIPDOWN! 221 and i am 98% water for sure at this point. i REAAAAAALLLYY wanted to get to 217 today but i’m not sure i can do it. It’s getting late and i should probably stop drinking fluids lol

There are some silver needles that i quite like, and there are others that are pretty much water. This is one of the former – it’s a delicious juicy white tea.

something about this one is just not sitting right with me. I feel like this is probably much better than it’s coming across for me. It’s a darker roasty type oolong without that familiar oolongy taste that i dilike in roasty oolongs..but there’s something in the background that i am just not loving. wish i could figure it out. Not rating this one since i’m fairly certain it’s just me.

sipdown! This is a nice yunnan. there’s almost a hint of smikiness to this that makes it slightly different than others i’ve had. It’s not sweet like the oolongs from this morning but it is on the sweeter side of things. overall a really nice cup :)

Yet another from Teabox B! I think roasted oolongs might be the tea that most isn’t my thing. But it doesn’t mean I won’t try them! This one wasn’t bad for me though. I steeped a tsp for around four minutes. The flavor isn’t very charcoal-like that a past roasted oolong tasted like. This one was just a bit smoky. There was a sweetness to it that is actually surprising. But I added one of the Stash Chai honey sticks (from the teabox!) to the cup. They are a bit messy, but the taste is nice. It definitely tastes like chai! I’m not sure how they do that with honey. But it was a nice complement to the tea. Hot soothing and scrumptious!

Another from Momo’s teaboxB! thanks everyone! The Lochan Darjeeling I drank the other day really spoiled me with the most delicious Darjeeling I’ve tried. This one isn’t quite as good, but I like it! It has the “Darjeeling” flavor but it also seems a bit watery if that makes sense. The Lochan had a lovely full Darjeeling flavor. If I had tried this one first, I might have liked it better. Also, there seems to be more Darjeelings in the teabox than other plain black teas. But I will fix that! haha.

From the Here’s Hoping TTB, and a sipdown.

I’m winding down my sampling efforts. This is a pleasant roasty oolong, & although it doesn’t have the amazing incense & caramel qualities of some of my favorites, it is still a nice cup, with a woody & nutty character.

This + freshly baked scones with a variety of marmalade, honey and lemon curd.

In all my humblest modesty; OM NOM NOM NOM!!!

(No clotted cream, though. I know of one place only where I can buy that here and I wasn’t about to retrace my steps. Research has shown me that it’s supposedly super-easy to make your own but it’s an overnight sort of job. Requires more preparation than my spontaneous cravings)