359 Tasting Notes
Not THE Marco Polo, and seriously nothing like it. And the geek in me wants to point out that historically calling this “red” (pu-erhish?) with spices tea after Marco Polo seems a bit more likely than the very french, fruity and refined Mariage Freres blend. This is a little bit more like a silk road in the 14th century drink.
Nice. Be careful with steeping times though or it can get overbrewed in an instant.
Preparation
Nothing to see here, move along, move along. Nothing new. But this, while not being anything extraordinary, just really is my cup of tea, I just keep reaching for it. When flavoured teas (even grey mixes) are just not IT, when black tea is just too morning-like, when green tea seems too sharp and oolong too weedy-herbalish, there is lapsang souchong. And the Twinings one is oh so reliable at that punch of smoke. Thank you, that was just what i needed.
(to like this it might help if one likes smokey whiskey. And vice-versa of course. It most certainly will NOT be everybody´s cup of tea, even if it is mine)
Preparation
Twinings Lapsang Souchong is one of the first teas I ever became addicted to, way back in my university days. I always had a tin at hand, and could be assured that no one else would steal it from studio because I think they all were scared of the smokey aroma. I was shocked to see that Twinings moved their factory to Poland, after 300+ years in the UK, and as of last month they also have stopped exporting tins of this loose tea to the USA. Such a shame. They quit selling their Russian Caravan tea here a decade ago… another lightly smoky tea that was always pleasing!
Oh, I had a pack of russian caravan once, some of the first tea I ever bought. Though bought at the same time, my one true love (now deceased but always mourned) was their rose pouchiog, which was just oh so so lovely.
And yay about the love of the smoky tea. We are the 1% in that.
Lady Grey, Lady Grey, I do love you. Maybe I do not sing your praises often enough. I do take you a little bit for granted (even after we had that scare a few years ago, where nobody in this country seemed to keep you in stock at all). But just been reminded that as long as I can get boiling water and a cup, you can on your own really improve any dreary wintery afternoon. Awesome Lady Grey.
Preparation
It still, if not quite sucks, disappoints its promise and smell. No, it´s not at all bad. And it just might be unfair to compare its taste to its divine (no kidding) scent, but even ignoring the promise of its scent, it still taste uninspired. Ingredients seem to be top quality, it smells (seriously, trust me on this) marvelously. But no matter the variations I make, it makes for a not nearly awesome cup of tea. Oh well. Bye.
I had been rationing this a bit, but even so I just went to make myself a cup of this and got a bad scare, there is hardly any left. What, already?!? So yeah, this is a huge favorite of mine. Which I will need to rebuy.
Tastes like green tea with lemongrass and lemon and something else (tangerine?), all very balanced. It is lovely. It is one of the few teas I love when it´s really hot, and I love it as well when it is cold, dreary and damp.
Preparation
Regarding fruity flavoured black teas, I got a weakness for lychee as a flavour. Seriously, just try it, it´s flowery, fruity, exhuberant and somehow it just goes so well with tea – beats earl grey all the time (lady grey is a different matter). Even the most humble lychee blends can make a cup which makes me go hmmm.
This is maybe the nicest lychee flavoured black tea I ever had. It´s bagged yes, not sure they even make loose tea, but the quality of the tea and flavour is awesome, and it´s tea bags in those hermetically sealed little tin foil packets – those envelopes do no miracle for bad tea, but when tea is good, it can be so much better than more oxidized loose tea leaves.
Just a note, blender description says lychee blossom flavour. I never ever saw a lychee blossom, and have no idea what it smells/tastes like. For other fruits the blossom and fruit usually taste and smell VERY different (orange blossom and fruit, for example), so I wonder if they made the blossom/fruit confusion, this to me tastes precisely like juicy sweet ripe lychees – the fruit.
Preparation
Wow… I have to admit that until I read this I had never really thought about a lychee flower. So, I had to look it up! And wow… It is very interesting looking… (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Litchi_chinensis_flowers_01.JPG) Of course, I still have no idea how it smells/tastes in comparison to actual lychee, but, this tea sounds great. I love lychee as well! : )
Ah, how pretty! We still don´t know how it smells, but the tea is smelling like the fruit to me.
A warning, my appreciation of this might be biased, Mozambique tea was the standard of “just right” black tea for portuguese ladies of my grandmother´s generation, and this tastes just like “just right” grandmother´s tea to me. Cultural expectations of taste are pretty strong.
This is small leaf black tea, packaged in vintage style (well, not vintage style, real vintage vintage) instructions on how to brew a proper pot of tea . I followed those scrupulously. It would feel like ignoring advice from my grandmother, otherwise! It brews red and it reminds me a bit of Ceylon tea, just sweeter, gentler and without any metallic hints (Ceylon tea often seems to have this hint of copper or iron. Not a criticism, I like it like that). It´s not as strong as Assam, and it is quite different from Chinese tea. The taste reminds me a bit of raisins.
It´s also remarkably, the sweetest black tea I ever tasted. It´s sweet on its own, more than any other tea I ever had (tea tea, black or green or oolong or white, if you know what I mean). It also has very little bitterness, I think it does not have much tannin for the body it has.
I usually find it hard to give numerical ratings to tea usually, but in this case it is extra difficult to do so. But it is a lovely nice tea.
