2252 Tasting Notes
Therefore, I deliberately oversteeped the first pot to accommodate his palate. I got “bitter with a little bit of floral.” Some reviews mention orchids, and I get that. Hubby just got orchids.
Second steep (same leaves) was equally dark and much smoother, not so flowery. More drinkable by my standards.
Looking forward to another stab at this, based on my own preferences. Reviews also mention cocoa and I am all about that!
Although PG Tips are accessible locally in the bagged version, loose-leaf hasn’t been around, judging from my tasting notes, for 5-6 years. The drought is over. The family Giftmeister saw to it that there was a multi-pack under the Christmas tree. So glad to have some back under my roof. Winter morning wakey-wakey is getting harder these days.
For those of you who have never imbibed, the only way to describe PG Tips is “just plain good strong tea.” No flavory or flowery nuances, a little sharp on the tongue if you steep too long; a lovely blank canvas for milk.
Tucked into a box of Christmas doo-dahs from a friend. She actually got the UPS clerk to put “doo-dahs” on the manifest :) It tastes just like a butter mint. A lovely little sweetie for the evening.
It’s the evening of a comfortable and abundant Christmas at our house. We abounded. Following the annual tradition of a friend and mentor, I reserved a few moments next to the Christmas tree as the sun set, counting the blessings of friends and family who gifted us with each ornament over the years, and each card this season. My cup runneth over.
I’m also humbled and blessed to have a husband whose gift is gifting, and after 35 years, knows me better than I do. Because of that, I have a large box of PG Tips Extra Strong ready to fortify me in the morning as I tackle a Boxing Day list that stretches to the North Pole. I’ll modify this note or add a separate review, but since I love me my barbarian builders’ tea (as another reviewer described his taste), I’m eagerly anticipating it.
Hope your day was peaceful and plentiful, tea friends! Blessings to the lot of you.
I love a good dose of what my British grandmother would call ‘proper tea.’ Sometimes, nothing else will do.
First sips were sumptuous when it was hot, smooth and dark. I’m down to the last third of the cup and my tongue is starting to curl from the bitterness … a little milk, a reheat, and all will be well. As I have several major January/February writing deadlines that I’d like to knock out before returning to the day job, this will be helpful as a recyclable sit-at-your-desk-all-morning bracer.
Nerts. Don’t you hate it when you lose a whole tasting note? In brief:
Packaging: Adorable. Christmas gift box with two good quality metal steeping baskets and an assortment of teas in test tubes with corks. Corporate gift thoughtfully handed down from an administrator who doesn’t imbibe. A work buddy and I took turns selecting goodies to take home.
Branding: “Fireside Spice” doesn’t show up on the Kansas City Tea website; I’m guessing that it’s a seasonal re-naming for their Oriental Spice black tea, which I’ve pictured with this entry. Anybody familiar with KC Tea?
Tea: Pretty predictable black tea blend with tons of clove and cinnamon, a little orange at the end. Without sweetener or milk, the bottom of the cup got a little bitter. We’ll spruce it up next time and see what happens.
Way too much clove to resemble CC. Comes on much stronger.
Thanks for that.
Just when we laid in supplies for all things winter—fuzzy socks, plenty of cold-weather comfort food, Christmas-y tea…we got a string of 65F sunshiny days that will carry us well past Boxing Day. Mind you, I am not complaining! Just having to rearrange my sipping pattern a little.
Whatever the weather, we gave this one a try…husband loves TeaMaze’s Irish Whiskey flavored black tea and hoped this would be its spicy counterpart. Truthfully, I’m not getting any of the bourbon-y flavor at all, but the cinnamon-clove-orange trio goes well with a rooibos base. It resembles Harney’s Hot Cinnamon Spice, but less sweet, which is OK by me.
Oooh, those sound good! Next time I send an envelope your direction, I’ll tuck in a sample for you, if we don’t snarf it all up.
:)
This little tea thermos is great when it is beastly cold…I work in a 100-year-old building with wonky heat, and it does a very good insulative job. Of course, the plus is the screw-in strainer in the lid, so you can start with the good stuff in the a.m. and get reruns later in the day :)
After a few months of use, my only critique is that the round rubber seal around the lid sometimes comes out when I wash it (due to the strength of the vacuum seal) and I have to poke it back into its groove. Small price to pay for good warm tea all day.
First attempt at this one wasn’t particularly successful…thin and not much mocha. However, I wasn’t being especially attentive to preparation or drinking, either one. This may need some beefing up with milk and sweetener. We’ll save a final judgment call for a cup that I wasn’t guzzling while working on a writing assignment, tending to laundry, and making cookies.
The cookies turned out fine…this season, I’m missing my mom and sister so for some unknown reason, I am compensating by making some of their Christmas recipes that I remember fondly. (Mind you, I generally do not cook or bake; I reheat and assemble.)
The cookies in question are made in a skillet, not in an oven—like Rice Krispie treats with dates, gumdrops, and nuts, rolled in powdered sugar.
I took them to my Sunday kids at church … got two polite “I don’t think I like them” but the rest got snapped up pretty quickly, and I got one “Do you have any more?” and one “Can you give my mom the recipe?”
They sound delicious – I haven’t heard or seen anything like those cookies before!
There’s some interesting alchemy going on with this one. I sipped my first cup bag-in. My weary senses (it was a l—o-o-o-o-oo-ng day at work) picked things up in this order: peppermint, then chocolate, then yep—the crazy little lavender lilt at the end. I kept thinking how good it would be paired with a box of Russell Stover chocolate creams.
