338 Tasting Notes
My 4th tea from The Book of Tea (I haven’t written about the 3rd one yet!). I have had Lapsang Souchong before but none of those previous cups had left a lasting impression. But I guess I will never forget about this tea because it’s very, very smoky. It should really be used in a tea-tasting session to demonstrate the definition of smokiness! When I opened the packet and took out the tea bag, I smelled… bacon. Yeah I really mean it, it’s BACON!
I brewed the tea in a lidded cup. As soon as I lifted the lid, I was greeted by a whiff of campfire smoke – at least that was what I thought. The smokiness was powerful both in the aroma and the liquor. Perhaps because of the association with bacon, this tea tasted kinda savoury to me. It had an unmistakeably salty aftertaste, which I didn’t exactly enjoy but found really interesting.
I won’t order or buy this tea, but I am glad that I had it as it has taken me to another dimension of tea! :)
Preparation
Rooibos + vanilla is an unbeatable formula and rarely goes wrong. Rouge Bourbon, i.e. MF’s rooibos vanilla, achieves a perfect balance between rooibos and vanilla. You can taste both the candy-like sweetness of vanilla (Bourbon Vanilla, according to MF) and the unique earthy flavour of rooibos. MF has again done a amazing job, though as a vanilla lover I actually won’t mind some imbalance… haha ;P
This chamomile tea does have a unique taste – a lemony and flowery undercurrent which likely comes from lemon verbena. But I am not so happy with the long, bitter aftertaste that lingers in my mouth. As the tea cools, the bitterness becomes more and more intense! Now my whole cup (instead of only the aftertaste) has turned bitter 0_0
I have never got this from other chamomile blends and I am not sure what is responsible for this. Anyone who has similar experience?Preparation
Hi Devilish,
You can try removing the bag after steeping for 5 mins? Generally the tea is best drunk hot/warm as the sweetness is brought out. The taste becomes more flat once the liquid has cooled.
Hope this helps!
Thanks gtc… wait, gtc = Gryphon Tea Company!???? Wow!!!
I will try the tea with your advice next time. There’s still another tea bag in my Treasures box. Despite a few misses, I love my Treasures box because there are so many exciting teas to try!! :) Of course, there are some really nice and interesting ones too ;)
My second tea from The Book of Tea. I was looking forward to a really spicy and sugary cup – just like Chinese ginger tea (a tisane consisting of brown sugar and ginger chunks only) – but of course it was nothing like that, for this was a spiced black tea after all. But still the ginger flavour was disappointingly mild after readjusting my expectations, perhaps because there were only 2 tiny ginger pieces in my tea bag! A tea that would be easily forgotten as there was nothing really remarkable about it.
Preparation
Congratulations to this tea on scoring over 90 on my rating scale! This is truly an achievement as this has NEVER occurred to any spiced tea beforehand. I ordered this tea because it was Christmas, but I have to admit that I approached it with skepticism. Based on its list of ingredients – Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Bitter Orange, Orange rind shavings – I was expecting the liquid version of fruit cake. The problem was: I had never liked fruit cake!
Surprisingly, instead of being a drinkable fruit cake, this tea was more like a fruit cake accompanied by a cup of green tea – the spiciness and extreme sweetness of fruit cake that I feared was toned down by the soft green tea, while the flavour of green tea was enhanced by the gentle notes of spices and orange. “Complementary” was the keyword. I must add that the tea had a mesmerizing floral fragrance, which was very sweet and bright (smelled like osmanthus to me!). There’s marigold on the list of ingredients but I just didn’t think marigold could have such a lovely aroma :P Anyway, this was a very nice tea and I was happy that my Christmas holiday had ended with a pot of this :)
T2’s Earl Grey has to be the boldest Earl Grey I’ve tried. It’s very malty, and the bergamot flavour is very potent. The latter part is good because I love bergamot! Earl Grey is normally my afternoon tea (cos the delicate and elegant bouquet of bergamot always remind me of Victorian ladies!), but T2’s is too heady for peaceful, relaxing tea time. Will make a good breakfast tea though!
I also find this way too overloaded – like you earl grey is an afternoon tea for me and for the exact same reason! And this never works as an afternoon tea for me so it’s a bit of a let down.
Haha it’s funny to know that you think earl grey is an afternoon tea for the same reason!!! What would be your choice of afternoon tea from T2? :) I don’t have much experience with T2’s range but I think Arctic Fire is pretty nice.
I know it’s nice to share my tea-taste with someone I’m pretty out of sync with everyone I know every time I offer tea they all reach for something else.
Afternoon tea? Without even blinking I have to say White Rose – accompanied by cucumber sandwiches and macaroons hee hee. It’s such a dainty tea it’s crisp and refreshing and very, very light allowing you to enjoy whatever afternoon treat you’re having.
But if I wanted an afternoon tea in place of an afternoon treat I’d have to say Choc Chip Chai with warm milk and a dollop of honey – it has enough black tea bang to pick up you up and is literally like drinking a chocolate chip cookie.
If I wanted a black tea to pick me up and be sweet – without the effort of making chai then T2’s Citrus Sensation is the winner.
Yeah I’m not very helpful I could go on all day ;( …. I’ve never tried Arctic Fire but you made it sound very nice. :)
Geez this is probably the strongest black tea I’ve ever tasted! It smelled like coffee when it was brewing. I would recommend a shorter brewing time than 4-5 minutes suggested by Gryphon, because the tea itself is very flavourful and the tea bag contains quite a lot of tea leaves. A bit of milk and sugar would also be a good idea unless you are feeling really drowsy!
Preparation
Eros has an aroma just as beautiful as that of Marco Polo, but the note is floral (resembling rose fragrance!) instead of fruity. I took a sip eagerly, confident that this would become another favourite of mine -
Yes, it is a truly delicate and yummy tea. It is sweeter than love! Wait, there’s a strange taste developing in my mouth… It’s bittersweet and a bit earthy, in a way that I don’t find very pleasant. WHAT IS THAT?
Sadly, the same experience repeated in every sip – it was delicious at the beginning but it ended with the weird, puzzling taste. Sigh! I googled the ingredients of Eros as soon as I came home, and then I got it – it’s probably hibiscus again!!!! I had only had hibiscus in the form of herbal tea, so usually the result was extreme tartness rather than the tinge of bitterness found in this tea. Now I have learnt another lesson about evil hibiscus! I will do a better job in detecting its presence next time.
This is the first MF tea that I don’t enjoy! :(
oh, hibiscus, I totally know what you mean. It´s my pet hate in tea – it always tastes too bitter, too tart for me (well, maybe with some exceptions. I sort of like it in iced tea). Thanks for the warning about this, I always to want to know when a blend has hibiscus.
You are welcome cteresa… someone should really form a group and list out teas that contain hibiscus to prevent unsuspecting tea drinkers, haha… :P I totally agree that hibiscus is more acceptable in an iced tea. But I guess I won’t pick any tea with hibiscus when I am informed of its presence or when I have other choices! ;)
Btw, your cupboard has an awesome collection! :) Love MF… and Mr. Jones (a brand that I wasn’t aware of) looks interesting!
Thanks! I really hate hibiscus – it is so popular, or at least it has been for a while. It overpowers everything. I am sort of curious about this Eros, if anybody can do hibiscus right, it just might be Mariage Freres. Though to be fair, there is a british tea shop called Yumchaa which has this rooibos-rosehips tea with some hibiscus which works, really works, the hibiscus is contained.
Mr Jones as far I know only make tea bags, I got them at a this chain of gourmet thingies called Oil&Vinegar http://www.oilvinegar.com/ – I only got their rose and lychee tea but they were awesome versions of those. And it was nice tea bags, I love teafoil packaging for teabags, tea tastes so much fresher.
MF, oh, everybody must have their vices – there are some local stores which sell it by the weight, and I get some 50 grams of this or that now and again. Only problem is the list of “to rebuy and must never ever be without this tea” keeps growing, it´s so evil of them to make so many great teas.
I think Eros is worth trying if you are a fan of MF! It will be interesting to taste how MF handles hibiscus ;) Actually it isn’t all that bad – it’s A LOT better than other teas containing hibiscus, and the bitter taste is actually rather subtle. I guessed the problem was more about my expectation! I had no idea that Eros contained hibiscus so the bitter taste somehow shocked me!
Haha yes MF is really evil… their teas are so delicious, and the tins so elegant! I have Marco Polo and Wedding Imperial in my cupboard, but I treasure them so much that I haven’t started drinking them!! :P
Thanks so much for the link! I must try Mr Jones someday. Lychee is one of my favourite flavours! :)
Oh, Wedding Imperial was my first MF tea, I made that tin last almost 3 years – and take my advice, do not hoard it for as long, do drink it as it is meant to be. Towards the end it was no longer quite as awesome as it was at first. I reused the tin actually, you can actually remove the stickers – though I got to confess their tins annoy me, they are not stackable, you can not pile them up on top of others (not necessarily MF. I do not have that many MF to worry about that), which is important for me. I actually like Kusmi tea tins better, but I do not actually like their teas nearly enough to pay almost MF prices for Kusmi, so forget it.
Lychee tea I also love – it is just right for me.
Try “The de Lune”. They yank the hibiscus and replace it with peppery notes.. I’m still trying to guess but I’m thinking it is french marjoram blossom, sweet rocket, or purple marigold. About to write my tasting review of it as I sip on it side-by-side with Eros to compare ;-)
