Cameron B. select Send Message

So today I’m up for round 2 of me versus Paris. I decided yesterday that I wanted to drink it straight and then had some unsuccessful attempts at brewing it – they all came out either bitter or unflavored. So after some advice from TheTeaFairy I am trying again today.

First try, I cut open a silken sachet and measured out a teaspoon for 8 ounces of water. Brewed it at 195 degrees for 5 minutes. This one tasted underleafed to me, both the tea and the flavor were extremely mild. So I tried again with a full sachet at the same temperature and time. This came out much better. It seems to me the flavors in this tea are very subtle, and for this reason I much prefer it with a little bit of sweetener to bring them out.

The only conclusion I can draw from all of this is that this tea comes out bitter when it’s understeeped. Does that even make sense…? I guess anything is possible.

I need a little spice this morning to pep me up a bit. This definitely does the trick. Amusingly enough, the amount of cinnamon in this tea seems to be affecting my nose this morning, because I keep sneezing as I’m drinking it! I find with this tea that it’s best to keep a spoon in it and stir it every so often to keep the flavor distributed. Yum yum red hots! <3

I got this tea as a swap from TeaBrat (thank you :)). She even included the cute little sample tin it came in. Dry, the tea is a mixture of dark and light green dry, flaky leaves of various sizes. There are also dried jasmine buds along with a few loose petals. It has a slightly musty, light vegetal scent with hints of sweet hay or straw; there is also a mild jasmine aroma. I brewed it for 2 minutes in 175 degree water.

The brewed tea has a generic “green tea” smell with some jasmine and a little bit of woodiness. The taste is similar – the green tea is vegetal, woody, and quite astringent with a lingering bitterness in the background. The level of the jasmine is quite nice; it’s easy to find but does not overpower the tea itself. Overall, I find this to be a pleasant tea, especially with a touch of honey to counteract the slight bitterness.

After loving this tea yesterday, I was really excited to find it at the store this afternoon! Truthfully, I was considering the decaf version, but I don’t see myself making an order from Harney & Sons anytime soon (too many other retailers I want to buy from!) and I don’t think I’ll find the decaf sachets for sale anywhere else. So another lovely white Harney tin came home with me! This one has deep orange and copper accents.

I think there may be something to the tin’s suggestion that you use one sachet for two cups, because this one is definitely zestier than the cup I had yesterday (which was a traditional style paper tea bag while these are the silky sachets). However with this tea, I like the strong cinnamon flavor so I probably wouldn’t bother.

This cup is making me much happier after all that frustration with Paris earlier… <3

I’m having a really hard time with this tea today, and I’m not sure why. I decided I wanted to drink it straight, so I brewed it for only 3 minutes and for some reason it came out pretty bitter. So thinking maybe I should try it at a lower temperature, I brewed it at about 190 degrees or so. The bitterness was gone but so were all of the flavors – it tasted like plain black tea. So then I tried the 205 degrees again, thinking maybe that one sachet had been a fluke, and it came out bitter again and it seemed like it had little flavor. I pored over the tin, and it says somewhere on the side that you should use one sachet for two cups of tea. This doesn’t make much sense to me and I’ve never had a problem with this tea before, though I usually take it with some sugar. I had to add condensed milk to these brews to even be able to drink them…

Does anyone have any experience with this tea in the pyramid sachets? I don’t understand what is going wrong with this or how it’s coming out bitter with a shorter steep time. Any advice would be amazing… :(

I brought a couple of tea bags home from the brunch restaurant this morning (don’t tell!) and this was one of them. The dry tea bag smelled pleasant enough, tart raspberry with some mint notes. I brewed it for 5 minutes.

As soon as I smelled the brewed tea, I knew I was going to hate this. It smells and tastes like almost pure hibiscus and it’s extremely tart to the point of being unpleasant. I can also taste rosehips and a little mint. The raspberry is probably in there somewhere but I think it’s being masked by the hibiscus since they’re a bit similar in flavor. I drank this instead of dumping it, but I had to add an inordinate amount of sweetener for it to even be drinkable. Gross. >.<

I went out to brunch with my boyfriend this morning. We went to Hattie’s, a southern style place known for their fried chicken. They have a special brunch menu until 2 on weekends, and I happen to love brunch food, especially when it involves grits. :D Anyway, I ordered a hot tea and I was pleasantly surprised when the server brought me a mug of hot water and a small glass jar with several flavors of tea bags to choose from. They had the usual Lipton and then four different kinds from Harney & Sons. This was the one that sounded the best to me at the time. The dry tea bag smelled just like red hots (the cinnamon candy, also known as cinnamon imperials)! I steeped it for about 5 minutes.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this tea. I don’t consider myself to be a big fan of cinnamon. It smelled and tasted like a milder version of red hots, and it was very sweet even though I didn’t add any sugar (the ingredients list mentions “sweet cloves” and I have no idea what that is). I didn’t really taste the black tea base at all since the spice flavor was pretty strong. I could definitely see myself keeping this around, especially in the autumn and winter months. Very comforting!

Trying this one cold brewed this evening – since it’s the weekend, I’m not too worried about having caffeine this late. I used a teaspoon of pearls for 8 ounces of water and left it to brew in the fridge for six hours.

The floral is just way too strong for me when this is cold. I can’t taste anything but jasmine! I think I may try this again and just use a very short steep time, maybe two or three hours. Or I may try it hot brewed and then chilled. Ideas for tomorrow! :)

I’m trying this one cold brewed this evening, and it turned out quite tasty! I let it cold brew for six hours yesterday, then strained the leaves and left it in the fridge until now. I can definitely pick up all of the lovely citrus flavors and the bergamot is nice and mild. Quite delicious with a little bit of sweetener! :)

So today when I was perusing the grocery store, this rascally little can of sweetened condensed milk somehow found its way into my basket. The little troublemaker must have hopped in when I wasn’t looking, and I didn’t have to heart to tell him no when he obviously so wanted to come home with me. True story.

Actually, this is all boychik’s fault…

I love this tea so much with milk and sugar – it’s like a very mild chai with vanilla and just that hint of sweet orange and under it all, I can still taste the black tea base. This time around I tried it with sweetened condensed milk and I’m really pleased with the result. It’s yummy and creamy but it doesn’t have that distracting/overpowering cream note that happens when I use half-and-half. And the sweetener is built right in, how cool is that? I love anything that allows me to be lazy. :P Thanks, boychik!