Another from the box of wonder cteresa sent me after I broke my elbow! I made the first cup of this right after drinking the Destination Ceylon, which was a mistake, especially as I probably left it steeping too long. (BTW, love Clipper as a company, but it makes me so irritated that they have exactly the same brewing instruction on every tea they sell – white, everyday breakfast blend, green, you name it! Even I’ve known better than that for years, and I’m not a long-established tea company!) I drank it again a day or two ago and gave it just under 3 minutes and liked it much, much better. No bitterness, not overly-astringent, and I loved the delicate level of vanilla. I could have taken more vanilla, but didn’t feel the tea suffered from not having it. Oddly enough, they sell probably over 30 types of Clipper teas in our local produce/health food/gourmet shop, and I’ve never seen this one there. Lots of other places to look for it, but it just seems strange.
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I’ve been drinking tea pretty much all my life, allowing for the fact that there probably was no tea in my baby-bottles. I gave it up twice, once when a then-boyfriend sneered at me for being addicted (okay, I was, but I was also stubborn enough to bear a week of the blinding headaches and overwhelming exhaustion that followed cold-turkey withdrawal), and once on my first pregnancy. Neither experience gave me any reason to believe a life without tea is a good life.
Having spent most of my younger days in Ireland, where tea is everywhere, and mostly it’s decent, I whined my way across the States in the 80s and first half of the 90s. Now back in Dublin, and the tea situation is a bit mixed, but there’s the internet to provide what nearby shops don’t!
I started drinking green and white teas as well as my staple black a good few years ago now, but have recently decided I need to LEARN something more about tea than the little I know.
My likes:
- strong black tea blends; some flavoured blacks, such as Earl Grey and a small (but growing) number of other fruit and flower-flavoured ones; and chai. (For some daft reason, I feel like a tea fraud drinking sweet chai at home, though I’ll happily drink it out.)
- Chinese greens (may update this when I’ve learned enough to be more specific); some flavoured greens, especially if they’re made by the fabulous Yumchaa; Genmaicha; getting to like Sencha, as long as it’s not too bitter.
- White tea, pretty much as long as it’s good quality, I like it. Some flavoured ones are nice, though it’s easy to overpower the more delicate taste of white.
- Rooibos, which I know, I know, isn’t properly ‘tea’. (As above for Yumchaa flavoured rooibos – some of my favourites.)
Dislikes:
- Any black tea made by someone who doesn’t know you need BOILING WATER. (See above about the Whining Years.)
- Hibiscus in fruit-flavoured teas. Looks so pretty! Tastes so awful!
I’m working on trying to like Hojicha, which isn’t going too well yet. Jane Pettigrew describes it as “biscuity”, but unless she’s eaten a lot of cigarette-flavoured biscuits in her time, I don’t get it.
- Aniseed in spiced teas. (Just discovered this one for the dislike list today, in an otherwise-tasty chai. Don’t like the tongue-numbing effect.)
Indecisive, despite being opinionated – okay, very opinionated – so may just add notes rather than rating.
Location
Dublin, Ireland
