15 Tasting Notes
Bought this cheap in a local supermarket and was pleasantly surprised. I don’t know if the “Anhui black tea” bit in the company’s description is really true. The leaves look like BOP soaked in blueberry… At any rate, as far as simple flavored teas go, this one was quite nice, the blueberry making a strong enough impact on taste and giving a pleasant aroma to the liquor.
Preparation
This is a vanilla rooibos tea from a Swedish company, little known outside Sweden it seems. I had a good time tasting Kobbs’ blueberry tea, and I love rooibos, so I came to Röd Skymning with high hopes. Unfortunately, even after 5+ minutes of steeping, the characteristic rooibos aroma just wasn’t coming through, and what little did was utterly obliterated by vanilla flavoring (and it too was not very tasty).
Preparation
It’s the third time I’ve tried this tea, and it doesn’t quite work for me. Its dry leaves have an absolutely wonderful aroma, malty, with chocolate and cookies, and cornflowers, and I don’t know what else. Very rich and promising. But I can’t get it out through steeping – being a Britain-inspired tea, this gets very strong very quickly, and I can’t feel too many of those flavors. I’ve taken it with milk today, and while it was substantially better, the tea still doesn’t fulfill the promise made by that aroma.
Preparation
These special edition, special tin MF teas seem very hit-or-miss (that is euphemism for almost all miss) to me. But the tins, ah, those tins…
That’s very true for me, too. MF’s design department sure know what they’re doing :)
I kinda wish I had never seen the teapots as well. Only problem with those being the price tags.
I’m not really a teapot person, but MF’s do seem overpriced for no apparent reason. I’ve sold quite a few of them, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a customer not surprised by the price.
I don´t think myself a teapot person, but their teapots seem to make me a teapot person, they are just so beautiful with often slightly surprising details but in perfect taste. the prices, though, never. Not even if I won euromillions.
The tins, same thing, they really get my number. I manage to resist the tins mostly – I got a strict no-serious-money for paper-lined tins (how can you wash those) and so far what i have tried of the special edition tins has not been inspiring. But maybe the lily of the valley tea will be different, who knows? :p
I hate to say this, but I really disliked the lily of the valley black tea – seemed like a bad idea from the start, and… well, I hope your experience is different. Haven’t tried the others.
I think the only special edition tea I’d recommend – so far, anyway – would be “Inde” from the same world collection as “Britannia”. “Inde” is a mix of Assam and Darjeeling, and quite a few spices and nuts (?), and even though I don’t like Indian teas, I had to admit the bouquet was fantastic – multi-dimensional, really getting the various notes of everything that is included. You can have it several times in a row and still find new things in the taste.
I am glad you said that, I was afraid of the idea and only half considering it – I love lily of the valley and the tin, oh so beautiful. But i think we both agree their special edition tins can be lacklustre, except for tin collectors and I am probably not as hardcore as all that.
Inde, noted down, thank you! I tried The des Maharajahs which I think is precisely that one – but sadly the sample I tried was from a tin which was already too old, and that was noticeable. I did like it despite that!
Taken with no sugar and no milk, this is a rather poor blend with unpleasant artificial (?) flavorings. However, add a teaspoon or two of sugar and enough milk, and the taste will change dramatically into something very artificial, very bubblegum-like, and extremely enjoyable! A cheery rainy day, indeed. I’ve found the same scheme works wonders for some other Nordqvist teas, particularly Faithful Friend and Tiger’s Daydream. Not an everyday tea, but a very nice oddball sort of tea to have on your shelf.
(Unfortunately, I only have this in teabags. Couldn’t find the loose leaf version, even in Finland!)
Preparation
I think this is one of the more interesting teas in the “Les Calligraphies du thé” collection, and also one that is very easy to miss. This is because anise seeds give it a very strong fragrance that completely overpowers everything else, so there’s almost nothing to be gained from smelling the dry leaves. You have to steep it like a well oxidized oolong, in nearly boiling water, and then the real flavor comes out – a complex green tea somewhat reminiscent of classic Chinese green teas. Very difficult to describe, but perhaps like Pi Lo Chun without the smokiness. Anise plays a crucial part, bonding extremely well with the bouquet and not overshadowing any of the other flavors. Interestingly, this tea seems best when drunk quite hot, unlike most green teas.
