3595 Tasting Notes
Sipdown
This is a lovely tea for breakfast or to pair with afternoon tea time goodies. Like most Lupicia teas, it calls for a rather short steep of 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, but this one may benefit from a slightly shorter one and also don’t overleaf. I prefer it freshly hot as I don’t use milk and sugar and it gets an edge as it cools if you have slightly overleafed as I did this morning, due to the “too much for this pot but not enough to save for a cup later” dilemma.
I have repurchased before and I expect I will repurchase again someday, as I really like this one.
Edited to add: I decided to resteep these last leaves for a sweet tea. Absolutely delicious.
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My very favorite tulsi tea is Ashram Afternoon by Bellocq. This tea is thinner in body by comparison and has milder flavors, even when I overleaf. There is a lot more mintiness here. I like this better than Organic India’s plain Tulsi, and this is good for sipping on when you want a little cup of calm.
June 22 Sipdown Challenge Prompt – World Rainforest Day: drink a green tea
I bought this to do cold infusions, and have done so once. It was last summer around mid-July so I don’t remember it. I decided to try it as a hot tea tonight but will be trying cold infusion again soon.
As a hot tea, this has a thick mouthfeel. The body is really nice, almost creamy. The company describes it as syrupy but I don’t find it sweet.
The flavor is a nice solid grain like oats and it is also a bit nutty, I would go with mild walnut flavor.
June Sipdown Prompt – a tea you can buy in your town or city
I was going to use Harney’s Vanilla Comoro, but I have that in loose leaf and you can only buy sachets in town. I decided to go with this one that has no reviews.
Honestly, it tastes like decaf black tea with no bells and whistles really. We drink it sweetened and I like it best when we add something to it. I have been adding a ginger and lemongrass tea to dress it up and that is tasty. Tonight as an experiment, I added a spoonful of Bonne Maman Four Fruits Preserves. The Russians add cherry jam to their hot tea, so why not try it?
It wasn’t as good as I had hoped. I think it should probably have been stirred in while the tea was hot.
This tea is cheap and good for slugging down by huge glassfuls when it is 100F day after day like it will be this week. But I have been finding it a boring lately and decided to splurge and pay triple for Luzianne and see if I enjoy that a little more. I have had it before but usually buy this one just for the savings since it is for sweet tea to go with meals.
So… ummm… is there some punctuation that could be added to the name of this product? Perhaps just re-cast the name as Harris Teeter does?
https://www.harristeeter.com/p/harris-teeter-black-tea-decaf-family-size-tea-bags/0007203640043?
Tea was already in the system and I did not notice how it could be misread. Have attempted to change name three times. Perhaps it needs to time to update. I did refresh my page and no change. Will continue to correct the name.
Also, TeaEarleGreyHot, you can click “edit tea info” and fix it if you an issue with incorrect information! It doesn’t have to be the person who added the tea.
Same issue with the caffeinated version so I have changed the name there, as well. Thank you for pointing it out!
@ashmanra, I was kind of amused by it, really! I wasn’t sure when or by whom the listing was created, because when I looked, the “Edit tea info > Last updated by…” line was blank. And although your review was the only one, there are many old entries here that have no reviews. And I didn’t want to behave imperially by changing a listing that you might have recently created. So it seemed best to gently and respectfully raise the issue. ;-) Cheerio!
June Sipdown Prompt – a tea that makes you feel calm
GMathis told me about the benefits of Tulsi for unknotting tension years ago, and so far this is my favorite way to partake of it. The star anise, cinnamon, and cardamom make it rich and exotic. I do think it takes the edge off!
I want to try it iced, and will update here when I do.
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I am not the world’s biggest fan of Earl Grey type teas and I prefer them to have a base other than Ceylon, especially high grown. I find the natural lemon notes of Ceylon become a bit much for me with bergamot so I gravitate toward a Keemun or even African base.
For some reason, I have been drawn to this one every day at breakfast. It does have a nice base and is one of F&M’s better teas to me.
I had a tin of the same tea before under the name Mother’s Day. The “holiday” teas at F&M often get a redesign and new name even though the blend remains the same, as they did with their Valentine’s Day tea as well.
This tea is one of the stronger Earls I have tried and liked. The rose is nearly as big a player here as the bergamot. The base is nice and strong with good low notes and carries the bergamot well.
I drank this one as a single steep most of the time, though I have done the double steep and combine method as well and it still makes a very fine pot of tea. Ashman doesn’t love bergamot or rose, though he tolerates both in blends where they are not the main players, so I generally drink this one alone and there is no need to economize with it. He did drink this one once or twice and didn’t object to it.
June 10 Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Iced Tea Day!
This tea was a gift from Martin – many thanks!
Almost every day all year around is iced tea day around here, but especially in hot weather.
I wanted to give our pitcher of decaf black sweet tea some pizzazz so I added some of this tea to it.
Martin is right. This tea is very lemongrass forward. It has such good flavor and the ginger is just right. Rare Tea Company had recommended using lemongrass instead of lemonade to make an Arnold Palmer since you would need far less sugar as there is no tartness to counteract. That’s what inspired me to mix this with our decaf black tea. I look forward to having this on its own, as well, and I will definitely be making more lemongrass black tea blends this summer.
June Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a flavored green tea
My breakfast tea choices yesterday and today were based on the fact that we are eating outside and it is hot and often muggy, so I want lighter choices. This morning turned out to be rather pleasant and breezy since we ate early, which was a nice surprise.
Ashman used to dislike lemon in tea, and probably still would not want a squeeze of lemon. He doesn’t mind lemongrass in tea, though.
He drank this happily enough today. Happy is a good name for this tea, as the lemongrass just adds a sunny note to the tea. Oddly, I didn’t pick up the cucumber aroma this time but I was busy cooking and didn’t really take time to smell the leaves. This is a summertime tea for me because it is light and bright and sunny when the heat is oppressive and the humidity is suffocating. I expect we will be drinking a lot of it over the next few weeks.
Sipdown
It has been hot and humid lately but this morning is nice enough for breakfast outside. I still wanted something that wasn’t too heavy.
This tea occurred to me as a great candidate. It resteeps really well. It goes well with food and on its own you can detect a very slight nuttiness with a floral overlay and light briskness on the tongue. Ashman said he found it very refreshing and it made him want to drink cup after cup.