Bönor & Blad

Thank you Anna for this sample. Again I think this was a EUTTB round 1 sample?

The raw blend smells very sweet and strawberry like, reminds me of the gummy sweets. Got a touch of something creamy in there too like vanilla.

The strawberry is less sweet and more sour in taste but there is a yoghurt feel about it which I’m thinking is why. I used to eat strawberry pieces with yoghurt from a health food store and this tea is very similar, main difference is the tea is less sweet. You can also taste the green tea base which is a little grassy and astringent, though I say it’s the base but it could be the sea-buckthorn.

I like this blend, don’t think I would buy it but would happily drink it again.

Thank you Anna for this sample. Was this from the EUTTB round 1? Not sure. I had an accident with some of my samples as the cupboards collapsed and mixed them altogether, originally I kept samples separate so I knew who they were from and what they were from ie swap or box. Got some more drawers now but I can’t remember all of them :(

Oh and just to share, I had an Incredible Hulk moment with my shorts a moment ago. I sat down and they ripped off me to look very Bruce Banner-esque. I haven’t put weight on recently but the material was thin, thin material and my arse must not mix. Oh well.

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This raw leaf had a beautiful scent, like sweet and creamy berries with a hint of tartness.

Flavour is a little tangy/sour with a delicate sweet berry after taste. The green tea is very thick which is making me think I steeped it too long or too hot, also getting some dryness in the after taste. It’s an astringent, grassy type of green which doesn’t quite match the sweet berries. contrast is a little too much. A few sips gets me used to it but overall it has an overly perfumed feel and it’s not as pleasant to taste as it is to smell.

A tea from the first round of the EU TTB put in by Anna. I too have a few of these teas in a pile to try still and while I’m thinking about it I may as well try one. :)

I know nothing about this tea but looking at it I can see that it’s green (looks like Sencha) and has marigold and cornflower petals. Ok sniffing time (deep inhale) – cocoa, fruit (thinking something tropical like papaya) and subtle flowers. Sort of sweet but with a dark undertone.

Steeped this is completely different, I can now smell something stodgy like rice or porridge but with sweet tropical fruit in it. Not as pleasant, in fact a little odd.

The flavour matches too, it’s stodgy and oat like but I have no idea why. The fruit is there but again I’m sticking with something like papaya in terms of specific flavour. The green tea is grassy and like seaweed but it’s also astringent and dry which dominate it. There is also some familiarity in flavour but I’m not sure where or what it reminds me of.

I’m sitting here grimacing with each sip so I think it’s clear to say that this one just isn’t for me. Thank you anyway Anna.

This was another sent in my swap with KittyLovesTea.

This one had a low steeping temperature as per the parameters from KittyLovesTea. I steeped it at 158 F/70 C.

The scent is strongly strawberry, but the taste is slightly more diminished, which is better. There is a definite creaminess here, I can only assume from the yogurt. The green base works great here and the base and flavours seem to compliment each other well here, nothing is too overwhelming or underwhelming.

Thanks KittyLovesTea!

This is my first tea to sample from the EU Tea Box since it’s return to base. While adding them to my cupboard the flavours caught my attention on this one which is why I jumped at the chance to try it first. I have been in the mood for something sweet but delicate and hopefully this will be perfect.

Hmm..unusual flavour. It tastes like artificial yet perfumed strawberry which is a new experience for me. The black base is at least light enough and sweet enough to be pleasant. Champagne? Well I can’t taste anything, unless the perfume I get from the strawberry is supposed to be it? Cream? That I will vouch for, it’s lightness gives it some creamy qualities that make it easy to drink. Though I have mentioned the black base is light it is also malty, a nice earthy quality to contrast the sweetness.

Overall it’s a nice tea, somewhat artificial but pleasant enough. Perfect for those times where you are not fussy about what you have.

I wish I had been more elaborate about picking my voting day tea – this is not like me at all. But it was hard – I mean, what does civic duty taste like? So I just picked the black tea that smelled most appealing this morning, and, apparently, civic duty tastes like Studio 54, which I guess makes sense.

There were ticket inspectors on the tram! I’ve heard of that happening, but never witnessed it. So me and F, who came along to hit up the Swedish embassy with me, got to show our crisp, newly stamped and fully legit tickets while numerous Romans threw loud hissyfits around us, because that simply wasn’t acceptable, expecting them to cough up tram fare like that. Monday! Who pays on a Monday?! &c.

I had this with a breakfasty fruit plate and some almond butter, and it was surprisingly good with it. I usually drink fruity/floral greens and whites with fruit, but this tea brought some kind of deep, smooth caramel note to the plate (HA! I wasn’t even trying!) that was really nice and unexpected.

If I had to pick one of my basic black German blends to restock, this would be the one.

So this, like Safari from the same company, was a tea I got for a friend, but as everything didn’t fit into the little travel kit I put together for her, I got stuck with some to try out for myself. (I am so unfortunate. Suffering. Really.)

I was looking for the black equivalent of the green champagne tea from Tehörnan, and this is what was recommended.

The tea is pretty light and floral in terms of both scent and taste, with that undeniable and yet undefinable lingering note present in all the champagne teas I’ve reviewed so far. To be honest, I find it has very little to do with any form of champagne or sparkling wine at all. It entirely lacks any of the complex exuberance – yeasty, sulphuric or otherwise – I associate with champagne, and there’s not the slightest hint of a boozy note anywhere. So when I get excited about a ‘champagne’ tea, it’s really just because I’m so hooked on that undeniable/undefinable nuance.

That nuance, however, works best in the green tea, very well in the rooibos, and not so well in the black. I expect so much more from a black tea – it can carry so many more nuances of flavor and hints of texture than a green (or even a rooibos). In addition, I often find drinking black teas somewhat challenging because of their richness, so they really have to be worth the effort. This one is not – it’s a black tea masquerading as a much lighter tea, rendering itself redundant in the process.

[Purchased at Bönor & blad in Uppsala, August 2013.]

Another tea I didn’t ‘technically need’, yet another discount I wanted to use before leaving the country. This is a good one, though – I find it really original. It might be all about the carrot – I can’t remember if I’ve ever tried a carrot tea before.

Deconstructing the dry tea is a challenge; as it’s so unlike anything else I have a hard time finding something to compare it to. I think of stables, but not the light summer hay stable scent, but rather stables in winter – pieces of carrot forgotten in pockets, the deep, rich scent of dry grass piled high, molasses, leather that is meticulously cared for, and finally a light booziness – whatever the groom keeps in his pocket flask, I guess.

To me, ‘Miss Saigon’, with its Madame Butterfly pedigree, implies a certain measure of elegance and delicacy that has nothing to do with this tea at all. ‘Miss Saigon’ should be a spring tea, and this is all winter.

Flavour wise, it’s fairly complex and very nice. Sweetcarroty with vegetal notes and some little surprising hints I can’t quite define. With a more elegant green tea base, this would do quite well in competition with the best greens of, say, Mariage Frères.

[Purchased at Bönor & blad in Uppsala, September 2013.]

The dry tea smells absolutely gorgeous. There’s fruit with a kick of sweetness, followed by that characteristic sea-buckthorn tea scent that’s so hard to characterize.

(The wet tea leaves smell like waterlogged puffed rice!)

In the cup, the scent is more vegetal than sweet, again in the typical manner of sea-buckthorn brews. The sweet fruity notes return to some degree in the aftertaste, but there’s a surprising amount of astringency.

[Purchased at Bönor & blad in Uppsala, August 2013.]

I’m pretty sure this is the same tea found here: http://www.tehusetjava.se/shop/product/smaksatt-safari—102-38-1478.aspx. Its origin escapes me – all the main tea chains seem to share certain blends. I got this for a friend to try, but ended up with some that didn’t fit into the special Anna-fashioned Tea Travel Set™ gift canister.

I get no pineapple whatsoever, and not much papaya. This seems to be all passion fruit, with some vague floral notes. Going by scent alone, it’s not the kind of tea I’d buy for myself – I generally find passion fruit too sour. And that’s the case here as well – Safari is a little too sour, a little too flat and a little too boring to be a favourite of mine.

Completely pointless re-steep.

[Purchased at Bönor & blad in Uppsala, August 2013.]

I’m not sure if this is the same tea as this one: http://steepster.com/teas/kahls/30691-kustfagring. I guess it’s possible Bönor & blad sell teas from Kahls, or maybe this is just one of those common blends I never realize is a common blend until I’ve come across it in fifteen different stores.

Either way, this is really excellent everyday tea. The pleasant, mellow fruitiness of any good sea-buckthorn tea is highly present both in the bag and the cup. The yoghurt and strawberry come together nicely, lending the flavour a sweet creaminess with hints of vanilla.

It’s not a very complex tea, but it’s smooth and round and well put together.

Decent re-steep.

[Purchased at Bönor & blad in Uppsala, August 2013.]