coop

Well, this one is a dismal sadly. I was expecting something as Earl Grey, but it was black tea with citrusy notes only. And the darjeeling was like autumn leaf pile in aroma and in taste boring, flat and unrecognizable from other black teas. Bergamot flavor was rather lemony, instead of pithy and strong “grey” notes.

Shame, especially for pyramid sachet.

I have bought a box of tea bag wrappers from fellow collector, so many tea bag teas notes coming up.

As a first one I took this one, as it was pyramid sachet, “orientale” sounded a bit spicy to me, and green tea… why not at all. And coop do good teas (usually), as I have an experience from their Swiss branch.

What a surprise to find out it is actually green tea with cherry. Well, I need to learn Italian words related to teas. Anyway, to the tea — briefly, but hopefully enough to give you some idea what the tea was.

It was nice grassy green tea base, with sweet cherry notes. Those fruit notes started as sakura aroma, but lately they became stronger to fruit itself. Also, as the matcha was in, there was some umami flavor, as well as some buttery notes. Maybe I have used a bit too hot water.
I can imagine drinking this iced, though it would need longer steeping time for sure and overfall it was nicely refreshing cup.

80 considering tea bag qualities.

A sipdown! (M: 10 Y: 30) Prompt: Your cheapest tea — Well actually I am not sure if it is a cheapest tea as it comes from Switzerland; and it was actually a gift, so I haven’t paid anything, but coop is cheap brand for sure.

I have to agree with my previous me, “Pretty basic, a bit harsh, black tea”

Somehow, today it was quite malty and bready as well. Instead of cardboard.
Definitely very simple, but fine enough to no-fuss tea.

Pretty basic, a bit harsh, black tea. Although they say Ceylon Tea Mix on the packaging, apparently there is also south Indian tea in.

Tannic, a little bit of cardboard, tingling on the tongue. Thank you though, Fabiana. At least I have something to exchange (yes, it has got outer paper wrapper).

Another sad sipdown. Number: 58. This tea I have received from my Swiss friend, sent some to derk and Izzy. Well accepted from them as well from me.

Yes, this tea is about two months past best before, but still great herbal mix.

Light, herbal palate cleanser (yes, I know I use words from both); somehow a bit mineral and earthy. Overall, quite well made blend, with nice taste (the thyme is lovely). The age made the tea way more boring, but when it was fresh…

I wish I could access coop teas better too. I wrote that friend I really liked it and she said she will try to get some, when she will visit me again. Certainly tea to have fresh and if I were located in Switzerland, it would be always in my cupboard.

I found some tea bag left of those, and decided to brew it.
As a collector I took it out of foil wrappers earlier, so it wasn’t so potent as earlier, but it was still very nice herbal!

The mint was probably most present nowdays, with kind of earthy thyme and sage.
Hmm, too bad that coop have those wonderful teas only in Switzerland.

On side note, it seems my brother caught Covid-19; he just lost all sense of smell (and common cold never did it to him); we made measures earlier… so we are safe but of course it isn’t great at all. Results should come in Saturday

Very strong bergamot aroma after opening the package.
Strong, malty aroma after brewing.
And a really solid taste for a cheap own brand tea, malty, with distinct bergamot flavours. Nothing spectacular, but certainly very drinkable.

I’m not sure if this is the correct tea because there was no definitive name on the bag tag, but based on the taste, I’m dropping it here.

From Martin Bednar. All the herbs in this organic blend are from Switzerland. Neat.

Light, bright, mineral and herby without green herbaceousness. The most forward taste is thyme but it’s not in your face. I feel the menthol oozing from my chest. Tangy lemon balm aftertaste. Overall delicate and balanced. Lovelovelove! I wish I had easy access to coop teas! The three you sent, Martin, are all fantastic!

By far the best bagged turmeric tea I’ve ever had. Numi turmeric tea blends here in the states have nothing on this. I’ll have to try what Martin spoke of in one review and use the other teabag to cook some basmati rice tomorrow. Thanks, guy :)

Apple and rosemary, that is all.

Delicious apple tartness balanced by savory, herbal rosemary with some earthiness. It’s only mildly sweet to me, but surprise! An unknown length of time after finishing the cup, a ball of sugary apple sweetness sits at the back of my mouth.

Perhaps not the freshest teabag but I overall love this simple combination! Thank you, Martin.

I am trying to “understand” this tea since I have received it from my Swiss friend. She sent me whole box of 20 tea bags, so lots of to explore. She said it is her favourite, so I was looking very forward to it.

It is all organic; clear ingredients – just apple pieces (90 %) and rosemary (10 %). That is something I really like. No sweeteners, no aromas, no flavours.

They suggest 3-5 minutes steeping time, I don´t know how much I did though. Maybe it is closer to 5 than closer to 3. Liquor looks like cloudy apple juice. Aromas – it is quite earthy, herbal, but with sweet notes of ripe apples.

In taste – is earthy as well. Sweetness is close behind in taste profile. It goes well together. Earthy with sweet notes. I never thought it could work. And as rosemary has got quite specific taste profile, it is there as well.

In some kind of conclusion: I have to say that I still don´t “understand” this tea. It is certainly interesting blend, not weak anyhow, but somhow weird. It goes well along (apple and rosemary), but sometimes I think that – apple is too strong; then another sip and oh, rosemary is so strong.
I really can´t explain what is tea about. It is so interesting, buton the other hand it is kinds of weird as well. Maybe I like it because it is so unique?

Another experiment with this tea.

I heated up milk. Then spilled the milk to the cup with tea bag. The milk was quite cold, but still hot enough for steep. I think it has got about 70 °C based on my thermometer. But I am afraid it is measuring all “needle” long, so it is sometimes more because it wasn´t all in water (or milk this time).

I let it steep for quite a long time, maybe 8 minutes was actually correct. Then I even squeeze the bag (I don’t do it) to make all spicy taste go in.

It turned into very interesting colour. It was like eggnog or something. Pale yellow colour of course completely opaque. As aroma it was not really spicy.
But the taste!
It was delicious. Spices spreaded all around the mouth, so sometimes bit mor gingery, then bit more cinnamony, cardamon there… and turmeric making it very nice and interesting.

I think this is how man should prepare this blend. Great idea – to make a “Golden Milk” from it.

Another not rating because of making it differently.
I put a bag in, added a tea spoon of black tea – St. SebasTea Ceylon. 2+3 grams both.

I have no idea if it is better or not. It is like kind of chai. Quite bitter chai. All spicy taste is gone. Or overwhelmed with with black tea flavours. Maybe it is little better than plain.

Colour is cloudy brown, not very nice.

That’s it. A changed cuppa than last time. But still nice.
I should experiment more.

Huh, is this even tea? No tea in; more over lots of spices, turmeric.

But let´s try it out. They suggest 8 minutes steep, so I did.

Well, this is very interesting beverage.
After the tea bag hit the water it started to change colour to bright yellow. Which is expected, but still amazed me. Bag is whole yellow now, after the steep. Colour of brew, yellow, with yellow stains on mug. Cloudy liquor.

Oh aromas are some generic spices – probably it smells bit like chai. Wel, the ingredients says so.

Taste – it feels bit oily in mouth. Probably mostly turmeric, it reminds me bit curry risotto or something like that, just generic Indian food (never had it though). Really interesting tea, but I am considering using bag or two into rice in some kind of meal. It can be very interesting I think – and probably better than drinking it on its own. I have whole box from my Swiss friend, so it will keep me busy a little. No rating so far.

I was looking forward to a pomegranate flavored white tea but I was disappointed that I could barely taste any pomegranate.

The ingredients include White & Green Tea, Lemongrass, and an unidentified ‘natural flavor’. All I could taste was the White & Green tea and the lemongrass. unfortunately after drinking the tea I still couldn’t identify what the flavor was supposed to taste like.

I rated this tea rather low because of the disappointment factor. However, the taste was actually pretty good. If they name matched the taste and then I wouldn’t have been disappointed and I probably would have given a rating in the 70s.

From the queue

Husband needed a re-stocking of his Triple B chamomile bags. (Triple B = Before Bed Beverage) This then led to me finding myself in the tea section of the supermarket. Having moved, it’s a new supermarket. Same chain but larger, so they have a higher variety on some things. There was a thread on the discussion boards not too long ago about how it seemed like supermarkets seemed to be stocking a wider selection of loose leaf teas and of a generally higher quality than they did just a few years ago. Danish supermarkets seem to be moving into that trend as well these days, so I thought I’d have a gander. There were some really nice looking tins, unfortunately none of which containing anything I was interested in, so I was just about to move on when I spotted this on a shelf next to some Earl Grey of the same brand. These were standing a little back on the shelf compared to the EG (I imagine because someone took some before me), so they were easy to miss.

Excellent, I thought. It’s a type I’m rather fond of in general and it’s not so long ago that I was wishing I had some Keemun in the house. Therefore, yoink!

I have, however, upon coming home discovered two things about it. One suspicious and one slightly amusing.

The suspicious thing is the ingredients list which reads ‘Keemun tea (from China and Vietnam)’
This is not actually a Keemun tea. It’s a Keemun blend! Boo! Oh well. I suppose it’s still better than no Keemun at all.

The slightly amusing thing is the storage recommendation where it says to not pour it into a different container and that it keeps best in the bag. Like plock it does; it’s a paper bag! And it’s not even resealable in anyway. Not only is that impractical, it’s also not going to offer any protection against air or smell what so ever. LOL! Hand me a tin.

Now, blend or not, the leaves smell lovely. All wooden and leathery, slightly malty and with the faintest whiff of smoke. That, I have to admit, smells authentic enough. I expect this is probably mostly Keemun with enough Vietnamese filler to beef it up and make it cheaper. I didn’t exactly pay a fortune for this and there were 150 g in the bag.

After steeping it smells a bit thinner. Malty and grain-y, yes, and again the barest hint of smoke, but also rather a lot of just hot water. I would have liked a stronger, fuller aroma. This gets better as it cools to a drinkable temperature, but I would have liked it to be like that from the beginning.

The first few sips are indeed a wee bit thin in flavour and the fact that it’s a blend is really showing. It’s got the bone characteristics of a Keemun, a touch of smoke and some grainy notes and a bit of malt. But it’s thin. It’s stretched out and there’s very much an imitiation sort of feel to it. The vietnamese tea that it’s been stretched with is definitely playing a part here. It’s got some low-grown notes to it and I’m sort of getting the impression here of a relatively good quality Keemun stretched by a poorer quality Vietnamese which has roughly the same kind of flavour profile.

That just doesn’t work that way, though! Instead of something that makes me go ‘yay, Keemun!’ I’ve got something that makes me think ‘hm, good enough in a pinch’. If it hadn’t said Keemun on the bag, I wouldn’t have thought it had anything to do with Keemun at all apart from tasting relatively similar.

Again, it helps a bit as it cools and develops, but that’s just not good enough. It needs to be there sooner. Doesn’t lose that rough-around-the-edges imitation flavour, though. It’s not really a smooth tea, this.

I’m not completely disappointed, though. In itself it’s not at all a bad tea. I just don’t think it really does what it says on the box. On the other hand, it’s probably not aimed at people like me who are used to counting on teas that say Keemun on them actually being from Anhui and not Vietnam and who knows exactly what her Perfect Keemun should taste like. It’s probably aimed at people who are used to having bagged tea and once in a while gets a bag of loose for guests or sheer luxury. If I had still been one of these people and I had tasted this, I believe I would have been highly pleased with it. If I had been completely new at loose leaf, first venturing out into buying a higher quality leaf and I had tasted this, it would make me try more Keemun.

On that point, this is a highly succesful blend, I think. For the experienced loose-leaf drinker it’s not really special but perfectly drinkable, but it would make an excellent beginner’s tea.

I shall rate it as the blend it is, not as I would a pure Keemun, and put it here. If it had been a pure Keemun, I’d probably have knocked some 10 points or so off that.