Harney & Sons

Feels like I have had this tea a million times. I keep getting free samples of it. Harney loves giving little samples of their green tea. And I definitely appreciate it, but I do wish they would provide more variety in the samples. I’ve had it a couple times and I’m to a fan…maybe it’s the combo of coconut and ginger. It’s better cold but I still don’t really like it. Not for me.

Here we are, trying the 3rd Day of Christmas tea in my advent calendar. At this rate, I might finish all 12 by the time Christmas actually rolls around.

Positives: Pleasant bergamot aromas combine nicely with the fruit and vanilla. Everything works together well, but it does bring me to the Negatives: Too artificial. Even though it says there are “natural” flavors, the overall combination still feels kind of fake and forced.

There’s something of an assam aftertaste as well, which is a bit odd. Altogether, I enjoyed this tea, but I very much wish it tasted more natural.

I’m not a big fan of white tea, but I like to try a new one every now and again. When I first started drinking it, I over brewed it..but I started paying attention and there was one time where I got the loveliest apricot notes. The rest of the time, it’s been forgettable and average. I don’t know how or why I got on magical cup. But not really worth the time or money…

2025 TTB #23

This didn’t really taste like tiramisu, but it did have a pleasant, light chocolate and vanilla flavor, with the hojicha adding a bit of nuttiness and depth.

The aroma of the leaves was so fantastic I was shocked by how boring I found it. I brewed it at the recommended temperature, three minute time, and (more or less) correct water amount. But it was so dull I swear I must have done something wrong. I left the tea bag in for half an hour and after that it was somewhat drinkable. I will be attempting it again. If it doesn’t improve with further testing, I suppose I’m just not a white tea fan :(

Tasting Note 3,500!

I think it is really fun that a benchmark note is landing on a special tea – in this case, my birthday present from my bestie, Melissa, a little early.

We are big strawberry tea fans over here, with black and green versions usually on shelf. I don’t know that I have ever had a strawberry oolong, though.

This is a great tin for gifting because it is so festive looking. The front of the pink tin is rather fancy and ornate, posh if you will. The back is very cute, featuring a simple strawberry milkshake topped with whipped cream, blushing and smiling with eyes closed. Would this be called kawaii?

The aroma is almost confusing because you don’t expect the authentic smell of scented milk oolong mixed with strawberries and cream. Well, I didn’t.

I had this with breakfast and decided to do several tests. How is it as a true resteeper, not combining steeps? How does it best pair? I usually pair with contrast rather than similarity. I had Good Seed bread by Dave’s Killer Bread, toasted and buttered. A small bit was plain, and bit was smeared with Fortnum & Mason Strawberry Jam, and a big portion was smeared with Bonne Maman Chocolate Hazelnut Spread.

First the tea – unmistakeable that this is oolong, you are not going to be fooled that it is a green tea with strawberry. The ingredients list milk flavor so I am assuming this is a scented or flavored milk oolong. First steep was 190F for three minutes and the strawberry is fairly light. Taste is unchanged when having plain buttered toast. Strawberry jam just sort of carried that berry sense across without enhancing it. Hazelnut chocolate spread was the winner by far. The chocolate contrasts sharply with the tea and added flavors making the strawberry AND the vanilla pop much more. At this point, I feel like there is surely a bowl of strawberries and cream somewhere on the table because that is what my brain is interpreting this as now.

For the second steep, which was without food, I kept the same steeping parameters. The tea is definitely strong enough to resteep even if you are not combining and the milk oolong personality comes out even more. There is still a hint of strawberry and the vanilla may be showing up a little more now because of the fading of the strawberry.

Don’t expect a KAPOW thick and sweet strawberry shake. I don’t think this would make a good dessert-replacement latte. If you add sugar it might enhance the strawberry shake vibe but we generally don’t add sugar and I liked it as it is – a subtle strawberries and cream milk oolong is my best description. Marvelous with chocolate.

Since a Harney and Sons sample bag contains more than just one serving of leaves, I got to perform a second experiment on this one back on Monday. I had to drive for a really long time on Monday – 140 miles round trip; it was supposed to take three hours, and I was very proud of myself when it really only took four, as I am not exactly God’s gift to vehicle usage – so I decided to make up the rest of the sample and try it out with a very light drizzle of honey in my glass water bottle I just got.

Brewing went well, pouring went well…and then I merrily sailed out of the door without picking up the bottle. Naturally. Ah, well. I guess I get to find out something of what it would taste like as an iced tea, then!

My first thought was “milder”, though I can’t say whether this was due to the honey or the temperature. The honey did seem to stay mixed, though, so I’m confident I at least didn’t overload it. It was pleasant and not as dramatically flavorful as the original, hot version, but would have made a nice thing to sip on during the horrors of my attempt to get both into and out of Atlanta alive on the same day. On the swallow, it also assumed an interestingly spicy note that it hadn’t had before. Still wouldn’t buy a full tin, I don’t think, but the next time Harney has samples of black Gulou available, I might grab another to compare, just based on the breadth of behavior seen from this one sample bag.

This tea, I fear, did not receive care nearly as good as it probably deserved. Specifically, it sat in a Harney’s sample bag for…???? I really have no idea, but it’s longer than it should have. Still, at least those things are opaque and pretty airtight, so such a bag is hopefully not the worst storage the leaves could have endured.

When I opened the bag, I was immediately hit by a rush of nostalgia. I don’t know how to describe it, but whenever I’ve ever opened one of those little black Harney and Sons sample packets containing any sort of unflavored black tea, there’s always initially been virtually the same smell. Good thing it’s a pleasant smell! The dry leaf, as you can see in my not-quite-seven-ounce glass teapot pictured in the tea image, was pretty but not especially distinctive.

I was making this tea on my ‘day off,’ away from my usual setup, so I had to time the three minutes on my phone. At first sip, all I could think of was “Keemun.” It wasn’t as winey, and lacked as strong of a certain indescribable note I call the “Keemun Edge,” but it was strikingly similar to my memories of Keemun. Keemun with less wine and Edge is, for me, a good thing, since I dislike wine and the “Keemun Edge” makes me feel inexplicably queasy after about one cup, but the resemblance to Keemun – a certain multigrain bread note underneath something sharpish and liquidy; yes, I know this is not a great description – was strong enough that I decided to do a little quick-googling to find out if they were from the same province. This specific Gulou is long gone from the Harney and Sons website, but they had some other Gulous, so I was able to confirm the tea is probably from Hunan Province. Another google, because I really have forgotten almost as much as I ever knew, revealed that Keemun is from Anhui Province, so nope, they aren’t from the same province. Time for a bit more google….

Just pulling up a provincial political map of China, I…initially took a really long time to find Hunan, to the point that I had to check that it didn’t have any alternative spellings. Eventually, though, I found it, and it is not adjacent to Anhui Province. Anhui is further north, and parts of two other, side-by-side provinces – Hubei and Jiangxi – stand between it and Hunan. Since the resemblance between the two really was striking, though, I googled around some more to find an elevation map. I couldn’t immediately find one with the provincial lines laid out over the topography, but by using the Sichuan Basin and the coastline as guideposts, I managed to make what felt like a reasonably plausible guess about which bits of the topographical map were Anhui and Hunan. If I’m right about where they are, then they share almost the exact same, very low elevation, just above sea level, so I suppose that plus proximity could contribute a lot to the two teas’ similarity.

I drank this a few days ago, so I can’t comment on the exact color, which only survives in a photograph taken for a tumblr review which the Internet ate. Thanks for that, Internet. It looks like it was a pretty, clear medium brown, though. Since it was a Chinese tea, I decided on a whim to try resteeping the leaves for a while, which is when I noticed that the wet leaves smelled remarkably much like Cadbury Egg! This was a good thing from my point of view, as I am very, very partial to Cadbury Eggs every spring. For this second steeping, I left the tea to its own devices for as long as it took me to walk around the house to the basement, unload the dryer, reload the dryer with wet clothes from the washer, and then put more dirty clothes in the washer. This was at least five minutes, probably a bit longer. When I poured the second cup, the color was exactly the same as the first, though now with bubbles around the edges for some reason. As I drank the tea, it retained strong flavors that were pretty distinct from each other – more distinct from each other than they were in the first cup, really. I got a bit of chocolate (sadly, not the sweet Cadbury kind, but chocolate) and a lot of that multigrain bread impression. Unfortunately, I also started really tasting the Keemun Edge on this one, so I didn’t attempt a third steeping. The leaves felt like they were close to ‘done’ anyway, though, and 12oz of a Keemun-like taste without feeling sick seemed like a reasonable amount of tea to get out of one spoonful of leaves. It’s not something I think I’d buy a whole tin of, but it was pleasant enough for special-tea Saturday, anyway.

March Sipdown Prompt – tea in a sachet

I had a pretty rough morning and just needed something fast and easy. This is supposed to be steeped hot and long to extract all the beneficial antioxidants but I wanted smooth and gentle and fast, so I gave it three minutes at 175F.

It makes a lovely jasmine green tea to go with food, but be warned that if you use their steeping parameters you get a much more assertive tea that is brisk and strong.

This is very average and forgettable. Sometimes it has hints of stone fruit and honey but not in a way that really wowed me. Wouldn’t repurchase.

Hot, this doesn’t taste like much. Cold with milk and sugar, it’s a pretty decent decaf EG! It’s smooth and well-balanced. The resteep was pretty hearty as well.

Time to open the 2nd day of Christmas door in my tea advent calendar…just a little late. No worries, it’s supposed to snow like 6 inches later this week, so we might as well roleplay as though Christmas is still around the corner.

Highly average earl grey tea. Tastes somewhat watered down. I do like the flavor of the bergamot, but something about the general taste just feels mediocre and lackluster. I’m finding myself missing that spark of freshness and vibrancy that I’ve come to expect from a really high-quality earl grey.

Usually with these blends I can’t really tell much about the individual teas that are in them. but for this one, I could.

First sip and my immediate response was, OMG that’s foul!

Second sip and I kept thinking about lawn mower clippings and over boiled greens of an unidentified type.
Isn’t this supposed to basically be an earl gray? Isn’t there supposed to be bergamot in it?

And then I looked at the ingredients. That’s right, this is a black/green blend which might explain some of the flavors I’m getting. But its completely overriding the bergamot almost completely and I didn’t realize that was possible.

Even as it cools. I sip and I think maybe there might be some bergamot there and then BOOM!!!! BOILED GRASS IN YOUR FACE!

And I thought bergamot could overpower just about anything. :)

I wanted to love this one, but the flavor was so muted and indistinct at first. Luckily I kept trying! When I used two teabags for a relatively small mug, things drastically improved. Now I finally taste that molasses-heavy cookie I wanted! I’d say the spices could still be a little stronger, but now I like it. My partner thought it was extremely good, and the friend I bought a tin for enjoyed it as well. It really does taste like a gingerbread cookie! I may have to get this one again sometime!

Tried a long time ago hot and did not like it but did not take notes. And then it sat untouched for a couple years because I did not like it and didn’t want to drink it again just for notes.

I finally gave in and though I would try to sip it down via cold brew .

Nope, no way, no how.

Into the trash it goes.

More catching up on notes.

The ingredient list on this sounded interesting. White tea, lavender, almond, vanilla. It sounded nice and delicate.

The lavender really isn’t standing out. This is surprising, but I do appreciate, as florals can be too much for me. I can detect hints of it here and there, primarily in the aftertaste. So thumbs up in this area.

But I’m also not getting much else either. I guess I was right with delicate, but just not in the way I imagined. It could be I’ve just had too much strongly flavored tea today, so I do plan on trying again another time to reevaluate.

Last time I had this, there was a strong sweet flavor that was really just too much and made me feel kind of queasy. Today I didn’t notice it while the cup was hot, but as it cooled, here comes the sweetness/queasiness.

One thing I find funny. I spilled a little on my hand and now I can smell a hint of vanilla on my hand, but still not in the cup.

I can absolutely see people loving this, but I suspect its just not my thing.

More catching up on notes.

I really wanted to like this a lot more than I do. If someone gave it to me and asked me to guess what’s in it, I wouldn’t have a clue.

Its got a scent that makes me think of maybe some sort of alcohol flavoring. It also feels somewhat weak in flavor and watery in mouth feel.

It really needs more oomf of some kind. I think it could be improved with a better base with a thicker mouth feel. That would help sell the idea of caramel better.

Oh, and I can’t detect the salt at all, which I consider a good thing.

But honestly, the flavor just doesn’t match its name for me. I guess its ok, but its really not something I enjoy drinking.

Catching up on some notes.

I’ve had this one a few times now over the course of the month. Its not bad. Its got a decent balance and no one flavor is dominating the others.

There’s an interesting little spicy note at the end of the sip that I found unexpected given the ingredients list

Its pleasant, but definitely a have to be in the right mood type tea.

I was in Japan last year, and had several roasted rice-infused teas that were rather good.
I was looking for something back here in the states, and found this one.
It is very roasted-rice forward; smells and tastes a lot like the Sugar Smacks roasted rice cereal I ate as a kid, though obviously not sweet.
I can’t say I taste a lot of the tea flavor; this is also a “low-caffeine” tea, so good for afternoons or evenings if you’re sensitive to caffeine.

Some of the largest leaves I’ve seen in any tea; very flavorful, but not in a “traditional” black tea taste. Strikes me as more of a green or oolong tea flavor, but it is very tasty. Just not what I expected from a “black” tea as it is described in their literature.
Malty, I wouldn’t say sweet as some others have, but sure, some honey flavors. Nice scent.
Leaves are so large I had to just use my fingers to get the tea, my little round scoop I usually use is useless.

Sipdown! (23)

One of my tea goals for this year was to start cold steeping again, and so far it’s been going well! I have a little stash of teas I bought specifically for this purpose, and this was one of them.

Harney’s fruit teas are all quite enjoyable cold steeped (aside from the Goji Berry one, which I was not a fan of), and I’d be hard-pressed to choose a favorite. Anyway, this is one of the more hibiscus-y ones, but I can still drink it without sweetener, and it’s enjoyable tangy with prominent strawberry notes. Not sure whether I’ll repurchase it or not, we’ll see how I feel after I finish the rest of my cold steep stash!

I bought a set of 12 Days of Christmas teas, kind of like an advent calendar thing, but completely neglected to open it until, well, today. Better late than never. The holidays and work completely took up the majority of my time and attention.

Starting off on a fairly average note here – this tea was…fine, good even, but largely unremarkable. There are notes of slightly bitter, almost matcha-like flavors, but the overall taste is nice. I expected something a little stronger. I wouldn’t buy this particular tea again, but I’m optimistic that there will be some better brews coming up in the box.