Higgins & Burke

Forget delicate, this tea has incredibly strong floral notes, more than I was expecting from a straight black tea. I’m almost surprised that there isn’t some jasmine in there or something of the sort. I tried adding milk and honey and found that I didn’t mind it, but I think that overall I prefer more of a malty than a flowery cup of black tea.

Meh meh meh meh meh.

I had this last night to start off my love’s Christmas party. I need two tea bags to really get a good steep in. It always amazes me how restaurants think that 1 tea bag for their pots of tea is enough to brew a decent steep. Not to mention, the water is never hot enough either.

It seems like a lot of restaurants use this brand, even the Keg (which is surprising.) It always makes me wince to pay for tea like this, but last night the bill was on my love’s boss, so I wasn’t concerned.

Awful. Smells amazing but tastes like soap.

Trying to drink up the bags I was given. This brand actually makes an ok tea for a bag, would never buy these though.

Got these bags for free. Nice and spicy Chai for bags, steeped in 3:1 water to milk. Will drink again when being lazy.

I get this when I go out for breakfast and then regret paying the 3.00 they charge. Water has to be hot for it to steep nicely. Once you drink loose leaf tea bag varieties are ho hum

Hmm. Grabbed this one at a diner on the way back from camping.

Not too shabby.

I haven’t really been into earl grey teas, but they’re a safe bet when traveling. :)

I had this with lunch at Save On Meats in Vancouver last week. It was a tea bag of fannings. It was very light and very floral. I’m pretty sure the water was not at boiling. I left it in the cup all through lunch, steeping 3 cups off of it. It didn’t change much in character over the steepings. Not excellent, but better than expected for a restaurant.

This suddenly appeared in the tea stash at work today. Not awful, but nothing to write home about.

I stuck a bag of this and a bag of H&G’s green tea in a cup together, and it was fairly tasty. Not quite a Moroccan mint, but flavourful.

Not that bad for green tea in a bag. The added herbs are nice.

Tried a cup of this at the reception. Blech. I suppose it mostly tasted kind of apple cidery, but I was unimpressed and barely drank any (and then my cup disappeared, aka I went and sat somewhere else). It probably isn’t a terrible tea, really, but it wasn’t what I wanted right then! I’ll refrain from rating, as a result.

I have had the most horrible, terrible weekend. My bad weekend had nothing to do with no tea, but everything to do with inconsiderate people.

So happy to be home. I can’t even have a nice cuppa because it is too close to bedtime and I am on fluid restrictions, and yes, I am 3 years old.

So I will review the only cup of tea I got to have all weekend but couldn’t get onto steepster to post about. This was so delicious, mostly because I needed tea so bad. It was a strong black base, and very strong but sweet bergamot. The black tea was still smooth and blended well with the bergamot. The slight sweetness to the tea made it very easy to drink. It also resteeped very well – gasp – I resteeped, must have been a bad weekend.

This is a bagged tea I could buy a box of and keep around for those “just in case” moments.

Tea #2, and another sipdown – 789! I wonder if I can reach 775 before the end of the long weekend?

Anyhow, this tea is obviously also hibiscus-heavy. However, it is a bit less hibiscusy than Raspberry Blackcurrant, and I can pick out the flavouring a bit more. That said, the flavouring is coming off to me as kind of artificial, so I’m not entirely certain whether I prefer it to a hibiscus overdose. Ah well. Always fun trying new teas even if they don’t work out! :D

So at my sister’s wedding reception, there was a chest with a bunch of individually wrapped Higgins & Burke teabags. I tried one, an Apple Cinnamon herbal tea (if I haven’t logged it, I will do so shortly) – it was kind of icky. I didn’t want to drink 15 cups of tea, so I squirrelled away two teabags to take home – this one, and a different herbal.

So, I think I perhaps should have looked at the ingredient list before nabbing this tea… does’t sound all that appealing, honestly. Hibiscus, chicory, lemongrass, licorice root… none of which exactly fall into a category of my favourite flavours.

Unfortunately, this is a definite miss. Even with a short infusion of somewhere between 2-3 minutes, hibiscus is dominant in the cup, which was obvious by the colour even before I tasted it. It’s fairly sour, and although I can almost taste raspberry, it’s not quite there. Raspberries are not that tart. I would know; I grew up with bushes of them in my backyard. Perhaps this would be ok with sweetener, but to me, it’s too much like Tazo Passion, which I find rather unappealing now.

well it smells okay but will it hold up to a tasting? I’ll let you know when it cools down :D

I somehow left my loose tea at home (SIGH) so I had to resort to what they have in the school cafeteria. I chose this one as my throat is still a bit sore (wasn’t on steepster for two days) rating will come when it cools down a bit.

It’s very hard to do green tea in a bag. Green tea is so much less forgiving than black tea, breaking it up and putting it in a bag makes it so much harder to brew a good cup that isn’t bitter. On that note, I must give this product credit. This tea brewed with no hint of bitterness (using a cooler temperature, as one would do for other green teas). That said, this tea does have quite a strong lemongrass-lemon flavor, and that gives these tea bags some latitude. I tasted much more citrus than I did green tea. That’s not necessarily bad, if that’s what one wants. The main issue I see is that this tea is marketed as straight green tea, when it’s really a flavored product, first and foremost. As flavored green tea in a teabag goes, this is okay, but it’s not the best I’ve had.

These tea bags produce quite a good cup of tea. I generally go for loose leaf tea, but there are times when a bag is simply more convenient. This Earl Grey has a strong bergamot scent. The bergamot flavor is strong once brewed, but not overwhelming. It was easy to brew a cup that was smooth and not too bitter. I brewed for approximately two minutes, which is my usual for bagged black tea. The tea was fresh and flavorful. This is definitely a good choice for those in search of a bagged earl grey.

its not a strong mint flavour but has a mint after taste going down. I needed to steep it for a long time before I could get any real flavour. Once you cool it down you don’t need to add any sugar.

I would recommend this iced though, even using it as a based for a fruit smoothie. It really taste great with mangos and strawberries.

I find that I would drink this tea more for being sick rather than a preferred beverage. The lemon flavour wasn’t as fresh as I though it would take on a bitter taste really quick. the flavour reminded me more of the bitter rind of the lemon than the citrus goodness I was hoping for.

regardless ,a little honey and squirt of fresh lemon really perked it up.