Perennial Tea Room

An excellent chai. There are exciting notes of spice as well as hints of fruit in this blend. The black tea is strong and delicious. The spices are well-blended, and add warmth and a pleasant sweetness to the cup. The fruit tones are vague but add a delicious dimension of flavor to the cup. A very well-rounded cup of chai!

This is really good. One of the best Chai teas that I’ve had. I love the spices. Very warming!

YUM! I am currently drinking it as a non-latte and am contemplating adding a splash of chocolate creme…….

Today I don’t have the luxury of being able to crawl back into bed after I get my youngest off to school because my oldest finishes her final hour at Cosmetology school today, and I’m heading up there to watch the event.

So, I need something to help me shake that desire to go back to bed! This is what I grabbed. It is a good wake-me-up blend. Strong and hefty, but, also incredibly smooth. I really like this one. A good tea to represent the Pacific Northwest!

Strong and Stout. It has a very rich and toothsome quality. Bake-y and malty. Delicious!

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 heaping tsp
Water: 500ml filtered water 212°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: light slightly vegetal black
Steeped Tea Smell: delicate citrus, floral, black
Flavor: sweet, toasty black tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: astringent, toasty
Liquor: translucent orange-brown

Too delicate for a morning tea, but simply delicious for sipping. It has this light, sweet quality to it that is refreshing and relaxing. I am very glad I was able to pick this tea up.

I am surprised by how little the leaves unfurled during the steep.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/11/perennial-tea-room-loose-leaf-black-tea.html

I got a small .5 oz bag of this tea at Northwest Tea Festival. Opening the bag up, my nose filled with a warm chocolatey aroma. After steeping, the smell of the spice in the tea really came out. First sip – I was really surprised that the chocolate flavor came across so light. While it smells strong, it’s much more like a hint of chocolate – it almost felt like a bait and switch until I took a couple more sips and the flavors combined more. The sharpness of the spices combined with the chocolate and the flavor of the rooibos was like a flavor explosion – it almost suggested the aftertaste of a warmer cocktail. I really want to buy more of this and a bottle of Bailey’s, I think they’d go really well together!

Oh!, I said, after I poured the water on the leaves, and was sniffing the cup on the way back to my desk. Flowers!

What kind of flowers, you ask? A legitimate question, without an adequate answer from me. I can still get the smell of them as I sit here waiting for the cup to cool…but it’s definitely floral. Like standing in a florist’s, and outside they’ve just freshly cut the grass.

As it cools some, that scent is darkening down to something more patently Darjeeling in aroma — a bit floral, a bit honey, a bit grapes on a vine.

The taste is much more pronounced in the honey department than the smell, which makes me happy. I am a big fan of honey (though I never really add it to my tea, unless I’m making chai…because milk and honey are made to go together, of course).

This is quite nice. I’m used to the Darjeelings I’ve tried leaning toward being thin and grapeskin-tart when they’re still very hot, and mellowing and filling out as they cool; this tea is currently just on the comfortable-to-drink side of hot, and it’s mostly honey-sweet, smooth, a bit savory — probably from the full mouthfeel. I keep sipping and looking for new flavors, but it’s remaining pretty consistent, nothing new from one sip to the next. This is alright, though, because each sip is pretty pleasant, surprisingly cozy for a Darjeeling. There’s a very subtle hint of the tartness at the very back of my tongue the longer I sip, but it’s not showing up for the main event.

I don’t drink a slew of Darjeelings, but of those I’ve had, this one is pretty tasty!

I’ll get around to noting steep 2 in a little bit.

(Holy cow, my rating system is a mess. It really needs some janitorial work!)

Another rather mediocre English Breakfast tea; no real depth to the flavor. Adding milk and sugar made it even blander. (And what was with the recommended there-minute steep time?) Perhaps if it had been steeped longer, it would have had more flavor.

Rather mediocre tea; no strong flavor; tasted a bit dusty. Okay orange aroma, but no real depth to the taste. Slightly unpleasantly bitter without milk and sugar.

I liked the taste of this one very marginally more than the Cooling Mint Tulsi; there were complexities there I couldn’t identify, but as with the Cooling Mint Tulsi, it was an interesting blend that I’d never had the likes of before. Herbal, in an herb garden-type of way.

This was one of the more interesting teas (in a good way) I’ve ever had. Listed as a tisane, it smelled more like an aromatic herb (and the plant from which it comes belongs to the same family as basil and rosemary).It smelled really fragrant, like an herb garden. It wasn’t very sweet, but had a nicely rounded subtle sweetness to it, likely the result of whatever mints were added. I couldn’t taste any strong mint, but there did seem (to me) to be some subtle peppermint and spearmint. Very interesting and quite nice!

This was fantastic! And is now one of my favorite Earl Greys. I could smell the lavender before I started brewing my tea, but I could taste the rosemary more when I drank the tea (with milk and sugar). Surprised at how much I enjoyed this; had a lovely rounded taste. I love lavender Earl Greys but the addition of the rosemary worked very well.

A good solid, Earl Grey; wasn’t any more aromatic or than other loose leaf Earl Greys I’ve tried, but a good tea. Recommended steep time was three minutes, but I steeped mine for five (I like my teas a bit stronger). Held up well with milk and sugar.

The tea has that Darjeeling dryness/sharpness at the end. Very smooth for a Darjeeling though. I can get notes of honey. Trying to come up with a word for the other taste at the beginning of the flavor – it’s not roasty but maybe toasted. Slightly creamy and warm.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Darjeeling and after having this tea (another Seattle souvenir from my lovely SIL), I have to wonder why. Pouring the tea, I got nice whiffs of honey, something that also comes through lightly when I sip. It’s fresh-tasting, smooth, a bit green like a new tree sprout. It’s got that bright sparkle that I associate with Darjeelings but, because of the tea itself or the short steep time and low temp, doesn’t approach the sharp bite that I also associate with Darjeelings. A very nice afternoon cuppa.

ETA: The second steep (at 2:30) is really quite brilliant. Smooth, faintly nutty, almost creamy. I’m bumping up the rating a couple of points.

I thought this was a very odd combination of stout and smooth. Less harsh than other “breakfast” teas but with a lot of body.

The Final Sipdown: Day 17
Decupboarding Total: 34

My prep work on this tea this morning had paid off and I get to decupboard it. Yay!

This one is tasty – a bit foggy, stout, smooth, and best without additives – the flavor is fuller without milk and it doesn’t have any bitterness that needs to be countered with sugar. It’s probably not the end-all-be-all tea blend, but a very respectable one that has been very nice to have around. And it’s a good celebration tea tonight for learning how to sharpen knives with a steel. Yay!

This tea was a gift from my lovely SIL after her trip to Seattle. Given that I am still on my breakfast blend kick, I was pretty excited to try this one! I’ve never been to Seattle but being the land of coffee, I would anticipate any blend made for the city to be a bit stout, maybe a little foggy, too.

When I first sniffed this last night, it smelled liked boiled peanuts. Which was pretty cool ‘cause I’m a Southern girl and do love me some boiled peanuts. But this morning it smelled like straight up Keemun (which is a little disappointing because of my boiled peanut love, but at the same time comforting because I’m not sure if I’d love boiled peanut tea). The first sip, though, was full on Assam. Subsequent sips were predominately Assam-y (with a slight hint of cardboard and fair amount of bake-y) but with a smoothness of a Keemun, though not the smokiness.

The overall taste was something that I could totally associate with Seattle – on the stout end (but not to the point of meanness) and with a nice, dark, fuzzy, comforting taste (I’m calling that one fog, k?). It is somewhat like a smooth and slightly milder Irish Breakfast. If future cups are as tasty as this one, I could totally see myself wanting to keep this in stock.

This is a mild fruity rooibos. I’m enjoying it quite a bit while I recover from my cold.

last cup…and good to the last sip. Sounds like a coffee commercial.

Next to last spoonful…sigh. Time to find something new. As the fragments get smaller, its brewing faster. Probably more tea per teaspoon that way. Did a resteep too…was just as good as the first.

Its getting HOT here and tea just doesn’t appeal when its 80 deg F in the morning. Still, this is such a good tea.