Savoy Tea Co

I don’t think I noticed the coconut note here the previous times I brewed this small sample pack. This cup tastes like toasted coconut with grassy green tea as an end note. Not a bad cup, but I don’t know if I need to drink it again. I like genmaicha, but I don’t tend to reach for green tea that much. I wonder if Savoy has a toasted coconut black?

I have been craving something low-caf or decaf and lemony, so this caught my eye when we were at Savoy last week. Alas and alack, there is definitely a lack of lemon here—it’s a decent sencha base with flavoring that’s kinda raspberry, kinda Hawaiian Punch. It’ll be a tasty summer cooler on ice, but not what the name led me to expect.

Amazing what happens when you actually read the label! This is an Assam green tea! No wonder I was mystified at the scorched-flowers scent and taste in the first mangled cup!

More properly prepared, it has drastically improved. Beautiful champagne color; still a scent that reminds me of lilac. Assam greens have always been very finicky for me—the perfection zone is so skinny that half a degree or three seconds too much pushes it over the edge. I’ve still just about fallen off the cliff here—still a little bitterness on my tongue—but now that I know what I’m working with, I will continue to practice restraint until I get the hang of it.

Savoy tea is in business and thriving, but the storefront we visited yesterday is preparing to relocate, so what we found there yesterday was a little hodge-podgey. (Mind you, this did not keep me from restocking several favorites.) This was the only one of its kind on the sample rack; I saw “Assam” and grabbed without examining it closely.

At any rate, it is one of the least Assam-y Assams I’ve sampled in the recent past…has a fresh floral smell (lilacs from across the yard, not lilacs under your nose) and that carries over to the flavor. It’s more oolong-y than Assam-y and needs a lighter touch than I gave the first cup…is a little bitter now that I’m toward the bottom. Next time I’ll back off the steep time to 3 minutes instead of the sloppy 4 I gave it.

Last word; it’s a tea party-pinky up Assam. Not for sleepy mornings.

This tea came in a handmade birthday card from gmathis! Many thanks!

My daughter happened to be off work on my birthday yesterday and we spent lots of time on the porch enjoying the gorgeous day until after lunch when I had to work. She was with me when I opened the mail, and we both had a good laugh when we saw the name of this tea.

I made it to go with breakfast today, and laughing turned into scheming. How soon can I order without feeling guilty about recent lack of sipdown progress? Because right away, this tea reminded me of some tea that I LOVED but I couldn’t pin it down at first.

Patient mindful sipping and rooting through tea memories came up with the way my first sip of Perseus ever hit at first, but Perseus has some bergamot in it. Could it be Magic from Gurman’s? Maybe. I loved (and reviewed) that one many times on here years ago and all those notes have disappeared into the Steepster void.

The bottom line is that this candy-fruity black tea was stunning with breakfast and needs to be on shelf one day.

I like several peach teas from Harney and Sons and while this tea is peachy there is something about it that has a general fruitiness less specific to peach that made it extra delicious to me.

Thank you, gmathis!

Sample Sipdown

Ashman and I had this as Michelle sent a generous sample that permitted me to make a pot and not a cup.

I drank only a tiny bit of it because I am not used to a lot of caffeine and I read that mate has as much caffeine as coffee. I will say that I didn’t get any jitters nor do I feel overstimulated by this, but it was a really small cup.

Ashman, however, had a mugful! He really dislikes most chocolate in tea as he says it smells like mildew to him, but he had liked the cacao nib tea from Oliver Pluff that gmathis sent recently so I thought he might like this one, too. It really does have true cacao flavor to me and not the artificial smelly chocolate. He did like this one, too!

Somehow the texture of the tea combined with the chocolate and vanilla gave off a little coconut vibe to me, but it was probably mostly creamy coconut texture rather than flavor. If you dislike coconut, you will not be put off by this tea, in my opinion. It was just a vibe.

Thank you, Michelle! We enjoyed it, and maybe Ashman will want to explore other mate blends for his workday breakfasts as a pick me up!

While this rich peaches-and-cream blend is tasty hot, I’ve been waiting for warm weather in order to try it iced. Stellar. My only regret is that I used it for a lawn mowing tea, which means I was getting mouthfuls of dust and leaf mulch as well.

Sometimes you just need a little morning serendipity, especially after two glum winter weeks of lousy weather and more on the way. So I broke into this yet-unopened gift from a coworker in hopes of serendipping. The peaches-and-cream scent actually got a smile out of me before 7:00 a.m. and continues to lighten my mood. Light Ceylon base with strong, but not obnoxious peach flavor. This will make good iced tea come spring, (or if I set the tumbler outside for five minutes today).

I still have a generous half-bag of Sweater Weather left from last season, and I’m glad, because it’s providing exactly the level of cozy I need right now. There’s not really much new anyone can do with chai (What has been is what will be,and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun; Ecclesiastes 1:9) … but Savoy has definitely given it a lovely minty twist that beats the cardamom into submission. Nice solid Assam base, too.

This starts out like your standard army-issue chai: Assam tea base, cinnamon, cardamom. But then Savoy got whimsical and tossed in some candy cane-worthy mint. And in doing so, the blend becomes a perky, sassy little afternoon picker-upper. Recommended to keep you company while doing tedious tasks. (Bonus: it’s quite drinkable without milk—some chais are spicy to the point of bitterness and are pretty awful until you dairy them down.)

This was a sample pack to try this chai and I think I’ll need a bigger pouch of this. Cardamom and clove seem to be the top notes, but there is a carrot cake cinnamon pastry goodness underneath that becomes more prominent as the cup cools. This is a nice change of pace from a caffeinated chai that is interesting enough to drink more than once, and a reminder to let the cup cool while savoring its contents.

I recently saw Salted Caramel Black tea available from Harney & Sons and was super tempted to order it. I had never seen it before and noticed reviews are only a couple of months old and did find that it was labeled as new, but they really didn’t make a fuss about releasing it so it was news to me. I resisted ordering for the time being.

Lo and behold, Michelle sent a salted caramel shu for me to try! I thought this would give me a pretty good idea of whether I would like the new Harney black tea.

Sniffing the dry leaves brought on a big, “WHEWEEEEE!” That is some fresh barn aroma there! But also lots of sweet caramel!

Steeped, the barn has calmed down a lot. The caramel is so sweet and good! There were two sachets so the other one became a cold latte for Ashman, who is working outside painting the soffit he had to replace on this old-ish house. He said it is delicious. (I sneaked a taste and I agree. Shhhhhh…)

Thank you, Michelle!

The TTB has arrived! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #27
Cardamom is favourite spice of mine and well this is naturally really cardamom forward.

I am not sure what flavouring was used too but it works well and cardamom can be a little refreshing from my experience too. While it’s not perfect (better base would be essential) it is tasty and warming and great for “sweather weather” hence the name.

Finished remaining amount from the TTB

Thoughtful gift from a work friend…I’ve been waiting until I had 10 full minutes to steep it. You’ve probably tasted an herbal mélange similar to this one—big hunks of apple and beetroot and other chunky, chewable goodies. There’s enough cinnamon in this rendition to accurately clone the scent of carnival candy apples, but the flavor lags behind just a little bit. It could still use a bit more apple, but it’s certainly not hindering the pleasure of having feet up after a busy day with my nose buried in the cup.

This one is described as “fruit punch” with strawberry, peach, and apple flavors. It definitely tastes a bit vaguely fruity, and mostly like apple to me. Perhaps just a hint of peach? And a tiny bit of tartness from the hibiscus.

It’s pleasant enough, not too sweet or too tart. But almost painfully generic, so not something I would purchase.

Gotta love how vague Savoy is with some of their tea descriptions – this one gives no indication of what it’s supposed to taste like or any mention of the flavor profile at all.

I would say it tastes a bit cherry-ish? Not in a cloying (to me) cherry lollipop sort of way, it’s a more tart cherry like a Jolly Rancher. I also get a bit of orange maybe, and just a hint of coconut in the background. A nice enough mix. There is some bitterness that I’m not loving near the end of the sip, maybe from the orange peel?

A tasty enough tea, but there are other tart cherry-flavored tisanes that I prefer.

Picked up a few samples of fruit tisanes from Savoy, after loving their Miracle Mermaid blend. So I ordered a tin of that one, plus a sample of each other fruity herbal they offer.

This is nice enough. Sweet and peachy, if a bit thin. I used the whole half-ounce sample for my 16-ounce mug, and still it’s not very strong on flavor. What flavor it has is enjoyable though – sweet peach accented by apple, pineapple, and what tastes like maybe a hint of coconut? I can also taste just a touch of chamomile in the background.

Not one I would order, but I did enjoy the cup!

Sipdown! (51 | 249)

Last sample from Savoy. They accidentally left this one out of my order, so it was sent along later alongside a couple of free samples.

I’m not a lapsang lover, but this sounded interesting. It’s meant to be whiskey-inspired. Actually though, I feel like I’m tasting banana somehow…? Banana and a touch of caramel, and then of course the savory smokiness and earthiness of the lapsang. Perhaps a hint of cinnamon in the finish.

It’s nice enough, not quite what I expected, but I do enjoy banana teas. Not one I would reorder, but enjoyed sipping through the sample.

Finished off this free sample from Savoy. They accidentally left out one of the teas in my order, and when they sent it out to me, they included two free samples. Thank you!

This is lovely. Thick, malty, but so smooth. Lovely sweet cocoa and honey notes, like a thick slice of homemade whole wheat bread drizzled with honey and sprinkled with cocoa powder. Some nice syrupy fruity notes as well, maybe dried apricot and a touch of golden raisin.

This is really making me want to go and order a bunch of hongcha from Teavivre, but I’m resisting. Maybe once I finish a few of the other plain black teas I currently have…

Sipdown! (33 | 230)

This is an interesting one, a sort of chai with cardamom and mint. Unlike most of their other black teas, the base is an Assam, which I really liked. The beginning of the sip is mostly cardamom, and then I get a bit of that cooling peppermint toward the end and in the finish. I feel like there’s a hint of vanilla here as well? But they don’t say what type of flavor is used.

It’s very interesting. I don’t think I would repurchase it, just because I have other chai blends that I like more. I didn’t end up trying it with milk, but it would probably be nice that way, with a smoother mint flavor. I wish they had used an Assam base for some of their other flavored teas…

Also, with this sipdown, I’ve finished all of my Savoy samples, huzzah! \o/

Sipdown! (31 | 228)

I don’t even like chocolate teas, but I couldn’t resist a flavored maté… :P

It’s quite good. The chocolate and vanilla blend together seamlessly to create a sweet and creamy sort of milk chocolate note. The toasty mate adds nice depth and caramelized notes. Overall, just a nice cozy cuppa. There is chocolate flavoring here, and I do taste a bit of that boozy note that’s not my favorite. But I would still maybe consider repurchasing this one? I definitely would if it just had the cacao nibs and no chocolate flavor.

Sipdown! (28 | 225)

Another one from Savoy where the flavoring is spot-on, but I just don’t love the combination with the base tea. The flavor here tastes exactly like the buttercream frosting on a store-bought birthday cake, I’m even picturing bright blue shells piped along the edge. It’s rich and buttery, but still has a vanilla flavor to it.

But similar to their Caramel Buttercup, it just doesn’t mesh that well with the earthier black tea IMO. Still a pleasant cuppa, but another one that I wouldn’t repurchase because of that.