Palm Court

Just a short tasting note, you can see my previous notes for more info.

I was finishing off the last of this one from ashmanra and forgot how good it is. I will need to get some more one of these days. If black teas had personalities, this would be a well-mannered and handsome gentleman. :)

Tea with lunch…..

Today, lunch was a ham sandwich on Italian bread with colby jack cheese, mayo, and a ripe tomato. And Palm Court Tea.

Assam, Keemun, Ceylon, and Oolong. Compared to my Supreme Breakfast this morning, it is definitely lower on the malty taste, but there is a bready taste that comes from the Ceylon in this blend. I am also getting a toastiness that is not present in the Supreme Breakfast, and I am guessing that comes from the Oolong. All of these flavors are seamlessly woven together in a well rounded cup of tea. I am pretty sure this will not make it to a breakfast tea for me, but it is still fabulous. I need the super punch of maltiness in the morning.

On an interesting note, my receipt from the Millerton Shop noted this tea as Palm Court (Titanic). I think that means this is the same as Titanic Blend.

Usual mug method.
Rated just a tad higher than Titanic because I like it better in loose leaf!

A few days ago I glanced through some of the oldest bits of my tea log and noticed this blend. It had been so long since I’ve had it that I couldn’t remember it well. I knew I liked it and that I enjoyed mixing it with Rose Scented by Harney. I thought I might order it again sometime, and then…there it was on shelf at The Fresh Market today!

Our Fresh Market is a bit small and the tea selection not quite like the bigger ones in bigger, more affluent cities. But they have new tea! They even had Tower of London in loose leaf and they had four Kusmi teas in sachets! I should have waited and purchased it with a discount through Harney directly, but I was too excited.

I made it to go with Easter lunch and set out a cup for hubby to try it thinking he would take a sip and pass. He usually doesn’t like black tea except with milk and sugar, but he drank a whole cup plain and said he liked it.

Later we had chocolate cake and made a second pot and he drank several cups of it again. Plain! Yet he adds milk and sugar to Queen Catherine! I don’t understand. Ha ha!

I like it best with food. To be 100% honest, this is on the verge of being too harsh for me, which is why I was shocked that my husband liked it. The Keemun is A-Okay, of course…you know I love Keemun! And the Ceylon is great, as is the Formosa oolong. But the Assam…it is pretty prominent here and I just have trouble with how strong Assam is sometimes. It really is a milk and sugar tea to me, and I try not to add anything to my tea.

I think I will be softening it sometimes with Rose Scented as I drink it, and definitely serving it with food. It was really good with the chocolate cake I made for Easter and cut through the sweetness of the chocolate buttercream frosting.

For breakfast tea lovers, I think this would be nearly perfect, and I really truly mainly bought this because I am going to a women’s Bible study now and the teacher is super nice and loves strong tea, so I wanted some teas to share with her and to serve when she comes over, because she is really nice and I want to show my appreciation for all she does.

I will review this again after she drinks it, and let you know what an Assam lover thinks of it!

Thanks to Ashmanra for this sample!

I sampled this w/o knowing the contents in the blend. So my first impressions were: mild breakfast tea, smooth, not astringent, no need to add sugar, no bitterness. After checking out this site, I learned the secret: the oolong must be masking the bite of any assams. Really, I did not detect any chocolate notes present in the keenum.
Also, really not very smoky either.

As I have been on a sugar avoidance kick and am looking for morning alternatives to assams (which in my opinion just need sugar and milk), this is a pleasant alternative. But I still miss my sugary, milky assams…..

Sipdown no. 5 of 2023 (no. 663 total).

I enjoyed the last little bit of this — it wasn’t astringent as I’d noted before and it was sweet, as I’d also noted before. I spend a lot of time wondering whether I would rate things the same way I did way back when if I rated them for the first time now. I suspect I would have rated this a bit higher, but given the age of the last bit of this sample and the fact that my palate is out of practice, I am not going to change the rating now.

Always excellent. I haven’t yet had a bad cup of this.

Its raining in Central Texas…gloomy grey skies and the constant, vertical rain that we need, yet is so depressing. So whats to do when its boringly wet outside…dust off (literaly) the teapot and the Palm Court from the back of the stove. Yeah, I know, probably shouldn’t store tea there; but in my defense, its in an airtight metal can. Put 4 heaping teaspoons into the infuser and 1.5L of water just off the boil through it. stand for 2 or so minutes and a fine cuppa. Its oxidizing in the pot, getting darker with every pour, but not getting bitter or otherwise “off”. Drinking it straight, but can tell that just a touch of sugar would be really nice I think. Good “Generic Black Tea”…doesn’t have any one thing that stands out like a varietal/regional might.

Brew temp 208

This is an interesting blend. It seems every sip features a different tea. I taste the Keemun and Ceylon the most, but I also taste the Oolong. Not noticing the Assam as much except for maybe the tannins. Very smooth and non-astringent. I would consider this a mid-morning/afternoon tea for me. Very relaxing and enjoyable. Not a must have, but I’d probably buy this again in the future.

Slight smoky, malty fragrance coming from a ruby black liquor. There is a powerful yeasty taste and a fair amount of bitterness. I’m really not tasting the oolong in this but it does have a nice complexity to the middle-taste (that taste you get immediately after swallowing as the liquid evaporates from your tongue but before the after-taste).

It’s an ok tea.

Mmmm… this is pretty good. I initially thought I overleafed or oversteeped – it was a super dark mahogany color. I was a little skeered and my first sip was with the anticipation of pucker your cheeks bitterness. Nope. Not much of it at all. I still think I probably over-somethinged it, but it’s pretty tasty. It is smooth and deep and robust and calming all at the same time.

The only thing off about this for me is that it smells somewhat odd when I sip it. I can’t pinpoint what it is I’m smelling though. It’s not offputting enough for me to not drink it but it won’t be a favorite tea to smell. At this point, after 3 cups, I’d reorder this if I were needing something to make it up to a free shipping level though I might not seek it out specially order it.