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“Sipdown Definitely will re-order. One of our go-to evening teas when we want real black tea taste that isn’t washed out. We drink it plain but it takes milk and sugar well.” Read full tasting note
“Sit down everyone! There is a plain, black, decaf tea that ACTUALLY TASTES LIKE TEA! No strange chemical taste. No horrible dirty dishwater weakness. A solidly good cup of tea that I would quite...” Read full tasting note
“Hey! It’s decaf! It TASTES! It tastes good! A cause for celebration and a little woo-hooing, as there are so few plain black decaf teas that have any sort of potency. First thing that came to mind...” Read full tasting note
“Received a free sample of this with my last Harney’s order. It is a tea sachet. On immediate smell it reminds me of iced tea, that is because I usually use Ceylon tea to make iced or cold brewed...” Read full tasting note
Tea aficionados will appreciate the high quality black tea with richness and depth of flavor left intact in Decaffeinated Ceylon. Brimming with a wonderfully delicate flavor and subtly sweet aroma, this mixture of the finest black teas from Sri Lanka produces an impressively smooth and tranquil cup, all under the guise of decaf.
Since 1983 Harney & Sons has been the source for fine teas. We travel the globe to find the best teas and accept only the exceptional. We put our years of experience to work to bring you the best Single-Estate teas, and blends beyond compare.
Finally took the opportunity to try this sample. It was a little strange for me. On first sip it tasted unusually sweet. Keep in mind used no sweetner so it was a bit of a shock. Once I got past that flavor I will say for a decaf it wasn’t awful. It actually tastes like tea but still it wasn’t my cuppa but happy I had the chance to try it.
I had this last night as my evening cup. I am trying to cut down on caffeine after 8:00PM. Generally I stick with tisanes in the evening instead of decaff tea but a friend had given me this in a collection of Harney & Sons teabags. I was pleasantly surprised as I do not generally drink tea-bags OR decaffeinated tea. It had all the taste of a middle brow ceylon. This is surprising because I had VERY LOW expectations. Decaff tea generally tastes like mud! While I am not running out to buy this in teabag form I would perhaps order it from Harney in a small amount in loose leaf for my evening cup.
This has been sitting in my stash for probably 5 years now. I got a little sample sachet with a Harney & Sons order ages ago and it’s been relegated to the bottom of my tea drawer ever since. I’m sure the leaves took some crush damage over the years, but oh well.
I’m not a fan of tea sachets so I cut it open and brewed this in a basket. Well water straight from the tap, guestimating roughly 185°F.
It was surprisingly flavorful for a decaf black, particularly Ceylon. I’ve tried a few before and wasn’t impressed, though Harney & Sons is my first venture into a loose leaf decaf.
I made this with a touch of sugar and cream, but went very very light on the cream. I was afraid I’d end up with milk that has notes of tea instead of tea with a little milk. It handles it pretty well though. In my experience, Ceylon’s don’t usually handle milk that well in the first place and that makes it extra impressive to me that this decaf is holding up. It’s quite fruity and sweet (tasted before cream & sugar.)
I was craving some black tea but didn’t want to go overboard with the caffeine right before bed and this turned out to be a pretty good choice.
2/2/22
Decaf is always kind of blah, but this one was extra blah. Nothing special, just sad tea dust taste. I’ve got 2 more teabags of this, so I’ll try making it extra concentrated next time.
Flavors: Dust, Paper
This is my last free sample from my H&S order that I have to use up. I prepared it hot with no additives. It came in the form of a sachet.
This is quite pleasant. It definitely would make a great breakfast tea or bedtime tea. I’m definitely enjoying it a whole lot more than the Tao of Tea Black Spiral I drank the other night.
While drinking this cup I didn’t pick up on any astringency or bitterness. I find the flavor to be extremely pleasant. It’s hard to describe though. It’s sweet, bold but not so much as some black teas. I noticed that someone described it as fruity but I wouldn’t say so. It’s also slightly rich.
i got it thrown in my order as a freebie. it was a tea sachet which was a bit weird since my order consisted of loose teas only. Well, maybe they do not have any free samples of loose tea. Still strange.
I peeked at the sachet and smelled and it was not very encouraging: no discernible fragrance and inside the sachet a half of the content was tea dust, simple and pure… And the other half some tiny abused pieces of I don’t no what…leafs? stems?
Anyway, I threw it in the mug, filled it up and waited for 2 minutes. Well, no aroma appeared and the taste was so generic, flat and forgettable. Right in the area of a typical supermarket teabagged offerings. Which was a shame because the packaging was nice, the sachet looked good enough and I really, really wanted to find a decaff Ceylon for a mindless casual drinking (and to save my caffeine daily quota for better teas).
It was kinda of a disappointment, sorry. I will certainly never buy it again, loose or bagged.
It has such a nice and smooth taste, a great choice people who do not do well with bitterness. The taste a nice body to it, full of flavor, with a wonderful fruity aftertaste. I personally like the natural caffeine of tea because I am always working, but I would not leave this tea out of my list because of that. I enjoyed a lot~!! _ _
Flavors: Fruity
Sipdown (134)!
Opened up the teabag rapper for this today only to find that the teabag had a giant slit in the side! And not even the side I’d opened it from? Took advantage of that though and brewed this up in my divination cup, letting whatever cuttings/fannings floated out of the slit hang out in the teacup to be read afterwards.
Flavour wise; this is definitely kind of typical Ceylon flavour notes: it’s simple, has a medium body and smooth enough flavour with a lot of floral notes and then a bit of a malty finish. Nothing fancy at all, and would probably take milk super well. I do like that it’s caffeine free – it let me break up a day of tea drinking pretty easily without feeling like I was taking a pause for something herbal or a rooibos blend. Didn’t blow me away, though.
As for the reading, I wasn’t really able to pick out any shapes or patterns from the settled tea leaf, so instead I opted to read to teacup based on the largest concentrations/deposits of tea leaf. As far as the tea leaf around the rim goes, most had settled between the cat and the sunrise positions; the rim represents your immediate or near future and the interpretation for those two symbols are as follows:
The Cat: Your free spirit seeks an outlet; you may feel like behaving unpredictably. Follow your heart and be adventurous!
The Sunrise: A new beginning or sense of rebirth!
Then I looked at the leaf that had settled around the inner circle of the cup. The inner circle represents important events coming in future weeks or months. For me, most of the leaf had clustered around the Mercury symbol which means that the coming future shall be lively and social for me and showcase communications, conversations, and travel in some form. Hmm, things to keep in mind I suppose.
Anyway, thanks VariaTEA for the sample!
