Prince Vladimir

This is one of those teas I’ve always avoided. When I picked it out going by scent, though, I think the hot mess that is Mamma Mia from David’s Tea had infiltrated this bag a little, in spite of being double-bagged itself.

As I now smell the tea, I get far less wacky fruit punch. It’s fairly nondescript, but it’s clear it’s a citrusy black tea, which is one of my least favourite combinations. It makes me think of being carsick. The tea puts me in our old Mercedes, scorching blackhot inside from being parked in the sun for hours. The citrus gives me the lemon-scented wetwipes my mother cleaned me off with after I’d been sick. It makes me sad and vomity and grouchy and achingly sentimental all at once, and to this day, I really can’t deal with lemon-scented things.

Steeped, the tea itself isn’t so bad, but it’s too flat and too subtle and too citrusy and has a pretty boring tea base and is just really not for me.

(ETA: Ugh, as this cools, it starts to smell like an old seatbelt.)

Thanks for sharing, whoever put this in!

[Sample from the EU Travelling Box, autumn 2013.]

More like Prince Valium, to me. It’s just a little bit of a boring tea. It’s not amazing or magnificent or anything. It’s far from horrible; it’s extremely drinkable, but there just isn’t any magic happening in my mouth. There’s a bit of orange, and that’s about it. I had mine with milk and sugar, as I do pretty much with all of my black, pu erh and darker oolong teas. I thank indigobloom for sending this sample to me. I do like orange and black tea combos, so good guess. I bet the tea would be nice as a cold brewed as an iced tea.

Part 1 of a 5 part sampler I got from Kusmi (discovered at the Bi Rite Market in San Francisco). I was pretty excited to find these locally, however they do not carry the large size of the tins in the store, only teabags.

This tea is not for the faint of heart nor the faint of scent. If you hold the tins to your nose you can smell the scent very strongly! Open them up and get a whiff of perfume! yowza…

We picked this particular one to try this morning based on the recommendation of one of the store’s employees. It is a strong and smooth black tea but predominately all you taste here is the spices. Smells very much like root beer! It is such an interesting tea… I am tasting a lot of clove here in addition to citrus and bergamot. The bergamot is nice and subtle and does not provide the same amount of bergamot as an Earl Grey. I am getting a lot of citrus but perhaps not that much vanilla.

I did try steeping it twice, the second steep was weaker and with a lot less perfume and also the citrus flavors are coming though more here so I am not enjoying steep #2 quite as much.

Overall I quite liked this but I suspect I will like a few of the other ones better since I am not a huge fan of grapefruit in tea usually. I also enjoyed this little piece of history on the Kusmi tea company:
http://www.us.kusmitea.com/en/history/i111/information.html

The last couple of weeks have been rather hellish.
Hubby banned me to the house for today though.
He has been up since 1 this morning baling hay, and normally I would go out at dawn to start water on our farm fields.
But, I injured my shoulder and back this week so far.
But what hurts the most is the blisters on my feet, how can something so small be so plaguing?
I got up early anyway to catch up on laundry and dishes.
Sat down for a moment with a cup of tea and put the heating pad on my shoulder, and promptly fell asleep.
Awoke to a cold cup of tea, chugged that while I heat the kettle for this.
This is a sample from the lovely High Adventure
She was kind enough to send me lots of samples, which I have not had a chance to try.
This dry leaf smells fruity and a little spicy.
When I hurt, I always seem to reach to the teas with a bit of spice in them, apparently they are comforting to me.
This is only the third Kusmi tea I have ever tried.
Tea smells like a spicy earl grey.
But, the taste is a bit milder.
A bit of orange and bergamot on the tongue.
Not strong, not offensive and is almost a smidgen too polite.
I would be okay with more of a spice kick to this tea.
But, it is tasty and seems to be be comforting the soul and body.
What on earth would we do without tea?
I am certain I do not know.
Thank you, High Adventure!

Full review later today on http://sororiteasisters.com/
Here are snippets:

I received some of this Prince Vladimir from Kusmi Tea from a tea friend, and I am sorry that I do not recall who sent it to me, but thank you whoever you are. I have not sampled many teas from Kusmi so wanted to give this a try.

In some ways it reminds me of Constant Comment from Bigelow but it has more flavor, more kick, and more roundness to the blend. I think it is the vanilla that helps round it out.

Getting this as a sample, I am not disappointed at all, however had I paid the 27.95 tag for it I might be. Then again it is a 8.8 ounce tin, and well, I do love tins. I believe there is also a smaller tin, but they are out of stock on them at this time.

Spices – clove, cinnamon… not sure, maybe something else.

No citrus for me. And an odd, off-putting something lurking in the background. Not bitter or harsh but not much going on for me besides the spices. Maybe some vanilla but not very noticeable to me.

Not horrible, and I finished the cup, but this is nothing I need to keep. So I have plenty for swapping if you think it might be more to your liking. :) This is the muslin bagged version, not loose leaf.

First cup of the day. It’s a beautiful day out today, full of sunshine but with that fall crispness in the air. The humane society that we foster for is having a big event downtown today that I had hoped to go to, but we have another event to go to tonight and I have kitty duty at Petsmart this afternoon plus letting my mom’s dogs out while she’s at work. I just don’t think I will be able to get all of my studying done in time to do it all. Maybe this tea will give me lots of energy so I can speed along through the day! :)

The teabag smelled very spicy (in a sweet kind of way) with a light citrusy note. The tea in my cup has a lemony aroma with a hint of spiciness. My first sip of this tea was ok, nothing special. It was mainly spicy (not overwhelmingly so) with a little citrusiness and smoothness thrown in. After adding milk and sweetener, however, I was sold! It brings out a sweet orange flavor and also some creaminess from the vanilla. It’s pretty much wonderful with milk and sweetener. It’s still very light, just a nice, relaxing cup without being too overwhelmingly citrus. Big thank you to Nicole for these teabags, I will definitely be saving the rest of them for a special day.

-Muslin teabag with a tag.
-Teabag smells of sweet spices with a light citrusy note. Tea liquor aroma is lemony with a hint of spices.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy medium brown color.
-Spicy and citrusy flavor with a smooth and spicy finish.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. Smooth and sweet spiciness. Milk and sweetener bring out more of a sweet orange and vanilla creaminess.

This here is a sample I have to thank Sil for.

I don’t know why I am drinking this today, so soon after my unfortunate spice tea experiences from yesterday. Here’s what you missed if you weren’t reading these yesterday. I missed the mark with Ginger Darjeeling Peach and later in the evening I went for Glitter and Gold knowing full well I am not going through a spice tea phase. So today, what do I do today? I brew this one here. What’s in it? Spice and citrus.

I must be some kind of dumb. I think what’s happening is I am not in the mood for fruit teas and most of the stuff here is fruit flavoured teas (black, green and oolongs alike). So in trying to get away, I run into the arms of spice teas. What I do crave is chocolate, caramel and nutty things of which I have none.

This tea? I don’t know. Orange and spice. It brews rather dark at 2 minutes, probably more so if you go for 3 min. Smells spicy, like clove I think. The taste is not overwhelmingly spicy and the base is really not very strong. It’s a middle of the road tea. I had to sweeten it although not because it was tart but because it lacked something. I actually think this might be really good with Glitter and Gold. I have enough to try.

1 tsp, 8 oz, 90F for 2 minutes. Was afraid to go longer but no astringency at all, a braver soul could easily get away with a longer steep.

To my delight, there’s a specialty foods store in Harvard Square that carries Kusmi Tea. Not knowing what to try first, I picked up a box of their “essentials” that has two bags each of twelve of their (I assume) most popular teas. For some reason I was expecting normal-ish bags, so I was pleasantly surprised by the individually-sealed muslin sachets! Now, on to the tea :)

… delicious! Perfectly delicious, hot and plain. I always appreciate black teas smooth enough to easily drink plaint. Sweet and fruity and aromatic – citrus and vanilla, as described, but a very soft citrus. A like lemon coffee cake? I expect to get a second steep out of it, but haven’t yet. I’ll probably try with milk next time, but don’t want to mess with it at the moment – this is just tasty.

I’ll have to try the rest of the sampler first, but this could easily be one to buy a tin of!

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 heaping tsp
Water: 500ml filtered 212°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot
This does not follow the website’s recommendation of 185°F-195°F for 3-4 min

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: vanilla, lemon, citrus, black tea
Steeped Tea Smell: vanilla
Flavor: spiced vanilla black tea, a little astringent and bitter
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: bitter, astringent, lemon
Liquor: translucent dark orange-brown

I bought this when I visited the Kusmi store in NYC, it’s a tiny tin part of the Russian sampler.

It could be my preparation method but i don’t like the bitterness and astringency, but the mix of vanilla and spices and citrus is interesting and has potential if I play with adding sugar and cream.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/09/kusmi-tea-loose-leaf-black-tea-prince.html