London Afternoon

knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 11 (my pick)
Theme: Fireside Glow
Her pick: Russian Country from The English Tea Room

So I admit, this is not one of my favorites. However, I suspected Marjorie would enjoy it, and she did! I’m sipping my cup with maple syrup and oat milk, because this tea seemed like it would be well-suited for that.

It’s nice enough, but unfortunately this preparation seems to have brought out the rose notes quite a lot, and I am not a rose fan ha ha… My experimentation seems to have backfired. XD Still drinkable, but tastes like a creamy rose tea with a touch of smoke instead of a mostly vanilla and smoke tea. Oh well! XP

I don’t like this quite as much as Parlour Room Blend, but it’s still really delicious and very up my alley. Smokey with a little bit of a brisk bite to it, but also sweet and lush with silky notes of vanilla and a hint of citrusy fruit from the bergamot oil inclusion. I’ve had smoked Earl Grey blends before (though I wouldn’t call this an EG) and not loved them – it’s just a little too much going on all at once and the notes get competitive. However, the bergamot inclusion works here to add complexity and brighten the top notes. Maybe because it’s a lighter touch.

I haven’t really been active on Steepster… At all… In years, and I’d like to change that. Both to breathe new life into the site (with the current dwindling numbers), and because now I have a purpose. Mostly just to train myself to get better at describing teas and picking things out (I mean, that’s why most people are on steepster but I degress).

Full disclosure, I recently ended up working for Murchie’s as a tea-taster in their warehouse. So I won’t be rating any Murchie’s teas from here on out (not that I rate many teas on here anyway). I know, a weird sudden career-path switch, considering I graduated with a full degree in geology just last year and am an accredited Junior P. Geo. Maybe one of my own blends will show up on Steepster one day.

The main notes in this are smoke from the lapsang and an underlying vanilla sweetness; it’s definitely there in the smell, and does also come through in the taste, dialing back the smoke a bit. The rose has always been a bit elusive for me in this blend; coming through in the smell of the dry tea the most. I don’t get it much in the taste here. I think it’s drowned out by the smoke and vanilla this time around, but I did also burn my tongue a little bit today.