Violin in C Sharp

 It's been a hot minute since I did a tea review that wasn't part of an advent calendar, but this morning I felt like trying something new, and so - a review is in order! A while back, Plum Deluxe sent me this Strawberry Rhubarb Oolong sample as a freebe with one of my orders and it has gotten lost in my tea cupboard for longer than it should have.  This morning, while digging for the right tea to satisfy my mood, I rediscovered this little dime bag hiding among the larger stashes and decided that her time had come! First off, I was surprised that while being a billed as an Oolong, that the package said it should be brewed at boiling temperatures since light Oolongs are usually brewed at 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit and dark oolongs at 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit. But then I noticed that the oolong was blended with some black tea, and so that made more sense. I felt like drinking out of a newly arrived witchy mug that happens to be a very dark burgundy, so I don't have a photo...

 I apologize to my fellow grammar nerds for putting the tea flavour in all caps.  I had to compromise between copy/pasting the name from the Tea Forte website in all caps or neglecting to add the accents since I don't have the keyboard knowhow to type that stuff in on my own.  I know how to do it on my phone, but not on my desktop.  I'll learn one day, but today is not that day. Right then, PEACH BRÛLÉE (God that's annoying, I will do my best to avoid naming the tea as much as possible in the body of this review to avoid all those jarring caps).   "A refreshing juicy-sweet tea, lush with marigold flowers and mango" .... ho boy.  I've already told my regular readers how I feel about peach as a flavoring - I don't like it.  Adding more fruit doesn't tend to help as my palate finds peach to be an OVERWHELMING flavor.  This was no exception, no matter how much I wanted it to be.  Even having some shortbread with it to try and make it ta...

 I opened this at night and was sooo excited at the mere name of the tea that I saved it to drink as the start of my day the next day. I love orange in my tea, I love chai spices like clove and cinnamon too - especially in a good black tea.  I had high expectations for this blend.  So after reading the write up on the bottom of the box, I was even more excited. It was a nice dark black tea base with a lovely orange peel on the mid note and a zesty citrus hint on the end note.  The cinnamon added a familiar warm spice that I often get in holiday blends.  I've had lots of tea with that mix of profiles, and greatly enjoyed them.  The addition of the clove in this blend did some interesting things.  The warmth of the cinnamon was heightened and moved across the middle of the tongue instead of staying at the edges.  The tannins of the black tea were heightened in mouth feel but not in flavor - which is to say that I got the drying sensation on my tongu...

  FINALLY!  A break from all those herbals! And to top it off - a chai!  My favorite!  Of course... a good chai is FABULOUS, but a bad chai is.... beyond heartbreaking. Ok... warming spices... the write up sounds promising... Ohhh... good dark color.... and I can smell the spices in the aroma.... this bodes well! First sip is mainly the taste of the black tea with a bit of cardamom and ginger on the end note.  The ginger, as usual, builds with each sip and made its way to the mid note on the second sip.  The cardamom stayed on the end note but the star anise and pepper showed up to the party in the end note as well.  Sip three had the ginger on the top note, the cardamom, star anise, and cinnamon dominating the mid note with the pepper and clove starting in the mid note and carrying into the end note.  The aftertaste was mostly on the back of the tongue and was weak tannin, pepper and ginger with clove hints traveling up the back of the throat to ...

  I was ecstatic when I opened the little door for the 11th.  YES!  I love Black Currant tea!  Now, not all Black Currant blends are created equal of course... .... and I must admit at this time that it wasn't the write up on the bottom of the box that gave me the confidence to know with 100% certainty that I was going to enjoy this cup. The confidence and surety came from this: Yup, that's an ENTIRE box of this blend - and it's only about half full.  I've already enjoyed the first half of the box.  In point of fact, my enjoyment of this Black Currant blend was the driving impetuous behind choosing Tea Forte as my calendar this year.  I figured if they could make a successful Black Currant blend as much as I like this one, than 24 days of their tea would be an enjoyable journey. Because I'm so familiar with this tasty blend, I didn't bother to taste it straight off the steep.  I know from experience that I enjoy this blend with a touch of cream....

  Oh I was so happy to open the calendar to be greeted by this blend. Earl Grey is one of my favorite tea blends.  When done right, the Assam + the bergamot makes for a heavenly cup. Of course, when the balance is off, it can also be one of the most disappointing cups of tea to deal with.  However, all of the Assam blends in this calendar so far have been most enjoyable, so my hopes were high. I forgot to take a picture of the brewed cup, but the color was dark, yet not dark enough to be mistaken for coffee.  The color made me think the brew would be suitably strong, yet still having an overall mildness.  The fragrance was lovely, but not overly heavy on the bergamot.  There was no oily residue on the top of the cup either, which let me know that they hadn't overly oiled the leaves to get the bergamot blend.  I appreciate this. The first few sips were.... nice.  But it tasted - closed.  To be honest, most good Earl Greys do this to my palate ...

 Yes, I realize this post is out of order - no you are not missing anything.  In playing catch up with my teas, I decided to drink them out of order for several reasons -  I wanted to drink the heavily caffeinated teas in the morning instead of later in the day Day 7 is a Ginger Lemongrass that I REALLY was not in the mood for Day 9 is a Raspberry Ganache which I am distrustful of, but Day 8 is a Jasmine Green which I'm pretty sure I will enjoy and thus is my safety in case the Day 9 tea is as bad as I expect it will be. So then - Day 9 Raspberry Ganache.  Ganache meaning chocolate. Yup, the write up mentions chocolate..... ung.  If you have ever read my tea reviews from previous years, you will probably remember (as my roommate does) that I almost always DESPISE chocolate flavor in my tea.  I may have finished a full cup of chocolate tea.... once.  Ruins a good cup in my opinion. I had hope when I smelled the tea bag because I couldn't smell the choco...

  I wasn't too excited to see English breakfast as my blend on Tuesday morning.  I admit to having become dis-enchanted with English Breakfast over the last few years.  Mostly, because the English Breakfast blends I've tried have been.... boring and lackluster.  They've been serviceable but dull, or have been made with mediocre tea, or haven't held up well to cream.  When given the choice between an English Breakfast and an Earl Grey, I will almost always choose the Earl Grey. So, imagine my delight and surprise when I took my first sip and tasted a wonderfully malty flavor from high quality Assam in the blend!  I enjoyed the malt flavor on the mid and end note so much that it wasn't until half way through the cup that I remembered to try creaming the tea.  So, in the second half of the cup I added heavy cream and no sugar and.... oh lord it was heaven.   It was even MORE heavenly when I paired it with my shortbread of the day - a classic pla...

 It's that time of year again!  December 1st means a new tea advent calendar - and I am hopeful that since I am already in better health heading into this December, that I will have a better chance of seeing the advent calendar all the way through this year. For this year's calendar, I decided to go with the Tea Forte offering. It's a wonderfully attractive package on the outside.  I think it was clever of them to echo the signature shape of their pyramid tea bags in the shape of the calendar. Even the shape of the daily little perforated doors echo that tree/pyramid shape and I love it. So then, day one is..... Caramel Nougat.  Interesting.  Right away, I know it's a black tea and not a tinsane, so that's nice! Oh dear... the word confectionary has me worried.  Is this pre-sweetened?  A confectionery cup with the taste of sweet nougat.  The word sweet as well.... I am worried.  I'm not a fan of pre-sweetened tea, especially not in the mornin...

 I was at the emergency pet hospital recently to support a friend, and the lobby had this very strange coffee/ tea machine with these pouches that you insert into almost a little credit card slot.  I've had other instant coffee single serve tea offerings, but had never tried this one.  Squishing the packet between my fingers, it felt like there was liquid inside - like a chai concentrate that the machine adds hot water to in order to dilute it. As far as instant single serve chais go, this had a more complex spice profile, but it had the bitter aftertaste that so many chai concentrates leave on my palate on the end note and after taste.  Adding cream or creamer can often lessen the bitterness of that lingering note, and that was true in this case as well - but it was still there. Final verdict:  Better than bad coffee to sit in an emergency waiting room with - but not by a very large margin.  Not something I would buy for myself.

 Mum and I went to a special invitation only shopping event at our local tea house around Christmas and while we were there, this house holiday tea blend was on hand for sampling - so of course, we imbibed (we had to do SOMETHING to counter the three free glasses of champagne we'd each had!) The aroma of the leaf is DIVINE!  I mean, you can SEE the massive bits of orange peel and the cloves in with the leaf.  In all honesty, the amazing fragrance does not translate to the brewed tea fragrance, but it DOES translate to the flavor, which is the important part. The color is just beautiful and belies the rich flavour of the black tea base. Fresh off the steep, Mum and I both agree that the blend is.... nice.  It's nothing special.  A serviceable strong black tea that would stand up to the heavy foods of a Christmas meal. When we added just cream, it softened the mouth feel in a wonderfully pleasant manner, and took the tannin level down a touch.  So, cream alon...

 This is not what I expected it to be. Let me explain.  I knew academically that Darjeeling varies greatly from one flush to another, but I had no idea a First flush would be SO different from the second and third flush Darjeeling that I'm more familiar with. The aroma is slightly dusty, but since I couldn't think what a Darjeeling is "supposed" to smell like, that didn't give me my first clue that I was in for a new experience.  My first clue was when I poured the leaf into my measuring spoon.  Look at it!  Even the leaf looks different than what I'm used to.  Some of those rolled leaves look GREEN.  Since when is there any green in a Darjeeling?  Darjeeling looks like a black oolong!  Doesn't it?? ..... Apparently not.  After a full 5 minute steep, this golden tea liquor was the darkest this first flush Darjeeling ever got.  Color me confused! I suppose I should pause here to talk about what a flush is.  Tea plants go dormant...