Harney and Sons, a great tea company that I recently discovered is actually somewhat local, has been featured quite a bit recently. Quite a bit is a relative turn of phrase, considering I find the free time to write about twice a month. But regardless, I've found myself writing about Harney and Sons a lot lately mostly because I really like their teas. Today's review is no exception: Queen Catherine black tea is a blend of three (non-specified) Chinese black teas, and is one heck of a cup of tea.
Queen Catherine is named for one of England's queens, but which one? At last count, I think England has had at least 91 queens named Catherine, and that's not counting off spellings like "Katherine." (91 may be a little off, but we're busy people, far too busy for fact checking.) What actually is fact is that Queen Catherine is named for Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese wife of Charles II, who first introduced tea to England. (Catherine, that is, not Charles II, who spent years in exile thanks to Cromwell beheading his father and later dissolved Parliament for dissenting with his opinion.) A nice tribute to the lady responsible for bringing tea to the British Isles, and a fairly fitting blend, since all the early tea in Britain would have been Chinese.
I make this with the usual parameters for black tea: a rounded teaspoon to a mug, water at a full boil, steeped for about four minutes. As with other full bodied Chinese black teas, Queen Catherine is good with or without milk, and I expect might do well enough with sugar, though I barely use the stuff these days.
I'd love to actually know what the three teas to go into this blend were, as it would be a fun exercise to try them individually. I suspect there's some Keemun in here, but as I've mentioned in the past, I'm woefully bad at picking out teas from a blend. At any rate, this is an excellent blend, a strong cup with hints of earthy cocoa, pleasantly bitter coffee, and mild smoke. Although it's not specifically a breakfast blend, and of course has no Assam like we often find in breakfast teas, this makes a solid morning tea. The body is full, especially for a Chinese black, which I sometimes find thin, and the mouthfeel again reminds me slightly of coffee. In fact, I think the full body, strong flavors, and hints of coffee make this a great cup for someone hoping to switch over to tea.
Score: 95 (A)
Showing posts with label Harney and Sons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harney and Sons. Show all posts
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Harney and Sons Organic Peach bottled iced tea
Another one from Harney and Sons! It's unusual for me to drink a premade bottled iced tea, let alone review it, but this wasn't actually all that bad.
As I noted last time, Harney and Sons is a pretty good quality, semi-local company. I've liked everything I've had of theirs, and this is no exception. The ingredient list is simple and clean, filtered water, organic tea, organic cane sugar, organic honey, and natural flavors (presumably peach?). The label states no preservatives, but they do throw in ascorbic acid, citric acid, and sodium citrate...not what I'd usually put in my cup of tea, but as non-preservative preservatives, I suppose they could do worse...those things at least occur in food.
The teas that went into making this are not specified. The label says they are a blend of the "world's finest teas," and while I suspect that's a load of marketing, I don't really mind. I don't look for fancy flavors in my iced tea, particularly if there's fruit on board. Iced tea to me is all about a very cold, refreshing drink for the summer time, and not about the nuances of fancy, first flush teas.
Luckily, this fits the bill. The tea is non-descript, but pleasant and clean, without any chalkiness or astringency, and the sweetener is judiciously applied, which gives Harney and Sons points in my book. My two major issues with bottled iced tea are: not using real brewed tea, and way oversweetening, but here, the cane sugar and honey provide just enough lift to make a nice bottle of tea perfectly refreshing. The peach flavor is nice...perhaps a bit understated, but at least it tastes like real peach. Attention Nestea and Snapple, this is how you bottle iced tea.
Score: 85 (B) Worth noting, although this tea is sweetened with both cane sugar and honey, a full bottle (2 servings, which is silly, who doesn't drink the whole bottle?) contains only 10 grams of sugar, which is not half bad. I prefer to make my own iced tea, but this is a pretty quality product that I don't mind at all. Someday soon I'll have to try a bottled iced tea from HonesTea, another clean, mildly sweetened bottled iced tea that I've heard good things about.
(Hmm, as another afterthought, peach iced tea mixes amazingly well with bourbon.)
As I noted last time, Harney and Sons is a pretty good quality, semi-local company. I've liked everything I've had of theirs, and this is no exception. The ingredient list is simple and clean, filtered water, organic tea, organic cane sugar, organic honey, and natural flavors (presumably peach?). The label states no preservatives, but they do throw in ascorbic acid, citric acid, and sodium citrate...not what I'd usually put in my cup of tea, but as non-preservative preservatives, I suppose they could do worse...those things at least occur in food.
The teas that went into making this are not specified. The label says they are a blend of the "world's finest teas," and while I suspect that's a load of marketing, I don't really mind. I don't look for fancy flavors in my iced tea, particularly if there's fruit on board. Iced tea to me is all about a very cold, refreshing drink for the summer time, and not about the nuances of fancy, first flush teas.
Luckily, this fits the bill. The tea is non-descript, but pleasant and clean, without any chalkiness or astringency, and the sweetener is judiciously applied, which gives Harney and Sons points in my book. My two major issues with bottled iced tea are: not using real brewed tea, and way oversweetening, but here, the cane sugar and honey provide just enough lift to make a nice bottle of tea perfectly refreshing. The peach flavor is nice...perhaps a bit understated, but at least it tastes like real peach. Attention Nestea and Snapple, this is how you bottle iced tea.
Score: 85 (B) Worth noting, although this tea is sweetened with both cane sugar and honey, a full bottle (2 servings, which is silly, who doesn't drink the whole bottle?) contains only 10 grams of sugar, which is not half bad. I prefer to make my own iced tea, but this is a pretty quality product that I don't mind at all. Someday soon I'll have to try a bottled iced tea from HonesTea, another clean, mildly sweetened bottled iced tea that I've heard good things about.
(Hmm, as another afterthought, peach iced tea mixes amazingly well with bourbon.)
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Harney and Sons English Breakfast
I've encountered teas from Harney and Sons from time to time, and always thought to myself, "What a nice, proper English tea company." Harney and Sons it turns out is based just over the border in New York, and is about as English as, well, apple pie. They are however, a great company, with a lot of blends, both traditional and rather innovative, by the looks of it. I've only had a few of their blends thus far: the Queen Catherine, and the subject of today's review, their English Breakfast. Now, a while back, in a discussion of breakfast teas, I noted that while today most English Breakfast teas heavily feature Assam, there are some "fancy" blends that are composed solely of Keemun, a Chinese black tea, often known for a wine or fruit taste. As it turns out, English Breakfast blended from Keemun teas is in fact much more traditional, and probably dates from before Indian teas were featured so heavily in Britain. Harney and Sons English Breakfast is just such a blend, giving me the opportunity to try something both traditional and new to me.
The tea itself is high quality loose leaf tea. I'm always impressed with Chinese black teas, and this is no exception. Though they tend to be a bit less forgiving than Indian teas, I find Chinese black teas to have some really unique and clean flavors. I made a single cup of this over the weekend, using the old tea ball: a rounded teaspoon's worth of English Breakfast in the tea ball, freshly boiling water, steep for about 4 minutes, add a splash of milk, and ready to go. As a breakfast blend, I suspect this would play well enough with sugar, but I don't find it necessary myself.
As I've noted somewhere before, the Keemun I've had had a strong, unique taste, reminiscent of a dry red wine or roasted fruit. What then, would a breakfast tea made up solely of Keemun taste like? Surprisingly, a lot like most other English Breakfast blends I've had, with a sort of crisp, biscuit-like note to the flavor, suggestive maybe of buttered toast. I will say this has a far cleaner, more refined flavor profile than cheaper blends that I've had in the past. There's no muddiness here, just a clean, fairly bright mouthfeel, with the faintest hint of smoke that lingers through a moderate and pleasant finish. There's only some mild astringency, but nothing to pucker the mouth or dry out the tongue. I don't know that I'd make this a goto for my morning mug anytime soon, but it's definitely a great tea, worthy of the occasional cup. It also goes to show, I have an awful lot to discover about Keemun...reviews to come someday. Score: 90 (A-)
The tea itself is high quality loose leaf tea. I'm always impressed with Chinese black teas, and this is no exception. Though they tend to be a bit less forgiving than Indian teas, I find Chinese black teas to have some really unique and clean flavors. I made a single cup of this over the weekend, using the old tea ball: a rounded teaspoon's worth of English Breakfast in the tea ball, freshly boiling water, steep for about 4 minutes, add a splash of milk, and ready to go. As a breakfast blend, I suspect this would play well enough with sugar, but I don't find it necessary myself.
As I've noted somewhere before, the Keemun I've had had a strong, unique taste, reminiscent of a dry red wine or roasted fruit. What then, would a breakfast tea made up solely of Keemun taste like? Surprisingly, a lot like most other English Breakfast blends I've had, with a sort of crisp, biscuit-like note to the flavor, suggestive maybe of buttered toast. I will say this has a far cleaner, more refined flavor profile than cheaper blends that I've had in the past. There's no muddiness here, just a clean, fairly bright mouthfeel, with the faintest hint of smoke that lingers through a moderate and pleasant finish. There's only some mild astringency, but nothing to pucker the mouth or dry out the tongue. I don't know that I'd make this a goto for my morning mug anytime soon, but it's definitely a great tea, worthy of the occasional cup. It also goes to show, I have an awful lot to discover about Keemun...reviews to come someday. Score: 90 (A-)
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