Upton Tea Imports Silver Sprout Green tea

As noted before, when the great folks at Upton teas sent over a Ceylon for me to sample and review, they also included a "bonus" 0.5 oz. sample bag of another tea. But not just any tea - this is pretty high quality green tea - Silver Sprout Pre Chingming Chinese green tea.

Chingming (or Qingming) is...well, let's not pretend I know anything about traditional Chinese culture, let's just let Wikipedia do the talking:

The Qingming or Ching Ming festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English (sometimes also called Chinese Memorial Day or Ancestors' Day),^[2][3] is a traditional Chinese festival. It falls on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This makes it the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, either 4 or 5 April in a given year.^[4][5][6] During Qingming, Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the grave sites, pray to their ancestors, and make ritual offerings. Offerings would typically include traditional food dishes, and the burning of joss sticks and joss paper.

The Qingming Festival has been observed by the Chinese for over 2,500 years. It became a public holiday in mainland China in 2008...

Thanks, Wikipedia. So, a traditional spring festival, but more pertinent here, of some importance in the tea world. "Pre Qingming" teas are those green teas picked before this date, and are considered higher quality or prestige teas, commanding a higher price on the market. So, this stuff is a pretty nice free sample. I've always had pretty good luck with Chinese green (and white) tea. Brewing seems more forgiving than my few experience with Japanese greens, and the flavor profiles seem to have a wide and pleasing variety. This is full leaf stuff, that has the distinctive look of "almost a pine needle" that serves to remind tea is also in the evergreen family:

Brewing is very straightforward. 1 teaspoon of tea per 6 ounces of water, water at 180 deg F, steep for 3 minutes, with a pale yellow cup.

The flavor profile is bigger than I expected, starting with a taste of toasted grain that rounds out to some mild fruit flavors and natural sweetness. The aftertaste is of roasted green vegetables, and lingers pretty nicely.

Stands up reasonably well to a second infusion with a slightly longer steep time - toasted note increases, while sweetness and fruit decreases, but still a pleasant cup. I sometimes add citrus to greens depending on the type (lemon juice usually), but I didn't have any on hand, and I don't know that it would work well for this tea.

Overall, a great cup of tea, very pleasant, and with the toasted grain and vegetable notes, seems a great choice for late Fall and Winter time. I may try one last cup as iced, though I'm not sure if it will add anything.

Bigelow Pomegranate Green Tea

Huh. Didn't I already review this, way back when?

Quick check says I reviewed Bentley Pomegranate Green Tea many years ago. The other major grocery store brand of fruit infused green tea. Bigelow is that tea that is used to stock every workplace ever, since it's cheap and office/workplace distributors will ship it in bulk. Some of it is pretty grim. I'd stay well away from their black teas.

But this stuff isn't that bad, for a fruit infused green tea. It tastes more of fake fruit than tea, but I like that it's fruit-ish yet not sweet. The green tea provides a bitter undercut to what would otherwise be a cloying, nasty drink. It's not the best cup of hot tea, by a long stretch. But I like it a lot as a refreshing iced drink. Is pomegranate trendy bandwagon fruit with vague and certainly exaggerated health claims? Yeah, but who cares?

Brew is easy enough, I put 1 tea bag to six ounces of water, so two for a standard office issue hot cup. Add hot water out of the Keurig. Not in my office, though. For unknown reasons, we don't have a Keurig, we have the "other brand" with the flat pods. Oh well, coffee is coffee, I've had workplaces provide worse, or no coffee at all. We have dark roast most days, and it beats waiting in line at Starbucks or Dunkies to overpay for a burnt or sour low quality cup.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the hot water out of the "coffee machine" is hot enough for a middling quality cup of green tea. I only steep it for about two minutes, cheap green can get over bitter and astringent fast. If making iced, I reduce the water by half (two bags to six ounces of water), and fill the cup with ice once steeped.

So, is it iced tea? Maybe just barely, but it is a refreshing and sugar free cold drink. I'm not a big tea snob (anymore), most days that's good enough.

East Frisian tea

East Frisian tea comes from Ostfriesland, or well, East Frisia.  Ostfriesland is a culturally and linguistically distinct region in Germany.  Situated on the Western side of the country near the Netherlands, Ostfriesland is apparently a rather cool and rainy place, and folks from the region drink more tea per capita than even the Irish, which is all the more remarkable in Germany, a nation given by and large to coffee consumption.  Frisian can be considered a dialect in the German language continuum, and interestingly, despite a rather heavy Dutch influence over the centuries, it is the closest living relative to English.  In fact, Beowulf was written about a hero from these parts, and without the years of Dutch influence, Anglo-Saxon Old English and Frisian would probably be mutually intelligible.  The region's location on the Dutch border explains both the propensity for tea drinking and the composition of the blend itself.  At first part of Germany, the common folk drank beer and lots of it as a daily beverage.  The Dutch conquered the region at one point or another, however, and disapproved of alcohol consumption, and introduced first coffee, then tea.  The Dutch East India company was in full swing, and cheap tea was pouring in from India and also Java, another Dutch colony, thus the common folk could afford a strong malty blend of Assam and Java teas.  Ostfriesland fell under German rule again, but the tea habit stuck.

I first discovered East Frisian tea in a BOP blend from Special Teas, and loved it from the outset.  Special Teas got taken over, and this thick, dark, strong blend disappeared, until I discovered Upton Tea Imports this fall.  Appropriately enough, the tea came in on a cold, rainy day, and to my pleasant surprise, Upton Teas' blend is even better than the one I remember from Special Teas.  East Frisian blends are typically made from a malty, tippy Assam and Java teas.  Assam is familiar ground, but I must admit, I was only dimly aware that tea even came from Java, an island probably far better known for its coffee.  I also purchased a sample pack of Java, to better understand the blend, and its an ok tea in its own right, but nothing spectacular.

Brewed at a rolling boil, steeped for three or four minutes, and served with milk (or even cream, as is traditional in Frisia) and sugar.  Brown rock sugar, known locally as kluntjes is served over there, and you can purchase the stuff online, but my need for authenticity only goes so far...I'm unlikely to shell out for a special kind of sugar that goes best with one tea, especially since I barely use the stuff.  Served traditionally, the tea is steeped, then poured over the rock sugar, and cream is floated on top, the notion being a layered beverage.  Well, I like doing things correctly and all, but I added a teaspoonfull of gold old white sugar and a tablespoon or so of whole milk and stirred everything together.

This is a strong and dark tea.  In fact, I first tried it because it was described as "stronger and darker" than Irish Breakfast.  Upton Teas' blend, though, is something truly special, huge and thick, with an amazing body and mouthfeel, and flavors of malt, coffee, and cocoa.  Despite my love of tea, I drink about two cups of coffee almost every day, have since I was a teenager, and would hate to give it up, but if I had to, this blend could replace the coffee.  The combination of malt from the Assam and coffee/cocoa from the Java is truly special, and perfectly executed.  Java on its own was kind of muddy and bland, but put up against a strong Assam, and, well, harmony is a wonderful thing.

Score:  99 (A+)  This is a pantry staple, especially in the colder months.  In fact, having sampled probably more than a hundred distinct teas, I can easily say that this is one of my top three, along with last week's Banaspaty Assam and the so far unreviewed Silver Needle White.  I'm also very curious to try full leaf East Frisian...the full leaves would mean a less intense cup, but would also bring more nuances of flavor.

Single Estate Assams

Happy (rather belated) one year birthday, tea blog.  Many happy returns.

I haven't forgotten or forsaken the tea blog, just been on a bit of a hiatus.  Babies, work, lots of cups of coffee, trying to squeeze the occasional condensed exercise in there somewhere, but very little tea, and no writing to speak of.  I've worked my way through an order of samples from Upton Tea Imports, so I have notes to write a few good reviews, but not so much the time lately.

So, Upton Teas is a local, Massachusetts company with a large warehouse less than an hour from here.  I've looked at their site from time to time, but never really gotten around to ordering, at least until the weather got cold and I got a hankering for East Frisian tea, a dark, thick, malty blend that's perfect for dismal, wet weather.  East Frisian blends can be hard to find, but a cursory web search brought me to Upton Teas, and I thought to myself, I've been meaning to try them for a while.  Now, I subscribe to the notion that if you're going to get a small amount of tea, why not get a small amount of a bunch of teas?  It costs very little, is a great way to explore new teas, and it gives me lots and lots to write about.  Luckily, Upton has a huge selection, and I ended up with ten small sample pouches at my door in less than 48 hours.  Great service, and as it turns out, great tea...this company takes loose tea pretty seriously.

To start working my way through my backlog of notes, let's talk Assam...single estate Assam.  In tea parlance, single estate means the tea comes from only one plantation.  In the past, I've compared them to single malts, though do to the seasonal nature of tea, most batches are also from only one year or growing season, so perhaps a single barrel whisky is a more apt comparison.  We've talked about Assam a little bit before.  In the past, I've always found it to be a sturdy, robust tea that takes well to milk and serves as the backbone for many a strong, bold breakfast cup.  It's solid, reliable, and can be a bit bland.  I thought the last until I finally tried some single estate Assam, anyway.


Banaspaty TGBOP
Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe, quality broken leaf pieces with plenty of golden tips.  Broken leaf teas lose perhaps some nuance of flavor in exchange for a stronger, more intense cup, so I'd be very curious to try a full leaf variety here, but no matter, as is this is possibly the best cup of tea I've ever had.  Dark, reddish brown in the cup, with a full, chewy yet never chalky mouthfeel.  The flavor is malty and fruity at once, with a wonderful natural sweetness.  Malt and oak, perfectly balanced with an amazing thick blackberry jam flavor.  Banaspaty kept bringing to mind port wood aged Speyside malts with its combination of malt and dark fruit.  It was excellent both black and more so with milk, and the jam notes really shone with the addition of a little sugar...maybe half or a full teaspoon.  I would get this tea again and again, though there are of course many other Assam estates to try.  Score: 99 (A+)


Brewed with water at a full rolling boil,  one teaspoon to a six ounce cup, and a shorter steep time than most black teas, at only three minutes.  The smaller leaf size does tend to brew up rather quickly, and I suspect five minutes might allow some bitterness to seep in.




Numalighur TGFOP1
Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, full leaves with plenty of golden tips...the 1 denotes highest quality.  A full leaf tea, which brews up a slightly lighter cup than the Banaspaty.  The Numalighur has a more complex profile than the Banaspaty, with sweet malt notes mingling with dark raisins, easily reminiscent of a sherry aged Speyside or Highland malt.  Less oak than the Banaspaty, and a touch drier in the mouth.  Although the body is a little lighter, the finish lingers a bit longer.  I hesitate to use the word, but a more "elegant" cup than the Banaspaty, though not necessarily better.  Another tea I will definitely get again!  Score:  95 (A)


Brewed with the same parameters as the Banaspaty, but the full leaf size calls for a longer steep...I had success with five minutes.  Again excellent black, as well with milk and a bit of sugar.  I think the sugar made less of a difference here than with the Banaspaty.


These are two truly fantastic teas.  I should never have waited so long to try single estate Assams...I think I have a lot more exploration through the area, and I currently have a new favorite tea.  More to come!

Mighty Leaf Darjeeling

The only tea I've had from Mighty Leaf is their bagged Darjeeling.  I mentioned Mighty Leaf in my tea seller roundup a few posts back, and noted that they do tea bags quite well:  full leaf tea in large, clean sachets.  Although their selection tends towards the overly fruity and herbal side of things, they also have a fairly extensive selection of loose teas.  They do tend towards the pricier side of things, which is probably why I haven't checked them out all that much, but if I see the bags out and about, they're not a bad hot drink option.

So, I've had fairly mixed success with Darjeeling.  It's such a renowned type of tea that I want to like it, but it just doesn't do much for me.  I find it overly astringent, and I rarely find the muscatel fruit notes that are supposed to be so prevalent.  So, it's kind of a surprise to me that I actually rather like Mighty Leaf's Darjeeling.  The label and site insist it's an estate tea, but puzzlingly do not identify which estate.  This gets a raised eyebrow.  Different Darjeeling estates have fairly different characteristics, and fans of the style probably can easily tell various estates apart.  Given the status in the tea world of estate teas, wouldn't it offer some prestige to identify the origin?  I wonder...it seems odd that a company that puts care into tea production would treat a word that means so much as marketing.  Perhaps they source tea from different estates in different years, or perhaps they source tea from a less regarded estate?

At any rate, I'm not a big enough fan of Darjeeling to care all that much, and besides, I like this Darjeeling better than the loose stuff I've had from various estates.  Blasphemy, maybe, but I have to go with what my taste buds tell me.  Mighty Leaf's Darjeeling is light and smooth, with a mildly astringent finish, but not the kick in the mouth I've come to expect from the region.  The flavors aren't exactly strong, but it has nice mild fruit and floral notes.  It's a pretty pleasant if not exactly remarkable cup.  Really, I would expect this to be a blend of various estates (and not mind!), given that it has such a smooth body and subdued character.  Score:  80 (B-)  Not my favorite, but certainly a pleasant cup if I'm out and about and it's offered.  Mighty Leaf also does an English Breakfast in a bag I'd be curious to try.

Celestial Seasonings Keurig Tea Double Feature

My wife and I bought my parents a Keurig coffee machine for Christmas last year, and that thing is awesome.  You put one of the little K-cups in, press the button, and within seconds, fairly high quality coffee is shooting out.  I don't know exactly how they work; I assume high pressure water like an espresso machine, but Keurig's website is not exactly forthcoming.  It tastes too good to be instant coffee, and magic coffee elves seems probably a bit too far fetched.

We also have two of these machines in our breakroom at work, since a highly caffeinated employee is a productive one.  We have quite a large selection of K-cups, including English Breakfast tea and generic green tea from Celestial Seasonings.  Now, Celestial Seasonings, available in every grocery store I've ever been in, actually makes some nice herbal teas.  Their Sleepytime blend, with spearmint and chamomile, may not actually induce sleep, but is a pretty pleasant and relaxing cup.  I don't exactly hold their tea in high esteem though, and I had doubts at the very concept of tea in K-cups.  I mean, you can quick-brew coffee pretty effectively by raising the water pressure and forcing it through the grounds...as I noted above, this is how espresso machines work, and I'm pretty sure this is the principal at work in the Keurig, too, but I can't really see how this would work with tea.  Tea requires a long steep for the cup to fully brew, unless the tea K-cups are simply packets of instant tea (a strong possibility, as we'll see).  Why try something I strongly suspect will be terrible?  I get bored at work...

So, prep couldn't be easier.  Take K-Cup, place into Keurig machine, select cup size, and press button.  Within seconds, "tea" begins pouring out.  I can't help but be reminded of the scene in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, when Arthur Dent tries to get the food replicator to produce a cup of tea, and ends up with a cup of brown liquid, "almost, but not entirely unlike a cup of tea."

Up first, English Breakfast tea!  The liquid comes out a normal reddish brown color, but smells rather off.  Sort of faintly tea-like, like a cup that had been in the same cupboard as proper tea for a few weeks.  After letting it cool for a few minutes and adding a splash of milk and sugar, I took my first, bold sip.  This is quite possibly the worst tea I've ever had.  It's weak, very nearly tasteless, and what taste is there is unpleasant...bitter, but not in nice "cup of tea" way, more like in a bad "scary and unnatural chemical" way.  Is this just instant tea?  Survey says "probably"...in fact, I sort of hope so, since I'd feel bad if real tea tasted this abysmal.  Score:  F

Because I sacrifice my own safety and taste buds in the name of tea writing and science (and I get bored at work) I went ahead and tried the K-cup green tea as well.  The label shouts "blended with white tea for smoothness!" and I'm trying to imagine hand picked and sun dried white tea being ground up and put in this K-cup.  I guess white tea has dust leftover from sorting too.  Surprisingly, though, the green tea isn't quite as bad as the English Breakfast.  While it's nowhere near a good cup of green tea, it at least tastes somewhat like the stuff.  There are really no nuances of flavor, but I'd say it's no worse a cup than the generic green teabags you might find in the grocery store.  Still, I'd only make a cup of this if all other options were exhausted and I really wanted a cup of tea.  Score:  D-

Bird Pick Breakfast Tea

An article I was reading recently divided black tea into two camps:  Chinese black tea vs. so called "British Legacy Teas,"  teas from former British colonies such as India, Sri Lanka, or Kenya.  Although this is a bit of an oversimplification, it does roughly work.  Chinese black teas tend to be lighter in body and cleaner in texture, and as such, work well as afternoon teas.  The right blend of Chinese blacks can make a pretty good breakfast tea, though.  I've mentioned English Breakfast blended solely from Keemun variants in the past, and it's a good, sturdy breakfast cup, as is Harney and Son's Queen Catherine.  I speculated that this was a more traditional breakfast blend, since tea from China was introduced first in Britain.  It looks, however, like I was pretty wrong on that.  According to which origin you pick, English Breakfast tea was first blended in Edinburgh, Scotland, or New York City, around either 1850 or 1870, and was a blend of Assam and a lighter tea, probably a Ceylon.  So much for my theory...the lighter Keemun blends must have come later.  Oh well, I never claim to be an expert, pretty much for this reason...I'm really just learning as I go along.

So, as mentioned last time, Bird Pick is a company out of California that specializes mostly in pretty high quality Chinese and Taiwanese teas.  As might be expected, then, their breakfast teas are usually pretty similar to the fancy Keemun based English Breakfast blends:  a strong flavor, but a light body and clean texture.  Bird Pick Breakfast tea however, is sort of a best of both worlds tea, with a fair bit of Keemun, blended with a light Assam, for an interesting mix of flavors and a round, full flavor profile.  It's a bit smoother than say Harney and Son's "All-Keemun" English Breakfast, but also probably not as strong a cup.  The balance is quite a bit more to the Keemun side of things than any similar breakfast blends I've had, with nice earthy note and a strong hint of Keemun smokiness, and the Assam maltiness lingering in the background.  Bird Pick's website notes citrus flavors, though I don't personally find them here.  I sometimes wonder, is my palate that undeveloped, or do these tea sellers exaggerate just a bit?

Bird Pick's Chinese blacks tend to do well with a slightly shorter steep time, maybe two to three minutes, though the Assam base here provides a little leeway.  As a true breakfast tea should in my book, Bird Picks breakfast tea tastes just right with the addition of milk, though it's not bad on it's own.  Sugar might work too, though I haven't tried it.  All in all, a nice cup, but probably not quite a morning goto.  Still, I like this company, and will have to try more from them in the future.  Score:  85 (B)

Pumpkin Cream black tea

This, the last for a bit of fruit and cream flavored black teas from Culinary Teas, is absolutely perfect for this time of the year.  Fall in New England means brightly colored foliage (well, at least most years...) and tons of squash and pumpkin.  Now, I have to admit, pumpkin flavored tea sounded odd when I first saw it on the website.  In my experience, mixing pumpkin with other stuff doesn't always work out so well.  Pumpkin coffee is pretty wrong, and pumpkin beers tend to run the range from "Ok, I guess" to "Wow, that's nasty!"  So it's a refreshing surprise that pumpkin and cream flavored tea is actually pretty good.

The tea is the usual Ceylon blend for many of the fruit flavored teas, and while it continues to work quite well, I'm starting to wish for a bit more variety in tea bases.  I know that the tea is meant to play second fiddle to the flavors, but I think a bit more creativity in matching tea bases to added flavors would be more interesting.  Perhaps that's just because I've had so many "x and cream" teas lately.  At any rate, the Ceylon is a good base, and the earthy pumpkin and sweet cream really blend well with the tea.  Although it sounded weird at first glance, after thinking about it, the flavor of pumpkin is probably a more natural fit than sweeter fruits.  The vegetal flavor and mild natural sweetness pair up so well with the similar characteristics in the tea, and as always, the cream provides a touch of vanilla and that amazing velvet texture.  As with all the cream teas, pumpkin cream plays wonderfully with milk and sugar.  One oddity I found with pumpkin cream is that the loose tea itself is a smaller leaf size, which means a slightly faster brew, with stronger flavors from the tea.  I don't know if this was incidental, or if some aspect of the flavoring demanded a faster steep time, but I shaved a minute off the steep time and still got a full bodied, well developed cup.  Score:  90 (A-) All right, it's time for a break from the "whatnot and cream" teas, as excellent as they are!

Tukdah Darjeeling TGFOP

At last, I've reached the fifth of five in Culinary Teas' Darjeeling Sampler.  It's been an interesting experience, going through five distinct Darjeeling estates.  I began back in the Spring with pretty low expectations, the only previous Darjeeling I'd had being severely underwhelming, and initially, I was pretty enthusiastic.  My first estate, the Soom, was not what I expected and pretty interesting, but as I worked my way through the teas, I found two things: one, the Darjeelings may have minor differences, but they all tend to have similar features, and two, I don't care for those features that much.  I mean, Darjeelings tend to be pretty high quality teas, but the principal note from each is "Holy astringency, batman!"  And while I don't mind some brightness in my cup, I prefer not to finish a tea with my mouth puckered dry.  So, I enjoyed trying all these teas, and I think I learned a good bit, but in the end, I'm just not much of a Darjeeling fan.

So, Tukdah is the last of five Darjeeling estate teas I tried.  The estate is nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, and sounds truly beautiful.  I think I would very much love to visit the state of Darjeeling in northern India, as it sounds fascinating.  Tukdah is a large estate, located in the Teesta valley, which receives high rainfall and cooler temperatures, which produce a lighter tea than other Darjeeling estates or nearby tea regions.  The neighboring Assam region, for instance, is at a much lower altitude, and produces a much heavier, thicker cup of tea.  Up in the Teesta valley, once the monsoons have run through in the early spring, it's time to harvest the first flush, which have more delicate flavors and aromas than later harvests.

The TGFOP (Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, fairly large leaves with lots of tips) Tukdah from Culinary Teas is a first flush, and it does have lighter and more delicate notes than some of the other Darjeelings.  As with the others, making this tea requires a bit of care, though no more than making a cup of white or green tea.  I've had the most success with Darjeelings by treating them as Oolongs (which they can technically be considered, since the tea is not 100% oxidized), and steeping them in water at about 205 to 210 degrees C.  The easiest way to achieve this is to bring the kettle to a rolling boil, take it off the heat, and let it sit for about a minute, then pour.  I'm also careful about steeping times; the label says three to five minutes, but I tend to stay to the lower side of that spectrum and brew for about two or three minutes.

The color is pretty nice, as with the other Darjeelings.  I tend to make these in a small, plain white teacup, and the liquor is a really nice deep amber or reddish gold color.  The nose suggests faint nuttiness and a hint of smoke, and the first sip is pleasantly round and clean.  This is a lighter Darjeeling with a slightly fuller mouthfeel.  I get faint hints of smoke as with most of the other Darjeelings, and a really bright, astringent finish.  For the fifth estate, I still fail to really find the muscat notes that Darjeelings are so well known for.  I don't know if it's a colorful use of the descriptor (like calling a single malt "chewy"), or if my palate is just not developed enough to appreciate the notes, but in any case, I don't find any sweet, fruity wine flavors.  Mostly, this tea is a one-two flavor profile:  light and round on the tongue, then the sucker punch of astringency, leaving my mouth puckered and dry.  Score:  80 (B-)

So, the last of the Darjeelings.  The folks at CT have an Assam sampler that I've been eying for a while that should prove interesting, and they have several different Keemuns to try.  The folks over at Harney and Sons have some interesting black teas as well.  I feel as if greens and whites tend to get short shrift here, but it's getting cold, so I would expect a lot of black tea for the next few months.

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake from Culinary Teas is a review that's been waiting to happen for a long time.  It's my wife's favorite tea, and is tied up with our discovery of Culinary Teas, thus having a huge impact on much of this blog.  So, for as long as Erin has been going to Mrs. Bridge's, our local teahouse, she's been getting Strawberry Shortcake, a black tea flavored with strawberries and cream.  Almost every time, she would look through the menu, deliberate, then order "the usual."  Then one day a year or so ago, they were out of Strawberry Shortcake.  And then the next time we went, they were still out.  Did they plan to re-order?  No, not enough demand.  Can we order through them?  No dice.  Thus an internet search ensued, finally leading us to Metropolitan Teas, the producers of Strawberry Shortcake.  We sent them an email, asking if we could order through them, but alas, they only sell in bulk to restaurants or teashops.  However, they kindly appended a list of retailers who sold their flavored teas.  First on the list was Culinary Teas, and the rest is history.

Strawberry Shortcake is a staple in our house, and pretty much every order from Culinary Teas includes at least some amount.  The tea is the same Ceylon blend as Peaches and Cream, flavored with strawberries (oils and actual dried fruit) as well as a good bit of cream flavoring.  The Ceylon blends perfectly with the strawberries and sweet velvety cream, especially with the addition of sugar and milk, or even half and half or actual cream.  For the most part, I agree with the traditional line that you add milk, not cream, to black tea, but the addition of cream flavoring sort of calls off all bets.  It's as if the texture was made for thick, heavy cream.

So, the usual drill for preparing black tea, full rolling boil, heaping teaspoon of tea per mug, steep for about four minutes and strain, sweeten and and add milk to taste.  The resulting mug is pretty amazing.  As I've mentioned in the past, fruit flavored teas often leave me disappointed, but this is a whole different story.  The best way I can describe the flavor is as if I had taken a quality cup of blended black tea, then dissolved homemade strawberry jam and a huge spoonful of sweet cream into it, which in all actuality, is not that far off from reality.  It's a great comfort cup and a solid go to tea.  Shockingly, we've yet to try it as an iced tea, though our recent experience with iced Peaches and Cream suggests it would be a huge success.  Score:  95 (A)

St. Paul's London Breakfast tea

St. Paul's London Breakfast is a unique and interesting black tea blend from Culinary Teas.   It was created to honor St. Paul's Cathedral, an iconic London landmark, and by extension, the city of London itself.  It's blended from three different teas to reflect three different important growing areas; there is an Assam from India, a Ceylon, and a Chinese tea from Anhui province in China, an area most notable for Keemun, which I suspect is the constituent in St. Paul's.  In addition to the somewhat unorthodox mix of tea regions, the master tea blender felt that some Earl Grey should be included, as it is both a very iconic British tea and the favorite of the Queen of England (apparently...I didn't fact check that).

This is a pretty interesting and novel mix of flavors, and I have to admit, I knew none of this when I ordered it.  I only saw that it was a previously unknown breakfast tea, and as I've mentioned before, I particularly love the concept and style of British breakfast teas.  I did sort of a double take when I opened the package for the first time and smelled the unmistakable bergamot aroma of Earl Grey, but some quick online research filled me in on what was actually going on.  An eyebrow raise and four or five minutes later, I had a steaming cup of tea, ready to see if such an unusual blend would work.  I added milk and sweetener right from the word go; in many cases, I like to try the tea on its own first, but as this is a breakfast tea, albeit an unusual one, I think milk and sugar add to the experience.

The first notes are all Assam, lots of malt and oak, which is quickly followed by the tang of bergamot.  The mix of flavors work quite well, far beyond my expectations.  The Keemun (again, a guess, but it seems likely) contributes to the broad base of the tea, adding roasted cocoa and earth notes to the Assam, while the Ceylon...well, that may just be a delivery vehicle for the Earl Grey-ness, as I don't truly detect any notes in the cup.  I have noted in the past, however, that I am nowhere near as good as I would like to be at picking out teas in a blend.  The surprising use of bergamot in a breakfast tea is restrained, a strong hint of flavor without overpowering the profile, and without the cloying aftertaste it sometimes leaves.  The Assam brings a nice strong body that mixes quite well with milk, giving the tea a good thick mouthfeel.

The malty Assam, earthy Chinese black, and bergamot flavors are beautifully balanced.  Having made a few mediocre attempts of my own at blending a couple of very basic teas, I am very impressed by the skill that went into this blend.  I wouldn't go so far as to make it my daily cup, but I applaud the novelty and the effort at blending, and it is one I will get again.  Though it has a fair bit of Assam and calls itself a breakfast tea, I think this one is good any time of day, but then, I've always been rather partial to bold, strong teas all day.  Score:  95 (A)

Peaches and Cream black tea

I've been less than enthusiastic about fruit flavored teas in the past.  I haven't always had the best experiences with them, ranging from obvious artificial flavors to weak, bland, and overdried actual fruit.  Special Teas, an otherwise great tea company was especially guilty of this, but then they got bought out by Teavana, and I've never had anything from Teavana, since they're pretty expensive.

My wife, however, is quite fond of fruit flavored teas.  Her favorite is Culinary Teas' Strawberry Shortcake, which I've been meaning to review here for a long time, but a close second from Culinary Teas is their Peaches and Cream.  Some of Culinary Teas' flavored offerings come from Metropolitan Teas, and use a common base blend of Ceylon teas.  The reasoning, of course, is that this offers a solid, unremarkable base for the added flavors to shine through, and for the most part, I think this a great strategy.

So, Peaches and Cream is the Ceylon base with peach flavoring and cream added.  Culinary Teas really does the cream flavors well...they don't get that specific on their website, but I believe it's actual freeze dried cream, which lends a really smooth, mildly sweet note to the cup, and of course, is a natural addition to peaches.  We brew in the regular way, rolling boil, steep for four minutes, you know the drill.  The resulting cup is great...I may not have been the biggest fan of fruit teas in the past, but this is done right.  The tea is a strong, broad base, never obtrusive, and the peach is sweet but never overpowering, while the cream brings a velvety texture and a mild hint of vanilla.

Peaches and Cream also makes a great cup of iced tea.  For most iced teas, I'll brew double strength tea and dilute with ice, though for this batch, my wife made a huge batch in the dutch oven, strained the tea out, and we chilled it in a pitcher in the fridge.  It came out a hair strong, so we added plenty of sugar, and unusually for iced tea, cream.  I've only really come across cream or milk in iced tea in Thai tea, but in the right cup, it's a great addition, and of course, cream goes great with, well, cream.  Score:  90 (A-)

Harney and Sons Queen Catherine black tea

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)

Two Leaves and a Bud Organic White Peony

White Peony is a classic Chinese white tea, harvested early in the Spring before the buds have truly opened, then gently processed.  White Peony is a direct translation of the Mandarin bai mudan, which means "white peony."  According to the wiki article on White Peony, it's a very broad type of white tea from Fujian province in the Southeast of China.  In fact, Drum Mountain white, which I have had a long time ago, is a type of White Peony.  The tea itself generally has a soft, gentle taste, with delicate floral notes and a mild natural sweetness.

Two Leaves and a Bud is a high end tea company, selling both loose and bag tea (most if not all organic).  They are not cheap, but they do put out good tea, and offer some of the best bag tea I've found anywhere...actual full leaf tea in large pyramid-ish sachets that let the tea bloom as it steeps.  This is probably as close as you can get to loose tea without actually crossing over.  The high price tag is a stumbling block, but we usually find Two Leaves and a Bud on clearance at stores like Marshalls or TJ Maxx, and at $4 for a box of 15 high quality tea bags, I feel like I'm getting an acceptable deal.  My wife and I have also tried Two Leaves' Assam and Jasmine Green, both of which were excellent.  Perhaps my largest quibble with Two Leaves is for the price tag, I think I'd prefer to see estate teas, rather than homogenized blends.

So, then, Organic White Peony from Two Leaves and a Bud.  The box and website recommend brewing at a "light boil," which confuses the scientist in me...what is a "light boil?"  Water is either boiling or not.  I suppose what they mean is a hair under actually boiling...about 160-170 degrees Fahrenheit, or to follow my rule of thumb, steaming briskly but not bubbling.  Steeping times can vary with whites, but less than two minutes is a good benchmark.  I didn't try it here, but a lot of white teas respond well to multiple infusions.  But how does it taste?  I think this is the classic White Peony flavor...mild, with a little bit of floral notes, and some natural sweetness.  The sweetness grew on me throughout the cup, developing into a faint suggestion of honey.  The tea has a medium and very clean body, with no astringency at all.  Overall, clean and somewhat sweet, but could use more flavor...it's not quite boring, but not exactly exciting.  Score: 80 (B-)

Second Flush Mim Darjeeling

Mim Darjeeling is the fourth of five in Culinary Teas' Darjeeling sampler.  So far, I've tried the Soom, the Castleton, and the Margaret's Hope.  The experience has greatly expanded my knowledge and appreciation of this Northern Indian sub-variety of tea, but it's still not my favorite.  That being said, the Mim is the best of the lot so far, with a complex and beautifully balanced flavor profile.

Mim in from a tea estate in the North of India, located at 6800 feet above sea level.  Apparently, on a clear day, you can see Mt. Everest from the tea garden, which is just cool!  The tea is grown at a pretty high altitude, in relatively cool weather, which means a short growing season, and fairly high prices.  This also means a fairly renowned reputation, and should mean a highly developed flavor, particularly this tea, a second flush, which should have the strongest flavors of the harvest.

So, as with other Darjeeling estates, is this tea worthy of such a reputation?  I brewed a cup the other morning to try and answer this question.  I brewed the tea along similar lines to the other Darjeelings, water brought to a boil and allowed to sit for about a minute (roughly 205 - 210 degrees F), steeped for about three minutes in my Paris infuser.  The resulting liquor is a really nice reddish brown color, with a pleasant aroma.  But how does it taste?

Thumbing through some recent reviews, it's clear that one of the things that I really value lately in a tea is a clean texture and flavor profile.  Darjeeling doesn't disappoint in this regard; all of the estates I've tried deliver a high quality tea with no muddiness or chalkiness, and the Mim is probably the best of lot so far, with a faint natural smokiness.  That being said, I still struggle to find the muscat flavor that Darjeeling is famous for.  I've had wine made from the muscat grape, and it's all been sweet and fruity, with huge grape flavors, while the predominate texture here is in fact a crisp dryness.  Darjeelings seem to be bright and rather astringent, with little of the natural sweetness that I find in other teas.  Perhaps my palate just isn't that nuanced, but maybe I'm just not that big a fan of Darjeeling.  The Mim does have a wonderfully balanced flavor, and really is a quality cup of tea...on the whole, though, I think I'd rather a quality Chinese white.  Score:  82 (B-)

Republic of Tea Silver Rain white tea

It's hard to believe this is my first review of a true, unflavored, loose leaf white tea, one of my favorite types of tea.  While Darjeeling is commonly referred to as the "Champagne of teas," I've always felt quality white tea should really be granted that status...it's smoother, cleaner, and simply more elegant than Darjeeling.  White tea is almost exclusively Chinese, and is the least processed of any type of tea.  For example, black teas are picked, bruised to expose the essential oils, then allowed to oxidize (a process that is frequently and incorrectly called "fermentation."  Actual fermented tea is called Pu-erh, and is a story for another day.)  Green tea is picked, allowed to wilt, and then usually heated to halt any further oxidation.  White tea is picked and allowed to wilt, then dried to halt oxidation, sometimes in steam, but in the highest quality teas, in nothing more than direct sunlight.  The resulting leaves are minimally processed, and brew up a liquor that is fresh and clean, often with lots of natural sweetness and floral notes.  Perhaps not surprisingly, white tea is often the priciest of teas, due to a limited harvesting window and non-mechanized processing.  Though the price is a stumbling block, I still think everyone should try a quality white tea.  The taste and texture are similar in some ways to many green teas, but without the strong vegetal and mineral notes that often show up in greens, and with more natural sweetness and fruit or floral elements.

So, then, on a recent trip to Mrs. Bridges, the mood for a white struck, and I decided to try the Silver Rain from The Republic of Tea.  I'll admit, I tried the tea on name alone; one of the best teas I've ever had is a famous Chinese white called Silver Needle...it's absolutely amazing, and rather outrageously priced.  So, I thought, Silver Rain is close to Silver Needle, but won't break the wallet.  And it was close.  Silver Rain is a high quality tea, and while I won't put it on the same level as Silver Needle, it's almost there.  It brews up a fresh and clean cup, with natural sweetness and plenty of hints of fruit.  I find Silver Needle to have more floral notes and a more complex profile, while Silver Rain has more straightforward sweetness and fruit.

While I didn't brew this cup myself experience has taught me that brewing white tea is every bit as tricky as green.  It requires a lower steeping temperature and careful attention to steeping times, and usually requires more loose tea...one variant I tried in the past called for two full "soup spoons" per cup!  As for temperature, it will vary from tea to tea, but briskly steaming (not bubbling) water is a good rule of thumb.  Most white should only steep for a minute or two.  However, all this attention to detail (as well as the steep price) is at least somewhat offset by the fact that most white teas respond very well to multiple infusions.  All that is required is a slightly longer brew for each new infusion.  Though I didn't try it with the Silver Rain, the Silver Needle was usually good for four infusions per cup.  The tea may cost an arm and a leg, but that's still a bargain you won 't find with black tea!

Score:  90 (A-)  I think I talked as much about Silver Needle as I did Silver Rain, which is perhaps unfair; Silver Rain is a decent, quality tea in it's own right, and at least somewhat cheaper than Silver Needle.  Also worth noting, white teas are naturally low in caffeine, usually as low as 5 - 20 mg per cup.

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.)

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-)

Brodies Famous Edinburgh

Brodies Famous Edinburgh is a black tea blend from Scotland.  I've only been able to find it in bags, which is a shame, as I'd really love to try a smoother loose leaf version of this, but we'll make do.  The tea is available all over the internet, but I've only seen it in person at Mrs. Bridge's, our local tea house.  Though I've never been intrigued enough to purchase it myself, it's become a favorite of my Mom's, and I'll usually make a cup when we're there visiting.

My favorite quality of Scottish teas is the flavor attributes they sometimes share with Scotch, and the Famous Edinburgh is no exception.  The base of the tea is most likely Assam, lending some malt and oak, much like Scottish Breakfast, but the Assam is blended with something lighter and spicier, probably a Ceylon variant.  The resulting blend is interesting:  malty, oaky, and a little spicy.  The addition of milk and a sweetener, preferably honey, brings about a halfway decent cup of tea, at least somewhat reminiscent of a complex single malt.

I did have some quibbles with an otherwise pleasant tea.  As mentioned above, this is a bag tea, and not the highest quality.  The bags themselves are rough paper, and the tea is not exactly full leaf, but my biggest issue is that they're small...I find myself doubling up two bags to make one cup of tea.  Another reviewer was perplexed at the weak cup of tea one bag produced, and actually ripped apart tea bags from Brodies as well as several other companies, and found the Brodies had about half as much tea as most other companies.  Perplexing...were they truly looking to validate old fashioned Scottish stereotypes?

So then, I like the blend, but not the questionable quality or the rather parsimonious portioning.  I'll have to continue my search for a malty, spicy Scottish tea that more closely resembles a good single malt.  Score:  75 (C)

Matcha Green Tea

The folks over at Culinary Teas, whom I may have mentioned a time or two, have a nice blog, where one of the owners of the company writes about teas she is enjoying and current specials.  They also sometimes do a sort of hat raffle give-away, where if you're interested, you post on the blog entry, then she puts all the names in a hat and picks a winner.  Some months back, the give-away was Matcha green tea, something I've always wanted to try, and to my surprise, I won!

So, then Matcha is a finely milled green tea.  The leaves are essentially ground into a fine powder, which is then whisked into hot water to create a unique cup of tea.  The fact that you're consuming the tea leaf itself puts Matcha pretty high up there in the good-for-you scale, but sadly makes it pretty difficult to make.  I don't own a "tea whisk" and don't have current plans to shell out money for an apparatus that's really only useful for a small bag of one type of tea.  My attempts at Matcha without a whisk were...well, hot water with clumps of tea in it.  Not exactly appetizing.  So the tea sat in the cupboard for a few months, while I wondered what, exactly, I would do with it.

As one of my other selves, when I'm not being a highly renowned tea expert and writer*, I spend a good chunk of time running.  I run more days than not, and sometimes for very long distances.  I find running enjoyable for a lot of reasons, but a downside is that it can leave your legs pretty sore, especially if you've spent two or three hours pounding away at rocky trails.  A while back, I read a suggestion that protein, consumed as quickly as possible after exercise, can ease some of the muscle aches, since the muscles repair themselves more quickly with ample protein.  So, like a ridiculous body builder, I buy and consume whey protein.  And it works...really well.  Unless I actually damage myself, I'm rarely sore, even the day after a rather punishing run.

I write this not to brag about my running "prowess" **, but because one morning, looking for my big canister of powder, I noticed the Matcha sitting in the cupboard, looking all lonely and forlorn.  I then looked at my vanilla flavored whey protein and the milk, and thought, hmm, why not?  Vanilla green tea protein smoothie is pretty good, it turns out.***  I'm sure it's kind of a waste of quality green tea, but it was just sitting on my shelf otherwise, and Matcha is used to flavor ice cream and other foods.  The tea itself has what I consider a typical Japanese green flavor profile, mild natural sweetness, and a fair bit of vegetal plant flavor, but not nearly as much as some teas I've had.  The vegetal notes are pretty washed out when mixed with vanilla protein powder and milk or water, leaving a more run-of-the-mill green tea flavor.  Overall, though, a great use of an otherwise wasted tea.  I don't think I'll grade the tea, this seems a bit outside the box for a tea review.


*In my own special fantasy world, I get paid to write about tea.  And Scotch.

**I may not be fast, but I usually have a smile on my face.

***The protein powder mixes very well with black coffee, too.  I usually get the standard whatever you can find at Walmart, but Trader Joe's makes a protein powder as well, with fewer weird chemicals in it, that we get from time to time.