1353 Tasting Notes
I consider Pickwick a sort of average quality when it comes to bagged tea. You can get better but you can definitely also get worse. Much worse. This is a pretty old one, because I tend to forget that I have it, but if you consider the level of quality it’s pretty good. It’s not an outstanding tea by any definition of the word, but it’s definitely drinkable, refreshing and the elderblossom flavour is there without being synthetic.
Let’s not talk about the appearance though because it’s very unclear and murky to look at, although this might have something to do with the bags being several years old and probably past their prime.
I think this would work nicely for an iced tea. Perhaps with a dash of something sweet and fruity.
This was given to me as a gift once in a clear plastic bag with no details as to origins of any kind. I wasn’t expecting grandness and it is indeed pretty mainstream. It could have been a whole lot worse. Just had a sort of craving for green tea last night and it’s lasted into this morning.
This is normally one of those things that I only drink if I’m ill and real tea tastes weird, or to experimentally blend wtih other teas. Here is a different sort of tip for you. You know that cocoa powder for making hot cocoa? Just a spoonful in a cup, add boiling water, stir and you’ve got hot cocoa. Make a pot of peppermint herbal and use that to make your hot cocoa instead of regular boiling water. It’s very delicious, like drinking melted After Eight, except without the icky cream
When I first bought this, I reviewed it as disappointing. It didn’t live up to the expectations that I had. Now that those have been put away I can better drink it for its own sake and if I were to review it now, I’d give it a much better score than I did then.
It’s light in colour and sweet in aroma. It’s not one of those very bold and strong teas that benefit from a bit of milk. It has a sort of delicate flavour without actually being all that delicate at all. Very hard to explain this!
All in all, it’s a very nice tea, and it’s just the right one for me right now, trying to wake up from a very long nap with a slight headache.
I’ve written about this one before, as having not a huge amount of flavour to it, but it helps if it’s allowed to sit for a little while.
This morning I have tried making it in a gaiwan gong fu style (or an approximate of gong fu, since I’m not sure I’m doing it entirely right). The aroma is strong and spicy when brewed this way, and the flavour is too. I haven’t quite got the hang of steeping it, so it’s a little oversteeped and slightly bitter, but not so much that you can’t tell what it’s supposed to be like. Strong, spicy and nutty. It’s actually a much better tea when brewed this way.
At first I brewed it in the traditional western way with a proper tea pot. I found it a mild flavour, a bit delicate. Pleasant, but not something that sticks out as exceptionally good. It’s a pretty good every day tea.
Then I got the mad idea to try and brew it gong fu style in a gaiwan. I’ve never really managed to get the hang of gaiwans. I always spill or burn myself or both. I used the last of my leaves to do this. Unfortunately I failed to remember to do this with caution as it is now severely over-steeped, bitter and undrinkable. First steeping has therefore been disposed of. Second (very short!) steeping is much much better. The flavour is noticably stronger than when brewed in a teapot and more complex. There’s a sort of nutty finish to it, I think. It definitely wins by being brewed this way.
I suppose what I really need is a crash course in gong fu and use of gaiwan.
The only Pu-ehr I’ve got and it was sample-sized to begin with! This is not okay, I need to be tea shopping soon. Except then I’ll be laughed at by friends and family for already having more teas than I can remember.
Unfortunately it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to get more of this particular one. Not very old for a pu-ehr, but very mild in flavour, I think. I’d like to try something older than this.
I have proclaimed the strawberry tea of this brand my ideal strawberry tea. I’m not sure if I can do the same with the lemon tea. I mean it’s not like I was expecting something else, because I haven’t had better. But I haven’t really had worse either. I keep wanting to log this one, but in the last two days I’ve had three pots of it and I just end up drinking it and forgetting to log or even think about what I’d write about it. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I’ve decided that it must be good. If it was bad, surely it would be easy to log, right?d
It’s a pleasant tea, not so lemony as to be sour, but not un-fruity either. I think it has a pretty good balance considering the fruit, and I’m toying with the idea of blending it with the strawberry tea. On it’s own I think it would also be great as an iced tea.
I had this on the train home from my parents’ last night and once more came to the conclusion that Kusmi is indeed drinkable but otherwise overrated. This one isn’t as perfumed as other teas of the brand that I’ve tried, but it’s not particularly memorable either.
This review however must be taken with the understanding that making tea on the train involved hot water from a thermos rather than freshly boiled, so the steeping process was far from ideal. I think I might just stick to coffee on the train from now on.
