11 Tasting Notes
For a tea so evil, it tastes so good.
It smells really great in the bag. Once you take a sip the ginger practically explodes on your tongue. Further drinking lessens the ginger and you start to taste some of the other spices in the Masala Chai. Cinnamon is one of them, and cloves too. The cloves and the ginger work to leave a pleasantly herby and tingly aftertaste at the end of each sip.
I can imagine this tastes great with honey, sugar, milk, or even a dash of Bailey’s Irish Cream. Like Mycroft, I can imagine that this would make a great desert tea, but in a different way. If Mycroft is a chocolate cake, Moriarty is a gingersnap. If you wanted to enhance the effect, I’d even go so far as to say add a bit of fresh ginger to your desert tea mix and you’ve got yourself one spicy cookie in a cup.
Despite how much I love ginger and gingersnaps, however, of the Sherlock teas I’ve tried so far this isn’t a top pick. I think because I’ve had teas that have done the same ginger theme but better. I feel like this blend could be stronger, with more snap, but doesn’t quite get there. I’m not disappointed, though, merely wishing it had more of that Moriarty burn to it.
Preparation
Smelled great in the bag, tasted like nothing in the cup. To say this is dull is an understatement. Don’t get me wrong, you could argue that it has a nice light flavor. The bloodorange and grapefruit aren’t completely hidden. And it’s true, I’ve never been a huge fan of fruit teas or ceylon, so maybe I’m a little biased, but the let down between what I smelled and what I tasted was just too much.
I did so want to like it, but there’s honestly nothing that recommends this to me. It’s basically just tinted water. Boring.
Preparation
This tea is a very full tea. It’s got a great scent, a lot of flavor, and leaves you feeling like you’ve just had a meal. The gunpowder and the pu erh dante give this tea a really great smoky, rich flavor, while the hazelnut brings it down and lends it a homey scent and taste that makes it comforting as well. It’s very much a BAMF tea, but a BAMF that likes its muffins. I think it would lend itself well to whatever you wanted to try with it, be it honey, lemon, cream, sugar, whatever. But personally I think this makes a smashing cup without any frills.
The only downside, and this is pretty much exclusive to me, is that black tea tends to give me a stomach ache, and I can already tell that this is strong enough to cause some problems if I drank more than one cup in a couple hours. But if you’re not affected by such things, then no worries!
Preparation
Ok, let’s start right off and say this tea SMELLS DELICIOUS in bag and steeped. It’s seriously a cup of scent heaven. And happily, the scent doesn’t disappoint. This tea is very obviously meant to be sweet, but it comes off as a nice balance between spice, a hint of chocolate, and tea-ness that makes it a really great desert tea. I probably wouldn’t drink it at dinner time, but I can see this making a great tea time treat.
And unlike a lot of teas, it would be a great one for kids as well. Rooibos is caffeine free, and the rest has very little caffeine either, so in small quantities it would make a nice treat for the tea drinking kid in your life. The cinnamon and orange scent is lovely and dominates the in-bag smell, but the overall taste is the vanilla chai with a hint of chocolate and cloves.
It’s frackin cake in a glass, seriously.
I betting this tea tastes great with cream or sugar. Sadly, I am lactose intolerant and I hate sugar in my tea (yes, even honey). Next time I try it I’ll have to go out and get some more almond milk, though, because I’m betting that would just make it taste even richer.
Preparation
I really, really wanted to like this tea. I mean, it’s the title characters tea, and everything in it sounds exciting and slightly exotic. How can a Sherlock tea set be complete without an amazing Sherlock tea? So as you can see, I really, really wanted to like it.
Unfortunately, the only word I can think of to describe it is…dull.
I will admit, it SMELLS amazing. More so in the bag than in the cup, where it loses some of its sharpness, but if I could have a perfume that smelled like this I would wear it until the day I died. Overall the tea has a beautiful scent and a nice color in the cup. What it lacks is the zing I was heartily hoping for out of a cup dedicated to the sharpest mind in fiction. What I got was just plain old ordinary.
No, it’s not Lipton, I will at least give it that, but after the promising start with Watson, it was a real let down. What it needs is a touch of something sharp, something biting. I guess adding lemon would improve it, but that’s just a small fix. It doesn’t help the fact that the tea itself is sadly unimpressive. If I was going to suggest any changes, I’d say Sherlock would be better served with a hint of hibiscus, or something similar to give it the edge it deserves.
Preparation
It’s a very smooth tea, with just the barest hint of spice. It’s not overly strong, but it has a nice presence when you drink it. I think the word is “satisfying”. I took it without anything, but I can see this being a very good tea for early mornings in an armchair or late nights after a long day. I love that there’s a nice ratio of green tea to it, because black tea tends to upset my stomach, and the cinnamon lends it a very nice smell but doesn’t make it too spicy to drink when you’re tired. All in all, it’s a very relaxing tea. In terms of taste, it’s nice. I don’t think it stands out particularly one way or the other, but I’d want this one in my cupboard for those days when I just need a nice cuppa to help me unwind. It doesn’t demand too much attention when you drink it, but you leave the empty cup feeling better than before you had it.
Preparation
Dragon Well is one of my favorite green teas ever, so this one really disappoints me. I don’t know why, but every time I make this particular brand of Dragonwell, it’s bitter and tasteless. I’ve tried varying steep time and temperature, but it never seems to come out tasting like Dragon Well at all. Sad :(
