3458 Tasting Notes
Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 19
I think several listings here on Steepster are actually the same tea. The front of the tin says “Finest” in tiny letters under FTGFOP. There are only one or two other listings on F&M right now, one being a Badamtam. So I think three of the Darjeeling teas from Fortnum & Mason listed on Steepster are all actually the same tea.
And the bottom line – this is one of their teas we enjoy most, especially Ashman. Each year when we would drink it together he always liked it more than I did. I learned to go with a lower temp and shorter steep for Darjeeling and I must say today this one rocked. It was amazing with breakfast.
I texted him and asked if he drank advent tea at breakfast and he said yes and that it was the best one of the whole week.
Darjeeling is often compared to wine, and I would call this tea oak-y. It was not sour or astringent and wasn’t really brisk, but that woody flavor really cleared the palate when sipping with food. (Frozen waffle, maple syrup, and eggs with cottage cheese and Penzey’s Sunny Paris seasoning mixed in, scrambled.) i am a little sad that I didn’t make a bigger pot, but I think I should be nice and save most of this for Ashman.
December Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a holiday or celebration tea (advents count!)
I had a small tea party today. It was for two of my students, and I have taught all six children in their family over the years. These are the youngest and they are now teens, and the two eldest siblings have children of their own now!
They had specifically showed interest in Victoria Grey and Smoky Earl Grey when I had them peruse all the open doors of the Fortnum & Mason advent. With 25 grams of tea per day, there is plenty for extra pots of tea.
This was their favorite. The older girl said she did not taste the lavender, and I consider her to be a supertaster. Sometimes it does come out light on the lavender depending on what you get in your scoops. She tried the Smoky Earl Grey but didn’t care for it. Her sister didn’t try that one!
All of the Fortnum Earl Grey blends have tasted good to me, although I wish this one didn’t have licorice root, even though it is such a tiny amount that I don’t taste it. I just would rather it wasn’t there for the sake of wondering how much it takes to affect your blood pressure.
Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 17
Hooray! A Fortnum tea I have never tried before!
I asked Alexa (my Echo device) what was in this before I made it this morning thinking she would say she didn’t know. Instead she lied to me and told me it was a peach tea. I have had their Black Tea with Peach and really didn’t think they would put peach in a blend called Albion. Look on the website and I was right. This is a black tea blend with Assam and I believe it said there was some African tea (Kenya?)as well.
It is a hearty tea that I would classify as Irish Breakfast style. I was really surprised to hear that Ashman drank it for breakfast without any additions. This is one where the Assam is strong enough to tempt me to add milk, but I didn’t and had it at both breakfast and lunch and it was pretty good. It isn’t what I would consider a luxury tea but rather a decent daily drinker type.
Edit to add: just tried the final cup with milk (no sugar) and this really elevated it. Yum!
Very happy to have tried it, because I love trying new Fortnum teas!
Sipdown
December Sipdown Challenge Prompt – A tea you don’t drink in summer
I don’t drink this in summer because it is always already gone, as I only get it in the advent! Otherwise, I think I drink everything in summer!
First Advent sipdown from the Fortnum calendar! Make a carafe of iced tea for Ashman to take to work.
Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 14
Edit to add: Sipdown! Dec 28, 2024
Ten days until Christmas Eve? Wow!
I offered to make two teas this morning because Ashman doesn’t really like bergamot in general so I thought this would be a no go for him. He said he would drink it, and not only did he drink it, but he liked it well enough for us to have it again at lunch. The Fortnum advent includes 25 grams of tea per days so there is plenty to play with, experiment with, or just plain drink lots of pots of it.
The black Chinese tea used as the base makes this tea. I prefer Earls that way instead of on Ceylon. The bergamot is certainly there but at a pretty perfect level for me. I must say Fortnum does bergamot right, because I have enjoyed their Smoky Earl Grey, Victoria Grey, and Countess Gray as well. And it is great for making two steeps and combining them.
Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 13
Breakfast with Ashman who is off today! Once again, this is a black tea he will drink without milk and sugar. The first year we bought the Fortnum advent, he was still adding milk and sugar to pretty much all black teas that he drank. He felt that this one didn’t need it now and he said he liked it. He has always been partial to Ceylon tea.
I enjoy low and mid-elevation Ceylon teas, but high elevation by itself is too astringent for me with its bright, minty notes. This is a blend of low and high.
With food, it just tastes like a passable black tea, no outstanding characteristics but nice enough. When the food is gone and you are sipping the remaining tea, it does get a little brisk, but nothing I couldn’t handle plain. I wouldn’t reach for it on purpose if I wasn’t making tea to go with food, though.
The remainder shall be iced, Southern style.
Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 12
This is a favorite from the F&M advent. I love that they use Chinese tea for the base because it always seems to agree with my stomach, whereas teas from India sometimes seem to rile it up.
The strawberry is not super powerful in this tea, but it is definitely strong enough. I look forward to this one, even though it doesn’t beat Carol by Lupicia.
Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 11
This is a new to me tea! I think there are three or four in this advent that I have never had before and I am excited to run into one today.
I was a little put off when I saw that not only is it a black and green blend, but the green is a jasmine.
I made it like black tea with boiling water but kept the steep just shy of four minutes. At first I thought it was super sharp and harsh, but as I kept drinking, it just started reminding me of darjeeling. Since I like darjeeling prepared with a low temp and short steep, I decided to try again.
This time I turned the kettle down to 175F to pamper the jasmine green and kept the steep at three minutes. Now the color of the steeped tea is lighter and the jasmine is definitely coming out more. I think I prefer it this way.
Ashman had already prepared his and gone by the time I made mine, and later told me that he added milk and sugar because he wasn’t wild about it. He didn’t notice that it had green tea in it and had prepared it like a black tea.
It was a decent tea, but not one I would buy. I am very glad to have tried it, though!
Daughter Advent Day 9
Not every day of the advent is tea, but a great many of them are! Every day includes some candy – usually Lindt truffles or my favorite Cookie M&Ms. I have lots of new tubes of watercolor paint and new teas, too!
This is a sample sized pouch that was included with the other teas she ordered. I steeped it up to drink with our advent candy during our Beatrix Potter story time tonight.
I usually don’t like red rooibos ( I really enjoy green rooibos, though) but I have found one or two flavored blends that I actually like and I even liked Fortnum & Mason’s plain rooibos. (I did NOT like the one from Harney and Sons, though. My apologies to Harney because I want to love everything you sell but we can’t win them all.) I enjoy Lupicia’s Caramel and Rum Rooibos and there was a rooibos chai that Youngest sent a while back that was really good.
This goes in the category of red rooibos that I can drink. The funny thing was that I offered Ashman a cup and he said that he doesn’t like red rooibos and he doesn’t like fig but he would try it. He ended up drinking two cups, so I guess he didn’t mind it.
There is also hazelnut flavor here, and when I opened the pouch I smelled it and could not figure out what I was smelling at first, I just knew knew it was super familiar and it wasn’t the fig. The rooibos was more woody than Robitussin-y, so that means this blend and I can be friends.
