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Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 10

Edit to add: Sipdown December 31, 2024 iced

Once again, I tried this hot and just didn’t like it. In the past I have made sweet iced tea with it and that is how we finish it. Today I actually poured out my cup (a very rare occurrence) and made a different tea.

It was just too sharp. The base was sharp and the flavoring was sharp. Just a no today. Maybe I made it wrong but this is one I have had trouble getting right before, and I even love floral teas. Back to having it sweetened and iced.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 9

We practically cut our loose leaf teeth on Ceylon tea. The Fancy Ceylon from A Southern Season was magnificent. That was back in the days when we all added milk and sugar, but even as I began to take my tea plain, we still loved low- and mid-elevation grown Ceylon. The high elevation ones are usually lemony or minty/menthol-y and I don’t love them as much, like Uva Highlands and Lover’s Leap.

This is a nostalgic cuppa for those reasons, and I enjoyed it. Since each tin is 25 grams I can have it at least once or twice more.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 8

I drank this today as we went out of town yesterday. This is not a favorite Christmas tea nor is it a favorite Fortnum tea, yet I have three tins of it – one large and two tiny. They duplicate this tea every year in the advent and the karge tin came in the Christmas hamper this year. I will probably give away one of the small tins. I like that it is more than just orange-cinnamon-clove like so many black Christmas teas, but I really could do without the clove. It says the blend is five per cent clove, and that is 4 3/4% more than I want.

Not the worst Christmas tea ever and sometimes I even enjoy with food, but definitely not my favorite, either. Maybe I can pick most of the cloves out.

Sipdown

Somehow I missed reviewing this tea until the day of sipdown?

This was a gift from Superanna and was purchased in Kyoto during her January trip to Japan. The steeping parameters on the package say to use a tablespoon of tea to just over an ounce of 160F-ish water and steep for two minutes.

We usually make it by the pot so I don’t use as much as the instructions call for. We get a marvelously fresh tasting green tea with lots of body. Today I even accidentally left it to steep too long because I was multitasking yet it was not at all bitter or sour. There is a brothy look to the tea from the particulates and it makes for a very satisfying cup or five.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 7

The fruit flavored blends have been some of our favorites in the advent. This is nicely peachy but not as strongly flavored as Harney’s Midsummers Peach. The black tea base is in good balance with the peach flavor and resteeps well enough that I can make a great big pot to share and still be economical.

Daughter Advent Day Four

Not every day in the homemade advent is tea, and I saved this one for first breakfast today. (Ashman was quite late coming home for lunch, necessitating second breakfast of tea and biscotti to tide me over.)

I hesitated to have it with my omelette which had Penzey’s Sunny Paris seasoning in it. The purple shallots are rather strong and I was wondering if the lavender and blueberry might suit this tea more to pairing with something daintier. Sniffing the dry blend gave me the confidence to pair it with this breakfast because the lemon was pretty strong and the base was, too.

Wow, I am glad I made it this morning! All the flavors came through so well, and it was very well balanced. The food didn’t overwhelm the tea at all. I think this tea could be a real chameleon. I want to make it to drink with something plain and simple like Bordeaux cookies because I think you could focus on each of the flavors here one at a time and they would step into a spotlight. Want a berry flavored tea? Think of blueberries and you will taste them in the forefront. Want a flowery bower? Think of lavender and the spotlight shifts to a new player. (I love lavender and violet teas!) And the lemon really did help carry it alongside the shallots.

Very nice tea!

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 6

Edit to add: Sipdown! December 29, 2024

The aroma of the dry blend has a nice lemon candy scent. Steeped up, this is a plenty strong green tea but if I didn’t know what I was drinking, I would have thought this was a plain green tea with natural lemon notes. I did double steep and combine both times I had this today, by the mug at second breakfast and by the large pot at lunch with Ashman.

Ashman had it breakfast and said he thought it was very lemony smelling this morning when he made a mug for breakfast, and he didn’t resteep and combine. I will have to try it that way.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 5

I was excited to see this tea on the list of teas included in the advent because I really like vanilla tea. Both Vanilla Black and Vanilla Comoro by Harney were early introductions to the world of tea for me. Since then I have run into vanilla blacks that had watery bases or too little vanilla.

This one is quite good. Both Ashman and I drank it sans additions but it would be good with milk and/or sugar if that’s how you like your tea. The base is strong enough for breakfast. The vanilla is not quite as strong as Harney’s but it is certainly strong enough and very pleasant. This will be easy to finish! It would even be a good tea to blend with another to flesh it out for enough to make a big pot. I love using vanilla tea as a mixer with other teas! I might save a little to go with the last of the peach or strawberry tea.

Fortnum & Mason Advent – Day Four

December Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a smoky tea

I had this at lunch because a friend came for bagels and tea this morning and she doesn’t drink black tea anymore. Breakfast was Fortnum’s Green Tea with Mandarin and she loved it because it reminded her of Revolution’s Tangerine White that we used to buy. (Discontinued now – sob!)

This is only mildly smoky to me but a lot of people found it too smoky. I love lapsang if the base is nice and flavorful, and this has a good base. The bergamot is present but not strong enough to taste sour or perfume-y. This is one of my Fortnum favorites.

Day 3 Daughter Advent

Apparently my advent made by my daughter is going to include a few teas as well as art supplies and self care items!

This smells so rich and chocolate-y and that is great because I was craving chocolate this afternoon. This is a very natural smelling chocolate that Ashman would like and NOT the chocolate flavor that he thinks smells like mildew. (And I can totally see that.)

This tea has captured the tastes of a turtle with chocolate, caramel, and nuttiness all shining and thank goodness the base is not weak and watery! Big thumbs up!