Elephant Chateau

This black tea has a robust and full-bodied flavor, with hints of maltiness and a bold aroma.

Great taste!!

Grabbed a sample of this from the tea box, but I’ve been procrastinating trying it since it didn’t seem very exciting. Yeah, it was way too light and mild for my tastes in black tea. The color came out quite clear as well. I didn’t add milk because that would drown out all tea taste. Instead, I added some raspberry extract so that my cup would taste like something. The tea itself didn’t taste bad. It did have a nice flavor, but it was too light.

From the TTB.
I was feeling quite nostalgic, thinking about a past trip to Northern Ireland (and traveling in general), and decided to make a bowl of brown sugar steel cut oats topped with vanilla whiskey butter for breakfast. It’s definitely taking me back to my mornings in Belfast.
Thought this may be a nice compliment, and it’s quite meh. There’s a bit of a roasted quality, but’s it’s mostly just tannic and quite drying.

STTB Tea

Reading the reviews, this reminds me a lot of cherry (the real fruit, not the candy flavour). Oddly, I wouldn’t call the taste of the brew fruity. I found it dark, too tannic for my tastes, but complex. I found it bitter, not really my taste for black teas. There were mineral notes but not like roasted oolong mineral flavour. The dry leaf smells like cherry juice, which is neat. Not bad, but not really something I’d reach for if I had this in my cupboard.

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #23

As I mentioned in another tasting note from the TTB, I wanted to make sure I included some straight teas in what I sampled – this is new to me and sounded intriguing so here we are…

The leaf has an interesting visual appearance compared to a lot of commercial Ceylon blends that make it to the North American market – more open/flat and flaky leaves; quite brittle and delicate. I guess that’s what makes it “extra special leaf”. Without doing some digging, I’m not totally sure whether this is high/mid/low grown but my guess would be lower…

Steeped up Western style, it’s… nice?

There are no off notes to me, but it’s quite flat tasting and there’s no body to the cup either. The top of the note has some slight sweetness that reminds me very loosely of honeyed graham crackers, and that’s about where any interesting element of the tea stops for me. After the initial flavour passes, there is nothing to follow through – and the finish, while clean, is just kind of boring? No linger tastes or mouthfeel.

I’m thinking it’s probably low grown now, just because my experience is that low grown Ceylon black tea has less range of flavour (typically) and is the smoother/flatter taste as well. There’s no way that this could hold up to milk or cream, but the neutral flavour does make me think that maybe it could be repurposed as a tea base? There’s nothing here that would compete with whatever you wanted to layer over it – it just wouldn’t contribute either.

From the Samurai TTB.

I was a little bit on the fence about whether to try this one, since it didn’t really have much of an aroma. Also the mineral notes that Shanie O Maniac mentions in her note didn’t appeal to me much. But I woke up this morning and wanted a good black tea with breakfast so I decided to give it a go.

Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my breakfast fantasy. It’s not bold enough and there is something lacking in the flavor that I just can’t place. There is a roasted quality that’s interesting though – it reminds me of an oolong actually. Oolongs aren’t my favorite, so maybe that’s why I’m not digging this one so much.

So yeah, it’s not bad but it’s not great either. Still, it’s a bit of a caffeine boost to help get me going this morning, which I sorely needed.

Courtesy of tea-sipper. Thank you. :)

This was my first Nuwara Eliya tea, and it’s impressive. Definitely recommend it if you like lighter aromatic teas.

Found it’s available online https://www.amazon.com/Black-Tea/dp/B08669VSP1/

Using this recipe for fresh vanilla bean tea.

Ingredients:
1 Ceylon Vanilla Bean
4 Cups of Water
5-10g Ceylon Orange Pekoe Tea
4 Tsp of Sugar

Instructions:

- Heat up 1/4 cup of water and the sugar on the stove in a saucepan.
- Slice 1 vanilla bean in half and scoop out the seeds, adding them to the water and sugar.
- Add the bean shell as well and allow the mixture to heat for 5-10 minutes until the sugar is dissolved.
- In a separate saucepan, bring 4 cups of water to a boil.
- Add the tea of your choice to the water and allow them to steep for 3-4 minutes.
- Remove the vanilla bean from the sugar mixture and add to the tea.
- Remove (strain) the tea leaves and stir the mixture thoroughly before serving.
- Enjoy your cup of vanilla tea!

Delicious and fresh ceylon vanilla beans – https://www.amazon.com/Whole-Vanilla-Bean/dp/B07ZXNRBJ5/

Ceylon loose leaf tea used – https://www.amazon.com/Ceylon-Black-Tea/dp/B07F59NYRF

Thanks so much for the tea, Elephant Chateau! I’m so sorry the review is so late but I’ve tried it MANY times. The sample from Elephant Chateau was big enough that I’ve been experimenting with this tea, steeping multiple ways. So this has been the tea I’ve been drinking most frequently. First, if you were to ask me what my least favorite black tea type is, I would say “Ceylon”. It is never the flavor profile I like from a black tea. BUT I shouldn’t say “never” because this is not a typical tasting Ceylon. It is much different than most Ceylon teas I’ve tried— and luckily much tastier. The leaves are bigger, twistier, mahogany colored with a hint of scarlet and sometimes green leaves. It’s odd to see some of the steeped leaves in the basket turn green? The green leaves look like an oolong or green tea. Maybe this is why the flavor is so odd for a black tea? No matter how I steep it, the color of the brew is pumpkin amber. I’ve tried everything from one teaspoon to three teaspoons for a mug, which I don’t think I’ve done with many teas. However, if using three teaspoons, I definitely don’t suggest using boiling water (it was a little bitter on the second steep when I boiled it). Three teaspoons expanded to almost the entire steep basket. But I think I prefer the flavor when I use two teaspoons. This tea is so hard to describe no matter how I steep it, but I would say the main note is squash and sometimes hints of cinnamon. But the only note I seem to get is squash… maybe other palates are better than mine. I apologize I can’t puzzle this tea out. But I wanted to post a tasting note already. So this is very good for a Ceylon but I do wish the tea had more depth.

Makes a tasty ceylon cinnamon tea brew, we use the tea cut version of this or ground and strained.

(drank a few more cups before reviewing)

There is a definite hint of jasmine in the maltiness that I’m tasting but its hard to pin down.

I didn’t expect this to be good iced (with no sugar or milk), however it is delicious.
I recommend 3.5 grams of tea brewed in half the water for 3 minutes and immediately iced.