Fortnum & Mason

Adventageddon Day 1 – Tea 3/4

I’ve wanted to do Fortnum & Mason’s sachet advent for a few years now, but in past years it’s actually only had twenty two unique teas in it – two have repeated. The concept of that just drove me a little crazy, but thankfully this year they seem to have wised up and the calendar has twenty four unique teas instead.

I’m not sure what makes this Sri Lankan black tea “Royal” but I was happy to see a strong black tea this morning because it was perfect for sipping on during my early morning meetings while working from home today. I found it very full bodied and brisk with a pleasant tannic quality and a flavour that was a nice mix of malted grains, red fruits, raisin, a touch of citrus, and a bit of a coppery mineral note. I was surprised, actually, that it wasn’t quite as fruity as expected because the aroma of the dry leaf itself was VERY strongly red fruit smelling – like red currant jelly!

Overall maybe a little forgettable longterm, but very nice in the moment.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0U5HFmO091/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nSvl1YkXPs

Super warm and bready cup. Perfect balance between a strong and medium-strength black tea. Great aroma.

A bog-standard (but very pricey for those of us outside the UK/EU) black tea. I have tried this at different temperatures/steeping times three times (the 3-5 minutes suggested seems far too long), but I keep coming up with: Pretentious Lipton for Wanna-Be Anglophiles in Brooklyn. There are a couple snooty tea joints in NYC that serve this to rave reviews, but you could totally swop it with Lipton and they’d be none the wiser.

It’s a perfectly serviceable cuppa and that smooth F&M DNA comes through but there is nothing noteworthy about it to me. More style than substance, though I am judging a bit more harshly than normal due to the very high price of F&M overseas.

Sipdown

If I am not mistaken, the Fortnum seasonal teas are the same blend released under a new name. I am adding Mother’s Joy to my cupboard today which lists the same ingredients and is this year’s Mothering Sunday blend.

June Sipdown Prompt – an Earl Grey type tea

I almost never have a plain Earl Grey on shelf, so I left this more open for National Earl Day. This tea is really Earl Grey with a hint of rose, and right up my alley. I love rose in teas, and I like my bergamot on a hefty base or something with smoke, but not really on lemony Ceylon.

This one ticks all the boxes for me and is just right for when that Earl Grey and cookies craving hits.

I had this again today, by itself this time instead of back-to-back with Earl Grey Grand Classic by Lupicia.

Having it with breakfast and after (I made a really big pot) I find this to be one of the better Fortnum teas. I really like the balance of rose and bergamot. They are so evenly matched here. I would call the flavorings medium strength, not too in your face but definitely and unmistakably present. The tea base carries it all nicely and was strong enough for breakfast for me, but I am not a builder’s tea drinker so keep that in mind.

Really liking it! I am glad since Valentine’s Day blend was a bust hot for me and will be served as a sweet iced tea.

I saved one very small cup for Ashman and gave it to him without telling him what it was. He sniffed it and asked if it was rose. Drats. He doesn’t care much for rose in tea. I was hoping he wouldn’t peg it before tasting. I told him there was rose as well as other things. He sipped and said he mostly tasted rose. I told him there was bergamot in it, another ingredient he doesn’t like unless liberally accompanied by other flavors like vanilla, caramel, or blackcurrant. (Like Paris by Harney)

Bottom line – he said he liked it! A win! But he does tend to like Fortnum teas, maybe even more than I do.

I drank this right after Earl Grey Grand Classic by Lupicia. Night and day difference here really. Both good, very different.

Mother’s Day is a limited edition tea making its debut, but perhaps it will return next year if it is well-received.

If Earl Grey Grand Classic is the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth, this is the opening of Smetana’s Die Moldau. If EGGC is Barynishnikov leaping and plunging across a stage, this is the Sugarplum Fairy. Both good, just different.

Grand Classic was so powerful in base and scent that this was a whisper in comparison. I don’t think it would be so noticeable if I had this one alone. I will try that tomorrow.

The base is mild but not absent, the bergamot is light and not strong enough IMO to scare Ashman away, and the rose is mild and light also. Ashman would probably have more issue with the rose in this cup than the bergamot, since his dislike of rose is stronger than his dislike of bergamot.

I need to have this again when I haven’t just had Grand Classic so I can judge it more on its own merits instead of right on the heels of a powerfully flavoured tea. So far, though, I can say that I like it, but I may like their Countess Gray better.

Wonderful tea. Has a mildly earthy and nutty essence. Smells like you are walking into a bakery. The longer the brew, the more earthy. The shorter the brew, the nuttier.

September Sipdown Prompt – a tea you regret buying

A true sipdown!

Not a repurchase, although it is fine as a sweet iced tea, of which we need plenty. More hibicus flavor than I prefer and I feel that it competes with the rose instead of complimenting it. I suppose it was just put there to make it pink for Valentine’s Day.

I don’t like to waste tea. I just don’t like this one hot because of the hibiscus but I added a ton of sugar and put it in the fridge to chill for supper. The first sip as I was putting it in to chill was just okay, but thoroughly chilled in a glass jar it was good and refreshing. The sugar tamed the tart hibiscus and the rose came out a little more. I still don’t taste white tea and boy am I hoping that sixteen ounces won’t keep me up tonight.

Iced and very sweet is the way for me to go with this one. I have seen good reviews for this tea but served hot, it is just not my thing.

I will say these are the prettiest spent leaves I have ever seen. The white tea is such a gorgeous green and there are rose red hibiscus flowers and pink rose petals.

February Sipdown Prompt – a least favorite tea

Third times a charm? Not with this one.

I chose and ordered this tea. I don’t remember if I saw that there was hibiscus in it, but I was expecting and wanting a white tea with delightful rose flavor and aroma.

First cups were weak and disappointing. There have been a few Fortnum teas that were pleasant but the added flavor was weak, and overleafing handled that situation handsomely. The flavor was nice and the tea didn’t become astringent. I decided to overleaf this one and see if it would bring out the white tea and rose.

It turned deep red instead of light pink, and the dry, tart impact told me that all I had increased was the hibiscus flavor. No white tea taste at all. There is rose, mostly in the aftertaste but throughout breakfast it built a little and I could tell the aroma was lingering with me but hibiscus was still the main flavor.

I decided to try it sweetened to see if that increased the rose, but it really didn’t help and I really don’t sweeten my hot tea. The only option now is to super sweeten it like I would a hibiscus tea and have it chilled at lunch. I poured the remaining tea (I made a lot this morning) into a jar and added more sugar, but I did have a taste before putting it away. It was better this way. But it isn’t rose white tea. It’s jamaica with rose.

If you love hibiscus and are intrigued to see how it would taste with added florals, you might like this. You might even love it. But as a hot tea, this is not for me.

I served this today for my friend’s celebration, hoping she would like it more than I did. She said it was good but she didn’t drink a lot of it.

Having tried it full strength and resteeped, I am not a fan. I will drink this and may try to find a way to make it more appealing to me, but the white tea is too mild and the rose flavor too light and the hibiscus turning it pink for Valentine’s is no excuse for adding it and cover up what might have been nice flavors under there.

If I were choosing a Fortnum tea to serve for Valentine’s Day, it would more likely be Rose Pouchong or Countess Grey…maybe even Victoria Grey. The only thing this tea had going for it for the holiday was the color. That’s not enough.

Maybe I can find a way to improve it.

Our Fortnum & Mason Valentine’s hamper arrived today and I decided we really should go ahead and try the tea. I plan to use it this weekend as a celebration tea time for a friend who has had very good news. I needed to know if it was good and if it was a tea that was likely to appeal to her.

I did double steep this and combine the steeps because I wanted enough for both me and Ashman to try, and I didn’t want much caffeine this late at night. I think in future I may not resteep this one because it is very light already. I will have to try it again early in the day full strength to see how it tastes that way.

This is a very light tea and the rose flavor is quite mild. That’s good because my friend – and Ashman – will tolerate mildly floral tea but not strong rose flavor. Jasmine is well liked by both, but something with a huge floral punch like Bellocq’s Wedding Tea is not well received by them.

There is enough hibiscus to turn this a lovely light pink shade and it does add the tiniest tart twist but not much. The rose is noticeable but mild. The white tea flavor is also milder than some other white teas that I have on hand.

It was okay, especially with their blackcurrant biscuits, and I am not sorry we bought it, but I would not go out of my way to purchase it again. Maybe having it stronger will change my mind on that. I am toying with the idea of mixing it with a little of the Teavivre White Peony that I have much of on hand.

Just tastes like black tea!
I was looking for good chai tea, and thought if it was from Fortnum&Mason it would be a good refined tea with lots of spices. They didn’t have this one to smell in the shop, so I just bought it.
I’m just disappointed to be honest. I can see in the loose tea mix a few spices, and there is a faint smell, but overall when you try to make it it just tastes like bitter strong tea at most, nothing else.
I’m actually going so far as to by my own spices to add on top, hopefully it will work. Really surprised…

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 23 (sachets)

As far as I can recall, I have never had gin or a gin and tonic. My take on this tea may be different from the note of someone who knows what gin should taste like.

I was really looking forward to this one just because it sounds so different and is one I have never had. I was disappointed to see it has licorice root because if I am reading the ingredients correctly, it has an awful lot. I like licorice root but can’t have much of it because I am trying to control my borderline high blood pressure. So I split this with Ashman and will try to get his opinion as well.

The green tea is mild and smooth. The juniper berry comes next in strength and is very pleasant. There is a light fruitiness that may be the bergamot but it absolutely does not taste like bergamot to me – just fruit. I can not detect anything that tastes like bergamot. The descripton says lemon balm but the ingredient list does not.

They also name fennel in the description but again, it is not in the ingredient list. Perhaps there is too little of these to be required to name them? That seems odd. Surely you have to list everything that is in because of food allergies?

I do not taste the licorice root and there is none of its thick, round sweetness and throat coating. The ingredients that are not listed must be taking up some of the percentage of what is in the sachet. They list green tea 53%, Juniper berries 11%, gin flavouring 5% (which seems high for a flavouring), lime peel 3%, and tonic flavouring 3%. Interspersed with those are liquorice root, sweet blackberry leaves, coriander seed, angelica root, and bergamot flavouring – none of those showing a percentage and surely they are not in order of how much is in the blend because that would mean there is more than 11% licorice root and possibly up to 25%. Surely not!

Anyway, this is light and smooth and delightful, lightly fruity and easy on the palate, and they recommend it iced as well and I can see that it would be brilliant that way. It is very refreshing. That must be why gin and tonic is so popular.

This one did not disappoint me at all! And Ashman says he thought it was good, which is about all the review I get from him unless it is a white tea or a terrible (to him) tea.

I am not a big chai fan because I don’t really like black pepper or hot spices in my tea, even if it is just lots of ginger. I don’t mind a little ginger, and I didn’t mind pink peppercorns, but the things most people love about chai don’t appeal to me.

I was happy to see that this was a fairly tame chai. I tasted it before breakfast because they recommend adding milk and I usually drink my tea sans additions. I found it palatable without milk and having food with it would take any edge off. I made my oatmeal to match the tea, adding Penzey’s cinnamon sugar and cardamom.

With the food, it was quite serviceable. Once the food was gone, I found it more brisk than I cared to drink on its own. Fortunately, there was only a sip or two left at that point.

For “tame” sort of chai, I would prefer Stash Holiday Chai over this one, as it has just a tiny bit more zip and makes a great tea pop syrup.

It was fun to try a new to me tea, though!

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 20 (sachets)

I was not sure I wanted a green tea with toast and jam today but I went with it because the tins advent is also a green today. It was not a disappointment at all. They suggest resteep ing this one and I did. It had good strength and was very nice with food, not as smoky as some gunpowder green I have tried and pretty smooth and easy drinking. Enough Heft to enjoy with food, even a sweet jelly.

Oddly – my finger has been hurting since last night. I have Heberden’s nodes and they hurt when they are forming and a new one in forming on my right index finger. I even mentioned it before and winced this morning. After having my tea, I could barely feel it. Is green tea THAT anti-inflammatory? Or was it just time for it to get better?

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 17 (sachets)

I really like this. I see it has camomile, honey, bee pollen, and licorice root. I know a lot of people dislike licorice root but I don’t mind it. For some reason, this smells the most apple-y of any chamomile (or camomile) I have tried. Maybe that is due to the sweetness of the licorice root.

I am glad to have tried it, and glad of every tea in the sachet advent that is not also in the tins advent!

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 16 (sachets)

This is a different darjeeling from the one in their tins advent calendar. If I recall the color of the other one correctly, this one is a little lighter.

Breakfast was toast made from Buttermilk Bread that middle daughter made using flour from wheat she freshly milled. Hearty bread. Toasted, buttered, and smeared with Fortnum Strawberry Preserve. Against this backdrop – the nutty, hearty bread and the sweet strawberry – the first sips were almost smoky. It definitely had the heft to accompany my breakfast and not disappear like a shrinking violet against the strong grain and sweet flavors.

The sachet is crammed full of saturated leaf and the color so good on the second steep still that I decided to go for a third steep. It is lighter now, but still flavorful and brisk. I find all Darjeeling brisk and adjust my steeping time and temp to get it to where I can enjoy it, since I don’t love briskness, although it does make it go better with food sometimes.

I am pretty sure that if I released those leaves from the sachet I could get a pretty nice fourth steep from this, but I think I am ready to move on to a different tea now.

This was an interesting tea. Very glad to try it in the advent.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 14 (sachets)

The description says English mint, the ingredient list simply says “peppermint”, and the flavor says “spearmint”!

This tasted so much like spearmint instead of peppermint that I googled the plant. Every listing from plant nurseries to recipe sites said that English mint tastes like spearmint and I agree. Two steeps, both great. Very sweet and refreshing, reminiscent of my homemade butter mints (which are made with peppermint oil so go figure) or spearmint gum.

Nice!

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 13 (sachets)

I have been really happy to see some herbal infusions that I can drink at night since my “tins” advent has had all caffeinated teas so far.

I love floral tea and I love rose in tea. This infusion would probably be NOT be Ashman’s cuppa because he doesn’t enjoy rose in tea, even though he likes jasmine in tea. I was a little worried about the hibiscus overriding all else, but it definitely doesn’t. First, the aroma is pure, unadultered rose. The color as it starts to steep is a soft pink, so lovely. It doesn’t deepen to a deep pink as I discovered since I left the sachet in the cup. I resteeped it, and still got a pretty pink cup of tea. The rose flavor dominates all, the hibiscus and rosehips pop in after it has steeped longer, and in the resteep I am still enjoying both rose aroma and flavor, though milder.

I enjoyed this, and it was a lot like having C Howards violet candies, only rose flavored. I know there is violet in this and I think it comes in as the candy vibe because seriously all I can think of is rose. And I like it.

I wonder what it would be like iced and sweetened, or better yet…as a tea syrup? Might have to add this to my next Fortnum order to find out. It would be a beautiful syrup for making summer tea sodas….

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 12 (Sachet)

My experience with this tea is the opposite of nearly every review here. I saw tippy and golden and thought “hallelujah, an Assam that won’t upset my stomach!” Golden tips rarely bother me because of their natural sweetness and milder flavor.

Steeping it, I was surprised at how light the color was, a golden amber, and put it down to this being golden tip. It was smooth and had a bit of a honey note and some breadiness. Words I wouldn’t put with what I drank this morning are: brisk, astringent, bold, strong. It was a very civilized cup, needed no additions at all, and was very pleasant.

When I tore open the sachet to put the leaves in the compost pail, it seemed like a rather small amount of leaf. They were medium sized, not fines or severely broken. It didn’t lack flavor so I guess they knew what they were doing when they filled the sachets.

There are a number of reviews calling this a bold and strong tea, and most Assam teas are just that to me. This one definitely wasn’t. And that is how I usually prefer it – smooth and naturally sweet without a lot of bite. Nice one. But since my experience is so very different, I wonder if they changed their source or something.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 11 (Sachet)

This is a duplicate listing. There is another listing with a few reviews that has an extra “R” in Moroccan. But I am also wondering if the blend has been changed.

I double steeped and combined as I often do, because a friend was over and I wanted her to get to try it, too. She is most fond of green and white teas and recently got hooked on Teecino after I sent her a sample, so she came today to give me some samples from her order!

She really loved this Moroccan Mint. I am much more fond of tea with more spearmint than peppermint. This one says it is 10% spearmint and 2% peppermint, so we can do the math and see that there must be 88% green tea. The description here on Steepster doesn’t mention spearmint, though.

The spearmint leads more in this blend than it has in any other Moroccan Mint I have tried, including one of my favorites, Moroccan Mint from Tin Roof Teas. If you like spearmint gum, here’s your tea. My friend was sufficiently smitten with this to ask me to order a tin of it for her next time I place a Fortnum & Mason order.

Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 9 (Sachet)

I knew it was in here. It was just a question of which day I would confront it. I don’t mind green rooibos, I even like lots of blends that have it. But red…

So I altered my thinking. I have never had plain, unadulterated rooibos before, but I knew what it tasted like because it has been quite strong in some of the flavored blends. I didn’t enjoy them.

I decided to make it an event and keep an open mind, and pretend I was having a mug of tea with Precious Ramotswe, protagonist of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novels, which estimates that she drinks at least 99 cups of red bush tea a week.

I lit some Japanese Jasmine incense that Youngest gave me, and I sat down in solitude. I pretended I was in Botswana sitting beside Precious and about to partake of her wisdom and steady spirit. And…as long as I didn’t think of it as a cup of TEA, I enjoyed it. And believe or not, I made a second steep after I finished the first and hoped any health benefits were greatly amplified by the openness of my mind.

There is no escaping it. Rooibos is rooibos and this is rooibos, but I am glad I made it an event instead of tossing it. I might even develop a taste for it.