Harney & Sons

My two obsessions are bath and body products and …tea. Of Course! I don’t think I’ve had anything black currant flavored but I love trying Lush Bath and Body products and they have a Comforter bath bomb/bubble bar that smells heavenly. So that’s what I think about when I think of Black Currant. I was just throwing things in my cart, and this went in. I was very curious to try it. And….it tasted familiar. Like this berry Lipton tea. But….it’s not my thing. It’s not bad. But it’s not great either. I saw a few black currants in the tea. So I know they are there. I think it tastes more like flavoring than anything. The black tea is nice. It’s more broken up then I expected. No full leaves here…that’s ok though. It’s a flavored tea. I do like the black tea they use, it’s nice and strong but not overpowering. Overall, probably not something I would buy again. But as always..I was happy to try it. All 4 oz of it- I brewed my last cup today!

Yesterday, after long, long time I have received a package from lovely ashmanra! I hope mine will arrive soon. And today, I checked the Steepster and saw all the tastin notes that were hidden from my eyes and 150 notices! Oh, how glad I am that Steepster is back, at least in that what was left working.

So, let’s read all the tasting notes I missed; write (at least) one myself.

Unfortunately I wasn’t that much impressed of this one . I haven’t noticed any cherry notes, only nice green tea notes. I steeped it for around 3 or 4 minutes. Nevermind, it was gift (exchange, right), and hopefully there will be other which will be better. Noticed minty, or some cooling aspect drinking this tea.

So, thank you ashmanra for the tea, thank you all being patient, thank you Michael in background working on our favorite website! It was long 10 days, but hopefully it won’t return.

This tea is very sweet, it’s almost hard to believe there’s no sugar in it. While I’m sipping it in the middle of Summer, the taste brings me right to October. It’s sweet and warming and smells like cinnamon. If you like sweet teas that evoke a cozy Fall, I’d recommend this.

I was really impressed with this Blood Orange tea — not overwhelmingly sour like most I’ve had. Pulled this out of a Sipsy box and loved it!

Absolutely delicious! Strong flavors of bergamot, berries, and malt. A gorgeous, velvety tea! I hate to stop at two cups in the morning…. Strongly recommend.

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #33

It’s been so long since I last had a Harney & Sons tea, especially a straight one. They’re just not the most convenient to get here in Canada, and if I’m being really honest I think that the quality of a lot of their blends is pretty average – though at least reasonably priced for the quality!

I can’t remember if this is something I’ve had before, but if it is then it would have been years ago and I don’t remember. I thought it steeped up alright as a hot Western mug. I’d call it medium bodied, with a hint of pleasant astringency that reminded me of the dryness of walnut or almond skins. The flavour was fine (see aforementioned comment about the quality being average) but it didn’t dance on my tongue or anything crazy like that. More on the woody/umami end of the black tea spectrum that sweet and malty/cocoa-y, with a little tease of smokiness.

I’d drink again – but wouldn’t purchase.

Got this as a sample with my last shipment from Harney. The sample was one large bag with instructions to pour two cups boiling water on it, then steep for 15 minutes, then add six more cups of cold water and enjoy.

I followed the instructions and it turned out okay. Flavored teas are not my thing, though, so I can’t really speak to it. There’s definitely the flavor of coconut in it — far more overwhelming than I had hoped. I couldn’t taste any other flavors with it.

I won’t have this again, but my wife and my kids all enjoyed it and finished off the pitcher of the tea. I might actually order this for my mother, though, who loves anything/everything coconut. I can see her drinking this every day.

Tea of the morning and a sipdown.

I don’t have to go into work today, which is awesome because I have a million little things that need to be done here at home. It also means that I could take my time and enjoy my tea in the quiet of my kitchen rather than rushing through it. It’s the little things, you know?

This tea has a nice orange flavor with just hints of grassiness coming from the green tea. It’s not overwhelming in any way, but sometimes I don’t want to be overwhelmed. Even by my tea. The orange flavor is true orange, no icky artificial notes. I will say that I used the majority of my container for cold brew, and I do prefer it that way. The long steep pulls out more flavor from the green tea, and it melds with the orange notes seamlessly. The overall taste also remains very mellow and pleasant. This isn’t a tea I’ll replace right away, but if it shows up in my stash again I won’t be sad about it.

And now I’m off to pull weeds, wash a small mountain of clothes, and dust all the things. Happy Monday, y’all.

This has become one of my regular morning drinks lately. I first tried it about six months ago when I was looking for something with high caffeine for the mornings which broke out of my usual black teas, and fell in love with the taste. The caffeine buzz was also really nice.

The taste is unique — vegetal of some kind — mostly similar to grass, in my mind. I tried it with stevia once and really disliked that combo — I’m now sticking to the straight tisane with nothing added. The dried leaves are cut/torn into small pieces and are very lightweight, so I am hesitant to use the normal weight in grams for this teapot that I do with black teas — I have found 7-8 grams of these leaves seems to work well with 20 oz of boiling water for 6-7 minutes.

This is an interesting combo of smokey and strong (tannic/very bold) but also fruity (black current maybe?). It is good, but without milk it would be too bitter and tannic for me. A bit of soy milk mellows this blend out, however it isn’t something I would drink regularly if I had other H&S blends available. The cup of tea smells sweet and fruity, but when tasted the mouthfeel is almost smokey and there is a lingering bitterness like if you eat burnt toast and the burnt part has that weird mineral acrid taste. It is difficult to describe, but there is no sweetness. It isn’t bad, and I think many people like black teas that are very strong.

While the tea is rich in fragrance, it lacks taste. It does have pleasant black currant and caramel scent but tastes like water.

This came by way of swap with OhFancyThat, longer ago than I’d care to admit.

I like Harney and Sons, but I’m very picky with chocolate teas, and theirs are not among the ones I typically enjoy. They have that artificial almost cocoa butter flavour which I don’t enjoy. Having said that though, I don’t mind it so much in this tea. SoHo is a chocolate and coconut tea, and I find that the ‘cocoa butter’ note I get from the H&S chocolate flavouring pairs pretty nicely with the coconut note. I really like coconut teas too, which does help quite a bit. The base is only slightly astringent after 4 minutes steeping, and not in a bad way – it works to temper the sweetness of the buttery coconut just enough that it isn’t sickly. Overall it’s not my favourite from Harney, but it might be my favourite of their chocolate teas. I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy more, but I would drink it again if I were offered a cup.

Sipdown 220/399.

FANTASTIC.

Tastes like an almond cookie.

Harney And Sons is one of my new and most favourite tea brands, for certain.

I’m surprised that this tea is in the system, AND there’s a rating, but there isn’t any tasting notes for it. Was that me?
Contrary to what you might think from the name, this is not a flavored matcha. This is instead a green tea, with white peach flavoring, and matcha dusted over it. Green tea with matcha dusted over the tea is one of the few types of tea I prefer in the teabag form. I just feel that the allocation of matcha per serving is more evenly dispersed that way. But then again, I also resteep these teabags pretty frequently, and the taste of the tea doesn’t suffer for having less matcha in the cup.
Today I had it iced. Filled up my little 25oz thermos with ice, and brewed one teabag to 16oz of hot water. Surprisingly this did not overflow, but that might have been a different story if I used crushed instead of cubed ice.
The tea is lovely hot or iced. Iced, it has a pleasant and not overwhelmingly fruity white peach fragrance. The tea is not astringent, and slightly grassy.

Thanks for the sample, Peach! Finally getting around to trying this one a whole year later. I was cooking and ended up oversteeping this, which made the first brew bitter, but the flavoring is still tasty. I’m enjoying it more when it’s cold and I’ve added almond milk and lots of sugar. I brewed the resteep more carefully and noticed some toastiness. The next time I had this tea, I had it without milk, and that was nice and desserty. I don’t think this tea is special enough to buy, but I’m glad I finally tried it! It’s not really like tiramisu, just a light dessert tea.

A decent black tea with mostly coconut notes and some lingering toasty notes in the background. It’s fairly tasty as far as coconut goes, nothing fake or artificial as an aftertaste, but it really is a one note tea. Some sips I get a little of the the toasty sesame coming through, not on the first steep, the second is where the coconut turns pleasantly toasty. No bitterness here, I bet this would do well grandpa style in a go cup all day. Not usually the type of tea I gravitate to, but I’ll add it to my tea bag travel stash and sip it down :)

Cold Brew!

cold brewed it in a medium Mason jar for 36 hours.
It is bright red from the hibiscus and the rose hips. It tasted like strawberry and kiwi – a bit artificial but that it is what I was expecting so I am not disappointed by that. The flavors are coming out strong. It is very tart and slightly bitter and thick because of tisane to water ratio. I was expecting it to be weak like other fruit teas so I went a little scoop happy. I would add a bit less of the tisane or add more water the next time I make it. This tea unlike other fruit infusions from different brands is not as sweet which is lovely. There are no artificial sweetners or sugary fruits in it which makes it so I can consume more of it without having the sweetness invade my taste buds

Hot Latte with rice milk

The dry leaves say they include oolong and black tea and lavender buds. I could not spot the oolong. There were a some camouflaged lavender buds.
The dry smell is intoxicating. It smells very floral and of vanilla.
The bergamot flavor was really mellow and disappears into the background with the milk. There is a floral note but it is more of a general floral note. I wanted the early grey to stand out more and be stronger. I may try to add more leaves next time for a stronger earl grey flavor. Other than that, overall It was creamy and comforting. It was be wonderful to have on a cold winter day.

The main flavor is the slightly astringent black tea with a bit of apple and a bit of cinnamon. I wish the flavors were stronger. As it is, it’s an okay tea, but not fantastic. Maybe if it had a caramel element it would be more enjoyable. I just wanted more flavor.

Tons of addictive flavor

I made homemade pineapple jam recently and I’m obsessed, I wish I had done a full batch instead of a half batch of the jam. Right now I have little pancakes in the freezer (I made a double batch when I do get around to making pancakes, and stick the excess in the freezer for quick snacks), and my late afternoon snack today is little pancakes (warmed up in the air fryer), topped with plain yogurt and pineapple jam, and paired with some tea. Yummy.

A thermos of the queen joined today with this little snack. The warm pancakes and tea paired with the cold yogurt and jam made fun little notes all together. The experience was sweet, tart, creamy, bread, butter, malty… I would recommend. Maybe next time I’ll try it with sour cream to amp up the tartness profile from the yogurt, or buy a tarter yogurt. Queen Catherine hardly any gives me any astringency ever, but it played nicely off the slight natural astringency of the pineapple