Hazo

Just used up the last of this. Woe.

Sipping this right now. I added a bit more leaf this time, but I found that the tea taste is stronger while the lychee is weaker.

Added milk and sugar again. Very nice.

I recognized the powdery sweet, fruity smell of lychee when I sniffed the dry leaves (we’ve gotten them in the store where I work at in the past, so I know the smell, although I’ve never tasted one before so this will be new for me).

The smell transfers to the brewed tea, although there’s also a somewhat green smell as well.

Huh. The taste is very unique. I’ll have to buy the fruit one of these days. The black tea taste is there, but so is a sort of sweetness from the fruit. It’s very interesting. I can’t really pin down the taste of the lychee, mostly because I’ve never had the fruit (I decided to take a chance when I bought this tea). There is, though, something about it that reminds me about Marco Polo. I wonder if that includes a bit if lychee in it then.

There is a touch of dryness on the tip of my tongue when I sip, and then a burst of perfumyness before the black tea taste, and then a bit more perfume in the aftertaste. But not a floral perfume. Hmm.

I like it, but not enough that I think I would get it again in the future. I find that it is a bit watery (I did three teaspoons to two cups of water), so maybe I’ll try a bit stronger next time.

I added a bit of white sugar to my next cup (I usually add honey, but it seemed like it might overwhelm this flavour), and I think it does bring out the lychee slightly more. I added milk next, and it’s actually quite nice with milk. I didn’t think it would be able to stand up to it, and although I lose a lot of the tea flavour, the lychee is definitely more noticeable now. And it reminds me even more of Marco Polo.

Overall, quite enjoyable, although I want to test making it stronger next time. It’s light and very nice with a bit of sugar and milk.

This’ the last of this. I could taste that it is definitely starting to go (had this a whole year!), but I will miss it dearly anyways. This was by far my favourite earl grey, and if I ever come across it again, I will snatch it up in a heartbeat.

The tin if very pretty, and the name-label is just a sticker, so I can easily just peal that off and put a white label over the logo, and use this for any tea. Hmmm. Reduce Reuse Recycle.

I like that this is at the top of my ‘most drunk’ category. Makes it easier to find.

Still my favourite earl grey, although I’m so low on it it is becoming painful to look at. I can only hope that, by some chance, Winner’s gets them in again, although I haven’t seen the brand in there for a very long time.

The company, from what I’ve learned, is Taiwan-based, and I think the tea base in their Earl and also in their Litchi must be Taiwan or China-grown. Definitely not Ceylon. Much darker. A bit cut up, but still delicious.

This tea is brought to you today, courtesy of That Tea Cupboard Randomizer that someone posted on the forums about at some point!

I think I’ll use it every morning from now on, so I don’t keep defaulting to my Newest Teas. Except when I have samples to finish, then I’ll finish those first.

Definitely still my favourite earl grey to date. Strong tea flavour, good bergamot flavour, and they both balance so as not to be overpowering.

High Tea Soul Calibur.

I went grocery shopping with my mother in order to get out of the house. It consisted mostly of her and her friends poking fun at my swollen face. Hah hah.

But I came across Soul Calibur IV for fifteen bucks, so we picked that up too as well as a giant box of assorted cookies, miniature buns and ham, etcetera etcetera. Thus when I got home, I brewed up a large pot of Earl Grey, and made a giant platter of tea biscuits and mini sandwiches.

Sadly I didn’t think it through as much as I probably should, seeing as I’m not technically supposed to be eating full on chewable solids yet. I can’t open my jaw wide enough, it hurts, and worst of all, my face is still too swollen, so everything gets stuck. Yes. Ew. You’re supposed to be able to clean it out, but you can’t if everything’s still swollen OVER. Yummy.

But it was delicious, and I played lots and lots of Soul Calibur and drank lots and lots of tea and ate lots and lots of little sandwiches and many cookies softened by the afore mentioned delicious earl grey tea.

Also, fighting Yoda sucks because half of the attacks fly right over his short little head.

This tea is still my favourite earl grey, and I am, regretfully, running low on it. And I was at Winners a while ago and saw another tin of it that had been reduced to three dollars (because someone had opened the tin itself, although not the bag inside the tin that contained the actual tea). But I told myself not to because I hadn’t finished this one.

Drank this to stay awake to work on projects. Still good. A strong bergamot flavour, but the tea is also strong; neither drowns out the other.

I’m christening my new teapot (my SECOND new teapot—a lovely gift from a friend! And here, I had gone out and purchased a new one not two days ago; but there was nothing I could have done, the teapot was already on its way from the US of A by the time I decided to go out and buy a new one to replace my old) with a pot of this, and I find that I just can’t seem to oversteep it. No bitterness, none! Lovely and mild, and nice with honey. This is probably my favourite tea that I have on-hand at the moment.

Of course, I’m still waiting for my Series 3 to come in… I expected them TODAY, but instead I came home to a new (to me anyways—it’s vintage!) teapot instead! So tomorrow, perhaps. I hope.

But now I’ve got three lovely teapots (and a fourth with a broken handle; I think I’ll fix it anyways with a bit of glue, but I’m sure it will be too fragile for use—sad, sad. It was a present from my late great grandmother). I think I’m on the verge of a full out teapot collection here.

The tea is nice and almost sweet, not bitter at all, although not strong, and the bergamot is just there in the taste (very strong in the smell of the leaves, less so in the smell of the tea). I’m just finishing off my second steep, which is practically no bergamot at all, leaving just a mild tea.

Four minutes first steep, six minutes second steep.

I found the smell of this stuff amazing. It wasn’t Bergamot Citrus And Tea, no. It was BERGAMOT. Not bergamoty citrus, but a FULL, rounded bergamot smell; I am unsure how to describe it, actually. Just… the fruit, instead of the essence.

Anyways, I picked this up at Winners of all places. I went in looking to buy a new teapot—if everyone missed my sap story of how my old one died in my hands (and gave me a nasty cut while doing so)—specifically one for loose leaf with a basket infuser. I found one! Although it is a little BIG for me. But I also discovered that Winners has a whole selection of teas. Specifically loose leaf, and many from very “British” brands (“True London Tea” “British Teas”, all sporting pictures of Big Ben and red phone boxes on them), and directly beside them in the same aisle? The preserves selection. I dubbed it “The British Aisle”. I was so amused I took out my phone and told Luke (who also has a Steepster!) he was also amused.

Anyways! The tea. The full bergamot smell was lost in the tea itself (although the wet leaves still smelt strongly of it), returning to the much more normal bergamot oil and tea smell. Probably a good thing because I couldn’t smell any tea in the dry stuff, really. I can’t give too apt a description of the colour because I made it in my cafe cream-brown mug, but it does look a good shade of amber. Slightly reddish.

Waiting for it to cool a bit. Hot it doesn’t taste too strong. I haven’t added any honey yet, I’m waiting for it to cool first to decide. Although I’m liking it already! And I’m afraid that if I love it, that Winners won’t stock any more of this mysterious “Hazo” brand (I had to look it up online, it’s very new and mysterious). Winners is the kind of shop that just Gets Random Stuff In (I found gauntlets in there once!), so I’m sure that once they sell off Hazo (there was only Hazo Earl Grey in there—three tins, two after I purchased one), that I will never see it again and will have to attempt to buy it from the website I found.

The taste isn’t very strong, hmm. It’s quite weak, but that’s probably just me figuring out my tea-water proportions still. The taste was pleasant, though, the bergamot isn’t anywhere near as strong as in the smell; good ratio to the tea. It’s not bitter at all, which I like. Earl grey isn’t my morning tea choice—it’s not strong enough—but it is my lunch time and between classes choice, so I think I will be drinking this one a lot more. I might have to start bringing the tin, a mug and my teaball to class.

Hrm. I should invest in one of those travel loose leaf mugs…