Kusmi Tea

Adventaggedon Day 6: Tea 1/7

Short tasting notes tonight because I got home from a very busy day at work and was just completely and utterly exhausted. I ordered in supper (the first chance I’d gotten to eat all day) and caught up on the most recent episode of Critical Role because I needed time to decompress before cracking out tasting notes, but now I’m just ready to quickly log some thoughts and go the fuck to sleep…

This was one of the days in the Kusmi advent where the tea wasn’t just a prewrapped sachet but was actually a small little mini tin of loose leaf. If I remember correctly, it’s the first of two days that will have the small mini tin of tea. I took advantage of the extra leaf to make a proper iced tea to sip on at work, and I still have about half the tin left over – so it was a pretty generous amount of leaf.

Unfortunately I’m just not really loving this one that much. It doesn’t taste bad but I’m struggling to really taste anything other than a very sharp hibiscus and mayyyybbeee a bit of red fruit? It’s just a little aggressively tart for me while being sort of plain? So that was a little disappointing, though the tea was still refreshing.

Adventaggedon Day 5: Tea 2/7

Weirdly I ended up with two peach flavoured white teas today which was a kind of crazy coincidence. This is something that’s been on my “to try” list from Kusmi for quite a while though so I was super excited to see it!

I think it was actually my favourite tea of the day, and definitely my favourite tea that Kusmi has included in the advent so far! I tend to really enjoy Kusmi’s white tea blends a lot – their particular “style” of flavouring tea just works super well on white teas. In particular this was a very juicy and sweet peach/nectarine flavour combination that definitely felt worthy of the “bellini” name while still not being heavy/cloying and embracing those more delicate elements of the white tea.

It reminded me heavily of Sloane Tea’s Peaches and Cream white tea which is another favourite of mine – but juicier/brighter peach notes and no cream. Mmm! I think this will definitely be going on the wishlist for post adventaggedon tea orders, haha.

Adventaggedon Day 4: Tea 3/7

As I mentioned yesterday; I got the third and fourth day of my Kusmi advent mixed up so this was what was supposed to be day three.

It’s a total classic when it comes to Kusmi so I’m not surprised at all that it was so early in the advent. I do prefer the white tea version of this blend a lot more but I actually think it’s a pretty good Earl Grey even still. The bergamot is very strong and floral tasting to me which is not something I usually like, but what saves the blend for me is how distinct the lime note is. I don’t think there are a ton of Earl Grey’s out there with lime flavouring but I personally feel like it works really well – it adds this brightness to the cup that I don’t find most EG usually has and it makes the whole tea feel much more dynamic because of it.

Adventaggedon Day 3: Tea 4/7

So I fucked up a bit. I realized this morning that instead of opening day number three I had opened day number four instead – I think it’s because this was the fourth advent of seven that I opened and so it was a weird brain number flip kind of thing. It just means that I’ll be doing there two days in reverse order…

I was initially excited for this one because I saw that it was a dragonfruit and lemon herbal blend and that sounded really refreshing and delicious. It even smelled very fresh and fruity with distinct sweet dragonfruit punch-like aromas upon opening the little sample bag. However, then I took a closer look at both the wrapper and the tea leaf and saw a pretty large about of turmeric present. Turmeric and lemon? Yeah, totally on board! Lemon and dragonfruit? Delicious! However turmeric and dragonfruit? Uhhh…

I’m not gonna lie – it’s not great. The dragonfruit flavour is delicious and I now want to see Kusmi use it on a white tea base because that sounds amazing. However the earthiness and creeping warming spice of the turmeric does really distinctly come through in the taste as well and like I expected the combination of tropical dragonfruit, bright lemon, and turmeric is fucking weird. Not as unpleasant as I thought it might have been. Weird nonetheless, though.

Adventaggedon Day 2: Tea 4/7

I was very excited to see this in the advent because I’ve been casually eyeing it up for almost a year now. Kusmi started advertising this blend at the start of the year on IG with these very luxurious product photos of the tin next to giant stacks of syrupy pancakes.

So, imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a red fruit blend.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised because if there’s anything I sort of think of as a “Kusmi Style” tea it’s red fruit flavours or chai. I guess I was just expecting like a maple flavour or something more cake-y!? There’s apparently a biscuit flavouring in the tea but I really only tasted a thick syrup red fruit jelly type of note. It was tasty and I almost wished I’d tried cold steeping because the profile felt like it would have suited that well – but it was just wildly not what I was expecting and so that was a bummer.

Adventaggedon Day 1: Tea 5/7

Snuck this in between a few of the more indulgent tea options from today’s advent selection and that ended up being a good choice because it was bright and citrus-y with a nice playfully grassy green tea and yerba mate base combination. It’s not the type of tea I would generally keep around for myself, but I think it’s a nice twist and that preeetttyyy classic lemon green tea profile and I thought well balanced too!

Didn’t I already post about this?

Thank you, Cameron, for letting me try this.

And it’s another sipdown!

#long time ago internet hiatus sipdown

Thank you, Cameron, for sharing this with me.

And it’s a belatedly posted sipdown!

#long time ago internet hiatus sipdown

And here´s my review of the other Kusmi tea I was treated to with my l´occitane order.
It smells really like the green chewing gum of my youth (I don´t know whether it still exists, as I haven´t been chewing gum since ages)…amazing! And once steeped it´s nice, refreshing, but it doesn´t have the fresh minty kick to it as for instance Palais des Thés´ “menthe glaciale” has! Oh well…

Last week, I decided to pamper myself a bit buying, no not this tea, but a face spray for hot days from l´occitane. The warm days have arrived in Madrid, and then a nice mist applied to your face is a wonderful treat, a habit I took up while living in the southwest of France. And the temporary present added to my order were 2 tins of Bio teas from Kusmi Tea. So, this is the first of them I open and try.
I had already tried Kusmi Tea´s 4 red fruits, which is a black tea blend I liked better than expected, but looking at the reviews of this hibiscus-based tea, I thought it wouldn´t be my type of tea either : as most of the reviewers, I´m not too fond of hibiscus-based teas. But I don´t think the hibiscus overwhelms everything else here, so once in a while it´ll be quite enjoyable, I reckon.
The smell of the dry tea seems quite natural, and when steeping, it first turns mauve then a dark fuchsia, which is nice (I drank this tea from a glass mug, so the optical side is a plus ;-) ). The hot tea is fruity and tender, and it´s very easy to drink…which I think is the secret of it´s success by the people who don´t drink that much tea. As suggested by some reviewers, I need to try this cold as well, to see whether it improves that way.

Sipdown (221)

W is for…White Anastasia

Thank you Roswell Strange for this share! I wasn’t sure I would enjoy this but seeing it went further than one round in your sipdown tournament had me intrigued. However, it’s not my favorite. I like the addition as the lime as that brightens everything up but the combo of strong citrus and the white base is reading pithy to me. Fun to try though!

I have had several tins of this tea in the past and got a new one for Christmas in 2020. But this time, it tastes very different from the two other tins I have had. The other tins were maybe half as strong as it is this time. It used to be a medium-bodied blend, but now it is full-bodied and almost as strong as Yorkshire Tea or Typhoo and brews to a very dark brown color (like the color of coffee almost).

This blend consists of 75% Ceylon and 25% Assam.

It has plenty of oomph and body, but is lacking a little in the aroma and flavor department in my opinion. Compared to Harney & Sons’ English Breakfast, this tea definitely has more body and briskness but the Harney version is much more aromatic and refined – and much more enjoyable. This is still not bad but I find that it’s a little too bitter/strong/brisk and not aromatic enough. There is that classic plain black tea flavor with some maltiness, a grassy flavor and a subtle hint of smoke. But the flavors are somewhat muted.

I would recommend this tea if you like a strong, plain black tea that goes well with milk and if you prefer to have body and briskness over flavor and aroma. I am not amazed by it, but it is fine. Nothing special.

Dry leaves, appearance:
Relatively small broken black tea leaves (Ceylon and Assam) with no golden tips.

Dry leaves, aroma:
There is not too much aroma here. It smells like tea with a malty and grassy aroma.

Liquor:
Very dark brown.

Sample from a tea box. I enjoy the black base that Kusmi uses. Even when the flavors aren’t too exciting, the base still keeps me interested. This one tastes lightly of lemon (though apparently the ingredient is actually orange peel), but I mostly just taste the tea. You get more of the tang from the citrus than the flavor. Against my better judgement, I added milk, which just made it sort of weird. I’ve never made a Kusmi order, but I always enjoy coming across them in the wild!

Kusmi Advent Day 24

Overall, I wasn’t a huge fan of the Kusmi advent and I don’t think I’d get it in future years. I didn’t find any of the blends that exciting, and there were none that I would repurchase. The advent was lovely, though and I enjoyed the cute little tins.

As for this blend. Another ‘meh’ for me. I’m mainly getting licorice and cinnamon. Not something I need more of.

Sipdown! (33 | 310)

Another advent tea down! This one hung around for a while, mostly because I just don’t ever crave chai or spiced teas. Well today, the adorable tiny tin is finished!

I will say, I enjoy this more than usual for an orange spice black tea. The orange is a bit like those jelly orange slice candies that are coated in sugar, as a opposed to a tart or pithy orange. And the clove is restrained, which is a nice improvement in my opinion.

But I will say, there’s too much licorice root, and it tends to overpower the other spices. Thankfully, it does not add that cloying sweet aftertaste that licorice often can.

So it ends up tasting a bit like a candied orange and licorice black tea, with hints of other spices like cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and clove (and maybe pepper?). If the licorice were a bit more balanced, I would enjoy it a lot more…

Kusmi Advent Calendar – Day 24

Ooh, an adorable little mini tin of this today! And the design is so cute, it matches the advent calendar – teal with gold foil accents. The dry leaf smells surprisingly fruity given it’s mostly a spice tea.

It’s pretty good. I do get the orange, though I feel like I’m tasting other fruits as well (none are listed). It’s a nice sweet orange, which is a pleasant change-up from most orange spice teas. It almost reminds me of those yummy orange slice gummies that are covered in sugar. There’s a soft anise note here as well, along with ginger, cinnamon, and clove. I really like that the clove isn’t the strongest spice, as I’m really bored of the whole “orange & clove” flavor profile. It’s a little Juicy Fruit-y, but I think that’s just a flavor that I tend to find when orange is combined with ginger…

As far as the Kusmi advent overall, it was definitely the prettiest of the bunch, with a lovely soft touch finish. I loved the detail of how the sachets were in perfectly-sized little recesses, with a raised border around them. I will say I was a bit disappointed in the selection, there were a few too many fruit tisanes, which I don’t think is representative of Kusmi’s offerings as a whole. And only Anastasia and White Anastasia for Russian blends! Where’s the St. Petersburg?! Anyway, the teas were certainly high quality, and the colorful wrappers put a smile on my face in the morning. I found the $45 price somewhat reasonable, especially with the two mini-tins.

(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJMA9FugSnn/)

Advent Day 24

Mini tin! Yay! I’m glad this was included in the advent. I had been wanting to try it. It has a really rich caramel scent. Spiced orange dominates the sip. Lots of clove and cardamom. This is pretty nice. It’s well rounded, flavorful, interesting and I get to have more cups of this because mini tin! The tin has the same pretty shades of teal that the advent has.

I’ve only had a few Kusmi teas before. Sweet Love was a really tasty chai and there was another smoky tea that I enjoyed. I was really hoping to get to try a wide variety of their blends in this advent and get a better ides of the company’s style, but I don’t feel like it was well represented. It felt like they were pushing the Lov brand blends a bit and I was hoping for more of their classics. The hibiscus really killed several days for me too. The packaging was gorgeous, there were two mini tins and a couple of tea accessories that someone new to tea would find useful. Overall it was a decent value and a fun experience.

Kusmi Advent Calendar – Day 23

Holy crap, Dustin wasn’t kidding, this is only licorice!

It’s a combination of fennel and licorice root. Not gonna lie, the fennel is really reminding me of Italian sausage right now… Which is kind of an odd connotation to have with a tea. The licorice root comes in at the end with a big wallop of sweet anise flavor.

I do like licorice, but the beginning of the sip feels a little empty and I can’t stop thinking about sausage… Hmm…

(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJJTedoAugd/)

Advent Day 23

They should rename this Only Licorice. That way it’s a fair warning for lovers and haters of licorice. I’m a licorice lover, so I really enjoyed this. I has that slightly sweet finish and is all fennel when sipped. As much as I liked it, I’m not sure I’d pay Kusmi prices for a tin of it. I feel like there have to be more economical options for a similar flavor profile.

Kusmi Advent Calendar – Day 22

I assume this is the same as the Mango-Passion Fruit white tea from Løv Organic, which I remember enjoying. I still have a couple of unopened boxes of sachets of the Peach-Blackcurrant version that was my favorite of the three. But I’m glad one of them made the transition to Kusmi! The aroma is a nice mix of passion fruit and mango, with the former dominating.

Yummy, this is quite good. I’m pleasantly surprised that I can taste the white base quite clearly, as the aroma was very strong on the flavoring. It’s a generic bai mudan with soft and mellow hay and grain notes and a hint of mustiness. There’s an unexpected minerality to it, and looking at the ingredients, I think it’s the green tea. The flavoring is very juicy and authentic, and I think I get the passion fruit more at the beginning of the sip, while the end reminds me of biting into a fresh mango. There’s a light creaminess in the aftertaste that reminds me of mango lassi, and a whisper of floral.

I like this one! I think I could do without the green tea, but that’s a minor criticism. I’m not sure I need this one in my cupboard however, just because I already have both passion fruit and mango teas that I really love…

(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJG5NvpANyn/)

Advent Day 22

Trying to focus on this tea and not on people being mean online, but there is so much negativity out there even in work related groups! I need to remember to stay in my cup. I’m liking the passionfruit scent and flavor. It dominates the sip for me. The mango comes out at the start of the finish and lingers for a long time. I bet this would be a great tea for summer cold steeping. This is a tea I think I would buy!