Kusmi Tea

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Recent Tasting Notes

78

Sipdown no. 86 of 2018 (no. 442 total). Sample tin.

I didn’t think I’d put samples in my cupboard, but every now and then I come across one. I definitely have a lot of samples that aren’t listed in my cupboard, though.

This won the lottery as the lowest rated black tea currently in said cupboard and so I put the rest of it in to cold brew, along with the second lowest rated to make up the 4 spoon deficit, Golden Moon French Breakfast.

It makes a perfectly fine cold brew. I liked this one hot more than a lot of other people did, and I could even see buying it again some day. But not until I’ve sipped down a lot more in my current stash.

I’m actually rather proud of the progress I’ve made this year. I’ll definitely hit 100 sipdowns at this rate, and surpass that number. Even though some are samples, when it comes to making room every little bit helps.

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78

I’ve been drinking a lot of the same things over and over working them toward sipdown. Sometimes there’s something new to say, but often there isn’t—so I haven’t been writing notes on everything I drink.

Today I’m drinking this from a teabag at work (I have a handful of Kusmi teabags of this and St. Petersbourg). It’s really different than I recall it being on any previous occasions.

It’s rose! That’s what I’m smelling, and that’s what I’m tasting. There is a slight citrusy note, too, but mostly it’s floral and mostly it’s rose.

Which is fine with me because I heart rose teas.

As it cools, it becomes more of a melange of indistinct floral, and not quite as enjoyable as it was when hotter.

Anna

I have SO many teabags to get through, thanks for the reminder.

__Morgana__

Drink up!

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78

It has been a long time since I had any of this and when I had it way back when it was in teabag form at the office, so not particularly expertly steeped.

This is apparently one of Angrboda’s favorites. Kidding! Her note about this cracked me up. I have to say that although I don’t remember my grandmother smelling like this, I get what she means. There’s something about the smell in the tin, the musty floral spice scent, that reminds me of antique shops, and I suppose that could be extended to antique people.

The aroma of the steeped tea is very similar to the aroma in the tin—spicy but not savory, floral, and very very vaguely Earl Grey-like. I don’t get any soapiness. The underlying tea is sweet and pleasant.

It’s not my favorite, but not because there’s anything wrong with it. More because it just isn’t very distinctive. Still, I’ll enjoy drinking it more than some others I’ve tried recently. Bumping the rating.

boychik

I have to revisit this tea. My tin is almost full. My first experience with this tea reminded me licking ashtray. Another not successful blend was Kusmi Earl Grey Polish blend #18. I would mix them up like 1:2. It was ok. Just ok. I cannot believe that Russian Czar would like it. But what do I know…

__Morgana__

Ugh! I don’t get any ashtray, fortunately. But I agree it’s not very “special.” Maybe I’ve just had a lot of not great tea lately and it just does well by comparison. ;-)

Ysaurella

I had a hard time to finish my small tin of this one…only 25 g…but had the feeling to get 250 g due to the time it took me to finish it :)

__Morgana__

It hasn’t been something I’ve found myself rushing to either, but something about it today seemed better than before. I think it was the base, it had a sweetness to it that the other teas I had this morning didn’t really have.

Angrboda

The world does not contain enough bleh to aptly cover my experience of this one. :p

__Morgana__

Haha! ;-)

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78

Today’s at-work sample tea bag experiment.

The Kusmi bag is like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s fabric (looks like some variation of muslin?) and looks like a gauze square that was folded over some tea leaves and sewed up on three sides, then had a length of braided thread attached to it with a tag at the end.

They weren’t kidding about the flowers. The fragrance of the bag is terrifically floral, overlayed over some citrus. It’s a very deep floral, a musky floral, a perfumy floral. Doesn’t smell a lot like Earl Grey, but perhaps it will after steeping.

I don’t know how hot my water was because I forgot to bring my thermometer to work yet again, but it seemed hotter than yesterday for some reason. The aroma is very similar to the smell of the dry leaves, but more open, with some tea shining through. Still not getting an Earl Grey feel, though.

It brewed up nicely, certainly strong enough compared to my Lupicia bag experiments of yesterday. It has a very solid, sweet, black tea taste, with a sweet floral accent. The more I sip it, the more Earl Grey I get.

I like it, but it is heavy and hearty, like a heavy perfume or a hearty stew, and the sort of thing I’m likely to drink occasionally rather than frequently. Fortunately I’ll have an opportunity to get to know it better as I have a small tin of the loose leaf at home.

Preparation
4 min, 0 sec
Angrboda

I found this one very unpleasant, but I’ve still got a sample tin of it just lying around. Based on this I feel I ought to give it one more chance.

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90
drank Spicy Chocolate by Kusmi Tea
259 tasting notes

I just sampled this wonderful tea thanks to AmazonV and her generosity. What a delicious spicy chocolate tea. Like AmazonV, I am not at all certain which spices are used. There’s a peppery taste that is not too hot; in fact it’s perfect.

I love chocolate teas and this one is a perfect example of a basic chocolate enhanced beautifully by the addition of something extra: this is certainly one of the best chocolate spices I have had.

I really am disappointed in chocolate teas where the chocolate flavor is not detectable; this one really delivers. Thank you so much!

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 45 sec
TeaEqualsBliss

ooooooo – sounds great!

Lisbet

I have been having terrible luck with chocolate teas lately! I may need to just try a new brand. This one sounds good.

Doulton

Hi Lisbet,
I would really agree that chocolate is difficult to blend in teas. Have you tried Florence by Harney & Sons? Not everyone likes it, but it does have a great chocolate taste in my opinion. Most of the chocolate teas I’ve tried have been disappointing; I think that one must invest a great deal of trial and error. I’ve never had a decaff or a rooibos tea that has pulled off chcolate to my satisfaction.

But best of good wishes on the chocolate journey.

Lisbet

Yeah all of the chocolate teas I have tried, with the exception of one mediocre chocolate black tea, were rooibos. I think I’m over that combination.

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90
drank Caramel by Kusmi Tea
2036 tasting notes

I’ve been wanting to try this one for a while now and today seemed like the day. This is also my first Kusmi, so I’m excited.

The dry leaves smell wonderful, but surprisingly it’s not just any old caramel I’m smelling. It’s buttery and nutty and… just yum. It must be that French thing. They can make anything elegant. That’s what this smell is: elegant. This isn’t your Halloween candy caramel. It’s a caramel from a very high end box of candies, indeed.

The tea’s aroma is mostly that same, very buttery and nutty caramel with a vanilla note. It steeps to a lighter color than I’d thought it would, but a pretty one. A sort of rosy amber.

I’m tasting a sweet, smooth, caramel-laced tea, with an extra caramel boost at the tail of the sip and it is terrifically comforting.

Now. How does this compare to Caramel-Toffee by Dammann Freres? Gosh, I might have to try them next to each other to say for sure. They’re both really delicious. I suspect the Dammann Freres may be creamier and that it may ultimately win out, but it may be one of those things where they’re similar but just different enough so that you can’t really choose one over the other and it’s really about what mood you’re in (like Florence and The Du Loup).

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec
Rabs

::drools::

-Jessica-

num num num! :-D

LiberTEAS

have you tried my caramel?

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72
drank Caramel by Kusmi Tea
100 tasting notes

It is good. It tastes almost a bit fruity – I wonder if I can taste a bit of currant yet I know it is caramel. Maybe flavors from previous teas are stuck in the travel mug.

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65
drank Anastasia by Kusmi Tea
371 tasting notes

Doulton’s Shakespeare: A Tasting Note in 5 Acts
Act IV scene 5

Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentany as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth;
And ere a man hath power to say “Behold!”
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I scene 1

I am so pleased to have finally tried my first Kusmi tea! This was a tea sachet — which Kusmi’s sachets are pretty cool in and of themselves. The empty tea packet had a really pleasant floral/bergamotty smell.

Oh, but the cup. The cup is a bit of a letdown. It was a weak somewhat papery earl grey with a lime tang. It’s not a very memorable tea. It was neither offensive nor memorable (wait, didn’t I just say that?). Trying to come up with a Shakespearean equivalent was what kept me from posting a note all day, but I think that I’ve finally come up with it.

This is the stage set for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s a beautiful, flowery facade: an illusion of a fairy-forest made from muslin, wood, and paint amongst other things. It’s a nice tea, but I tend to enjoy more depth. M

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 30 sec

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91
drank Four Red Fruits by Kusmi Tea
1353 tasting notes

The other of two teas I brought to work today in the attempt to introduce variety. We had this one after having polished off the pot of raspberry oolong, and my boss preferred the raspberry oolong over this one.

I agree, although the rating differs with only a handful of points.

It was also the very last of the leaves, so now I have to figure out if I want to restock. It doesn’t qualify for the Standard Panel, I don’t think, but that doesn’t mean I might not want to have it some more. I’ll have to ponder this for a while and then I think I’ll take another 125g tin rather than leaping into the 250g tin.

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91
drank Four Red Fruits by Kusmi Tea
1353 tasting notes

Tea, meet Keyboard. Keyboard, Tea.

Not as bad as all that though, as it didn’t actually get inside the keyboard and was just on places that was easy to wipe clean, but still. Close call there and would have been annoying.

It’s funny with this tea. I bought it because the shop didn’t have something else that I would actually rather have bought. I can’t remember what that was anymore, whether it was while I was searching desperately for a re-stock of the Caramel or if it was something else I was looking for, but whatever it was, I didn’t find it and took this one instead as I was dead-set on some Kusmi, damnit!

Turns out it was a wonderful fit for me. Berries almost always are. I raved about it for a while, I seem to recall, and then suddenly the tin just ended up being dormant. Completely dormant. I tried having a cup during that period and honestly wondered what it was about this one that I had found so wonderful.

But now I’m definitely out of that dormant period. I’m growing a bit tired of the Assam (although that is also a rather good tea) that we’re having at work these days and have told my colleague with whom I share the tin. She agrees, but when asked what she would like instead, she couldn’t really think of something.

Me, I’m contemplating buying a tin of this one for drinking at work. There isn’t enough in the one I’ve got at home that it would be all that useful to bring that in, so I’d probably be better off just getting another tin. Don’t know if she would like to share in that one as well, or if it’s time that we went our separate tea-ways for a while.

Doing this would mean the final step. There are four of us who drink tea at work. One only wants one, sometimes two cups a day and prefers your average teabags and just brew directly in the cup. One prefers this herbal… stuff that a local tea shop sells, so we’ve got a thermos for that. And then the two last of us have a thermos for our tea. If we stopped sharing a tin, we would be four tea drinkers with each our private tea and three of us using our own thermos. We might as well start marking the thermoses with names at that point. Yes it’s a bit overkill, and believe me, it would be entirely as ridiculous as it sounds. But if that’s where our tastebuds takes us, then…

But anyway, yes I’m definitely taking this tin out of hibernation now. It’s pleasant and fruity and I’m struck by an overwhelming hazelnutty note in it that I’m sure I ought to have noticed before. It’s really very strong. You could have made me believe there were actually nuts in there.

I like that. I find it goes well with the fruit. It keeps the fruit from being too tart and the fruit keeps the hazelnut note from getting too cloying.

However I managed to make it have that hazelnut, I haven’t the foggiest.

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91
drank Four Red Fruits by Kusmi Tea
1353 tasting notes

Backlog from last night.

See, I was considering, while I finished off the strawberry zabaglione from 52teas the other day, that perhaps I was doing myself a disfavour with flavoured blacks. Maybe the short steeping times I use (never more than a minute for the first steep of a black) was preventing the flavouring to really come to its full potential.

So I decided to try making a cup of tea with a longer steep and less leaf on this one. Experimentation is the way forward in many things, including the noble art of brewing tea. I turned it down to about half the usual leaf and turned the steep time up to three minutes.

I won’t say it was a success, but it wasn’t an unmitigated disaster either. What I actually ended up with was a good cup of red fruit flavoured black, but rather more wispy and frankly thin than I have come to expect. The flavours didn’t come out more or in a different way. There were just less of it. Less substance.

That’s still useful information, though, and I can now go back to my semi gong fu method with more leaf and shorter steeping time knowing that I’m not cheating myself out of a better flavour experience.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going through an Alice Cooper phase and this song requires some serious rocking around the living room.

(And please to be hurrying the heck up, Mr Postman! I miss my dashboard and my Steepsterites. (And I want my fricking packages!))

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91
drank Four Red Fruits by Kusmi Tea
1353 tasting notes

It’s been a little while since I’ve had this one, and since I didn’t really have anything specific in mind to make, I thought, hey why not?

Unfortunately I’m not sure how it’s turned out this time. See, I was standing there putting leaves in the pot, minding my own business, as you do. Thoughts started to wander and suddenly I caught myself just before tipping another spoonful of leaves into the pot. In other words, I don’t actually know how many leaves I’ve used here. It could be the normal two or three, or it could be four or even five. I believe the appropriate word here is not one uttered in the company of children…

Just in case I made it a really really short steep. Since the pot and cup are of a size where I can just exactly empty the pot in one go, if it’s not enough, I can always tip it back into the pot and give it a little extra.

It doesn’t smell like that will be necessary though. It smells more like I might be seeing a slightly different picture of the four red fruits. The strawberry is coming through with a sort of creamy-sweet aroma rather strongly. The cherries are also very obvious here.

It doesn’t seem too fruity on the flavour though, which leads me to believe that I probably didn’t use as much leaf as I had feared. It’s more just a basic anonymous black tea with a fruity sort of twist. It’s mostly cherries here. The other berries have either not have a chance to come out properly in my very short steep, or they have and are already overpowered because of the larger than usual amount of leaf.

I’m glad I didn’t manage to ruin it, even if I know that it can definitely be better than this cup here.

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91
drank Four Red Fruits by Kusmi Tea
1353 tasting notes

I have somewhat reluctantly stepped away from the sample box… Not really in a fit state to properly review them, and also I needed something a little more refreshing.

In comes trusty Kusmi with a nice fruity blend. A little tart. A little sweet. A lot nice.

(Also, I have a new picture and wanted to show it off. Now I’ve got one that fits the origin of my name and I’m fighting the urge to turn large parts of my bio section into a history lesson…)

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91
drank Four Red Fruits by Kusmi Tea
1353 tasting notes

There is a stranded fin whale near where I live so I went and had a look. Of course it started raining so by the time I got home again I was soaked. I would share the pcitures I took but I can’t find the cable to connect the camera to the laptop. Oh well, you can’t see much on the pictures anyway.

I have changed my clothes and made some tea and now the Swedish Crownprincess Victoria’s wedding is on tv, so I’ll just flex my royalist muscles a bit (No, it’s not my royal family, but it’s close enough. The swedish king is Queen Margrethe’s cousin.) and wallow in it. I love this sort of stuff!

I didn’t have a chocolate tea to have, in the absence of proper hot chocolate, so I had a bit of a debate with myself between this one and the caramel, but eventually decided on the fruity summer-y-ness. It seemed to fit the wedding.

So not really a post about the tea, but rather the circumstances in which I had it. :)

TeaEqualsBliss

“like” to the tea…not the stranded fin whale :(

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91
drank Four Red Fruits by Kusmi Tea
1353 tasting notes

Today I broke the Cupboard Lockdown with just one tin to go. Yes, I am perfectly aware that it was cheating, but when I tell you that the fourth tin to finish was Kusmi’s Caramel, can you honestly blame me for stretching the rules a bit? Besides, the tea I had in my travel cup this morning is nearly gone and I’ll probably finish off that tin within the week. Or I could take the last of the Black Powder with me to work and top off the tin, which while not completely gone, would still mean it was gone from my kitchen and that counts. Don’t argue, it counts. It just does.

So I decided that I was allowed to get the four Kusmis I was interested in, and then I got punished for cheating. THEY DIDN’T HAVE THE CARAMEL!!!!!!! SHOCK!!! HORROR!!! I was so certain I’d seen it on the shelf. Not okay. The only one out of the four I was looking for they did have was the St Petersburg which of course I got. I was also looking to see if they had a plain black strawberry one, but they only had one in a sample tin IN a sample set. I pondered that one for a while and eventually decided to try this one instead. As for the others, all hope is not lost. I have a couple more places I can look and if that doesn’t work out, I’ll have to order.

And wow, it certainly is monday. It’s one of those mondays where it’s monday morning all day. I just turned the kettle on, set the timer, went away, came back when the timer went off and discovered I’d forgotten to actually pour the water into the teapot.

They didn’t have this one in a sample tin, but I decided to trust the brand and get the 125g tin. I do hope I won’t regret this, but I checked what other Steepsterites had said about it and there seems to be a general leaning towards yummy going on there. Good.

The leaves smell rather nice. A bit like sweets actually, but not immediately synthetic or overly perfumed. Those who have tried my Unspeakably Awesome Raspberry Oolong, The Tea That Must Not Be Named and so on and so forth (much loved children has many names, is a danish saying) will probably get what I mean when I say that it smells kind of like that one, only less pink.

The fruity aroma is a little more subdued after brewing and the actual tea aromas are trying to get a word in too, and it’s just a really great balance. It smells almost exactly like what I had in mind when I decided to sea if they had a plain strawberry. (I once decided that Whittard of Chelsea made my perfect strawberry tea, but that’s a good while ago and now I’m scared to try and get it again because I suspect that at this point I wouldn’t find as perfect anymore).

OH YES, THIS IS GOOD STUFF! It not only smells like what I had in mind, it even tastes more or less like what I had in mind. Berry-y and summer-y. It doesn’t matter that I couldn’t get a plain strawberry. I don’t need one. This is totally sufficient in that regard. It’s not some sort of deeply poetic or profound epiphany, it’s just a black tea with red berries. And that’s all I want it to be. A plain good black tea with cherry, strawberry, raspberry and currant. I’m picking up the strawberry the best and that’s even better because you’ll remember what I was actually looking for when I took this one. Good call, me.

And I’m back on Lockdown again now, with the exception of Kusmi’s Caramel if I find it and Kusmi’s Russian Morning likewise, the former being the most important one.

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53

My least fave of the Kusmi offerings…meh…perhaps someone else will enjoy…at least I gave it another try, eh?

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53

Meh. Not much for scent or taste. Not much to say about this. It’s not that it’s bad just that it’s week…lemon a little – but too little…

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90
drank Petrushka by Kusmi Tea
10 tasting notes

I love how these bags are sewn, and this tea is a great pick me up. Kusmi makes THE best flavored tea. Period.

Lainie Petersen

No argument there. Kusmi rocks my world.

Michael Fragoso

Laine, you do know I’m working for the NYC Corporaate Headquarters starting next month?….. ;)

TeaEqualsBliss

Michael! That’s Awesome! Congrats!

Michael Fragoso

Haha. If you all are nice to me, I’ll send samples for all!! :D

TeaEqualsBliss

YAY!!!!! :) That would ROCK!

TeaEqualsBliss

I can’t PM you because you aren’t following me…but…I was going to drop you a note…
:P

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80
drank Russian Morning N°24 by Kusmi Tea
161 tasting notes

This tea will put some hair on your chest! I really like it. Russian Morning is lightly smoky but definitely full bodied. It would be a great intro into the world of Lapsang Souchong. Training wheels, if you will. This tea is smooth and slightly pine-y…not full blown campfire. The blend of black teas meshes nicely. The thing that surprises me the most about this tea is how clean it tastes and feels in my mouth. The smoke is there…some sweetness too, but clean, clean, clean. Quite tasty! TeaEqualsBliss sent me a sample of this back in the day. I’m glad I finally got up the courage to give it a go. Thanks chick!

TeaEqualsBliss

Yup! I like this one too!

Auggy

How did I miss this one when surfing the Kusmi site? Sounds lovely!

The Manse Hen

I like your review. You said exactly what I think of this tea! It is actually one of my favorite Black tea blends, perhaps because it was one of the first I started regularly brewing in a pot. Love the “not full blown campfire”…precisely. I also agreed with another reviewer that said it can be difficult to get "just right’…I was able to do so pretty quickly just by trying first cup, second cup from put and noting how long I’d left it to steep, and using a scale to measure how much tea we put in and keeping notes. Anyway..thanks for the nice review of my fav.

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70

I gave my private stash of this to one of my friends.
Mostly to keep the 1 kg tea law about taking tea into Greenland. Yeah there is a law.
If I take to much tea and get discovered – I get a ticket, the pay-you-stupid-criminal-kind, a warning and people thinking that I smuggle things across the border. And since I travel quite a bit, I don’t ever cross the 1 kg tea law. The security itself is quite tiring!

So, my friend got this.
but I love it, and I have to buy it sometime… It’s one of the better Kusmi-blend.
Green tea and mint. Fresh.

Ricky

Two lbs of tea doesn’t seem that much… but I suppose when you’re traveling and buying tins it’s not enough. That’s less than 8 kusmi tins.

I agree this is one of Kusmi’s better blends. Then again from the few I’ve had they were pretty good.

Rijje

If only the bar was at 2 kg!
That would be nearly reasonable =)

Yes, some of the kusmi teas are quite good.
If not, then at least pretty as decoration.

Ricky

16 kusmi tins…. ummm at $20 USD a tin…. $320…. yeah I’d say that would be enough. I didn’t realize Kusmi had such a large selection of tea. At first I thought they only had a dozen or two dozen.

Rijje

They have a lot of teas, also the clean ones like assam.
But I normaly buy my kusmi tea here in town… The spearmint just sell out quickly at the store.

Ricky

Can’t find anywhere except Dean & Deluca in NYC to buy Kusmi. They don’t have a wide selection either =( Luckily they ship within the US =]

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66
drank Anastasia by Kusmi Tea
100 tasting notes

Without additives: Lemony. Bergamot. Something that tastes like rosemary or some slightly bitter herb/plant. Not very smooth.
With additives: Slight improvement because I like the taste of milk.
It seems like the flavors just don’t go together with the tea.

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74
drank Anastasia by Kusmi Tea
911 tasting notes

I didn’t realize I hadn’t had this one before. I thought I had tried each of my Kusmi Russian blend teas but apparently not. Anyway, taken with no additives. Like all Kusmi teas, this is not overpoweringly flavored. There are soft citrus accents, the most noticeable one being a fresh-lemon taste that gives it a hint of tartness. There is a soft sweetness to the tea that makes it not need sugar but it isn’t as sweet as something like Troika or St. Petersburg. I think the lemony tartness is the cause of this, countering the thick smoothness of the tea and creating just a hint of discord. This is still a pretty tea but I prefer the rich silkiness of Troika (even though it can edge towards too decadent) over this silky tea and fresh lemon mix. Though I will say, the lemon tartness is very well done – it tastes remarkably like real fresh lemon. I would say this tea is more of a match for people that find other Kusmi teas too heavy/silky/rich or those that enjoy lemony teas. Personally, I prefer citrus with more sweetness and less tartness.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Angrboda

Only two points lower than me. Are you sure we’re not clones?

Auggy

Ha! I didn’t notice that! Hmm, my first guess would be no but all sign do seem to point in that direction!

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77
drank Spicy Chocolate by Kusmi Tea
788 tasting notes

Steep Information:
Amount: 4tsp
Water: 212 ° filtered water 750ml
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL (Black, strong)
Steep Time: 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: chocolate and some unidentifiable spices (pepper? cardamom?)
Steeped Tea Smell: chocolate, black tea, a hint of pepper / cardamom?
Flavor: spiced black tea, astringent, a touch bitter
Body: Full
Aftertaste: astringent
Liquor: dark orange-brown

I found this at Kitchen Kapers when hunting for a monther’s day gift for my mother. I got this instead for me (and two others).

It’s very much a chai-tea to me, and I think next time I will make it with honey and milk.

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/05/kusmi-tea-loose-leaf-black-tea-spicy.html

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
JacquelineM

Oooh – good to know that there’s some Kusmi at Kitchen Kapers! There is one near my work!

Cofftea

That’s cuz it is a chai isn’t it lol? (At least by definition even if not by name)

AmazonV

@JacquelineM give them a call first, they get a little in and not often, i was lucky and stumbled in on delivery day

Shanti

@Cofftea While all chais are by definition spice teas, not all spice teas are by definition chais. The name “chai” has been thrown around pretty loosely by companies making new mixes, but at its base it must include masala spices in order to really be considered “chai”. I should note here that when we say “chai” here in the West, we’re actually referring to the Indian drink known as “masala chai”—“chai” alone just means tea, not tea with spices. “Masala chai” is the spicy, creamy drink that westerners have come to love over the last few decades. I wouldn’t label Constant Comment a chai just because it has cinnamon, nutmeng, and other spices in it.

Cofftea

Shanti, yeah I’m aware that chai is Hindi for tea. When I say “chai” I’m using the western definition:) Based on the ingredients I would consider Constant Comment a chai- well at least til reading this lol. So what are the requirements for a masala chai?

Shanti

Um…okay. I’m not sure how else I can really explain this to you. You can call CC a chai, but that doesn’t make it one. Like I said above, the reason why some teas taste like “chai” and others just seem like “spice teas” is because of the specific spices used. Chai requires Indian/South Asian masala spices, whereas “spice tea” doesn’t. I don’t know what you want me to tell you. Chai recipes vary from family from family, the the predominant flavor is almost always cardamom and clove. Cinnamon and star anise are also sometimes used, as is ginger.

I don’t know. Am I making any sense? I just find it kind of offensive that you’ve kind of ignored my post (and I’ve talked about chai with you before) and then are saying that everythings the same because you say it is. It’s just kind of offensive to hear you categorize different cultural foods at your will, as though the world and its cultures are for your taking. It’s like saying “I love pad thai, it’s my favorite Chinese food” and then even after being corrected continuing to call it and all Asian noodle dishes Chinese, regardless of cultural origin. In the case of tea, it’s a bit more complex because, you know, that centuries long history of the West kind of maybe sort of really colonizing and exploiting South Asia for centuries. Just a heads up.

Shanti

By the way, I feel like I need to add, I am not a traditionalist in any sense. Drink tea and chai however the hell you like it – with or without milk, with or without sugar, with gasp splenda, upside down, whatever. Just don’t go around acting like you’re invested in tea culture and make a huge deal about the rules of steeping and how everyone is wrong all the time, and then turn around an not have an ounce of respect or even just curiosity for the culture behind the import your enjoying—and that applies for all cultural imports, not just tea.

JonTea

I like this idea! Seems very facinating..

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88
drank Spicy Chocolate by Kusmi Tea
314 tasting notes

Mmm..yum!! (thank you Lori for forwarding this sample!)

This is delicious! Almost like a mocha chai cafe latte! :) The taste is rich and almost coffee-like, to me. Nicely spicy and cocoa-y.

The scent is very much like mocha (very cocoa-coffeish). And the spices…I detect plenty of cinnamon, maybe a bit of cardamom and black pepper? It’s very chai-like.

This is a flavored tea done right! I’m so happy to try out a Kusmi tea. I’ve been so curious about this brand. This is definitely full-tin worthy!

(lol! I crack myself up— I’m remembering a Seinfeld moment— “Sponge-worthy!!”)

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Rabs

LOL! That’s awesome :D

TeaEqualsBliss

Sponge-worthy! LOL OMG!!!!

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