Metropolitan Tea Company

Here’s another one of four Metropolitan Tea Company teas I purchased from Tweed & Hickory. I won’t be reviewing the final one because it’s just Monk’s Blend. Anyway…

I’ve been looking for a good peach tea for some time now. MTC Peach and Apricot black tea was pretty good but I am not a fan of the tea base, and DAVIDsTEA Southern Belle was a disaster. So I decided to purchase this Georgia Peach from MTC because it uses rooibos as a tea base.

Sniffing inside the bag, I’m reminded of the way too powerful peach smell from Southern Belle. The brewed rooibos liquor smells like peach, jolly ranchers, mint, and koolaid (seriously).

I was a bit hesitant to drink this stuff, because I had such high hopes for it. But my fears subsided when I took my first sip. It tastes FANTASTIC! It’s just the peach tea I’ve been looking for! This totally tastes like a peach should, plus it has some other nice flavours associated with red rooibos like mint.

I am 100% satisfied with this purchase. Rooibos has always been a “tea” I’ve liked but never fell in love with. But it works so well here with the peach flavour. The description suggests it’s good iced so I’ll have to try that sometime too.

470ml glass mug, 3 tsp (I use 1 and 1/2 tsp of rooibos per cup), 1 steep

This is another one of the four teas I bought from Tweed & Hickory’s massive online selection of Metropolitan Tea Company teas. I don’t usually buy flavoured teas now, but I still enjoy them occasionally. Mostly though, my husband loves to take black tea to work and it’s also nice to make up a pot of cheap flavoured tea every now and then. I find brewing flavoured black tea to be incredibly easy, which is terrific for whenever I am feeling lazy.

Smelling the brewed tea liquor, I’m reminded of the usual Ceylon base MTC uses, mild creamy vanilla and cinnamon. Nothing unusual and everything I expected so far.

Upon drinking it, my expectations were fully met. It’s a very smooth black tea with vanilla and cinnamon. I’m not usually very crazy about their Ceylon tea base, but this flavour combo works out pretty well.

I actually like this tea quite a bit. I’ve obviously had much better, fancier teas, but Vanilla & Cinnamon just aims to be a simple, pleasurable tea to brew western style. For what it is, I think it’s perfect. If you see this MTC tea in your local tea room, it’s definitely worth trying once. I can see this as being paired really well with some coffeecake!

470ml glass tea mug, 1 steep

I was really disappointed the first time I prepared a cup of this, so I decided to have another go today.

Drinking in the liquor, it tasted too tarry and smoky. Lapsang Souchong is one of my favourite types of black tea, but I cannot find anything here to love. It’s like someone dissected a smoker’s lung and then steeped it.
The lingering aftertaste is not pleasant, the tarry and smoky characteristics stay with me even when I move onto drinking water. Blech

I’ve heard that some people keep new LS for aging to let the smoky characteristics mellow, but I don’t think you could salvage this one.

This one got dumped in the trash but I’m not entirely disappointed with my purchase. I was genuinely curious what the heck this tasted like! If you have a deep love for Lapsang Souchong/Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong don’t touch this one. There are much better options out there.
I’m not sure who this tea appeals to… perhaps people with very little LS experience or those that are heavy smokers (no offense, this is just a very smoky and tarry tea).

This is one of four teas I ordered from Tweed & Hickory. Their online store carries a lot of stuff including a wide range of Metropolitan Tea Company teas.

Anyway, this tea caught my attention because I love Lapang Souchong and omg I love Taiwanese teas! So to figure out how good this tea is or really how much I like it, I’ll be preparing it twice (long steeps and then short steeps).

(1): 200ml glass teapot, 1 tsp, 2 steeps (4min, 5min)

These two steeps brought out a lot of familiar LS flavours. It has the “burnt rubber” flavour that I often find with other cheap LS. The main Taiwanese character I can taste is the menthol sensation, which I am attributing to them using Taiwanese camellia sinensis. The tea body itself was fairly strong in the first and second steeps, I only used 1 tsp and it did not taste too weak. Otherwise it’s nothing extraordinary, I’ve had much better LS before but I still like this tea.

(2): 100ml gaiwan, 2 tsp, 3 steeps (45s, 1min, 1min 15s)

The first steep tastes pretty good, it has nice malty, smoky, menthol flavours. The tea is very strong given that I only steeped it 45s.

Unfortunately with the second and third steeps, it just tastes like weak tea with smoke and rubber.

I am only slightly disappointed with this purchase. It’s very similar to their regular LS (Lapang Souchong Butterfly #1) and had a lot in common with other cheap LS (like David’s Tea). So for what it is, you could do worse. That being said I would not recommend it to anyone seriously in love with LS. There are so many better LS teas out there sold under the “traditional” name Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong.

Okay, so yes I’m a tea snob. And when I first started drinking tea I would probably consider this one pretty good. But once you’ve tasted how excellent a tea can be (in this case Lapang Souchong) it’s hard to go back.

Tea of the afternoon……

I picked this up last summer on our Boston trip. I really wanted it more for the container than the tea inside, but Metro’s Earl Grey is usually pretty good. I plan on using the tea bags for travel, but I wanted to make sure I liked it first. Not bad. It passes the test……

3 tea bags, 24 oz. pot, freshly boiled water, 2 1/2 minutes. Lightly sweetened.

One rounded spoonful of tea leaves creates a beautiful orange-red-coloured drink with noticeable vanilla flavour.
For red rooibos lovers, this is highly recommended. I usually drink this without sugar or milk and after steeping for about 5 min, the leaves still provide satisfying flavour after a re-steep.
My favourite for lazy (and cold) afternoons.

I got this as a Christmas gift from my brother, who knows I’m interested in tea. I’m usually skeptical about mixing anything sweet like flowers or fruit with such a delicate green as Sencha, and even more skeptical about the packaging steeping instructions (fully boiling water, 3-7 minutes). I resorted to my knowledge of traditional Sencha, and steeped as follows:

1 heaping teaspoon
175 F
1.5 minutes

The result was a very flowery-smelling tea, with a rather bitter non-sweet flower/cherry flavor that rests high on the tongue. It was difficult for me to taste the grassy flavor usually associated with Sencha, and the actual tea flavor (as opposed to the flower flavor) was reminiscent of a simple, rather low quality green tea. Perhaps different steeping times or temperatures (such as the seemingly absurd ones on the package instructions) would result in a different taste.

Backlogging, again.

The hubby and I decided to experiment with making hash browns from scratch Sunday morning, and since I did a lot of the cooking, he picked the tea to go with breakfast. He selected this one, which I would never have thought of as a breakfast tea. Surprisingly, I liked it very, very much! We had sausages with the hash browns, and so it was the combination of all those savory/smoky flavors with the earthy sweetness of this tea that made breakfast a complete success!

I honestly don’t get the butterscotch flavor unless I’m really looking for it (which isn’t a whole lot of the time). However, the caramel is there in full force, and the pu’erh is a complex enough flavor that I don’t mind not having the butterscotch. I don’t miss it. It steeps to an interesting reddish color, with hints of purple/magenta, especially when milk is added, which I did (that’s just how we do it—if it’s a black tea getting drunk for breakfast, it’s going to have milk in it). Anyway, been a while since I had this tea, and I’m glad the hubby dug it out! :)

I don’t often have a craving for this tea, but today, I did. I’m glad I was able to pull it out and brew it up right (because this tea done wrong is a travesty beyond words). When it’s right, it’s SO right…

The brew is very dark, typical for a pu-erh. The leaves have an almost smoky scent to them, but even in the dry leaf you can smell the caramel, which is not normally a strong scent. The almonds come out in the brew, where the smoky, woodsy flavor is kept more at bay by adding sugar (I’m not fond of having TOO strong of a pu-erh flavor, but that’s just my personal taste).

This was my first English Tea Room tea… and it will live in fame and glory for me. It was my first pu-erh, also, and thanks to its delicate but firmly convincing flavors, it will not be my last. :)

I’ve actually tried this tea several times (I got mine from the Tea Table, which must share a tea source with Metropolitan Tea Company) and not logged it, for which I apologize.

This tea has too much hibiscus for me. It means the tea has a lovely pink color, but it also means a sourness that is quite hard to overcome. If you like tart herbal teas, this is great, but I don’t (and I have GERD, which means too-tart liquids are a bad idea for me in general, especially right before bed…and when am I drinking no-caffeine teas? Right before bed). The fruitiness is not obscured by the tartness; it’s definitely there all the way through, in leaf scent, brew scent, and brew taste. When I am constantly adding sugar all the way through drinking the cup, though, that’s just too tart for me.

It’s possible the 5-10 minute steep listed on the package is too long. I want to say this has been less sour with shorter steeps in the past. Last night’s steep of 7 min. was FAR too long, apparently.

But I don’t want to rate this tea down purely because of my own preferences. In ingredient quality, scent, fruitiness, etc. this tea does really well. So I’m giving it a decent score even though I don’t seem to be able to enjoy it. Try it for yourself. It’s way better than CS’s Zinger teas if you like hibiscus.

So Friday we got paid and promptly returned to Say Tea and dropped a significant amount of money there. Oh well, most were Christmas gifts. Anyway, after the other two icewine teas I’ve tried, I had to get this one. Plus, the little wooden box is so cute! It was really tasty, juicy like the others with a slight tang that does remind me of wine. Yum. When it got cold, though, it was bitter and horrible, but that’s my fault. Overall, this was pretty dang good for a bagged tea!

I really love the idea of lavender Earl Grey because, well, I like bergamot and I like lavender, so why not? But I have found that lavender is a tricky beast in teas, even for someone who loves florals, so finding the right blend is difficult. Here’s another lavender Earl Grey for me to try, this one from a swap with aisling of tea. Thanks!

The dry leaf on this one smells pretty nice, but I find that’s usually the case with these teas. Steeped, I get strong black tea aroma with some lavender and a hint of bright bergamot. The scent of this tea reminded me of something from my childhood, and I finally placed it: the smell of the soap while I was washing my horse. I know, not the best olfactory association for tea. :P So I didn’t expect to like this tea, but I was surprised. The taste actually isn’t soapy, as long as I can get past the aroma. The black tea base is really smooth, and the lavender is herby and fairly strong. The sips I take vary from slightly bitter to rather pleasant, which is a bit weird to me. I wonder if I need to steep it a slightly shorter time to bring the lavender down just a notch. As far as the Earl Grey portion of this goes, I don’t get a lot that says “hey I’m an Earl Grey”, but you know there’s something there that keeps it from being just a lavender black. I don’t think this one is completely successful as a lavender Earl Grey to me, but it’s also not a bad tea all around.

Had this at the NaNo write-in, asked Starbucks for a cup of water, rather than risk any of their overpriced teas. On the way to the write-in, we got off a subway stop earlier and walked over, since we knew there was a DavidsTea between the shops, and they were giving a free tea of the day to anyone wearing a poppy, and one of the teas of the day was Santa’s Secret, so you know we went. Anyway, on the way, we spotted a tea pot in a store window…and then another. And then we realized it was an entire window display of teapots. Including the Alice in Wonderland one I’ve been wanting forever. We rushed inside “Say Tea” and I can honestly say we’ve found my new favorite tea shop in all of Toronto. It’s cozy and filled with teapots and tea and tea accessories….guh. Heaven. How have I not heard of this place? Seriously?

So I opened up my little package of this and fell head over heels in love. It so good, so berry-y and sweet and juicy…yum. Buying more next time we’re in the area. Check out http://www.sayteaonbloor.com/ and if you’re in the area, stop by and check it out! So much love.

Got this from LefTea – Thank you so so much!
It went to a good home, let me tell you.

We brewed one heaping perfect teaspoon (if that makes sense), in the Steeper with not quite boiling water. mmm no bitterness, great quality green tea for Metro teas, I’m happily surprised! I love the buttery sweetness of sencha, it’s my favorite by far, in the green family. Yum. Even the boytoy is liking it tonight, and he’s not a green tea fan.

The rose taste and smell is mild next to the sweet syrupy smell of cherries! What a delight. A nice mild taste, if it didn’t SNOW 5 FEET today, maybe I could try it iced. _ Maybe next year. haha!

Iced tea of the day…..

Yep, this one is losing its luster for me. I have given some away and am trying it out iced to see if it has any value for me to keep it. Not bad. I can taste the bergamot and the cream adds kind of a weird but interesting aftertaste. I don’t sweeten my iced tea, so teas do taste vastly different iced than when I drink them hot.

I am in the midst of a good sized edit of my tea cupboard. I do like this one hot well enough, but I am kind of over having 80 teas to choose from on a daily basis. I think I could be happy with about 1 quarter of that. This one is not going to be replaced, even though I did enjoy it while i had it.

Usual iced tea method.

Tea of the afernoon…..

I was hoping to do some frothed milk for this ala DaisyChubb’s new found method, but I need a jar. I am too good at recycling them these days! I have some jarred sauce in the fridge (I know, the horror!) that is almost empty. At this point, if I don’t like the frothed milk in the microwave, it makes no sense to spend much on the equipment to froth. So I must wait for the jar to be empty and clean…….

This is still really good…bergamot and creamy vanilla. I did add a tiny spash of half & half just to see how creamy it could taste, and I do think the bubbly milk would be nice.

I got this tea from Angelina’s just to see if it was anything close to Teavana’s. I am fairly certain that it is from Metro, as the owner of Angelina’s did say on his website that Metro was one of his suppliers. I so appreciate the honesty in that! In my opinion, vendors should be upfront with the source of their tea unless they are adding something to it. Otherwise, they are essentially just a repackager, which there is not anything wrong with that if you let your customers know. And those who are avid drinkers in the tea world can usually figure out where something came from.

Onto the tea. Yep. Not that much different from the tea I got from Teavana. The surprising thing….the tea from Angelina’s looked fresher. The cornflowers in my Teavana tea were very faded compared to the sample I got from Angelina’s. Hmmmmm. I am finding fewer reasons to go to Teavana……

Ah, Tea and Toast, cinnamon toast. This is a perfect tea blend, for me. I love to start the day with a rich, balanced brew. I find myself coming back to this one again and again. Windsor Castle examples why blends exist, why they work. The strength and maltyness of Assam, on its own, is smoothed by the flowerness of the Kenya and livens up with the Darjeeling. It is flavory straight up. Not too strong. But, this one is also excellent with a touch of sugar and milk… and with the taste of crispy cinnamon toast accompanying.

My tea of the evening…. Basic vanilla rooibos decorated with almond slices and yellow petals. This one is pretty good as far as rooibos goes. I am not a big fan of rooibos, but I do think it lends itself well to vanilla flavors. Oddly, this tea really gives me a full feeling. I also need some sleep tonight, so I am skipping black tea this evening.

This one is actually from The English Tea Store online. I know I have it listed as Metro, but Metro teas are everywhere, and with a free shipping deal, English Tea Store has some of the best prices online for 4 ounces. It is where I stock up on this tea as well as Earl Grey Cream.

24 oz teapot, 6 actual tsp rooibos blend, freshly boiled water, 7 minutes. Lightly sweetened.

Picture it: Tennessee. 2011. (Ah, Golden Girls, I love you)

Anyway, my parents and wife are watching Ghost Hunters, and I’m bored out of my mind, so I update steepster with the teas the wonderful SimplyJenW sent me. I look up the Lady Londonderry and squeak happily during a quiet moment in the show, scaring the crap out of everyone in the room XD. I opened up the package and the scent of Strawberry Lemonade washed over me….oooooh yes. I’m in love. I don’t care that it’s nine pm. I need a cup of this now.

The taste delivers on what the scent promised…it tastes like a strawberry lemonade tea and I love it. It is beautiful. I am very grateful to Jen for sending me so much, and I am very excited to find it is Metropolitan Tea Company. One of their warehouses is literally around the corner from our home, so I can find most of their teas in the area. I can’t wait to get to Kensington and see if they have it, though I’m sure they do.

SimplyJenW, I can’t thank you enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

You can’t go wrong with this Oolong! I love the toasty aroma and taste, its sweetness and how it lingers well on the pallet. Best brewed in a Yixing teapot (as with any Oolongs) and at any time of the day.

This tea which is relatively inexpensive taste better than some other more expensive Yunnan teas that I’ve tried. It holds the typical Yunnan qualities, and then some, but without having to pay an elaborate price that some tea stores charge for this type of tea. Yunnan black teas are my preference and I keep this tea stocked at all times.