Lestrade Blend

I had some trouble with this because the smokiness was a bit much at first. But for some reason you come back for sip after sip and eventually you settle in to it. Once you do it is rather nice to be honest.

Revisiting this tea after a long hiatus… because I guess, being in the Sherlock fandom, that’s our division. I remember this being smokey and very manly. What I don’t remember is how strongly this tea smells of leather. So much so that all I can think of when I drink this is tacking up my ol’ quarter horse when I was a tween to go trail riding. If you had blindfolded me and then had me smell this cup, I would have told you it was recently used tack. Heavy and western.

After that I think it reminds me more of when Rupert Graves played Riddell in the “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” episode of Doctor Who. Either way, it’s perfect as a character inspired brew, so mad props for that. I won’t be terribly sad when this goes though.

This tea is a very full tea. It’s got a great scent, a lot of flavor, and leaves you feeling like you’ve just had a meal. The gunpowder and the pu erh dante give this tea a really great smoky, rich flavor, while the hazelnut brings it down and lends it a homey scent and taste that makes it comforting as well. It’s very much a BAMF tea, but a BAMF that likes its muffins. I think it would lend itself well to whatever you wanted to try with it, be it honey, lemon, cream, sugar, whatever. But personally I think this makes a smashing cup without any frills.

The only downside, and this is pretty much exclusive to me, is that black tea tends to give me a stomach ache, and I can already tell that this is strong enough to cause some problems if I drank more than one cup in a couple hours. But if you’re not affected by such things, then no worries!

I love how when you add milk and sugar- as I do to black teas- it gets very hazel-nutty, which you can’t taste without them. A very good wintertime, cozy drink :)