Honey Black

This tea is a good straight tea, another one to be careful with steeping. It has a little honey taste to it, perhaps it would be even better if I added honey or milk to it.

I got this as my frequent steeper reward. I was like mwahahaha, I’m getting a $17 tea for free! Still, I feel nervous about drinking a tea so expensive. And while it’s good and I can tell it’s good quality, I don’t think I’d buy it for the price. It’s not mind-blowingly amazing. I definitely get the sweet lingering taste at the end but I don’t actually taste it as honey, per se. Just a general sweet flavor.

Maybe fancy blacks aren’t my thing, and I’ll just stick to flavored teas.

Mostly getting a note of malt here. The honey note, maybe a little. This is reasonably nice but not spectacular.

Brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 4 min.

Nice. Just getting into tea, but this is in the top 5 so far. First and second steeps very pleasant with a little raw honey and a bit of milk.

Gorgeous flavor, doesn’t need sweetener or milk. The honey flavor is so subtle and unexpected that it livens the whole experience. Magnificent tea.

Thanks OMGsrsly for sending me a sample of this Always interested in trying new straight black teas – thank you.

I’m going to be perfectly honest here – the worst thing about this tea is the price. It’s way too expensive for what it is. Sure it’s a nice Taiwan black – it’s mild with just a hint of honey, it’s pretty starchy (potato ish). For this price it should he oozing in honey notes. I have others that I like better that are about half the price.

This is a decent straight black tea. I found this tea very malty. Being named “Honey black,” I was expecting the honey notes to be a little more prominent though. They were present, but very much in the background. There was also a little astringency, so I would maybe try brewing for only 3 minutes next time.

The price tag is a little high. This won’t be a cupboard staple for me but I wouldn’t refuse a cuppa this.

Made for me in a DavidsTea shop. I am guessing 1.25 tsp to 300mL water @96C. I steeped it five to six minutes, as I was in a mall and making my way to the parking lot.

The scent is very malty, reminding me of as Assam. The taste, however, has none of the heavy astringency of Assam, more the lighter and smoother body of a China black tea. Chasing the scent of malt is honey. Interestingly this tea does not develop a heavy body at all. Smooth and soothing and invigorating. I loved it.

So I finally got this tea. Finally. And I’m going to share the love. :)

5g in about 120ml water. Short steeps.

(Spoiler: I like the Honey Black and Li Shan Black from Green Terrace way better.)

This is… really carby. Like plain plantain chips. Astringent, even though I’m only doing short steeps. Malty. Fairly rich, because of the heavy carbs. But astringent. And not honey-sweet IMO. Not compared to other teas out there. There’s a bit of bite from spice at the back of the sip – maybe white pepper. It smells a lot like hay. I just dipped my nose in the mug, ick.

So while it’s not bad, there are others out there at a similar price point that are much tastier to me.

(195F for the rinse and first steep, 208F for subsequent steeps. I got… 4 steeps before I was done.)

Well then, that was one of the most hectic Boxing Days I have ever experienced in my entire life. WEM was open at 7am this year. 7am! So glad I didn’t have to deal with that as an employee when I used to work there. Lineups were ridiculous. Some, at places like Michael Kors, wound all the way around the inner railing of the second floor, with upwards of 50, 60 people without any sign of the queue shrinking hours later.

I also couldn’t fall asleep last night, literally didn’t sleep for even a second, so I got annoyed, gave up, and got out of bed at 4:30am to start doing my hair and makeup. I’m so freaking tired.

Like Black Friday, I was able to get things that I wanted to get anyway but kept putting it off. The discount alleviates a little of that guilt. I ordered from DAVIDsTEA last night in order to snag a glass carafe for iced tea at 40% off. I’ve been looking for one for months but couldn’t find the right one, and this fit the bill. More Banana Split and a sprinkles Nordic mug also tagged along in that order.

I also visited three—THREE—DAVIDsTEAs in the city in order to track down some Cardamom French Toast chocolate. No such luck. I actually had two bars in my cart last night for the regular 2/$10 deal but deleted them hoping I’d find them on sale today. Of course every single store had the other chocolate bars, but not this one.

Scored some sweet tea deals at Holt Renfrew too, although I’m a little bummed I didn’t get a tin of Sloane’s Holt’s Blend. They had so many a few days ago, and I arrived there by 11am after the WEM craziness so that was a little sad.

I’m so rambling right now. Over 21k steps later, I’m finally back home and chilled to the bone hoping I’ll warm up with tea and an extra fluffy robe.

My recent, ongoing craving for chocolate orange has prompted me to sip down the last of this tea with a healthy teaspoon of orange fudge honey. That stuff actually exists thanks to that local gourmet honey company I’ve raved about in the past. It’s so delicious, and in this tea? Make that freaking delicious. This is the closest a tea has ever come to being the perfect chocolate orange tea, at least for me. It’s cheating, but I don’t care. That malty sweet base pairs so well with the citrus and cocoa notes.