Lady Londonderry

Friday night tea with my daughter and granddaughter and outside there is a new dusting of snow and a big 16 degree chill. Perfect tea weather. I made some gingerbread and lit candles before getting my tea tray ready. They chose Lady Londonderry because it just arrived in the mail and smelled wonderful. We let it steep about 4 minutes since we like our tea a bit strong with milk. Nice floral notes…like delicate candied violets. The maltiness is so slight and I did not notice any lemon or orange. Maybe next time it will show. I would have chosen a hardier tea for this weather but this does take you to another time and place where songbirds and flowers are present. My perfect evening was topped off with a new classical piano composition by my 16 year old granddaughter who composes choral, and orchestral music also. I cried…so beautiful.

Custom advent calendar day one! My good friend Sara brought me my first ever advent calendar of any kind, and it’s a tea a day! The teas aren’t numbered. It’s luck-of-the-draw. So I grabbed a tea for today! They have been pre-measured for steeping with 12 ounces, and she gave me a lovely Pusheen mug to drink them from. Also, it looks like I have two samples of each tea! Oh, the bag was 2.5 grams. I’ve only just noticed that Steepster doesn’t use decimals there.

Still, it’s a very limited amount; there are a lot of teas; and my memory isn’t that great. I’d better do a tasting note for each of these!

The smells of the leaf and the brewed cup are primarily black tea and fruity. I had to set it aside for a few minutes after brewing so I don’t burn my tongue. I’m sensitive like that.

The taste is a nice one-two punch of black tea and fruitiness. Possibly strawberry. The black tea and fruity flavors are together in a proper harmony as I sit in a gazebo surrounded by a flower garden, while cats and children run around and play and somehow don’t trample the flowers. At least, that’s how it tastes to me. That reminds me, there is a bit of a floral note too. The pleasant flavor lingers on my tongue for several minutes after drinking it. Thanks, Sara!

A Berry Frui-tea July! This is a blend I originally sampled over a year ago from Tea Chai Te, but when I needed to replenish my stock, I opted to get a cheap 4 oz. bag from English Tea Store.

The black tea is infused with lemon balm, dried strawberries, and lemon and strawberry flavoring to give it this lovely fruity/citrus flavor. The leaf has a really nice fragrance that reminds me of lemon sorbet with a bit of a sweet berry topping. Typically this blend uses a Ceylon base (and I’m fairly certain the original Tea Chai Te version I had used Ceylon leaf), but it appears that English Tea Store is using an Assam/Ceylon blend for its base.

The base is medium-bodied with a malty flavor that has lots of citrus notes, like taking a cuppa black tea with a wedge of lemon. The strawberry notes are a bit more subtle, but there is a sweeter hint of berry at the back of the tongue right at the finish. The strawberry seems to add just a touch of natural sweetness more than anything, so the citrus feels more rounded rather than tart. This is a very smooth tea as long as you don’t overleaf and mind your steep time, without bitterness, very subtle astringency, and complimented nicely by its flavor rather than feeling overpowered by it. It’s one of my favorites warm or iced. The citrus flavor works in its favor as a steaming cup with a dash of honey, or chilled over a glass of ice. I also have a quart mixed up Arnold Palmer style with some lemonade to try tomorrow… I can’t imagine that could go wrong!

I’m on the fence with this one. I bought several teas from The English Tea Store and this one by far is the best of them. There is something in this tea I can’t quite put my finger on – then I read the reviews here about it having a floral taste. Ah, that’s it. I am not a fan of floral teas. This one is subtle with the floral and I still find it drinkable. I will finish my supply out but it will not be a re-order for me.

Backlog:

A really nice tea. The black tea base is smooth and malty. It’s rich and flavorful but not overly aggressive. An excellent afternoon tea.

Soft floral notes. Delightful notes of strawberry and soft hints of citrus. The flavoring here is very delicate – this is a tea first and a flavored tea second, if you know what I mean. It focuses first on the tea, and then the tea is accented with soft flavors. The lemon is delicate but uplifting.

Not an overly astringent tea but it is slightly dry at the finish. Smooth and sweet until the finish where it becomes lightly dry.

I received a very generous sample of this from Marcel Duchamp. I had been wanting to try another companies version of Lady Londonderry so I was really excited when I saw this one.

This was a sweet strawberry/lemon tea. It was very light and fruity with a hint of floral. I had this hot this morning but I think this would also be very good iced. The last version I had of this tasted to me like plastic, this version was wonderful. I am glad I did not give up on Lady Londonderry!