French Super-Blue Lavender

Sipdown no. 80 of the year 2014. I am trying to keep hitting at least one sipdown a day, but I notice that I’ve been slowing down a bit. It’s a combination of not wanting to part with some of my easily sipdownable stuff (like a lot of these Harney samples) and not having made enough headway into some of the older, open teas of which I have more than sample sizes. I need a better strategy. (I can’t believe I’m actually considering spending time on a sipdown strategy. Ugh, I must really be bored. LOL)

In reading back over the notes on this I was laughing over the color controversy. I am pleased to report that this time, my liquor is unmistakeably PURPLE! A nice, reddish violet. No hint of the grey I had before. Query whether this is a function of age (its or mine), oxygenation, or flower mix. In any case, I am delighted I finally got to see the purpleness in all its glory.

Despite the age of this sample (which at least one other person mentioned made a difference in the flavor for them) I am getting pretty much what my original note reflected in terms of aroma and taste. Alone, it’s rather an intense drink. I definitely prefer the Yellow and Blue. The douse of camomile takes the edge off the lavender and vice versa. Would I drink this again? Yes, I can see it happening, but very rarely. I don’t think it’s enough to justify buying a tin of this, but perhaps having a sample packet on hand isn’t beyond all reason.

GOOD GOD IS THIS LAVENDER.

Holy… what the… oh em gee.

First off, my hat’s off to Harney for the sheer beauty of this. The lavender blossoms are an absolute joy to look at. Seriously. The prettiest tea I’ve laid eyes on. They feel silky and petal-like, as if they were just plucked. A gorgeous, violet color. And the smell… it’s so in-your-face lavender that it’s almost spicy and pungent. I used a scant teaspoon for fear of my life.

So I steeped this one up, expecting the water to turn a brilliant lavender-blue, as shown on Harney’s website. Blue is my absolute favorite color. Instead, sadly enough, the tea remained very, very clear. Only when I poured it into my porcelain mug did I see that the clear-looking water was actually tinted purple. Hilarious-looking. And smelling ridiculously of lavender.

Don’t think this is some dainty, lady-like tea. It seems like it at first glance. You’d picture this tea as a beautifully dressed Victorian woman, nibbling on crumpets and flouncing around the town square. Well, if you thought that, YOU’RE WRONG.

This is STRONG. This is so strong it’s practically manly. It could probably drag freight trains by its teeth alone. So fearsome that it would guzzle Everclear – straight. And wear a lumberjack shirt. And possibly appear in Inglorious Basterds. It’d best Rocky in a fight. It farts in bacon and beer’s face. That brawny. The lavender gives you a one-two punch of spicy floral insanity. This lavender means business. Serious business.

I mean, for as clear as it looks, it’s just lavender. Very, very lavender. The spicy, heady beginning fades into a taste that’s akin to… lavender bath products. And then that fades into an overall very sweet floral note. We’re talking chamomile sweet here.

I’m so fascinated by it. I keep taking sips and mentally going “WOAH” and then shaking my head, trying to clear the taste out of my mouth. It’s almost peppery at points. It’s intense.

I have no idea where to go with the rest of the review. This tea is ridiculous. I doubt I could ever stomach another cup again, but if I decide to get in the ring with this beast again, I know for sure that it’ll win.

So, this tea was what made me sure I wanted to place my newest order with Harney & Sons instead of the four or five other companies I had been waffling between. I love just about any tea that has lavender in it, and the idea of a pure lavender tea excited me. I’ve had plenty of blends before, but this tea is just fluffy dried lavender buds and a few pale green leaves.

Now, the official website shows the tea as brewing up to a pretty shade of purple. I can tell you right here that it does not. This stuff is a strange, kinda sickly gray. I mean, it’s sort of purple tinted, but it’s nothing like the picture. And it’s like nothing I’ve ever drank before. But the aroma is heavenly. Deeply soothing, floral, and clean. Lightly sweetened, it’s exactly what I was hoping for. A very bold and slightly buttery, tingly lavender flavor.

But I understand that this is not for everyone. If you don’t like herbals and don’t like lavender, stay far away. But I’m definitely going to re-order and blend it into stuff. Yum.

I’ve always liked lavender—it looks and smells sweet. When I saw this tea on their website, I just had to have some. The dry purple buds smelled fantastic! Steeped for ten minutes, I was expecting a deeper color, but didn’t see it. This is straight lavender tea, so the wet tea buds smelled awesome!

In the cup I noticed a darker purplish color with a strong lavender aroma, although not as strong as the wet buds. Others have noted a soapy quality in the cup flavor. I can understand that description, but do not consider it soapy. That is just how lavender is…….some things are what they are. The aroma was awesome and the flavor was smooth, perfumey lavender goodness. I really enjoyed how it soothed my throat and stayed with me in the aftertaste.

If you don’t like lavender or scented teas you probably wont like this tea. For me it is soothing, smooth and delicious! A high quality, super lavender tea. This is a perfect herbal at night, when I sometimes avoid caffeine. A truly satisfying tea! :)) The tea still lingers on my palate—now—long after the cup is gone.

Cupped and Reviewed: Wednesday, December 21, 2011.

NOTES**** Tried steeping this at shorter periods. First cup about 200 degrees for 3.5 minutes, which resulted in milder flavor and perfume aromas. Second cup, 212 degrees for seven minutes, still very flavorful and aromatic. I think two shorter steeps is the way to go on this one, especially if you are overwhemed by the flavor and aromatics of lavender tea.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays everyone!!. Here’s a video if you care to watch it. It is one of my favorites! I just love her voice. :))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF70A6t4EiU

Cupped:Thursday, December 22, 2011.

Reviewed: Sunday, December 25, 2011.

CRYYYYYYYYY! This tea was supposed to be BLUE! The picture on the website showed it being this pretty purple color. Some of the user reviews mentioned it being a bluish-gray.

It’s YELLOW! It started out being a nice, tasteful light sunshine color. Then I tried steeping it longer and it came out more like amber. It looks like pee!

CRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

That’s what I get for believing advertising.

… At any rate, I normally drink tea for the taste, so I might as well review for the taste. I like lavender; for some reason, it reminds me of the trip to Ireland we took the summer of 2001. And it’s certainly lavender! If you like lavender, be prepared for a lot of it! If you don’t like it, DON’T DRINK IT! It’s thick, husky lavender, not dainty and not for the faint of heart. It is assertively floral. It will CALM YOU THE #$%& DOWN. But I like it.

So, all in all, I give it a thumbs up for its unflinching lavender and the associated nostalgia. But be warned.

The Final Sipdown: Day 1.3

The smell of this is knock you out strong. I thought that lavender was supposed to be calming? This smells like walking into one of those stores that sells dried flower arrangements and hand-painted wood signs that say things like, “If you don’t like chocolate, get out of my kitchen,” except the heater’s been on the blitz all day and it’s made the scent of the lavender and cedar potpourris about 20 times stronger than they should be. You know, like g-ma’s closet sachets took steroids and are staging a world takeover. As a half-test and half-joke, I took the empty sample packet and held it in front of my sleeping dog’s nose to see if he would do anything. I scared the living poop out of him and he jumped off the bed. He’s back up there now and fallen asleep again, but I’ll admit that that was mean. Sorry, Tucker.

Moving on. Taking the smell as a very loud hint, I decided to steep this lower than I usually would an herbal. The tea [not really tea] itself seems to be comprised entirely of dried lavender blossoms. If you’ve ever had lavender-infused anything, you’ll be familiar with the flavor of this tea as it does, indeed, taste of lavender. It smells of lavender, too. I’ve never known anything involving lavender, be it soap, lotion, cookies, artisan chocolates, or detergent, to be subtle, and this is no exception. It really comes through when I swish it around or as it goes down. There’s also a hint of an almost bergamot-like citrusy flavor running through it as well. The aftertaste, however is almost…minty. Kind of strange, but extremely refreshing.

Anyhow, the description for this tea doesn’t joke around. It is strong. And, it probably goes without saying, but if you don’t like lavender, you probably shouldn’t even be reading this log. If you’re not opposed to lavender and are prepared for a tea saturated in it, or are up for a rather singular experience, then I would suggest picking up a sample. As for me, I’m not entirely sure I’ll want to be drinking this again anytime soon, but I will leave you with these last three things:

1. The aftertaste really is nice. I’m enjoying it quite a bit.

2. It could be the late hour, but I find myself slipping into a rather relaxed drowsiness [as opposed to the typical drooping fatigue I get when I need to go to bed] and this tea may be the reason. I might, just might have to eventually get another sample packet from Harney to test drive this guy on those nights when I am plagued by insomnia.

3. Pretty. | http://bit.ly/cs5l1d

Samples Downed: 3

I’ve had this particular batch almost two years, maybe. I’ve essentially been hoarding it because it’s one of the few herbal teas I enjoy(ed). Unfortunately it is not, I’d argue, a tea that ages very well. It now tastes only vaguely of it’s original glory. Drink it up if you’ve got it.

So I was expecting BAM STRONG LAVENDER FLAVOR EVERYWHERE. But instead I got a lovely, relaxing, floral flavor. After reading reviews I thought this one would be too much, but it’s very soft and sweet. I’m slightly disappointed that the liquid in my cup is gray/blue and not a purple. But I feel this is the perfect tea to drink before bed. I’ll be sleeping good tonight!

Incredibly fresh lavender. The smell is so intense it’s like someone crushed up all the flowers, but they are all whole. My mother loves lavender (this is the third herbal I got for her), and when I let her smell it she jumped back several inches in surprise. It’s really strong.

The tea is a delicate purple color as it steeps—as others have noted, it looks nothing like the picture on the site, tut tut, Harney’s. I can actually see the oils coming out of the blossoms. The end result smells like a bubble bath I have, which is not necessarily a bad thing but also not necessarily something I instinctively want to drink!

Straight up this is a little too herbal even for me. I love flowers, I love lavender, and I love herbals, but there’s a medicinal feeling to it that isn’t my favorite. Once I added some honey it became exactly what I was looking for from a lavender tea! Somewhere in between sharp and medicinal and candied flower petals. Realistically I’ll be mixing it with other things, but this is a good thing to know.

May Sipdown Prompt – your tea farthest from sipdown

Over a decade ago, I bought a pound of this tea. I thought I was not only going to drink it, but also make sachets with it. I never got around to making sachets and I forget to drink it! I blame the fact that I haven’t tried it out on Ashman yet and he is picky about florals. He loves jasmine but not rose in tea, so I haven’t had him try this.

I like to make lavender syrup with it and make a tea pop. Ice cold Perrier in a fancy glass with a dollop of the syrup stirred in makes a lovely treat, and even Ashman likes it! I found some borosilicate glass straws with little lavender flowers on them from 123 Farm at a local apothecary/curio shop and naturally I use those to drink my tea pops.

I had a bit of a brain storm today as I was choosing tea for two young ladies who were coming for lessons. They have very different taste in tea and I have a hard time choosing what to make. One loves rose black tea so that was easy, and I decided to give this plain lavender a try for the other young lady. The twist was – instead of having cream and sugar on the table, I filled the creamer with lavender syrup.

We tried both the rose black tea (St. Valentine’s by Czar Nicolas II) and this one with lavender syrup as the sweetener. It was wonderful! The lavender was so lovely with rose, and it sweetened and intensified the plain lavender tea, which I had both unsweetened and with the lavender syrup.

I have kept this tea in a dark cabinet in a swing top and rubber gasket sealed glass jar that seals very well, so it still has lots of flavor, but man oh man is it old. In spite of how long it is taking me to get through it – which should be faster now that I have moved it to an easy to see and reach spot – I will definitely reorder when this runs out. It will definitely be a smaller amount next time, though, unless I get my act together and start using it for all the things I bought it for.