Imperial Label

I had received this from a friend through a tea swap. I took a bunch of samples to work that I thought would work for western brewing. I don’t have much equipment nor space to gongfu at work, so the best option seems to throw tea in an infuser and make a cup.

I’ve also burnt the roof of my mouth on food the other day; which has swollen quite a bit. I’ve yet to go to the doctor, but I’m at the point where it hurts too much to eat, sleep, or drink anything above room temperature. So, these notes are all based on room temperature tea sessions. I’m going to give it until Monday, but more than likely, I might have to schedule an appointment.

Notes (very minimal): The flavors within the brew made me think what it’d taste like if you threw a flower, cinnamon, & cardamom into a cup and decided to drink the liquor. There seemed to be an unexplainable flavor that lingered on the palate—neither good or bad.

It seems like I have been working on this one forever. I bought a tin of this tea on Amazon back in late April and received it in early-mid May. I was on a big Kusmi kick at the time and was going through their Russian blends like a fiend. I know I cracked this tin open sometime before the end of May-this blend seemed so unique that I just had to try it. At first, I was not impressed. I found the green tea base to be weak and the spice notes to be overpowering. As I have worked my way through this tin, however, my opinion of this tea has mellowed a bit. It’s sort of strange (okay, really strange), but it is not without its charms.

I prepared this tea Western style. I normally do at least two infusions for green teas and green tea blends, but opted for one infusion here. I have gotten a second infusion out of this tea in the past, but I feel that I got the most out of this tea performing a single extended infusion. For this review session, I steeped approximately 1 teaspoon of the loose blended material in 8 ounces of 175 F water for 5 minutes.

Prior to infusion, a sniff of the dry blended material reveals a slightly grassy scent that is quickly overpowered by orange, vanilla, cinnamon, and licorice. After infusion, I noted powerful aromas of cinnamon, licorice, and vanilla underscored by orange, grass, straw, and a slightly oily marine scent from the sea buckthorn berries. In the mouth, I immediately picked up on orange peel, though this note quickly took a backseat to powerful notes of vanilla, licorice, and cinnamon. I could also detect underpinnings of straw, grass, hay, and buckthorn. The finish was heavy on vanilla, though the buckthorn, orange, licorice, and cinnamon continued to linger in the background.

Overall, I rather liked this blend. That kind of surprised me too because I absolutely loathe licorice. Here, it did not bother me all that much because there were other aromas and flavors on which I could focus. It was easy to tell that the green tea used for this blend was not all that great, but considering the focus was placed so squarely on the interaction of the other ingredients, it hardly mattered to me. It was there to provide a subtle backdrop for them and it fulfilled that role admirably. Though this is the sort of blend I would not want to have every day, I do feel that it does what it does very well. Moreover, it has aged gracefully and there are perhaps few blends that replicate its formula. I think adventurous drinkers and fans of spicy blends may enjoy this one.

I’m forcing myself to try “new” old teas today, and it helps that I haven’t actually got much at work with me at the moment so it’s try things or have no tea. It doesn’t help that they’re mostly green teas in my untried pile, because they’re never my favourite. I say that, but I think it’s really a historical hangover from when I thought all green tea was bitter and horrible. I know for a fact now that that’s not the case, but somehow I still have a bit of a prejudice about green tea, even though some of my best friends are green tea…I never said I wasn’t odd.

So. This one. The reviews seem a bit mixed, and I’m not much liking the sound of soap as a descriptor. Otherwise? Orange, cinnamon and vanilla sounds okay (I probably wouldn’t have put it with green tea, though…) Sea buckthorn I’ve never tried. What even is it? I’m okay with sencha, although it’s not my favourite green. I’d happily say that no green is my favourite, but that’s a lie. I actually really do like Bi Luo Chun.

I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 2.5 minutes in water cooled to around 175 degrees. The leaf is pretty, lots of yellow and green. It smells spicier than I expected, a little bit like chai. But also a little bit like a Lush soap I had once. Sea Vegetable? Not encouraging.

To taste, it’s thankfully not too much like soap. There’s a strong initial creaminess that’s really nice and almost thick tasting. I’m assuming that’s due in large part to the vanilla, and it has a lovely heavy dairy cream vibe that’s just perfect on a cold day. The orange comes through second, mostly pith and zest to begin with but followed by a sharp, clean, bright splash of orange that’s more reminiscent of freshly squeezed juice. The cinnamon rounds things off, adding a warming spiciness that’s actually makes me think of Christmas – just right for December! My only complaint about this one is the liquorice, because it’s horribly over-sweet and cloying, and it coats the back of my throat with its artificial sweetener-like stickiness. Otherwise, I get along just fine with this blend. I can’t taste the sea buckthorn, and I still don’t know what that actually is. I can’t taste the green tea base, either, which is fine with me. It’s smooth and unobtrusive, just how I like it. I’ll probably drink a fair bit more of this one before Christmas – it’s a surprise win. If it wasn’t for the liquorice, we could be the best of friends.

Sadly, none of the teas that I’ve tried from Kusmi are teas that I’d want to get again, (Though this one, oddly enough, comes close. Oddly because there are not many green teas that I really like.) Or maybe it’s just as well considering the way out of my budget prices they have on their products. I wouldn’t be disappointed with this as a gift, however.

Unique. For the adventurous.

One moment you get hit by an orange aroma with oiliness of buckthorn, then licorice, then vanilla, then almost nuts, etc.

Best cold.

Monthly TTB Club.

I didn’t really care for this. It was pleasantly citrusy, but I didn’t like the way it blended with the green tea, and I really disliked the licorice root.

I ended up buying this as part of a set of five Kusmi green teas about two and a half years ago before I knew anything about tea as a gift for my boyfriend. He got through about half the tin and it’s been sitting at the back of the cupboard ever since.

I ended up uprooting the set during a tea purge this afternoon and though “hey, this might be nice to try”. No idea what the flavour was like when fresh but this was pretty heavy on the citrus and cinnamon (which I mistook for ginger). I get a slight hint of licorice towards the end of the sip at the back of the tongue and down the throat. I usually avoid licorice teas out of personal dislike for the taste, but don’t usually mind it if it’s there.

I wouldn’t buy this again, mostly because of the licorice, but I’m happy I gave it a chance.

Bag: The muslin(cotton weave) tea bags are packaged in individual plastic foil backed bags. On the label they have the brew time and temperature in Celsius.
Tea: Brewed at about 200F for 4 minutes the tea is a light amber color. Aroma was strong with the scent of earthy licorice, and orange bitters. Flavor was distinct with the taste of licorice, vanilla, and citrus with cool menthol like cooling on the back of my tong and in my sinuses. Astringency was nil.
Notes: This tea was from the Kusmi Tea Essentials pack of 24 teas, and each tea bag was about $0.94usd. Not sure what to expect when a tea is called Label Imperial, maybe more like an over powering flowery tea, not what this is. The ingredients read as follows “Imperial Blend” …. really. I hate it when tea companies are all hush hush about their ingredients. Like does this contain caffeine or not? I may never know. What I see in the tea bag is Licorice root bits about 6mm long, vanilla flower, 1cm green tea leaves, citrus rind, and some berry. That being said I did enjoy it but its something I would only be able to drink in the winter, its a bit too heavy for a summer drink and would probably do well with a teaspoon of sugar. Taste like Jager with orange bitters if I had to compare it to another beverage.

So I really wanted to like this tea, but I can’t. It is so offensive. There is a strange super sweetness to this mlblend. It tastes artificial – like those artificial sweeteners. Yuck! I couldn’t get past that taste to apappreciate the flavors. I will be throwing this away unless someone wants it. Vomment or send me a msg.

I have to say, I was a little scared when I read the ingredients on this one… Orange and vanilla (yum), cinnamon (meh), licorice root (his royal evilness), and sea buckthorn berries (…whaaaaat…?). This tea visually has the most “stuff” in it that I’ve seen from Kusmi – I’m assuming it’s chopped licorice root and the berries. The dry leaf smell is bizarre. There are obvious (and very powerful) cinnamon and licorice scents, but for some reason the overall smell reminds me of bubblegum…? There’s also definitely a sharp orange oil note. Smelling this tea made me sneeze – I think my nose thought he was under attack so he activated his ultimate defense. Yes, my nose is apparently a dude… Anyway, I brewed it at 175 for 3 minutes.

The aroma of the brew was much less worrying. It still smelled chiefly of cinnamon and licorice, but there was no bubblegum. I could also pick out the orange and a slight whiff of vanilla. Tasting it hot, the cinnamon and licorice kind of combine into one flavor and there’s a slight undertone of orange. I thought this isn’t so bad, added a bit of sugar, and let it cool a bit. Somewhere in the warm-hot range, I started tasting a lot more orange and vanilla, and it became a kind of spiced creamsicley tea. However, as it cooled past a certain point, I started to taste mostly licorice. Or should I say l-ick-orice? I read in a tasting note that this is better iced, but I can’t imagine how if it’s going to taste like eau de licorice root. I may or may not try it. Overall, this tea is not as bad as I thought it would be, but I would enjoy it more if it had more orange and vanilla flavor. Also, I don’t taste the actual tea in this at all. It seems like a strange flavor profile for a green, I would peg this description for a black tea.

P.S. – I was tempted to put “Sea Buckthorn Berries” in the flavors just to be a smartass, but it wasn’t there. No fair!