Christmas (Rois Mages)

Doulton’s Shakespeare: A Tasting Note in 5 Acts
Act V scene 3

“This is the short and the long of it.”
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II scene 2

This bagged tea is like a distant relative of an ancient and powerful tea that’s the embodiment of Christmas smells. It’s nice and has good qualities. It’s also another one of those that if someone gave me some I’d be delighted to have it, but I’m not going to go out and track this down for my cupboard.

This tea I dub The Merry Wives of Windsor. This play is sort of a spin-off of Henry IV Part 1 and a pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-prequel to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Both this tea and play don’t take themselves seriously. They’re nice and there’s nothing wrong with them, but they’re not the best out there. NE

Clove. Without any sweetness in the ‘spice backup ensemble’ to round it out. Just a clove solo. It’s ok, but not well rounded. Glad I got this in the sample tin, not a full size tin.

I believe it might be a better tea for after a meal, to counteract the sweetness of dessert. This is the first tea I’ve ever thought to myself…. ‘better with a biscuit’.

In fairness, I must note that all tins in the 5 pack sample kinda smelled alike. They don’t come with an inner plastic liner, just the tin- sans freshness seal—stacked in plastic tamper sealed tube. Don’t know if that matters, but I thought I should take that into account. Maybe the 4oz sealed tin would be better? or am I making excuses for a brand I love? Merry Christmas, but I’ll stick with the eminently perfect ‘Petrushka’

Doulton tucked one of these into her Shirley Temple package - I’m loving the little muslin tea bags (anybody remember Gold Rush bubble gum?) - and the “tasty and competent” rating previously posted stands. I didn’t pay close attention and let the water get too hot, boiled it instead of the 90C recommendation on the tag.

I’m getting a lot more almondy-cakey flavor than I am fruit and spices, but if I just had a piece of my mom’s fruit’n’apple cake right now, this would be a perfect match.

Amendment/addition: I tossed the back half of the mug on ice at lunchtime and tasted about twice the amount of spice. Usually it’s the other way around. Hmmm.

Wow. Sooo… got busy and didn’t log in for awhile, it seems. Tried last week, and the site seemed to be down. But I’m back, baybeeees!

I ran out of Prince Vladimir last week, and wanted to replace it with a biiiig tin of it. Decided to add a couple other teas to the order to make it worthwhile, and was tempted by the description of this tea. I got my order today, and immediately steeped myself a mug. Unfortunately, it doesn’t live up to its description. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad tea, it just doesn’t taste all Christmasy or even orangey or almond. Maybe a vanilla-y.

So I’ll drink it, but this doesn’t taste like Christmas or Three Magis/Wisemen/Astronomers/DudesWhoWereWAYLateToTheBabyShower.

Happy Holidays!

I was almost reluctant to try it, as I’m not a huge fan of spices in tea; had I read the previous reviews, I may have been more optimistic about it.
The smell is quite spicy, the tea looks very “normal black tea” in the small tin, with only a few orange peel pieces here and there.
The overall taste is really mellow, and honestly even weak, much milder than the smell might make it seem. Chai fans should be highly disappointed in drinking this.
The second steep already comes as very weak and light-colored and definitely requires a few new leaves to have some body, which is surprising in comparison with other Kusmi teas I’ve had, like if they had used a second (or third) grade tea base for this one.
I can taste a bit of clove remaining on my lips, but not as much as in the Spicy Chocolate. The orange flavor is to be searched for. The vanilla hasn’t been found yet.
Nicer than expected, as the spices are not as strong as I feared. I guess this small tin should be emptied in a reasonable future…
… and refilled with something else, as it’s not something I would try to get more of.

Oh, this was very tasty! (Thank you, Doulton!) The bag smelled alarmingly of pine, but the tea itself was a wonderfully balanced mix of spices that did, in fact, remind me of Christmas food and drink. (Usually when a tea says this it just means “we have cloves!”, but this was a much more complicated blend.)

This is a extra I got from doulton so thank you very much. This is a teabag and I can smell spices and abit of orange. I steeped this up and now smell abit of vanilla with the orange and spices. This tastes like a good black tea with orange spices and abit of vanilla and not spicy luckily to me. I think this tea is really good.

It tastes rather like Tea Forte’s Vienna Cinnamon, if my memory serves me right. The notes I get are mainly almond and cinnamon; it doesn’t taste like Christmas cake to me because the vanilla is missing! I am not a fan of spices… but this tea does remind me of Christmas so it’s perfect for my post-holiday depression. :P

I got a 2oz sample of this in the mail when I ordered some Christmas prezzies from the Kusmi website a few weeks ago. Now that it’s REALLY starting to be that time of the year (with the boyfriend’s family arriving in a few days) I decided to go ahead and give it a try.

Dry, it smells so lovely and fruity with that kick of Christmas-time spices. It’s also really beautiful, with bits of almond and what I’m assuming is orange peel.

Although once it’s steeped… it’s nice but it doesn’t pop out as a really amazing tea. It’s subtle… not nearly as spicy as it smells. You can definitely taste the fruit. It’s relatively smooth and sweet, which I find to be a given if it’s coming from Kusmi.

Um, I mean the tea is enjoyable, just not what I was expecting/am looking for.

This is a tasty and competent black tea. I’ve enjoyed other Christmas teas more and the fact is that my personal tea aesthetic wants to be overwhelmed by the spices of Christmas. Instead of just an overtone or two and a slight note, I want to have my socks knocked off by the holiday effect.

But for many drinkers, less is more and you will like this a lot. Just because I don’t do subtle does not mean this tea will not be wonderful for you.