Troika

When hot Troika reminds me of the Ahmad Tea Special Blend except the base is a little smoother and more forgiving in that it is less likely to get overly bitter if overbrewed. It tastes like a nice lightly flavoured fruity earl grey over a slightly bitter base. For me the sharp citrus of the bergamot was most present at first slightly tempered by the sweeter notes from the orange. As it cooled the orange
became more present for me and sweetend the tea a little. Having said this it is not an overly sweet tea. The orange has a few of the notes from Orangina ( a slightly bitter orange)without it being sweetened. I do get hints of mandarin but more like the taste of tinned mandarin packed in water. The base has a slight natural bitterness which gives the tea some depth. The tea brews up to a nice copper colour. The flavouring is nice and subtle and is suitable for those who prefer a lighter flavouing to their flavoured tea. The base is pleasant enough but not overly complex. It makes a nice afternoon tea.
Thanks Momo for the opportunity to try this tea.

Sipdown no. 10 of 2020 (no. 605 total).

I could have sworn I just posted a note on this. Maybe it didn’t take?

Luckily, it was short. I just noted we polished off the rest of this as cold brew and it was every bit as tasty as it was hot. The first two notes provide detail upon which I can’t improve.

I got a whole tin of this courtesy of Fuzzy_Peachkin. Alas, a third of it ended up on the floor… and my desk… and my pants… The tin got stuck and it took me literally almost an hour to get it open. I ultimately had to dent the side just to get in, and then of course a bunch of it spilled while I was prying the lid off.

Unfortunately, the payoff wasn’t worth the effort. I found this tea pleasantly citrusy (mainly orange) but very one-note. Kind of bland, I guess. Even my dad found it bland and he usually can’t tell one tea from another. I used about 1.5 teaspoons for 8 oz of water. Did I underleaf? Have other people used more/less?

To start, a note about the tin. I could NOT get it open! I got the Russian blend mini-tins and for some reason this one was super sealed. I asked my boyfriend for help opening it and he went into Berserker mode. The tin is destroyed! I’ll have to store this another way. Ah well, at least I get to try it now.

It smells great! I detect more spicy notes than citrus ones. It brews up into a dark brown tea. The taste is wonderful – characteristically smooth like Kusmi’s other black tea blends. The tea is supposed to have the scents of bergamot, orange, and mandarin but I am only tasting the lightest bergamot flavor. Perhaps a more refined palette than mine could detect the citrus. I wish they had included orange peel to enhance the citrus side of the tea.

This makes a wonderful breakfast tea, if you like your teas on the milder side. It’s possible I under-leafed this, too. I’ll have to play around. All in all, this is another solid blend from Kusmi!

This is wonderful with a splash of coconut milk. Yum!

It’s like Anastasia without the lemon note, which means Earl Grey with a kind of orange/mandarin flavour. An elegant tea that goes great with traditional afternoon tea :)

I got a sample of this tea from the Traveling Tea Box. It was good… much sweeter than I expect from an Earl Grey, but I’m sure that’s due to the mandarin and orange. The leaves unfurled to a full size, for the most part, making for a pretty steeping.

The flavor was not as intense as I expect from Earl Greys. I assumed it was because I had used too much water, but in reading the other reviews, I see that it’s just a more subtle tea.

This tea didn’t strike me as anything special the first time I tried it.

Allow me to exercise my right to completely change my mind. I had it again this morning, a sip or two to get myself ready for a hearty breakfast, and it was delicious. Really pleasant citrus notes blending very well with the flavor of the black tea. The flavoring is just right; I can taste the sweetness of the citrus at the very end of my swallow. Very bright and mellow tea, though not by any means light.

I had set my heart on getting a large tin of the Prince Vladimir blend from Kusmi since I was so impressed with that and the St. Petersburg blend, but on this second try the Troika may be just as deserving of a second buy.

Delicious wish english muffins or a nice sourdough toast. Lovely aroma, with nice citrus tones. Perfect for a cool morning.

I just wanted my first act as a Steepster member to rate this excellent tea. We have a small tea room in the city where I live. The proprietress over-ordered on this one month and (amazingly) was kind enough to give me a free tin (she knows how I love to try new teas). I’ll admit my first brewing left me less than impressed. I felt the flavor was a bit artificial, yet I found myself coming back to this tea over and over again. I finally hit on what it was I liked so much. The SMOOTHNESS of this tea. I found myself trying at one point to over-steep it to bring out the tannins and make it bitter, yet the flavor remained smooth and consistent (to my palate at least). After going through several other black tea blends by Kusmi Teas I’ve found this to be a consistent quality with most of their blacks. Maybe its a process, maybe its the quality of the leaf, I’m no expert, I just know that Kusmi Tea produces some of the smoothest drinking tea on the planet. That (I think) is why they are so appealing to many tea drinkers. Since my Troika experience I’ve had many other teas by Kusmi, but this remains my favorite. If you like Earl Grey and Orange but hate tannin, you owe it to yourself to give this a try.

2.5 tsp for a 500mL pot, water at 90C, steeped 4 min 30 seconds, drunk bare.

WOW.

Dark copper liquor, almost red, definitely India tea in the base as well as China, maybe some Ceylon heft and smoothness? This blend’s got bergamot oil, orange oil, and, unusually, mandarin oil, which really lifts this blend into something special. The citrus notes dance; the tea base soothes and fortifies.

This is my favourite yet from Kusmi … and it was only available in refill bags instead of a tin, so I’m worried it might be on the chopping block. I’d happily serve this at a holiday gathering, and I’d also happily drink it every day. And I’d most certainly offer it to an EG lover who’s just come in from the cold.

(Please, Kusmi, don’t lose this one.)