Anastasia

The smell is nice, and there are some nice flavors, citrus specifically. That said, it is basically a fancy pants Earl Grey tea. If you like Earl Grey, you will like this. I will pass.

Backlog 3/67

This tea came in from either Cameron or Mandy and I’m not sure which. Sorry. I got both packages at the same time and I’m so confused about which were which now >_<

I can’t say terrible much about this tea. I jotted down notes while tasting last night because I was otherwise busy and I brewed up like 8 teas in a row. My notes for this one were: Flowers, tea (for aroma) and tea, bitter (for taste).
I didn’t get any floral note in the flavor. But the scent was definitely there.
I am not sure what this tea is meant to taste like, but to me it was just a vaguely bitter flavorless tea that was overall kinda flat. I didn’t get anything more than that out of it.

But as always, I enjoyed trying it. Thanks for sending it, Cameron or Mandy. XD

I have a small tin of this tea I hadn´t looked at for a long time, but today I decided to give it another try. Still very fragrant nose, still a fading away fragrance when steeping, but I liked it better than when I logged it last time. Maybe I even noticed the orange blossom today (very subtle) as well. I was skyping when having the tea and so, it cooled down quite a bit, but the drink didn´t turn bitter and kept its aroma, which I consider a positive thing.

T&C TTB Tea #15 Backlog May 27

I guess I’m not really a fan of Kusmi’s teas. I had a bunch I wanted to try and was able to do so with this TTB, however was ultimately disappointed.

This one, not any different.

I found it astringent. It made my teeth hurt, maybe I have some kind of dental issues!

It was similar to St Petersberg but not nearly as good. The bergamot seemed weak to me.
It was similar to Troika, I couldn’t even tell you the difference.

Not my thing. I do not enjoy lemon/lime flavours in black teas. No sir I do not.

I was gifted a Russian Black Kusmi tea set last Christmas and fell in love with the entire brand. This wasn’t one of my favourites initially , but I recently tried it with foamed milk, sugar, and vanilla bean paste and it was so delicious (any of that range tastes amazing this way – VB paste adds a great flavour without the bitterness of essence.) I recently bought the larger tin and have used it in shortbread, lattes, and straight.

This is third for me to try out of my Russian blends (thanks again to Boychik for setting me straight on how to brew these :)). Like the previous two, upon opening the tin, the smell of bergamot is overpowering. I think I can catch a little whiff of lime though, which makes me excited to try this. I did the usual brew of 3 minutes at about 200 degrees.

The aroma of the brewed tea is mostly bergamot, but I am able to pick up on some sweet orange and a little note of lemon. I’m not sure whether the lime is there because I find it difficult to separate all these different citrus scents from one another. I had fully intended to try this one without any sugar (I feel I should wean myself off of sweetening my teas in general because I feel like, in some cases, it interferes with my tasting of all the flavors). However, I don’t think I can drink a bergamot tea straight – I found it unpleasantly bitter or something. So I added just under a teaspoon of sugar (foiled again!).

When I first tasted this as it was still very hot, I could mostly just taste black tea with bergamot. I’m beginning to see this as a pattern with these Russian blends from Kusmi. I let it cool, taking a few sips every so often to see how the flavor was changing, and it’s interesting to note how the effect of sugar becomes more and more apparent as a tea grows colder (at least, in my opinion). I found that I enjoy this tea much more when it is just warm as opposed to hot, and I can now pick out the flavors of lemon and orange, and possibly a slight floral note (I take it this is the orange blossom). The lime seems to manifest itself as a kind of aftertaste on the back of my tongue. Overall, I really like the combination of citrus flavor in this tea.

(thanks again Boychik for all of your helpful advice)

I received a sample of this from Carmeron B in her kusmi sampler. Thank you!

Oh this tea was such a nice afternoon cup. It is slight ear grey and slight floral. The base black tea mingles really well with the flavors. This is my favorite out of the Russian blends I have tried so far. I could see a tin of this in my future. Thank you for sharing!

When I first opened the tin I thought that this tea would be too lemoney. I had no idea what to expect and I thought I would hate it. I finally decided to try it and as it was steeping I was still not sure. When the tea was ready I smelled it and it was fresh and subtle and light. Then I took a sip and I was hooked. This is a wonderful tea, just the right amount of bergamot and you smell the citrus and you get that taste at the end of the sip. I take this tea every morning with my breakfast and when I drink it, I know that it will be a good day.

I stopped by Kusmi teas on Friday. I had seen the store, but I had never gone in before, and I regret that this was my first time. The store is beautiful on the inside, as are the really lovely tins, which stack. All of the teas were available to smell, and all of them smelled amazing.

Kusmi teas has a pretty interesting history, and I’ve enjoyed reading about it. It started in Russia and ended up in France in 1917, I think. I also didn’t realize that the small tea store I knew about was the only one in the States.

Anyway, enough about that and more about the tea. I kind of mentioned this before, but the packaging is lovely. The tin is very attractive, and the tea is inside and sealed inside plastic. The tea itself smells both like lemon and bergamot. The lady at the store said that Anastasia was definitely an Earl Gray, and it is, but it’s also very lemon flavored in a very perfect way. I have been looking for a lemon tea, so I was really excited about this particular fact. I had been smelling a lot of teas when I went into the store, it’s right near David’s Tea, and I think my ability to discern between teas at the time was somewhat limited.

It brews to a beautiful light brown color with a red undertone. It looks like a mild black tea, which is exactly what it is. The tea itself is maybe a bit too thin for me. I wish there was more tea, however, I cannot fault the tea itself for this, as it is beautifully delicate in a way which I believe it is supposed to be. The lemon flavor and the bergamot flavor shine through and they really work together to create a bright and citrus-y body to the tea. I love the flavors of this tea. I find Earl Grays to lack citrus qualities sometimes, which I know is a strange thing to say, since they are by nature citrus. Anyway, this is very citrus bergamot.

Overall, this was a fantastic purchase. This tea is really great, and I am very impressed with it.

I had no idea that Russians were/are obsessed with Earl Grey. I say this because all of the tins in my Russian collection from Kusmi contain black tea scented with bergamot! My first foray into the set is Anastasia, which smells just like a fine Earl Grey in the dried form.

The liquor is a dark red amber, and the flavor is more floral than citrus to me. Perhaps it is the power of suggestion, but I do believe that I am tasting and smelling a bit of orange blossom in this blend. I like Anastasia: a nice combination of citrus and floral aromas and flavors. I drank this, my very first glass, with light cream.

I forgot to taste the tea before adding cream, so I’ll have to wait until next time to attach a number to Anastasia. The black tea base does seem better than the average Earl Grey—both China black and Ceylon are included—but I need to taste it au naturel to be sure.