Black Opera

I can’t remember anymore who sent me this, but I’ve put it in my focus box because I have about 5 cups worth and otherwise I will take forever to drink it.

My initial tasting was after I had left it a bit too long (~5 minutes in warm but not hot water). I then diluted it a bit and found the fruity notes shining through. I get a lot of strawberry, jam, dried fruits, fig, and something that is either peach or pomegranate (or both). Lots of interesting fruits, and the black base is quite tasty even now that my cup has cooled. I reccomend this as a latte too. I’ll be trying this coldbrewed soon.

Bright blackberry or possibly plum flavour here. Nice black and unsweetened. Milk doesn’t add anything special to this, in my opinion. Sweet, maybe a mix of berries. Light black base. Elegant. A bit honeyed. A delightful cup.

Thank you for this, VariaTEA.

Wow, a note that isn’t a backlog! (Pretty much everything I’ll be writing is going to be. I’m unbelievably far behind, like in the hundreds of notes. And that’s only the teas I remembered to write down).

Anyways, thanks to VariaTea for this sample! (I think?) I believe I tried the other MF tea she passed along, and am definitely curious about this one too! I have no idea what it’s supposed to be, so I’m writing this tasting note blind. My guess would have been that it would be a dark, rich, creamy sort of tea? It seems I’m wrong, though, as it smells rather like raspberry, and tastes like that too. I don’t believe it’s contaminated, so perhaps it’s supposed to be a raspberry mousse sort of thing? The base is pretty good – dark and rich, then layered with a nice ripe raspberry flavour. I’m not overly fond of raspberry teas, but I’m certainly enjoying this one, probably because of the richness.

(Now I’m going to read about it and find out that I’m way off base, hahahaha).

Yup… cranberry/grenadine/jam? I can see that. Probably makes more sense that it’s cranberry-ish instead of raspberry.

From. Actually I don’t know. Kittenna maybe? I don’t have my spreadsheet to check right now, sorry!! (It’s from VariaTEA! Thank you. :) )

Anyways, it’s fruity. A little creamy maybe. Mostly intensely fruity. If Marco polo had been this fruity I would have liked it more.

I do like it, but I don’t think I like it enough to buy it.

Sorry for the crummy note, tea friends. My smell still isn’t 100% and I am so tired.

2.5 tsp in 16 oz. 3 min at 195F. With a touch of milk.

Sipdown (124)!

Almost logged this as Marco Polo; oops!

I still think this one tastes very, very similar to a traditional Monk’s Blend, though I didn’t find this cup nearly as soft and vanilla flavoured as the last one. In fact, it had a sharper, bitter edge to it that cut into the lush, grenadine and other fruit flavours. Again, no presence of spice in this blend for me – even with me consciously trying to pick it out this time around.

Still good though! But for a blend that just reminds me of Monk’s blend I’d probably be better off, well, just buying Monk’s blend. It’d be easier to get a hold of and probably less costly…

Also; this was my 2400th tasting note! That’s not a hugely significant number, but it is a lot and it does mean I’m gonna have to stop and try to find an appropriate tea to celebrate 2500 with since that’s my next really big landmark number, and it’ll be fast approaching now.

Going to have to agree with variaTEA on this one…it’s a fairly “boring” tea. Sadly this falls into the same range as a lot of other MF “red fruit” teas for me. Which makes me sad because i was contemplating picking this one up myself, but didn’t because i am TRYING to keep my spending down. This was a surprise samples from VariaTEA, once i’m super happy to try. It’s just that, in the usual red fruit fashion, of MF…this is too, subdued? delicate? beyond me? It’s a very smooth tea, and the base is lovely…but i just don’t get excited about “red fruit” anymore. heh. They all seem to be not wanting to make up their mind or something. A lovely cup, but that’s all i really need. thanks so much variatea!!

A little while back, I stopped in at the Holt Renfrew holiday shop and picked up some beautiful Mariage Freres teas. Unfortunately, the beautiful tins came with a not-so-beautiful price tag of $45 a tin. Plus, I had the added bonus of having the Holts employees basically glued to me as if I came to steal all their precious tea. So, I was not too motivated to splurge on anything. Consequently, I bought two tins: one of Mousse au Chocolat, which I tried before and really enjoyed, and this tea since it is one that I have been eyeing for over a year.

When I smelled this tea, it smelled deliciously rich and fruity. When I brewed it up, I hoped the smell would transfer into the taste and it did to some extent as the tea was quite fruity. However, it had a generic red fruit taste and not much else other than a mediocre base that fought for center stage. With that said, I steeped it for 5 minutes at 200F according to the Mariage Freres instructions and I think that might have thrown things off so I will be trying this again and again until I get it just right. I mean, at $45 a tin, I’m not about to just give up on it :P.