Murchie's Afternoon

Sipdown on this one. I sent this to the ladies in the BBB Box mostly for a play on the names of the teas. They received a breakfast blend and then an afternoon blend. :) Next trip is going to be Fancy teas!

This helped solidify in my mind that Murchie’s teas are only for me if i want a a nice delicious tea with milk and sugar. It helped as well that i finally figured out i need to steep this at a bit cooler temperature since there’s some sneaky darjleeing in there.

Overall, not a fantastic tea but it’s well enough for the small quantity that let me play with it and share it. I don’t think it’ll be a super huge win with the ladies, but that’s part of the fun! we get to share experiences and some are wins and some are less wins hahaha

Enjoying some afternoon tea in the afternoon. Not sure what makes something an afternoon tea as I would definitely consider this a good kick you in the ass morning tea to get you going. Added some honey and cream after I tasted it straight. It’s somewhat sweet on it’s own so it only needed touch of honey. I went on a long run this morning so I’m glad this is a robust tea to give me a little boost to get through till the kids are in bed and i’m on the sofa watching the season 5 premier of dexter. That season 4 finale pretty much kept me up all night. So unnecessary. Ugh.

Thanks Sil! Been enjoying many of the teas you and Terri have sent, although i haven’t been doing a good job of logging them!

One of Sil’s offerings in the BBBBox.
This is very bright, very tart, very ceylon.
Initially, it set off an alarm in my mouth, but once you get past the initial shock, there’s some body to it, kind of sweet. A very citrus mouth, I think this might be better cold. Definitely not a morning tea, for sure. The astringency would make me wretch.

Moar Backlogging:

Another tea I had while I was in Vancouver. The downtown has a couple of nice tea shops within a small area so naturally I made it my mission to check them out. I sat down to lunch at Murchie’s with a pot of this tea and a chicken salad croissant.

This is a very light, smooth tea that has little to no astringency or harshness. It also goes well with a splash of milk. It’s maybe a little ‘normal’ tasting for me, though I imagine that drinkers of traditional, straight black tea would think that it’s quite good.

1.25 tsp for 250mL water 100C, steeped 4 minutes 15 seconds.

Dry leaf: mostly small brown to black wiry leaves. Aroma: Keemun toastiness.

Wet leaf: dark browns, aroma of tannins and minerals.

Liquor: gorgeous dark red-brown. Keemun gives way to Darjeeling’s bite, which leads into a strong Ceylon finish with mineral and especially copper notes. It feels like the different teas in this blend travel over the tongue, in an orderly queue. Slightly bitter — often a risk with Keemun. Very nice blend, and strong enough to cut through and then complement other strong tastes. I imagine this would go beautifully with smoked salmon, or a sweet cake.

Smooth, medium-strength and excellent with milk. Actually makes a great breakfast tea. Not exciting, but a solid black that is one of my staples.

I was pleasantly struck by this tea. It has a strong “black” roasted flavor, but I don’t find it unpleasantly harsh or bitter. I feel that roasted can be overdone and don’t like when it falls into the category of burnt-tasting, but this tea has it just right.
It is a tad bit sweet and still good cold. I think it would be easy to add too much sweetener, but milk might be an appealing addition.

This was my first try at Murchie’s and I must say I had to add a lot of honey to it to counterbalance the bitterness that hit my tongue. Nevertheless, it is not a bad tea but it is not a very memorable tea either. I know I’ll drink what I have on me but I’m positive I may not go back an order more since it doesn’t leave much to the imagination.

Regardless, at least the package I got with it is lovely and did keep me quite awake for the rest of the afternoon.

A strong tea that, unfortunately, doesn’t taste like much of anything to me. I do enjoy using this tea as a black base when mixing with some green teas, but as a solo act, it leaves much to be desired.

Not as robust as Murchie’s English Breakfast tea, but better than most American brands. Keep an eye out for the expiration date. Needs only a little milk or cream. Because Muchie’s now only has one official shop, some grocery and beverage suppliers seem to be clearing their warehouses.