Charles Dickens' Black Tea Blend

Tea type
Black Oolong Blend
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Autumn Leaf Pile, Black Currant, Bread, Earth, Malt, Roasted, Smooth, Sweet, Wood
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Kosher
Edit tea info Last updated by Cameron B.
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 16 oz / 473 ml

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3 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I’m not great with simpler teas, because I don’t taste the nuances that others identify. This one does feel simple to me. It’s black tea with the barest hint of fruit at the end. I am certain it...” Read full tasting note
    80
  • “Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar – Day 18 (originally written November 18th) Another double black day in advent calendar teas! Although technically this blend has some oolong in it as well. ...” Read full tasting note
    80
  • “Great Expectations is one of my favorites, so I’m happy to try a Dickens blend! I’m a little puzzled by this one though. Interestingly enough, this is a black tea blended with a little green...” Read full tasting note
    73

From Simpson & Vail

Unlike many of his characters, Charles Dickens was born to loving parents in February of 1812. However, when he was only 12, his father was imprisoned for debt and Charles was sent to work in a blacking factory where he labeled endless bottles of shoeshine. He would leave the factory four years later to finish his education, but those formative years deeply affected him and inspired many of the boyhood horrors he would later write about. He wrote many of his most famous novels like Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby episodically, with a new chapter appearing in a magazine each month. These works examined the lives of the less fortunate and found humanity amid the most inhuman conditions.

Tea appeared in Dickens’ work as a calming force like in David Copperfield, when the main character recounts how he “sat swilling tea until [his] whole nervous system, if [he] had had any in those days, must have gone by the board.” Or it could surface as a commonality between classes that allowed Dickens to emphasize the stark differences between lifestyles. While a “real solid silver teapot” and “real silver spoons to stir the tea with” are listed among the treasures of Old Lobbs in The Pickwick Papers, “a regular place of public entertainment for the poorer classes” described in Oliver Twist would provide “a public breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper all the year round.” Our Charles Dickens blend adds a flash of color to a traditional british tea. The blend is a hearty, well-rounded blend of China and Indian teas that has an amber cup with a light currant after-taste.

Ingredients: Black teas, oolong tea, black currant flavoring, and cornflower petals.

About Simpson & Vail View company

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3 Tasting Notes

80
251 tasting notes

I’m not great with simpler teas, because I don’t taste the nuances that others identify. This one does feel simple to me. It’s black tea with the barest hint of fruit at the end. I am certain it would make a delicious pitcher of iced tea that I could drink all day.

The whole leaves were fun to watch bloom as it steeped, and with a touch of honey, I even enjoyed it hot, even if I wasn’t immediately impressed.

sipsby advent, day 5*
(sipsby packages this in no particular order, so your order may be different than mine)

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80
3986 tasting notes

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar – Day 18

(originally written November 18th)

Another double black day in advent calendar teas! Although technically this blend has some oolong in it as well. From the description, it sounds like a breakfast blend with a bit of blackcurrant involved. The oolong isn’t mentioned.

I quite like this one! It’s a bit light to be a breakfast tea, perhaps better suited for the afternoon. But I don’t often drink strong breakfast teas, so this is perfect for me. There’s a nice mix of malt, baked bread, and mild earth and wood notes. I can also taste the light roasty, dried-leafy flavor of the oolong. The blackcurrant is just a hint at the end, and melds nicely with the teas.

This is a tasty light black blend with a little touch of blackcurrant. Yummy! I would consider ordering it in the future.

Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Black Currant, Bread, Earth, Malt, Roasted, Smooth, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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73
4164 tasting notes

Great Expectations is one of my favorites, so I’m happy to try a Dickens blend! I’m a little puzzled by this one though. Interestingly enough, this is a black tea blended with a little green oolong. I don’t think I’ve had many green oolong/black tea blends before, but the result basically just tastes like a roasted oolong instead of bits of green oolong with black tea. I can tell there is some sort of fruit flavor but I had to look up what it is – black currant. Not much flavor, just enough to tell it’s there. Black currant isn’t my favorite but I’ve had worse black currant teas. This is an interesting flavor combination but not really one I love.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// 15 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

Edited to add: svtea.com has 15% off everything until the end of 1/8 with the code HOTTEA18!

Mastress Alita

As a librarian, that SV sale is really tempting… I’ve been curious about the author blends for a while! (We did a Dickens event at our local library last month around Christmas, and one for Poe in October, and had a Jane Austen tea in July).

I have a few green tea/black blends, but I’ve never seen a green oolong/black blend either. Intriguing!

tea-sipper

Give them a try! They have the sampler box (and they are 15% off right now!)

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