Richmond Park Blend TB86

This tea was a real surprise for me. I am a hardcore coffee snob—own a coffee press (including a travel one to bring with me on the way into the office), whole beans only thank you , etc. Tea to me is nice, but most of the standard blends were never as satisfying as the flavor seems to fade into something unpleasant after the first few sips.

To cut down on my daily intake of half and half I have started to explore better quality loose tea and gave the British Blend a whirl, After all, wouldn’t you expect the brits to have a good handle on blending a good tea.
This blend if my first experience of a tea that is as satisfying to sip as a cup of good coffee. Its strong, bold has body but not bitter AT ALL. Even as the softer more complex notes of the tea fade as the cup cools a bit this tea is still pleasant to sip. It stands up well to sugar and milk and tastes just as well straight up.
I finally understand why brits drink tea more often than coffee.

I first tasted this tea as part of a sampler set (British Blend Sample SB11) that I purchased last year. This tea alone was good enough to convince me that I ought to try some other teas from Upton. I have a hard time explaining why I like this blend so much. I remember saying something uninspired along the lines of, “It tastes like tea!” So many mild afternoon blends are so bland that they end up tasting like slightly stagnant tap water. The Richmond Park Blend tastes like tea. It still tastes like tea if milk, honey, or sugar are added, but I usually drink it with a splash of soymilk and no sweetener.

rather good, so far tried as afternoon tea with milk + sugar

Teeny Tiny TTB Round 2

This is the only other unflavored black tea in the box! How shameful. :P This is a blend of Keemun, Ceylon, and Darjeeling teas. Sounds interesting! The leaves are somewhat thin and twisty, and a dark grey-brown in color. I can see a few greenish Darjeeling leaves but not many, so I decided a 200 degree steep would probably be okay. Dry scent is hay and bread with a light creaminess.

The aroma is nicely bready with some sweetness. Hmm, this one is a little bit too one-note for me. It tastes somewhat generic, similar to the last tea I tried. There’s malt and little tad bit of bread at the end of the sip, but that’s about all… And it’s a little bit astringent, which is not my favorite.

Backlog from the past few days! Hmm, I had mixed feelings on this blend. Initially, I was tasting a lot of citrus notes, which I enjoy in a black tea. So it seemed like the Ceylon part of the blend was dominant, at least at first. Once I started eating the scone I bought to go with it, however, the taste profile changed pretty dramatically. I think the Keemun took over, because there was this dark leathery flavor that overwhelmed the other two teas. I mean, I like Keemun when I’m in the mood for it! But since I was enjoying the citrus notes from before, I was kind of disappointed.

All things considered, I like this tea well enough on its own. But if I plan to pair it with a sweet food, I’d probably have to add milk and sugar to make it work for me.

I got this as a free sample when my order from Upton Teas came in. I actually decided to make a latte with this instead of trying it plain, like I usually do when trying a tea for the first time.

It was really smooth with no astringency and stood up very well to all the milk (I made the latte a little milkier than I originally wanted). A very good breakfast type tea. I’m looking forward to trying it plain.

This is a very nice blend of teas, perfect balance of the keemun. The fresh almost green taste of the darjeeling and the classic honeyness of the ceylon tea. This is a most try for all those that enjoy black tea!

The dry leaves are sweet-smelling, with a hint of chocolate. But I could not get that flavour from the steep.