Ahmad Tea

This is an OK tea. Not much taste really, you have to add sugar to taste the cinnamon in it at all.

Well, it’s tea. Very underwhelming. I’ve purchased budget-priced Ceylons in the past that I was satisfied with, so I figured why not give this one a try? I suppose if you like adding milk or sugar this tea is probably doable, but I like drinking my tea straight. Has some obvious Ceylon characteristics (hints of lemon, maltiness, leatheriness, etc), but the good stuff takes a back seat to the muddy harshness. I don’t know how they describe this as having a “golden color” and “light flavor,” because this tea brews pretty dark and has a harsh charcoaly taste that predominates.

Delicious, but not my favorite. Could use more bergamot flavor. Better with sugar.

Day 3 of my Etsy Tea Advent calendar. This is one from Ahmad Tea. I have had a few things from them I’ve enjoyed. It looks like this advent calendar will feature various bagged teas from a number of different tea companies whose products may be easy to find in the grocery store. In a way that is nice. In past years I’ve done advent calendars from David’s, Damann Freres, Bird & Blend, The English Tea Shoppe and Tea Forte. They all had hits and misses, and was a great way for me to decide which teas to re-order from that company. This one, being (apparently) made up from fairly easily obtainable bagged teas, is a little different. I think I like it, although I haven’t LOVED any of the teas yet.

I am not a fan of hibiscus, so I kinda thought about not brewing this one. But I gotta try it, right? It brews up a gorgeous shade of dark pink, like hibby does. It looks so pretty in my white bone china cup. The flavor is hibiscus heavy, but not unbearably so. All I am able to taste is four things: sweet, sour, bitter and salty. This is a bit (quite a bit, to me) sour. Some people love sour things. Jolly Ranchers, anyone? But I have never liked sour, even before I lost my sense of smell. I added a small dollop of honey and that helpd. I was able to drink the cup.

It’s really not fair of me to rate tea since I completely miss most of the complexities that make tea such a great beverage. I guess I’m like an armchair art critique. I know what I like. I would like to have my sense of smell back, but it will be at least a year before I can have that steroid that restores my smell for a few weeks. Chemo completely destroyed my immune system and with the Covid pandemic my doctor refused to give the steroid to me when i saw her in October. But maybe next October? And hey, I beat stage 3c colorectal cancer. It would be a shame to die of Covid just because i wanted to be able to smell for two weeks.

So I am giving this tea a cautious recommendation. I think if you like hibiscus you will like this one.

What they don’t tell you on the box is that the 8% natural flavoring isn’t flavor at all, it is clearly the code word for an analog of MSG. Great unless you have a food sensitivity to it. It made my tongue burn like fire for a couple of hours. The tea tasted like what I imagine licking a metal can would. YUCK! Thanks for cheaping out on ingredients and wasting my money. I won’t buy ANY of their teas ever again!

I’ve yet to try an English Breakfast blend that I did not like, and this was no exception. Very hearty, smooth, silky…altogether a very enjoyable cuppa black tea.

I don’t know precisely what I’m tasting, but this particular tea reminds me of going to the grocery store while sick and grabbing some kind of medicinal something that promises to make you feel better, and it kind of does but also it’s a little gross and then the box is relegated to the back of the cupboard until you get sick again or toss it?

Again big bags tea bag. It is from their “A gift from London” series.

This tea held its qualites great. It was like brand new, full-bodied tea. I am pretty much impressed. And it wasn’t bad at all, flavourful and bold, quite tannic, quite malty. Decent English Breakfast bag, athough drank in the afternoon.

Nice caffeine boost as well, and very welcomed today.

Samurai TTB #2

Didn’t love this one nearly as much as the Apple Refresh. The lemon lime flavor is very light and somewhat sour. Adding honey made it a more pleasant experience, but I don’t think it’s something I’d drink again.

Samurai TTB #1

It feels like Christmas came early with this huge box of teas to try! I didn’t have time to go through the TTB properly yesterday, so I just grabbed a handful of teabags to take to the office with me. This was the first one I tried. The name is very appropriate; this is a refreshing, lightly flavored black tea that tastes like a whole Granny Smith apple. No caramel or cinnamon, just lots of appley goodness on a nice smooth base.

Another cuppa with tea from Izzy. Thank you.

And this tea is for our hibi lover Mastress Alita. Well, seeing hibiscus already in name is, well — not something I look into.

The bag was smeling quite of artificial fruits. But as well quite good. It wasn’t really off. After 5 minutes of steeping (recommended) I get deep red drink.

The aroma is quite nice and berry-like. The taste is though quite watery, tart and completely weird fruityness. You just can’t pick a simple berry from it. Maybe blueberry is most prominent. And hibi tartness isn’t great for my mood right now as well. But it’s in the name, so I expected it.

In conclusion, according to the name, it’s exactly that. It’s fruity, unfortunately it’s in mixed bag, so it’s some generic fruity. And tart… hibiscus is taking its part as well. Not bad actually, but not my cup of tea.

I bought this as part of the herbal assortment. The herbal flavor shines through making me feel very virtuous.

Three entries of same tea. I decided to use this one.

Huge bags section after loooong time. A tea bag. A tea that old, that Ahmad doesn’t offer it anymore in the Czech Republic.

The bag was in foil wrapping, so I have hoped it will be still quite fresh. It wasn’t much overpowering when I have opened that outer wrapping, but it’s black tea blend! I took a sniff on the bag and noticed citruses. Not sure if bergamot, it was rather lemony for me, but again it’s old!

I went for two and something minutes steep and mug was filled with dark brown (read: mahagony) liquid.

Aroma of Chinese teas mostly — think Keemun chocolate note, with hints of citrusy. Probably bergamot as they say.

Taste is very mellow (I bit blame the age, to be honest), again Keemun taking most part, smooth, and hints of citruses. Again the bergamot I suppose. Backbone of malty notes.

Whoa, I haven’t expected such a great flavour for that old tea. Just be careful with steeping time I guess.

Bought as part of the Ahmad herbal assortment. Delicious blend, heavy on the chamomile with just a suggestion of something else. Perfect before bed. Love it. Can’t wait to try the other flavors.

This one surely took its time in my cupboard…
Very faint aroma, malty, the flowery and blossom notes are almost nonexistent.
Solid malty and earthy base black tea with slight astringency plus marigold and orange blossom flavouring in the background.
Not bad. Surely not as overdone as the majority of Xmas teas.

This is a smooth cup of black tea for morning. There are no harsh notes but it also does not have a lot of flavor. I would say it is moderate for most Assams I have had, and moderate for most black teas.

Has a broth-y mouthfeel to it. This one is heavy on the fennel and ginger, with the peppermint giving it a little bit of a green, cooling edge in the aftertaste. I do wish I were getting more of the dandelion and rosemary.

Did not have high hopes for this one. Another boring plain Ceylon? Thanks, Sips By…
But this is actually really nice! It’s flavorful and hearty, but doesn’t have the icky astringency that Ceylon teas usually have. And I’m getting a note of… ginger? Whatever it is, I’m liking it a lot.

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #5

When Shae asked me if there were any teas in her cupboard that I wanted to try, I must have really been craving apple teas because I ended up asking for A LOT of apple blends; apple cinnamon and apple ginger in particular…

I’m glad she added this one in though – it’s a tea bag and without having the chance to sample in this type of format, it’s a tea that I would have likely passed up/ignored. However, I thought the flavour was really nice this afternoon and of the five teas I’ve tried from the box so far it was actually my favourite!

Simple in execution – this is basically a medium to full bodied and slightly astringent black tea coupled with a consistent sweet green apple flavour and a hint of something floral to the undertone. It’s rare to get a green apple tea without any tartness/sourness, but that’s what this tastes like to me and I really appreciated it!