Ahmad Tea

Dark brown colour, very strong citrusy aroma (natural).
And really nice, refreshing, solid taste without even a hint of artificial flavourings. Decent cold brew.

In keeping with my general avoidance of straight black teas, I have several bags of this from an earlier sipsby box that I have ignored for a couple months. I can’t say I was excited to see it in the advent, but I made it up anyway – it’s time to try it.

It’s a decent smooth black tea, without too much acidity or bitterness overall, though I’d still prefer it with honey or iced. I wouldn’t mind having this on hand for an iced tea pitcher or for my partner (who is 90% of the reason I even keep straight black tea in the house), but it wouldn’t be my go-to.

sipsby bagged advent, day 9

So I’m new to green tea. I felt like this was really smooth and I really got the jasmine flavor!

This is my first time trying this tea. My first sips, hot and unsweetened, have a lightness, and a bit of astringency, not much apple, though it’s there in the background. Pleasant, but unremarkable.
Having added a teaspoon of sugar to the cup, the apple is now pronounced! The sweetness heightens the fruitiness, brings it to the forefront. I had bought this box of tea because apples are everywhere, it being harvest time in autumn. But for now, drinking this hot, it seems like more of a springtime, light refreshing tea.
I shall have to try it iced, to see what my response will be then. For now, it is a pleasant, enjoyable light tea, only mildly apple flavored—until it’s sweetened, and then one really tastes the apple. A nice choice for an afternoon pick-me-up. Just not a cup for something more bracing; look elsewhere for autumn!

Tonight I’m comparing this and two other Camomile-Honey-Vanilla combo teas. I’ve poured all three cups separately at the same time (quickly, consecutively). I’ve used one teabag per one 10 oz cup apiece, steeping for 5 minutes, the recommended time.
This one, the Ahmad was the lightest in color of the three cups, also the weakest tasting. I hate to say this, since I love various Ahmad teas, but this one is insipid. The perfume of it is lovely and light—but sadly, it doesn’t translate to the cup, at least not with only one teabag.
I can taste the camomile, and maybe a little vanilla, but I’m missing the honey. Quite frankly, I’m disappointed.
I’m also comparing the Twinings and Celestial Seasonings versions. But just looking and sniffing, then tasting, this seems to be the least satisfying of the three.
I shall use this one for mixing with other teas to blend in a mixed pot—it should work well for that, especially if I pair it with something I want toned down.

Made this tea hot and could not enjoy it until I iced it. It has a nice flavor once iced, but just tastes like hot water otherwise. Definitely only recommend cold.

Sipdown! (44 | 318)

From my October Sips by box. I’m actually pretty happy with the selection this month, at least theoretically. I do find it weird that they don’t seem to choose teas that fit the season, maybe that’s because they want you to buy their themed boxes…

Anyway, this is a pleasant enough tea. I do wish the apricot was a bit stronger though, since it’s not like the base tea is amazing quality. I do taste the apricot, it’s not subtle or anything, and it has a fairly authentic flavor. It blooms a bit in the aftertaste, leaving a nice tart finish. The black tea is smooth, a bit malty, a bit biscuity – a nice enough foundation for the flavoring.

Just a bit more apricot would make me like this a lot more, I think.

I don’t know what I think of this tea. On first sip, I thought I loved it. Very apple-y, nice and fruity. But then the bitter from the black tea came in in full force and it just does not mash well in my opinion, it tastes spoiled. A bit of milk mellowed it out and made it drinkable again, but it certainly was a ride of good vs bad…

I remembered these fruit teas as being amazing last time I had them, but I may have been spoiled with other teas since. The peach flavour is very artificial, like peach candies, and i’m not picking up on the passionfruit at all, this would not be an unpleasant flavour if it did not clash with the bitter tea as much. I felt the combination made it rather medicinal, like those flavoured disolvable painkillers kids get sometimes. Not very enthusiastic about that.

This reminds me of haribo strawberry sweets, but not in a very good way. It has a much stronger scent than it has flavour, and what it does have in flavour is artificial. I am not at all impressed, very average teabag.

From a sampler; long neglected in the office stash. I think I scorched the first round, which may have something to do with the age of the remaining couple of bags. However, a shorter steep time helped. Nice balance of both flavors and tasty on ice even without completely chilling it first.

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

Almost one year later, and still have a lot of this tea hanging around, because I bought 1 lb. My feeling on it has changed from the initial couple of brews – Maybe I was doing something wrong or had some dirt in my teapot? This is actually a decent and lighter Ceylon black tea, not unlike what you might expect from a supermarket Ceylon bagged tea. It does its job and is enjoyable. Budget-priced at $10.00/lb from Amazon.

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.