Richard

2022 sipdown no. 58

Another lovely tea from Martin!

I found the blackcurrant to take a slight backseat to the mint, but actually neither was too strong. The balance of flavours was quite well done and the base was complementary. I could see myself enjoying this one again. A lovely surprise from a bagged tea!

Leathery-herbaceous “tea” taste like the first cup this morning of Royal Peach and Thyme. Good spicy-floral rose aroma with that leather. Tannic and drying — I think this could stand up to a splash of milk when compared to the Peach and Thyme, which is much more herbaceous. Royal Rose is going very well with my breakfast of sprouted wheat toast topped with a spicy feta-labneh spread, fried egg and za’atar. (I’m so proud of myself for making breakfast all week!)

Peachy and very herbaceous aroma , though I’d never guess thyme. Flat “tea” and leathery-herbaceous taste. Very drying-tannic but not bitter. Lingering peach aftertaste that’s nice aling with a hint of mint but my mouth feels like I drank stewed dead leaf water with all those tannins. I considered adding some milk from the work fridge but I don’t think the body is robust enough to handle it. Probably much better as an iced tea!

Second grape tea of the day, this one brewed with water dispenser hot water. I had to go into work today :(

This is very similar to 1001 and 1 Royal Nights and again reminds me of a Dammann Frères tea. It’s just as bright and sparkling candylike with a soft rose addition, but with none of the strawberry or cheap green tea notes. More robust and with slightly more tannin texture since it’s an all black tea. Second steep with less water was fine but really the bag’s only good for one because fannings.

Between the two teas this morning, my craving for something grape flavored has been satisfied. But I still want some red wine :)

Fall weather is sneaking in for the weekend, and we’re even forecasted to get some rain tonight and tomorrow. The cooler weather always makes me crave grapes and red wine so I thought 1001 and 1 Royal Nights would be a good pick this morning.

Black and green tea mix, so I brewed at 195F. This tea reminds me of Dammann Frères flavored teas with the mouthfeel and intensity of aroma, not too overplayed. It has a sweet and sparkling candylike aroma, a mix of strawberry and grape (more muscatel or red grapes than generic ‘purple’ flavor) that blends together very well and also complements the base tea, which is nothing to speak about but it does give some depth with its glassy-juicy and lightly tannic texture. The tea fannings do have that commodity green tea vibe, it’s like a combination of dried out almond pastry and maybe something along the line of white clay. Unlike Martin, the rose doesn’t stand out to me at all and serves as a soft complement to the fruity flavors.

I really enjoyed having a cup of this. I think it was well done. Thank you, Martin :)

Another CGFoods tea from my order. And I have bought a box of it (this bag is from the variety box) as well. Well, I will bring it to the office (the box) tomorrow.

Warning in advance… It is very citrusy and lemony, though not sour.

The base for all Royal teas from Richards seems same. Pretty basic Ceylon, quite light one, and almost hidden beneath the flavour. This time is is lemon and mostly lemon zest, which makes nice lemony taste and I can think about drinking this iced (or on ice at least); and it will be like a cheap and common store iced tea. Without sugar.

So, that even I said what I wrote, drinking it plain and hot is fine. However it is a bit flat and I can imagine that more robust tea would benefit this tea more.

Interesting flavour profiles were always my jam and this is no exception.
And I have to say, that I would love to see this tea as loose leaf variant with real peaches instead their flavouring. But…

The base is quite nice Ceylon base. Maybe with more malty variety it would be better. It is very bright, almost non-present. That is quite a shame. Peach flavouring is nice… round, sweet and red peach flavour. However, during the sip it tastes a little bit too flat. Thyme and mint… both herbals well present in the flavours, thyme adding a little depth as a tea would, and also a little bit of aggressiveness — I mean rough flavor profile. And mint? Well, it adds some cooling effect in the end of the sip. Sadly, it is not much present in flavour — or I haven’t noticed it.

Overall, I am happy with this tea. But there are a little steps needed to make it amazing.

I am a bit in two minds with this tea. It is very fine tea, nice blend of base tea — very smooth and lightly citrusy. However, the herbals are kind of spicy, piquant and a bit rough.

I remember having one distinctive black tea with thyme, but sadly I don’t really recall the brand. It seems it is so uncommon and seems mostly Russian companies are carrying such a blend. Not even Etsy helped and that is rare (however I bought some insect postcards there).

Back to this tea. As I said, it is very nice tea, however… honestly I would like herbals, mostly the thyme, somehow stronger. It just does not last for long in the mouth. Its flavour disappears so quickly. But it is a nice experiece.

I don’t like blends of green and black tea. Mostly because I don’t really know which temperature I should use.

However, decided to try a new flavour today, so from 4 tea bags I have only two now as I had it in the morning and now in the afternoon as well.

In the morning I have used lightly cooled water from hob kettle, in the afternoon I used just boiled water. It doesn’t made any difference in flavour nor in scents.

First of all, the floral notes hits your nose — mostly rose, which makes sense as rose petals are in. It is really strongly scented, but sadly, not much of it is present in taste. In taste strawberry dominates, but no grape for me there. The strawberry flavour is fine, good tasting, however somehow thin. It just doesn’t last long and I haven’t noticed rose in flavour as well. Together it is a little bit of cacaphonia of all together and it hids the base completely. It is also more into green tea, than bold black tea and that I find as a flaw too. It’s quite a shame.

Well, at least its tea bag wrapper is pretty simple and nice and it’s new addition to my collection. But for flavour, I won’t re-order, nor buying a whole box with 25 tea bags.

More to come from CGFoods. There are a few unopened boxes, so keep an eye on my tasting notes :)

I am trying to make up a note in my head for this tea for a few days, but I always fell flat. Today is no exception, however I will try. My friend told me it doesn’t have to be long, but it just has to be honest. She’s right!

A little digression coming up: My father turns 65 today and we had a “little” party yesterday. I also had a lecture, so I missed most of the party… but still it is 15 people in our house. I have to say I had some nasty panic attacks all weekend and I can’t wait to have it all over.

The tea is my new daily drinker. The base tea is light, but present well in taste. Moreover it gives so needed caffeine boost. The flavour of blackcurrant is real and there is no chalky taste that I have noticed in last blackcurrant tea I had. It is quite juicy, flavourful and genuine as I wrote already. As of mint, it is not much present in a sip. However then a menthol freshness covers the throat and it is nice and refreshing.

A morning cuppa I will write about.
It has got a robust and very bold taste, however not bitter nor astringent taste. I haven’t got much Kenian teas on their own, but this one is quite strong in malts and bread flavours.

A great started for the day.

Received for free from CGFoods company as thank you for order

PS: Interested in Georgian (country) tea? Please check this out: https://steepster.com/discuss/44007-georgian-tea

I had this tea today with breakfast and…
“Everybody needs at least one extremely cheap, bog standard (yep, there’s that wonderful descriptor again!) bagged black tea.” as gmathis said just yesterday.

It is that. Nice, simple, coppery, slighlty malty tea as expected. Unlike 3 years ago no toffee and chocolate notes found this time.

Good daily drinker. But nothing I would buy again. Fine if offered.

I had a tea bag version this morning. I did not expect much; I am rather sceptical to tea bag black teas. But I like Ceylon teas.

Anyway, in the mug it comes and let see. They suggest 4 minutes, I did about minute and half. The colour is quite dark, opaque with oil film. By tea bag taken out it looks it was milled very fine.

In aroma it was some kind of cheap black tea, nothing really distinctive, maybe bit malty. When it comes to taste it was much better than I ever expected! It was brewed just right, so no astringency, bitterness or another unpleasant things. It was mellow, chocolate with toffee flavours. But not overwhelming those tastes, there was always black tea based which made it really nice. I am really surprised with this one, not the best black tea I had, but certainly worth a note.

Lots of dust remained in the foil bag, so I hope it is all gone. Well, bold tea after roasted pork sounds good. Dry tea bag smells like common black tea without any extra notes.

Scents were quite nice, bit citrusy, bit malty. Maybe jam notes, but not really much of them.

Palate is quite boring though, nothing really dominant – quite bitter and malty. It is not awfully bitter – which I enjoy, but it´s not a tea I would like to buy whole box.

Colour was clear and dark brown – it is not bad.

Suggested temperature was 100 °C for green tea? That does not sound right. So I have used about 90 °C I guess. The bag itself when dry is opaque, so I could not see the leaves. But when put in water, it became transparent. Leaves are quite nicely green, not so much brown flecks. They are about 3 milimeter long :D – but for tea bag I think they are quite big. Not just real tea dust as it is common in some other brands. As I have found out tea is from Sri Lanka, imported and packed in Russia and then I bought it here in the Czech Republic.

Anyway, to the tea; I steeped it for suggested 3 minutes nad colour is light yellow-green and apparently very clear. Aroma is of hay, grass and that is all. Taste is pretty basic, green tea. But quite fresh, without any weird tastes. Overall bit above average.

I wonder if loose leaf version uses same quality of tea.

So, another tea from CGFoods.

It seems they have tweaked the blend a bit, as well the tea bag itself. Now it shows preparation instructions and taste is different (or my tastebuds).

It is much more mellow, however very citrusy indeed. The Ceylon base is fine — nothing too much distinctive, but light and citrusy.
Flavour is very lemon-forward. The lemon zest is yeling on you from aroma as well as from taste. It’s like fresh lemon peel was added to Ceylon tea base.
Maybe I had an old tea 3 years ago!

It wasn’t bitter at all and not biting too. Something has changed.
Straightforward lemon tea. Would be good iced I think — classic taste. I am curious about difference between Lord Grey and Royal Lemon. Because I haven’t noticed any bergamot here.

40 → 50

This was disappointing.

Actually there is nothing, but temperature suggestion on foil tea bag. So I had to google, their website did not say anything too. Than I found an importer website – where was 2-6 minutes. Quite variety for black tea bag.

Anyway, in the mug it comes. As dry it smelled like fresh lemons with hints of bergamot. Pretty straightforward. While others prepared their morning coffee, I used same water (stovetop tea kettle). I think it has about 90 °C.

After three minutes steep, tea was dark, opaque and with oil spots. I thought that it is quite enough, so I took the bag out. Aroma was quite strong of crushed tea with little lemon notes. Taste – it was so bitter it was really hard to drink, with biting lemon notes. The lemon probably smooths a bit that bitterness. But overall it was unpleasant.

I am not looking forward to next three tea bags I have from this company.