Harney & Sons, Vanilla Comoro

Harney & Sons Description:

Decaf Vanilla Tea! Now you can enjoy our popular dessert tea to your heart's content, and still get a good night's sleep.

My review:
This review is for the loose leaf version of this tea. The picture is a good representation of the leaf's appearance. The brew is a different matter. I'll get to that.

I brewed this twice. The first time with 2g of leaf (about a tea spoon). I used boiling water and a 3 minute steep. The brew looked like the picture.

My review notes at the time said: Maybe the lightest touch of vanilla I have had in a vanilla tea. I liked that – most are overdone. The decaf base is very light bodied. For an evening tea that makes sense. I like it.

For my second time brewing this tea, at the recommendation of a fellow tea drinker, I used 4g or abt 2tsp of leaf. I again used boiling water and a 3 minute steep.

Now the brew looks more like coffee. One might expect a bitter nasty cup. One would be wrong. This is delicious. The vanilla is the main flavor but still more delicate than in most similar teas. There are caramel notes. It feels thick and creamy as I sip. The tea base is so smooth and lightly malty.

This is a very nice tea that happens to be decaffeinated.

Harney and Sons, Irish Breakfast

Harney Description:

100% Assam, like most traditional Irish blends, this is a good way to start your morning. Like cereal, it takes milk and sugar well. In contrast to other vendors, ours is a little more refined.

Price: $6.25/4oz

My Review:

I journey further into the land of Irish Breakfast teas today with this offering from Harney & Sons. The first thing I noticed was how fine cut the leaf is in this tea. I know CTC is not in itself an indicator of low quality. Still, I just wonder why India and Ceylon black teas are not usually complete unbroken leaf. Most of the Chinese black teas I sip are unbroken leaf and they are amazing for it. I really need to do some research on this topic.

Anyway, back to this tea. It is mainly dark leaf with some gold specks in the mix. I used 2/3 scoop or about 2.5g in my press with 12oz of boiling water. The steep time was three minutes. They say 4-5. I am not that brave. This is very aromatic and fruity. It is also one of the most beautiful brews I have seen in a while. Seriously, this is a deep burgundy in color. It turns darker in the mug.

Sipping this I notice something strange. My brain processes the end of the sip first. I know that doesn’t make sense, but its true. This has bite! It will make you flinch. Then I notice it is extremely dry like a red wine. Can you say milk and sugar? Wow, this is what I picture when I imagine what Irish Breakfast tea should taste like. You could remove paint with this stuff. This is one stout cup of morning tea. After surviving the initial punch in the face, I notice the fruitiness of the early sip. I don’t really detect malt in the taste although I can catch it in the aroma.

The end of the cup got cold because I got busy and forgot it. At room temperature this was extremely good.  It would probably make a great iced tea.

I tried a second mug. The taste was far weaker. I would compare it to the taste of North Carolina grown tea. Not bad but not the monster Irish Breakfast of the first cup.

This is a solid Assam at a very reasonable price. 

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Harney and Sons, Earl Grey Supreme

I received this sample sachet in the mail from a friend. The label says four black teas, SILVERTIPS and bergamot. The bergamot aroma when I open the envelope is nice. The tea in the sachet is very finely cut – almost powdery. That surprised me a bit. It may not be normal, as who knows what sat on top of it in the post office. I steeped this for 3 minutes in just boiling water.

I had read reviews of this tea before hand and kind of knew, how this tea gets interpreted depends on what level of bergamot one finds pleasing. On the one end of the bergamot scale I put the Tazo Earl Grey I bought locally, which I couldn’t detect any bergamot in it at all. (Turns out either this was very old or had been exposed to heat and sunlight) On the other end I place Empire Tea Services Earl Green, which is highly flavored and very floral. In fact I had to cut it with another tea the first couple weeks I had it, just too tone it down. Halfway between these two extremes I put Twinings EG. It is bright and citrusy. Ahmad EG has just slightly less bergamot but a nicer base flavor profile to my palate. On the same scale, Ahmad No 1. is halfway between Tazo and Ahmad EG. Harney and Sons EG Supreme I place just below No 1. on my bergamot scale. Confused yet?

Let me simplify - You can taste the bergamot, especially as the cup cools, but you have to be paying attention. If you are looking for that citrus blast, then this tea will be quite disappointing. For that reason I wish H&S’s would have left Earl Grey out of the name and just called it Supreme. As a lightly flavored black tea this is really good. It is rich and malty. The bergamot actually supports the base instead of the other way around, and it does an excellent job of it. I do find this slightly astringent, like an Assam, as it leaves me with a bit of a dry mouth feel.

Earl Grey? Not on my bergameter scale. Wonderful lightly flavored black tea? Absolutely.

Harney & Sons, SoHo Blend: Chocolate & Coconut

The leaf is very dark and smaller than the picture suggests. I don't know what the pretty purple flower petals are but they are only for decoration, and do not affect the flavor. The dry leaf aroma of this is milk chocolate. I steeped it for 4 minutes w/boiling water. The brew is muddy looking in the pot. In the cup, it looks like, well, tea – with a bright and clean appearance.

There is no escaping the chocolate scent before, during, or after sipping. The tea is present in the taste but is in the background a bit. The coconut comes into play in the aftertaste. I don’t think I used enough leaf (1 tsp) on this, my first attempt. I still managed two cups and I think it might go a third. Next time I will up the leaf. This is a nice dessert cup with a pleasant lingering aftertaste that leaves you craving more.

Update - Just got home for the evening. The leaf was still in my press so I thought I would see if this one would go a third steep. It is a bit thin but the coconut is really shining through on this steep. I think this is my favorite cup of this yet. Glad I pushed this further.

Harney and Sons Ziyun Pu-erh Maocha

According to Harney & Sons this is a 2008 raw Pu-erh, it comes to us loose and has slender, wiry leaves. Hints of nectar and peach coat the cup, while a mineral quality lingers in the background.

According to me, this is a raw green puerh. The loose leaf is long and slightly twisted. A bit hard to measure with a spoon. I finally just judged how it looked in the bottom of the press. I did not do a wash. Steeped 1 minute with 180F water. The wet leaf smells of celery and hay. Fresh and green. Appears darker and thicker in the cup than other green puerhs I have tried.

This has a bolder flavor than I was expecting. Fresh, green , mushroom, and light earthiness. There is no bitterness and nothing foul tasting (for puerh, lol). It took a moment to adjust to the bolder flavor but once I did I must say I like this. It has the sticky lip feel of other greens I’ve liked. I was told this is a bit minty. I am not really getting that taste the way I prepared it, (cool water short steeps) but it does make the side of the tongue tingle and leaves a cooling effect to my breath. I steeped three 12oz mugs this afternoon. It was still going strong when I stopped. In the future I will attempt a two day marathon with this one to see how many times it can be steeped.  Click on the link to go to Harney and Sons website.

Harney and Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice

I started off my day by going to Steak & Shake and ordering the portabello mushroom sausage skillet, bagel (cream cheese of course) and Darjeeling tea. Very good start but left me with onion breath – go figure. Then off to the pet store before swinging by Barnes & Noble. Ordered a cup of this in the cafe. They gave me a paper cup filled with hot water and a tea sachet.

I have read many good reviews of this tea. I was so excited to find out that it really did smell like Red Hots and Big Red gum. HOWEVER, the tea was so hot I burned my tongue and I was still dealing with onion breath. Sat in the window stirring for like forever trying to cool this down. Cinnamon, orange, & clove – some of my favorite add-ons for tea all in one cup. I really enjoyed this. Can’t say I could pick out the taste of the black tea – which looked like CTC in the sachet, not loose leaf – and I probably wouldn’t want this every day but definitely a fun treat. I took the sachet with me and used it to steep a second cup at home. Still pretty good, and this time I didn’t burn my tongue. Click on the link to go to Harney and Sons website.