My Christmas present to myself was an order of four teas from Harney & Sons Fine Teas. The box arrived today and I’m currently sipping a mug of the New England Breakfast, described by their website as “our New England Breakfast begins with a base of strong, bright-tasting black tea. Next, we infuse it with rich maple, creating a distinctly New England brew that’s creamy and warm on the palate but still full of spirit.”
And oh, golly but it is so good! The maple is there but doesn’t overwhelmed the tea. I’m looking forward to trying the other three:
Cranberry Autumn: “Sweet and tart, our Cranberry Autumn is a black tea artfully blended with cranberry and orange flavors.”
Jasmine: “Flavoring teas with jasmine flowers is an ancient Chinese tradition. The base of our Jasmine is a pouchong tea, which is slightly browner than green tea. We add fresh jasmine flowers to create a delicate and fragrant brew.”
Black Cask Bourbon: “With our new Black Cask Bourbon, we set out to combine the full body and intense aromas of black tea [Lapsang Souchong] with the rich flavors of finely aged bourbon. The result is simple and stunning: prominent bourbon notes of vanilla, caramel, and smoky oak cask layered atop a smoky black tea base.”
ETA: Mmmmmm… That tea was good to the last cooling drop.
Hooray. That sounds so fun. Congrats on a good selection.
I can enjoy lots of sorts of tea. But IMO Lapsang Souchong is the best of the best by a tremendous margin. For me at least, everything else falls in the “You don’t have Lapsang Souchong? Oh well, I guess I can settle for [whatever].”
I also rarely enjoy flavored tea (or coffee). The flavorants tend to be too fake, too strong, or too both.
I’d never considered combining Lapsang Souchong’s hefty flavor with bourbon. But If Harney says it’s good, who am I to argue? Tonight I’m having some as a weird bastard hot toddy.
Usually, I like my tea as just tea, with nothing added: No bergamot, no mint, no orange rind, no smoke, no lemon, definitely no milk, just tea. But I have to admit that a bit of maple flavor sounds intriguing.
Same here on no milk or sugar, and I always start my day with a plain black breakfast tea. Taylor’s of Harrogate offers a variety of good ones: Yorkshire Gold, English, Irish, and Scottish Breakfast blends.
As the day goes on, though, I like flavored teas - chai and other spices, mostly, some citrus+spice (but I DO NOT LIKE bergamot), and jasmine in green or white tea. I like to alternate between caffeinated (black, green) and rooibos or other herbal teas, and rooibos marries well with flavorings. White tea is so delicate it takes a careful touch to add any flavoring to it, like jasmine or orange blossom, and it’s true, a lot of flavored teas are too aggressive, but I’ve found the right balance in teas from Republic of Tea, and it looks like Harney will be as good.
ETA: Finished the New England Breakfast. Now off to make a cuppa of the Harney Jasmine.
If you are drinking spiced tea where there is already cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, citrus, etc., in it, I do not think a spot of milk will ruin the experience.
PS there are retailers that will ship you sachets of tea directly from China; not sure whether that may be cheaper than your local outlet.
Probably wouldn’t ruin it, but for me, it wouldn’t add to it, plus I don’t keep milk or cream on hand anyway. Now, coffee, yes, I always add half and half to it, but not tea.
A few years ago, when I ordered tea a lot, I got it online from Upton Tea Imports. I haven’t done it lately. I have no idea about the relative quality, prices, or types of tea when compared with Harney & Sons:
Thanks for the heads up about the Lapsang with bourbon, it definitely sounds intriguing. I used to buy something fairly regularly from Harney’s but I haven’t for a while and I don’t remember what it was.
I am an enthusiastic tea drinker, since I don’t like coffee, and I focus on caffeinated black teas, preferring China black teas to the Indian or Ceylonese. I am also not very discriminating, I enjoy flavorings, my favorite of which is chocolate. I currently have 7 teas in rotation, which I buy by the pound, three from Adagio Tea, one from The Tea Spot, and the other three from a local herbs and spices shop which also sells bulk tea, at roughly $10 a pound (I think they do mostly wholesale, but they do have this tiny retail shop hidden away in an area of light industrial buildings).
So thanks again, I have ordered 4 ounces of the Lapsang, maybe it will replace one of my current rotation teas. Or be a special occasion tea.
So, I’ve tried all four of the Harney teas now, and the New England Breakfast is definitely my favorite. The Jasmine was all right but I think the Republic of Tea does it better. The cranberry was indeed brightly flavorful and satisfying. The Black Cask Bourbon? I inhaled the aroma and thought oh, wow, Lapsang Souchong for sure! But when drinking it, the smoky flavor was muted enough by the other flavors not to be overwhelming. I’d call that a close second to the NE Breakfast.
So, how did the bourbon/Lapsang Souchong experiment turn out?
I am a big fan of Lapsang Souchong myself. I’ll have to try a splash of Bullitt in some to see if it works. I’m not a big fan of herbal teas and about the only flavor I like is the Bergamont in Earl Grey (hot).
The teas sound lovely, at least the first three, as I’m not a big fan of bourbon. I’d try it though. Just to make sure.
I recently tried white tea for the first time, as it was part of an Advent calendar. So good. Since I can’t do caffeine too late in the evening, I go for herbal teas in the evening, leaning towards peppermint, but I’ll try others.
Since I mentioned above another online source of tea, I should also mention that it’s possible to find a list of many such online sources with a little searching. I can’t claim to be an expert in tea, so I am hesitant to list them or their varieties. I also see lots of teas, which they have in loose-leaf, in tea bags, and/or in bottles in the supermarkets near me.
I’m an Early Grey drinker, and I also drink it black and very bitter (steeped an excessively long time!)
My preferred one is the organic Earl Grey from teastore[dot]ca. They have a lot of other fantastic teas but I always go back to that one. This shop is located in Byward Market in Ottawa and a joy to visit when we’re in town (though we also order online).
A colleague went to Sri Lanka (he’s from there) and knew I was a tea drinker so he bought me a box of cinnamon and a box of lemon teas. They are both really good. In fact, I think I’ll have a lemon one now…!
White tea has so little caffeine it’s no problem to drink in the evening.
One of the supermarket brands I like is Tazo, for certain flavors, like “Glazed Lemon Loaf”, “Vanilla Bean Macaroon” and “Vanilla Caramel Chai” – yes, all flavored, and enjoyable as a calorie-free dessert. They have a lot of other flavors, some of which I don’t see in the grocery store but are offered online.
That’s not true of all white tea. Some varieties have as much or more caffeine than some varieties of black tea. You have to check which kind of white tea you’ve got.
According to the Sonnentor company, all teas have similar levels of caffeine:
All three types of tea contain about as much caffeine as energy drinks - but the caffeine is released over a more extended period. The longer you steep the tea, the less caffeine directly enters the bloodstream. For example, tea that steeps for a long time is less stimulating than tea that only steeps for a short time.
The white tea that I tried was their White Tea Pai Mu Tan, also known as white peony tea. For my evening cup of tea, I’ll be sticking to herbal infusions, such as the Heavenly Christmas Delight.
Funny, but I found my Lapsang Souchong is from Harney; I’d forgotten where I’d gotten it.
Tried some this evening. Just a half teaspoon or so of bourbon in a mug of strongly brewed LS. IMO the flavors are complementary. But the bourbon tang wipes out a bunch of what’s good about LS. Overall it’s quite drinkable but I won’t be making that combo again.
