Traditional Black Tea from Rington’s Premium English Teas

traditionalTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Rington’s Premium English Teas

Tea Description:

Our Traditional Blend contains some of the best teas produced from around the world, selected predominantly from our long standing relationships with family businesses in East Africa and India. Our expert tea blenders taste and choose each individual tea that goes into the blend, ensuring you always receive that unique, refreshing and lasting flavour that makes Ringtons Traditional our most popular blend.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Of the different teas that I’ve tried thus far from Rington’s Premium English Teas, I think that this Traditional Black Tea blend might be my favorite.  Yes, it’s a bagged tea.  Yes, I prefer loose leaf over bagged varieties.  But occasionally, I’ll find a bagged tea that’s decent.  Sure, I’d still rather drink loose leaf, but when I do find a bagged tea that’s worthwhile, I’m going to say so.

And after having tried the one loose leaf offering from Rington’s the other day, I must admit that I’m finding this one – a bagged tea – more enjoyable than their loose leaf variety.

Why?

Because this tea is smoother.  It is richer and more rounded.  There’s less astringency.  Put simply, I’m finding this variety from Rington’s to be more satisfying than their loose leaf blend.  Now, if this Traditional blend were offered loose leaf, I’d be one very happy sipper!

The sip starts out sweet.  I taste delicate notes of honeyed caramel.  The tea has a robust character – it has a nice, satisfying round flavor.  A little earthy, a little flowery, and a little fruity.  It’s very smooth with no bitterness and very little astringency.  Very, very little astringency – as in virtually none.  I like that.

This tea tastes great hot and it also tastes really good as it cools.  I had finished about half the cup and then I needed to step away and came back to a cold cup of tea – and it still tasted really great.  It doesn’t need any additives to taste good – it just does.

It’s one of those types of tea that you want to keep on hand when you just want a no-fuss cup of tea.

Northumbrian Blend Loose Leaf Black Tea from Rington’s Premium English Teas

northumbrianblendTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Rington’s Premium English Teas

Tea Description:

Our oldest and most traditional tea for original strength and flavour.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

The cut on this Northumbrian Blend Loose Leaf Black Tea from Rington’s Premium English Teas is a very fine chop.  It’s a very finely cut CTC, so when you’re brewing it, you want to take that into consideration and measure out a little less tea.  The smaller the leaf, the more surface area that’s exposed to the water – so therefore it brews faster and stronger than a whole leaf tea would.

But that doesn’t mean that CTC teas aren’t good.  Sure, I’ll be the first to tell you that whole leaf teas are some of the best teas you can get, but a finely chopped CTC doesn’t mean that it’s not a good tea.  I’ve tried many CTC teas that I’ve quite enjoyed.  It just means that you need to be mindful of the size of the leaf when you’re preparing the tea.

So when I brewed this, I measured out a bamboo scoop of the leaf and then I shook the scoop a little to let some of the leaf fall off the scoop and back into the package.  I ended up measuring two ‘scant’ bamboo scoops of tea into the basket of my Breville One-Touch.  Each ‘scant’ scoop is about 3/4th of a scoop.  Maybe just a little more than 3/4th scoop.  Then I added 500ml of water into the jug of the tea maker and set the settings for 205°F and 2 minutes.  Again, because this is a smaller cut, I went with a slightly lower temperature and a little less time to avoid a bitter cup of tea.

Did it work?  Yes it did.  The tea is rich and what I want to call ‘stout.’   It’s a hefty, strong tasting tea.  It’s not quite as ’round’ as some other teas that I’d call hefty or strong.  It’s not quite as full-flavored and well-rounded, but it’s still a mighty bold cup of tea.

It’s got notes of earth and leather as well as some floral background notes.  Toward the end I pick up on citrus notes.  There is a fair amount of astringency to it but it’s not bitter.  I would like to say though that if I had oversteeped this tea – it would definitely be bitter so don’t let that happen!

This tea would take the additions of milk and honey well should you wish to add them.  I drank it straight up and found it enjoyable, although the second time that I drank it, I did so with a drop or two of cream and found it a much more enjoyable drink.  The touch of dairy (not a lot, a little less than a teaspoon) helped round out the tea and as a bonus, it softened the astringency a bit.

Pure Peppermint Herbal Tisane from Rington’s Premium English Teas

PurePeppermintRingtonsTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Herbal Tisane

Where to Buy:  Rington’s Premium English Teas

Tea Description:

An exciting and invigorating herbal infusion of pure peppermint leaves to revitalize and refresh. Peppermint has been shown to aid digestion.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

This Pure Peppermint Herbal Tisane from Rington’s Premium English Teas is really bright and fresh tasting!  I know that I’ve been down on bagged teas quite a bit lately but this particular bagged tea is quite enjoyable.  The flavor is really strong and has the cool, crisp flavor that I expect from a good quality peppermint tisane.

Very minty – as you might expect it to be.  It IS pure peppermint, after all!  It has a zesty, slightly peppery bite to it and my mouth feels minty fresh after I drink it.

I like to keep peppermint on hand because I find it to be a soothing tea to drink after I’ve had something spicy.  (I eat a lot of spicy stuff!)  It helps to settle the tummy and it’s ideal when my daughter has a stomach ache.

A really nice pure peppermint.

Organic Jungpana Premium Autumn Flush Darjeeling Black Tea from Golden Tips

jungpanaAutumnFlushTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black (Darjeeling)

Where to Buy:  Golden Tips

Tea Description:

A first-rate Autumnal from the paradisiacal tea plantations of Jungpana. Amber liquoring with a riveting aroma, this is sure to become your favorite morning cuppa. Fittingly robust and bodied, the tea brings in whiffs & undertones of muscatel complimented by distinctive maltiness unique to Darjeeling black teas through the pre-winter harvests. Taste buds capitulate to the bold slightly-earthy character of the tea as it flushes your mouth with its dominant character. A slight palatableness engulfs as you roll the liquor. Floral and dark chocolaty notes are sustained during the entire experience. An excellent tea and among our best-sellers every season.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I’ve tried quite a few Darjeeling teas from Golden Tips so far and I’ve been impressed with what I’ve tried.  This Organic Jungpana Premium Autumn Flush follows in fashion.  This is a wonderful Darjeeling!

I brewed this tea in my Breville tea maker, adding 2 bamboo scoops of tea to the basket and pouring 500ml of water to the pitcher.  Then I set the temperature for 195°F and the timer for 2 1/2 minutes.  It’s been my experience that Darjeeling teas do better with a slightly lower temperature.

And the result is a cupful of deliciousness!  This is a delightfully complex Darjeeling.  It’s crisp.  The body of this tea falls somewhere between light and medium.  There is some astringency to this, but not a lot.  Just a slightly dry sensation toward the tail.  No bitterness – just wonderful flavor that keeps me sipping.

The sip starts out with a sweet note that’s slightly grape-y.  This tea has a distinct wine-like flavor (muscatel!) and there are some notes of flower.  By mid-sip, the grape notes become more defined.  I taste subtle woodsy tones and hints of earth.  As the sip goes into the finish, there is a slightly dry, sweet note.  The aftertaste is sweet with just a hint of tartness that reminds me of currant.

A fantastic Darjeeling.  This is the kind of tea that I’d recommend to any tea drinker, especially to those who are new to Darjeeling.  This tea would be a great way to start one’s journey into the wonderful world of Darjeeling tea!

Earl Grey Tea from Rington’s Premium English Teas

earlgreyRingtonsTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Rington’s Premium English Teas

Tea Description:

Aromatic light black tea bags. From our ‘Extra Fresh’ family of teas. A premium quality fair traded aromatic blend of black tea, delicately flavoured with natural bergamot flavour.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Earl Grey Tea from Rington’s Premium English Teas:  another bagged Earl Grey.  I decided to go into this experience with an open mind and determined to find the good in this tea.  I feel like lately, most of my bagged tea reviews have been ‘bagging’ on the tea bag.  I want to try to keep an open mind because I have, in fact, tried decent bagged teas.  Sure, loose leaf is better.  Loose leaf is the way to go in about 98% of all situations, but there is the occasion when bagged teas are certainly more convenient even if they aren’t more flavorful.

So I steeped the bag in one of my favorite mugs, using 8 ounces of boiling water for 3 minutes.  Now that I’m sipping this, I wish I would have gone with 2 1/2 minutes because this is a tad more astringent than I would like it to be and I think that a slightly shorter steep time might help to reduce that.

My first impression:  the flavor is a bit off.  The bergamot tastes strange to me, it doesn’t have that crisp tangy flavor that I expect from bergamot.

Again, I want to find the good in this tea, so I’m not tossing it yet!  The black tea.  It’s alright.  It has a pleasant flavor.  It’s rich and has a light malty note to it.  It is astringent, like I’ve already mentioned.  It has a dry sensation toward the tail of the sip.

On the good side:  although the bergamot isn’t quite what I expected when I tasted this tea, it isn’t ‘bad’ – it’s just a bit sweeter than I expected from bergamot.  It tastes like maybe the bergamot has been ‘enhanced’ by another orange flavor to soften the edge of the bergamot.  The black tea has a pleasant flavor.  And this tea does taste better as it cools – this would make a really nice iced tea.

I suspect that this might be alright to someone who hasn’t tasted better Earl Grey teas.  That is to say, if all they’ve been drinking is other brands of bagged Earl Grey teas, they might find this one to be just as acceptable as some other bagged Earl Grey teas, perhaps even better than others.  It’s certainly not the worst Earl Grey I’ve ever tried, but it’s not the best either.  But if you’ve tried a really good, loose leaf Earl Grey tea, you’ll more than likely find this one lacking, I’m sorry to say.