I steeped this tea in approximately eight ounces of 212-degree water, using one tea bag, for about three and a half minutes.
These are really cute pyramid tea sachets! (I know pyramid sachets have gotten much more popular recently partly because everybody is recognizing how cute they are, but it still strikes me every time!) I don’t usually buy these, but you have to admit they’re super convenient. There’s no measuring, no latching and unlatching a tea-ball or pouring through a strainer after steeping, no wishing the mesh was smaller so the tea particles wouldn’t get out, no wondering why all of my tea steeping baskets are in the dirty dishes and how I’ll ever get the cooked-on milk out of the mesh of the one that I made chai with that one time.
The Harney website says that there are three types of cinnamon in this tea; I wonder which ones they are. Google says there are four main types of cinnamon in the world today that are used commercially: Ceylon, Cassia, Saigon, and Korintje, so I guess this tea has most of those. It certainly smells very strongly of cinnamon, and there are chunks of cinnamon bark visible with the tea leaves in each sachet before brewing. There’s plenty of quality tea leaves in the bag. Much more intact than in most teabags.
The tea liquid, once steeped, is amber-like but a bit darker. The smell is like those red-hot candies that my grandma used to keep in a candy dish at her house–I used to always wish she’d let me have one when I was little (I didn’t get one very often though, in my recollection at least, but in retrospect that might only be “not very often” in comparison to the number of times I asked, which if you know anything about little kids and how many times they can ask for something per minute, means you should probably take that with a grain of salt). The tea is kind of opaque, probably from the cinnamon granules–which tells me that there’s probably powdered cinnamon in the mix as well as the chunks that I saw.. It’s a teeny bit viscous, too.
First sip: sweet and spicy. The spice isn’t as up-front as expected-more “hovering,” which is nice because it means that the tea flavor even comes through a little. It’s a tad astringent, but not bitter at all.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Description
Our most popular flavored tea worldwide, Hot Cinnamon Spice is an assertive blend of black teas, three types of cinnamon, orange peel, and sweet cloves. There’s no sugar added. Try our great value, a bag of 50 tea sachets. Each tea sachet brews a 12 oz cup.
Ingredients:
Black tea, orange peel, three types of cinnamon, cloves.
Contains Natural & Artificial flavors.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Wedding Tea Blend from Harney & Sons
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Tea Description:
This elegant tea is a special tea for that special event. Mutan White tea with a touch of lemon-vanilla to taste, nicely offset with pink rose petals.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
A really nice blend from Harney & Sons. The delicate white tea is flavored with just a hint of lemon and vanilla and rose, creating a soft, sweet, and brightly flavored cup.
The white tea is a sweet and smooth tasting tea and these characteristics are enhanced by the addition of vanilla. The light touch of vanilla makes the tea taste just a little sweeter, a little smoother and a little softer. It adds a pleasant creaminess to the cup.
And I like the way the creaminess plays with the notes of lemon. The lemon is bright and tart, but not pucker-y tart. The sweetness of the vanilla curbs the lemon so that it doesn’t come off as sour. Instead, it tastes a little bit like someone may have dissolved a little bit of lemon curd into my tea! YUM!
To brew this, I used a lower temperature (as is usually the case when it comes to white teas. I almost always go with a temperature that is 170°F or lower, this time, I used the 170°F) and steeped the sachet for 3 1/2 minutes.
Something else that’s kind of neat about this blend is that because it is the “Wedding Blend,” it can also serve as a wedding favor! You can even special order it with the name of the bride and groom and the wedding date imprinted on the lid of the little “tagalong tins” (these tins really are adorable). How awesome is that? Can you think of a cooler wedding favor to give to your guests on your special day?
SoHo Black Tea Blend from Harney & Sons
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Tea Description:
We are introducing our SoHo Blend in honor of our new shop in Manhattan. Emeric Harney, the shop’s host, came up with this flavored black tea concoction. Our SoHo Tea is a beautifully delicious blend of black tea with chocolate, coconut and vanilla flavors, and amaranth petals.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
When I read the description of this SoHo Black Tea Blend from Harney & Sons, I really wanted to try it. Chocolate? Coconut? And Vanilla? That sounds too yummy to pass up. It sounds like … a candy bar in tea form! After checking through my reviews though, it would seem that I’ve reviewed this tea previously … so, consider this my second voyage with this tea.
The fragrance of the brewed tea is incredible. I can smell all the components: the rich chocolate notes, the creamy vanilla, and the sweet scent of coconut. I can even smell the earthy notes of the black tea in the background. I even smell very faint hints of flower, although these are somewhat obscured by the chocolate-y tones, which seems to be the most prominent aroma in this cup.
And this is a tasty tea. Unfortunately, it’s just not … quite as rich as I expected it to be. The body falls kind of flat and thin. Perhaps a more robust black tea base would help … something rich and malty like an Assam? Something with some heft that will not only support the chocolate, vanilla and coconut flavors, but also elevate them.
It’s not a bad tea. It has an agreeable flavor … I can taste the chocolate and the coconut and the vanilla notes. I can even taste the black tea. But, everything is just sort of … lacking in gusto. It’s a thin chocolate taste and you know me, I like a rich chocolate-y flavor. The coconut and the vanilla meld together to create a unified creamy note that’s a little bit coconut-y and a little bit vanilla-ish, but both of these flavors have the capability of producing a really rich, creamy flavor and I’m just not getting that from the sip.
Like I said, it’s a tasty, decently flavored tea, very much like my first experience, although I think maybe I liked it better the first time around than maybe the second. I guess it just goes to show that our palates change!
Pan Asia Green Tea Blend from Harney & Sons
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Tea Description:
A delightful blend of Chinese Bancha and big Chrysanthemum flowers that create a light, clean tasting delight.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? We haven’t yet celebrated our Thanksgiving because my husband works every Thursday, and it’s next to impossible for him to get the day off, especially if Thursday happens to fall on a holiday. So, we always postpone our Thanksgiving for a day when the whole family can come together, and this year, it happens to be this coming Tuesday.
But as I sit here, contemplating my Thanksgiving feast menu, I am sipping on this Pan Asia Green Tea Blend from Harney & Sons. It’s sweet and light, with a refreshing floral note. The background is slightly grassy. It’s a delightful tea to drink as I’m trying not to get stressed out over holiday plans. It’s keeping my nerves in check!
Overall, the flavor reminds me of springtime, and that’s certainly a welcome memory as it is quite cold outside right now. Brrrrr! I am finding this tea – served warm – to be very soothing and calming and helping me to forget that chill outside, and the stress that I’m feeling on my insides!
Of course, this tea would be splendid served iced too. The texture is soft and the flavor sweet, and the chrysanthemum adds just a hint of sharpness to the buttery smooth notes of the Chinese Bancha.
It’s not too floral and not too grassy. There’s a really enjoyable balance of tastes. A nice, relaxing cuppa.
Blue Ginger Black Tea Blend from Harney & Sons
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Tea Description:
For years, we have been honored to supply the tea to Ming Tsai’s famous restaurant: Blue Ginger. This blend is a heady combination of Fujian black tea and floral lychee fruit with a hint of ginger.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
The first thing that was noteworthy to me about this tea was the aroma. Typically with a lychee tea, I get that overwhelming scent of lychee from the dry leaf which … is nice, but sometimes it’s a bit TOO much and can often come off as somewhat chemical-ish, you know what I mean? But with this Blue Ginger Black Tea Blend from Harney & Sons, the lychee notes seem somewhat subdued, which is possibly due to the fact that there is also ginger in this blend.
The brewed tea is wonderfully aromatic with notes of lychee, ginger and a rich black tea base. And that’s exactly what the flavor delivers!
The black tea base is a hearty Fujian black tea which provides a good, solid background of flavor that is rich and full-flavored. Typically with a pure Fujian black tea, I will note hints of caramel and cocoa in the flavors, and I’m picking up on those here. It’s much more subtle than I’d experience from a pure tea, but, it’s still nice that I’m tasting them!
The lychee and ginger seem very compatible. Lychee can sometimes taste a bit “perfume-y” and the ginger seems to tone that down enough so that the lychee tastes sweet and fruity without tasting so much of the perfume-like qualities of the aromatic fruit.
On the other hand, ginger can sometimes come off as a bit too spicy and hot, but in the presence of the lychee, the ginger tastes warm and slightly peppery without experiencing the fire that ginger can sometimes deliver.
Like I said, these two ingredients work very well together! Overall, I really enjoyed this Blue Ginger Tea. According to the Harney & Sons website, this tea is one that is supplied to Chef Ming Tsai’s restaurant by the same name – Blue Ginger. A very cool and delightfully unique tea to feature in a restaurant. I guess I’ve been offered one too many generic tea bags in restaurants becaus I know that I’d be excited to find something like this tea in a restaurant!