Brooke Bond Choicest
Its been quite some time since my last posting and indeed – my last review. In that time I’ve switched jobs, Christmas has been and gone and its a brand new year.
I’ve decided to hit the ground running though and start the year off with a tea review of Brooke Bond Choicest Blend. I found this quite difficult to get hold of after a friend recommended it some weeks back but during a trip to London I managed to pick some up in an old tea shop with some out of date merchandise!
Brooke Bond Choicest Blend is a well balanced blend of the traditional English breakfast tea. It has a full bodied flavour without being too bitter and with a little milk is the perfect start to a busy day.
The company that bought the Choicest Blend brand of tea from Brooke Bond had a major accident in 2005 making this tea very hard to get hold of. If you do manage to get hold of it though then you’re holding onto something quite valuable!
review
black tea, brooke bond, review, tea
This tea book
is pretty, but not that exciting. Despite its attractive photos the volume falls short – not so much because there is anything innately “wrong” with it, but rather because it pales in comparison to its competitors in the tea book niche.
It’s not a comprehensive almanac of tea trivia and it’s not a tea table book with breathtaking photos. Because of its title, “Having Tea: Recipes and Table Settings,” you might expect a book that flaunts its tablescapes – real innovative table displays or traditional settings done right with exquisite pottery, linens, utensils and themes. But instead, you are left feeling rather ho-hum, disappointed that there is very little inspiration for new décor ideas for the up-and-coming tea society season.
It’s almost like “Having Tea” went to press before it was finished. Did the deadline arrive and the publisher say, “That’s good enough”? With just a little more research, Ms. Foley could have seen what her fellow tea book authors were up to and tried to address the deficits. The recipes were run-of-the-mill for the most part. In this day of global accessibility and a plethora of communication devices, surely Ms. Foley could have tapped her resources and gotten some recipes to pique the interest of her tea savvy readers. It was not a bad book, just uninspiring.
3 Stars
books, review
books, review
“The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea” by master tea blender Michael Harney is suitable for the hard-core tea merchant, as a reference book for a culinary professor, or for the tea connoisseur whose hobby borders on a fetish.
The book does not bother itself with pretty pictures of lovely Victorian tea sets, but instead focuses on the analytical facets of tea: the best environment for growing Camellia sinensis, the ideal time and temperature for brewing a particular type of tea, what the dry leaves or tea buds look like, how the liquor appears when it is made properly, and what to expect from the tea’s aroma. For example, Mr. Harney describes one of China’s most famous black teas, Keemum Mao Fengke, as having hints of “light notes of chocolate or cocoa with the suggestion of ripe apricots.”
Such a book would be helpful if you ever participate in a tea tasting or food pairing or are trying to train your palate to detect the nuances of different teas. The volume dispenses trivia as well that would be of interest to tea buffs and Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy game show addicts. On the back cover, Mr. Harney writes:
“You can’t judge a tea by its name: Consider Orange Pekoe. “Orange’ stands for the Dutch Royal House of Orange and once indicated tea of a quality suitable for its monarchs. ‘Pekoe’ is a mispronunciation of the Chinese words ‘bai hao’ – bai meaning white and hao meaning tippy or downy. ‘Pekoe’ may have once meant tippy tea, but the ancient word has long since lost its original meaning.”
The book is probably not for the general population, but is ideal for those have raised the bar on their relationship with tea.
4½ stars.
books, review
book review, books, review
I’ve only seen these specific jasmine teas at Adagio (US) and Jing (UK). I’ve seen other rolled Jasmines but I’ll be concentrating on Jasmine Pearls for this review.
I first bought some of these back in August 2008 and falling head over heels for the tea alost immediately I wanted to give it some time to allow sense to prevail so a more objective review coul be formed. Jasmine Pearls are quite simply one of the finest jasmine teas I’ve come across.
As they’re hand rolled you are treated to their gentle unfurling as they steep in the hot water, unleashing the fragrance and colour as each second ticks by.
The taste is incredibly refreshing and the leaves will provide at least 3 to 4 cups of good quality. Though I’d recommend at most 2 cups per serving of leaves as it feels almost criminal to not have a fresh batch of the balled leaves opening in your cup for each drink.
I’d strongly recommend these to anyone regardless of whether youre normally a fan of green and jasmine. These are a truly amazing tea and have entered the cupboard as my favourite jasmine of all time. Never will my stock run down!
A fantastic 5/5
Get from Adagio Teas (US)
Get from Jing Tea (UK)
review
green, jasmine, review
Tetley started its life 1822 when two brothers, Joseph and Edward Tetley started to sell salt in Yorkshire. They started to sell tea as well and became so successful that they set up, in 1837, as the tea merchants, “Joseph Tetley & Co.”. They moved to London in 1856 and set up “Joseph Tetley & Company, Wholesale Tea Dealers”.
Tetley was famous for being the first company that launched tea in tea-bags in the UK in 1953.
In terms of sales in the UK they’re the third largest but in the world they are the biggest by volume and only second biggest by revenue (to Unilever – owners of PG Tips).
Enough History! How does is taste
Mediocre at best but as a supermarket tea its not all that bad. Being owned by the huge Asian tea group Tata they have massive resources and contacts to produce some truly great tea and they succeed to an extent by creating an average blend of tea that manages to refresh and invigorate at the same time. Its got a richer colour than Typhoo or PG and you can feel that in its body. A much more substantial tea and worthy of a:
3/5
review
black tea, review
Continuing on with my series reviewing the most popular supermarket teas of the UK I’ve now come to PG Tips. PG are the second biggest tea merchant in the UK and were first established in 1930 by Brooke Bond who originally called it Digestive Tea. It got this name due to teas claims of aiding digestion but after the second World War the government decided to put a stop to this claim and so the name was changed to Pregestee.
A silly name I’m sure you’ll agree!
As time went on the PG delivery drivers shortened the name to PG and the name stuck. So thankfully they became PG Tips in the 1950’s.
How does it taste
Better than Typhoo but still a poor quality tea. Its the tea rival at our office where Taylors of Harrogate is drunk by the decent tea drinking folk and the evil Morlocks drink PG Tips while feasting on the bones of children and murdering innocent people.
I’m not saying PG Tips causes this – but its is a definate link!
PG has a very clear and crisp taste. With little body it doesn’t cope well with too much milk and adding sugar can kill the taste almost entirely. Although it’s technically a Breakfast Tea it lacks the punch and so I’d say its lacking Kenyan black and rolls more towards a low quality light Ceylon.
Having said that it is much better than Typhoo so I’ll give it a:
2.5/5
history, review
black tea, review
As part of a new series reviewing the major UK supermarket teas I thought I’d begin with Typhoo. Typhoo was first created back in 1903 by John Sumner – a Brummy. He was well versed in tea due to his fathers publishing of a book about the first tea trade missions to China and so was at home when him and his father set up a pharmacy/grocery business offering tea and other such things.
Unfortunately Mr Sumners legacy has been trashed when it comes to taste and decency. Although it is now the most popular tea in the UK outselling even the great Yorkshire Tea by Taylors of Harrogate. Its taste can be described only as wood-y, bland, tannic and dirty. I’ve never come across such a foul concoction in my life as a Typhoo tea. In fact it almost killed me once and it saddens me that its the most popular tea here.
I’d never drink Typhoo and I strongly recommend no one else does either.
A pitiful 1/5
history, review
black tea, review
This is by far the most famous of the gunpowder teas and also the best (I think so). I first got Temple of Heaven Tea at a Nottingham Chinese supermarket several years ago.
If you’re unsure what gunpowder tea is I do a full introduction in a previous post.
I remember being concerned about the tightly rolled black pellets of tea leaves. That was until I steeped them and they unfurled to create a fantastic, refreshing and slightly smoky brew.
I regularly top up my Gunpowder Tea stocks with this variety.
You can get some Temple of Heaven Gunpowder Tea from iHealthTree.
review
green tea, gunpowder tea, review
In my previous review for a Williamson brew I wasn’t entirely positive about the resulting beverage so I came to the Darjeeling with little expectation.
I was pleasantly suprised!
First is the dry leaf which is a beautiful array of colours with dark greens, rust reds and golden tips. It should be noted that this is a blend of Nagri and Moondakote harvested during the second flush.
I spent some moments sifting the leaves with the spoon before brewing my tea just to take in the array of colours and the beatiful fresh smell. Now the smell was your usual clean, crisp Darjeeling but with a hint of…something…flowery.
I brewed the first cup using my new tea strainer for about 3 + 1/2 minutes and went without milk and sugar. I’ve found some Darjeelings go well with milk – maybe to hide their dullness – but this tea doesn’t need anything adding to it.
The taste had a very definite flowery twang that verged on the sweetness of Jasmine. This fresh flower taste persisted long after finishing the cup giving a pleasant fresh-mouth feel with no tannin dryness.
This is one of the best Darjeelings I’ve had and will become my regular evening drink form now on. Williamson’s Assam didn’t quite hit the spot but their Darjeeling is fantastic.
4.5/5
review
darjeeling, review
Williamsons Assam (forgive the quality)
Williamson Tea is a UK tea merchant with a long history of tea wholesale and farming, especially in Kenya where they’re one of the biggest tea plantation owners in the country.
Today though I’ll be reviewing their Pure Assam broken leaf tea which you can purchase from their site for £2.60 for 125g.
The leaf is a broken orange pekoe which has a fresh, clean and crisp aroma. The initial taste is a basic and woody which is typical of its single origin status.
This Assam is slightly weaker in body than I’d expected and would make a good mid-morning tea. Although I initially tried this without sugar this tea actually responds well to just a pinch of demerara.
I attempted to get a bit more kick out of this tea by using 1+1/2 teaspoonfuls rather than the recommended single teaspoon. Unfortunately it fell very rapidly into being too tannin and bitter – even when taken with sugar. This Assam seems quick to release its tannin when pushed.
I’m happy overall with this tea and I’ll continue to use it as my standard mid morning beverage but it lacks a lot of the creamy, freshness of other Assams and indeed I prefer even the bagged Assam by Twinnings! In my attempts to boost the body of this tea it slipped into bitterness too easily.
I’ll give the tea a respectable:
3/5
review
merchants, products, review
