I’m a tea snob – I admit this freely. I wasn’t always a tea snob but then again, I wasn’t a chocolate snob then either. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more selective in the types of tea and chocolate I’m willing to consume. I don’t like overly sweet chocolate and I don’t like bland flavourless tea.
A while back, while visiting a friend who holds ‘honorary sister status’, she gave me a cup of tea to try and as I swore at her, she said ‘Heather addicted me so it’s only fair that I addict you.’ It was a fair point but the biggest problem was not with the tea, but with availability, it wasn’t sold in my town. It was one mug, I told myself, a great tea but nothing in my means. Then at the next event where we were together, Heather tossed a Ziploc bag at me with the quip, ‘The first taste is free.’ Har. I laughed then, I’m not laughing now.
I stretched that gorgeous glorious mellow black tea out until September when we held our Coronation bid. I was gifted with a little bit of Duchess Rylyn’s special blend and a wee bit more of the tea which held me until mid-October. Then I was in agony. Teaopia was gone, sold into the Teavana chain and my beloved Bourbon Vanilla tea was gone, never to return. A November trip to Toronto resulted in a trip to David’s Tea which got me some Cream of Earl Grey which got me through to December. By Christmas, I was at a loss.
January, I grit my teeth went into Teavana and discovered their Maharaja Chai Tea which is very spicy but it has one inherent problem. It’s twelve dollars for 50 grams of tea – which might sound like a lot until you realize that 2/3 of the weight of that tea comes from spices. It’s a very heavy tea which means 50 grams doesn’t get you much tea and I drink on average of a litre to two a day. Every day. I bought 100g – damn near cried when it was slightly over and it cost me $30. I thought, ‘Okay, this isn’t so bad. It’ll last me a month, that’s less than one Tim Horton’s coffee a day price wise.’ No. Even stretching, the tea lasted slightly over two weeks. I talked to their staff, told them my preferences, they made a suggestion – it was the vilest cup of tea I’ve ever had the misfortune of drinking. I threw it out, I raged, I moaned and then my dear hubby said, ‘Why don’t you just buy the stuff you like?’ I actually said, ‘It’s expensive.’
Here’s the thing, long term, it’s not. I did the mental math and realized that 100g is approximately four ounces. So it was costing me $24 for four ounces of tea from Teavana when one pound of the tea I liked cost $22. Yes, I had to order it and yes, $15 shipping to Canada but even with the shipping, it was half the price of the chai and it wasn’t all spice weight!
So last week, I sat down, pondered the website and placed an order. The company is Harney and Sons Fine Teas and they were a pleasure to deal with. I could have had my tea sooner than I did but I opted to stick with UPS shipping to Canada, next time, I’m going to have it shipped to the UPS depot in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan because it’ll be faster and I’ll probably save a bunch on shipping. When I got home today, I unpacked my tea and then glanced over at the empty tea tin that once held the Chai tea – 100g of the chai didn’t even fill the tin 1/3 of the way full. This photo might help you understand why I was so chuffed when I saw the bag of tea. For those who know me well, yes, some evil cackling did ensue. The cat looked at me like I was deranged – I can’t say I blame her.
The tea I’m raving about is called Paris Tea. It’s a flavoured black tea, briskness is classed as a 2, body as a 2, aroma as a 4. It is described as a fruity black tea with vanilla and caramel flavours and a hint of lemony bergamot. I can drink this tea morning, noon and night – hell, who am I kidding? I drink this tea morning, noon and night and I’m not running out again! That said, some days I like variation so I ordered a few other things.
The Maharaja Chai I liked is an oolong and flavoured Oolong isn’t something Harney is big into, but the one they did have is Ginger. I love ginger, ginger and cinnamon are two of my favourite flavours which is probably why I like Chai so much – I also love cardamon. I could have purchased a sample of it but I figured, no, you’re going to like this as a breakfast tea so I went ahead and bought three ounces of the tea. Ginger’s Oolong is described as ‘’When we added Ginger to our peachy-tasty Formosa Oolong, we get a great spin on our popular Peaches & Ginger’’. I’m giving it a try.
I also ordered four loose tea samples – Vanilla, Hot Cinnamon, Blue Ginger and Indian Spice. I was delighted to find that they’d included two free samples in the box when I opened it – a chamomile and a decaf. So after months of waiting for the Paris tea, I have to admit, I haven’t opened it. I decided that before I lose myself in my love of that tea, I’d use the samples and comment on them. So that’s what you’re going to have to listen to for the next while – my comments on the teas that I’m drinking and my grade on them. While they may not end up on my ‘’yes, I want to drink a lot of this’’ list, I’m sure they’ll all be good cups of tea because Harney does not seem to do mediocre.
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