Tea Pigs Mao Feng Green Tea

Mao Feng, or Huangshan Maofeng to give it its full name, is a Chinese green tea with claimed health properties. It is one of the most famous China teas.  Generally the same leaves can be used several times over, but to do that the leaves need to be removed from the hot water after a few minutes rather than left in. Tea Pigs don't mention that, but it is common with this particular tea, as explained here.

We like this tea. It is very green tasting and refreshing. When hot it has a mild savoury flavour - a little salty perhaps, or smoky, and is a bit like seaweed, particularly lava bread - a Swansea delicacy I love. When cold it is sweeter and has delicate fruit flavour.

Nice.

Date: Dec 2018  Score: 8

Ahmad Magical Tea Bauble Pear & Cinnamon

Golly this is gorgeous. I know Ahmad are a respected tea company, but often it's all name and style and no substance. But this is the real deal.

It's a blend of Ceylon and Assam black teas with pear and cinnamon. It can be drunk with or without milk. I prefer my strong black teas (such as Ceylon and Assam) with milk, but if flavoured (usually, as here, with fruit), then I drink it without. I found this to be a well balanced blend - it wasn't just a black tea, nor was it just a spiced fruit tea, it was a little of both, hovering nicely between the two. Surprisingly delicate for such robust black teas.  This is simply quite beautiful.

It was a gift. These baubles can be bought for £5 from Amazon, or  £4 from Ahmad direct.  You only get eight tea bags, but you do get to keep the metal bauble which can be used as a Christmas tree decoration. Cute.


Date: Dec 2018   Score: 10

Thompson's Irish Breakfast Tea

Founded in 1896, Thompson's are a family tea firm based in Belfast who have recently started marketing their tea outside of Ireland. Their Irish Breakfast Tea is based on the traditional English breakfast tea, which is a blend of teas based on Assam tea from Northern India, Kenyan tea, and often one or more others. This blend just uses Assam and Kenyan, and as such lacks character. It's probably done to save money. We found the tea to lack brightness and flavour, no matter how we brewed it. If brewed stronger or longer instead of getting more flavour, we simply got tannic bitterness and cardboard.

Not a successful blend for us.


Date: Dec 2018    Score: 3


I've had this tea before:

Thompson's Family Teas
Irish Breakfast Blend

Nescafe Azera Latte

The pack says "made with espresso", but that's of course nonsense as espresso is a method of making coffee, not a type of coffee bean. What this pack contains is a hint of ground coffee (0.7%). Can it be detected? Well, yes, possibly, there is a slightly more authentic taste of coffee to this than there is in most creamy instant coffees. But the overall flavour is quite sombre and dull, and that's generally not why I want an instant creamy. There's powdered milk in this for Crissakes - it's clearly not a serious coffee.  Now, its each to their own, and if people really want to pretend they're having a serious coffee when drinking this mix of instant coffee powder and milk powder and all the other junk they throw in, plus the 0.7% ground coffee, then go ahead, kid yourself. But all I want when I have one of these creamy instants is a bit of harmless fun that doesn't contain as much caffeine as fresh coffee. This ups the caffeine content and lowers the fun, and doesn't taste that great. So, thanks Nescafe, but on the whole, no thanks.

Date: Dec 2018  Score: 3

***

Frothy coffee