Farmer Brothers

Hotel tea raid. Can’t tell if it’s the dregs from production or actually ground up material. Either way, it brews up very quickly and as expected given the quality – dark golden hay – which is also about how it tastes. Hay and golden syrup with chamomile floral top note. Also – strangely – milky. Can’t say I’ve experienced that before. Perhaps it’s our well water? Or is it tainted with another herb in the mix? Catches in the throat a bit but there’s also this minty-chrysanthemum cooling quality in the chest, which is nice. Big meh. Not looking for a chamomile on steroids for nighttime sipping. This would be better suited for an anxiety-riddled afternoon.

Hotel tea raid. Although smooth, the taste is a bit forceful and abrasive. Vegetal, light smoke, dry grass with a tangy sorrel/lemon-like presence at the end. Slight bitterness but that doesn’t play into the abrasive taste. It almost tastes like an assamica sheng that was processed too green. That combined with the CTC leaf leads me to think this is of Indian origin. Or maybe Sri Lankan, though I have no frame of reference for their green teas. Not astringent. Wiry energy. Not good but also not terrible- unless maybe steeped in boiling water!

Hotel tea raid. Paper envelope means it’s not the freshest, but it lands somewhere better than Lipton. With 195F – 200F water, it has a rounded, classic black tea taste: copper, malt, wood with hints of smoke, redfruit tone, papery teabag and dried flowers. Smooth, not bitter. It works.

Hotel tea raid. Fresh, good, nothing artificial about it. Tastes like tart pomegranate mixed with rosehips. Hibiscus is friendly here. Nice tang tempered with a little sweetness from the blackberry leaf and apple.

Hotel tea raid. Complex and fresh real bergamot oil. With hot water from the dispenser at work (probably 195F – 200F), it’s solid cup of black tea fannings (or CTC?) and I mean it. Full body with a little tannic grip. A tad smokey, too, which makes it even better on this chilly morning.

For hotel tea, this is pretty good!

Raided from the Best Western in the haunted Tonopah, NV. It’s the wild west out here! Curiously, one of the old hotels in town was bought and renovated by a big wine family from here in Sonoma County.

Lively Lemon surprised me! I was expecting to not enjoy it but the flavor was very lemon and not so lemongrass (an herb which I really don’t like in tea form). Hibiscus didn’t assault and quietly rounded out the flavor. A light peppermint kiss at the end. Better than anything in a similar vein I’ve tried, such as Celestial Seasonings’ Lemon Zinger – which is quite acrid! – or other lemony blends that present a smoother, more herbal profile. Nice palate cleanser and afternoon pick-me-up at work.

Had at Pete’s Henny Penny with pancakes, bacon and eggs for dinner.

Plain was fine. Adding a bit of half & half and honey drowned the spices so that it tasted mostly of “tea”. As an American diner chai tea had with breakfast-for-dinner with my loved one during a winter’s night windstorm, I have no complaints.

I was able to sample this tea, along with a few other Artisan Collection teas, over the last couple weeks.

While I like green tea it does tend to be too light of a tea for me to drink regularly and I find it can go from pleasant to bitter, quickly, if I don’t babysit it so I tend to reach for a green tea blend when I do reach for it. That said, I think this is a decent green tea on its own. It has enough flavor one could drink it without adding any sweetener to it, but I prefer it with a bit.

Definitely keep to the 1-2 minute steeping rule and make sure to dunk the bag a bit instead of just letting the bag hang out in the cup as it will help draw the tea’s flavor out a bit more.

I’ve been able to steep 3 cups of tea from one bag thus far without noticing a drop-off in flavor that was considerable enough to stop me from attempting a 4th cup. So, it’s a decent value given how many cups of tea I was able to get from one bag.

While this isn’t a tea I would buy for myself, it’s definitely not one I’d avoid if offered, either.

Hotel tea. It’s too bad that hotel chains get such mediocre tea. And then they put out water that scalds your mouth. This turned dark very quickily. And bitter too.

The only time I see this tea is when we layover in MOT. The water is too hot. Losing an hour of sleep sucks. So does this tea. It becomes bitter way too quickly and even before that there really isn’t much to it.

Farmer Brothers tea is apparently popular in the hotel/motel/breakfast diner circuit around Napa. This was the offering at Crepes N More, a tasty little breakfast place in Fairfield. Awesome food, great service, and this for tea…

It’s… OK. Nothing more. Tasty, enjoyable enough that I finished it, not so much that I wanted more.

But still, and again, meh tea is better than no tea at all.

One of my favorite breakfast places in Pleasanton, CA, (Dean’s, great omelets!) offers this for a black tea.

It’s… OK. Nothing great. Fills the tea craving, offers a bit of taste, but it’s definitely bottom of the bin leaves.

Not the worst I’ve had, and I will have it again when I go back.

Cheap and sparse continental breakfast at a Best Western, this is the tea they offered. Boring, bland, but drinkable. A meh, ok tea is still better than no tea at all, of course!

-E

Smells good. Kinda like that fake powdered apple cider drink. The taste… meh. Too much chamomile. The color is lovely though.

Started off ok. Just your cheap tasting plain green. Within a few minutes it started tasting odd. Couldn’t finish it. The hotel we layover at just started carrying this brand.

Food service grade bagged herbal. Not especially strong, but drinkable. You can’t mess up mint much.

Tea at the Julian Grill with dinner. Not terribly good stuff. But it worked alright with my Chicken Julian salad. So far, nothing impressive about this brand.

One of the teas available in our B&B room on vacation to Julian. Tastes like minty chamomile; as expected from reading the ingredients. Nothing I’d ever buy, but it was just sitting there in the room so why not.

Oy, what a week. Teeth-clenching, nonstop work week followed in the evenings by in-law visit (actually that part wasn’t so bad, other than the inability to come home and sit in my Spot and drool).

Our little shabby house doesn’t accommodate company well, so they camped more comfortably at a Hampton Inn, where we lobby-lounged and visited yesterday; this was the available food-service bagged tea. Considering the setting and hot-pot water of indeterminate temperature, it wasn’t bad. Plenty of mint over “something” in the background; there’s supposedly hibiscus, but it wasn’t noticeable. Don’t be scared if this is your only available option.

On the fun side, hubby’s 89-year-old Mema (you need to meet her; she’s so cool) brought me a bagful of vintage jewelry and scarves straight out of Mary Tyler Moore. Remember those shaped polyester neck scarves with a ruffly edge? (Maybe not; I think I have underwear that’s older than some of you :) At any rate, I’m looking forward to playing dress-up to figure out how to wear them.

Not the best English Breakfast I’ve had, but it was good enough while I was at a diner for brunch this morning. Would it be too pretentious or snobby to start carrying around my own tea bags? I haven’t gotten to that point yet, but I’m seriously starting to think about it, haha.

Had this tea the last two mornings at the hotel and for a basic restaurant tea it wasn’t too bad. I brewed it a bit too long the second day so it was a bit bitter, but all in all it’s pretty decent.

Backlogging for the conference I attended last week. This was the other Farmer Brothers tea I tried at my hotel’s breakfast bar, and it was truly the worst green tea I’ve ever had. Yuck. :P

Not great. Unfortunately, this is the only brand of tea they have at the breakfast bar at the hotel I’m staying at.