A Summer's Breeze; London Tea Club Teas

It's been one of those months! Isn't it always? I've yet to even try any of July's teas from London Tea Club and already I've received June's box! Whoops.

Still, I'm having a relatively lazy day, just watching anime on Netflix, doing a spot of knitting (well, shopping for knitting patterns actually; I'm so indecisive about what I want to do!) and I figured what better way to compliment such a day that having a good, long tea session.

In June I received two black teas and a green tea; Russian Caravan (an old favourite), Apricot Peach (which smells divine and is suggested to drink iced to cool down on a, aha, 'hot summer's day', whatever one of those is) and Kukicha. The Kukicha looks interesting; it looks more like grass than tea and smells rather sweet. There's an underlying note of something familiar in it, too, but I cannot quite put my finger on it; some sort of fruit, perhaps, or flowers? I'm not sure; hopefully tasting it will help solve the mystery. I'm also intrigued to see just how different it is from Chinese green teas, which is what I drink most often (it is a Japanese green tea). June's box also came with delightful free gift; a little card designed by Scout Editions, featuring a brightly coloured 'Kokeshi doll', to celebrate 'the return of [London Tea Club's] favourite Japanese green tea'. I love it when London Tea Club throw in little extras, always makes me smile.

July's box was quite different, with a herbal, a black and a white tea. The herbal is Coffee Rooibos. Yes, you read that right; it's some sort of Frankenstein's Monstrocitea; it looks like rooibos but smells like coffee. I'm sure it's perfectly pleasant (I am a coffee drinker as well as a tea drinker in all honesty), but it's perplexing and certainly made me do a double take. I think this is one of the more interesting teas I have received from London Tea Club. The black tea is a blend of Sri Lankan and Indian teas and dried mint; it smells superb. I love mint tea and this one is one of the strongest smelling ones I have come across. I just may have to buy those Moroccan tea glasses that they sell in Imperial Teas, which I've been eyeing up for nearly a year; you know, just to make sure I'm drinking it properly (yeah, that's it). The third tea I swear when I first read it was called 'zombie'. It's not, it's called Zomba Pearls and instead of loose leaves, it is (quite large) twisted pellets. That's definitely one for a glass teapot.

So today started off with the Russian Caravan; I'm no newcomer to this tea and I currently have a jar of it sat in my drawer. Even in the test tube you can tell this is a particularly smokey tea, even for a Russian Caravan. This particular tea is a blend of Ceylon and Lapsang Souchong. Traditionally, Russian Caravan is supposed to get its smokey aroma from the campfires along the Silk Road (along which the camel trains would travel to deliver tea from China to Russia), hence the name, although the card for this one informs me that 'no campfires were used in the making of this tea'. I brewed it in my little black and green teapot and, rather than using the matching cups, opted to use my new frosted glass tea cup/bowl that I acquired on my last trip to Imperial Teas.

Once brewed, the malty aroma is even stronger and the liquor is a beautiful amber hue. It tasted stronger and slightly more bitter than most Russian Caravan teas I've had before, despite having brewed it for no more than three minutes. This was no bad thing, mind you. The Lapsang Souchong is definitely the dominant flavour in this tea. Although smokey, it wasn't quite campfire smokey (and, having just returned from a week away camping, the smell of woodsmoke is still lingering in my clothes and hair, so I know what it should be like), but more like a cask aged whiskey. Overall it's a very pleasant tea, although perhaps not my favourite Russian Caravan that I have had.

The second tea I opted for was the Kukicha; apparently I was having a sophisticated tea day and not opting for any of the frivolous, flavoured black teas that I do so enjoy (in part, it was because I wanted to try the Apricot Peach iced). The dried tea itself was bright, a mix of colours ranging from lemon to forest green. I placed the tea into my pot (one and a half spoons, this one) and let it brew for two minutes with 100C water, as instructed (oddly, for a green tea). Upon pouring I was surprised by just how pale and delicate looking this tea is. You could be forgiven for not thinking it is tea at all. The aroma is subtle, but earthy; more so than the dried leaves. Upon tasting it I noted that it was subtly sweet, although not in the honey or citrus way that I often find in teas. It's more sweet like you might expect grass to be sweet; 'green' sweet, I suppose. Again, there's a hint of some fruit or vegetable that I cannot quite place. Despite not being a flavoured or blended tea, I would say that this is one of the more complex flavours. It's not as bitter or astringent as most green teas, either; in fact, I wouldn't say it hugely tastes like green tea at all, instead having a flavour closer to something herbal. This is definitely a tea I would recommend to those who want to like green tea but do not (and those who do like it, to be fair).

Kukicha is still Camellia Sinensis, however. Unlike most teas, though, Kukicha is made from the stems and twigs rather than the leaves; basically, all the bits of the plant that are normally discarded. As Kukicha is what the tea is made from rather than how, it can be either green or black. It would be interesting to try a black Kukicha. It's also naturally low in caffeine, so is probably the best tea to drink if you're not wanting the addition of caffeine as there's no industrial processing.

I like Kukicha. This is definitely one to add to my 'buy more of' list. It's quite refreshing.

For my third tea I decided to have a look through my notes; although I've tried most of my teas from London Tea Club, I know that I have not written about all of them (recently I have made and printed a load of pages for my Filofax, so I can keep track of all my teas and my notes on them, which makes blogging after the date so much easier). I noticed there was one from April that I had not written about, but remembered was a delight to drink; Lychee Jasmine. I'd already started on the green teas, so I felt it only appropriate to continue (I was waiting for my boyfriend to get home before I tried the Coffee Rooibos).

Lychee Jasmine is a blended green tea; a Chunmee base (a Chinese green tea, which means 'precious eyebrow' as '[t]he gentle curve of the the dried tea leaf is reminiscent of a lady's hand-drawn eyebrows'), with dried jasmine flowers and, unsurprisingly enough, dried lychees. The brew is a green gold tone and, oddly, smells a little like Swizzels Matlow Love Hearts. It's delicate but undeniably fruit, with a long, lingering aftertaste of jasmine. It is, to my mind, what spring would taste like if it were a tea.

Oh, and one final thing; yesterday I was killing time before a doctor's appointment in Waterstones. I had no intention of buying anything but you know how it goes. Previously I had bought The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura, from Penguin's new line of classics; well, as I was walking down the stairs, there, on the Penguins Classics shelf, I spotted a booked entitled Green Tea. Furthermore, it was by Sheridan Le Fanu. For those of you who do not know, Sheridan Le Fanu was a 19th Century ghost story writer and happens to be the author of my favourite vampire novella; Carmilla. So unlike The Book of Tea, Green Tea is a work of fiction, but between its title, its author and its low price of £2, I couldn't say no.

 Overall, I'd say July is shaping up quite nicely if today's tea session is anything to go by!