I’ve been feeling the call of afternoon tea with lots of snacks. I’ve been cutting down my sweet snacks which has been making me cranky. My In-Laws recently went to Paris, which lead me to look at various tea sellers based in France, many of which you can’t get here in the US without paying an arm and a leg on already expensive tea.
Kusmi Tea had perfect timing and offered to send me teas and I selected the Russian Blends assortment. Kusmi Tea has a base in New York, so you can get this French tea easily online. This tea sample set contains all Earl Grey black teas that would be perfect for an afternoon tea party. The teas are available in the Russian Blends set or individually. The teas in the Russia Blends set is Prince Vladimir
, Anastasia
, Bouquet of Flowers N 108
, St. Petersburg
, and Troika
. Each mini tin has 25 grams (0.88oz) of tea, which is a nice sampler size.
The set came with a tea infuser, which is handy for a new tea drinker that doesn’t have anything but should buy something better as these filters suck as they don’t give good leaf expansion. The Tea Owls claimed it as a pinchy staff.
I decided to bust out the fancy tea set from my Grandma-in-law, as well as set out some snacks.
I steeped all teas 4 grams of leaf, 250ml (1 gram to 62ml), 200F/93C, for 3 minutes. Kusmi Tea’s instructions were close, citing 185-195F (85-90C).
Kusmi Tea Russian Blends Set
One Tea Owl called this tea “Prince Hootamir” The dry leaf is made of a Russian blend of Chinese Black teas, bergamot, lemon, grapefruit, vanilla, and spices. It smells like an extreme earl grey with heavy citrus.
The flavor is a brisk, malty, chocolate black tea. My guess there is some Keemun in this. It isn’t tannic and very little astringency, and any bitterness got smoothed out from the vanilla. The citrus is on the strong side, but refreshing and smooth from the vanilla creaminess. Prince Hootamir is a twist to early grey without it being in your face citrus or delicate/floral like a Lady Earl Grey. There is an aftertaste of mystery spice, maybe a bit of cinnamon, but I’m taking a guess, it is subtle.
The dry leaf smells like a soft bergamot tea with nothing particularly exciting going on. This tea has Russian blend of Chinese and Ceylon black teas, with bergamot, lemon, lime, and orange blossom. I did not notice the other flavors until I steeped it. Anatasia smells ultra fruity!
Anastasia sips in heavier on the brisk sharp, tannic and has low-moderate astringency that dries the tip of the tongue. The flavor is delicately soft and the tea is highly aromatic. The flavoring comes out well, mostly tasting of zesty lime and sweet orange blossom. This tea secret weapon is the high aroma of the orange blossom perfume, which gives this tea a lot of class. Anastasia
is 100% great Mothers Day afternoon tea to impress as it is delicate, sweet, approachable, and aromatic.
I can see Anatasia being best iced to bring out the fruity flavor. As this tea cools it gets more sweet orange blossom flavored.
This tea is apparently Kusmi Tea’s oldest tea recipe of Chinese, Ceylon, and Indian black teas, bergamot, lemon, lime, mandarin, and flowers (ylang-ylang). The dry leaf smells high in bergamot with a floral perfumey twist.
The steeped up smell is potpourri floral and orange. The flavor of Bouquet of Flowers N 108 is surprisingly bright, sweet citrus (bit of lime, mandarin orange), with a strong carnations floral aftertaste. The black is a touch dry, but not bitter. This black tea base is on the light side, leaning more fruity than malt. It is slightly tannic, with a brisk dry aspect to it. This tea is so far heavy on flavor compared to the others, more likely from the strong floral aspect.
I can see this being way too floral for some – Bouquet of Flowers N108 is a personal taste love or hate it tea. I do like floral, but I get a bit of an allergy nose twitch reaction since it is stronger than what I’ve experienced in a tea for a while. If you love floral, hot hoots you’ll love Bouquet of Flowers – it is a perfect afternoon tea that you can go nuts with a floral theme.
The base of this tea is black Chinese teas, flavored with bergamot, red fruits, vanilla, and caramel. The dry leaf has a berry and Earl Grey smell.
St. Petersburg sips in with a fruity hint of red currant, creamy caramel squares, with a background of strongly brisk black tea with bergamot aroma. This one tastes like I needed to drop the temperature a bit or add a splash of milk, as it does have a bitter note in the aftertaste, as well as pretty drying in the mouth making my tongue feel like sandpaper. That strong brisk, bitter, and dryness is what I dislike about western style/afternoon teas.
A splash of milk helped St. Petersburg a lot, and it brought out the caramel flavors more. It now has an upfront caramel flavor, with currants and bergamot background, adding some complex freshness. I will dedicate the rest of St. Petersburg
to milk tea duty with Tim Tam slams. I wish I had the caramel Tim Tams as that would be epic caramel meltdown.
Troika is made of Chinese, Ceylon, and Indian black teas with bergamot, orange, and mandarin. The dry leaf in this tea smells like a run of the mill Earl Grey.
Troika sips in a classic Earl Grey – it is brisk, tannic, and moderate level of bergamot, but with a light mandarin orange crisp aftertaste. Actually, this tea tastes similar to Anatasia in base flavor, but mandarin orange instead of the fragrant orange blossom and lime.
Out of all the 5 teas, Troika is the most basic, but with a bit of a subtle twist on Earl Grey. It isn’t bitter and only slightly dry. I wish I started with this tea first as a baseline, haha!
Comments
What I found interesting about Kusmi Tea’s black tea is they don’t lean too bitter compared to other afternoon teas. 4/5 were 100% great without milk or sugar as the black tea blend base was well done, and the flavoring carried over well or masked some bitterness. All the fruity and citrus flavorings were well done without tasting artificial. The floral additions were quite strong though.
As a set, the Russian Blends assortment would be a winner to the Earl Grey fanatic. All teas, despite being all Earl Greys with bergamot, were different from each other and it was fun drinking testing them all.
Out of the 5, my worth it to own is Anastasia as the citrus flavor was well done and I love aromatic tea, I will be drinking this all during the summer months. Prince Vladimir
is a close second for the interesting complexity of citrus, vanilla, and spice over a smooth base. I have a love-hate with St. Petersburg
as it is too bitter as is, but does exceptionally well with milk, so it gets an honorable mention. Troika is boring compared to the rest of the teas, so it got tossed into the gift pile.
Individual teas and the Russian Blends set are also available on Amazon.
(tea provided for review | affiliate links)
