Have you ever walked into the lobby of a tire shop, and noted its distinctive aroma of freshly manufactured tire rubber? That was my immediate impression of the taste/scent blend upon drinking this tea, and I can't shake it. It's as if someone liquefied that air in a tire store, and stirred it into a tea. The website says, "This is a blend of some of Queen Victoria's favourite teas that were delivered by our founder, John Murchie when [Her Royal Majesty] was in residence at Balmoral Castle in Scotland." Back in Victoria's day, there weren't many rubber tires; if she did enjoy such a tea, she couldn't have made the unfortunate association I did: memories of big times at Big O...

The dry-bag scent was rather strongly smoky, and admittedly I'm not a fan of smoky tea. This rises off the Lapsang Souchong, which here is blended with Darjeeling and Ceylon varieties and then jasmine-scented. Yet Murchie's refers to it as Green-Black tea on the packaging. So I suppose there's an unmentioned green tea (or the Darjeeling is green?) tossed in there somewhere too? Confusing...but then again, confusion is a state of mind I seem to occupy a lot.

I can taste the base tea, and it seems to be decent quality, but the blend here just doesn't work for me. The way the smoke and tea melded together really brought to mind tire rubber. B.F. Goodrich, Firestone, Michelin, or Pirelli? You tell me. I don't lick tires. Outside the cost, it's hard to put a pleasant spin on this tea, which barely treads water and, given my "General" high regard for Murchie's teas, was a deflating experience not befitting a good year. I'll spare you any more bad puns.

The jasmine scent is very faint in-cup, somewhat more in the wet bag after most of the smoke-dominant flavor washed out. If you like smoky teas, maybe your impression will be better than mine. This was part of a variety pack, and I'm not going to be ordering it on its own.

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Comments:

Plowboy wrote: on February 19th, 2021

Whoa, dude! Lower than Lipton, eh?

Tchuggin' Okie wrote: on February 22nd, 2021

Man, I *hated* to do that to a Murchie's tea, because they're usually so high-quality. This one might taste better while you're sitting front-row at a drag race, after a few runs have been made and the air is full of burning rubber anyway. :-)

Plowboy wrote: on February 22nd, 2021

Ha! Now I want to try it.

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