Tea was acquired as a shop sample
Last week, I recapped my trip to New York City. Therefore, I thought that it would be fitting this week to review a tea named after a neighbourhood in NYC: Soho!
Description: “Now a landmark favorite, SoHo Blend is a flavored black tea with chocolate, coconut, vanilla, and amaranth petals.”
Instructions: 212° F| 4 to 5 minutes
Review: As I mentioned in my New York City Tea Tour favourite places post, I was given this tea sample after I checked-in on Facebook while at the Harney & Sons’ SoHo shop. I was curious to see what ‘sample’ was and I was not disappointed. The tea pouch had over 12 grams of tea inside. Personally, I feel this is a good way to try teas without any real financial costs and I would be open to checking-in again to try more teas!
Now that that is out of the way, let’s get into the tea. This blend was created by Emeric Harney to celebrate the SoHo location’s grand opening in 2010! I picked this blend because I thought it was fitting to pick a tea named after something in New York City and I had wanted a souvenir!
It didn’t hurt that the dry blend was very pretty with the bright amaranth petals against the dark tea leaves. It had a strong sweet fruity smell and slightly chocolatey. After steeping for 4 minutes, the wet leaves smelled sweeter with the cocoa smell reminded me of a tootsie roll.
The liquor was a golden reddish-brown. It had a classic earthy smell of a black tea but it carried a sweet note with the coconut and cocoa. Before every sip, there was a nice whiff of coconut smell. Tastewise, there was an earthiness from the black tea and then a strong chocolate tootise roll taste followed by a very faint coconut at the tail end. I was actually surprised because I had expected the coconut to have had the most forward taste. The taste was very similar when cooled but there was some dryness at the back of the throat.
I enjoyed this one and I liked how they flavours melded into one another. Since I like how chocolate tootsie rolls, this flavour profile worked for me. This would be nice tea to drink while reading a book or chatting with friends (3.5/5 rating)!
- Type: Black tea
- Origin: Unknown
- Caffeine: Unknown
- Ingredients: Black tea, aromas (chocolate, vanilla and coco), amaranth petals *
- Company: Harney & Sons
The question of the post: Have you been to SoHo in New York City before?
* Ingredients is from the Harney & Sons Europe website
5 comments
Sounds like and absolutely delightful blend!
I really liked it! I think you can also buy it in the UK online shop.
Last time I checked I could not find a UK store only a Europe one. I’ll have to check again
No, you are right. I mixed it up! Thanks for catching that!
No worries at all! I really wish they had a UK site though