My mom hooked it up this Christmas with a bunch of Harney & Sons teas! I've never had anything from H&S before, so I am very excited. She got me mostly green tea, but some white, black, and oolong (yuck) included as well:
I love how they rate their teas and put some basic information on the side of the tins. The other side has steeping instructions.
Here's a little follow-up post with some reviews on these H&S teas I got for Christmas. Please note that I am a relatively new tea drinker (less than a year), so my palette is probably unrefined.
Supreme Breakfast (Black Tea) — Thumbs down. I've never had a breakfast tea before, and my mom told me I was supposed to drink it with cream/sugar. I didn't know that. I drank it straight, like I do with every tea the first time I try it, and I thought it had a weird aftertaste.
Mutan White (White Tea) — Thumbs up. I tried it today, and it's one of my favorites so far. It tastes like a mixture of green and black tea. It has a relatively light taste and goes down smoothly.
Genmaicha (Green Tea) — Thumbs down. It smelled and tasted like seaweed. Thing is, I actually like seaweed; I grew up with many Japanese friends and they used to have seaweed in their lunches, and they'd let me try it. But this was just way too potent. I barely drank half a cup and I started to feel my gag reflex acting up. Not for me.
Kagoshima (Green Tea) — Thumbs down. It had a very "grassy" taste. I was pretty generous with the honey, and it was still too strong for me.
Hunan Mao Jian (Green Tea) — Thumbs up. Nothing spectacular about it; had the "classic" green tea taste that I'm used to.
Yanagi (Green Tea) — Thumbs down. Similar to the Kagoshima tea, it was too earthy for me.
Lung Ching (Green Tea) — Thumbs up. Not bad; the tin described it as having a slightly "nutty" taste, and I agree. It's different, and not too bitter or strong so it's OK with me.
So overall, I guess you could say I've been a bit underwhelmed by the Harney & Sons teas so far. The Mutan White is my favorite. The green teas that I gave thumbs up to were fine, but honestly no better than the
Chun Mee Tai Pan Superior that I got from TheTeaTable. I haven't tried the Darjeeling black tea from H&S yet, which I have high hopes for.