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Queued post, written May 28th 2014

The first cup of tea after having descaled the kettle is always a bit dodgy. Not taste-wise, mind. But oh-gosh-have-I-poisoned-myself-now?-wise. I’m always a very thorough rinser after that process, but even so.

I’m hazarding a cup, though. This is actually a resteep that I’m writing about here, since the first steep of these leaves that Auggy shared with me recently was consumed as part of a courage-gathering process before having to ring our former landlord to ask where the rest of our deposit had got to. I hate talking on the phone even when it’s about pleasant things and avoid it whenever possible, so you can probably imagine the amount of courage-gathering is necessary before ringing someone to quibble. So, yeah. Tea? Lovely, but didn’t pay attention.

So the second steep smells relatively grainy and quite malty. I do actually remember that I thought ‘malty and honey’ with the first steep. I’m not getting anything in the way of floral and/or smoky notes though.

The flavour is quite grainy, though, and VERY floral. It really lives up to the ‘spring’ part of the name. It’s like drinking a flowershop. When it cools down the flowers calm down a bit too, becoming a bit less overwhelming, but it’s still not the sort of keemun that I like best. I prefer them with a rougher, more smoky note.

This might, however, have something to do with it being the second steep. I really didn’t pay attention to the first one at all. I will do so next time I have this and add to the post.

If I remember. Also, no unforeseen poisonings of self, so I think the kettle is safe. The lid is still wonky, though.

Additional notes at the time of posting
I can report that the deposit issue has still not been sorted. We have been very very patient, but enough is enough. At some point during the next week we shall be contacting our solicitor.

In happier news, Husband worked out why the kettle lid had gone wonky and repaired it good as new.

Queued post, written May 26th 2014

Another tea from a EU TTB. I think this one was the first round, though. In fact I’m nearly certain it was.

I’m not super keen on cinnamon in my tea, but I have recently been partial to the Jewelled Apple blend from Tea Palace, so I suspect that’s why I took a sample of this one.

Unfortunately it’s not nearly as good. Although, perhaps it wouldn’t be right to try and compare them given that this is a green base and the other is a black. But the apple in this one isn’t apple-y as much as it’s juicy. And by juicy I don’t mean ‘ooh, what a juicy apple,’ I mean ‘oh, apple juice.’ Which is not the same thing at all and not really what I was looking for.

Further more the base doesn’t really shine through all that apple, adding to the warm apple juice impression.

It’s like slightly mulled apple juice, really. Which, actually, sounds like it might be pretty fantastic, but it’s not very summer-y and not what I was hoping to find in this tea.

It’s pleasant enough, but not what I was hoping for. The juice-aspect makes me think I might try the rest in a cold brew, though. Even though I’ve generally had best luck with herbals that way. This one just might be able to pull that off.

Queued post, written May 25th 2014

I took this one out of a EU TTB. I haven’t the faintest which one. Possibly the first because I got a lot of vanilla-related things out of that one.

I’ve had this twice before. The first time it was in a cardboard cup and a horrid horrid experience. The cardboard stole all the flavour and made it taste like something sort of rooibos-y. Hor. Ri. Ble.

The second time it was after a funeral (also not a good experience but that was more to do with the funeral than the actual tea), and that was with hot water from a thermos.

So when I saw it in the box (whichever box it was), I thought I should try it a third time in my own home in my usual way.

This yielded a much more pleasant experience. You can tell it’s decaf and it gets a funny sort of slightly chemical note, but other than that it was very nice and vanilla-y. I should have liked to have had this flavouring on a normal black base. I think that would be lovely.

It being decaf it would be suitable for my Before Bed Beverage, but I think I still prefer something herbal for that.

Queued post, written May 25th 2014

Here’s another ancient thing that Fleurdelily shared with me. I’ve kept it for so long, partly because I was scared of it but mostly because I didn’t have the faintest clue what to do with it. It just had ‘yak butter’ written on it. I didn’t even know if it was actually freeze dried butter that I was supposed to use as an additive or if it was some kind of instant tea deal.

Luckily KittyLovesTea posted about this one recently, and looking at the picture I can see the pouches are identical to mine, so that’s what I’ve decided it must be. I asked her what I was supposed to do with it, and her reply has been sitting in my email for a while while I’ve been gathering courage and waiting for a good time to try it. I’m home alone this weekend, so here goes.

I’m still scared of it though, but it has to be tried. Otherwise I can’t empty the box. And if I can’t empty the box, I can’t get new stuff. Ever. This is the rule. New orders/swaps/whathaveyou require an empty box.

So I’ve made it up with Kitty’s instructions and am now staring sceptically at the cup.

It smells like puerh with butter in it. Which, I suppose, is what it is. The butter smells a bit… different from cow butter. A bit sort of wild. I can’t tell if that’s because of the puerh and its farm animal smell or if it’s something to do with yaks. Perhaps a combination? I find it quite off-putting to be honest. Cloying.

Okay, I’m doing it. I’m taking a sip (fully expecting something vile).

Oh! It’s salty! And buttery. LOTS of butter. FAR TOO MUCH butter! Oh ack! All I can taste is salt and butter. Flipping heck, but this is foul. I had to spit it out. At least I’m rid of it now.

Queued post, written May 25th 2014. This was supposed to have been posted yesterday but I kept getting the kettle page when trying to pull up the tea. Seems like I’ve chosen a good time to take a little step back from Steepster, kettle pages having been rampant lately. Reading Steepster is something I would like to do regularly, but started to feel rather like a chore that I must do combined with a general feeling of detachment. So I’ve stopped. I’m still posting and still writing and still drinking. I’m just not going to be reading much for a while.

Another one from the EU TTB 2. The problem with these French names is I have to look them up to see what they are. To a French speaking person it may be blindingly obvious from the name, but not to me. Therefore I must have looked this up when I had the box and decided it was interesting. Afterwards, however, it often takes me a fairly long time to get around to them because by then I’ve forgotten what they are. (In general, I don’t actually much like those blend names where it doesn’t say anything about what’s in it regardless of language. I don’t even like it in Danish. I’m sure it’s all fanciful and poetic and what not, but I still don’t know what’s in it.)

Following the raspberry hibiscus mint fiasco, however, I figured any was as good as another, so I just pulled something out of the box. This is what I ‘won’.

Unlike the other, this smells lovely. It’s all sweet and caramel-y, perhaps even a bit nutty. After steeping it smells quite nutty and a bit honeyed as well. When I look at the blend, there’s something in it that looks like rooibos, only not red. People always say that green rooibos tastes vastly different, so that might be it.

I’m going to look up what this is.

It is indeed a green rooibos! With mango and citrus. …what? Knowing that it’s there, I can find both. A touch of lemon in the flavour and a smidge of mango in the aftertaste. But before I knew it I wasn’t even anywhere close to identifying either of those two things. It’s quite subtle to begin with. As the cup cools, though, both become more clear.

This is oodles better than the raspberry mint concoction.

Queued post, written May 25th 2014

I took this one out of the EU TTB round 2, and I’ve been looking forward to trying it. It’s the raspberry that appeals to me here, even though the combination with mint strikes me as slightly odd. It’s not something I would have ever thought to put together myself. I’ve been waiting for a good time to have it, and I believe now is it.

The colour is borderline disturbing and there’s a smell of spearmint in this that made me actually recoil. I tried smelling the wet leaf inside the pot as well and there was a distinct aroma there of human… Nevermind that. I don’t think that’s a thought I wish to continue with.

It doesn’t smell like raspberry or any other kind of fruit though. Mostly just spearmint. Granted that’s a strong smell, a stronger smell than raspberry, so all is not lost.

It doesn’t taste like raspberry either. It tastes like hibiscus. Not surprising given the red tint to the colour. Or the grimace on my face everytime I try to sip it.

Hibiscus is not a berry. It does not taste even remotely like any berry ever. Stop trying to foist it on people claiming it’s a berry flavour!

Hibiscus tastes like blood to me. Metallic and sour and disgusting. Spearmint tastes like toothpaste, basically.

What I’ve got here is a cup of blood-flavoured toothpaste.

No thank you, says I.

Queued post, written May 25th 2014

MissB shared this one with me. It feels a bit weird to have a Christmas themed tea at the end of May, but I have a box to empty and I can’t just have it lie around until December. Normally Christmas blends don’t really appeal to me much. They’re usually far too cinnamon-y and I don’t really care for cinnamon in my tea to be honest. I find the combination of tea and cinnamon a little strange, which is also why I’m having such trouble with chais. I find that the typical Christmas blend is usually in that same sort of category as chai.

I’m not certain what’s Christmas-y about this. It doesn’t really taste like Christmas to me. It’s an orange tea with some sort of spice in it that makes it quite sweet, but I can’t really recognise it as any particular spice.

It’s pleasant enough to drink but not something that has me falling over with glee.

Queued post, written May 24th 2014

This one is from the Christmas calendar, actually, and I’ve only just got around to trying it myself now. I’m using the rest of the tea, having given most of it away and also made some of it for Husband once when I was having something else myself. He thought, if memory serves me correctly, that it was a very pleasant tea. I’ve shared it with MissB and Courtney, and MissB in turn shared it with Jump62359. All of them thought it was pleasant, although MissB found it triggered one of her allergies, so I’m quite confident that I’m going to like it.

I used the rest of the leaf that I had, and that turned out to be a bit more leaf than it looked like because it brewed up fairly strong. No matter, I like a fairly strong tea, so it hasn’t lost anything on that account.

It’s very rhubarb-y in flavour. I can’t comment on the aroma, because my nose is running a bit. I hope I haven’t caught anything. Or rather, I sort of hope that I’ve caught something, because I’ve never suffered from pollen allergies of any sort in all my life and I don’t much fancy starting now. But it’s got lots of rhubarb flavour and it actually tastes like rhubarb. It also tastes like green tea. It’s about equal parts flavour and base and they are flavours that seem to go quite well with each other, finally ending on a sweet note.

I might actually purchase some more of this if it’s still summer when I’m allowed to buy tea again. I doubt it is, to be honest. It seems like there’s still lots left in the box I haven’t tried yet. Next year, then!

Queued post, written May 23rd 2014

Auggy’s shared this with me in the most recent care parcel. I looked it up when I added it to my cupboard, but I don’t recall now what it is. It smells a bit raisin-y and fruity though. Berry-ish, I thought. After steeping it’s more floral, but not very floral like it was scented. Just a thin layer of floral on top. It’s sort of wood-y underneath that, but neither cocoa-y nor really grainy.

The flavour is quite floral as well, and also quite wood-y. Again, neither cocoa-y nor grainy. It’s not hay-y either. There’s a bit of a fruity aftertaste to it, which reminds me of cherries.

I honestly can’t tell what this stuff is. It has none of the characteristics of the areas I know best. Could it be some completely new to me area?

I have to look it up.

Oh, it’s from Taiwan! That is indeed a fairly unknown region to me. That explains why there were no recognisable elements to it at all.

As I drink and it cools a bit, I feel the flowery notes get a little more pronounced as do the fruity notes. The fruity notes actually expands a bit, no longer content to being merely an aftertaste. I still think it’s mostly a dark cherry, but I see on Steepster that others have likened it more to plums. Oh well, they’re both stone fruits. Close enough for jazz.

Cooling a little further, we’re at gulping temperature now, the floral note has changed and turned from floral into something more spicy. I felt like it was reminding me of something particular, but I couldn’t think of what, so I nipped off to the kitchen to have a snuffle around the spice shelves. This didn’t yield any positive results so if it is indeed something I ought to know, it’s not a spice we currently have. I did, however, narrow it down that I think it’s a bake-y spice rather than a cooking spice. Others have mentioned cloves and cinnamon, but I didn’t really think that was a match for me either.

This is a very interesting tea. It’s not that often anymore that I get to have a completely new region’s tea for the first time where it doesn’t remind me strongly of a neighbouring region.