171 Tasting Notes
So good! I had to go DT today and I’m so glad I did, I scored the tree bubble tea pot with it’s matching cups all for 19.50! Plus I got 25 grams of all the new teas. I got this as a tea to go and sipped it while I perused the mall. Today was a day of deals for me.
This tea is sweet and creamy. Like chocolate, banana and whip cream!
What a day! I had to go shopping for my packaging for the 12 days of xmas swap and ended up in Michael’s Crafts for TWO hours! I am no Martha Stewart, it was crazy in there! I had to step around women sitting on the floor pawing through things to make wedding favours and dodge women fighting to get the xmas stuff they were just putting out. Apparently there was a 40% off coupon.
Then I stopped by Steepers to buy a gaiwan. . . to have the person behind the counter say they had never heard of it! So I was there for an hour looking through some catalogs and showing him videos online. It was actually fun.
So I get home and brew up a cup of Maple cream and start building my tea packets. BoxerPapa wants to go out for lunch, I decline and tell him he’s welcome to take my car though since it’s much more fuel efficient. An hour later I am done and the phone rings. . . It’s BoxerPapa he says my car is DEAD.
Not that my battery is dead, my car is dead. The timing belt is gone. If it can be fixed he will fix it, but someone has to go get him so he can get his jeep to tow it.
So here I am waiting for them to tow my baby, the ten year old Tiburon. I hope he can fix her.
But, this cup is easing my anxiety slightly. I smooth and creamy. The peppermint is bold and there might be a hint of caramel!
Preparation
I got this as one of my samples in a recent order and decided to brew it up. It came in a satchet and the poor little leaves barely had enough room to expand. Brews up a pale golden brown. Scent is sweet and light, as is the taste. This is a good cup!
I’ve been up since 4am and if I keep drinking tea I wont be going back to bed.
Preparation
Seems I’m in the minority here! I love this tea! It’s quite creamy in flavour and the slight ‘hotness’ from the ginger comes through after. Glad I decided to add this to my order!
Preparation
Hmmm. . . I enjoy rooibos tea. This one doesn’t seem like anything really special. I’ll drink it, but not that often.
No flavour stands out, it pretty much tastes like rooibos. The smell is like cheap orange drink crystals.
My daughter liked it a lot.
Preparation
This is a very complex tea. A lot of different flavours come through. It is very smooth and creamy, but I am not a fan. I did two steepings and preferred the first, the second was very peppery and I couldn’t finish the cup. My pup enjoyed it though :).
It is a very nice tea, just not my cup.
Preparation
Oh my! This is perfection! Big thank you to Terri HarpLady, she spoiled me a little.
I like this one almost as much as Golden Fleece! This is creamy and sweet! I need to buy this! I might share the next steeps with my mama!
Preparation
Big thank you to Terri HarpLady.
I definitely glad I got to try this tea. I’m not wowed by it, but it’s still a good cup. I’m thinking it’s because I built it up so much in my head.
The leaves are absolutely beautiful, both dry and wet. It’s amazing how much it expands in water. The 8 oz of water is completely taken over by multicolour leaves. It brews up a light yellow.
Very fragrant liquor. As Bonnie had stated it tastes exactly as it smells.
I don’t know how to describe it, I’m not familiar with what I’m smelling.
All in all, it brews a beautiful cup. I likely wont purchase this one though.
Preparation
My first unflavoured puerh! I chronicled the whole thing in pictures, but photobucket is being uncooperative. This was the one I was most excited about with my order from butiki. It was something I hadn’t tried before. I’ve been loving my flavoured puerh but afraid of a plain one. Butiki has never let me down, and this remains true.
The little cakes come individually wrapped in their own little papers. You can’t smell much through the paper other than a light earth scent. once you open it up it’s shaped like a little nest! It smells like sweet hay and is very dark in colour. I popped it into my steeper and poured the water over it. If it weren’t for some mild housework I needed to attend to I would have watched it break apart.
It started right away! Little piece started floating off of it preceded by tiny bubbles. After I finished my vacuuming I returned to a steeper full of a dark red/brown liquor. It smelled slightly fishy with a bit of sweet earth. It looked beautiful! The little nest cake was all gone and had been replace with free swimming leaves.
The taste did not let me down one bit. Sweet hay, thick and rich. This cup is awe inspiring!
Preparation
Oh boy the adventure begins. Puerh is really nice. Once you get to tasting it, you don’t think of it as fishy (unless something is wrong with the puerh which I have yet to run into except with flavored stuff that is sour sometimes from the flavoring not the leaf itself.
You must have let your tuo cha steep awhile. You shouldn’t do that with every shu though. Some are good and rich at 30 seconds. Good for you! The small round puerh coins are really good too.
I followed the directions on the website. It said 7 minutes or longer. That’s good to know though! Maybe next time I’ll watch it and see how long it takes to darken. I love it though!
If that’s what it said than fine. I have others that are 30 seconds but are not as big and hard probably. Anyway, I wouldn’t want you to steep every puerh that long is what I was getting at. The Tuo Cha’s are exceptions.
Yes, you can definitely do short steeps. The directions are for 18oz of water (western style) but you could certainly do 4-6oz of water at much shorter steeps. I took a puerh class where they did one tea steeped short for maybe a minute, then 15 minutes, then 30 minutes and we did a side by side taste comparison. It was really interesting.
I definitely recommend experimenting.
I want a gaiwan. I feel like everything would be more fun. I’ve got my eye on the paisley one in our teaware section! I’m definitely going to experiment next time.
LOL, Boxer! One of my first reviews here started with, “I need a Gaiwan”. :D
LOL! When I joined this site I had one perfect mug and a handful of teas from DT. I feel out of control right now. haha!
Butiki has some pretty Gaiwans. I have a clay one just for puerh with a handle because I’m a klutz! You can use a cup and saucer or a finum basket works well too. Lots of times that’s what I use if the steepings are short (30 seconds). mrmopar suggests 30 seconds for most his shu puerh and he has LOTS!
I only have antique china tea cups that I’m terrified to use, I am also a klutz. I’m thinking I’m going to order one.
I’m always nervous ordering breakables on ebay. I have a number of Boxer figurines, but in my head they’re always going to arrive broken. lol
I like that!
I keep thinking I should give a cup of banana-flavoured tea to my boyfriend (who doesn’t like tea in general but has never tried flavoured). This sounds perfect!
I can’t imagine anyone not loving this!
yum!