1112 Tasting Notes
Today is the first day of the Spring 2010 semester at the University I work at. I’ve been doing this for almost ten years, so I knew today would be GUARANTEED INSANITY! I took this tea from my cupboard at home because it’s such an even-keeled Assam: not too bold, not too weak. I hoped it would give me an even-keeled disposition to deal with these lines of students! I do feel much better after this delicious cup, even though it sat there getting cold as I dealt with student, after student, after student. Such is life in the Registrar’s Office!
Preparation
…also excellent with brownies (and speaking of excellent, and brownies – Mark Bittman’s brownie recipe is divine! http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/recipe-of-the-day-brownies/
This tea can do no wrong paired with any kind of sweet! The smoky vanilla suits so well. I want to talk to my tea shop and tell them they should change the name from French Breakfast to French Dessert!!!
Preparation
Today was SUCH a comedy of errors. We set out to buy some art supplies, and accidently put the wrong address to the store in the google phone GPS thingum – and wound up at the wrong shopping center (we only realized this after wandering around puzzled for a half an hour). Where is the right one? Another half hour away! Sigh – our whole day was eaten up just getting a few mat boards and canvases. FINALLY home, River Shannon to the rescue, double portion! Takes lots of comforting milk and sugar, and stays really flavorful. A good basic strong black tea to give you a little lift!
Preparation
Remember how I had that idea about pairing cannoli with this tea? Well I tested it tonight to make sure it would be good for the company I’m having Sunday, and…yeah…it’s a pretty fantastic combination! The hint of vanilla and smoke in this tea goes well with the slightly sweet ricotta cream and crunchy shell. I hope I can convince my guest to break out of the coffee-after-dinner-mold and try some tea with their dessert – I’ll let you all know how it goes!
Preparation
Sounds great! Do you make your own cannoli?
We have this wonderful place in our neighborhood that makes them. It’s a husband and wife and they make them in this teeny shop that is only open 2 days a week. It’s such a gem!!! My guests went crazy over them (but they wanted coffee!!!)!
Beautiful, curly greenish brown leaves!
First steep: Woody and nutty. I don’t taste sweetness or bitterness (and I didn’t add anything to this tea) – very even. So enjoyable to sip. I could see this being great with a meal.
Second steep (4min): Sweeter and just as nutty.
Third steep (5 min): Tastes very similar to the 2nd steep!
Fourth steep: (6 min): Just a tad lighter tasting. Incredible! I’ve had enough for this afternoon, but maybe on another day I’ll find myself going for a fifth, sixth, seventh!
I need to take this home with me because I could really see steeping this all day on a day off – how pleasurable!
Preparation
I was just telling Ricky how much I can’t wait to place my 1st UTI order. I was originally looking at theirs when I was looking at matcha sets.
I really like their teas and the company. They are fast, no nonsense, and a good value – and they send the orders with cornstarch packing peanuts which you can compost or even put water on and they will dissolve! That thrilled me :) I’m so silly!
Dissolve? Sweet! Is the water safe to pour down the sink drain then? (We have a well)
It says that they are completely biodegradable so I would think so – you can even dissolve them then pour it out on the grass somewhere if you are afraid. I have a compost bin so I put them in there :) I even put all my used tea in the compost bin. I like knowing that last years tea that I enjoyed so much will help this year’s veggies grow in the spring and summer!
I’d love a compost bin- but mom doesn’t want one.
My husband didn’t like the idea – he thought it would smell bad! But I talked him into it because our town was offering $10 compost bins if you attended a composting class – so I went and we’ve been composting since Earth Day 2008. No bad smells at all.
if you have a septic system, don’t flush the cornstarch packing peanuts!! I know someone who discovered that this is a very expensive mistake!
Thanks for the advice, but I’d put them outside or down the sink drain.
The sink goes to the septic tank as well. These will mess up a septic system.
Gotcha- outside it goes then.
fcmonroe – I’m glad you knew that! I would have felt terrible forever if I messed up Cofftea’s well with packing peanuts!!!!!!!
Haha JacquelineM, I’m sure my mom would have said something.:)
You say that you need to take this home with you, where were you enjoying this?
At work! I have a little hot pot, small thermometer, and tea-for-one pot on my desk. I have my tins of tea in my desk drawer with some fillable paper tea bags. It’s working out even better than I hoped! (I work at an art school in a really old building – we don’t have a kitchen or anything like that in our office so we do what we can :) Another coworker has a coffeepot and we have a little fridge in the area where we keep the student folders and we make do!).
Oh yum! A very nice full flavored but light assam. I found it slightly…lemony? A reviewer on the Upton site said it tasted almost like a Ceylon, and I have to agree. I really like it. Milk and sugar!
Preparation
Cl/Spl. is also on my container – does that mean clonal I wonder? The leaves in the tin were especially golden looking to me – I remember thinking they were pretty but I had an Assam Golden Tips from Harney and it was good but not bold enough for my taste. I was very happy once I tasted it that it was very full flavored – had that Assam body but a pleasing Ceylon like lightness.
I should edit this tea to include those additional letters!
Thank you all for your comments. To purchase or know more about our teas, kindly contact us at sale@duflating.com.
I was arranging my teas at home after getting some samples together for TeaEqualsBliss, and unearthed this! I forgot I even had it after getting so many new teas recently!
This is a super flavorful dessert tea. There are flakes of toasted coconut and hunks of truffle in with Chinese black tea. Once brewed, it tastes like a chocolate liquor (no cocoa about it!) with a very faint coconut in the background. If I didn’t see that it said coconut on the package, I would be hard put to name exactly what that toasty warm background flavor was. I put it right up front in the place of honor in the cupboard – this tea is too delicious to get forgotten about!!!!
Preparation
Tastes like spinach veering into seaweed territory. More seaweed as it cools. It’s not bitter and I think it is of good quality – it’s just not my thing. (I don’t like sushi and don’t like seaweed at all!) I think this is going into the Traveling Teabox!!!!!! I think I may make some Earl Grey to get this taste out of my mouth!
Preparation
Are we measuring TTB excitement by amount of !s used? You must be pretty excited with those six. :p
Partially excitement about the teabox, partially how much I would like this tea in a box going somewhere else than my tea cabinet! :) :) :) and partially because I chronically abuse the exclamation point (!!!!!) It’s a good tea, just not at all my preference. If I had a tea that I thought was poor quality, I’d put it in my compost bin and wouldn’t inflict it on anyone!
I do hope people aren’t afraid of adding stuff they don’t like to the box. Chances are someone down the line will like it. Otherwise it would just go to waste.
Oh yes – I just meant that I wasn’t giving away junk :) It’s good stuff… for the seaweed inclined :) :) :)
Hee, yeah. After all I added the white cucumber that Ricky sent me. I know there are others who like that (or are curious to try it), so it’s going back across the water again. :)
So, you didn’t like it?
:P~ ~
(That is me spitting out the seaweed I mean tea!)
My husband had a really stressful day at work, so I picked up some chocolate chip cookies and white chocolate macadamia cookies on my way to the train. I made this tea to go with them. The smoky, subtle vanilla went really well with the cookies. I can see this tea standing up to all kinds of desserts and pastries! I’m having some guests for dinner on Sunday – I’ll see if I can talk them out of having coffee with the cannoli I’m serving for dessert, and recommend this instead!
First day back is always so much fun =D