620 Tasting Notes
1 bag for 250mL water, bare.
Awww, come on.
It’s a blend of Assam, Keemun, Ceylon and Darjeeling. All I can taste is mediocre Ceylon — even after leaving the bag in extra time after tasting it at 5 min. No body, just tea-flavoured water. It’s not bitter or astringent, and, given its lack of body, quite easy to drink, but I certainly would not go out of my way for this one again.
I used to really like this one, before I got serious about good whole leaf.
Wondering how these boxes ended up in the retail graveyard that is Winners … The tea’s not stale. Best before date is Nov 2013. Interestingly, the Morning Rise foil was impossible to open without scissors; maybe this lot of bags didn’t get nicked.
I expect I’ll binge later on the Chinese Breakfast in the second box, then continue to take my chances with the others. Hey, Numi’s Aged Earl Grey and Monkey King Jasmine are good.
Preparation
1 bag for 250mL water, bare.
Where’s the tea?
A pleasant vanilla taste, not perfumey, not fake, with creamy finish that reminds me of unsweetend soy milk.
But where’s the freakin TEA? I’ve kept the bag in the cup long past the recommended 5-minute max.
Vanilla-flavoured hot water. I kid you not. Grand if you want vanilla-flavoured hot water, which is soothing in and of itself, but I wanted tea. I won’t bother with this one again.
Preparation
1 bag for 250mL water, bare.
Got frustrated with the writing today and took a trip to a nearby mall, ending up in Winners, where I found some forlorn and battered boxes of Numi teabags. I bought the two boxes of “Numi’s Assortment,” mostly to get a few old faves in there; I adore Numi’s Aged Earl Grey and Monkey King Jasmine. A few others in there I really want to try, too.
To my surprise: one bag per box of Numi’s Chinese Breakfast Yunnan Black Tea. Oooh, a new China black tea to try.
Very good. Especially for a bagged tea. Bit of malt, faint bits of honey and smoke, and a nice pepper bite. Mineral finish. (I guess that’s what the Numi ad copy called “spring water” in the finish.) Refreshing. I love Yunnan black tea, and I really wish Numi was easier to find in NL. I will try to re-steep the bag, but my hopes aren’t high.
Preparation
Not a brilliant re-steep (7 minutes). Mostly mineral now with a bit of pepper. Much lighter in colour. The honey, malt and smoke are gone.
Ooh lucky you, i should check Winners here…
steeping some Yunnan Black Needles tea this very moment in fact
The box is worth it for just that one (!) bag.
Sigh. Drinking the Morning Rise this morning — a disappointment.
Where did you get our Black Needles?
It’s from DavidsTea – I emailed them to see if they would be getting any more at the store and they said no but offered to send some for me to pick up! I was way impressed :D
No faulting DT’s customer service. They recently replaced a 250g bag of Jumpy Monkey for me. (Yes, that’s 250 grams, half a pound.) I’m always impressed when I interact with them.
Good Black Needles is sooooooo nice. I’m more a fan of the Black Needles Yunnan from Stash. I found the DT’s version a bit flat in comparison. But that might have been an older batch. Mmm, peppery tea …
Can’t wait to try the stash version, then, since I (and everyone I give it to try) really love the DT version. Main reason I got it was that all the staff there said it was their favourite straight black .. they sold me on it!
Good Yunnan is a treasure.
Sipping some Stash Black Needles here while nibbing on a piece of 70% cocoa chocolate. Serious yum.
DT’s Black needles is not a bad tea — don’t get me wrong. And it has the distinct advantage of being easier to get, if you live near a bricks and mortar DT. Yunnan has that amazing ability to refesh even more quickly than good Indian teas — and believe me, I am a serious fan of India blacks. I just find the variety I get from Stash has more depth of flavour.
I’ve got some Organic Keemun Panda #1 here, too, for my local tea shop. Mmmm, tea …
That’s too funny, i was just nibbling on some 80% dark chocolate (love my cocoa) with my DT Keemun
Chortle. String and tag here, are we? :)
1 TB for 450mL water.
Silly me. I tried drinking this beautiful oolong while preparing supper. The multi-tasking dstracted me from the oolong, and the cooking smells overpowered the oolong. Note to self: drink oolong while sitting down. Meditate a bit. Sip some more.
I really enjoy this ti kuan yin. A bit bakey, a mineral on the 2nd infusion. Clean. (Two minutes 1st, 4 minutes 2nd.)
Preparation
(Backlogging from last night.)
1 TB for 450mL water, 1 packet stevia (equiv. 2 tsp white sugar)
This excellent flavoured red rooibos does not need, to my taste, the sweetening I carelessly added last night. Like all rooibos, it needs a goodly long steep before th eflavour develops. The vanilla is subtle and plays nicely with the red rooibos. The leaves are not minty or woody. Soothing and energizing all at once. A lovely evening tisane.
Preparation
1 TB for 500mL pot, bare.
A lovely jasmine green. No soap or perfume here. Use water off the boil, and the tea offers a clean taste with no astringency, bitterness, or grassiness. I’ve steeped it longer in the past to get a quicker jasmine hit, but my stomach is tetchy today, so I made the tea recommended strength. Highly recommend. Pity it’s a limited edition — damn you, Damn Fine!;)
Preparation
1 TB for 450mL water, bare.
Pulling a late (for me) night as I work on revisions … the delicious sharpness of this blend helps keep me focused depsite the yawns and won’t ruin my eventual sleep. The more I drink this one, the more I like it.
Also celebrating a new Kate Bush single (a revisited “Deeper Understanding”) as I sip.Good tea, Kate Bush, and revisions: bliss.
This is a great tea, and Kate Bush has a new single??
Hello, Friday!
Yep! On iTunes, a revision / revistation /whatever ya wanna call it of “Deeper Understanding,” from The Sensual World (1989). It gets better. She’s got a whole album of re-visits coming out on May 17th. It’s called Director’s Cuts, and the highlight of it, for me, is “Flower of the Moutain,” where she finally (!) gets to use the Molly Bloom bit straight from our man Joyce. AND, even better than that … she’s working on new material. No release date for that yet. Soooo happy about this! I always feel braver and hyper-creative after listening to Kate Bush. And her records are like blooming tea, like perpetual gifts that unwrap themselves over years, offering something new each time you listen.
1 TB for 450mL water, bare.
Bliss. Such an enticing blend. Very bright today, coppery, full on sunlight and warmth. The maltiness is like a favourite jacket on a windy day — just right. Notes of cream and smoke, and no bitterness, as I’ve said many times before and will likely say many times again. Just grand.
One of my dreams is to make this blend in a Breville. (Ohhhh, how I want a Breville tea maker!)
Preparation
1 TB fpr 450 mL water, bare.
Oh, MY. Very like the the Black Needle Yunnan that Stash also carries, only maltier, and with a heavier body. Not as much peppery-ness but more honey-like sweetness. A very, very slight creamy-smoky note.
Smoooooth. No atringency. Really good.
Found out, by accident, that if you make a cup of this, leave it on a hot plate to steep and then eforget about it for 20 minutes, THEN you can taste a bit of Keemun wine. But the body of the tea remains very thin.