Michelle Butler Hallett Send Message

2-3TB for 125mL gourd, for a somewhat authentic packed mate, OR 1 TB for 450mL water, for a thin tisane.

Backlogging after a really bad batch …

I let DavidsTea know I had a bag that tasted bitter, sour, stale, and just plain offm and they replaced it. I’m talking the great big 250g / half-pound bag. This one’s fine, back to what Jumpy Monkey should be.

In a gourd, which is how I prefer it: INTENSE. Very vegetal, in its mate way, with clove and white chocolate flavours, plus decent coffee bean flavours and scents. The 2-3TB are good for at least four infusions. Powerul and potent sippin. Can and sometimes does replace coffee for me.

Brewed as a tisane, the flavours are not as bold, unsurprisingly, but they are more thirst-quenching. The taste can get a bit thin and sharp.

I don’t use boiling water on mate. Maybe about 93 degrees.

1 TB for 500mL pot, bare.

The label suggests a 5-minute steep, which I followed and am now enjoying, but I can see anyone who’s already a bit down on florals finding this ooling a bit soapy at a 5-minute steep, especially if use water that’s a bit too hot, like I just did. I’m gonna try a shorter steep next time, maybe 3 minutes.

But that’s a subtlety. This oolong — and I am right in the mood for oolongs these last few days — is incredibly sensual. As in, it affects many senses at the same time. This first infusion has a buttery mouth-feel and a clean finish. Quite floral, with the oolong’s own floral notes hauting the tongue after the magnolia washes away.

Delicious complexities. Good for long and unhurried sipping.

1 scant TB for 500mL pot, bare.

Okay, I measured the leaves and watched the steeping time carefully and got a much more enjoyable cuppa. David’sTea recommened 4-7 minutes for steeping, which seems alike a lot for an oolong to me. Last night, 1st infusion, fragrant and redolent and buttery, lots of yummy peach and apricot notes. Four-minute steep. (Hubby, to my great surprise, loved it. The peach seduced him.) Second infusion, this morning: at 4 minutes, still deliciously fragrant, lighter body, more butter taste, though less butter feel, and more oolong-leafiness than peach and apricot, but the fruit notes do remain. Second infusion at 6 minutes: almost as fruity as the first infusion, only again with more leafiness, and less buttery-ness in the mouthfeelm so the whole brew seems clearer, somehow, even cleaner.

The fruit: not at all an artificial. You can see chunks of dried apicot and peaches, plus sliced almonds, nestling with the tighly curled oolong leaves

Really, really good. Upping my rating. I just made it much too strong last time.

I think I’ve just started down the oolong path.

Oh, so delicious. Refreshing in a unique way. I think I may like this even more than Ti Kuan Yin. Highly recommend. So long as you enjoy peaches.

1 bag per 250mL water, bare.

So I tried this tea at a hospital cafeteria yesterday morning, thinking it simply had to be better than the ubiquitous-in-Newfoundland Tetley. (At least the Tetley bags available were the indidivually sealed ones, which do taste marginally better than the bags in the big box.) Not just Lipton tea, oh no, but Sir Thomas Lipton Tea. And not just “tea,” either, but a “robust” English Breakfast. Made from Northern Indian and Kenyan teas, sez the packet.

Ye gods.

Not even fannings but tea dust. Okay, I need to expect that. But no flavour! It was mean tea. Thin. Even after 5 minutes. Stingy. So astringent as to be almost sour. And no malt notes. No “tea” taste.

Couldn’t get more than one quarter of the way in before I tossed it.

I’d have been better off with Tetley.

1.5 TB for 600mL pot, bare.

Still a light body with just 1.5 TB (versus 2TB yesterday) in my wicked little pot. Smoky, though, in that winy Keemun way. Not as Russian as yesterday, when I made a concentrate that might echo that comes from a samovar (I sooooo want to try tea from a samovar). Sweeter finish. Stronger than when I brew it by the mug, but I prefer it either 1 TB for 450mL or 2TB for 600mL watered down.

Adding honey … (equivalent of 1tsp … I am using the Honbibee dried honey pastilles, which I do NOT recommend) … honey mellows this tea nicely without dominating, and thereby ruining, it.

2 TB for 600mL pot, bare.

STRONG. And ohhhhh, so good. I did need to water down my Keemun concentrate almost 50%, but I think I might like it even better this way. Made strong, this Keemun gives off more oakiness and more smoke. Cries out for dark fruit, or maybe sugar in the mouth while drinking it – Russian-style.

Is Keemun black tea the base for Russian Carvan tea?

Either way, I feel quite fortified now, stronger than the late snowstorm tormenting my little city, certainly strong enough to outline the next book (always daunting).

1 TB for 450mL water, bare.

Ahhhhh … now that’s a really good red rooibos. A bit woody – more wine than wood – but not sour, and definitely not minty (blech). The vanilla flavour doesn’t come out til about the 5-minute-steep mark, and when it does, it complements rather than dominates. Probably the tastiest red rooibos blend I’ve had in years. (I am much more a fan of green rooibos these days … too much crappy red rooibos out there, tasting like rotten logs where the ants incessantly brush their teeth. Like in the bad old days when low-quality black tea would be masked with heavy fake flavouring. What? That still happens? Bestill my beating heart.)

1 bag for 200mL water, bare.

Maybe I’m used to drinking Nilgiri in blends, because while I cannot say there’s anything wrong with it, I also feel like there’s something missing.

This Nilgiri is smooth and has a light body. It feels and tastes more like a China black than an India black, though it is defintely Indian tea.

I keep waiting for a snap of astringnecy, or for something sharp, smoky, or malty.

I think this Nilgiri would blend especially well with Keemun. But, on its own, it’s a bit dull, at least to my taste. (Dull as in unsurprising, not as in stale.)

1 bag for 200mL water, bare.

Not a brilliant, mind-blowing Darjeeling but a damned sight better than most bagged travesties that dare to call themselves Darjeeling. A thoroughly dependable Darjeeling. Light body, lovely scent, nutty muscatel taste, and mild to medium astringency. Tastes best to me at a four-minute steep.

For bagged tea, St Dalfour’s Darjeeling and Ceylon are really, really good. Stash’s bagged Darjeelings, in their Teas of India line, are a bit better, but St Dalfour’s can be found in stores here, whereas most of Stash’s offerings must be ordered online.