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I noticed this tea is approaching its expiration date so I decided to concentrate on drinking it down. I have a LOT of it because it was soooo good and then I got distracted by other teas and let it languish. Time to fix that.

I had a very weird lunch of leftover barbeque (NC vinegar style from CookOut) and waffles with maple syrup. I told you it was weird. I had the bbq first and then made the tea and waffles.

My first sip reminded me why I bought so much all at once. Even though this is nearing its expiry date, it is still good. Tea needs to “cut through” the thick sweetness of the syrup for me, and this one did. Keemun does it by its raspy cocoa dryness, but this one was silky and sweet, with enough flavor contrast to make itself known through the maple.

I think it paired awesomely.

Has anyone seen this article? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1142193/

It was about SARS which is a coronavirus, but basically what it says is that black and puerh tea did have an inhibitory effect on the virus by disrupting an enzyme, 3CL protease. Green and oolong not so much, as the tannins and theaflavin were the helpful bits! Well, any excuse to drink more tea, plus I am hoping the heat of the beverage makes my throat a less hospitable environment for viruses in general!

There are no confirmed cases in our county yet, though there are some in our state. Not worried too much about getting sick as we are taking reasonable precautions, but wondering how supplies of food and other necessaries will hold out with people hoarding.

Praying for all our steepsterites to stay healthy and well fed!

Sorry! Forgot to paste link first time around! It has been added.

My eldest daughter, Superanna, shopped for my birthday present here on Steepster using the wishlist. She noticed a tea from this company, and in addition to the one on my wishlist, chose this one. Floating Leaves also included a personal note and a nice sample of another pu!

This is the first one I am trying, as my youngest daughter gets tummy ache from sweets and wanted pu after the birthday cake yesterday.

I made it gong fu using my larger gaiwan. From one little tuo, we got 1.5 liters of good tea!

There was little of the horse-y manure aroma ripe pu can have. Instead this one seemed very woodsy like wood shavings from using hand tools that have lain on earth for a while. So earthy and woodsy.

It was super dark even with a very short steep around steeps two through five (I did pour off a rinse and let it rest) but it was smooth and mild. This is a good daily drinker type puerh that is probably hard to mess up.it didn’t seem at all finicky.

Thank you, Superanna, for the gifts!

I haven’t been having many epic tea experiences lately, just drinking lots and lots of what I often drink. But this tea stopped me in my tracks yesterday to sit and admire it.

The first times I had it years ago I noted it had strong sweet potato notes. Years later, I described it as creamy and smokey. That is what I got yesterday.

I was trying to clean up my tea shelves and saw a sample of this in the box, and I th8nk I have a whole bag in another box. I decided it was a good candidate to go with my cookies in the sunny spot in the yard. I didn’t expect to be bowled over, but I was.

The first year I tried it I said I would prefer it gong fu style without food, but this smokier season is brilliant with food. It is very nearly like Grace Tea Russian Caravan. I am having it again today because I enjoyed it so much.

Some fun news – mrmopar and I have been very, very busy digging around on the internet because I noticed some of the places he talked about visiting and one of them is a town where my grandfather’s family came from. My mother didn’t really know him as she was raised in an orphanage but we knew who her parents were. I decided mrmopar and I might be distant cousins in my Virginia line so I wrote to him and asked if he would share his grandparent’s names, which he did.

Well, surprise, surprise! We ARE related, but more distantly than I thought and from before the families moved to America. (Both sides have mostly been here since 1690-1750. They are primarily Scottish, Irish, English, and Welsh.)

My ninth great-grandmother is his eleventh great-grandmother, way back when they still lived in merry olde England! The generations are somewhat off because my mother was a very late in life child for her dad and I was also for my parents. When this happens over repeated generations, two people of the same age can end up being “removed” cousins, as happened with us.

I am tickled pink, even if it was so far back! We have had a lot of fun tracking these things down and I am proud to be a cousin, however distantly, to mrmopar!

I had this with breakfast today, which was just a buttered English muffin. I haven’t had it in a while and last time was probably gong fu. I really didn’t remember what it tasted like, and didn’t look it up, but just reached for it for a change of pace.

It was really good. I used my Kamjove and resteeped once. What surprised me was that when I sipped, it cut through the taste of the food with a fruity, citrus-y taste rather than the low scrape of chocolate-y black tea I expected. But really, that comes more from Keemun tea.

I have been trying to send a private message to some folks, including mrmopar, but it just isn’t working for me on steepster. Anyone else having a problem?

Also, I have discovered spill planes and the delightful history of spills and now I want one. How is that for a start in woodworking, to get a tool that purposely makes useful trash? Any woodworkers here?

I ordered this just because I wanted to get something from the Teavivre US warehouse to show support while their China warehouse is closed due to Coronavirus. They have been so generous with samples and such and have great customer service, so I chose a couple of things I knew I would love to have more of on hand.

I made this to go with lunch today. I have never served it to my husband that I can recall, and he usually takes milk and sugar with black tea. Since he has been drinking lots of roasted oolong, I didn’t mention that this was black and he drank it and liked it plain. It really is mild.

It had nice creamy texture and sweet potato aroma so lots of sweetness here. We made two steeps. I used lots of leaf since it was to go with food. This is best to me as an afternoon tea, I think, rather than a breakfast one. I expect we will plow through this bag in no time.

I think tonight I will use it for our gong fu session and see how well it goes for that!

This came to me from the ever generous derk! Thank you so much!

My husband said he would like to have tea tonight so I made cinnamon toast and set up for gong fu. We have been really enjoying a Dong Ding from Tin Roof Teas so I thought he would enjoy this tea, as well.

We used a scent cup and the aromas were lovely. I was surprised to smell cinnamon in the scent cup – and I am sure it wasn’t the cinnamon toast I was smelling! It was definitely in the cup. There was a hint of magnolia or osmanthus, too.

The steeped tea was a medium yellow color. It was smooth, not overly sweet and less roasted than some Dong Ding I have tried, but lightly woody still. Delish! The unfurling of the leaves was pretty impressive. I taste light cinnamon, a little woodsy flavor, light floral notes, and a very little mineral taste.

Delish! We enjoyed! Thank you, derk!

Teavivre has closed temporarily to protect employees and customers from the novel Coronavirus, but their US Warehouse is still open. You can still order from the US stash if you are in the US so I placed an order last night. They have been really generous with their samples and I hope that the US Warehouse keeps this closure from affecting them as much.

I ordered this sample a while back because I absolutely love their jasmine teas. My first ever jasmine was not from Teavivre and it was too strong and too much like bubble bath. I don’t know if it was artificially flavored or what. When I got my first jasmine sample from Teavivre I was astounded at the difference. I have enjoyed every form of jasmine tea I have tried from them,

This one is no exception. Hubby and I had Asian buffet leftovers tonight and made a double steep from the sample pack. The “snails” are soft with lovely light green and white color. Beautiful. Now I wish I had saved it for a gong fu service I am doing later this week.

I swear I threw a bag of Whittard’s Chelsea Garden in my purse last night before leaving for church, but it was no where to be found once I got there. I had resigned myself to drinking something awful from the church cabinet (I really need to mercy stock that thing) when the Bible study teacher pulled out a tea wallet and said, “Here! Choose from one of these!”

She loves black tea and was listing the contents (PG Tips, English Breakfasst, etc.) when she said, “Vanilla Caramel Chai? Where did that come from? I don’t even like chai, at all!” So I told her I would take that one to get it out of her wallet and to keep from depriving her of a tea she loves!

It wasn’t bad! The tea aspect was pretty weak but the flavors were pretty good. We had tiramisu as our snack and it went well enough with that. By the end of the mug, the licorice root was really noticeable, but I don’t mind licorice root in the right places and it didn’t bother me. I include that info for those who hate the stuff, because I know a lot of people do.

Since Steepster is refusing to let me review two of the teas that derk sent, I will put up a new note on this one.

Earlier today I had a gong fu session by myself with the 2013 Hei Cha from Yunnan Craft. It was SO CHOCOLATEY in the aroma, and that came through in the taste as well. I don’t remember if I have had any/much hei cha, but I expected it to be as dark as ripe pu. This was much lighter. I will definitely be looking for some hei cha to buy based on my experience today.

This Tung Ting delivered as always. I got a hankering for some Krispy Kreme chocolate covered doughnuts with sprinkles, something we rarely buy. I would usually pour two huge glasses of cold milk to go with doughnuts, but I decided tea was much more responsible. It was absolutely delicious, as usual.

Speaking of hankerings, I gave my daughter-in-law known as ChelseaR here on Steepster some pickles in her stocking at Christmas just because she loves pickles so much. She got them last year, too. These particular ones were Woodstock Organic Bread and Butter Pickles and they are delicious. But this year, thanks to hankerings, she finished the whole 24 ounce jar AND DRANK THE JUICE in three days. Yes, friends, I am about to become the grandmother of TWINS. I have sent two more jars of pickles and she will get them tomorrow! Maybe they will last the week, but I wouldn’t bet any money on it! :)