A Southern Season

Today for lunch I made turkey panini with sautéed onions, lettuce, Raspberry Enlightenment from Penzey’s, and mozzarella cheese. As a side dish I had rotini noodles with Double Devon Cream, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheese. To me, that meal screams for a good, stout Chinese black tea, like Keemun Hao Ya or Fengqing Dragon Pearls. But hubby doesn’t go for many black teas…yet. His favorite black tea is Ceylon, and even then only certain Ceylons will do.

He liked this one very well, and drank three cups to my one. I really wanted some tea after lunch so I tried resteeping the leaves, something I don’t do with just any black tea because so many come out weak. This was definitely weaker, but still very enjoyable.

Side note: the puppy we are fostering because she was hit by a car is doing well and should be ready to go up for adoption in a month or less. The puppy I keep on Tuesdays is staying with us indefinitely now since his owner is in the hospital having tests run. So every bite I eat, every sip I drink, is watched by three pairs of eager eyes…

At one time, all I could get hubby to drink with me was black tea, and only a few of those. He added lots of sugar and milk. Less than a year ago he started drinking – and enjoying – lots of greens and oolongs and even some white and puerh. These teas he takes plain and has no desire to add anything. But even now, if I make a black tea he looks at it with distrust and wants to know what it is. Once he knows it is a kind he likes, in goes the sugar and milk.

Tonight I made a recipe from Pinterest because we are having Christmas soup night Friday and I wanted something “manly” to fill up those guy appetites. The test run for the sandwiches was today, and they were really good. Hubby devoured a number of them, and he was so pleased that I made this tea to go with them.

He loves a good Ceylon and said he seems to prefer the ones from A Southern Season. Fortunately, I have a healthy stock of three different Ceylons that they sell.

The best way I know to describe this tea and is that you take one sniff and say, “Ah! TEA!” This is not one of the super lemony or lightly astringent Ceylons. It is rich and full bodied and SMOOTH. I love it plain – it didn’t need a thing for me – but hubby drank cup after cup with milk and sugar, so if that is your bent, it can certainly handle it!

The girls and I had tea lunch today, not to be confused with rat lunch which is grilled cheese sandwich and tea! Tea lunch is when we have a fancy lunch together at the tea table!

Since we always did Ceylons with such a meal because that was the one tea that everyone in the family liked, I revisited this one. Unfortunately, I lost track of the steep time amidst all the cooking, but it still came out fairly well. The dry leaves are much smaller than the leaves of Ceylon Extra Fancy from the same company.

The aroma is lemony, very lemony. The cup has all the roundness of a Ceylon but this is also very malty. With food when it was piping hot, it was perfect, but as it cooled and I was sipping it by itself the maltiness took on a bitter edge. I added milk to combat that effect.

This pot of tea was less than stellar, but next time I will not only set a timer but perhaps cut back on the steep time a little, due to the small size of the broken leaves. It can be a very good tea when made properly!

This one has a little more heft to me than some Ceylons. I think Ceylons are delicious and smooth, most have strong honey notes and this one is not an exception. But there is more body to this one, I believe, and perhaps some additional toasty tones? Good with milk and sugar, enjoyed it with some sharp cheddar which always seems to sweeten the taste of tea!

A nice Ceylon – I tried it unsweetened, sweetened, and with milk and sugar. I loved it unsweetened but it lost something with sugar. I added milk and drank it Brit style and all was well again!

The first time I tried this tea I wasn’t a fan. Too astringent and bitter. I got brave today and tried it ,again, but with a much shorter brewing time. I tried 3 minutes instead of 5 and I can’t believe the improvement. This tea like Golden Monkey smells so much like honey but you don’t really taste it so much. I found it much more palatable as it cooled and it also has a mildly sweet afternote that I missed the first time. I was able to drink it black and really enjoyed it. Bravo assam! I am looking forard to another cup.

I originally gave this a 77 but it doesn’t ‘keep’ all that well. It is nothing like I remember it. DH had a sip and said it was “AWFUL” and I only could drink a half cup. Very old, very bitter. I know this was good at one point but it’s very easy to prepare it bad, apparently

Another Ruth Tea! YAY! Thanks Ruth!!!! :)

This reminds me of a very light flavored cigar smell…reminds me of my Grandfather! It’s very dark brown in color.

When I say Assam, you say lovely!
Assam — lovely!
Assam — lovely!

Gets milder with age…SIPDOWN

A little mellower than I remember but still pretty darned good

Another Ruth Tea! Thanks!!!!

It has a malty scent to it…not very strong…but that’s the first thing that came to mind when I smelled it. It’s a dark brown in color and it’s a nice even taste. All I can think of when I drink this is it seems very comforting.

A mild pu erh, just right today after a heavy lunch and accompanied by some whole wheat low sugar chocolate mini-muffins. Mmmmm….

This is from the Fine Tea list at Southern Season. It is a loose leaf pu-erh. The taste is what you expect a pu-erh to be…earthy and horse-y. This smells just like the air when I take my daughter to horse camp! Don’t get me wrong – I LIKE pu-erh, but that is what it smells like to me! Horses and freshly plowed earth. The taste is purely earthy, no horse-y flavor…I guess, since I can’t say exactly what horse-y would TASTE like.

This one is lighter in color, body, and flavor than the Pu-erh mini tuo cha that I bought from the same source. This would be a good way to ease into pu-erh if you are afraid! Personally, I think I like the stronger one better. I take it without sugar or milk. It really does make me feel better if I have indulged in a meal that is too fatty to digest comfortably. It soothes the tummy. I have read that it is because this tea helps block fat absorption in the intestines and it may contain pro-biotics. Perhaps pu-erh tea was drunk by the Tibetans because their altitude makes veggie growing difficult and they eat a lot of meat? I know they add yak butter and salt to replace calories and sodium lost in the high, cold mountains near Everest as they climb in their heavy clothing. Maybe I should find a local source for yak butter (or just find an unattended yak at a petting zoo – LOL!) to try it the authentic way! You can steep it longer if you wish, I drank it from a gaiwan and it did not get bitter as the leaves stayed in the cup.

My bad. I bought this a long time ago when I was a tea newbie. It was the first green I really liked. Then in the frenzy of collecting more and more, it was laid aside and forgotten. Now it is too old. It made an okay cup of tea, but nothing to write home about. I thought I would give it a try since I loved the DragonWell from Teavivre but I think I will just toss it, and remind myself to drink my greens faster!

I have had this pouch of tea for a very long time…over a year. It is drinkable, but I can tell that if I have very much of it I will get a stomach ache from it. I may have had the water a bit too hot, I may have used too much leaf snce it is so very light and I was weighing it, but it has a bit of bite and is a tad astringent.

I just had this one for the first time from….my BRAND NEW GAIWAN that my son gave to me for Mother’s Day! Thank you, sweetie! This is a great green tea. I added no sugar or sweetener of any kind. I would resteep the leaves, but it is so late and I need to get some sleep tonight!

I saw the tin sitting off to the side and said, “Why not?” I completely forgot until I saw it just now about the experiment of icing it and adding vanilla. Seriously? I did that? And liked it?

Well, having made it the usual way I make hot tea, I tried to like it once again. I find it slightly more palatable now, but I think I would rather put this in my bath water because it smells so great. The taste is still soapy and perfume-y to me. And now that I have fallen in love with Teavivre’s jasmine teas….all of them…I know that I DO like jasmine, just not this one. And I don’t see myself caring about it enough to ice it with vanilla. As it cools, it gets worse and worse. I want to wash my tongue.

Foot tea and bath tea it is!

My jasmine bower is in full bloom and since that is my main eating and tea drinking spot outside, I was inspired to try this tea again. It has been frightfully hot here – mid 90’s – and I have been doing yard work so I decided to try it iced.

I like this better iced than hot. And even better – after the first half glass I decided to try to mimic that wonderful Golden Moon Vanilla Jasmine tea that JacquelineM sent me last summer by adding about 1/8 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the 17 ounce glass of iced tea. Delicious, and has that cream soda/root beer flavor! I thought my Jasmine Black tea was going to go to waste but I think I can finish it easily this way!

I have yet to try a plain jasmine tea that I love. It is just too flowery for me and I feel like smacking my lips to get the perfume taste out of my mouth. Perhaps I should try Harney and Sons – I like almost everything they make.

Tried this one both with and without sugar today. I usually add a little sugar to my tea and liked this tea better with, though even without it the jasmine adds a sweetness as the aroma fills your head. The jasmine is not too strong to me, though the dry leaves would make you think this tea could knock you down and take your lunch money! My big disappointment is that I couldn’t taste TEA. If someone had told me this was JUST jasmine I would have believed them. Probably won’t buy this one again, but I will enjoy playing with it a bit and trying it iced and with more sugar.

I am decupboarding this one as I finished it today! I was experimenting, and I am hoping someone on here can help me because it was NOT a success.

I made a big batch of this tea, added cinnamon, cloves, and a tiny bit of nutmeg, squeezed a Clementine orange over it, and threw the peel and fruit in to simmer. I also added sugar.

This is very nearly good, yet almost undrinkable at the same time. It smells good and the sip is almost good but there is a really weird aftertaste. It was somewhat drinkable other than that while it was hot but as it cooled it was pretty terrible!

I wondered if this is bitterness coming from the orange peel?

Does anyone have a great recipe for a mulled tea that can be simmered low and slow in a crockpot? Other than the old standby of instant tea, Tang, and cinnamon?

My tasting notes are all over the place on this one, mostly because I started drinking it back in the milk and sugar days. Now that I take my tea plain, this is just meh. I think I may even add milk and sugar this morning just so I will enjoy this tea more, but I definitely won’t be repurchasing it when it is gone. There are too many really great teas to bother with meh tea.

I decided to try one iced and lightly sweetened with my lunch. It made me change my mind about what is in this blend. This actually tasted like I had added lemon to it, so I am guessing that Ceylon must be a big component in this. I thought it was great iced but youngest said it was too astringent for her. I think she was picking the lemon actually, plus I put very little sugar and she likes a lot! I will definitely be drinking this iced from now until the tin is empty!

I haven’t been having tea at breakfast lately, as I have been wanting to savor it by itself or with a small snack. Today I wanted a little boost, and I want to reduce my tea inventory. This one drew the short straw.

It is good, but not great. I don’t ooo and ahhh when I drink it, but it serves its purpose. It was inexpensive, on sale, and organic. I probably will not repurchase but I won’t be terribly bothered about having to finish this tin. With milk and sugar it makes an adequate breakfast tea, with a very mild Assam that has light cinnamon notes mixed with a Chinese black if I am guessing correctly. Therre is almost none of the smokiness kne finds in many keemuns. It is a great deal weaker than Harney’s Supreme Breakfast or even their English Breakfast.

Since I really want to reduce the number of tins I have I am eyeballing a lot of these teas as candidates for making iced tea. That will reduce the inventory quickly! The rest of this tin just might turn into a big pitcher of iced tea.

My kids are hovering over my nearly empty tins hoping to claim them for holding their Magic the Gathering cards. I have given up six tins already. They are making specialty and themed decks and decorating the tins to match the decks. LOL! This means they are pilfering two of my hobby areas…tea and papercrafts!

Ah, how the mighty have fallen! Once upon a time I could not walk out of A Southern Season without tons of tea. I thought it was wonderful tea. Then as I tried more and more tea I realized that SS tea was tasting weaker and weaker, and lacked the pizzazz of same name teas from other vendors. This was one I bought a while back on sale, mostly because it was a good price and was organic. It is okay, but as the last tea at tea party today there was really nothing special I could
say about it. Without additions, Royal English Breakfast had qualities to make you take notice. All I noticed about this SS tea was that there was nothing special there for me. It is fine as an eye-opener loaded with milk and sugar.

SS does sell lots of other teas like Mariage Freres and Harney and Sons, and scads of others, but they were sold out of all the teas I wanted to try on this trip! Ended up leaving with nothing but a Brie baker!