Frontier Natural Products Co-op

SIPDOWN! this time the dog won’t step on the return key before I even get to the good stuff, like a real dufuss. Maybe I’m the dufuss because I made this tea piping hot and put in the thermos for later but I can’t wait. I’m getting kind of naivity from the green tea, like a tisane, almost. Very little actual tea flavor. It’s almost a japanese green tea taste. Mmm sweet olive oil color extraction and lots of tanniny biterness. It’s cot a clean tasting as a bancha but it has a sort of twig taste that could be sipped any time of day. I opened the tea pot after brewing and saw all of the little nodules of tea had expanded and blossomed, now the flavor is like coming into its own, and I’ve stopped thinking of foods to describe it although the mouthfeel is reminiscent of light olive oil. I wouldn’t necessarily sample this tea with food, but it could taste nice with udon noodles or some sort of seeded cheese and cracker. There is more of a layer on the tongue tastes of english breakfast, you know with the bacon on the plate. I like that one. If you like this one you might also like the Long Jing Lu Cha. It’s one of the more classical green tiea, but don’t mind clouds and mist either, thanks to DanLui for sending me that one.

SipDown~
Frontier-Gunpowder-Green, letting my mind wander, projects I have had to complete independently for my Conservatoire training sipping teas and coffees till the wee hours, when I was young. I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything they’re who I am, but I’m still young, so is the day I have to get through ten books, flashcards, and my dog is liking

First tea from the Here’s Hoping teabox!! THANK YOU again everyone that made it a successful box! I’m setting up round two right now…

This tea is lovely.. a plain Earl Grey. Always a favorite! The bergamot is nice in this one – it’s almost like it has cream (but it doesn’t). The black base is perfect… something is reminding me of squash. Weird! A very good EG. Not the best but there are certainly worse ones out there – I don’t get the low score!

It looks like a lot of other people have the same story with this tea — bought at some kind of all-natural/local/organic/“hippie” store, smells like an Irish Breakfast, but isn’t strong enough. Huh.

I got mine at the local co-op in bulk — I was only going to get an ounce or two, but the canisters they use for bulk teas are the kind where you pull a lever and the tea spills out… so I got a lot.

This really isn’t a breakfast tea. It’s more like an after-work tea. I think this would be a good base for delicate blends with something like rose buds. I’ll probably finish what I have but not get more.

I thought this was pretty wonderful. Very smooth, and nothing really unpleasant about it at all. I prefer most black teas to be a bit more mild, so I steeped it for 3 minutes exactly and it was perfect, no milk/sugar was needed at all.

So after a pretty uncomfortable experience with my first cup, I read some brewing tips from some book I found in a Teavana store. It said to use 1 3/4 tsp. of tea for every 8 oz, and steep for one minute at 205 degrees. I approached this advise with caution, because it didn’t seem like MORE tea would solve the earlier problem of the tea punching me in the face with the burnt-rice nutty taste on my first sip. The temperature also seemed a bit high for green tea.

HOWEVER

I tried it, and steeping it this way made a drastic improvement. The rice-taste, while still present, is much more subtle and blends well with the bancha to create a pleasant, smooth cup.

Kudos to that book.

First sip, you’re pretty overwhelmed by the nutty taste, it took me halfway through the cup before I could detect much of the green flavor underneath. After that, I suppose it’s a smooth, relatively balanced tea that leaves a pleasant taste in your mouth. I just think the cooked rice/popcorn taste was pretty overpowering. Not my favorite, but not awful.

On second cup:

I lowered the steep time to around 4:25-4:30, and added a tiny bit of milk. Now, this is basically perfect, new favorite black tea.

this is my first assam tea, so i’m not entirely sure what to compare it to. it definitely has a smooth, yet astringent and dry taste. makes for an excellent breakfast tea. i think 5 minutes might have been a bit too much, i’ll try 4-4.5 next time.

I got this tea a few weeks back from the bulk bin. I’m not a huge drinker of white teas, I tend to find them a little too subtle for my tastes (little terri wanted me to write “boring”, she may be young, but she has grown up tastes).
I’ll try anything once or twice, so I did.
It’s not bad. The tangerine flavor is very light, over a bed of slightly creamy oatiness. A gentle & pleasant cup, a good contrast to the Qimen, kind of like those light & fruity sorbets they serve a teeny tiny scoop of at super fancy restaurants to cleanse the palate. I never eat at those places, but I have played my harp at a lot of fancy events like that, where they make a big deal over every course. Its fun to watch!

Sipdown! After yesterday’s purchases, minus this SD, I’m at 290. LOL

Anyway, I’m enjoying this Assam more than I recall from my previous sippings of it. I brewed a large pot of it, fairly strong, & it’s pretty bold & dark, just what I needed. I can feel the caffeine coursing through my bloodstream!

I got this awhile back from the bulk aisle. As far as Assams go, it is robust & malty with a bit of a bite. Not anything like my beloved Tiger or #49, but definitely helped to revive me after an afternoon in the garden.

Speaking of which, it’s starting to look more like the garden I know & love & less like the wildlife grasslands (actually weedlands) that it was turning into. Today my son Drew & I did some terracing, which I’ve been planning on doing for years since my yard is a bit of a slope. We made the first terraced bed, which I promptly planted with lots & lots of carrots & a few other things. In the last couple of days I’ve planted turnips, radishes, lettuces, brussels, more peas, parnips, beets, leeks, more onions, etc. We’re eating asparagus daily, & today I picked some carrots, beets, & collards that over-wintered. I love my life!

OK….so I’m also trying to drink a flavored green a day…at least for the next week, in order to get through them & stay on track for my goal, which is to drink a cup of every tea that’s in my cupboard at least once a month. Crazy, I know!
This one’s ok. Mildly vegetal with a hint of strawberry & just a little tart. Really not bad.

This is not a particularly strong earl, & that’s ok by me. Because it is most likely a ceylon, & the bergamot scent wasn’t too strong, I added extra leaf. Then I added stevia & french vanilla coconut creamer. It was a pleasant cup, which I enjoyed. For awhile I didn’t care much for Earl Greys, & some of them are awful, IMO, but I’ve been trying several, & finding that some are very pleasant. This will not be a favorite, but not bad.

Sipdown!
I enjoyed this with 2nd breakfast, which was basically 2 leftover pancakes (gluten free, almond flour), reheated in the toaster & slathered with coconut butter & a drizzle of Maple Syrup (slurp! I love maple syrup!). That treat required something with a bit of rustic-ness, which I feel this tea satisfied. It’s got a interesting musky low end, that complimented the sweet nuttiness & creaminess of the snack perfectly.

This is not from the TTBA, but I realized looking through it that it’s mostly flavored blends, heavy on the rooibos, & although I still plan on sampling them all, I gotta have some black tea that is unflavored first!
This is a pleasant Darjeeling, nothing special, but nice enough.

This is nice.
Just a nice mellow gentle tea.
It’s has a nice brightness to it, a little fruity tang in the middle section, although the base, & by that I mean the depth, is not particularly strong.
A pleasant afternoon diversion.

Sipdown! After all the sipdowns that went into making yesterday’s ‘Suicide is Painless" ice tea blend, that puts me at 290!
My first tea of the day, & the first several sipdowns, I hope. I’d like to clear my cupboards out a bit, maybe narrow it down to my most favorites (stop laughing Sil, I know you are!)

This Irish Brekkie is ok, but not good enough to invoke images of Collin Farrell in a bathrobe saying, “Pass me a cup, Love” & winking.

I made a pot of this, & it’s gone already!
Its a decent little tea, slightly malty, nothing to write home about, but acceptable. It’s more of an English Breakfast really, not particularly bold, stout, or any of the qualities I associate with the Irish version, but all in all, it went fine with my breakfast.

I’ve been working in my office for the last couple of hours. It’s menial work really, work that I always avoid (which is why my office is such a wreck). I didn’t feel like doing anything today, so this is what I’m doing: all the small office tasks that are way overdue. My desk is clean, I’m making a list as I go along of things I need to do (like update website, actually start writing the blog I set up back on new year’s day…blah blah). All of these creative projects have been hampered by the mess that is my office.

Anyway, my desk is clear, the underneath of my desk is clean & vacuumed & the file box under there (mailing labels, extra file folders, etc) is organized. Would you believe there was a bulk package of cassette labels in there? How long do you think it’s been since I used those?
My city tax are finally filed (I didn’t actually owe anything), all of my tax papers are finally put away. It’s a start.

I enjoyed this Irish Breakfast with my lunch. It’s not as punchy as I’d like, but not pad either.

I stopped by the local health food store to get something. I haven’t been in that store in ages, & now they are carrying bulk teas from Frontier, a company I used to order herbs from. I bought small amounts of several different teas to try, including this one.
It’s not as bold & Malty as I expect an Irish Breakfast to be, but it’s also not bad! Next time I’ll use more leaf…

Meanwhile, my Butiki order arrived! YEAH!
Turn the kettle on baby, momma’s gonna steep some tea!