Life In Teacup

So unique!

Slightly smoky but moreso juicy and almost fruity notes pop in and out along with being toasty and malty! Oh!!!! I really like this one, too! I has been an AWESOME TEA DAY!

3 cups today!
YAY!

BTW…I have some upcoming giveaways over at one of my Blogs if any of you want to follow it/bookmark it!!!

http://blissfulyogajourney.blogspot.com/

It’s not tea but you will be able to ADD IT to your Tea if you wish :)

Sipdown #4
This didn’t last long. I miss it already.
I’m upping the rating, too!

This is tremendously YUMMY! It’s toasty and bakey and very flavorful! WOW! Chewy, Malty GOODNESS!

Sort of reminds me of a granola bar with cocoa and chewy caramel! I need to stock up on this at some point! FAB!

This smells and tastes like Cocoa! I wasn’t expecting that but am delighted!

It’s chewy and malty and VERY good! WOW!!!!

I’m so excited to try my first Life in Teacup tea!!! I bought a bunch of samples for a friend and one for myself. I was going to choose a puerh because I’ve never had that before. But after reading a review on here where someone described puerh as “fecal tasting,” I opted for this oolong instead.

The dry leaves smell scrumptious! I’ve been having a lot of weird oolong experiences lately with Formosa oolongs from Adagio. They’re missing that classic “oolong” vegetal taste, so I’ve started to question if that “classic oolong taste” is something else. Do I even know what oolong tastes like?

Well, this tea confirms that my instinct was correct. This has that classic oolong flavor and so much more! It’s silky smooth and buttery. The aftertaste is where the floral notes come out to play. It has a very interesting taste that I can’t quite describe. If someone made an edible wax candle out of vegetables, I think it would taste kind of like this tea. That probably sounds really gross, but it’s a good taste. Extremely unique.

The liquor is so pale that I can’t label it with a color. I’m sure it doesn’t help that I always drink my tea out of a lime green mug, haha. I actually really like that comparison someone made to a baby’s milky breath. That’s a very accurate description of this tea. I’m also getting grass, but not the same kind of grassiness of a sencha. It’s a completely different type of grass, like an autumn dry grass.

And did I mention what a cute little bag my sample came in? It’s a shiny gold & silver, vacuum-sealed bag with Chinese script all over it. Oh, how I wish I could read Chinese! I used the entire 5-7g sample to make this cup. I’m not sure I needed quite that much. The leaves may start out tiny, but they unfurled to fill my entire tea infuser! And it’s not a very small infuser either.

Wow, just so good. Buttery popcorn! That’s what that unique flavor is I couldn’t describe earlier. It just hit me on the second infusion. Buttery popcorn, mmmmm! One of my favorite foods. Just for that, I’m upping the rating.

1st infusion: 185 degrees for 2 minutes
2nd infusion: 185 degrees for 2.5 minutes
3rd infusion: 185 degrees for 3 minutes

Each infusion was exactly as tasty as the previous one. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a tea before that holds up to infusions this well. It’s simply amazing. It’s late now though, so I’ll continue testing the infusions tomorrow morning.

BTW: I’m enjoying this tea while watching my boyfriend play Dark Souls. Has anyone played that game? It’s insane! My boyfriend is an elite gamer, so he’s doing a fantastic job. But still, this is the hardest game I’ve ever seen in my entire life. He got cursed by some weird, giant-googly-eyed, curse-spitting, anorexic frog thing. And apparently there are only three ways to be healed. Two require speaking to NPCs in the game that he’s already killed. The final way is to find an item and give it to another NPC. But he can’t find the item anywhere! I tried searching online for about an hour and could never find the location. Now he has to try to beat the game with half his hit points, which is what the curse does to you. Oh, and it can stack too. Ridiculous! But entertaining to watch. :)

Finished off the last of my sample today, since it was raining and I was a bit hungover.

I don’t have a lot of words for the tea. It’s good. Very warming and comforting. I think it’s interesting that the wet leaf aroma has a particularly noticeable basement character, but that that does not translate to the flavor, which I appreciate. Some slight hints of earth in the flavor, but then mostly woody, composted leaves and lots of vanilla, mint, and floral woods. Looking forward to pushing this one some more tomorrow.

2011. Used “Double Brew” method. Last Long Jing for now!

This afternoon, rain comes and brings with it cooler, autumn temperatures. I’ll be drinking pu’er soon enough. Right now, the lightness of this green brings quenching satisfaction on what may be the last hot day of the year.

Funny, I think I can sense that of the four Long Jings I drank, this one is probably regarded as being the best and having the highest quality. I’m not sure it’s my favorite, I think I preferred the Da Fo, but I would need to do a side-by-side of the two to be entirely conclusive. Again, a taste preference for the green, thicker, heartier qualities.

This tea exuded delicate finesse, a bit of finicky resistance, and a balance of bittersweet and tropical fruit. Lots of lychee, pineapple, and pear came through and then was countbalanced with an herbal, almost minty bittersweetness that cleaned the palate nicely. Not a sweet, not as supple, and definitely requiring more attention, as there was a tendency for bitter, even with the gentle double brewing.

Again, this is the 2011 vintage.

Today, I abandoned the side-by-side brewing and stuck with just the “Double Brew,” putting all of 4g sample into my large gaiwan. This choice is based entirely on taste preference. I just enjoy those subtler, sweeter tones that this gentle method yields.

This particular tea has a lot going on for it, but, in my opinion, it isn’t quite as good as the Da Fo I had yesterday. There’s a lot of breadth here, but not as much depth. Some solid sweet corn, a bit of sweetgrass, and some light grain sugars. Nearly spicy notes kick up in the backend. A good tea, but not stunning.

Cold weather is coming, I’ve got to finish my last Long Jing while it’s still warm!

I’m not sure it makes a lot of sense to have an entry for every vintage of teas like this, especially if only one or two people are going to review them.

This is the 2011. This is my first Long Jing with puffballs! So excited!

Again, side-by-side Grandpa-style and Double Brew, as mentioned in my previous Long Jing review. Today, the constrast in flavors revealed by the two methods was very strong. While the warmer, Grandpa-style emitted artichoke and overcooked peas, with some lemon within, the Double Brew gave an intensely sweet brew, with soft, young Spinach and distant pine. What’s surprising to me is that the Grandpa-style method drained these leaves quickly, leaving them much less durable and more or less exhausted by the second steep. The Double Brew went on longer, continuing to yield a delightfully sweet, gentle beverage.

Whatever method is used, this is great Long Jing, in my estimation. I much preferred it to yesterday’s version and rank it as the best I’ve had. Very, very flavorful and nicely rich.

Picked up a set of four Long Jing samples from Gingko recently and will spend the week working through them, before all of summer disappears and the teas get too old.

Having little experience with quality Long Jing, I thought I’d try brewing with Gingko’s tips (http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2010/04/brewing-long-jing-dragonwell.html) and wrongfucha’s “Double Brew” (http://chahai.net/long-jing-double-brew-method/).

The two methods created very different results. The Double Brew was intensely sweet, subtle and airy. Delicate and fluffy. I really like this, it was akin to many Japanese greens and required concentration. The “grandpa” style suggested by Gingko also made a nice brew with this tea, a hearty, chunky thicker brew that released the dry chestnut edges of this tea. I think this leads me to a matter of preference. I generally don’t get that excited about those dryer, toasted, mineral-heavy notes in Chinese greens, so I’m interested in the method that produces a sweeter, softer brew.

Definitely one of the better Long Jing’s I’ve ever had and I’ve got three more great ones to go!

Such an interesting tea. I recently finished up a 12.5g pack, with another 12.5g pack set aside for aging as part of my white tea aging experiment. While this tea is white by process, it’s black by flavor. There’s such an incredible rich sweetness that comes naturally from this tea, like light maple syrup or agave nectar. Cooked stonefruit rounds out. What impresses me the most about this tea is it’s durability. Gong-fu style, I was able to produce rich tea for about 12 infusions!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this delicious Oolong!

This is a tea that I could not find on the Life In Teacup website, but I do hope they’ll start carrying it. It’s really delightful. There are distant fruit tones, with a floral note in the foreground. It almost tastes like honeysuckle. I can also taste hints of a nutty flavor. It is sweet and possesses no bitterness. Toward the end of the sip, I can taste a sour note. Not a pucker-y kind of sour, but more like the sour note you’d experience when tasting sweet and sour sauce. It is sour, but not so overwhelmingly sour that it overpowers the sweetness.

I like this one a lot. It’s like I can taste the “wild” in it.

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea. I love it!

This is a wonderful black tea. So much flavor. The aroma has hints of spice, cocoa and leather. The flavor is robust with a malty tone, cocoa notes, a lightly spiced essence, and a fruit tone in the background. A beautiful complexity to this tea, with a delicious sweetness that is somewhere between honey and burnt sugar. I am loving this tea!

SO YUM! I LOVE THESE! I WANT MORE!

This doesn’t taste exactly like Matcha, nor does it taste exactly like white chocolate. It truly is “green chocolate” – it takes on its own unique flavor. It is creamy and sweet and absolutely delicious.

So very good.

a tad grassy but nice and mellow and soothing…semi-buttery finish. Nice!

I love my Breville … have I mentioned that lately?

I didn’t brew this tea in my breville, but what I did do is use the breville as a tea kettle, and I love being able to heat the water to the proper temperature without having to watch the kettle. The kettle that I retired yesterday was electric, cordless, and up until yesterday I thought it was the bees knees, but now that I’ve used my breville, I think I’d probably cry if I had to go back to the old kettle. This is so much faster. LOVE!

Anyways, I used the breville as a kettle so that I could steep this tea in my gaiwan. This is a delicious Oolong: sweet with a nice roasted flavor. It is different from other roasty-toasty Oolongs that I’ve had in that it has a lighter taste to it – it doesn’t overwhelm the palate, instead, it tempts and teases the palate with hints of flavors. Even though I appreciate both types (the subtle and the not-so-subtle) I like it when I find something different like this.

There is also a lovely vegetal quality to this Oolong, and a bit of floral taste in the background. A really wonderful Oolong.

A very pleasing Jasmine Dragon Pearl. Pretty and satisfying without any funky floral bitterness like some other brands I have tasted. This one gets a thumbs up from me!

2011 sample. This is a crisp, super-fresh brilliant green bud tea. Juicy sweet liquor, with a nice little froth on it. Responded well to a range of steeping temperatures. This is very clean and pure. One of the nicer, straightforward green teas I’ve had in a long time. Fresh and delightful.

Sweet! Juicy! Semi-flower! Clean and Crisp! Makes my mouth water, too! YUMMIE!!! And YES! That’s a YUMMIE with an “IE”

Gentle buttered veggies and as it cools more crisp and juicy. NICE!

Light in every way! But sometimes you NEED that! Perfect for unwinding! I really enjoyed my cuppa! Backlogging!

Revisiting before sending in a swap! YUP! Celery! See previous notes…

Light, Clean, Crisp! Juicier finish and aftertaste. As it cools it tastes a little like veggies – maybe like celery, perhaps!

YUM!