Liquid Proust Teas

GCTTB5

I tried some this morning before heading to work. Since it’s a tea similar to Darjeeling, I used lower temperature water (85C) to baby it. I didn’t get much flavour beyond black tea, though. It had that sweet/sour haylike quality I’ve seen in some Nepalese teas.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #31
I’m not sure if Liquid Proust presses these himself, but this is an interesting tea! I haven’t seen a black tea that looks like a mini-tuocha before. It looks like it consists more of gold leaves than black. But the brew is strong! It tastes like a Dian Hong should — a little like keemun with smoky notes. Malty and bready and sweet too. A bunch of great black tea characteristics. One left in the teabox!
Steep #1 // few min after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min steep

GCTTB
Trying to drink drink drink. lol Hot, this one is slightly astringent and sort of…boring? As this cools however, it becomes a different sort of tea. There’s a honey like smell that comes forward and the tea starts to take on a more beeswax like taste. An interesting tea for sure.

GCTTB

this is dangerous territory for me. Lavender and oolong. Let’s not mention the fact that it has the word SPA in the name. Couple things here..the vanilla really offsets the lavender. It helps make this a smoother, more subtle tea. the taste though, isn’t one that i love…it reminds me of the way that a number of spas smell….if that makes sense. this is a pretty decent blend if floral teas are up your alley. :) thanks LP!

GCTTB

I have no idea what jackseed’s taste like. As many know, i’m also not a huge fan of green teas. However, the point of travelling tea boxes is to try new things! Plus i need to make some actual room so that i can add things! I happened across an article this morning about cold brewing tea japanese style? (http://www.teaspoonsandpetals.com/teaspoons-petals/2016/02/shinobi-cha-ice-brewed-tea.html) I tried it out with this one and it was an interesting experience. It was neat to watch the ice melt and the tea gradually take on a darker colour. The flavour was a little intense, so i suspect this would be better done with a straight tea but it was fun to try! I think people who enjoy greens teas should give this one a shot. :)

GCTTB
this one is kinda fun. It’s sweet but also has a strength to it from the puerh. there’s honeybush in here certainly…but it’s just a delicious cup. I might prefer this as just a straight up puerh, but as a blend this is pretty tasty. I can see puerh noobs finding this one pretty tasty if sweet is up their alley :)

GCTTB Another one that LP provided. I’ve been excited to try this one because i do enjoy black berry teas. The addition to sage in the blend made me even more curious. When this is hot, it’s mostly blackberry and delicious…as it cools, the sage gradually takes over. this is quite nice and i’m super glad to get to try it. thanks LP!

GCTTB

I’m trying to figure out how to add some teas to the box without overflowing it. I pulled this one out even though i’m not generally a fan of oolongs because of how it looked. What an interestingly fun tea :) While there are floral notes to this green oolong, there’s also a juicy fruit flavour going on that i quite like. thanks for sharing LP!

This tea surprised me a bit. Upon first sip, I made the mistake of thinking this was a weak tea. But after drinking a pot of it, I am realizing that it isn’t so much weak as it is purposefully understated.

Whatever green tea was used here, it has a very buttery, thick mouth feel with little to no bitterness. Both the tangerine and the jasmine are underneath the flavor of the green tea itself. The jasmine hints on the up front of the sip and the tangerine comes out more at the back end of the swallow. My mouth feels coated with delicious creamy green tea flavor.

There isn’t anything that stands up and demands attention. It is a very subtle and drinkable tea. I am ok with this. It is something you can drink and not have to analyze so closely.

Again, probably something that I am just not oolong familiar enough to comment on the tea. It smells great though I didn’t smell much bergamot. It seems to be a fairly light oolong with a light peach. Nice enough for a cup. Thanks to mtchyg

This is definitely spa. Tons of lavender. The taste of vanilla seems to mellow the large amount of lavender. Almost like an herbal made with lavender as I couldn’t pick out the tea, but that may very well be due solely to my lack of oolong palate. :) It was a pleasant cup. Thanks for the swap, mtchyg

I like this one! It’s only got a hint of dryness after the swallow, but it’s mostly a sweet almond taste. Thankfully not quite so much a creamy almond. Very well balanced.

Holidays TTB

This is phenomenal. I snuck a look at the reviews before tasting it so I was excited to wait for it to brew (who doesn’t love fun colored teas?) and sure enough it’s a wonderful indigo color!

The floral and fruity notes in this are very well balanced and it’s sweet but not too terribly sweet. I can’t exactly place all the flavors but that’s part of why I enjoy it. The currant is definitely there, along with the passion fruit but it’s not too much to overpower the jasmine/peony base. Definitely, definitely picking up some more of this from Liquid Proust so I can leave the sample in the box for everyone else to try because it’s that good!

I think the other reviews gave good descriptions of this tea, so I’ll be brief.

What makes a good flavored tea is a good base. The good flavored teas that I have had have good bases, and the bad ones have bad base teas. Oolberry has a nice, floral oolong base and a nice light flavoring.

I store this one in the bamboo fundraising container. Good combination. I’m curious what the oolong is in this one. It tastes similar to the Golden Lilly by BTT that I got from a stash tea sale from LP.

GCTTB5

Thanks again Liquid Proust

Mmm jasmine. I like the blend of white and green tea with the jasmine. It seems to keep the green tea in check. The jasmine is nice and light and not overpowering. I also detected a bit of honeysuckle (maybe I am just crazy). This is a decent jasmine.

The resteep was a little astringent but this is probably my error of overstepping. I am very sensitive to green tea getting bitter.

I used 1.5tsp of leaf

Sample from the Canadian Traveling Tea Box

I didn’t realize that I had tried this one already until I had already brewed it up! I really enjoy this tea. It is slightly cocoa notes with some sweetness (probably the honeybush), and some earthiness from the pu’erh. I would likely have this tea on the list if I ordered from this shop.

GCTTB5

Thanks again Liquid Proust for adding this tea to the box!

Blends like this are perfect for pu’erh noobs like me. I want to like pu’erh but for me, it is a bit of an aquired taste. But, I’m definitely getting to like them!

This one is fairly sweet with notes of woody earthiness from the base. I had no idea what steeping parameters to use so I just winged it… I steeped this four times (resteeps at 3.5,4,4.5 min.) and poured them all into my thermos because I was busy reading books with my toddler!. It was delicious.

Non tea related:
I got a new Bonavita kettle last night!!! My trusty old Oster kettle just has too much mineral deposits that have built up over many years of usage. So I thought I would try something different:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B008YE3RNG/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB
I was so excited to get it ready to brew tea today and learned that it doesn’t even get to 100degrees. It gets up to 99 but won’t get to a full boil. WTF? This isn’t that big of a deal because usually I drink tea at less than a boil, but sometimes I do. And what kind of kettle doesn’t even boil water???? Anyone else have this problem? I should contact the company I guess. Sorry, rant over.

Finally got this to taste like it smells, which is delicious. I was doing too long of steeps and not getting anything other than the shui xian.

I used less leaf and shorter steeps, and the vanilla notes are finally here. I’ll play around with it a bit more as I think I can bring those out even more.

Enjoying this one this early evening. I still liked the first batch better, but this one is growing on me. I finished up the nutty oolong that Andrew kindly gave for free. It’s just a thought, but I’d like to see a nutty, vanilla, black and oolong blend. Maybe that’s what A Dark Kitchen Sink is like. I will see. I just placed a LPT order and am excited to try that one and the 2012 dong ding!

Nostalgia-a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. (Defined by Google).

This is the perfect tea for me at the moment. I have had a very retrospective and nostalgic past day or so. Coming up soon is the beginning of my fourth year since the first of my life-changing brain injuries.

What ifs and questions about existence and consciousness are always interesting to think about. Though the thoughts aren’t very productive, I enjoy the feeling of being mind-blown from time to time. This time, this beautiful and powerful music was playing in the background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcihcYEOeic

I had lunch with two old track and field teammates from high school yesterday. I also had a lifelong friend over for supper. The conversations brought back good memories but also wishful thinking that made me want to go back in time when life was easier, simpler, more fun, and less painful. Life goes on however, and I must “forge ahead” as my Dad says and be thankful for everything that I do have, including my memories—good and bad.

Now on to the tea: The shui xian is at the forefront. Personally, I wish that there were a little less of it as it’s a bit overpowering. I’m getting the vanilla in the background, and I’m not sure what sandalwood tastes like, but I have about 5 pieces of it in the steeping container (I made it Western). Though it’s not my favorite, it is a very enjoyable tea for these moments. Thanks Andrew for everything that you do for the tea community. And thanks to everyone else. Tea has been something that I look forward to every day, no matter how I’m feeling.

I’ve had this tea a few times now, and I’m really enjoying it. I think Andrew described this one well on his blog as tasting like a chocolate vanilla brownie. I’m starting to think it would be better for me to review teas after a few tries with them (if possible), as this one grew on me and others do to as well, while some teas do the opposite.

I’m not usually one to add sweetener to teas, but I wasn’t feeling this one on its own. I added 4 drops of stevia to each 8 oz cup of this and it made it taste significantly better—like a juice.

On its own, I’d rate the tea a 70, but with stevia it’s like a 90, so I split the difference.

I will say ( like all of the LP teas I’ve tried), I got 4-5 good steeps out of this. I’ve never had any other flavored teas last more than 2.

Thanks for letting me try this one, Andrew!

Thanks for this sample, Andrew!

I have never had a white puerh before, and I really enjoyed this. It’s very smooth.
I’m not getting a ton of fruit flavor, but it’s just enough. It’s a very forgiving tea. I went away for a while (10-15 minutes), came back and added a little more water and it was delicious.