Samovar

TEA!

I have been tea-deprived. I have been so busy at work that I haven’t even had the chance to quaff my favorite beverage. Every cup I’ve made has gone cold with 3/4 left in it. It’s been that crazy. So I figured, why not curl up with some nommy Samovar from my first order from them?

Okay, these leaves are adorable. They’re oh-so-tiny, and they look like olive-green ramen noodles. I’m serious. And it’s hilarious, cause when they steep up, they turn a beautiful vibrant green, very much akin to broccoli. It’s the broccoli color. The try leaves smell… green. There’s a veggie goodness hiding out in there, and it’s pretty appealing.

This is actually the lightest-looking green tea I’ve ever seen. And the grassiest Chinese green that I’ve ever had. It smells like steamed vegetables. Like the vapors from the steam after you open the basket. The taste is awesome, though. Super umami-sweet, with lots of notes of stronger veggie goodness than usually found in a lot of Japanese greens. Slightly spinach, maybe? And a bit of salty mineral at the end? But really, it’s super-veggie-sweet. Like sucking the juice out of leaves dropped with dew.

I’m curious as to how this one will hold up to multiple infusions, because this tastes deliciously like spring. Like clean meadows and bright skies and light rain showers. And after a ridiculously insane week at work, this one is truly hitting the spot.

And it’s actually making me crave Japanese green tea now.

After today’s lovely pu erh experience, I decided I needed something sweet and chewy, and I thought for a minute about having some Tazo decaf chai. Then I thought since it was a relatively slow Friday, why not have something that was likely to be better when I had some time to make it.

So I broke out my sample of this.

OMG. OMG. OMG. This flavor. I can’t believe I even considered the Tazo decaf. I must have been temporarily insane.

First, let me say that I didn’t even follow the instructions very well and I used ingredients that would likely make purists wince. I used splenda instead of sugar (hey, I’m a middle aged mom and I have to watch those calories!), I used 1% milk instead of whole milk (same) and I used the only loose leaf “black” tea within easy reach and not flavored, and that was the Mariage Freres Princeton Darjeeling.

Second, there was a scary moment when all the water boiled away and I feared I would end up stir frying the leaves. I remember thinking when I dumped the leaves into the pot that 1 cup of water boiling for 10 minutes was likely to completely boil away and what then? The “what then” turned out to be that almost exactly at the moment the water disappeared, it was time to put the milk in. Whoa.

Third, I am the first to admit that I have only recently been deflowered when it comes to chai, and the chai I’ve had has been Tazo/Starbucks. So whether this is good on the scale of chais is something I can’t say.

But whether it is good in an absolute sense, I can. It’s like drinking freshly baked gingerbread. Even with 1% milk, it’s rich, thick, creamy. It is so yum, there ought to be a law.

And of course, I went to add it to my order and they’re out of it. Sigh.

Sam O. Var is my new love. I’m going to elope with him. Right now. He can do no wrong, in my book.

I know what you’re going to say — it’s just so much pixie dust, that tinkling of little bells you hear in your mind, that image you see of little cartoon hearts floating up around your head like soap bubbles, that frisson of anticipation. He’s bound to disappoint you at some point. Just give it some time. It always happens.

You could be right. You could be. But not today. I am six for six today, six for six of Samovar samples that I would most definitely drink again. (Now if only Breakfast Blend would come back in stock in the large tin, I could complete an order and qualify for free shipping.)

The aroma out of this packet is deliciously orange. Not tart, not thin, not artificial-smelling. It’s a rich orange smell, almost creamy, like the orange in fine orange-flavored chocolates. It predominates over the pu erh until the leaves and those little bits of orange rind and ginger are wet, when the tea starts to share the stage. After multiple steeps, the aroma of the wet leaves and the tea itself is still deliciously orange, and the grapefruit is there as well. The ginger is pretty subtle, but that’s fine with me. I like my ginger subtle.

The orange in the flavor is mellow and deep, like a very ripe, very juicy orange — but more. The fact is I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a fresh orange that is this orangy. It must be a synergy in the blend, with the other flavors bringing more orange out of the orange. I suspect this is the primary role of the ginger, along with adding a bit of spice that stays on the tongue along with the orange in the finish, and persists, pleasantly, for quite a while.

This is not a star vehicle for the pu erh; rather it is part of a terrific ensemble cast. It balances, it interacts, it comes to the front from time to time to deliver a forest-floor-after-rain note and then retreats to a foundational presence with the rest of the flavors.

I took this through 5+ steeps. Unfortunately I was interrupted with a phone call during the third, and didn’t get off the phone until it was time for the fifth. All the more reason to add this to my next order, so I can enjoy it again in peace.

I think this tea might be o.k. with trout but I’m not a big fan of these peaty teas.

LOVE this tea especially the gingery notes. It is a nice compliment to stir-fry and makes an EXCELLENT ICED TEA. I made iced tea from the 5th and 6th infusions, put in glass bottles and went off on a desert hike….very refreshing on a hot day!

This time I noticed the chocolatly coffee smell as soon as it was done steeping! Very, very tasty. Even better with milk; I think I hit a sweet spot on the leaf/water/temp/time scale today: 1 rounded tsp/8 oz/ boiling water into steam-heated mug. Must go play with the ratings now to bump this one a little

Mmm, this is quite nice. Strong and full flavored, a little harsh plain (but I may have oversteeped a touch), smooths out easily with a little milk and sugar. Hints of cocoa, fruit, and spice, but I’m not actually getting a lot of malt from this one. That’s fine though, the flavor is round and satisfying regardless.

I love oolong tea. It’s a favorite when I know I’m going to have a period of time in a given place for many resteeps. I know I am up and about the house a lot these days, but I’m in the same house, so I gave this a go (and filled a thermos with hot water so I’d have it at the ready whenever it was time to resteep). The verdict: life is too complicated for oolong right now. I had a (4 oz) cup and a half of this before being wrapped up in so many other things that I forgot I had it, so I think it’ll wait until I’m back in the office.

I need a thermometer!

I (unbelievably!!) only have one thing on the schedule today, so I knew I’d spend most of the day in my office. With that as the plan, I realized this is the perfect day for resteeping oolong! I’m using the tiny teapot, with just half a teaspoon of tea (based on a few recommendations from here). It’s actually even prettier steeping that way. You can really watch the leaves unfurl, and the tea is a lighter color.

So the rinse was about 30 seconds in boiling water. Then the first steep was about 3 minutes off boiling for 2 minutes. I LIKE this one a lot. So, it looks like I was using too many leaves before!! Instead of the first cup being spinach like, this is a bit more floral, and at the point the tea was at several steeps in with the larger leaf quantity. I’m certain this won’t hold up to as many resteeps, but I’d bet it’ll even out in the end since we’re starting with so many fewer leaves!

I somehow didn’t have one drop of tea yesterday. Tragic! So, to make up for it, I brought my Four Seasons and pot to work, and will be trying that throughout the day. I’ll post a comment to this tasting note with each resteep and we’ll see how far we can make it go!

Today was the day. I got my Samovar package in the mail. I’d already had my caffeine dose for the day, but it was a rough one, and I couldn’t resist breaking out the adorably tiny teapot (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/4438902539/ ). When I opened it, I said “this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” My husband questioned if that was really true. It’s probably not, but it’s definitely the cutest thing I’ve seen in the past few days.

Four Seasons has been fantastic, too. I’m on steep five, and it has been getting better with each one. The first was quite vegetal, and the second was as well. Things started getting really interesting around the third: more floral and at one point I almost got a mint like quality.

I’m certain I’m not steeping this as well as I could, but it’s working for me at this point. I put 1.5 teaspoons of tea in the tiny teapot, rinsed with boiling water for about 20-30 seconds, then took the set up to the living room so we could watch the pilot episode of The Pacific. So, the first steep wasn’t quite boiling, but it was really close to it, for 3 minutes. I let that cup cool enough to drink, then steeped from the same pot of water for 4. This last steep was 7 minutes, but the water wasn’t really all that hot either.

I am looking forward to lots of experimentation with this one…. but I’m also looking forward to the rest of the Samovar teas… and I still have the Golden Moon sampler to go through… so many teas, so little time!

I tried this tea at Samovar in downtown San Francisco. The leaves are chipped out of the mandarin (literally with a tool similar to a chisel), then there is an initial quick rinse before the first steep. They said to steep for 30 – 45 seconds – I found I preferred the shorter steeping time. Once I put too much water in the pot for one cup and steeped for a few minutes… definitely a mistake!

I liked the tea both without and with the orange peel. I found it more subtle without (unsurprisingly). After drinking 4 or 5 brews I smelled the contents and I loved the sharp, earthy scent. Overall, really interesting and delicious.

(water temperature note may be off as I didn’t brew it myself)

Tastes like a wood pile.

In my book, anything with the name ecstasy in it can either be discounted immediately as puffery or has a very high level of living up to do. Ecstasy is, after all, not just a run of the mill, mild feeling. It’s sheer rapture.

The fact that I have had a four for four success rate with my Samovar samples thus far (I am intending to order more of all of the ones I’ve tried, something unsurpassed in my admittedly limited experience) left me doubtful this name could be discounted fully, so I had very high hopes for this one. And I haven’t been disappointed. Though I wouldn’t go so far as to state that drinking this left me ecstatic (wouldn’t that be cool, though? maybe one day I’ll find a tea that really does leave me ecstatic and then I’ll know all the secrets of the universe and more), I can say that I’m now five for five.

My only pu erh experience before this has been the Numi bags. They’ve all been varying degrees of enjoyable with the chocolate out in front. But because they’re bags, there’s a visual component to the experience that is missing. I’m finding more and more that I really enjoy examining the dry leaves of the tea I’m about to drink, and watching how they change after they’ve had their steep.

The Maiden’s Ecstasy leaves are brownish green, dark and pretty. A little on the small side, and not overly curly. Dry, they smelled to me as they smelled to Auggy after rinsing — like sweet tobacco, right from the pouch, with notes of leather and earth.

After rinsing, the leather aroma came to the fore. This, I think, is what I smell where others might smell fish. There is something slightly fishy, but not in an unpleasant way, about the smell of certain kinds of warm, pliant leather. I’ve had belts and shoes that have had a fishy note to them that body heat brings out and I know I’ve smelled this in horse saddles. It’s not always the case, but common enough. The smell of this steep makes me think of a new, buttery smooth, black leather English saddle.

My first steep at 2 minutes delivered a beautiful mahogany colored liquor.

The taste. It has that Samovar thing going on for me, an almost preternatural smoothness that makes their teas taste like velvet feels. I love that. To me, it is the difference between something that is nice and well made, like a shoe or a car, that you wouldn’t mind having, and the same thing delivered by a luxury brand. There’s a little luxury in every sip.

Within the smoothness, there is also a flavor that verges on leather — but is kept from being a stark leather flavor by its sweetness. I’m not getting raisin here, but perhaps a pre-raisin (i.e., grape) fermented sweetness, as though the tiniest drop of a fine port has been dropped into the tea.

The second steep at 2:30 yielded a similar flavor. The nose became more sugary, more carmelized.

OK. I’m about ready for my third steep and I am going to stop now and just go enjoy this for a while. I want to sit with it and see how it changes. I have all kinds of time for this tea.

This is wonderful. No milk is needed for this herbal blend. Somehow, these flavors meld together into a mellow version of chai. Soothing drink at night. Calm and contemplative so it is easy to envision this blend being inspired by the Dalai Lama…As my first sampling of a Samovar tea, I am quite impressed…

This is the fourth Samovar sample I’ve tried and I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever run across something of theirs I don’t like.

As a recent inductee to the smoky fan club, I was delighted with the smell of the dry leaves, which reminded me of how my dad’s pipes smelled after he’d smoked them. I realize that this may not sound that appealing, but I’ve always loved the smell of really good pipe tobacco. It’s a smell one doesn’t run across that much anymore now that the health dangers of pipe smoking are so well documented, but to me it’s reminiscent of an era of narrow ties, Fedoras, and big honking cars with fins.

The aroma is smoky as well, with that campfire thing going on, but I can also smell the fruit. I didn’t make the preparations necessary to taste this the traditional way — I’m drinking it straight up, but it is quite enjoyable without any additives at all and I am eager to give it a try the traditional way.

This is a beautiful, sophisticated tea. There’s a smoothness to it that I’ve come to expect from Samovar’s blends, and which I really adore. As with the others I’ve tasted, all of the flavors work together harmoniously; the piney/smokiness, the fruity/nutty upswing from the lychee, the sweet finish with an extremely interesting warm/cool after-effect on the tongue. I feel a foresty coolness in my mouth, but there’s a little heat and bite there as well.

I don’t need a crystal ball to see a very large Samovar order in my future…

So I used to make all my white teas with cooler water and long infusions, but lately I’ve been doing the hot water/short infusions method. So that’s what I used for my first brew of this tea. Very enjoyable and smooth! As an added bonus, the little metal tin that it comes in is just marvelous :-D

Prepared with my Samovar oolong pot, multi-steeps. Lovely aroma throughout, buttery, bakey, creamy flavors—all as advertised. Delicious, calming, mellow, soothing, fragrant, the adjectives keep coming with each steep.

Ok, I got a sample of this after reading some of the reviews. All cups were at just below a boil.
My first cup (2 minutes) really does smell buttery and so amazing.
Prior to pouring, the leaf gave off a sent that reminded me a bit of spinach. Not what I was expecting this post pour scent though is amazing and I have no idea where it came from.
Very smooth texture. I didn’t even know tea could have a texture…
The taste on this first one is lighter then expected. There is a veggie like after taste.
As I drink, I note the beginning of the sip does have a butter quality but not intense. It is followed with a flowery taste.
This is a very soothing, soft cup, especially compared with what I normally drink.
I held the tea in my mouth for a few seconds and when I swallowed there was another flavor, though I can’t name it.

Cup 2: (3 minutes) Similar scent. It’s still flowery but not in the same why other teas I’ve had are. The leaves are really quite pretty. It is refreshing to be drinking something so clearly natural.

Cup 3: (4 minutes) I agree with previous posters that this cup does have a greener taste. Still good though. The scent is still buttery with a hint of flower. This may be a good tea for hosting. It seems very friendly and makes so many cups that it will keep the party going.

Cup 4: (5 minutes) The scent of this cup is much weaker then the previous cups. There is still something soothing about it though. I’ll admit too that I did put a bit too much water in the pot this time. I’m using a pot designed for two cups so I’m guessing each time. Definitely a greener taste here. The buttery is clearly disappearing. There is an end note that I can’t describe exactly but it’s starchy. I would love to be sitting out in a beautiful garden while drinking this. Stupid city.

Cup 5: (6 minutes) I’m getting the steamed green bean element now being mixed with the same underlying “green” taste that has been there from the beginning. The butter is pretty much gone in both smell and taste. The taste and smell are a bit mellower then the previous cup.

Cup 6: (7 minutes) This will be my last. The flavor is dimming and honestly, I’m getting a bit tired of tea. I’ve never had this much straight through before. And as for tea’s effect in weight lose, it might be that now, so close to dinner, I’m full from the tea. So, this time, I’m getting a little of what people were calling the bread taste. It’s pretty weak though. I love bread so I’d love to be able to get this flavor stronger. Otherwise, this tea is now starting to remind me more of green tea.

Well, this is the longest tea journey I’ve had. Will I buy a larger volume in the future? Probably, although not right now. This is also my first Oolong tea so I’m going to want to try some others as well to make sure I find the right one for me.