Samovar

This actually seems a little sweeter than I remember. I’m not sure if that is from my decreased sense of smell or if I was remembering it wrong. Still quite bold and super-smoky though. That certainly hasn’t changed.

Got to leave work early today – yay! It’s cold and raining (thankfully not snowing) so I thought this afternoon would be a great time to put on my snow leopard fleece pants, put a heating pad on my stomach and have some tea. I pulled out my GM sampler and another basket (that I’ve dubbed the takgoti sampler) intending to leaf through the lovely teas and eventually settle on one. But this one was right on top, hand raise, screaming “PICK ME! PICK ME!”

So I did.

The dry leaves smell like barbecue sauce – the good stuff that I loved when I could still eat the darn stuff. While steeping, a meatier flavor comes up. Like smoked brisket. Once it has brewed up, though, I get more of a we-just-sprayed-down-the-campfire-before-bed smell. That’s a little… worrying. But I shall continue!

Okay, who cares about the smell. Because the taste is lovely. Not quiet as sweet at GM’s but smoother and mellower. More of a smoked tea than a smoky tea taste. Don’t get me wrong – this isn’t a pale, light flavored tea! It’s just that the smoke flavor is embedded into the tea. Like when you put a ham in the smoker for about 6 hours or more. The smoke taste isn’t overwhelming, but it’s in every square inch of taste.

Last night with the Marco Polo, the whole slurping and inhaling with the tea behind my teeth thing was really interesting so I thought I’d try it again. And holy monkeys. As soon as I stop inhaling to close my mouth and swallow, it’s like a big ole mouthful of smoke. But it’s not bad – I kind of like it! I think because it really really tastes like the smell of my dad smoking a brisket.

This one is bolder than GM’s, I think. Also, it’s not as sweet. This is much smoother than ROT’s though (which I don’t find to be overly difficult). It’s kind of a toss up for me between this one and GM’s. This one has a very true-to-life taste which I really appreciate (so for those of you that want to drink something that tastes like smoked brisket…) and an overall heartier taste. GM’s is sweeter with a good taste and a nice development but not quite as beautifully rounded in taste. I think this one might be the better tea, but I think that the added sweetness to GM’s make that one the favored tea for me personally.

I am making audible happy noises as I’m drinking this. Thanks to takgoti, of course. MY GOD.

This is probably the most delicious cup of tea I’ve had in a few days. Seriously. SO. GOOD.

I felt like a white tea this afternoon, and I began rummaging around. I almost tried the Adagio Jasmine Silver Needle that Auggy sent me, but then the thought of this popped into my mind, so I decided to steep some up.

This doesn’t really smell like much dry, but the leaves are so pretty! Like real leaves. And downy tips. So pretty. Everything pretty much looks nearly whole. The infusion is a very light honey color. Beautiful to look at. And the smell is sweet like corn, with woodsy highlights.

On my first sip, I literally made an audible “MMMM” noise. It was very loud. And then I gave a little gasp on the swallow, because this baby has depth. It’s very light tasting, but actually pretty heavy on the flavor department. There’s a lot of complex layers going on here. I feel like I can get lost in this. So unexpected and deep, yet so completely sippable and drinkable!

So let’s try to explain this. I’m a bit incoherent right now cause I’m so excited about the taste of this, and I’m still in awe over the flavors that are packed in here, but we’re going to try. There’s deepness here. Toasty notes, as well as pure sweet and floral notes. I’m definitely getting the sweet corn that takgoti mentioned, kissed with a light bit of butter. Delicious and rich. There’s also the feeling of cocoa. I can’t explain this one… not the flavor of it, but the overall end feeling of taking a sip of that drink. I’m getting some sort of nutty flavor, maybe a bit of walnut?

There’s a mouthfeel here too. I think that’s the first time I’ve noticed it. A thickness, a deliciousness that cannot be described. No astringency whatsoever. This is a tea that just keeps on giving. I love the lingering feeling on my tongue of nectar and honey and goodness. I am just finding that I love white tea in general. How something light could be so deep… it’s almost like the Caribbean waters.

The flavors here are so round and pronounced, yet so different, distinct, and enjoyable. I really can’t even begin to properly describe this cup. I’d just suggest getting some for yourself. THANK YOU TAK-TAK FOR AMAZINGNESS, as usual!

Half milk, half water, some sugar, some tea. Not quite boiling. As it first started warming up, it smelled like a cross between Chinese food and some unknown holiday dessert that I can’t place. As it gets closer to boiling I’m getting more dessert and less Chinese food (which is probably good but the former was intriguing). I also think I dropped something on the stove because I also smell a little burning. Oops. Hmm, I think that dessert-like taste is like a Christmas cookie. Cinnamon-y and sugar-cookie-bake-y.

Doesn’t taste cookie-like though. Or if it does, I want some of those cookies. I wish I could pick out all the tastes, but I can’t. But it’s warm and spicy and sweet from something that isn’t just my added sugar. And I can’t stop drinking it. This is insanely addictive.

First off, it is easy to tell that this is related to my much-loved Hawaiian-Grown Black/Makai Black. The flavor profiles are pretty similar, but the flavors seem softer, slightly muted in this tea. There’s also a hint of greenness, almost rawness that reminds me of a Neela (but not quite since I dislike Neelas for that rawness but find this pleasant). Also, this one still reminds me of shampoo ginger.

So this is a tasty tea but having such a similar taste profile to Makai Black (plus shampoo ginger and a little crispness) just makes me want Makai Black instead of this. Which would make me sad except I got an email from Eva that my tea was sent off Monday, so I will have Makai Black with me soon! Yay!

It took me a bit of searching to finally figure out/find what plant it is that this tea reminds me of. But it is shampoo ginger: http://bit.ly/9ldoxp This plant was all over Maui when I was there, particularly on this day trip we took. So this tea reminds me of that trip. I sniff and sip and think of rough roads, waterfalls and tropical lushness.

4.7g/9oz

I’m getting really tired of this white… stuff falling from the sky. I don’t do winter. The weather outside, however, is the epitome of winter. I am not pleased.

To protest, I’m having this tea. I’ll admit, I wanted to try this tea just because it was grown in Hawaii. Not only am I a sucker for anything orange, I’m a sucker for Hawaii. I thought it’d probably be a little roastier than what I’d prefer based on a quick glance at the description, but eh. It was grown in Hawaii so I’ll try it anyway just to say I have. And then I smelled the dry leaf.

Ooooh. Ooooh, nice. I have recently come to the realization that pouchongs / baozhongs are probably my favorite type of tea. And that’s what this smells like. But… bolder. Darker. More… Hawaiian. I have a feeling I will like this one.

Smelling it while it is brewing, it continues to smell richer and darker. Pouring it into the cup, I get the fresh, green smell of pouchong overlaid with something dark and warm, exotic and almost spicy. The tea color is a clear, light, yellow-green that really is quite lovely.

Oh this is good. Much darker tasting than an actual pouchong. Warm and sweet, it seems to have an almost candied ginger hint in the tail and there’s a fresh taste left in my mouth after I swallow.

Ugh, I put a lotion sampler on and it smells like chicken sausage and it’s interfering with my tea! I keep trying to delve deeper and end up ‘finding’ the chicken sausage! AUGH! I’ve washed the lotion off (or tried to) but now I just smell like soapy chicken sausage.

Chicken sausage being excluded for the moment, this tea reminds me of Tao of Tea’s Neela. Which is weird because I didn’t like Neela at all but I like this. The Neela tasted a bit raw and rough. This has a similar taste but tweaked just enough where it comes across as fresh and clean. There is a similar smoothness and lightness of flavor but it works in this tea because of the lovely little things going on under that thin, clear surface. Ginger and honey and some darker fruity something or other (and chicken sausage… sigh).

I will admit, I’m drinking this pretty slowly because I can’t just swallow it. I have to slowly move it around in my mouth, taste it fully. There’s just so much going on but at the same time, the notes are delicate. As it cools, the base taste of the tea reminds me more and more of a pouchong but more flavors seem to pop up. This is really lovely and I’d like it even if it weren’t Hawaiian.

I reserve the right to increase this rating when I no longer smell like chicken sausage.

ETA: The second steep is much less chicken sausage and the flavor that was hinting around before, coming out in a few different way, has finally moved to the forefront. When we were in Maui, there were all these thick, almost rubbery, pine cone looking, colorful flowers all over the place. I want to say they were called soap plants or shampoo blossoms or something like that because of the nectar the oozed out when they were squeezed. Anyway, that is the flavor I’m getting.

I think this is a good tea – smooth, sweet, mellow – but I just can’t get behind it. That pu-erh sweetness just doesn’t sit well with me. I’ve tried to develop a taste for it, but it’s just not working. So yeah, I’ve dropped the score a lot but I’m judging on how repeatable I find it and I just don’t think any pu-erh will rank highly when I judge them that way.

Quick rinse then brewed. The smell is very sweet – very much the sweet hay smell I seem to get from pu-erhs. It’s pretty potent, in fact. Maybe a little too strong for the not good mood I’m in right now though. But as it cools a little it seems less… syrupy sweet hay and more dry sweet hay and not as potent so I could be okay with this today. We’ll see.

Sipping and wow. This is nothing like the smell. I mean, it is, but I was expecting something thick and (maybe too) sweet and glaze-like. And it’s not. There’s an initial sweetness but it isn’t heavy and then there’s a warm taste that gives it a hint of spice and then the sweetness falls off – not so much that it is bitter or tart – to something more earthy. I can’t get the espresso or chocolate taste from Samovar’s notes but that’s okay. This is sweet without being syrupy. Rich without being heavy. Smooth without being boring. This is very good for a pu-erh.

This is the best Earl Grey I’ve ever tasted.

Okay, let’s back up for a second. How did I acquire this EG? takgoti sent me a ridiculously huge tea swap box. And I mean, ridiculously huge. The box is wider than me. And bigger than my head. There were 29 teas in there. 29! CRAZY. All beautifully wrapped and numbered and perfect. It’s enough to make you swoon. I nearly did. In fact, I teared up a little bit at the generosity, but that’s besides the point.

So, takgoti is always pimping Samovar. It’s like she’s their poster girl, or something! I say this with all the affection in the world, but if you don’t know that Samovar is takgoti’s absolute favorite tea company, you haven’t been on Steepster long enough.

After being dazed and confused for the wonderfulness for a day or so, I decided to dive right in and start with what she labeled #1: Earl Grey. Now, I have a very stormy relationship with the Earl. We’ve had… issues in the past, needless to say. But takgoti said that this is her favorite, so I went right along with it!

The leaves are definitely a lot longer and thicker than what I’ve seen of EGs. Normally the tea tends to be an afterthought of the bergamot, and in most EGs, the bergamot is so overpowering it’s ridiculous. Let me tell you though, the smell of Samovar’s blend is mouth-watering. Even more delicious-smelling than EGB by Adagio. In fact, a lot more interesting, because I can just smell the black tea underneath it. Flowery citrus mixed with… hints of cocoa? That’s what I’m getting.

Anyway, I steeped this up (and was surprised at the low water temperature and short steep time, but I wasn’t about to deviate), and the resulting cup was a pretty dark, coppery color. The wet leaves actually smell more like tea than bergamot! Super-surprised on that front. And the cup itself? A pleasant mix of the two.

On first sip, I sighed and gave the tea a mental thumbs-up. Then I gave it a literal thumbs-up when I took a picture of myself drinking it and sent it to takgoti. For once, I can actually taste BLACK TEA. And it’s delicious and yummy black tea, with all sorts of subtleties and hints of something more. The base here is really very good. I’m getting some cocoa, and some tart notes.

The bergamot here is phenomenal. It’s the perfect pitch of citrus and floral, refreshing but not overpowering. FINALLY. I don’t feel like I’m drinking perfume straight from a bottle! It tastes fresh and satisfying. I’m not gagging after each and every sip!

I still don’t think I’m an EG convert. I don’t think I could ever drink EG once a day, or even maybe once a week. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m never going to absolutely love it. It’ll always be middle-of-the-road for me, and that’s okay.

But I’d never, ever refuse a cup of Samovar’s blend. It’s delicious. Is it the strongest EG? No. If you’re into stronger stuff, try Adagio’s Earl Grey Bravo. Which frankly, the taste of makes me want to vomit a little. But if you like subtle Earl Grey that actually tastes like tea and has an authentic, refreshing and delicious bergamot note, then buy Samovar’s creation.

Seriously, I cannot thank takgoti enough for showing me that yes, Earl Grey CAN taste good. It just has to be super-awesome EG from a great company. Let’s hope that the rest of Samovar’s catalog is just as impressive as this, and I LOVE TAKGOTI SHE IS AMAZING.

That is all.

Sometimes I feel like I should just log teas every time that I drink them, but I wouldn’t be able to keep it up all the time [hahaha] and it would bother the completionist in me that I had missed some stuff. You should see me game, it’s horrible. If there are achievements, it bothers me to hell if I don’t get all of them. Even if they’re stupid difficult. RPG’s are the worst [and the best]. Usually in these cases, when I can see it coming, it’s better for me to stray from even trying, so that I don’t feel like I’m a big fail ball. When it comes to tea, this means that some of the teas I drink fall by the wayside, even some of the ones I drink fairly often. This is unfortunate, especially when they’re good teas, like Bai Mu Dan.

I haven’t had this from anyone else [though I think I might have a sample of Adagio’s that I haven’t bothered to try yet lying around somewhere] so I don’t have anything to compare it to. I really like it, though. When I was first drinking it, I think it was a little bit…darker, maybe, than I’m used to with white teas. The flavors aren’t bad, it was just different, so there was a small appreciation curve I had to slide up to get the point where I am now with it.

It has a lot of those darker sweet flavors to me. Corn, for one – more like…creamed corn [which I happen to like] than fresh corn, but it has that kind of corn sweetness to it. Sometimes I get notes that remind me lightly of honeydew melon. At times tastes toasted, almost roasty, which mainly happens when it hits the back of my throat. It reminds me of walnuts.

The flavor is light, but it’s not picnic in the park, butterflies flitting about light. It’s more like…end of a summer day, drinking lemonade on the porch as the sun sets through the trees light, if that makes sense. I’m trying to avoid the oxymoron of saying it’s a dark light flavor, but there it is.

It’s a good tea. I don’t drink it nearly as much as I do my other two Samovar favorites – Osmanthus Silver Needle and Downy Sprout, but I probably see it once a week or so. Maybe a little bit less, maybe a little more. It’s pretty easy going, so that’s how we roll.

This is a tea takgoti sent to me since she knows that I enjoy trying pu-erhs. This one is quite nice. It has a very smooth taste. Of course it has that distinctive pu-erh fragrance. But I think I actually like this one. I will have to think on it further to determine what exactly makes it nice.

Update: Have now had three steeps of this and I like it more each time.

Ah Wuyi Dark Roast…. a staple in my collection. My go-to afternoon oolong. This stuff is the bees knees. Smokey, sweet, earthy. All the flavors that a tea should have. Fantastic once again. Multiple infusions with steep times between 35 seconds to a full minute.

Decided to give my new gongfu style oolong pot a try from Samovar, paired with their Wuyi Dark Roast. In my opinion, this is the best method for preparing this oolong. Each infusion exhibits stronger singular qualities that are typically hidden when brewing en masse. The Wuyi slowly develops into the sweeter honeysuckle and raisin qualities with each brew and loses some of the stronger peat/chocolate notes that are present at the start.

Just got this tea in today for xmas in addition to the Diggnation “Hippie Glenn” set from Samovar. After about 2 or 3 infusions of this oolong, I have to say I am pretty impressed. The Samovar website lists the flavor profile of this tea to be rich and complex with roasted notes and hints of raisins, barley, peat, and honeysuckle. From what I can tell, they are spot on with their description. Great tea.

I love this tea. It is strong and flavorful to give you a real lift in the morning. Lots of smoky wood tastes and a hearty bite to it. Perfect for cold winter mornings. I have been thinking about marinating some salmon with the tea & grilling because the flavors would marry perfectly. All in all a delicious black tea.

I had plans for tomorrow. I was going to go to the beach for a few days and be ridiculously delirious about finals being over and FINALLY getting to hang out with my friends again, but alas, this has been completely dashed by the fact that we have been graced with no fewer than 14 inches of snow in the past day and a half.
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Another part of the plans involved going to bed at a decent hour so I could wake up to make the drive to aforementioned beach, but since it isn’t going to happen I thought to myself, “Self, why don’t you go get caught up on Steepster?” And since my sleeping schedule is already completely SNAFU’d by finals, I just spend an extraordinary amount of time reading your tea notes and nearly getting back in sync with my beautiful Steepsterites. [I told myself I’d get to “3 days ago” and by the chariot of Hades I have done it!] I might even be completely caught up by the end of tomorrow, which is pretty insane. Sorry for the ATTAK. It had to be done.

Right, so yuzu sencha. This is a newer tea from Samovar, [who coincidently just got a slew of even newer teas in that you can bet I will be ordering because if I don’t a kitten will die] and I’ll admit that at first I was a little dubious when I took the first sip.

I shouldn’t have been worried, though. The dry leaves have a strong, juicy scent to them [it reminds me of this Japanese gum a friend gave me once] but this is simply a subtle tea. The flavors grew on me as my tongue became more accustomed to it. The yuzu flavor is clean and bright, and I thought it paired exceedingly well with the roasty, vegetal, almost creamy notes of the sencha. [For those unfamiliar with yuzu, it is a citrus fruit. Something I’d pin down between a lime and a grapefruit, tastewise.]

Sometimes, the yuzu sings through the sencha clearly, making for a refreshing sensation, but again, this tea is pretty light overall. It could be because of the very short steep time, so I might try playing around with that a bit, but this reads as delicate to me and I fear oversteeping it. If the yuzu were stronger, I also think it could be overpowering. It’s rather precariously balanced, but for me it works very well.

This is not going to be a drink every day tea for me because of the yuzu, but it could very well be an every third day tea. Or an alternate thursdays and dates containing multiples of five tea. It offers a flavor profile that is new to me, yet holds back from being a novelty kind of tea because the sencha grounds it.

I know, I know, you all are thinking, “What’s new? She likes another Samovar tea.” But I tell you, people, when I dislike a Samovar tea, I will log it as such!

Blerg, it is now late enough to be considered early morning and yet I am not tired. The aftermath of finals, it appears, continue to haunt me still. I will laugh at them by continuing to be on Steepster until I become sleepy. What’s the point of celebrating life if you can’t sleep until late afternoon, I ask you?

A very nice chai blend, however their brewing instructions resulted in something a little strong for me. Instead of the long cooking process that they outlined, I brew it using a shorter method which ends up tasting lighter.

2 teaspoons and steep for 2 minutes with 16oz of water at ~175 and sweetener already added. Add cream/half and half/milk (whatever you choose), steep for another 2 minutes with the dairy.
The end result is a good balance between sweet, milky, and spicy. All depends on how much dairy and sugar you add, of course.

One of my favorites

This tea from takgoti has beautiful long light green leaves fragrant with the smell of light fruit. They seem light enough to float away on any passing breeze. Once the leaves are submerged in hot water they develop a stronger fruit fragrance coupled with a light nuttiness. The taste is slightly tart with a nice apricot flavor.

Much thanks to takgoti!

This is currently my favorite white tea – it has a wonderful fruity flavor while dry, and smell even better after adding the water. The fruitiness comes through well in the taste, but it isn’t too overpowering or sweet.