Samovar
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I am not sure if I like this this blend or if I even like non-roasted plain mate. This tea is accurately described by Samovar as bittersweet, and vegetal and those flavors do dominate. Let’s put it this way, anytime a tea is flavored with licorice, the licorice flavor predominates. But not in this tea at all…The licorice is a background note providing just a touch of sweetness…
I have always thought I liked Yerba Mate but now maybe I don’t. I have always had the roasted kinds (52 teas Malted chocomate, Teavana’s MyMatevana) ; the only non-roasted one I tried was Kusmi’s Detox, but maybe, in the Detox blend, the Mate was second-fiddle to the lemongrass and green tea.Like Auggy described earlier, this tea blends up a cloudy, brackish, brownish , grassy green…
Aw :( Did you buy a whole tin, or just a sample? Maybe it will grow on you :)
It may yet grow on me…I bought the small tin which I think was less than $10 . At Samovar, the sample is $3 and is soooo tiny , so sometimes a better deal to splurge for the tin. If I try it again and still don’t like it, this may be a “Take it away” giveaway (along w/Samovar’s hibiscus herbal tea). I usually like Samovar’s offerings though..
I couldn’t tell if I liked this one either. It’s a very confusing tea!
I still can’t decide. But it sure must have some serious caffeine as it does provide some extra- energy boost. Tomorrow I will try Samovar’s peppermint yerba mate
Lori, Mate has a lot of caffeine.
LOL about the caffiene content…Britt- I have decided this was just blech…
No notes yet. Add one?
Preparation
There’s definitely a resemblance, but I thought the balance of flavors was pretty different. Blood Orange ws much, much more orangy to me. Not that I’ve had that many, but of the four or so I’ve had, it seems that any time a pu erhs is flavored the pu erh taste is weaker.
Blood orange’s citrus notes definitely showed up more in the Blood Orange Pu-erh. As for the ginger, a longer steep brings out the ginger taste. I think depending on how you steeped it, both cups could have been identical. Now I don’t have a side by side comparison, but it was just remarkably similar from memory.
Would be interesting to try side by side! I ordered both, maybe I’ll give that a try. Lol.
You ordered both!?!? Haha, would definitely be interesting, but uhhhh, that’s a lot of pu-erh to drink in a day ;)
Yeah, well, I’d have to start early and maybe only go through 4 or so steeps each. I don’t know what your experience has been with the Samovar pu erhs but I expected more steeps without significant flavor changes. I’ve read about pu erhs going for 20 or more steeps without a change in flavor. I only get about 5 out of each one and the fifth is already starting to get weak.
I FINALLY …am the proud owner of some Samovar leaf. I was so excited to get my order this week – I checked the tracking info a million times yesterday morning to make sure it was being delivered… but by the time I got home to meet my little bundle of joy, cruel fate had decided to give me the beginnings of a crappy head cold. I couldn’t wait, and brewed up a cup of this anyway. :/
A scant 2 tablespoons was about 5g, used about 6oz water.
Well. I tasted sweet, and creaminess, and a hint of warm starchiness.
That was about it.
Poo.
Anyway, I resteeped for a total of 3 times, enjoying each cup, but I’m sure there’s more to it than I was tasting. I’ll have to wait until my stuffy, runny nose has cleared up to try this again. Can’t wait!
Preparation
On the contrary, I think it was perfect timing cuz it lifted your spirits:)
Well, that’s true too! How do you like your yixing pot?
For not using it yet, I love it! I don’t have any raw pu erh to season it at the moment.
Try it at the higher temperature? :O
@teaplz: Definitely have plans to try the higher temp! I’m just afraid I’ll be “wasting” this stuff if I still can’t taste it properly… :/
Feel better soon!
I had my sample of this with breakfast today. It actually reminded me a lot of PG Tips… which means I’ll probably stick to PG Tips and Tealuxe’s Brattle Street Blend for my breakfast tea needs. It was really good; just especially when combined with shipping costs more than other options that are really good as well.
On another note, in my cleaning spree, I found an empty tea tin that was very exciting!! It was a Whittard of Chelsea Oxford Tea, brought (by my parents) to me from Oxford while I was in college. This was the very first loose leaf tea I had, and though I just prepared it using my microwave to heat water and whatever I could find to strain it, it was amazing. So amazing that it propelled me down this path that I’m still on a decade later. Now that I found the tin and know what type it was, I’m going to have to see if I can track some down to see if it holds up to my memory!!
Good luck with the tea hunt!
Thanks! So far, from the Whittard of Chelsea, the hunt will be a hard one. They do custom blends, so I’m wondering if it’s one that they sell just at Oxford. The canister says “Pure Darjeeling and pure Assam teas.” It also says “refreshing blend for gentle punting.” :)
Thank you so much for sending some of this Ricky. Kinda been in a tea slump couldn’t find anything that sounded good for awhile there. The leaves looks like the curves out this smells like white tea. I steeped this up. And taste I’s light and slightly savory. This tea I’s pretty good. I am abit bias though considering I like most white teas.
