Steven Smith Teamaker

After my sub par cup this morning, I wanted a proper cup. So I have cranked up the ac, made some toast with lemon curd, and poured this.
This tea is so smooth, with light and delicious layers to it. Not even a little bitter. And this pares so well with the bright aftertaste of lemon curd in my mouth from my toast. I recommend that combination!

My eyelids are practically glued shut. Argh. I hope this morning goes smoothly.
On to the tea! This is really good. Its smooth, and not at all bitter, with warm notes layered on top of each other.
I think that this will really come into its own when its the fall. But I’ll enjoy it until then.

I am being bolder and trying more “plain” blacks. I’m a lover of flavored tea, but I can see that there is great deliciousness hiding about in their unflavored sisters.
So I picked this up. Its bagged, which is not super ideal, but I’ve liked what I’ve had from Steven Smith before, and am willing to put my tastebuds in his hands.
This is pretty good! I’m delighted with how smooth it is, and, while its not exactly sweet, it is light and refreshing and quite good indeed. I’ll enjoy having this, on the days I feel more like a classic cup of tea.

Queued post, written May 18th 2014

Here is another one from my recent Auggy parcel. I’ve seen this one around before on Steepster, but it never really caught my interest enough to check it further. It just got lumped automatically into the ‘sounds nice but unavailable to me’ box and so I put it from my mind.

Now I get to have some anyway. I find the name of the blend attractive for reasons that I don’t even understand myself. If I were shopping somewhere and saw a black blend of that name, it would make me have a closer look.

This is one of those rare blends, where not only have they listed what goes in it, they’ve also done it in a more detailed way than usual. Many companies would just have put ‘Indian, Ceylon and China tea’. Some would go a little further and put ‘Assam, Ceylon and Keemun.’ This one actually specifies the two Ceylons used (Uva and Dimbula)! It made me go YAY! I wish more companies would take heed of this.

Now, Uva is a highgrown tea and Dimbula is as well. I don’t actually care much for the high-grown Ceylons although I find them easier to drink than a Darjeeling. As is my experience, though, a Darjeeling in a blend can become quite acceptable in a blend because it is tempered by the other ingredients, and this is the case with the high grown Ceylon in this blend as well. Assam and Keemun are both fairly strong teas for me. Some people classify Keemun as mild, but for me it’s not that mild. I think maybe I measure strength differently. Something with that much flavour in it feels strong to me. They both do an excellent job with keeping the Ceylon in line in this blend. It is primarily a Ceylon blend, though.

I’m actually getting very little of the characteristics of the Keemun and Assam. No grain-y notes, but a little bit of floralness which may or may not be part Keemun and part Ceylon. No cardboard-y notes from the Assam, but a great deal of body. It’s like the Assam and Keemun work to enhance the deeper notes of the Ceylons rather than add their own flavour to the mix. I find I quite like that. It makes the blend taste very balanced. It reminds me strongly of low-grown Ceylon actually.

I’m quite pleased with this one.

This smells pretty much like Earl Grey to me, which is totally fine, but it meant I got out the almond milk to splash in it before even brewing. Without, bergamot tastes super soapy to me.

Anyway, with a bit of almond milk, this was fantastic. I could taste the tea, bergamot, AND almond from my milk (something I really enjoy, and why I buy almond milk in the first place). Win.

this was in the BBB grab bag and since i try not to let things get back to TB, i pulled it out, figuring that if nothing else it could be shared by the numerous tea folks here. I figured i really ought to try it sooner than later so i could knock it off my list if i decided i didn’t really like it. As expected, this one’s not for me. there’s a floral note in this one that just doesn’t sit with me, and as it cooled it took on a taste that i really didn’t care for. In to the swap box it goes for others to try!

I had this tea yesterday and it seemed a little bit uninspiring , so I decided to try it again brewed at a higher temperature. Darjeeling’s often seem to have different characters depending how you brew them. This one was no exception, although it did not go through as extreme a transformation as some I have had. I prefer this one brewed at boiling.

After 3 min @92 °C, I had a tea smelling of bright muscatel notes, cocoa, grainy malt and honey with a maple coloured broth.

The first note was a muscatel note that was quickly overtaken by grainy malt with a hint of honeyed cocoa and an underlying bitterness. It seemed a little more rrobust, substantial and warming than some Darjeeling’s I’ve had. Brewed this way this is not really a morning or afternoon tea for me I can picture having it when I want something soothing on a crisp night.

Brewed with boiling water for 3 minutes, the sharp fruity notes of muscatel were much stronger, the tea tasted lighter and a little bit sweeter with a touch of sharpness and a milder but slightly more bitter maltiness underneath. There is a bit of a slightly spicy and bitter floral note underneath the muscatel. At this temperature there is a more interesting blend of fruity muscatel, grainy and slightly buttery grain notes, honey and malt. It’s more of an afternoon tea now, and certainly more refreshing.

This tea doesn’t resteep exceptionally well.

Thanks Sil for the chance to try this one!

why hello there tea that i see a certain someone hasn’t tried yet….looks like it’s one more cup of you before you go visit that person mwahahahaha. Still enjoying this one, though not nearly as much as the first time i had it. still though, happy to enjoy a nice straight cup of black today. this afternoon. it’s almost stop work time!

Final count: 208

Success!

Well, sort of.

I stuck this in my mug to brew for a couple minutes (at about 85 degrees) and totally got distracted and forgot about it for at least 30-45 minutes because I wasn’t able to set my oven timer because I was cooking chicken.

So I came back to bitter town – buuuuuttttt – I poured half out in another mug, replaced what was missing with fresh water and it was great!

Last time I didn’t know I was supposed to treat a Darjeeling like a green, so this time I was prepared temperature wise. I almost totally effed it up by oversteeping but my trick saved it.

It was nutty and toasty in a way that is different from Laoshan Black (for example).

I couldn’t tell you in what way, I’m not really there.

But done right, I’d totally buy this!

Thanks Sil!!

Raising my rating up from 67.

Thanks to Sil for sending a sample of this my way!
After discovering Steven Smith’s amazing Lord Bergamot, I knew I’d want to try some of their other teas, including Bungalow.

Made it this morning for breakfast…it’s good, but a bit too astringent for my tastes. That’s not a quality I enjoy in a tea.

I steeped it for only 3 min at 96 degrees to play it safe, but it was still quite bitter.
The resteep was a little better but still left quite the aftertaste. I think I do prefer something smoother and less toothache inducing (is that a normal thing? Bitter teas make my teeth hurt…)

Glad I got to try it rather than blindly buying it one day! Thanks Sil :)

Oh man this is good! Thanks for the sample TeaBrat!
It isn’t your typical Darjeeling at all. No its much richer than that.
I was pleasantly surprised to actually taste all the things listed in the description. Usually I get one or two, but not all of them, or atleast not strongly enough that I could ID them on my own. But this! Well this is just bursting with layers of nut, fruit, butter, and toast. Kinda reminds me of one of those chocolate bars with the fruit and nuts in it, only without the cocoa. But not like a trailmix bar, because its milder and creamier than that.
This is definitely one I would reorder one day.

Found a sample sachet of this, and since I’ve seen some Steven Smith reviews floating around lately I decided to give it a try.

First off, a little background info.

Earl Grey is my first tea love. It’s my go to if I need to drink a bag in public (like at a work conference or something, for example), and I don’t think I’ve met an EG I haven’t enjoyed. Not that I LOVE them all or anything, but they are easy to please me.

Anyhow, all that to say – this might be the very best non cream Earl Grey I’ve ever had.
The base is so delicious, it’s rich and smooth and silky and flavorful. The bergamot is perfect.

I added milk like I always do with EG and it was the very thing that I wanted to drink at that exact moment in time.

I do indeed foresee a Steven Smith order in my future, I’d love to be able to try some more sometime before I order! The Bungalow and Assam intrigue me especially.

They’ve been added to my future shopping list!

Very sorry to learn of Steven Smith’s passing. I had no idea that he was the mastermind behind both Stash and Tazo! He contributed a lot to the world of tea. RIP.

Had this cup in his honor today in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Yes, I brought it with me…)

No 72 White Petal is my very first tea from Steven Smith Teamaker. I picked up a box at Whole Foods this afternoon out of curiosity. The liquor is light gold and the flavor only barely floral. A very subtle blend. I’ve been noticing of late that white teas sometimes remind me of the second infusions of green teas…

I do not really taste either the osmanthus or chamomile as distinct. Instead, there is a more general and very light floral facet to this tea.

Sipdown!

I am finishing this off today. It’s enjoyable, especially as a cold brew. Still this probably won’t be a repurchase for me, I think I’d prefer a plain/straight Moroccan Mint tea.

Tea of the afternoon…

I have a lot of this and thought I’d try cold brewing it yesterday so I’m drinking the results today. :)

When cold brewed, this became very vegetal and slightly pungent, the spearmint and lemon myrtle are barely noticeable over the green tea. I wonder if I added too much leaf to the cold brew? Anyway this is one tea I definitely prefer hot.

Happy Earth Day Steepster…

I made some of this earlier today thinking it would be my tea to try iced today. It is good iced but I think I prefer it hot with sugar. I taste more lemon and mint than green tea this afternoon. It might be better to cold brew this one because ice dilutes the flavor a lot.

Speaking of Earth Day I should get my butt up off my chair and go outside for some exercise. I have been feeling so unmotivated today so far and just plain tired. I think allergy season is officially here from the way I’ve been sniffling this morning.

How odd, I could have sworn I reviewed this at some point but I guess not… ?

I’ve had this for a while and I find it really refreshing, an interesting twist on the traditional moroccan mint tea due to the addition of lemon myrtle. It’s a minty, lemony green tea! I absolutely recommend adding rock sugar to this, or sugar of some kind. This is excellent hot, but I think it would make an amazing iced tea as well. I really loved the Mao Feng Shui when I tried it plain as well. I wish S.S. would have another free shipping promotion soon :)