Steven Smith Teamaker

This is a good choice for morning time but there is a bitterness present which I am not enjoying a lot, I think it’s the keemun but I also didn’t totally enjoy the plain ceylon I got from Steven Smith. Not too bad but won’t be ordering more when my current supply runs out. See previous notes, if interested.

Tea of the morning here. I don’t know what it is about keemuns, but if brewed for slightly too long they just taste like a cup of dirt, as was the case with this tea blend. Note to self: keep steeping time under 3 minutes.

Yum, this is a great tea for waking up in the morning when you can barely get out of bed (for me this is practically every day!)

see previous notes for more details

Tea of the morning here, this stuff is very good for wake up time and is so flavorful and good with soymilk… it has an almost chocolatey aftertaste. I know I will be done with my 2 oz. soon and will wish I had purchased more. Luckily I know where to get some. ;)

Raised the rating slightly today,

Happy Monday!

Tea of the morning here; dark and luscious – and a real eye opener. I reviewed it a few days ago. It’s so yummy!

Surprised at the meh sort of reviews this blend has received, I thought it was pretty good.

Definitely a lot of assam in here but the ceylons add a bright note. The keemun is likely my least favorite part, to me it makes the blend slightly muddy, it is very rich though and the bit of smokiness is a nice touch. A good eye opening breakfast blend… I enjoyed mine with a bit of soymilk!

Sorry for the short review but I’m late already.

I’ve had this one for way too long (over 2 years, I think), but it came in the individually sealed packages so I’m hoping it will be good for a while longer yet.

This is a mix of first and second flush leaves and brews to be quite a lovely brownish-red. The flavor is fairly woody with some nice, sweet fruit notes. I know the teamaker describes this as having buttery and floral notes but I don’t get these and don’t think I ever did! It’s a fairly decent cuppa though. Nice for sipping on in the afternoon.

Good morning Steepster,
Life has been sucky for me since I broke my arm last Saturday. I’ve been in a lot of pain and it’s also difficult to do things with one hand. Luckily I can type a bit with my left hand and use the mouse. Teabags seem easier because less clean up is involved, but getting these individual packets out is not. I’ve had this particular SS tea before and it isn’t one of my favorites from them but it’s pretty good for a 2nd flush darjeeling. See previous notes for more details.

This came with the black tea sampler I got from Steven Smith teas today…

I love darjeeling (at least the first flush) so I had some pretty high expectations about this. It’s a blend of 1st and 2nd flush teas and came in a sachet.

The instructions say to steep this for 5 minutes which seemed a bit excessive to me. I went for around 4 minutes.

The aroma of the wet leaf is woody and toasty and the tea liquor is a medium reddish brown. I’m definitely getting the nutty and toasty notes from this tea but the fruit /flower flavor seems to be eluding me. I was hoping for some muscatel which I’m not finding anywhere. For a darjeeling, it is very mellow and gentle.

Overall, it’s fairly good but nothing I would bother to keep in stock on a regular basis. If I was going to buy one teabag form of a blended darjeeling it would be Mighty Leaf’s version. Still I am glad I tried it!

sipdown! (237) This is a sipdown thanks to the lovely nicole who is getting the rest of this one to try out! There was just a wee bit left at the end of packaging this up for her, so i had one last little cup to send it on it’s way. I didn’t mind this one and thoroughly enjoyed having it around but given the choice, i’ll take #49 first :)

backlog from yesterday – had this sometime in the afternoon while trying to get a bunch of work done. It’s crazy how incredibly busy things are these days. I still enjoy this one quite a bit but #49 is still my favourite.

Alright! time to get back in to the swing of things. First tea since i’ve been back – yesterday I wanted nothing to do with tea, but today i can hear it calling out to me :) We had a blast in Cuba and for the first time EVER i didn’t get a sun burn at all. I’m totally browned…though all that really means is that i now look like most of the population does when they’re NOT sun tanned – think middle of winter white :)

Figured i’d kick today off with one of the teas i took with my to Cuba and go from there. I’m still not entirely organised and ready for back to work tomorrow or for tea drinking….but i’m getting there. First up though, a couple hours of bike riding to be out and about on this fine Canada Day!

backlogging this from last week – drank it a number of times while in Cuba, though the taste was slightly off – likely due to having to “boil” my water via the coffee machine haha

still, a good cup of black, though not my favourite from steven :)

mmmm had this waaaay earlier today since today is another gloomy day and i wanted some comforting teas. Still trying to manage my sipdowns and get through some of my larger packages of tea but i needed comfy teas today. This is still a pretty tasty tea, though not as wonderful as 49. But i’ll never turn this one down.

trying to catch up on my logs. sadly work has been increasingly busy meaning i have time to DRINK tea, most of the time, but not time to write about it.

hallieod sent this one to me in the hopes that I would enjoy it more than she did. I’m pretty sure that experiement was a success since i’m finding this one really nice. Now is it a better tea than #49? hells no! but it’s still a nice black and more than suitable for my morning rotation. This is slightly malty but not overly so. It’s a robust tea that might have a bit of astringency but i’m thinking i steeped this for way less time than most. I’ll have to have more of this one the weekend when i can dedicate more time to it.

thank you so much for sending this my way hallieod

Definitely for the lover of bergamot.

TastyBrew to the rescue!
it’s an Assamalanche!
capital A.
big and bright and i can even taste the caramel notes. malty on the nose for sure.
big personality. a strutter.

sipdown! i tried brewing this at 2.5 mins and it was almost the cup that i fell in love with. almost. but not quite. sigh i’ll have to decide later what to do about this one. Clearing my rating for now.

it’s like i can’t figure out how to make this tea anymore. Gone is the deliciousness that i loved, replaced with something that’s bitter and not delicious whatsoever. I’ve got no ideas beyond my tastebuds are on strike..but other favourites taste the same so who knows?

hmmmm today this is NOT a good cup of tea. not sure what happened but i am so not feeling this today. I kept looking into my cup trying to figure out where my beloved 49 went…

another cup this morning, mostly i wanted to be able to compare the assam from bellocq against one of my “staples” It’s nice to not only be able to revisit a favourite but not try to compare against a memory :) I am still a fan of this…there’s something wonderful about how smooth this tea is. Someday maybe a tea will replace it,but so far, it remains a staple :)

i also had this tea today. friends came over tonight so now i’m scrambling to get ready for tomorrow. it feels like friday today. This was still delicious as i remember :)

there’s a certain freedom that comes from having cleaned up your cupboard and made it under 200 without ordering anymore. I totally took a break today from worrying about old teas or sipdowns. I will still try to get my one in when i get home tonight, but this morning’s teas were all about enjoying teas. I picked this one, since it’s out of the box of teas i’m not allowed to open until there is more room in my cupboard. It’s been a while since i’ve had this one and man it is STILL delicious. I am loving it!