teabento

I have a bit of an obsession with this tea right now. Probably haven’t even logged all the times I’ve had it. So good.

Had a cup AND a resteep of this the other evening. It was delightful. I love when teas are so good that you crave them! Raising rating from 85 to 95.

Actually drank this with supper, and slightly regret it, because the flavours of the food kind of overwhelmed it. I could still taste milk chocolate, but it just wasn’t as striking. And I didn’t get to resteep it! The horror.

Brewed this the night before we drove to the airport, and it was an absolutely spectacular mug of deliciousness in the morning. I was reminded again of unsweetened milk chocolate, and it was quite lovely. I think I had a second infusion of this while still at home, and it was good, though the first infusion is miles better.

Have drank this a few times now; I think I prefer laoshan black but the chocolatey profile here is certainly tasty as well. I just think it errs a little more on the… hay-y side, whereas I prefer the maltier, richer LB.

It is definitely a rare occasion drinking a tea (in this case a fine dark hand rolled Oolong) from Vietnam. Its profile really reminded me a lot of its origin Taiwanese version. My wife loved this buddy to its bits!
Aroma: It resembled a lot of an Oriental Beauty but still different with a nice sugary sweet roasted note. The sweetness somehow reminded me of cotton candy. Later steaming up the full honey structure was conquering every inch of my scenting buds. Such a deliciously mouth watering sweet structure plus a nice typical Taiwanese floral note to it.

Taste: Like the aroma the taste was very sweet. It was hard resisting this fellow. While I was shooting those photos the scent really messed with my concentration because the steaming bouquet was so lovely. The liquor unfolded so deliciously sweet like cotton candy with honey plus a hint of multivitamin juice (mango, passion fruit and a hint of pineapple) with an extra of dark sweet gums like blueberry and cherry. Beside those aspects a small hint of gingerbread and sweet roasted almonds showed up too. This was a great example of a well composed and naturally sweet Vietnamese Oolong

Dancong especially Milan Xiang at its best should be very thick, with a full body and a very tropical fruity profile and this is exactly what this fellow combines and even more. This again is by far one of the best Milan Xiang I’ve ever had. I tried many but not as fragrant, full bodied and so well balanced composed as this one. A masterpiece of its own. Mango, passion fruit a hint of pineapple a slightly nutty accent of sweet roasted almonds and pumpkinseeds a good amount of sweet ripe peaches and a nice sugary sweet aspect of cherry blossom hi-chew (Japanese fruit gums). This profile really lets your Dancong heart beat fast as a Speedster! This is the miracle of tea! This fellow keeps his strength of taste for at least three steeps after that a nice bouquet and liquor is still pleasing your tasting buds but with a slightly greener lighter touch to it – the tropical fruit note is now more noticeable within the long fragrant aftertaste

Thanks to teabento for sending along a sample of this tea. I love the leafhopper sweetness in teas, and this one is no exception. I did notice that it seems to require a little extra time to bring out the sweetness – the first cup I had was a bit bland, but the second was filled with bug bitten goodness.

Mmm. This tea is so particular: bittersweet, like darkest chocolate. A bit of sweet potato trailing behind. All in all, such a delight.

I am hoarding this one. Maybe not completely hoarding, but indulging in a cup or two only from time to time so that I can stretch out its deliciousness.

And so I am back to this. I had the jitters about attending a thing today and this seemed the logical choice, not to calm, more like to placate and to help get me there. Dark chocolate sweet potato bready deliciousness works, apparently. Yay me, and yay stellar lovely tea!

I am just hoping that this tea does not make me forsake all others. For now.

Seem to be quite attached to this for now. Like others have mentioned, it is at its best when hot or on the warmer side of warm. When it cools, it becomes totally meh, not even remotely like its bittersweet chocolate hot self. Quite a remarkable change.

Dexter was kind enough to surprise me with some of this in her assortment of teas to me while I waited for my batch and I was super delighted because everyone had been raving about this tea and I wanted a cup or two.

Yes indeed, intensely delicious bittersweet chocolate black. It reminds me very much of a Chinese black tea that I’ve had recently, but the name escapes me. Delighted with this one.

Thank you, Dexter. Hope you are staying warm out there in the deep chill.

edit—I am finding it interesting that others have described this as specifically milk chocolate while for me, it is not that at all. Perhaps in another cup.

Thanks to tea bento for the samples! I’ve made this red oolong twice now, both times according to package directions: gong fu style, 95c, rinse/2min/1min/3min. The dominant notes that I taste overall are wood, leather, and tobacco. If you like those flavors, you’ll probably like this. I personally don’t like those flavors so was not a huge fan. I did not get a lot of the sweeter notes that others seem to have picked up on.

The dry leaf smells like sandalwood with a hint of leather. The first steep brews up dark and tastes like dry wood and leather with maybe a hint of malt. It’s like drinking the Morgan Library. The second steep is much less dry. It tastes of sandalwood and leather with a touch of honey. With the third steep, the wet leaf smells like tobacco and the brew tastes like what I imagine tobacco tastes like (having never smoked, I’m taking a WAG based on olfactory experience). I didn’t try to push it further than the recommended number of steeps but you probably could.

Sipdown (234)

I made another peanut butter, cocoa, and banana smoothie this morning and this time remembered Jiri Horse. I almost didn’t use it because I realized I only had 2 servings of leaf left which meant two more cups or one smoothie addition. I was about to put it away and save it for later when I noticed a whole in the bottom of the bag and figured I might as well finish it up.

My hope was that the tea would add some milk chocolate notes to the smoothie. Alas I decided to be lazy and not measure anything so I am mostly getting banana and yogurt. That means this sipdown of Jiri Horse is a bit of a waste and I am sad to see it go in this manner. Good bye Jiri Horse, I am sorry I did not cherish you like I should have…

I finished my bagels which have been breakfast for the past little bit. That means the only things I have lying around for a quick breakfast are either cereal or smoothies. This morning I went with a smoothie and while normally I like to add tea to my smoothies, I took too long trying to determine what would go best with peanut butter, banana, and chocolate. Then AFTER the smoothie was done, Jiri Horse popped into my head…and stayed there…so now I am drinking Jiri Horse.

It is smooth and chocolatey and delightful as per usual.

Nutella latte. It is yum. That is all.

So when I drank this, I was basically expecting melted milk chocolate. What this ended up tasting like was good quality hot chocolate powder steeped in water. It was a little thin which was disappointing until I realized I was drinking a tea and not a hot chocolate and a non-flavored tea at that.

Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2018/05/19/jiri-horse-from-teabento/

#adventageddon Day Eight – 5/5

Last one today – I’ve had this before and liked it before, decided to brew it Gongfu to milk out some of the notes that I think are so lovely in it. Short session; as I mentioned earlier in the week the smaller sample size has often meant brewing it a larger than I’d prefer vessel for longer steeps rather than a small vessel for more steeps.

Love, love, love the honey notes in this tea! It’s more than just honey but that’s the flavour note that’s present immediately after the rinse and all throughout the session. Sticky, sweet and creamy honey notes; with aspects that make me think of heavier buckwheat honey but also a creamed honey. Is creamed buckwheat honey a thing!? If not then it 100% should be! Aside from that there’s a nice mix of floral notes going on as well as a MILD spice note and some woody undertones. Kind of lilac, kind of not? It’s got that spice thing which makes me think of nibbling on lilacs – they have a spicy floral vibe. They don’t really smell spicy to me though, so if it accurate to say it tastes like the taste of lilacs over the heady, aromatic fragrance? I think so. Also a little bit of red fruit to some of the sips, but not consistent throughout.

Very soft astringency, mostly a thick viscous liquor though.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1sp1g9-9aw

Cold Brew Sipdown (633)!

Finished this one off earlier in the week, and let me tell you that cold brewing it was a good decision! It was so smooth and really flavourful with the most beautiful flavour notes and a thick mouthfeel. Predominant flavour was honey, but also some floral top notes, overarching a little bit into the body of the sip – somewhat “honeysuckle” like. Also just the faintest little bit of toasted nuts in the immediate top of the sip; very quickly subsiding. Undertones were fruity; sort of like a gentle red currant or pomegranate note. Mild, but definitely there.

Blissful.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEa4iblWt-s&list=WL&index=2

First tea of 2018!

Every year I try to pick something meaningful for my first tea of the year – in the past I’ve done champagne flavoured blends or teas that were a new area of exploration for me that I hoped to further learn about in the coming year. This year, I selected this one in honour of it being the year of the dog!

I decided to do this one as a tea tasting like what I did when I was taking my Sommelier courses, so I pulled out my cupping set and got everything set up to brew this up under cupping parameters. It was really delicious, and the aroma coming from the set as everything steeped was pretty drool inducing: sweet, sticky honey notes and autumn leaves, malt, and fruit! Yum!

This was really interesting flavour wise; very, very sweet and smooth overall with the strongest note in the cup definitely being honey. I also got a mix of other sweet notes like baked bread, malt, red fruit undertones, and cane sugar. The body was a little more vegetal though with main flavours like autumn leaves and zucchini. There was also just a touch of cinnamon in the undertones and finish. It was a wide range of flavours all in all but for me, at least, it worked really well and created a very smooth and pleasant cup to sip on. I’m happy this was my choice for first tea of the new year; it was delicious!