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The Final Sipdown: Day 8
Decupboarding Total: 15
Today, The Final Sipdown feels a bit like a beating. Mostly because it seems like I have all of these meh to okay teas that I have to finish off – and I have a lot of them left (a lot of each tea more than a lot of tea… well, actually I have both). Anyway, I’ve decided to do something that is leaving me feeling a little mixed: Decupboard a good tea.
No, not just good. A great tea.
So in some ways, I’m all “Yay! One more tea decupboarded! One more step closer to allowing myself to make a Kusmi order! YAY!” But on the other hand, I’m all “But, but, but! This means this tea is gone. Why can’t I save this tea forever and ever and then I’ll never have to worry about being out of it? WHY?”
So yeah, mixed.
So it’s official – good Keemuns are really good! Adagio’s Anhui, Chicago Tea Garden’s, Jackee Muntz and this one – they’re all a little bit different but they’re all good. They each have similar notes of rye and sweet and smoke but in different strengths and proportions. Adagio’s and CTG seem to sit on one side of the spectrum for me with softer, smoother notes and lots of complexity. Jackee sits on the other end, representing the Keemuns with a stronger, more straight-forward flavor and texture and oh yeah, if the stars align, major sweet-in-the-form-of-caramel notes.
This one strikes me as sitting pretty much in the middle of that spectrum, with some delightful characteristics of the Keemuns to either side. The dry leaves smell sweet and slightly smoky, which somehow combines to give me the strong impression of chocolate – more milk than dark, but listing slightly towards the dark side. Post-steeping, the smell is slightly smoky, rich and silky, with a bit of a dark grain/yeasty note that is too sweet to be bready and instead translates into almost crème brulee-ish. You might see where I’m going with this…
The taste is lovely. Not quite as complex as CTG’s or Adagio’s Anhui Keemun but still with that overall gentle smoky taste and almost-bready/grain-ish/woodsy solid note. Then a bit of stars-aligned Jackee pops up in the insanely smooth and silky feel. The end taste is especially smooth with no hint of a raw or acrid note that a lot of Keemuns seem to have. Instead, it’s silky, rounded and heavy. If this tea was a shape (other than, you know, the shape of whatever container you pour it in to) it would be a large, frictionless, dark garnet sphere – that’s how smooth it feels going down. It also has a strong sweet note – not quite as sweet as full-on-caramel-mood Jackee, but sweet enough that, combined with the thicker grain-ish/yeasty/solid note and the smooth, decadent feel, it makes me think a bit of crème brulee or custard.
Ultimately, I like the edge and greater complexity of CTG’s and Adagio’s Anhui Keemun just a hair more (a very tiny hair, in fact) but this is a really good tea. Those that find non-caramel Jackee a bit strong would probably really enjoy this one, especially the sweet notes and silky feel. Actually, anyone that enjoys Keemuns would probably like this one unless you tend to go for rougher, rawer feeling/tasting Keemuns – it’s truly delightful.
A big thanks to Angrboda for the share!
Preparation
Thank you so much for this detailed review- I have been getting curious about keemuns in general and this provides some insight…
Thanks – glad it helped! I know I ignored at least one type of Keemun (the not as happy quality ones that tend to strike me as raw, green or Nilgiri-like tasting) but I’m not really a fan of those so I ignored them. :)
I only have the Adagio one left to try. I know you said it was expensive, but I looked it up and went GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!! O.O die!
I thought this was on the pricey side when I bought it. I have been educated otherwise.
I can’t actually remember what I thought of it or even how I scored it, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t find creme brulee… And just when I was sitting here wondering what to have tonight! I think we have a candidate.
Yeah, the Adagio one is a bit wow. But it is good! Though I think for the price, I’ll stick with CTG’s because it’s lots cheaper and only a hint less wonderful.
I think the creme brulee is where my mind landed because of the heavy, rich texture of this plus the not-quite-caramel sweetness, similar to the top of a creme brulee.
My main gripe with this tea is its lack of personality. Yes, it has a light floral taste. Yes, it can be infused a few times. Yes, it is a quality tea for the price, it is easy to drink and is quite enjoyable. But there is absolutely nothing to remember it for, it doesn’t stand out. It is very mellow and doesn’t pack enough either flavor or aroma to actually impress. The aroma is particularly weak, sadly, I’m totally missing out on Osmanthus notes. TeaSpring has a lot of amazing oolongs but this isn’t one of them.
Preparation
Not a good day. Girly nonsense, see. It is testament to how sorry I’ve been feeling for myself with all the aches and pains that comes with being a girl, that this is the tea I decided should see me through the day.
For those who aren’t aware of it, this is the more refined leaf grade of my much loved Tan Yang Te Ji, and it cost about twice as much too.
Seriously. Expensive. Leaf.
That’s how miserable I’ve been all day.
Add to that the fact that half of first steep and half of second steep both got cold while I was napping. I really have not been paying uber-much attention to it.
Auggy had some recently however and she wrote about the differences between the three first steeps and I’ve found today that I really agree with her a lot on that.
So you should go read her post. (And then follow her because she’s really nice)
I shall be having a fourth steep in the not too distant future and look forward to the aches and pains being gone tomorrow. I wonder what the fourth steep will be like?
Let it be known that Tan Yang black is just about the closest thing to perfection I’ve ever met in Tea-Land. It’s interesting and complex and it has both smokyness and a strong cocoa and raisin note to it. Anything you like in a chinese black, the Tan Yang has it.
It’s no secret that I have a torrid love affair with TeaSprings Tan Yang Te Ji. For the longest time, however, that was sold out but they still had the Tan Yang Jing Zhi in stock. A higher leaf grade and a MUCH more expensive tea. Expensive enough that it’s certainly not one that I would just go ahead and buy large amounts of. Money don’t grow on trees where I come from.
So when the Te Ji finally came back in stock I went ahead and bought a larger supply and a small amount of the Jing Zhi for experimentation and comparison purpose. If the Te Ji is such a piece of perfection, how awesome could not the more refined version be?
25g. Half of it I sent off to Auggy as she is also a lover of the Tan Yang (I don’t mind taking the blame for that) and I wanted her to have the opportunity to experiment and compare as well. It’s always nice with a second opinion. The other half was carefully packed down again and has been lying around for a while. I wanted plenty of time to try it in and I was also afraid of messing the brewing up, what with having so little of it and it being priced the way it was.
But today is the day. I’m doing a side by side comparison, so I’ve just made two cups of tea in my little farm animals favourite pot. One Te Ji (in the sheep cup) and one Jing Zhi (in the kitty cup). I’ve been careful to brew them exactly the same way. Same amount of leaf, same temperature, same time. Even same shape cup (but that’s more because the size fits the pot perfectly). I made the Jing Zhi last so I can resteep the leaves and the get the most out of them.
Rather than making two identical posts, I’m posting the whole thing in this one, since it’s a comparison of two very similar teas and I’m primarily wanting to see how the Jing Zhi is in comparison to the far more well-known Te Ji.
In the following, all notes pertaining to Te Ji will be in italics.
There seems to be more aroma. It’s more or less the same notes, sweet, slightly wooden, slightly smoky and rather raisin-y. Weirdly I’m not finding much cocoa in either of them this morning. That’s odd because the first time I had Te Ji it had very strong cocoa notes to it and I would have expected the Jing Zhi to be the same. Maybe the first time around was a better year for cocoa-notes. Or something.
Stronger, fuller aroma in Jing Zhi, but the same notes.
There is still a lot of cocoa in the flavour, especially on the swallow, but mostly it’s a sweetly oaky sort of flavour. A bit spicy, and not very smoky, but the smoke generally don’t really come to its right until the second steep
This seems stronger. A little more astringent, a little closer to a pang of bitterness. It doesn’t seem to have the same immediate charm, and I’m reminded of how the Te Ji wasn’t really that special the first time, but grew on me with remarkable speed. There is definitely smoke present here, as well as an oaky note. It’s not as sweet though. Te Ji appears to have an ever so slightly honeyed note. It’s very very little and only there if you really search for it, but I can’t find that in Jing Zhi at all, how ever much I search. The more fruity notes of raisins are more well developed here though than in Te Ji.
The Jing Zhi seems a little rougher, a little sharper around the edges. I prefer the Te Ji here.
All in all, the Jing Zhi is very awesomely good. Like the Te Ji it’s just a whisker away from perfection. In some ways, yes, I think it is a little bit better than Te Ji, but it’s no way near so much better that I’m willing to pay that amount of money for it. The Te Ji wins on price by several horse lengths. If and when I become a multi-billionaire, I might switch to Jing Zhi just for the snobbery of it, but in the meantime Te Ji is totally still pressing all the same buttons.
Can’t wait to try this one! I did bring this and the Te Ji with me to Hawaii, but since the apartment ended up not even having something approximating an appropriate tea-like mug, I wasn’t brave enough to brew it (didn’t want to mess up my chance at Tan Yang perfection, you know).
Yes, I was feeling the same way about it. It took ages for me to try it because I was SO scared I’d mess it up. The experience of TWO mugs of tan yang sitting right under your nose, though… Gosh! It was difficult to write the post. Kept getting distracted. :D
A very smooth black tea. Dark brown color. No bitterness. The leaves were a similar color mixture as golden monkey, but smaller. No maltiness in the flavor however.
Preparation
Haven’t heard of this type of Keemun before. How does it differ from Hao Ya and Mao Feng?
No idea. Its the only Keemun I’ve tried. I was very pleased with it, and do intend to try others. When I can get some that is.
Canton Tea Co. puts out a killer Keemun. And Jing Tea puts out a Keemun Mao Feng. A company called Vicony Teas also puts out primarily Keemun. They tout in their bio that their family was there from Keemun’s very inception.
This tea is plainly lovely. It smells like a fresh jasmine off a bush and produces an exceptionally smooth, slightly sweet brew. It’s very different from other jasmine green teas I’ve tried because it has virtually zero astringency but still maintains a flowery kick to it, probably thanks to real jasmine flowers mixed into the tea leaf. It’s a bit sweeter than I prefer but very pleasant and refreshing to drink.
The brewing can get tricky, anything above 175F totally ruins the taste, making it bitter. If brewed correctly it easily stands up to several infusions.
Preparation
MMMM… will write a full review later, but this is really nice.. and cocoa-y. YUM. Angrboda – you rock. :)
Preparation
Inspired by my tea-taste twin, I went and made me a cup of this also. And decupboarded. And whimpered heartbrokenly while doing so. Then I went and looked it up on TeaSpring’s site and with even more heartbreak determined that I simply can’t afford to keep myself in a steady supply of Hao Ya A. They have a ‘regular’ Keemun also, which is half the price of Hao Ya A, so I’ll have to try that one out and see if it even remotely measures up to this one. If it doesn’t, I’ll try and get the Keemun Superior or whatever it was called (Keemun Imperial?) from Nothing But Tea. I rather liked the sample I had of that one.
So yes, I’m drinking this cup with all the attention I can muster to get as much as possible out of the last leaves, while at the same time trying not to dilute it with my tears of Hao Ya A-less despair.
On the upside, I managed to make it just about perfect this time. It’s so smooth, almost viscous! And sweetness times lots. And rye. And grain. And caramel-y sweetness. And a bit of smoke, but not much this time actually.
It’s just… Yes.
Hao Ya Nom. That totally ought to be a leaf grade. Just saying.
My rolemodel in all things smoky and chinese black Auggy posted about a lovely Keemun this evening. I’m not sure if I’m as big a Keemun fan as she is, as I don’t think I’m as experienced in the field yet, but it is definitely a type I enjoy immensely. Unfortunately the leaves of awesome that she had are not available to me, due to the branch of the company in question available to me never have anything of interest to me.
BUT! I’ve got my TeaSpring Keemun (tin level getting low) which is also very nice indeed and I felt inspired. Last time I had it I accidentally managed to make it double strength, but I’ve avoided that trap this time. No idea how it even happened in the first place. I must have been distracted and added leaves to the pot twice or something.
Tonight it works though. Nicely smoky and little bit rough, but with a lovely sweetness underneath.
Tonight it’s just absolutely wonderfully awesome and I’m cranking the rating up a few points.
ETA: And you won’t believe the idiotic way in which I just spilled a third of the cup. It was on the table, I wanted to put something down on the table behind the cup, missed and end ended up with a cup of tea and hand and Lake Keemun on the table. ARGH!
Stop, you’re going to make me blush you big, giant flatterer! :P And boo on Lake Keemun! Did you attempt to clean it through slurping? ’Cause I think I would have! :)
I didn’t, because the current state of my table otherwise is a bit… ;) I’m a messy person. And a lot of it was on the floor too.
Okay, I suppose if it got on the floor too, you are forgiven for using traditional cleaning methods. :P
lol, We have all done that.
I lost my teapot lid into the cup once whilst i was watching the tv and pouring, felt such a dilly :P
Is it just me or is Steepster responding really slowly these days?
Anyway, the finest grade of Keemun. How extravagant. I remembered liking the Keemun from Nothing But Tea a lot, but I can’t help feeling like TeaSpring, being specialists in Chinese teas and shipping directly from China, ought to be my first choice when it comes to my plain Chineses. Or at the very least thoroughly explored before making the choice to go elsewhere. They have a couple of other lower grade Keemuns too, so there should be some exploration ahead there, I think.
The dry leaves greet me with a very sweet aroma and a clear note of smoke. A little spicy too, but mostly surprisingly sweet.
After steeping it’s got a VERY sweet aroma, yes, even caramel-y. I’m reminded of all the Jackee Muntz reviews I’ve seen speaking of heavy caramel notes and glancing suspiciously at my cup. Might this be what I’ve found here? It’s all thick smelling, like you would expect the liquid to be all viscous. The smoke note is still present but not overwhelming and again a tiny little spicy note as well.
Oooh! Strong! I did involuntarily give it an extra 30s though, as I decided to give my cup a wash while it steeped and I was too slow. I must remember not to do that again.
The flavour is surprisingly heavy on the smoke considering it took a secondary position in the aroma. It’s all prickly all over my mouth. Underneath that we find the sweetness.
A sweet note with heavy smoke on top, that sounds a bit like LS but the sweetness is definitely different here. This is more sugary whereas when you really pay attention to LS that comes across as more fruity.
I’m not sure I would call it caramel-y though and the tea seems slightly bitter on the swallow, but I can see where it might turn really caramel-y with a little care and attention to steeping time.
On the other hand, I currently have a cold, so maybe my nose and tastebuds aren’t entirely to be trusted at the moment. Rating is subject to change. It is a very good tea and you can taste the quality, but right now I don’t feel it’s beating Nothing But Tea’s Keemun Superior which I scored at 95 points, but under better conditions I might try again. Considering how much more expensive this is, at the moment I would prefer the NBT. Once I’ve tried it under better circumstances, we’ll see if the rating will change.
Definitely not just you. Takes me forever to load stuff. I’ve just assumed that the site’s popularity is starting to outgrow its hosting, or something.
You’re probably right, that must be it. Still, I’m glad I’m not the only person who have to deal with it. It somehow makes it a little less annoying.
Not just you! :D
Oh man, I thought it was my internet selectively hating tea! Glad other people are feeling it. Although! I am noticing that it is especially the dashboard that loads slowly – tea pages and the discussion page seems to load much faster.
Well technically Hao Ya A it’s not the finest grade of Keemun, it’s the finest grade of Keemun Hao Ya… there are other pricier, rarer Keemuns like Spring Dawn Chun Fen, some that rarely leave China…
Greetings Steepsterites! I have returned to the nest laden with loot and some of it even tea-themed. The boyfriend gave me 1½ tea-themed present this year. One of them is this set of Roy Kirkham cups in the Please Shut the Gate series(*), which I had hinted rather strongly at (in fact I felt like I had lobbied so hard for it that I didn’t actually expect to get it at all) and the promise of a Bodum Chambord fancy-pants super-kettle which means I’ll be joining the horde of temperature-setting kettle owners. IF, you know, it ever shows up, which is why it currently counts as half a present. So far I’ve got a drawing of it. It’s been a month underway though, so like my still unaccounted for packages from Kusmi and 52teas, it should hopefully arrive soon.
Obviously the choice for this first cup of tea upon returning home is the Bai Lin Ju Hong that I would have had before leaving on the 24th had I had time for it. I’ve been saving these leaves for a while because I couldn’t really bear to part with them, but they have now been decupboarded and I fully plan to replenish the supply the next time I shop at TeaSpring.
The orange note in this tea is really quite spectacular, I think. I’m beginning to wonder if it might actually turn out to be one of my favourite orange teas even though it doesn’t actually have any citrus-fruit in it at all.
.(*) http://www.roykirkham.co.uk/products/xple1035x6boxed_please_shut_gate_set_of_six_louise_large_mugs_in_fine_bone_china.php
No, I do not use link shortening things like bit.ly or tinyurl or any of that ilk. I prefer not to click on links that I can’t see where are going, and I prefer to do others the same courtesy.
If I had time for a cup of tea this morning, this would be it because of the orange notes and the general Fujian-y nature of it.
We, the danish, are an impatient lot, so we celebrate christmas on the 24th and use the 25th to get over all the excessive eating (and make room for some more excessive eating). So I’ll be leaving for my parents’ house (and the roasted duck!) in some 20 minutes and will return on the 27th.
Merry christmas, Steepsterites. ♥
I’ve reached a decision regarding this tea. I have decided that it is one of those that must live in my cupboard at all times, like Lapsang and Tan Yang. Sometimes I wonder if I ought to make an official list of Permanent Collection or something so that it’s easier to tell if I need to order something. It’s the lab rat in me, I guess, this instinct to keep inventory. If I’m not careful I’ll end up making inventory of my entire kitchen with premade shopping lists where I can just cross off the things that I need. (Wait… That’s actually a pretty good idea!)
It’s very similar to the Tan Yang, I think. Enough that one can stand in for the other in a pinch if I’m out of one, but at the same time it’s different enough that I want to keep both around.
The Tan Yang, with its smoky qualities and split personality can seem a little aggressive if you’re not prepared for it. This one is friendlier. If the Tan Yang is a masculine tea, this is… not feminine at all, but less caveman-y.
Today it has a relatively strong honey note, especially in the aroma and then it comes out again on the finish. Dark orange-y notes are having over the flavour like a veil, not very obvious, but just a soft tint to everything. In the forefront the strong cocoa powder note that makes the flavour all round and strong.
A gorgeous tea indeed and very much recommended!
For the first time in weeks and weeks and weeks I finally get overcome by writing inspiration. I fire up the lovely Liquid Story Binder and dive right into the scene that I had been lying in bed envisioning that same morning.
And then my nose starts running. And my head starts hurting. And I feel ever so tired.
In what universe is this fair? I ask you!
Luckily for me I still have untried TeaSpring stuff from the latest order, and weirdly the above situation inspires me to try one of them. In spite of the fact that at any other time under these circumstances I wouldn’t have had the energy to even begin thinking about it. Maybe it’s a kind of seeking out comfort or something.
As I’ve said before, Fujian is my absolute favourite tea producing area, and this is the only reason I put this on my order. I hadn’t even read the description of it apart from it comign from Fujian. Just coming from that area carries a lot of weight with me.
I’ve read the description now, though, and it does look like a rather interesting one. Tangerine notes? Interesting.
The dry leaves was a surprise. They have this very Darjeeling-y green-spicy aroma. SO not something I associate with chinese blacks, and very unsimilar to the Tan Yang. This concerns me a great deal. I’m not a Darjeeling fan at all. (How I ironic would it be if my favourite Darjeeling turned out to not actually be a Darjeeling at all?)
After brewing I’m feeling a little more confident. The worst of the Darjeeling-esque notes have gone away and I can definitely find something citrus-y in their place. It’s more orange than tangerine to me though. Alongside that, I’m also spotting something kind of floral and an underlying note of cocoa.
This is very orange-y! Surely this must have been aromatised? But no, it’s a basic black. But the orange note is strong. And it is still orange rather than tangerine for me.
Underneath that a smooth sweet cocoa-y note. Actually, in spite of the initial Darjeeling scare, this is actuallyl very similar to the Tan Yang underneath all the orange. It has the same sort of cocoa-y note and while I don’t actually know yet, having only had it this once so far, if it will display the same sort of multiple personality disorder, but it tastes like the promise thereof. There is a teeny tiny Darjeeling-y spicyness in it still, but nothing very serious at all.
All in all, it’s like an orange flavoured Tan Yang Te Ji, but a little sweeter and a little smoother. And a lot more orange-y.
I’m not finding any of the semi-smokyness though. But it does make me wonder how an orange aromatised Tan Yang might turn out. It’s not as good as the Tan Yang, but Fujian is definitely still not letting me down here.
Delicious! And hopefully enough to make up for the disappointment of a foiled attempt at venting your muse.
I like Liquid Story Binder! I am myself using Scrivener, and have really, really enjoyed it, but some of the interface options of Story Binder look pretty sweet. I have a pal who has been going CRAZY trying to figure out managing her characters across this series of books she has planned (the woman was seriously considering coding a database to that end, for pete’s sake). I will pass this along and see if it suits her needs!
I’m totally dependant on LSB, and it was even a complete coincidence that I found it in the first place. It was offered from free at giveawayoftheday.com once and someone mentioned that in a yahoogroup I followed at the time. I downloaded, and three months later I purchased so I could get software updates. I didn’t even know such programs existed at all! I spent three days just playing with it after I first downloaded it.
I have no idea how it compares to Scrivener or other things, as I’ve never bothered to check. I’ve got everything I need already. :) I love that the tools are so flexible that everybody can use it in the ways that suit them best, although it does seem to cause some frustration with new users who aren’t sure how to get started. :) And it has the added advantage of being very reasonably priced.
Let me know if your friend tries it and how they like it. :) She can create dossiers for each of her characters. :) I can also recommend signing up for their support yahoo group too. I find it an occasionally good source for inspiration on how to use some of the tools in a new way and such things.
It’s also not a very large program, and she could install and run the entire thing from a USB stick if she wants. I’ve seen several people on the support group who prefer that, because they feel their work is safer there in case their computer should break.
(And no, Black Obelisk Software isn’t paying me in anyway. I just really really like their product. :)
…it’s like an orange flavoured Tan Yang Te Ji…
OMG. It’s like you are pushing all my happy tea buttons!
It certainly pushed mine, even if it can’t beat the Tan Yang, because deep down flavouring Tan Yang just seems a little bit unnecessary. Fujian strikes again!
great reviews! i hope you’ll report here if you do successive steeps of this tea. Some of these stalwart Chinese traditional blacks evolve nicely, almost like an oolong. The high tea-to water ratio and short steeps suggest gongfu brewing. I’ve had to turn to smaller cups and pots because with the re-steeps, it’s just too much tea to drink. But i love simply pouring on hot water again without having to measure out tea.
This is a backlog from last night. I had this last night, in spite of the fact that I wasn’t really in a Lapsang mood. It was, however, the most Anti-Valentine-y thing I could find in my stock. I don’t like Valentine’s Day. I didn’t like it when I was single, I don’t particularly like it now when I’m not. It’s a silly imported holiday that shops and what-not are trying to ram down our throats so that they can sell more stuff. We haven’t HAD that tradition here at all other than in the last 20 years or so, and the vast majority of danish people either don’t bother with it or they only go along with it because their partner likes it. I could give a similar rant on Halloween actually. Children dress up and go around other people’s houses begging for candy. We already HAVE that sort of a tradition in february, we do NOT need one more, thank you very much.
Anyway, in order to avoid anything that could even remotely be considered borderline semi-lovey-dovey, anything fruit flavoured, anything floral and anything even remotely delicate in flavour and preparation was beyond reach.
I really do quite like this Lapsang, but regardless of how many points I’ve felt it was worth and how many points I’ve decided the Lapsang from AC Perch’s is worth, I think I will still stick with Perch’s. This time it has nothing really to do with flavour (they’re both good), but the Perch’s is the one I’m more familiar with. I feel at home in that one. It’s more me than this one is.
Your whole first paragraph was SO straight from my head! And I’m American! Thank you for the mental validation! :-)
Oh and I also love LS! :-D
Yeah, sometimes with how busy shops are to try and make us follow american traditions as well as our own, I wonder when they’ll start trying to push turkey towards the end of november as well…
I miss it too. Unfortunately I think it’s a wee bit on the expensive side to be a regular…
Oh how our love for tea (or anything) can quickly feel like slavery! What if we only had one tea, so we could enjoy it completely, without the experience being ‘watered-down’ because as we enjoy it, we also have in mind the new that is to come?
Angrboda, at least it is cheaper than Adagio’s Anhui Keemun! Chicago Tea Garden’s version is cheaper though I don’t know what shipping would be internationally (I’m assuming you could arrange that with Tony).
Shinobicha, no slavery here! The final experience with this one was tinged with sadness since I didn’t want to see it go. The only reason I was thinking of new teas to come was trying to find a silver lining to my Keemun-less cloud.
Regardless of how bittersweet saying goodbye may have been, your accountability buddy is proud of you for forging on through TFS! [And it will simply make the reacquaintance sweeter, should you find yourself buying more in the future!]
Yay! And I still have CTG’s Keemun so I feel kind of like I get to have my cake and eat it too – accountability buddy is giving me the thumbs up AND I still have tasty Keemun in my pantry!