The Tao of Tea

Finished off my tin of this and the big bear of local honey for lunch. It comes out with a lot of birch and smoke notes with this new kind (White Mountain Apiary). Maybe I can get a new tin while there’s still fresh peaches…

I was feeling woodsy for post matcha hydration so my go-to forest green was the usual choice. Although afterwards I behaved oddly. Water was cooler and, once brewed, I let it cool to room temperature. Given how good this is hot, I kicked myself a few times then took a sip and sat down.
Oh. My. Sacred. Stars.
In that timeframe, it somehow transformed into vanilla cream butter. There were notes of coconut, honey, some of the usual vegetation. Had I made sencha by mistake? Could someone had used my cup for milk and some dried in it? It was so rich tasting I had to put it down and sip at it.
The second infusion I tried to replicate the steeping temp and a bit more time but the water must’ve been a smidge hotter. No sencha, no cup contamination, there was still vanilla creme although a darker wood taste fought with it. And won. But it was still delicious. Definately a daytime dessert.

I am obligated to increase the rating for versatility. This tea tastes so amazing and swampy and floral on its own it took a few cups to even consider the addition of monofloral honey but it was a great idea. I’ve tried a couple different kinds of honey and they’ve all paired perfectly with this tea and created amazing flavor profiles well worth the slurped sugar intake. A blessing for my constantly partched throat, as this is one of the few teas I have that I’ll sweeten.

In innerchild terms:
This tea + Honey= superb!
My favorite combination is carob tree honey or blackberry. The carob creates a rich red, fruity layer to the tea’s grassy malty tones that tastes a bit like cacao nibs and one of my favorite chocolate bars: Pralus’s Madegascar. <3

I was really excited to try this tea as I’ve been wanting to try Indian green teas. And a tea that bills itself as sustainable and a perfect pairing with chocolate? Who could resist?
The dry smell is like seaweed, cut grass and swamplands. It intesifed while steeping. I brewed it in my green teapot (Green forest-friendly tea in a green teapot? Why not?) so the red-brown color was a nice suprise while pouring. Even better, the tin’s instructions were fairly close to the times/temperatures I find satifactory.
The taste is musty and vegetal with tones of what I think is oak, a bit of a malty Assam, like the tin says. It very much reminds of Florida everglades. I’ve gotten five good infusions from this tea before it slides away from strong and musty to vaguely herbacious, but still drinkable. I can only hope they harvest this every year for a while.

My mouth is pleased.

I have a habit of steeping my teas in to hot of water, but it didn’t seem to do much damage to this herbal blend. The color is a beautiful deep red, the taste is slightly sweet and fruity. I have to say I probably enjoy this tea over ice more than hot.

I am trying to kick a soda addiction, so in the evenings I need something decaf, fruity and sweet. This tea may be it.

Backlogging from yesterday.

15 second rinse, boiling water

1st infusion: 2 minutes, boiling water
The color is a deep, deep maroon. It was so dark I couldn’t make out my spoon at the bottom of the cup. A lovely color but I’m afraid I might have over-steeped. But when I went to take my first, hesitant, sip my eyebrows flew up and my eyes got wide. It wasn’t over-steeped at all! In fact, it was rather pleasant! The liquor had a mellow, earthy flavor with a hint of apricot. It reminded me of a sun-warmed woodland floor, complete with moss, ferns, loam, and crumbling dead-wood.

2nd infusion: 2 1/4 minutes, boiling water
The color is the same but now I’m getting something like…almond? And an unpleasant sour-bitter taste. I think the extra 15 seconds were too much at this point.

3rd infusion: 2 minutes, boiling water
The color is still the same deep maroon, the almond note and bitterness have disappeared and the apricot is much more prevalent than before.

4th infusion: 2 1/2 minutes, boiling water
The color is perhaps a tad lighter and the flavor is definitely lighter. Now it’s more like fresh-harvested hay or wheat with a slight raisin note.

5th infusion: 3 1/2 minutes, boiling water
Definitely a lighter color now and the liquor tastes a bit like plum.

6th infusion: 4 minutes, boiling water
The color has lightened to a lovely peachy-brown and the wheat/raisin flavor has returned.

I probably could have gotten another infusion or two out of this. I must say, this is much better than my first pu’erh experience. I’m glad I still have four of these little touchas left.

Sadly drank the last of this today. Will absolutely be getting more!

once again, a very nice bottle of cold brewed tea!

not bad as a cold brewed iced tea.

This is one of the many teas Rachel sent me…thanks so much, girlie! :)

This is a nice flavored black with sweet rose in it. Many rose teas seem bitter to me. I think that i why I like Teavana’s Rose Marzipan Delight because it has the sugar counteracting the bitter. In this case it’s not bitter. It’s sweet instead.

I can taste the English Breakfast type black tea taste the production description from Tao of Tea described. But the thing that I must mention yet again…is the rose petals are NOT bitter in this…they are sweet. This is nice. I like it.

Back-logging from Monday.

1st infusion: 4 minutes
Color is a deep red-brown and it tastes very much like the unsweetened iced tea you get at restaurants…and that’s WITH a teaspoon of sugar. I think 4 minutes is too long for the 1st steep. Otherwise it tastes malty and woodsy.

2nd infusion: 2 3/4 minutes
The color is only slightly lighter but the taste is much better. Sweet, malty, woodsy. should have done the 1st steep at this amount of time.

3rd infusion: 3 minutes
Color is golden-brown. Flavor is malty, woodsy, and a bit peachy.

4th infusion: 4 minutes
Color is a dull brown, lighter than previous. The flavor is lighter as well, the woodsy tone has mellowed to something more like loam.

Just enough for a super small cuppa! I totally forgot I had any of this left.

It’s muggy outside and stormy but cold inside because of the air conditioning. BRING ON THE HOT TEA!

See previous notes for more of my feelings…in the meantime…SIPDOWN!

A nice lighter tasting Darjeeling-like tea that I am backlogging and enjoying!

I did a ‘double shot’ of this today and found it to be very good…much better than I remember so I am upping the rating. I’m glad I ‘doubled the dosage’ YUM!

Well, I just had a HUGE rock lifted from my shoulders!!!! WHEW! To celebrate I decided to have this tea that Auggy sent my way! Thanks A! :)

This really doesn’t smell like anything but the color is brilliant! It’s a Medium Brown but it looks like it’s glowing!

It’s fairly juicy and almost floral but not bitter – lovely.

I’m gnawing on a chocolate bar, which, might I add, seems to be the PERFECT pairing!

The liquor is a lovely amber color. The flavor of this actually reminds me of an oolong. It’s sweet, malty, woodsy, but with a very…unique vegetal note. Not quite spinach but close. Almost as if someone mixed an oolong with chrysanthemum flowers.

I have so much backlogging to do, but right now I’m just going to sit here and relax while enjoying this tea. It seems a bit smokier today but perhaps that is because I haven’t had the Bohea recently to compare smoke levels to.

Bumping this rating up a little.

Backlogging from this morning.

The first thing I noticed upon opening this tin was that the leaves were much smaller,(broken?) than that of the Bohea. The liquor, like that of the Bohea, is amber-gold but not as lively a color and with less gold. The flavor, unlike the color, was much lighter. The smoke and fruit notes much subtler. Due to this I actually managed to detect a coco note in my final, cooled cup :D

This is a very nice tea, but I think I still like the Bohea better. I never thought I’d say that about something that has as much of a smokey note as it does.

Going camping this weekend and for some reason the thought of campfires and tents made me start craving some of my favorite tea.

You know, I’d originally bought this because the description said there were coco notes. I keep drinking it because of the subtle smokiness and the earthy-sweet flavors. I am still amazed by how much I like this.

Wanted to have this last night but I was good and went to bed instead. So of course I have to have it when I get up!

Two infusions. 1st – 5 minutes, 2nd – 5 1/2 minutes. My son tried the second infusion and thought it was yummy :o My son, a tea connoisseur at the ripe old age of three years, seven months XD

Oh, I think it’s official now: I’m in love with this tea. Bumping the rating up to 100.

Having this again this morning. I think I like this tea so much partly because of how different it is from everything else in my cupboard.

Morning! Time to try one of my new black teas! I got two with very similar flavor profiles so I decided to try this one first just because “Bohea” is fun to say.

The smell of the dry leaves was very smokey which made me a little nervous since the last smokey tea I had was rather like drinking a campfire. But at my first sip of this bright, amber-gold liquor I was, if not in love then in like, and very much intrigued. It was sweet and fruity and the smoke was a nicely subtle compliment to the other flavors. It was a very…thought provoking flavor combination.

At a couple points I thought I detected the coco note in either the aroma or liquor flavor but it was even more subtle than the smokiness and I cannot be certain that that was what I was actually detecting.

I think, after another pot or two of this I could very definitely be more than just in like. Perhaps even in love.

Backlogging from last night.

So I finally got a chance to sit down with my box of teas from The Tao of Tea last night. Being evening I decided not to dive into the blacks quite yet and so I chose this. I ended up oversteeping it…by a lot. 14 minutes to be precise. There was surprisingly little bitterness however. The pale gold liquor tasted just like biting into an orange. Granted it was more like a just-ripe orange that might have benefited from staying on the branch just a bit longer but it was definitely juicy, recognizable orange.

This tea has a light, fruity flavor that is subtle rather than overpowering. It’s smooth and fairly pleasant to drink and I imagine it would take milk and sugar well. However, though it’s full-bodied, it lacks character.

Despite hating fruity teas, I actually wish the lychee was more prominent. The dry leaves smell delicious, but the brewed tea doesn’t really hold up to the promise.

I’ll try brewing this tea with 190° water next time and see if that makes a difference.