The Tao of Tea

The dry leaves in this one are quite lovely. They’re the deep black twisty twig type leaves that are nice and full. Brewed, the liquor smells a bit smoky. More of the Keemun sort of smoke rather than a Lapsang though. Like a smoldering bit of cedar wood. The taste isn’t smoky at all, but the wood notes are there with a bit of very ripe black cherry. It’s smooth with no astringency.
It tastes like its own thing, not being particularly comparable to any other region. What an intricate interesting tea! I don’t know that I’ve ever tried a black tea from Vietnam before, but I’m definitely going to seek them out after this.

And a hearty Happy Thanksgiving to all my American Steepster pals. I hope you all had a lovely day.

Got a tin of this for pretty cheap in my Iherb order!
So, was expecting a lot more in this tea, but find myself kinda disappointed.
When it was steeping it mainly smelled like wood (as you guys know, I really dislike woody teas).
I ended up over-steeping this one by like a minute or two on accident, But I kinda doubt that that is why it mainly tastes like wood. There was a little malt, but mainly wood taste. :/ Think I will have to try this a couple more times before I decide if I should keep it or not. On the bright side, at least I got it really cheap and I don’t feel like I totally wasted my money! XD

This is another tea that I picked up at Whole Foods recently in the bulk section. I go to Whole Foods only occasionally and it’s usually for tea, I’m much too broke to buy my food there hehe. I knew that I wanted a Japanese green. That brisk, refreshing vegetal character has been calling me all week and I had none at home.

I was honestly pretty impressed by the appearance and aroma of the dry leaf. The leaves were in pretty large and regular pieces and posessed a nice dark emerald color. The smell was a bright mix of hay and fruit. Once brewed, the overall flavors matched what I had expected based on the smell: a bit of the usual vegetal flavor (fairly light), some “hay” flavor reminiscent of a Chinese white tea, and some pleasant and refreshing fruit notes. I can’t put my finger on what fruits I would say it evoked, but if I had to pick one I suppose it might be melon. Not bad stuff.

Thanks for the sample cookies

This BOLD tea was exactly the kick in the pants I needed this afternoon. It is sweet, malty, bold and a little astringent. Did I mention it is bold? OK, just making sure ;)

Good stuff!

I found this matcha at the Bi-Rite supermarket in San Francisco. Usually I get my matcha in Japantown, but I figured I would give this a whirl. The price was reasonable – approximately $18.99 for 3 oz.

I would say this is much more a food grade matcha than a ceremonial matcha, which is fine because I mostly will use it in smoothies and lattes. I did want to try it plain at least once, however. It isn’t bad plain, it has a strong seaweed and grassy flavor. I should really get some ceremonial grade matcha for drinking plain.

My favorite part of matcha is just the preparation, here’s my matcha bowl which was whipped with the standard type chasen:

http://instagram.com/p/uvtZ9PILeq/

2 minutes, 2 pinches at work.
Leaves still tight after first steep.

Oh, sweet malty. This is very good with my apple pie. It has the nice, malty flavour. There is also a sweetness, and it is smooth. Thanks to cookies for the sample.

This tastes toasty and mineral-y. I think next time I will steep it longer to give it more flavor, but I am glad that it wasn’t astringent at all. The lack of astringency is why I tend to prefer oolongs to blacks. I think I will have to play with this one a little longer.