The Tea Practitioner

Geek Steep S1E4 – Studio Ghibli: Pom Poko

This is the tea that I decided to drink while watching our Geek of The Week, and I brewed it up Gongfu in my Houjicha dedicated yixing tea pot! For a more detailed explanation of why I chose this tea among the MANY other ones considered for this episode (including CS’s Thurbo Darjeeling, DT’s Forbidden Root, and W2T’s Lumber Slut) you’ll have to listen to the episode because a lot of thought actually went into the tea selection and the brewing method for the tea as well!

But podcast pairing aside, this was a really tasty Houjicha and that deserves to be talked about too! Not quite as heavy a roast as my ideal; but still plenty toasty and nutty. Has a slight bit of coppery minerality, and the faintest oceanic taste in the top notes. I was already starting to lose the natural lighting in my apartment during this late afternoon/early evening session enjoyed while watching this movie, but it almost added this iridescent look to my teacup which played into the whole ethereal Studio Ghibli vibe. Plus, I chose my most Ghibli-esque tea tray to steep with as well! I admit, I’m still far from ready for shorter days though…

Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geeksteep/

My Geek Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEKyBmugeQd/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6cAqaq00dg&ab_channel=IndieSoundsGood

Listen to us on Buzzsprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1286036/podcast/website

DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast

If you want to get caught up on the Geek of The Week for next Thursday, the spoiler for our explored fandom is at the bottom of our latest DB post!

Had a pretty busy day yesterday, but made sure to make time in the morning for this Coffee Flower tisane for #SeptemberSipdown today!! The prompt was to “point and spin around” & drink whatever tea from your stash you landed on, but my tea stash isn’t ideally set up for that so instead I did the point/spin to land on a drawer of samples and then picked the tea on the top of the pile. Even though I had no idea what to expect from this tea, I reeeaaalllyyyy didn’t expect something that smelled and tasted so distinctly like a mix of fresh out of the oven, sweet & yeasty brown bread and sourdough starter!! It was really weird, but also super unique and tasty and I would totally recommend it for the experience of trying something to out of the ordinary!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFS3gjYA9JQ/

Gongfu!

Still exploring some of the teas that I picked up from The Tea Practitioner, one of the companies from the Black Owned tea company list!

This is my second week now working from home 4/5 days a week and a big advantage to working from home so far has been taking a moment for some gongfu during my lunch or other times when it’s been slow! Last week I decided to try this Nepal Silver Needle which had a lovely mix of creamy artichoke, chestnut, peach skins, and honeycomb with some light astringency after the finish!

I liked it quite a bit, and was impressed with the complexity – in particular I really adored the chestnut notes I found present.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CDMWsWKAAp5/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOe6Z13PmRg

Gongfu Sipdown (992)!

Many blessings upon this and future sipdowns, because I am perilously close to crossing the 1,000 tea mark…

This is from the Black owned tea company list and I will fully admit that, when doing the initial compilation for instagram, this is not one of the companies I made a mental note to order from because I full assumed that based on the name the teas would be weighted more heavily towards wellness blends – and that is NOT my jam. Thankfully they came up again in conversation with another tea friend, teainspoons, and that made me realize that what they actually carry is a pretty interesting range of straight teas and tisanes…

When I ordered I had wanted to include this with my order, but it was sold out so I was SO EXCITED to see it included as a free sample! I did end up brewing the entire orange in one session, though I broke it apart to spread out the citrus peel/chenpi and the shou. I like shou with citrus peel a lot so I left the entire peel in the gaiwan.

This steeps thick and oily with coating liquor. The shou tastes robustly earthy and woody, and is accompanied by smooth, medicinal citrus note that soft of “waft up your nose” as you sip – like a reverse of smelling? I felt like I was breathing out fresh, fragrant citrus. Very fragrant as it steeps, with weight on the palate, and soothing sensations on the throat!!

This was very nice!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCjQRnug2zW/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PITiO-mBKto

Another tea from a newly arrived order to support more Black owned tea companies!

I feel sad that I didn’t know about this company sooner – they’re based in Canada and seem to offer some very unique and interesting tisanes and straight/traditional teas. The turn around time for shipping was also insanely quick! This is probably the fastest that I’ve received a tea order all year!

Today I was craving something bright, tart and flavourful which is why I started my order by cracking into this bag! And of course this delivers on all of those counts!! It’s a beauty to watch it steep, and while I know hibiscus can often be a VERY polarizing flavour I’ve grown to appreciate it a lot over the years – especially on its own! My main issue with hibiscus is really just that it’s so intense it often takes over flavour profiles – and that can irritate me when blenders use it as filler or to add colour to a tea and don’t take into account that it wont compliment the flavour of their blend or that it will mask the flavours. I also think that hibiscus has a bit of a natural berry type of flavour (certainly this one does) but it’s not a direct recreation and sometimes people rely too much on hibiscus in berry blends instead of actual berries…

Bottom line though – this was both stunning and delicious!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CChLS1NAw93/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkoo7mLF3I8