2252 Tasting Notes
Snow day! Up to (according to the hopeful drift-lovers in the area) eight inches expected by nightfall. (Don’t laugh at me, Maddy Barone, I know this is just skiffles compared to yours.) Although I am a confirmed winter-hater, it is a pretty one—fat flakes coming straight down, calm and quiet.
But since school got called and I had planned a couple days off toward the end of the week for work-at-home purposes, I just got the boss’ blessing to rearrange their order.
(And yes, I have been working away all morning. It’s break time.)
And since it’s break time, snow day tradition calls for a full pot of strong and fortifying PG Tips with milk. Nothing new to say about it, other than it’s dark and sharp and what one needs when you’re droopy. Evidently not everybody values it like I do, according to an article shared by another builders’ tea fan:
Say it ain’t so.
If all Earl Grey tasted like this, I’d drink it far more often! H&S has got the tea-to-bergamot ratio just right; not too floral, doesn’t taste like perfume, floor cleaner, or deodorant. T’was a sample bag handed off by a coworker..but this is in their mainline retail store line-up, isn’t it?
Enjoying an absolutely delicious Sunday break, bathing in a sunbeam aimed directly on my rocking chair (although Tazo is glaring at me because he claims to be the rightful owner of any and all winter sunshine spots).
Close to hand is this nice, silky, buttery oolong from our new favorite shop in the Ozarks. Its fruit flavor and scent is not far from peach cobbler, and while I don’t generally choose oolongs first, I’m glad hubby talked me into bringing this home. Little pricey, so I hope it holds up well in subsequent steeps.
You would have laughed at my Sunday church kids—10 and 11 year olds. They asked me for another tea and cocoa day, and it was fun watching them paw through my chest of random bags and man the electric kettle like grown-ups. Shiloh loves Good Earth Sweet and Spicy with enough sugar to fill a hummingbird feeder; David insists he only likes “sweet tea,” and Jonathan, on a dare, tried a cup of Lapsang Souchong: “Hey, that’s not so bad!”
Ooooo, I love it! Get them broken in! A new tea generation rises!
<3 I’m trying to figure out how to spread my love of tea to my many coworkers now that I’m on the Fun Committee (cheesy, but we have a former youth pastor running the circus). I was thinking about introducing several themed teabags each month and doing a once-monthly tea tasting with loose leaf. Aside — we’re having a chili cook-off next month; I’ve been busy this evening shelling bags full of heirloom beans I harvested from the garden today.
To anybody reading this, I’m open to suggestion for decent bagged teas that can be brewed with boiling water!
derk – some are on the way. Even that orange ones what I sent you last time. I think that one would be perfect for it :) but not chili like.
Ashmanra and gmathis: I am happy to see there are children who like teas, they will know it is not always bad. Like Lipton Ice teas. :D
I sold the Lapsang Souchong kid with “it tastes like bacon.” For office purposes—I’m finally getting some buddies on the bandwagon — good old Bigelow supermarket varieties are pretty reliable and predictable, no matter how you abuse them. (And inexpensive, so you don’t flinch seeing good tea thrown away.) Some of my non-teaist coworkers have recently fallen in love with Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice, also pretty cheaply and readily available.
Best wishes with that “fun committee” thing. Once in a while, that rears its ugly head here, but we manage to tamp it back down pretty quickly ;)
Thank you for the recommendations, gmathis. The Fun Committee seems well received here; there are no forced group activities. We basically just get fed :)
That part we do well at our work, too! And just for the record, lest you think I am completely petrified, when it comes to playing with children, I am a sparkly bundle of mirth and frivolity. ;)
This is a sweeter, gentler alternative to PG Tips :) and is a particular favorite of my husband, who ordered a ridiculous bulk quantity on Amazon. The Bigelow folks don’t disclose what kind of black tea they use, but it has a Ceylon-ish feel to it, but with enough caffeine to make you know you drank it.
(What’s a Ceylon-ish feel? Um…second tenor in the choir, not bass. James Taylor, not Joe Cocker. A well-used copper pot. Don’t I analyze my teas scientifically?)
This is my first David’s tea, and my first thought upon opening the packet was, “Oooh, I smell maple!” That was quickly followed up by “Where’s the tea?” This is full of dibbins and nubbins of fruit and other ingredients.
Hubby’s comment was much the same on his first sip: “I get the maple, but where’s the oolong?”
Don’t get me wrong…this is still extremely tasty; great for afternooners when you need a sip of something sweet. But the general impression it leaves is maple with fruit, not pancakes and waffles. I think it just needs to be more accurately renamed.
It’s one of my pet peeves with DavidsTea blends. Every time, I find myself asking ’Where’s the tea?’
General info as this is the latest tasting note (now five hours old): Not sure if Steepster is updating right now. Most pages are getting a 404 Not found right now. Sent Jason an e-mail.
I think it’s probably fine? I have a tasting note on my dash that was posted after this (about four hours ago) and I just posted one and it semms to be visible? Maybe just a quiet Sunday?
I JUST now see the one you posted about ‘The Night I Dark and Full of Terrors’. So it did take a while to pop up? hmm
I don’t think so – I literally wrote it just before replying to this comment? But maybe everyone’s dash isn’t in sync? IDK.
**seems
Also to clarify, when I say I have a tasting note on my dash from four hours ago, I don’t mean that it was written by me. I can see someone else’s tasting note that they wrote four hours ago.
I experienced 404s and 503 timeouts for several hours. Only around 630 pm pacific was I able to access the site again.
But since you wrote it right before I saw it, it would tell me it was from a few minutes ago instead of five hours ago. I’m confused! Your note is the only one I see after gmathis, but maybe you’re following someone I’m not. Steepster is definitely acting odd for me today. But maybe it’s just me.
The “2 minutes ago” etc on the times of these messages seem accurate.
Okay, now your ‘Night Is Dark’ is saying the right time – 18 minutes ago. What the heck.
Yeah derk, that is the time frame it wasn’t working here. Glad Steepster’s back anyway!
I was receiving 404s yesterday too. Freaked me out because I’m convinced the next time the site goes down it’ll be for good now that the admins have abandoned it. So glad it came back up!
Yeah, I dread that day. I think I actually had a dream about Steepster last night!
Did somebody … I could’ve dreamed this, too … mention that they had figured out a way to conveniently access/download one’s whole tealog from the site? This has, over the years, turned out to be “my whole life with tea” rather than “my lifetime tealog.” Might be good to capture it.
I think Kittenna can hook you up, gmathis.
@gmathis, yes you can download Steepster tasting notes through your RSS feed: steepster.com/username/feed.rss. I do this every now and then because there’s no telling when Steepster might go down for good :)
Ah! Thank you. I ended up with kind of a messy text file, but it’s there!
Thank you LuckyMe! It’s better than nothing :)
Second run-through of this CTC…at its hottest, just off the steep, it is strong (I’m sticking with the dark pumpernickel descriptor I used previously) and smooth; as it cools, it starts acting like those stupid alarm clocks that get LOUDER AND LOUDER IF YOU DON’T SHUT THEM OFF. Sharp and brash. Which is OK. sometimes I need brash to get moving in the morning.
Realistically, this would be best toned down with a bit of milk and sugar. Builders’ tea.
Oh…British tea…(rabbit warning)! If you are a historical mystery fan, have you discovered Maisie Dobbs? Spans post WWI to (currently) early WWII and the London blitz. Delicious storytelling. At any rate, I’m reading the blitz installment and it mentioned a wartime tea ration of 2 ounces per person per week. So today’s tea chat topic…how would you manage?
55 grams / week. Well, I think it is okay. Could be worse, I think it is manageable. Depends on tea, though.
Definitely too little for me – there are 100% days where I have more than that in a day.
I could make it, but in true Orwellian fashion (based on his tea treatise) I would make myself have a day or two with no tea so I could really enjoy a good strong cuppa when I needed it. Also, Orwell said that that pensioners got a larger tea ration than the young, so I wonder how much more?
Welcome to just over 18 hours in southwest Missouri: 65 degrees F, severe thunderstorms, tornado warnings, flash flooding, areal flooding, winter storm advisories, freezing rain, and sleet/snow that goes “snick” against the window. Weather that goes “snick” isn’t much fun. Temps in the teens anticipated for tonight.
But as it was a great day to stay in, I made a full pot of this lovely, mocha-y, chocolatey pu-erh. The scent is as good as sniffing the liner of a Whitman’s chocolate sampler :)
Oh my! It sounds like a good time for good tea!
Glad you made it through the storms okay! They came through here this afternoon and were pretty scary for a bit.
That’s right…your Tornado Alley season is January/February, isn’t it?
We have spring and fall tornado seasons, but the worst of it for us is usually around April.
Overdue sipdown. I tried to be complementary of this when I first tried it, but it’s kind of a “neither fish nor fowl” hybrid: not much Assam punch, but not much oolong-osity, either. Mildly sweet, a little dryness at the end of each sip. Eh, that’s how we learn, yes?
I’m not going to scroll through umpteen years of history, but I don’t think I have ever tried Harney’s EB. Sample handed to me by a friend at work, so that means sloppy and distracted steeping. Very drinkable, but I didn’t get the lovely hay and burlap vibe that I like about Keemuns. Should’ve paid more attention!
This is a disappointing tea for me even though it claims to be 100% Keemun which is my favorite black tea. This is just…not great. I bought it more than once thinking maybe my tastes would change and it would be special to me, but nah.
Burlap in keemun, huh. You’re right.
I finally took a sip once it had gone stone cold and maybe got a hint of a glimmer of the “right” flavor, but not much. S’OK. There’s a nice big packet of good Keemun in my kitchen :)
I would like some snow here as well please. I hate that it is so dark and white snow it brights at least life a little.
You can have mine! Lack of light and color certainly affects my mood and outlook in the winter! I am doing a little better than usual this winter; I think in part because my office light fixtures were replaced with good LED bulbs. I don’t have to sit in a dim room eight hours a day.
My lights are decent here too, but the life outside?
Sam Dunwoodie obviously hasn’t seen the tea community on instagram :P
I know what good tea looks like; I’d rather read your reviews! :)
I haven’t been on in a few days (or more) so I had no idea you had snow! Just the thought of it makes me want my mom’s chicken and pastry…