Featured & New Tasting Notes

Sipping a cup of this right now. Tried it on Friday and it didn’t taste like much, but then a conversation with a friend lead me to try it with 4-5 grams per 8 ounces of water instead of my usual 2-2.5 grams that I use for blacks and whites. Well, I feel like a fool now because there’s so much more flavor in my teacup.

The liquor smells like warmed clover honey, and it looks about the same. Toasted grains, hot almonds skins, and a dry vanilla are all present in the body. A bit juicy from an unidentified fruit. The aftertaste is sweet and buttery, like a less sticky version of the creamed butter/brown sugar mixture when you’re making cookies from scratch. It mellows down to a distinct floral note after a few moments; I want to say orchid. Lovely.

I ordered this tea so long ago that I have had the UNOPENED package sitting in my cupboard all this time, and I pulled it out, and the expiration date was 05/2019. …And THIS is why I refuse to buy/trade/etc. anything that has to do with tea. SIGH. At least it still smells nice when I cut it open, bright citrus with floral undertones, so I suppose I can use it for sachets if nothing else…

Aroma off my steeped cup isn’t very strong, which is a bit worrisome, coming across more like a standard English Breakfast — that malty black tea aroma, with a subtle lemon aroma. However, the sip is far more pungent than the waft was letting on. It isn’t so strong of bergamot (which is okay with me, I don’t mind bergamot these days, but it isn’t a necessity for me either, and this is already scripting itself as an EG blend rather than the Earl himself) so rather it’s a strong citrusy black tea, with notes of orange, lemon, and a more subtle hint bergamot mixed in that citrus flavor. I’d say the bergamot is waxing somewhere a little between a lime and grapefruit. It packs quite a tart hit with three citrus notes paired together, and they are the strongest flavor in the tea, though there is a noticable rose floral flavor that comes out at the end of the sip, towards the back of the tongue, after the bitterness of the citrus starts to subside and the sweetness of the floral is able to fill the mouth. I really like it, but I also am keen on tart/sweet flavor combinations, and I particularly am known to have a palate that can handle tart/sour flavors better than most (I drink hibiscus straight with no sweetener). I think most would probably find the citrus in this one too strong, even with the floral chaser.

Much better! I changed up my steeping parameters for this tea today and now it’s what I was expecting the first time around. The malt and dark chocolate I was detecting in the scent is translating through to the sip, I knew it was in there somewhere! It’s more complex than that though, and the sourdough notes I was picking up so strongly last time are still present, but this time they’re playing backup to the rich malt and chocolate, not the star of the show. There’s a hint of something floral, almost rose-like, right at the end of the sip, along with wildflower honey notes. As the cup cools some mineral notes are creeping into the body of the sip. It’s gorgeously light and smooth, no astringency or bitterness whatsoever, even though I steeped it almost at boiling this time around. Upping my rating from 61 – the change is steeping parameters made all the difference.

Made a cold brew latte with this to use it up, and it was fine. Mild enough that it didn’t bring up bad memories like this tea usually does, haha. It’s the first time I’ve cold steeped in milk though, and while it turned out well I don’t think it’ll be something I do often because it just uses up so much leaf. Pretty happy with my experiment, though.

This tastes like a normal chamomile. Perfectly nice, nothing special, just what you’d expect.

Now that I’ve (finally) tried most of the teas from the advent calendar, I feel ready to offer my verdict for this company, which I’ve tried at last after years of wanting to. I enjoy their branding. It’s cute and inviting. Their flavors are pretty basic, but they do a solid job. They’re much too pricey, so I probably wouldn’t make another order unless I got a super deal (I did have somewhat of a discount on this order). Additionally, I was surprised to find that the seasonal flavors were not included in the advent calendar. Luckily I bought small boxes of two of those flavors separately, but I would have really enjoyed more seasonal flavors rather than a bunch of basic flavors that you can get anywhere.

Another attempt with this one.

Unfortunately, kind of sad one. I am really not fan of this one.
It’s really not nutty, but this time I noticed almonds and marzipan. Unfortunately, with hojicha it don’t work well, as hojicha is quite strong moreover combined with black tea. The base is bit overpowering. I expected more nutty flavour than almonds/marzipan. One last tea for this one in the pouch.

I actually prefer this now to when I first got it. The raspberry has mellowed out and now the flavours are much more balanced. The pistachio and marshmallow bring out a sort of praline feel in the initial sip, and then it ends on a creamy raspberry note. I’m working on tweaking my steeping parameters so that I can drink the CTC without milk, because it shines so much more without. I can’t get through a full mug plain though as I’m quite sensitive to astringency, but I’m working on it! Upping the rating from 70, because I can actually pick out the marshmallow and pistachio now.

I did a session with this lovely old tea yesterday. I’ve had a sample from an old Verdant tea of the month club – possibly from 2015 or 2016? – but never got around to drinking it and figured that, as it was shu in a sealed packet, it would probably be fine to wait for a little while.

On the nose, the dry leaves are just wonderful. They gave me and my boyfriend a really strong hit of wet woodland or of the hold of an old, wooden ship – that sort of slightly dank, nostalgic smell of an old children’s adventure playground in a forest, or a tropical enclosure at a really good zoo. The pieces of leaf were quite large and flat.

I brewed the packet (5g) in my porcelain gaiwan. I preheated it and then left the leaves inside briefly to start opening them. I then rinsed the leaves at around 95C:
- the wet leaves smelled even more potently of the same kind of dark, humid woodland/enclosure. It was a surprisingly nostalgic smell; I just couldn’t shake the way it transported me back to (very fond) childhood memories of walking through the tropics house at Chester Zoo.
- the rinse was pretty mild on the palette, to be honest. I didn’t get much from it, but it also carried the smell of old wood.

Further infusions (at increasing increments from 5s up to around 30, all with 95-96C water) held much the same; the tea was surprisingly mild but the aroma was lovely and nostalgic.

I’m not sure what to make of it, overall; it was such a mild drink, despite the incredibly powerful aroma. I think I still enjoyed the overall experience but probably wished the liquor itself packed a little more of a punch.

The pear flavouring in this tea is so good! I’m surprised every time I drink it, because it’s the only tea I’ve actually been able to taste the pear in. Cinnamon is always a winner for me too. It’s a shame I’ve only got enough for one more cup of this, and I don’t fancy it’s chances at getting a reblend. Oh well, it’s as good as it ever was so I’m happy to have what I have remaining. Poached pear yumminess. Mmmmmm.

I’m considering bumping the rating up from 82, because it’s consistently delicious. Yep, I’m doing it.

I was sitting in the dining room with my smoothie mug from earlier and kept getting whiffs of a really good smell. I couldn’t quite pin down what it was at first since my tea was next to me and bananas were in the room. However, it reminded me of this tea so I pulled this out and decided it would be fun to try it as an iced latte.

Aside from this being the slightest bit Smokey, it’s actually making a really good iced latte. It’s got a whack load of banana flavor with some awesome vanilla notes as well. Not getting a lot of the praline but perhaps that’s where the smokey element is coming from seeing as praline is caramelized nuts.

Latte Sipdown (263)

My friend asked me to try a tea and so I spent yesterday filling a box with teas to send her. I thought she’d like this one so I pulled out just enough for a latte for myself. Then tonight I was lazy and this was premeasured.

I overpoured the water so it’s a little watered down but ultimately it’s got a rich chocolate coconut flavor. It’s very creamy which gives the chocolate a milk chocolate cone to it. It’s nice as usual, and one I’d revisit if I order from Bird and Blend around the holidays.

Pretty sure this is the last of my Jinggu teas.

The dry leaf is mesmerizing and shimmery. First several steeps are 1-dimensional drying straw taste with low-sitting, tongue-numbing bitterness and a cooling, metallic finish. Pleasant, quick aftertaste that’s changing from fruity to milk and pure cinnamon. Light-bodied. Later it becomes mostly floral resinous-bitter, dry grass-brass metallic, with a woody undertone and milky-butter minty-cooling finish. Aftertaste of unripe floral apricot followed by a sugarcane returning sweetness and mild spiciness in the throat. Relaxing from the first steep with no floral-induced headache. It was the perfect after dark brew while listening to Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage. Understated in flavor but simply a pleasant tea that I’d like to try again further down the line. Parts of it reminded me of White2Tea’s four am.

Thanks for sharing, Togo :)

Song pairing: Herbie Hancock — Little One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kl4QgMuoBU

Additional notes: Today is Towel Day for Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! One of my favorite things! So I’m drinking this today and 52Teas PGB! Today this blend was very blue and sparkly, which it hasn’t been before. It must have known to brew up special for its special day. Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend.

This is potentially my favourite straight green tea. There, I said it. Not that there’s much competition. This is so much lighter and more delicate than I typically expect from green teas, almost like a cross between a green and a white. It’s complex and yet sweet and light in a way which is just different to me. There are notes of butter, green bean and water chestnut with delicate grassy, floral and grape-like notes lingering at the back of the sip. I feel like I can’t do it justice or give a proper description because I’m not a green tea person, but I would consider finding a permanent place for this in my collection, and that has got to count for something.

From derk!    Thanks so much!  Had this a few days ago. Jun Chiyabari is UP THERE on the list of stellar teas IMO.  I’m very thrilled to try a couple more, due to derk’s generosity!  I tried to use delicate parameters on this one, in the hopes of not oversteeping it.  And whoa what a unique flavor profile this one is.  I guess I used fairly close to the suggested parameters, without checking first.  The brew is golden.  The steeped leaves have a ridiculously sweet fragrance — almost like maple syrup!  The flavor is like white grapes with even that dry mouth feel that a quality white grape juice might have (not that I’ve really tried white grape juice?)  But then there is also a flavor to the tea like it’s a much lighter version of Premium Taiwanese Assam.  It’s definitely a fruity profile – featuring many fruits – white grape, strawberry that I’m usually getting from fresh PTA and maybe even a hint of a sweeter lemon.  All around unique!!  The third steep was a bit overdone and flat — which is what I was trying to prevent with my delicate steeping.  But maybe the leaves were toast by then. Next time, I will try a much cooler temp on the third steep.  The first two steeps though – the quality of a fine white wine in a mug! derk describes this as SUNNY and I agree!
Steep #1  // 2 loose teaspoons for full mug // 31 minutes after boiling  // 1 minute steep
Steep #2  // 26 minutes after boiling //  2 min
Steep #3 // 16 minutes after boiling // 2 min

I had pulled the sampler package I had received of this from Ost’s cupboard sale all the way back in August of 2018… and I have no idea the age of that sampler packet. I was going to make a warm cup of tea with it (we’ve been bombarded in rainy weather here) but since it was a foil-sealed package and I wanted to use all 5g up at once, I decided to cold brew the whole amount in a Mason jar for iced tea instead. And then it was just too cold for me to be in the mood to drink it. I noticed the pale yellow color of the tea started to look more orangy over the course of the week and thought… I better drink that tea. So now I’m trying to get through it, despite the fact it still feels really cold in my house…

I was expecting heavy jasmine (something I’m not especially a fan of) but mostly I’m just tasting peach. There is a strong peach note hitting the back of my tongue, with a bit of a juicy and pithy flavor. There is a floral note, but nothing I can pinpoint specifically… a bit sweet and honeysuckle like, if anything. Maybe a hint of hay beneath the strong peach flavoring. Very refreshing, but other than the peach, I am not picking out much other flavor (but that could be due to the age of the sample… or even how long I left it in the fridge, to be fair).

I’ve never had s’mores, being from the UK, and I don’t totally know what they are, though I have an idea. I definitely have no idea what a graham cracker is supposed to taste like! Not that it really matters, because all I taste in this tea is marshmallow (and tea). Don’t get me wrong, it’s an impressively accurate marshmallow flavour that I’ve only experienced one or two times in tea form, but there’s no chocolate that I can taste, or anything else which might be ‘graham cracker’. That being said I’ve really enjoyed it each time I’ve had it, and I’ve had it a few times now, from both Janelle and VariaTEA. Thank you, ladies! It’s a good sweet treat, and it always amazes me how accurate the marshmallow is, even though I wish there were more of the other elements noticeable in the sip. The tea is robust enough to add a maltiness to the cup, without adding any astringency, which I appreciate.

Though Della Terra has gone out of business now, I know their supplier is still around and several other companies sell the same blends. So, eventually, I will probably try to find this from another vendor. For now it’s a sipdown (202/399).

This was another of my sipdowns from either March or April. I’m pretty sure I finished this tea around the start of March, but as with just about everything else these days, I can’t be sure. I know I have polished off a rather significant number of Nepalese teas in the past four months (at least four or five). All have struck me as great offerings, and this one was certainly no exception.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After rinsing, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of malt, straw, pine, chocolate, rose, and apple. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of roasted peanut and violet as well as a subtle scent of smoke and a much stronger rose aroma. The first infusion introduced aromas of plum, pear, roasted almond, orange zest, and black cherry. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of malt, straw, pine, apple, rose, roasted peanut, and black cherry that were balanced by subtler flavors of roasted almond, pear, plum, smoke, violet, butter, and orange zest. The majority of the subsequent infusions coaxed out aromas of grass, green bell pepper, blackberry, baked bread, butter, earth, dandelion greens, and spinach. Stronger and more immediately evident notes of roasted almond, violet, butter, pear, and orange zest came out in the mouth along with impressions of minerals, earth, baked bread, cream, grass, tobacco, chocolate, blackberry, dandelion greens, spinach, and green bell pepper. There were also hints of caramel in places, and there were some rather interesting hints of lychee, apricot, and tobacco that lingered at the back of my throat after each swallow. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, grass, dandelion greens, earth, malt, green bell pepper, roasted peanut, and roasted almond that were underscored by hints of butter, cream, orange zest, pine, spinach, caramel, apple, pear, and black cherry.

This was an extremely enjoyable and truly fascinating tea. In a lot of ways, it reminded me more of a second flush Nepalese or Darjeeling black tea than many of the oolongs produced in that part of the world. It was also a very heavy tea in that the tea liquor had a ton of weight and texture in the mouth and both the aromas and flavors were very rich and vibrant, almost explosive in many places. It was a tea that absolutely demanded to be taken seriously. That being said, it could also be a bit tiring and it did start to fade a little earlier than I expected. Still, this was a great tea and one that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in Nepalese teas.

Something else that I had Grandpa style at work earlier this week – and managed to nurse it all throughout the day too without the leaves giving out on me.

Definitely very smooth, and woody/earthy with just a clean and clear profile; not very “wet” tasting but more hinting at soft plum or date notes. Lacking a little bit of body, but still pretty rich. Really easy to sip on, and gives you a nicer body feeling too. Warming.

This came as one of the “golden tea pouches” Bruu offers with every episode of its monthly tea subscription. As I´m not a great fan of green teas, I sort of put it aside, to try it earlier on today. And it sure came as a nice surprise, as I fully agree to what is indicated on the discover sheet : “Our Sourenee has sappy, grassy notes, overlain with soft fruits and a deep grapey aroma.” it´s this grapey touch that I can appreciate here.

All of the info Bruu gives about this tea online :
What it is? An early second flush of roasted green tea.
Why we love it : Due to the altitudes, tricky growing conditions and limited space, the Darjeeling district only produces 1% of India’s tea, at just 8,000 tonnes each year. This makes our Sourenee extremely rare, as it’s one of only a few estates able to produce a green Darjeeling tea.
Where it’s from : The Sourenee Tea Estate, Mirik Valley, India. The estate has an elevation of 700-1300m above sea level. The soil in that region is a stiff red loam with clay.
How our drink hits the senses : These leaves never cease to give out such scrumptious scents. A real unique green tea that oozes quality.
The taste journey : Grassy notes, overlaid with soft fruits and a deep grapey aroma. The well twisted green leaf provides an earthy undertone.

Sipdown (272)

Thank you Cameron B for the share!

When I won the Instagram giveaway a couple months back for teaware, I picked up a small glass teapot. It’s partially frosted but I’m used to the DAVIDsTEA Nordic mugs where you often can see through the frosting when heat is added. Because of that, I now have a failed time lapse of this blooming since the bloom is obstructed by the frosting. It was very pretty though.

In addition to being pretty, this filled my kitchen with the smell of honeydew which was quite promising. However, drinking it, there is some honeydew but mostly the base tea which is really buttery but a touch bitter. That bitterness trends towards drying floral. Perhaps that’s on my steeping though as I left this for 5 mins in 80C water.

I was so excited to find this blend on Fava’s site! I recently tried a lemon basil oolong blend from The Cultured Cup in Dallas, which was delicious but pretty pricey. This one was about half the price and just as good! (Plus it’s from my local teashop, which I always want to support when I can.) The oolong is smooth and sweet, the lemon flavor is bright and natural, and the basil is mild and adds just a nice hint of depth to the blend. I’ve been enjoying it hot, but can’t wait to try it iced now that the weather is FINALLY warming up around here! I foresee this becoming one of my staple teas from Fava that I always keep on hand, along with their Coconut Souffle and Banana Walnut Bread.

I’m supposed to be making carnitas.

Right now, this sheng has me kicked back in my chair with my feet on the bed. I’m transported back to Akron, in the old house, winter. Living room, French doors closed, wood-burning stove roaring, tomato soup bubbling away on top, the sound of Skyward Sword in the background. Cocooned in a blanket. My ears are burning from the heat. So drowsy and comfortable, that feeling as you succumb to the fading in of sleep, reality slowly stipples away at your periphery, defocusing your gaze, the fire crackles, eyelids lower, dreamtime seamlessly folds over the diminishing edges of this moment. I think about the wrapping of a puer cake, everything points to the beenghole. A nice package.

It’s difficult to describe the actual tea when the qi is so distinctive. This is very close in profile to the 2016 Bang Wai Gu Cha I tried last night. Much less sweet, which I prefer, more balanced, spicier, brighter. Good returning sweetness and longer lasting, more distinctive fruity peach-mango-apricot aftertaste. The oiliness isn’t as pronounced but it’s felt later lining my tongue. Not yet sure about longevity. Very nice for a young one and arguably worth the tenths of a cent more per gram :P Might cake. Can’t go wrong at $0.14/g. Edit: Will cake this weekend. Please don’t buy them out.

I’m having deja vu. I’ve typed this note before.

Additional notes: This one might be improving with time? Or my parameters? So I just want to make a note of parameters that I should use. It really did taste like Red Velvet today… or at least Red Velvet Pop Tarts which is my only knowledge of the flavor of Red Velvet. Raising the rating from 83.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5+ minutes (maybe doesn’t need to be that long)
2020 Sipdowns: 35 (52Teas – Frank’s Caramel Monkey Bread Rooibos – not sad about it because Anne’s reblend is EXACT.)

And here is a song I particularly like, and fitting for me wondering about the craziness of opening things back up for the virus to spread right now. Certain people will be living in denial or just pretending it’s gone… or even being less careful if they think they’ve already had it… sigh: Jim James cover of Beach Boys ‘I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBWe7ntARxY