Featured & New Tasting Notes

And another SIPDOWN goes to Puerh. Still lots of tea remains.

Made about 20 seconds rinse. Or — stove → my table rinse ? Haha. Yep, it was that “far”.

Rinse was fine. Bit bland and vegetal, but yes, there was some taste. Now I let the leaf absorb humidity, I think it is for 5 minutes (reading some not important things all over the internet), thinking about my cross-US trip that I want to make happen, but not anytime soon. Train stops in Elko, NV; but what to do there? There are amazing mountains, but not sure if I want hike there alone?! And where is any public transport (okay, to be honest I know I need car rental)

First steep is around 20 seconds as well. Apparently humidity entered the leaves well, as it is more flavourful, though not a big leap forward. It seems to me roasted which is weird for sheng and for that I noticed before. But pu-erhs have so weird paths sometimes. For example, wet leaf smells after jasmine, okay!

Second, I decided to make bit longer (30 seconds actually, if somebody even cares); and wet leaf aroma tends to be more malty-honey-black tea like. I feel like my nose is playing some game with me today because I couldn’t recognize twice the same stuff even it doesn’t changed since then (no additional steep or anything like that). Taste buds are feeling another vegetal notes with some menthol cooling effect. Interesting and very enjoyable.

Following steep was just a tiny bit longer. 10 seconds to be exact. Steeping slowly don’t kill the tea fast. It just keeps nice qualities and while I would say that vegetal notes aren’t great, they actually aren’t. But it suits the tea session today and yep, would like some fruits, but hey, there is nothing wrong with vegetals.

Another steep. I somehow lost myself in thoughts, and ideas and everything. Well, I actually indeed enjoy the free time and free mind I have now! And result is long, a minute long (maybe bit less) steep. Huh… Results are nice though and I got the wished fruit notes. Yes, it started getting a peach taste.

Uhh, now it is herbal. But like too much basil and nettle. Not very tasty. But it was shorter than last time.

I guess this is one of the last steeps. Little fruits and herbals. But it was at least smoother than last time.

Okay, last steep. I am steeping this tea for an hour, which isn’t a problem, but ran out of water in thermos. It was nice session, but it’s time to move on. The tea is past its best time as well. It reminds me now only a bitter water without much pleasing taste. Interesting how it can go so abruptly.

STTB Tea

This was in a package labelled chocolate stout, which I was very excited to try. It turns out to be a herbal instead. Regardless, I thought it would make a good morning cup since I love chocolate teas.

I do like the cocoa shells, it tastes like cocoa or dark chocolate. I’m not really getting orange flavour. There is some bitter citrus rind and some citrusy herbs (lemon balm), but nothing that tastes like a Terry’s chocolate orange. I LOVE orange chocolate. It is one of my favourite chocolate flavours. This needs some vanilla and more creaminess to really sell the chocolate aspect (although, the cocoa shells are a great start). The orange flavour isn’t there. Adding some dried orange pieces or orange essence might help. I’m not sure why a blend called chocolate orange wouldn’t have any orange in it, but it really should.

It wasn’t Steepster who ate my tasting note this time. It was my laptop who died of low batter all of sudden.

Again a celebration tea.
I passed yesterday an exam from Algorithms and programming, yes, it is that one I failed week ago. It was close-call though even this time… but I have managed it.

I overleafed badly this tea though. I have used all remaining 7 grams for my small-ish gaiwan. But somehow I wanted to get rid of it. I remembered it wasn’t much impressive as I have hoped, but today it was better actually?

Yes, I wasn’t taking much care — I just filled thermos with boiling water and slowly I was pouring it into gaiwan, did some random long steep and poured the tea to my tea cup.

Wasn’t caring about it. That led to several not so tasty steeps. But then even short ones were nice! I noticed vegetal notes, sometimes it was full of astringency and bitterness, but following shorter notes brought the cake flavours. It was creamy, cake-y, some stonefruits (as actual fruit), sometimes bit juicy. It wasn’t typical poundcake flavours which I would expect, but it was pretty much okay.

I wasn’t that impressed about this tea though. Last time I was careful and was okay, this time I wasn’t careful and it was… just nice sheng. Nice sheng that impressed me with its energy that it gave me, although I am bit trying to not associate tea with some other aspects, I noticed something similar as Togo said. I was somehow filled with all the ideas i want to make true, what places I want to visit and even I decided to check out how to travel to Ljubljana (Slovenia) as I want to visit this country with my Swiss friend (I wrote about her here few times already). It is bit weird, but I don’t want go there with my best friend. Maybe because he isn’t that much into sights and those things. Maybe I just want have vacation wihout him.

Hmm. Slovenia don’t want Czechs in their country now though. Hopefully it will get better and maybe it will be something I won’t forget. But for sure I won’t forget that promise of visit!

Raising the rating a bit.

Cold Brew!

This is not something I would normally have as a cold brew, but I do like pushing myself out of my comfort zone with cold brews and since it does lean bubblegum-y I thought it might work out okay. The brew was interesting; it actually came out pretty thin in terms of flavour though the body and flavour of the black tea was still surprisingly robust. The thinner flavour though actually resulted in it tasting less like bubblegum and more of the spice notes coming out which resulted in more of the “toddy” like flavour that probably should have been present in the first place.

It was a nice brew and really easy to finish off, but I think I actually prefer the less accurate to the name tasting flavour that emerges when you prepare this as a hot tea.

Last night I had a killer migraine from nowhere that made me want abdicate my head, neck and shoulders and go live in my stomach or something. It’s still kind of lingering on the left side but it’s not even a quarter as bad as last night. It did leave me a delightful red spot on my forehead between the eyes (this has happened before, but still fml). So, I’m a little grumpy and out of sorts today.

I decided to dive into this tea because I’ve been hoarding it for too long, holding out hope that WP would get more of this or Premium Assam in stock and not sell out in 10 minutes (never happens). It’s starting to age and today it was more tart jam than powdered sugar and baked bread (still some of that though).

This is still one of my favourite teas, along with Premium Taiwanese Assam, so I thought I’d give Taiwan Tea Crafts Yuchi Wild Mountain Black Tea a try to see if it’s comparable (what do the “lots” mean? So confused), as well as some from What-Cha that look similar. Here’s hoping (otherwise, it’s good to try new things!).

Steep Count 2

Today’s #septembersipdown prompt on Instagram is to cold brew a tea you never have before. This is a bit of a cheat because I haven’t had this tea before at all so of course that includes never having it as a cold brew.

This is fine. It’s actually on the bland side. I get sort of cherry and sort of rose and sort of green tea but it’s all really subtle. I cold brewed this for over 12 hours so it should have more flavor but it just doesn’t.

The more I drink, the more the green tea base builds and there is a little bitterness that is making me thing cough syrup with the hint of cherry. So maybe I’m not loving this so much.

Had it in the afternoon, approx. 3 hours ago. I will try to recall at least something.

The dry leaf aroma was quite interesting and not that appealing for me. Noticed some sweet stonefruits as cherries, maybe tiny hints of apricots but mostly tobacco.

But I decided to brew 4 grams per 300 ml, freshly boiled water and… that’s different story.
That story is about strong malt and dried plums. Today I learned it is called prune in English. So okay, malt and prune.

The story starts with wonderful copper colour of the brew. It is dark copper with lots of shine and clear colour. I steeped it for 4 minutes and… it was just right.

First sips were somehow normal, typical malty Assam profile. But then the explosion of taste did the bang! Malt, prunes, some woody notes (eastkyteaguy noticed cedar, while I think more about sandalwood, sweet notes as molasses (another stuff I never had chance to try, but I imagine being it like that), dates and figs (as he noticed and I have to agree).

One of the most complex Assams I had. The aftertaste was long and it was very energizing! Would like more than 25 grams, but paying my one and half shift money for whole box (which looks amazing though) is way too much. But it’s worth every penny.

Thank you a lot Alistair and White Antlers. Truly exceptional tea!

Tried to gong-fu it today and it was bit better.
4 grams — 85 ml.

It was still quite malty, but noticed more — some hints of sweet cherries, raisins, pear, cinnamon. The last one was prounced as well in something like aftertaste, but it wasn’t much strong. I had much stronger aftertaste in other teas.

72 → 80

Interesting colour of the leaves from Alistair, behalf of White Antlers. They are brown, black, bit yellow of them; quite long and wire-like, some are more compressed, some are opened a bit. Looks indeed hand-made :) Two of them weren’t same.

I went rather carefully with tea (and I haven’t read Daylon R Thomas’s tasting note before) and haven’t used water directly off the hob as well. I have added tea bag to hot cuppa.

It wasn’t steeping rapidly. Well, I have used 3 grams only, so I have steeped it for 5 minutes.

Aroma I have expected malt, but it rather produced floral notes. Hints of sweet ones as fruit tree flowers. Daylon’s note says orange blossoms, but I never sniffed them, so I have no idea how they smell like. He says red grapes, while I would rather say white ones.

Anyway, the taste, even after that long steep, is light. Light, fruity & juicy, fresh notes of citrus fruits (but not strongly, rather hints of their peels) and in the end some very light malty and muscatel aftertaste.

Need to dig more to rate it properly.

Another grandpa attempt of oolong today. Two teaspoons were too much though for my 300 ml glass cup.
April 2020 harvest

Tea from White Antlers again though, so THANK YOU :)

This tea tasted pretty much medicore to me. I mean, certainly it’s not bad, but I only noticed its malty profile, bit sweet notes. Haven’t noticed any stonefruits, but maybe as prepared grandpa it was lost in the malt?

As others said, it is tea that haven’t got any flaws, but overall it is just quite okay oolong without much complex flavour profile. Good for times, when you want an oolong, but you don’t want to care about all the notes that could be in.

Thanks though White Antlers and Alistair who selected it for me :) Not every tea is tea for special occasions. I haven’t expected anything, so it will be good tea for upcoming fall, when I would like to drink tea, but won’t have time to enjoy it fully!

The Great Un-Steepstering of 2020 Review #11 (08/25/20)

Rather than adding a bunch more individual entries to the (already giant and slow) database when these dry herbs essentially taste like what you would expect when you steep them in water (What, you mean lavender tastes of lavender and ginger tastes of ginger?! Stop the presses!), I’m going to collect these all here since I’ve been using my loose plain herbal infusions stash in a few different ways I want to document.

Culinary Lavender by Silver Fox Lavender Farm

As a bonified lavender fan, this is the one I’ve gotten the most creative with so far. I bought quite a bit from a stall at a Farmer’s Market in Boise (yay supporting local farmers!) so thankfully I still have quite a bit of lavender buds still in-house.

My first endeavor was making lavender-infused hot cocoa by following the recipe here (https://www.teatulia.com/recipes/earl-grey-hot-chocolate-mix.htm), only the portions were so huge (I ended up giving bags to both Todd and my sister!) that now I have copied down versions of it not only halved, but halved several more times from that, down to getting nearly a “sampler size” portion. It’s basically a way of crushing the buds in a spice grinder and mixing them with sugar and cocoa powder for hot chocolate, and the stuff is delicious!

In the winter months, hot lavender lattes are a favorite. I’ve found my favorite way to do them thus far is a half gram of buds per 1 metric cup (a little seems to go a long way!) steeped in 3 parts hot water for 3-5 minutes, then I heat/foam 1 part coconut milk, and mix together with a small dollap of Farmer’s Market honey. I really like the flavor combo of the lavender with the coconut milk! During the summer, I like to cold steep plentiful teabags of it in lemonade, as the lemon/lavender flavor combo is another favorite!

I’ve also been using it to make my own deodorizer spray for the house. I steep a strong infusion (usually a heaping teaspoon of buds in half a cup boiling water), then let the brew cool some, and put it in a small spray bottle with a teaspoon of lemon juice and top it off with water. Makes a nice air spritz and I keep a bottle near every litter box; completely natural and doesn’t bother the kitty!

Ginger by Starwest Botanicals

I’ve been using this almost exclusively to make flavored white rice! While the water for the Minute Rice was boiling, I’d put several teaspoons of the loose ginger in teabags and let them steep in the boiling water, remove the teabags, then add the rice and let it “soak up” the ginger tea to make a lightly ginger-flavored rice. I found the ginger-flavored rice extremely easy on my GI system on days when I was having issues with it due to migraine. As such, I used up my bag I brought home from a co-op on a vacation in San Franciscio quickly. I need to restock!

I also liked mixing this with the hibiscus flowers 50/50 to make a throat balm when I was starting to get a sore throat/cold… the hibiscus was full of that strong Vitamin C hit that I wanted in the early stages of a cold, while the ginger provided the throat balm, and I liked the taste of the two steeped warm together.

Hibiscus Flowers by Starwest Botanicals

I imagine I’m the only person on Steepster who willingly owns (or rather owned… I’ve now used them all up!) plain ol’ hibiscus flowers. My main use was a generous heaping teaspoon per cup cold steeped overnight in lemonade, which gave the lemonade a noticable sort of “raspberry lemonade” sort of flavor that I really liked! I also used them for the 50/50 hibiscus/ginger throat tea for colds, mentioned above.

I guess I had used up way more of my stash than I had thought, because I wanted to experiment with these in Sprite after reading about VariaTea doing so, and I had bought two different bottles of Sprite (traditional and a ginger one… I didn’t even know they made that!) but I had hardly any leaf left! I put a teabag into a tall glass of Sprite, and my findings were that other than turning the Sprite red, it really didn’t change the taste at all. At about halfway through the glass, the Sprite finally started to have a slightly “red berry/punchy” taste to it, but it was still pretty subtle against the flavor of the Sprite itself. By that point there was a) a lot less Sprite in the glass and b) the hibi teabag had been steeping for quite some time, so I guess to get any effect against the sugars/flavors of the Sprite I would’ve needed to use a lot more raw hibi leaf, and also probably done an overnight coldbrew of it. If I restock my leaf (this was another I picked up at the San Francisco co-op, and I can’t easily restock it locally without ordering online), I will have to try that out.

Peppermint by Frontier Co-Op

I had a lot of plans for this… I wanted to infuse cocoa with it, like with the lavender, to make mint cocoa as gifts at the holidays, which never happened, since I ended up using it up just making plain ol’ mint iced tea to soothe my tummy during bad GI attacks for my chronic migraine condition. The last of this from the San Francisco co-op ended up in a big pitcher and is currently in the fridge, and has been going into smoothies, mixing with the smoothie ingredients to leave a lovely fresh, minty taste! This would be nice to restock since I would still like to try out the cocoa idea, but since cheap, bagged mint tea alternatives are easily available here to make iced mint tea for the tum-tum, it isn’t as high of a priority…

Red Rose Buds and Petals by Starwest Botanicals

I still have quite a bit of this left from the San Francisco co-op haul. I have made one batch of rose-infused cocoa, which was just as lovely as the lavender, and have also used it to cold steep in lemonade, which I also really enjoy! I think I may try making another batch of rose lemonade and adding that to fruit smoothies in the future, or if I use up one of the spray bottles of lavender deodorizer and want to switch it up, I may fill one with a rose deodorizer next time.

Moonlight white tea with snow chrysanthemum flowers, the orange ones that as of late, I’ve realized can be a polarizing flavor due to pickle perception.

I’m not going to lie about what the dry leaf smells like. It’s stinky — perfume, stale urine and dill. Care to read further? Stewed in my work thermos with water off-boil, the tea is fantastic. Brilliant orange-red with a strong aroma. Aging white tea taste with a hearty melding of the snow chrysanthemum taste. Medicinal, savory, sweet, thick, tannic, tangy and tingly; tangelo, hay, forest floor, Demerara sugar, white florals, pastries, minty cooling, black pepper, ginger and yes, I finally taste the dill pickle, quite strongly actually.

More, please.

Well, this is tea from ashmanra again. Thank you!

Well, although without caffeine, it was very delicious tea.

Bold base, although it was only carrier of nice creamy and vanilla flavours. There isn’t much to write more :). It was smooth, enjoyable; maybe I have expected more of the vanilla though. But at least it wasn’t sickly sweet.

Family is beginning to warn me that I repeat myself…so pardon if I’ve used this analogy before. But you know those annoying alarm clocks that get louder and louder the longer you ignore them? That’s a fair description of this morning tea. The first few sips are sweet and wheaty, but as you progress, the toast turns from seven-grain to dark pumpernickel. If you aren’t awake when you take the first sip, you should be by the bottom of the cup.

Thanks so much, Meowster!  The name is certainly intriguing, the bundles of oolong are certainly huge.  I don’t see any actual osmanthus blooms mixed in with the oolong in my small sample — not sure if there should be?  This is missing from the shop, at this point.  Maybe the name is just lovely and isn’t actually intended to taste like osmanthus?  I can’t say it really did taste like osmanthus.  But it IS a very tasty oolong anyway.  Very thick and syrupy, very smooth.  A bit of a roast.  I was hoping my oolong tasting buds were more refined by now after some weird tasting oolong months, but no, the flavor details are still a bit foggy.  But I can tell this is a high quality oolong, regardless of few details that I can pick apart.
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 21 minutes after boiling  // rinse // 1 minute steep
Steep #2  // 11 minutes after boiling //  1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 min

I have completely no idea what is this tea. I just know I have received it (order on my address) from White Antlers. So thank you a lot, hopefully Alistair pop in here and tell us bit more, as it is not available on What-cha website at all!

So, moreover it doesn’t have even the typical white label that all What-cha teas have! It is handwritten, saying name of the tea and vintage 2019.

I took water when first bubbles started to appear. That is my rule of thumb while making temperature sensitive teas, as it is usually green teas.

I took 5 grams for my 300-400 ml mug. Bit untypical set-up but perfect for cold (around 16°C) morning. Steeped for 3 minutes which wasn’t too much but it was quite exact for perfect cup.

The tea was somehow simple in flavour, grassy/grass seed, vegetal, overall indeed typical cheap green tea without any off notes. Hints of astringency. But the palate was amazingly smooth, little bit bitter (but I think I have over-leafed & maybe too long steep). Certainly a nice tea, which I will gongfu for sure, as leaves are big and wonderful! Preparing it western, even in a big tea bag instead of strainer, is bit contempt.

Finished a mug of this a few minutes ago and was really impressed!

It’s both a buttery and soft banana as well as a nice ripe and sweet one, and it complimented beautifully with the sweet fudge/toffee notes that were the grounded undertone carrying into a sweet finish. I want to write more, but I’m heading into a meeting so this will have to do for now – but it was honestly just really good!

Another tea from August 2020 subscription.

Well. It is weird tea. Haven’t seen tea with: rooibos, cocoa nibs, Ceylon black tea, puffed quinoa, cat flowering tops, stevia and flavours.

Although it is pretty much creamy and dough like in taste, stevia is honestly somehow overpowering everything, although I understand that the taste can remind bit that dough.

As I don’t really know how honeycomb cookie should taste like, I can’t much say it is similar to taste. But the tea itself is somehow in the middle. I like it, but it’s sweet. But it’s called honeycomb so it is supposed to be I think. Creamy qualites are high. Missing bit of some other flavours. Maybe more cocoa nibs next time? I have just looked inside pouch and can’t see any!
Well…

Western brewing

I have received a huge box just before my getaway. Lovely White Antlers decided to send me some teas. Ordered from What-cha, delivered here. And this tea is sample from Alistair himself. THANK YOU both!

3 minutes steeping brews wonderful golden colour tea. The aroma is indeed very sweet as it is in the description, (dry) tea was very similar to picture. Long wire-like leaves, with hints of golden colour.

Brewed… aroma was already described, as well the colour. The taste is bit drying, but sweet. Maybe sweet potatoes a bit? Hints of malt for sure. Maybe it is not one of the most complex black teas, but certainly very nice and the price is very nice as well.

For now 90/100. But it may go up or down as I am, naturally, tired. And maybe another preparation method will make the tea better. How to spend remaining 3 grams? Should I brew it gong-fu?

The Great Un-Steepstering of 2020 Review #6 (08/15/20)

Today is the one year anniversary of me buying this house! Which was around the time I fell really behind on reading Steepster reviews, hense the year-or-so backlog I have to get through. It will also be the one-year adoptionversary for my kitty Chiya in a few days (PRIORITIES… bought the house to get a cat!) and sadly, I have to get her booster shots. I will certainly make it up to her with a special treat and I already replaced her favorite mouse that she went Mike Tyson on by ripping its ear off (and it probably won’t be long until she destroys this one… she’s a little black death machine!)

Still trying to get through my 2017 teas, which are my oldest (I got into tea late in 2016 and did a lot of bulk orders in 2017 in my enthusiam!) I especially have a lot of pure origin teas from that time, which is sad I let them get so old, but c’est la vie… Here is another from that old What-cha order, and it was a big bag! Oof, this will take a while to sip down… I’ve already made one cold brew batch and will probably be doing that a lot to work through the bag, but right now I have a warm cuppa to sip with my classy microwave eggroll lunch. 2g in 175F water, 2 minute steep.

I have tried other Bi Luo Chun’s in the past. The aroma of this one smells very floral, which my (admittedly poor) memory doesn’t recall any of the others I’ve tried being particularly floral (they were always a very savory vegetal flavor with a strong beany note, with some variances on that between the different ones I tried). I’d have to look through all different iterations to see if any of them struck strongly floral… I do smell that “beany” quality as well, though. First sip, and this definitely does have a florality to the flavor… smooth, a bit like the lilac/orchid flavor in green oolongs, not heavy or perfumy. The vegetal quality is there, and I am definitely getting that bean note lingering on my tongue after the sip. The vegetal flavor is a bit like peas/pea pods, green beans, and black beans, and comes across very savory/umami. I know I’ve had a few Bi Luo Chun that had a “meaty” taste in the past, but I’m not getting that here from the umami quality… perhaps because of the florality of the tea.

It’s a nice tea, I probably don’t need 50g of it, but it is pleasant.

Sipdown, hopefully temporary. TeaMaze is open again and this one’s on the top of the list when we get there. It’s my current favorite no-fail strawberry and cream black tea. Needs no sugar or milk; all the goodness is thoughtfully provided for you.

The last note I wrote for this was six very long months ago—the last time I got to go on an “Impact Day” adventure with my fifth and sixth grade church kids. Appropriate that I have picked it back up to fortify me for my first Sunday back with them after a long dry spell. They’re my weekly joy break, and my tank was well past empty. Counting the minutes till I get some (properly sterilized and sanitized) air hugs.

Last teabox black, from the Discovery Teabox, so thank you to Skysamurai for organizing and all who participated and shared teas in the teabox! (All I have left now are some very old teabox pu’erhs from the very last Here’s Hoping Teabox… and since pu’s aren’t my favorite, I’ve continued to sort of… uh… “let them age”? Hahaha.) Another floral tea, so of course I wanted to try it! Scooped a teaspoon (CBA to weigh this morning), 3 minute steep, 350ml of 205F water for my work thermos. Brewed to accompany my two pieces of toast with marmalade and then take to work with me.

This is a strongly lavender black tea. The florality isn’t perfumy but has a bit of a herbaceous bite, and that is with a short 3 minute steep (I bet any longer and it would’ve gone very bitter, as lavender in high quantities tends to do that easily). This is probably stronger in lavender than any Lavender Earl Grey I’ve ever had… but then, maybe the bergamot is cutting through the lavender some in those cases. I like lavender, but omph, it is very heady here, and if I knew it would be this strong, I would’ve prepared this as a latte (I love me some lavender milk). As a bonified, 100% loves-all-things-lavender fan, and even I feel this tastes like a little too much, I think the blend could’ve either done with a) a little less lavender in the ratio or b) a stronger black base to compensate. I’m really not able to pick out any particular notes from the base black tea against the lavender. That said… the base tea is supposed to be apricot-flavored?! I think that was what interested me the most about this blend, as apricot plus lavender sounded like an absolute win of a flavor combo. But I do not taste any apricot at all! That’s a bit disappointing too. Who knows, maybe it is in there, but with the lavender being so strong, there is just no way to taste it…

I added a teaspoon of honey and a dash of lemon juice to the cup to add a bit of a mellowing effect against the strength of the lavender, and that was actually quite pleasant (I somehow always forget additives are there to save an otherwise meh cup!) I will probably continue that going forward with future cups, or go with the latte idea, since the milky/vanilla flavor will help compliment/cut through the lavender flower as well.

Not one of Simpson & Vail’s florals that I would purchase (it’s no Violet Black!) as without the novelty of the apricot with the lavender, I can easily add lavender buds to any black tea myself, and then control the propotions more to my taste. Definitely glad I got the chance to sample this first, since it’s the sort of thing I probably would’ve bought for myself and then been a bit disappointed that it wasn’t what I really wanted. Thanks so much for the sample, tea_sipper!

One tea left in the pouch.

Today it is very clove based. Green tea with cloves. Haven’t noticed any smoky notes; only green tea with ginger/cloves spiciness.

Well, good for this afternoon. Need to finish it as soon as possible. Otherwise it would get very bland and even more boring.

I prepared it as usual, two teaspoons for my 300 ml cup. As it is green tea, I have used bit colder water, tried close to 80°C, but haven’t measured as usual. Lazy me.

Although based on sight it isn’t the most precious sencha, it is a good base. Very smooth, noticeable in taste as a grassy flavour. I don’t think that freshly cut grass flavour would be necessary, this was maybe better. Ginger and lemon peel combination was great. Ginger wasn’t overpowering the taste for sure, but was noticeable, and lemon was like combined with honey. It was a bit on the sweet side, but not too sweet. It reminded me Halls Relief cough drops (ehm, sounds bad, but it wasn’t). I don’t really know if they are the same in the US, but I hope they are. We have different packages though. And we don’t use them against coughs.

The lemon was somehow juicy, but not sour at all, and as iced tea, it would be another delicious blend. But the weather says no, we had temperature drop to 15-18°C in the mornings, so no more iced/cold brews are needed.