Adham

Got this one as a Christmas present! I think pear and ginger go together really well anyway, so I’m already favorably disposed towards this tea right out of the gate. The smell of the dry leaf is heavy on the ginger, with some fruity sweetness from the pear in the background. I was surprised at how small the leaf particiles were; lots of very small, almost dusty particles, and not many pieces bigger than about 1/4 inch square. The ginger bits are also easy to see, and there are a lot of them.

Smells great, and steeps up to a medium golden brown clear liquor. As far as the tasting, the pear and ginger flavors are superbly balanced. The pear lends its floral sweetness and the ginger its heat and tingle. The tea base is very light, as I’ve come to expect from white teas, but that’s okay. I’m liking how the main players come to the fore.

I made a nice little pot of this today but then was immediately called into a meeting and didn’t get a chance to try it until several hours later, when it had gone quite cold. I’ll hold off rating until I get a chance to taste it properly, but I do think it will be a good one. It’s got some jasmine in there too, so I’m hoping the two aromas/flavors will play nicely together.

My last bit of this sample, and I have to say I’m sad to see it go. I really enjoyed today’s cup – put a little extra sugar and half/half in it to make it extra rich and dessert-like. Looks like I’m going to have to wean myself off rich and sweet holiday food slowly…

Another one picked up last week – it interested me because it brings together rose and vanilla, a mix I wouldn’t have otherwise thought about. It also lists a rather vague “fruit aroma” in the ingredients list, so I’m not sure what that will do. The dry leaf is dark and smells very fragrant – rose for sure, not much vanilla, but a generous helping of fruitiness too. And as I look at the leaf closely, I can see the rose petals and bits that look a lot like little dried squares of orange peel. This could be interesting!

It really smells good as it steeps, and comes out a medium brown liquor. The flavor profile is floral, very aromatic from the rose petals, with a little bit of juiciness from whatever fruit aromas they’ve used. Very little astringency or bitterness, even without any additives. Once I put a bit of sugar in, it becomes softer and not so perfumed, and with half and half it’s dialed back even more. If I’m going to put additives in a tea, I almost always put both sugar and some sort of dairy product, but I think this is one tea where I’d put sugar only so that I don’t dull the flavors too much. The vanilla never put up much of a fight against the other notes in this tea – too bad! I would have enjoyed more of that flavor.

Couldn’t resist this one, as I love the traditional Christmastime baked goods from German-speaking Europe known as Lebkuchen, and I wanted to build up my non-caffeine collection as well. It also interested me because it includes sandalwood, a scent I like but not something I’ve ever seen in tea before. The dry leaf smells warm and spicy, and very yummy.

Wanting to wring a decent amount of flavor out of it, I steeped it for seven minutes and got a nice deep reddish brown liquor that smelled strongly of cinnamon with the sweetness of almonds lurking in the background. I know this will cry out for additives, but I’ll try it first without – strong indeed in the cinnamon department! Quick, some half/half and sugar…now that’s lovely. The almond comes into its own now; boy does that nut know how to play well with dairy products! Post-additive, cinnamon and almond are still the stars of the show, with cardamom showing up as a lingering aftertaste. Not clear on where the sandalwood may be, but I’m happy to try this again another time to try and find out!

Another sample bag picked up recently; I was interested in this one because I’ve had very few Indian green teas. It recommends parameters of 1.5 minutes steeping at 195 degrees, and I think that is spot on. This produced a light golden brown liquor with an aroma that combined both vegetal and apple-like fruit scents. The flavor is naturally sweet and juicy, with just a tiny bit of buttered vegetables behind the fruitiness. Practically no astringency and no bitterness. Glad I tried this – very different from other greens I typically like, but I wouldn’t mind having more on hand.

Bam! This is definitely shake-you-by-the shoulders tea. The name translates to “East Frisian Sunday Tea”, and all I can say is that those East Frisians really know how to make a strong cuppa. This particular example has vanilla pieces in it, so the smell of the dry leaf is a wonderful mix of malty tea leaves and warm vanilla.

Although I usually steep black teas for four minutes, I’m going to hold this one at three minutes for this first tasting, just to be on the safe side. It comes out a dark, clear brown with a really enticing sweet and spicy aroma. In drinking the first bit without additives, it’s like the two sides of the tea are both shouting – “I’m black tea! Taste ME!!” and “I’m vanilla! Taste ME!!” which for me means it’s time to calm them down a bit with some half and half and sugar.

Ahh, that’s better. Now it’s much silkier, but the black tea and vanilla flavors are both still very much there. The creaminess has also opened up a hint of coconut. Great way to wake up the palate!

Two subtle but still buttery and sweet steeps of this one today. This is the one that has really opened up my appreciation for white teas; sometimes I’m in the mood for something that is strong and powerful, and other times I want something that is more of a caress than a smack – this is that one. Grassy, fresh, and healthy feeling.

Another recent acquisition from Demmers – at this time of year, I couldn’t resist a tea called “Winter Dream”, and the ingredients (almond, wild cherry, lemon) sounded great. It’s a very festive looking tea too, with lots of colorful little flower petals strewn throughout. The smell on opening the pack was wonderful – strong on the cherry, but the almond and citrus were definitely present too.

I know I’ll eventually want to add milk and sugar to this one, but I’ll start the tasting with it straight up. Nice! Those three flavors go really well together; cherry is still out front, but almond is washing all over the background, while lemon hits a consistent high note throughout the swallow. There’s medium astringency, not too much.

With the additives the flavor profile is quite different. Now the almond is up front, with the cherry in the middle as a fruity note and lemon flitting around lightly in the back. Perfect tea for the season. Wish I had a little cherry-almond tart from our local bakery to go with this, that would be an excellent pairing!

Finishing up the sample pack of this very fine pu-erh, so I’m using a little more leaf than normal in order to avoid a too-weak cup next time around. At this strength I’m getting more of a roasty flavor, as well as something akin to a dried dark cherry flavor, both of which are a good after-lunch complement. And though it may just be psychosomatic, it does feel like it is having a positive effect on my digestion!

Just got back from a week’s business trip in Vienna, where I had a chance to pick up some more tea from both Demmers and TeaGschwendner – more reviews coming soon! This particular one is one of a handful of little single serving bags I picked up so I could try a bunch of different kinds and still travel carry-on only. I also haven’t tried to many different Assams and was intrigued by the description of this one being strong with malty notes.

It steeps up to a clear, dark brown liquor, which does have a noticeable sweet and yeasty aroma. The first sip confirms that this is a strong brew – it sports a little peppery tingle, rich malty flavor, and a moderate amount of astringency, probably about 6 out of 10 on the astringency scale. It’s a great Monday morning, shake me out of jet-lag tea. Even without any additives, it’s got a substantial, chewy texture, so I think it would probably hold up to milk and/or sugar pretty well.

I am so pulled in two opposite directions by this tea – on the one hand, I want to make it last as long as possible because it is so wonderful (ah yes, also because it ain’t cheap!), and therefore limit how often I have it and how much leaf I use. On the other hand, I want to be able to do multiple strong, tasty infusions and therefore use a generous amount of dry leaf.

Today strong and tasty won out. Yum! It was really sweet and bready, like I’d dissolved some sort of cookie into it. Nilla Wafers? Graham Crackers? Don’t know, but it was dang good.

Just as an experiment, I thought I’d bring down the temperature another couple notches for this one to see what would happen. So far I’ve used 205, 200, and 195, but this time I’m bringing it down to 185 – all at three minutes.

The result seems to be less emphasis on the roasty notes, and more on the juicy – combined with the slight hitch of astringency still present, it’s reminiscent of biting into a tart Granny Smith apple that somehow still has just a bit of oven-baked flavor in it. A really nice cup of Darjeeling.

Haven’t had this one in a while, and decided to revisit it without any milk or cream and just a little sugar. This really let the strength of the tea base come through, which was good. It has a fair bit of astringency and is very aromatic with the smell of a nice Irish whiskey. That slightly heady aroma fits in nicely with the season, as it evokes for me mince pies, plum puddings, and other sweets which have been fortified with a shot of something a little stronger to keep you warm. I think this tea would pair nicely with any of those types of treats.

Started my day with a couple pleasing steeps of this. It was sweet and earthy, and very forgiving on steep times – I did about 4 minutes the first time around and longer than that the next time, and neither cup was overly strong or bitter. I also like the subtle notes that are wrapped up in the earthiness; today I got a very subtle spice tone as well as some cherry jam-like flavors.

I squeezed the last little bit I had of this into one final, smooth cup of great tea. It’s got such a nice, rounded flavor to it. The malt, roast, starch, and fruit notes all dance around so well with each other – it’s truly a shame that the supplier is no longer in business.

It’s getting down to the bottom of the pouch, so there were lots of white chocolate chips in the spoon of dry leaf I used. It smelled pretty amazing while it was steeping! Two things because of the higher than average proportion of chips – the tea itself was quite cloudy after they had all melted into the liquid, and the cashew flavor was overwhelmed by the white chocolate flavor. Not a bad thing though – it was a nice, warm, sweet cup to start the day with.

Though it’s now feeling far from summer, this is still a nice warm cup for a cold and dreary day. I did one pot in the morning and one in the afternoon, and for the second pot I couldn’t get back to strain it for about 10 or 15 minutes, and it still held up like a champ. It was a little more tart, but the apple flavor was brought out more strongly, as was the lemongrass, moving from the background to the middle ground.

My last bit of this sample pack too, and again a little more than my usual amount of leaf. This is a really nice example of the oolong style, hewing pretty much straight down the middle of the green/black tea divide. There’s a bit of green vegetal flavoring, and some black roastiness, along with the typical rich mouthfeel of a good oolong.

The last of my sampler pack of this variety, and it ended up being a little bit more leaf than I’d been using before. This brought out the sweetness nicely and bumped up the earthiness a bit, but the tea still avoided veering off into bitter or too strong territory. It stayed extremely smooth and mellow, and gave me an appreciation for how much pu-erhs can vary – this one and the Camel’s Breath tuocha being at the opposite ends of the scale from one another. Both great and interesting, but for different reasons and with very different taste profiles.

Just for kicks I thought I’d try one of the bagged teas I had sitting around, and was very pleasantly surprised by this one. The bergamot to tea ratio is not out of the ordinary, but there’s a fruity component to the flavor that is quite compelling. My guess is that it’s coming from the Ceylon tea they used as a base, which was slightly malty and astringent in a good way.

Not sure why, but not enjoying this one quite as much as usual today. It tasted a bit flat, so I think I probably messed up the parameters somewhere along the way. Didn’t get the typical mix of fruity and toasty flavors with lingering aftertastes, but in all fairness it was still a tasty cup – just much more basic in taste.

I’ve typically been using long steeps for this, so I decided to shake things up a bit and try much shorter times – a minute a piece or so. I’ve now been through four infusions and really like the difference I’m finding. It’s much different from the soupy, savory brew I usually end up with. Instead, I’m getting much more of the sweetness, and also a spiciness I hadn’t detected before – almost like a cinnamon/nutmeg/clove note. Each successive infusion has gained in sweetness and lost a bit in spiciness, but still features the typical earthy quality of pu-erh. A nice change up for this variety!

A colleague at work was preparing a bag of this and it caught my eye as I’d never heard of sorrel tea before and wasn’t even quite sure what it was. She told me it’s a flowering plant that is very popular in Jamaica, particularly in the holiday season, and prized for its sweet/sour flavor. She was kind enough to offer a sample, so I’m happy to log it here.

I have to say that the BRIGHT red color coming out of the bag during the steep is very reminiscent of hibiscus, and the first sip has a similar sour, herbal taste, though not quite as pronounced. Combined with the ginger, it’s an enjoyable and caffeine-free hot drink, especially on a grey and rainy day.