336 Tasting Notes
You know, I promise myself that I’m not going to buy more tea until I sipdown a certain amount of samples. And then I see myself making tea notes about the same three teas over and over and over again, while the rest of my Steepdash is like, “A WHOLE NEW WOOOOOOOOOOORLD” and trying five new kinds of tea each day. Perchance I need to get into the world of sample swapping. I’m just scare I’m gonna eff up the packaging and not put enough in and then my swap partner will be like, “This sample made half a cup of sawdust water. I give it a 15. Thanks to Aeoliana for the swap.”
ANYWHO. Tea. I oversteeped it a bit tonight. Eh. What the hell. Means I have an excuse to not try to keep the leaves for a second infusion.
Aw, don’t worry so much about it! :) I usually put three teaspoons of leaf minimum and I buy the little craft baggies that are food safe at the craft store, sold on the jewelry aisle. I double bag my teas so they don’t “scent” each other. I use return address labels to show what they are. Some people buy beautiful fancy bags that seal and have a zip closure. A tea that is super aromatic, like a cinnamon tea, probably shouldn’t even go in the same envelope with other teas. But swaps come every which way and I have never seen any real complaints! You can do it! You will do great! :)
Craft baggies… may have to hunt some down. Thanks for the tips!
I need to start sipping down my Adagio samples. I did the delicious Yunnan Jig the other day; this one’s next.
It’s funny how I used to think this tea tasted weird. Now it just tastes like black tea should taste. I think I brewed it a little weak today, though. Ah well.
Preparation
Not that I’ve had many lapsangs, but this tastes like what I think a lapsang souchong should be! Just the right amount of smoky. Don’t think this is a tea I’d do every day, but this is exactly what I’d keep on hand for that every-once-in-a-while I feel like brewing up a smoky cup!
P.S. I broke the damn infuser basket on my new teapot!!! Shows ya what I get for trying to clean it more quickly by turning it inside out. It looks like the mesh just slides up into this little crease in the rim and that’s how it stays, but… ugh. Not sure if it’s even worth the effort to fix it or if I should just get myself a new infuser basket. At least it’s easy to just dunk my tea ball in, hook it on the latch, and use it in place of the basket.
Preparation
I was so excited about my new teapot that came in the mail! Cute, practical, easy to use, and a good bit smaller than the asinine crapper I’d been using. I showed it to my mom, thinking she’d find it cute – and she laughed at me! “You’re obsessed! How many pots is this now?” (Two, Mom. It’s two.) I did the offended-laugh and reminded her of her “small” collection of singing bowls. She concurred.
Anywho. Resteeped the batch from last night. I was so excited about having the weekend off and doing fun things today that I didn’t sleep for crap, so it’s a good thing I had two cups worth of this stuff I’d preserved from yesterday!
Preparation
When my last tea order came in (butiki) it was still on the table when my partner came home. She looked at the tea, did a half eye-roll and said “oh good. you were almost running out of tea.”
Yeah, I’m pretty sure my parents think of me as the Crazy Tea Lady. But hey, there are worse things to have in your cupboard in enormous quantities!
“You’re obsessed! How many pots is this now?” (Two, Mom. It’s two.)
Hahahahahahaaa!!!! That sounds exactly like my mom! :D
This week. Has been. A freaking. CIRCUS. I’ve spent the past five days wondering if there was a full moon out or something because ALL the crazies are out, and ALL the crazy things are happening, and they’re out and happening ALL at once… the week I had to work the store by myself for pretty much the whole time.
Well, that question was answered on the 11:00 news tonight when they were talking about the “Supermoon” that was supposed to be out tonight.
I was going to start sipping down some English Breakfast or Yunnan Noir this morning. Instead, I made this. Because some mornings you just need your favorite tea. And I didn’t finish what I made.
To hell with it being midnight! To hell with the caffeine! To hell with me wanting to get up relatively early tomorrow morning! I’m drinking this mother and nobody’s gonna stop me!
P.S. I don’t think this is the first time I’ve gotten raisin-y vibes in this tea, but I think this is the first time I’ve known what to call it. Sigh. Raisins. First they betray me in cookies that look like they have chocolate chips, now they betray me in tea that smells like cocoa. Raisins are traitors. Damn raisins.
there’s a shirt from a store here named ‘utopia’ that has a giant cookie on the front that says ‘stupid raisins, stay out of my cookies!’ hope your weekend is better?
Thanks, it will be! I might need that shirt.
I saw a greeting card once that said, “I will be the kind of mother who never puts raisins where a chocolate chip ought to go.” That has been my motto ever since.
Better words were never spoken.
