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Angrboda

807 Followers / 217 Following

Angrboda drank Kuai by Le Palais des Thes

First, YES! New icon. Same little ol’ Ang.

Second, another Mystery Tea, meaning something we’ve never tried before.

Third, I thought an oolong would be fairly certain to be something well-known and familiar. I hadn’t noticed that it was scented until after I had poured the leaves into the pot. It was a free sample I had received with my LPdT order.

It has cinnamon flower pollen and orchid pistils. Does cinnamon flower pollen taste like cinnamon? And what are pistils? These are rather more technical things than I can be bothered with right now, so let’s just simplify it a bit, shall we? It’s scented with flower bits.

There.

Not surprisingly the aroma is quite floral, and it does actually have a fair bit of cinnamon notes in it. I can also detect the base oolong underneath, with something smooth and sort of thick smelling. This one is 50-60% fermented, so it would probably have been quite floral on the aroma even if it hadn’t been scented, so I can’t actually tell how much is natural and how much is due to the scenting process.

The flavour is surprisingly toasty and ever so very slightly astringent. It’s funny because I thought it rather smelled like something that should be smooth and slippery. It doesn’t actually taste at all like it smells. Yeah, the cinnamon notes are there in the flavour as well as the aroma and so is the floral aspect, but other than that, the feel of it in the mouth is completely different from what the aroma led me to expect.

I find this rather confusing to be honest.

The scenting seems to be rather mild. I can detect, as mentioned, something vaguely cinnamon-y but other than that I can’t tell how much of a difference scenting with anything at all has made to the base tea. This tastes very natural, so unless the base tea was really almost flavourless to begin with, scenting strikes me as rather a waste of time and money. I’m fairly certain it would be possible to find an oolong which naturally tastes something along the lines of this. Rou Gui, for example, springs to mind.

It’s pleasant enough, I suppose, but not one I would purchase.

2012-04-07 11:20:23 -0400

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Incendiare 2012-04-07 13:41:00 -0400

Orchid pistils in tea. That’s a new one for me.

And the new icon looks fabulous!

Jillian 2012-04-07 15:32:21 -0400

*puts on her plant geek hat * Pistiles are the female reproductive parts of the flower. I’m a bit surprised about the cinnamon pollen as cinnamon flowers are quite small and you likely wouldn’t ge much pollen from them.

Kittenna 2012-04-07 16:48:00 -0400

A pistil is the female part of the flower that accepts pollen. Presumably they are rather large and fragrant in orchids, otherwise I would think it rather silly to use them in tea! :D They were probably just trying to seem fancy though.

Kittenna 2012-04-07 16:54:57 -0400

Hahahaha, apologies, I had typed out my message a few hours ago and neglected to hit enter, so did so when I came back to my computer, but I guess I’m a bit slow :P

Angrboda 2012-04-08 02:32:41 -0400

Incendiare, yes, I’m quite pleased with it. It’s a detail on a replica of a stave church at our local archeological museum. I had Dr Hobby Photographer take some photos of it for me for this specific purpose. There was another one that I would have really liked to have used, but it got too squiggly looking in the smaller sizes. It wasn’t until after we got home and I was playing with the photos, making my icons that I realised that I should have made him take a photo of the whole church as well.

Jillian, thank you, I knew someone would now! The pollen thing though… Well it IS very hard to tell how much is scenting and how much is natural so perhaps they were just trying to emphasize an exsisting note of cinnamon?

Krystaleyn, Oh, no worries. I’ve done that a few times as well. :) Typed up a post in the morning and then actually posting it before bedtime. It happens over at LJ all the time. :p

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Bio

Angrboda felt her bio needed to be re-written, but she failed to consider what she wanted it to say instead.

Um…

Okay. Ang prefers black teas and the darker sorts of oolongs. She has to be in the mood for green and white and she enjoys, but knows little to nothing about, pu-erh.

Her preferences with black teas are the Chinese ones, particularly from Fujian, but also Keemun and just about anything smoky. She occasionally enjoys Yunnans but they’re not favourites.

She is sceptical about Indian blacks as she generally finds them too astringent and too easy to get wrong. She doesn’t really care for Darjeelings at all.

She likes flavoured teas as well, particularly fruit flavoured ones, but also has an obsession with finding the Perfect Vanilla Flavoured Black.

However, she thinks Earl Grey is generally kind of boring. Cinnamon and ginger are also not really a hit, and she’s not very fond of chais. Evil hibiscus is evil. Even in small amounts, and yes, Ang can usually detect hibiscus, mostly by way of the metallic flavour of blood it has.

Ang is not super impressed with rooibos or honeybush. She doesn’t care for either, really, but when they are flavoured, there have been known to be surprising exceptions to this rule.

Ang has a number of teas that she regards her Standard Panel and will always try to have on hand.
-Lapsang Souchong, any brand really, but preferably AC Perchs.
-Blackberry flavoured black or similar, any brand.
-Late Summer Blend, AC Perchs
-Raspberry Oolong, AC Perchs OR Red Fruits Oolong, Le Palais des Thes
-Caramel, Kusmi OR Toffee, Le Palais des Thes
-Something orange flavoured, black or pu-erh, any brand.
-Tan Yang Te Ji, Teaspring OR Bai Lin Gongfu, Teavivre
-A good Keemun, any brand.
-The Perfect Vanilla Black if and when she ever finds it…

Angrboda is almost always open to swapping. Just ask her.

The Formalities

Contact Angrboda by email: iarnvidia@gmail.com
Contact Angrboda by YIM: angrboda@ymail.com
Angrboda does not respond to gmail chat.

Find Ang on…
Steam: Iarnvidia
Goodreads: Angrboda
Livejournal: See website.
Dreamwidth: Ask her
Teatra.de: Angrboda