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At first I let myself be inspired by Madison’s Thai Chai to have the Coconut Cream Pie from 52teas, y’know, because of the coconut. So I went to get that out of the cupboard and ended up choosing this one instead. I’d forgotten I had this, and the discovery made me want this more than the other one today.

Apparently I’ve liked it before, judging from the rating I gave it. Can’t remember what I thought of it though.

I’ll tell you know though, that I can definitely taste some dark oolong here. One of those daaaaaark flavours. Borderline pu-erh notes. It even has a touch of that same coppery colour.

…This is oolong, right?

Topped with plenty of raisin flavour (I still can’t get over the fact that I like raisins now, apparently. Weird.) this is indeed a nice cup, so I think I agree with myself on the rating points.

I think the funny borderline pu-erh-y earthy flavour must stem from the fact that I’m used to and tend to prefer greener oolongs.

I have absolutely definitely taken this tin this time. I have checked the tin in my hand several times and not put it down between then and scooping out my leaf dosage.

Interesting to see which sort of flavour it’ll have this time. Scent is sweet, fruity and somewhat astringent. Assam-y, although the sweetness isn’t so much a honey note as it is in Assams. There’s a hint there of something that could be slightly smoky, but on aroma alone I can’t really tell if it’s just an aspect of the astringency.

Now for the interesting bit. Are you ready Steepsterites? Has anybody started a pool on this? Will it be fruity? Will it be smoky? Will it be an Assam impersonator? Last chance to lay down your bets!

And the tea is…..

drum roll

Hmm… What is it, actually?

If anybody did start a pool on this, then I’d say you have all won. It’s sort of fruity, with a touch of Assam-y cardboard and a round of smoke. I’m beginning to think that it has been like this all along, but I have discovered these three things one at a time, and now that I’m aware that they’re around, I’m getting the full picture. Like a sort of jigsaw tea.

It is a very nice cup indeed, this jigsaw tea, and I’ll be sad when it runs out. Every time I have it I consider giving it a few more points. It seems to have been in limited supply because it’s gone from Teaspring’s website. They have one of a different grade still though. I just can never remember if special grade is better than refined grade or if it’s the other way around…

Smokies and pu-erhs are for me of the same sort of ‘flavour family’, if you get what I mean. So now that I ran out of Auggy smokies to try, I had the choice of going back to the wide selection TeaEqualsBliss provided me with or the education in japanese greens from EvaPeva. I chose to go back to the sampler sets from Nothing But Tea, because there are a few of them that I really want to buy and I have told myself that I’m not allowed to do this until I’ve gone through the samplers. In my small pot, I can get two sessions out of each sampler and I’ve also imposed the rule on myself that I’m not allowed to use the second serving until I’ve used the first serving of all the samples in a set. No, it makes absolutely no sense, but that’s OCD for you.

It’s been a while since I’ve been in these boxes and I haven’t really been in much of an oolong mood recently. I can’t really remember much of what I thought of the pu-erhs I’ve tried. I remember not being impressed with the green one, I remember really liking the orange flavoured one and I remember having fallen for the imperial one. Supply of the latter, iirc, being limited. Apart from that, I’m lost. No clue about any characteristics apart from the cowstableyness that is for me the definition of pu-erh. So no help there.

I’m brewing western style because quite frankly I don’t have the patience to sit here and mess with a million ultra short steeps. I’ve wasted most of the day already giving myself blood pressure problems over SimCity 2000, so the LAST thing I need right now is something that requires attention and thought process.

The colour looks great when I’m pouring the cup. It has that shade of coppery brown that looks just right. The aroma is sweet and earthy, and so closely related are pu-erhs and smokies for me that I was suprised to find that it didn’t have a smoky note.

Oh, but this is very nice indeed! It has a fresh sort of happy flavour. Earthy, hidden and slightly dusty, but it’s a happy flavour. This tea is saying, “I am finished! I am ripe and mature! Look out world, because here I come!” And then it bounces off in search of something fun to do.

I wish I had a better recollection of what the Imperial pu-erh was like, because I don’t really know actually if I like this one better or not or if it’s the same. I will definitely want to purchase one of them. Time will tell which one it’ll end up being.

I trust Auggy. If she says, as a fellow disliker of rooibos, that this is a good smoky, then I believe her.

Even if it has what looks like a LOT of rooibos in it.

I was a bit apprehensive of this one, going around poking the tin cautiously for a while now. It’s the last one of the Auggy-smokies, so there’s no way to postpone it any longer.

The dry leaves smell more woody and Earl Grey-y than I had expected. Spicy too. Pepper-y. I reminded of cayenne and such like. (I trust Auggy)

There is a sweet, honey-y smell from the cup when I pour, and when I smell a bit closer, there the smoke is. It’s not a very permeating note in the aroma, but it’s there. In combination with the rooibos it turns into a funny citrus-y note, which brings my mind back to the Earl Grey-ness of the dry leaves.

I trust Auggy.

Okay, here goes. This is me about to have rooibos blend. (This is me post-poning the moment, actually). I have my sugar dispenser within reach, just in case I need to drown out some of the rooibos. Okay. Insert trusting Auggy mantra here. Right. takes deep breath and gathers courage

Okay, this is odd.

sips again

This is unmistakably rooibos. sips But it sort of doesn’t taste entirely like rooibos. The smoke is doing some weird things to it. That special sweet/spicy/sour note of regular rooibos is very underplayed here, barely there at all, but it tastes a bit like there ought to be a handful of freshly cut wood chips in there.

It’s supposed to have a lychee note too. I’m in the fortunate position that I actually know what lychees taste like (they’re very yummy) so I know which flavour to search for. And it is indeed there. A bit woodier than the real fruit, but it’s there loud and clear on the swallow and to some degree in the aftertaste.

The smoke itself, because the smoke is what’s important here, is not really very obvious when you drink this. Mostly I’m just sitting here considering what an odd general flavour it has, and then the smoke comes in as a sort of after thought. If it hadn’t been for the smoke, however, I’m really not sure I could have made myself finish the cup.

With the smoke it is a very nice cup indeed, but it’s not one I couldn’t live without. (Unlike that Andrews & Dunham Caravan… What’s to become of me now?) Of these four that Auggy shared with me, I would put this one as my least favourite. Which isn’t really saying much considering that I’m still giving it so many points.

My trust in Auggy suffered no damage on account of this tea, even if I was quite apprehensive about it at first.

What a strange and complicated tea.

Since Steepster is featuring Andrews & Dunham today, I thought maybe it was time for yet another debut for me. Because their Caravan is the third of the smokies that Auggy shared with me. I can’t actually remember what anybody has said about this one, which makes it a brand new experience for me. I’m expecting something Russian Caravan-ish.

Lovely smoky smell, but there is also a very sweet note here. Like syrup-y sweet. And something vaguely spicy.

As for the taste, OMG!

Oh! Em! Gee! o.O

So smoky! So sweet! SO GOOD!

It’s primarily sweet, as if it had sugar in it, and then the smoke is just rounding it off and preventing it from being too sweet. This is like SO seriously good. I’m all…

Excuse me, Steepsterites. I can’t finish this post. This tea and me, we would like to spend some time alone…

Thank you Auggy!!! (Again)

ETA: If I give it a double-lenght steep, I can get two good steeps out of these leaves. A bit thinner the second time around, but definitely still very nice. Little bit of cane sugar added to enhance the sweetness.

I do seem to have contracted a case of the mini-burps which is quite annoying, but hopefully not tea related…

Goodmorning Steepsterites.

sigh

I have NOTHING to DRINK!!!

I briefly considered trying one of the remaining Auggy-teas, but eventually came to the conclusion that early morning boredom wasn’t really the right circumstance for that. Considering how quickly the cardboard-y note incarnation of the Tan Yang Te Ji vanished yesterday morning, I eventually decided to let myself be inspired by that and make some real Assam.

Ouch, hot!

Yes, it’s definitely reminding me of yesterday morning. A bit stronger perhaps but very similar.

I checked that I took the right tin yesterday.

But can we ever really be completely certain?

Unrelatedly, my TTB participants can look here (http://iarnvidia.livejournal.com/) for the first part of a couple of posts about the box. The second part should be up soonishly, I hope. (Yes, I know it was posted ages ago, but I thought it would be used for someone else so I didn’t tell)

And the oddness continues. Seriously there are strange things afoot in this tin!

I shall tell you why.

If you go check my other two posts about this one you will find the first one in january where I said that it was surprisingly fruity and sweet for a black tea, that it had a raisin-y note, and that if I hadn’t known otherwise I would have believed it to be a flavoured black.

The second post was the other day where most likely due to a slight over-steep it had turned totally smoky, and I couldn’t understand how that had happened, but I liked the tea better for it and gave it a few more points, from 76 to 80 if memory serves me right.

Then this morning I made a little pot for my travel mug. I wanted some of that smoke. And what did I get? Well, certainly not anything remotely smoky! Instead there was that distinct cardboard-y note that you’ll find in Assams. It was still a strong cup and I drank it with unusual haste, but it was still the third of three completely different cups.

And it is the same tin. I’ve checked.

I can’t for the life of me understand what’s going on here. Can tea-leaves have multiple personality disorder?

No matter what though, I can’t ignore the impulse give it some more points again.

I wonder what it will taste like tomorrow?

How about a backlog? The good thing about backlog notes is I can make a post even when I’m not actually having any tea. (No specific reason, just drinking something else at the moment) The bad thing is I don’t really want to write up the ones that I didn’t like, so there’s a certain lack of balance in that document…

My Golden Moon debut and the second one of Auggy’s gift teas I’ve tried! When Auggy told me about what she would like to gift me with, she mentioned that this Lapsang Souchong has a surprisingly sweet flavour for an LS. It reminded me a bit of that sweet phantom note in A. C. Perch’s Lapsang that try as I might, I can’t find again.

The leaves smell very smoky, and the actual tea is smoky too. Quite smoky, in fact I’d say. Smoke is just not the first note I’m finding.

At first there is something way more substantial. Something solid. It’s (work with me here, Steepsterites) a bit like pu-erh, only without the earthyness. Without the cowstableness. I mean, it doesn’t taste like pu-erhs at all, it just sort of creates the same flavour intensity sensations.

Then, after that, YES!!! There it is! Sweetness. That same sort of sweet note that has disappeared from my ACP Lapsang. Smoky smoke is smoky, but underneath it the sweetness lies. I can only describe it as kind of thick. It’s not a specific flavour other than ‘something sweet’, but it tastes like something that would come in globs, not in puffs or powders.

There is also a small note of some kind of leaf-y something. It’s not grassy or fruity or any other word that suggests right-off-plant-ness, nor is it an earthy stored note like pu-erh. It’s in between. Like dried flowers (except it’s not a flowery flavour either) or leaves pressed between the pages of a heavy book

I seem to be using a lot of energy describing what this tea isn’t and very little energy on what it actually is. What it is is very nice indeed. I just wish I could recreate this same sweetness in my ACP lapsang.

All in all, I’m totally getting the whole camel driver vibe here.

Dead tin.

For dessert tonight with plenty of milk in it. A little too much milk, actually, if I’m to be honest, but it’s still quite nice. It gives a good clue of what it would have been like with a little less milk, but a milk with a slightly higher fat content.

Or is that just me being unhappy about the supermarket not having my usual brand of milk, so I had to get a different one? And they didn’t have any cartons left of the fat content level that I usually drink? Wrong milk all round.