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Thanks to Auggy, I can have my Samovar debut! This post is actually part backlog and part recent because I’ve got two different sessions and two different preparation methods in it.

Western Style
This is the backlogged bit. I started out making this one western style, primarily because at the time I had forgotten that this was the one to try with jam and milk in it. I didn’t realise that until afterwards.

The dry leaves smell strongly of ashes. Being a smoky tea lover, this is to me a good thing. (Ironically though, I abhor cigarette smoke…). Once brewed up, it still smelled smoky but also with a creamy sweet note to it.

The taste, however, was not as smoky as I had expected. It did have smoke, but it was still quite smooth. There was a sweet note too, which originally I thought of as ‘the absence of honey’. Once I tasted a bit more thoroughly, concentrating on it, I decided that at first it was a reminder of fruit, but then developed in the mouth and turned sort of darker. Samovar’s description mentioned apricots, but I couldn’t really find any properly apricot-y apricots, but I could agree that the initial fruityness of the sweet note could very well be apricots. It added a slight tartness to the smoke sort of.

When it cooled off a bit, I was surprised to find it turning almost flowery. I don’t really understand how you can have flowers and smoke at the same time, but evidently you can. It defies logic, but it works.

I decided that based on this session I would give it about 85-90 points, and the next time I would do it the russian way. Jam and all.

Russian Style
This is actually quite similar to the turkish brewing method that I have posted about before, in that you first brew a concentrate and then dilute and sweeten it to taste. The difference here is just the additives used. In Turkey they use only sugar. In Russia apparently jam and milk is popular.

There wasn’t any description on how exactly to make the concentrate (or ‘zavarka’) so I decided to just use my normal amount of leaves and half the amount of water with a long, about 13 minutes steep. Of course, I’m curious about such things, so I had to taste the zavarka by itself before continuing. It was indeed very smoky, but not really as super-strong and astringent as Samovar’s instructions said it should be. So it probably should have been stronger. That’s just a shame, though, because I was given this sample as a gift and therefore have limited amounts of leaves available. I didn’t want to use them all up for the sake of this one cup.

I diluted it half zavarka/half water, added a splash of milk and a large teaspoon of raspberry marmalade. Samovar said to use strawberry jam, but I didn’t have any and when I asked Auggy, she thought that raspberry marmalade should work just as well.

I can taste three things here. Milk, smoke and raspberries. It’s a bit like eating a raspberry cream cake in a smoke-filled room, actually. I can definitely see why they would call this a meal in itself because it almost is. It’s more smoky this way than when brewed western style, I assume because of the zavarka. The raspberries give a funny tart sort of flavour too that reminds me of hibiscus. I understand now why hibiscus is so often used to imitate berries. The difference here is, though, that his actually tastes nice. Whereas hibiscus is quite simply, in a word, undrinkable.

I would be hard pressed indeed to say which of these two styles I preferered. The western style gives a very good cup and it’s more than good enough for everyday use. The russian style seems more luxurious. To be reserved for special occasions, like when you want to be a little extra good to yourself or when you need a little extra comfort.

Or a celebration. It kind of tastes a little bit of birthday.

Having had both the western and the russian style, I’m ending up at a solid 90 points.

I made a pot of this to drink while I started reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I had maybe one or two sips and thought, ‘mmmmmm…. tea!’ before I forgot about it and only remembered it four chapters later when it had of course gone ice cold.

Waste of tea, but awesome book!

I can’t remember who it was that I saw mentioning having liked it (JacquelineM, was it you?) or on whose recommendation they had read it, but whoever you both are, THANK YOU!

Odd.

Like… Odd!!!

I’m getting a very strong smoky note in this one tonight. Like, not just strong flavour, but proper smoke. I did use this cup for Lapsang Souchong last night, but I rinsed it out and I never had trouble with flavour bleed like this before, ever. It should not be possible that this is merely contamination.

How very very odd!

Last time I logged this I was all about the fruity and slightly floral notes. Well, fruity is a bit of a stretch in this one and floral is just completely out of the question.

How did this happen?

It’s possible it oversteeped just a bit. Apparently this turns smoky (and somewhat astringent) with a longer steep. Interesting. I’ll even give it a few more points, because while the milder incarnation of it was nice enough, I definitely like this stronger version better.

Good evening, Steepsterites.

Yeah, hi. It’s me. I aten’t ded. At this point in the post I rambled on for a handful of lines and then decided it was a load of rubbish so I deleted it again. Let’s just say I’m just dipping my toes cautiously in the Steepster pool again here because I started missing a lot of people. Also, I received a gift from the wonderful Auggy with samples of some of her favourite smoky teas, some of which I have already tried. Don’t worry though (or worry, depending on how you feel about backlogging) I’ve taken notes on them and some other ones.

But for now, I think a come-back tea ought to be a well-known one. And old favourite. One that will allow you to reflect on the situation rather than the tea itself. One that calms and soothes. Comforting, yet with a refreshing taste.

And this one seemed to fit.

I’m sorry the entire post turned out to be a rambling pile of woe-ness. I tried really hard to avoid it, I swear. I’ll just take my cup to bed and read some Asterix or something.

Feel free to go back to your regularly scheduled dashboards now. Nothing to see here.

This is actually the second steeping of this one. Tonight it’s my trying to ground myself again tea. I need it because I’m presently in a foul mood and have been fuming over an issue all weekend. It doesn’t even help that I just submitted my tax deductables and I’m expecting a refund. It helped a little, but I’m still pretty annoyed.

This is one of my first ever green teas. I think it was this one or gunpowder that was my debut, not counting bagged cheap ones. It has really cute twisty spirally leaves and I have a soft spot for it because of this.

These spirally leaves, however, are tightly twisted and they interlock with each other, so that when you take a spoonful of leaves out of the pot you have to pay attention because chances are there are more leaves on your spoon than you were counting on. It’s so easy to use too much leaf here.

After having been accu aqua acqaui getting to know Sencha lately, I was actually struck by a surprising initial thought in this one. It didn’t remind me that much of Sencha as I drank it, but the initial sip where I wasn’t paying too much attention had the same green vegetable-y flavour to it. It was just for a moment and then it turned back into something else. Being in the mood I was in at the time, I can’t actually tell you what it was that changed, but it just did.

Second steep is very sweet. Not really much else in the way of flavour notes, but this is good enough for me. I’ll enjoy the rest of it this evening.

But yeah, I’m still pretty irritated. My presence might be scarce for a while. I feel the need to hide and hibernate and let the irritation burn out, so I may or may not be around, but I’m still reachable by PM or email. See you around, Steepsterites.

My last bag. I’m having it for dessert tonight and I’m trying to make it stretch to my entire little teapot rather than just a cup. Hopefully it won’t be too thin. Nothing wrong with the aroma though, so I’m feeling confident.

Mmmmm. Nom.

I was looking for a black tea, actually searching specifically for the bag with the Irish Breakfast from Adagio in it, when I fell over this one, also sent to me by TeaEqualsBliss. I don’t know if this is actually a relatively common flavour for green teas or if it’s another one of Adagio’s whacky flavours. It’s not one I can recall having seen before anyway.

It smells really nice! Sweet and fruity of rhubarb and also of strawberries. It’s reminding me very much of the strawberry and rhubarb puddings of my early childhood, often served for dessert by my grandmother. I’m finding myself looking forward to this to an extreme degree. Based on the smell alone we are looking at something close to 80 points here!

Cross your fingers that I don’t get disappointed, Steepsterites. I don’t want to get disappointed in general, and I especially don’t want to get disappointed by something that smells like this.

After steeping it smells very rhubarb-y! All the strawberry smell is gone here, but there is something else that smells like it could be almost lemon-y. An extremely sour lemon, mind, but still lemon-y. Hello, oxalic acid! My teeth are already a little bit concerned about the coming acid assault. But all is not perfect here. It has gained a semi-synthetic smelling sweetness too. I think it was the one I identified as strawberry earlier.

It’s surprisingly sweet in flavour. The rhubarb flavour isn’t overwhelming, but clearly recognisable. Underneath that it’s a citrus-y green tea. Somewhat water-y and weak, though. All Adagio say is that the base is a chinese green, but I should like to know which one. I brewed it like I normally do all my greens, but it tastes a bit like I should have used more leaf.

I do wish it had been stronger than this. I’ll still give it around 80-ish points, but if it had been stronger then I would definitely have given it more. And it’s definitely also a flavour that I would be interested in trying from another brand if possible.

I find myself now desperately wanting that pudding that my grandmother used to serve…

ACK! Argh! Ack! Erk! Argh!

Gunpowder + spearmint gum = spitty!

I made use of the random tea picker today and it suggested this generic gunpowder. Okay, that’s a fair suggestion, I thought, given my foray into japanese greens. Let’s see if I can spot a significant difference.

First of all the colour is way more yellow and non-radioactive. A deep, warm colour and not in the least bit toxic looking.

Smell has a prickly note. I’ve seen people who find this type of green a bit on the smoky side and I’ve never been able the get that. Maybe it’s that prickly note they experience as smoky. I find it more sort of… I want to say citrus-y but that’s not quite it. It’s not fruity as such. Maybe there’s a vague hint of smoke, but it’s not smoky.

Tastewise, it’s definitely different even if my tongue is still semi-paralysed by the unfortunate gum incident. It’s not at all the green vegetables in this one. This is more abstract in flavour. It doesn’t really taste that much of anything other than green tea. It’s sweeter than the japanese and it’s not as much an explosion of flavour. It’s rounded and just calmly fills the mouth.

This probably makes no sense to anybody other than me…

Maybe if it hadn’t been for the chewing gum, I could have been more specific. This, however, was not to be.

It’s been a while since I’ve had my beloved tie guan yin. Jillian even sent me the rest of hers so I could compare that to TeaSpring’s but I haven’t even got around to that yet. But last night when I came home from Lexitus’ it had been snowing. Another five centimeters or so. Not a lot, but we’ve had snow on the ground non-stop since before christmas. And when I went inside and started looking at the news apparently at some point the police advised people to avoid unnecessary driving… Stop! Snowing! OMG!!!

This totally called for a fortifier, so I had a bag of something or other cheap before going to bed, and this morning I’m making it up to myself by having made me a nice pot of this stuff. This gorgous glorious 100 points worth stuff.

The first thought that struck me when I poured the first cup was about the colour. I thought, no wonder I liked the neon-coloured Sencha. I think I’m pre-programmed to like that. This one, after a three minute steep, had that exactly same colour too! Maybe a little paler. But definitely neon-green-ish. It would likely have changed though if I had given it a slightly longer steep, but I was a little impatient.

My impatience also means that the first cup has gone a bit weak. That soft, round grassy/butter-y flavour is still there. The sweetness of it is still there. It’s just more fleeting and not as easy to find. Topping it up with a bit more from the pot that has steeped longer helps, but for another time I’ll just have be more patient with it and let it have the usual five minutes. For me they just can’t be spared it seems.

Interestingly, given the amount of points I decided to give this one, I seem to be racing through the sample TeaEqualsBliss gave me. Adagio sample tin sized sample that is. I can usually make those last a good while.

I’ve had this one three times already, four with this one, and I think the reason I’m going through it so quickly is because of how nommy it was that second time when I managed to bring out the strawberries.

Not sure how I did that. Maybe it was a temperature thing? (Temperature! The bane of my existance!) Not owning a thermometer I had to get a little creative. Luckily the http://steep.it site has proven helpful here. No clue what the temperature is, but I can standardise it somehow by boiling a set amount of water and then timing how long I wait before using it after it has been brought to a boil. 1 liter, 2 minutes wait.

So did it work? Were there strawberries?

Hard to say, actually. You see, I just ate some lemon pudding… My tastebuds are all screwed up now. Can’t really tell what it tastes like at this point.

After half a cup, tongue is getting back to normal, and I can tell you that no it did not. Maybe it’s steep time and not temperature that’s important here? What I’ve got here tastes mainly just like a standard black with some undetermined flavouring in it. Super-boring.

On the second half of the pot, it’s gained a bit of a bite of over-steepedness. It’s just a bit though and something that could be strawberry-y if you sort of squint has come out. Only… now there’s no chocolate to be found. At all. Anywhere.

So now it’s both this one and the sweet notes in the lapsang souchong. Why can’t this stuff just be consistent? (‘Because then it would be much less interesting’, yeah, yeah, I know…)