Angrboda

GOSH STEEPSTERITES!!!

I so hit the magic spot on this one today. I wish I knew what that tiny difference that gave this result was because, cor! This cup is positively bursting with sweetness, and the smoke is just surrounding it like awesome tasting wrapping paper.

Awesomelicious!

This one was next in the cold brew experiment. It worked out relatively well. The bananas are coming out a whole lot when brewed cold, and I’m not entirely certain that this works to the tea’s advantage. I don’t think there will be more than one pitcher of this. While it is more refreshing this way, it just appeals to me more when it’s hot.

And while I have your attention anyway, Steepsterites, may I draw your attention to this picture? The Tea Corner has been shelved. Er… I mean, there are shelves in the Tea Corner.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/NNX4gWal5i0uUiCC-eiIUOnJOfe6_LFJWQwI2FsYNwU?feat=directlink
Yes, that’s the Bits’n’Bops Basket on the table there. I’m sure you can understand why it’s currently difficult for me to remember where it all came from although it was very nice of the people who contributed to filling it. A blanket thank you to all those who were or have been previously involved.

Recently I had the great fortune to get back in contact with Auggy. Some of you may remember her, she used Steepster a while ago, but stopped using it due to various reasons which are not relevant. We share so many opinions on what is good, awesome and not-so-good that we decided that surely we must be taste-twins. I trust her judgement on Things Ang Might Like implicitly. She has never let me down. Receiving samples of her is always a promise of awesometastic flavour experiences. As such we had exchanged a few packages before she left Steepster, so when I happened across a tea that I thought I should share with her, I already had her address and so send her a package of assorted goodies. Turns out she too had found a tea that she felt like sharing and my package provided her with my new address. Two minds, one thought.

This would be the one that prompted her to think of me. One of the many tea loves we share is for the Tan Yang Te Ji (♥) from TeaSpring, and this tea reminded her of that tea. Well, it’s Fujian Province, thinks I. What could possibly go wrong then?

I’ve had it before actually. TeaSpring’s, not TeaCuppa’s, but the same tea, and I remember having the same thoughts about it that Auggy wrote to me. Smoother and slightly milder. I even went and looked it up, and I found that I had made noises about making it a Standard Panel tea. And then I forgot all about it apparently. (I’m also coincidentally awaiting a Bai Lin Gong Fu from Shang Tea, as a matter of fact, but the splendid customer service from that company is a different story which I will tell you the next time I have one of their teas.)

The aroma of this cup is very sweet and caramel-y, with something sort of grainy and slightly fruity underneath. It’s one of those cups where, if I didn’t know it wasn’t flavoured, I would think it probably was.

Tastewise, I’m getting a lot of the familiar Fujian-ness, and the comparison to the Tan Yang is definitely very easy to make. I’m not sure I would be able to pick them apart in a blind tasting, but now that I know what I’ve got, I feel I can find some subtle differences.

It’s softer and milder, definitely. It’s not a get-up-and-go tea, it’s more suitable for later in the day. Coming home, for example, and needing something relaxing and calming. It’s not an invigorating tea, it’s a phew-what-a-day-tea.

So, softer and milder. It’s almost as sweet as the aroma suggested, but without that same flavoured quality to it. It’s a more natural sweetness and it has a fruity touch to it, something leaning vaguely in the direction of oranges or mandarins. Underneath that, a grainy body, firm and dark, but friendly once you get closer. Finally a floral top note to round it all off in a neat, yet complex package.

Once again, Auggy has struck gold with this one. I would probably go so far as to say that the standard collection could contain either Tan Yang or Bai Lin. But I would still prefer it to be Tan Yang.

I’ve been cold brewing this in the fridge all day as part of the Decupboarding Day, and I’ve just now tried it for the first time. I don’t think I’ve done that with this tea before, I’m fairly new in general at this cold brewing business.

My mind? It is blown!

Steepsterites! Wow! Why did I never try this before?

Good morning Steepsterites.

Today, I’ve decided, is decupboarding day. Let’s see how many I can get through.

This one is one I got from some kind soul once, the identity of whom I’ve forgotten because I’ve got so much gift tea from so many people lying around and no reliable system for remembering where it all came from. I’ll devise something of the sort, but there are a few things that need to come in order first. It’s all part of getting the tea corner sorted out. The tins are still all kicking around on the table in an only slightly organised pile. Not for lack of trying, though, but by the time we finally picked some shelves for that corner, they were not in stock. (We also bought a shelf for the bathroom but can’t put it up yet because we got a middle bracket instead of two end brackets. Typical!) After the shelves have been sorted out, I have some ideas for a gift remembering system which may or may not work out.

Anyway, the first time I had this it seems I wasn’t really all that impressed. That fits badly with how I ended up drinking quite a lot of it in a short time until the sample was nearly gone. Having waited a good while, I’m polishing it off now. I don’t know, I think it was something to do with how perhaps the flavour itself wasn’t really what I was looking for, but I liked the idea of it so much that I just kept trying.

It’s a pretty good tea to drink, really, just not one that makes you sit down and want to try and pick the flavour profile apart. It works best as a whole without too much thought activity. Probably not super-suitable for a first tea of the day tea either, but I can’t really say as I care. :) I imagine it’s probably a pretty good tea to have while reading a good book. I’ll go test that theory out I think.

(I love wednesdays. Have I mentioned lately that I love wednesdays? I feel for all you poor souls out there that have to be at work today and I’m not jealous at all. Aaaaah wednesday. The Weekend Minor.)

I’ve been having resteeps of this all day. I’ve got girly issues, and far worse than that I’m having a hard time getting my head around the terrible things that happened in Norway yesterday. It’s unreal and incomprehensible that it could happen, and for a Dane it happened right next door. It feels very close to home.

I thought Norway was one of the most peaceful places in the world.

Resteeps of this serves as comfort tea today, and I’m keeping our Norwegian steepsterites in mind.

Now, here’s one from the Basket that I do remember where came from. It was included in the Big Box O’ Tea that Pamela Dax Dean sent to me a while ago. (I’m still not even remotely close to having got through that box yet). As it is in the category of the ‘Rather Special’ I have been saving it for a special occasion. ‘Special occasion’ as apparently synonymous with ‘having survived another Ikea trip by bus and in the rain’.

I wasn’t sure how to brew it; whether to take the leaves out of the mandarin or steep the whole thing as it was. I opted for the latter. Then there was the issue of steep time. Since the leaves were all inside the mandarin and didn’t fall out when the water was poured on as I thought they would, I was uncertain about the steeping time and decided to give it plenty. Pu-erh doesn’t really, in my experience, become easily oversteeped to undrinkableness, so I felt confident in doing so, and as I thought, it worked out well.

I did think, though, that it would be a lot more orange-y in flavour. Or mandarin-y if you will. Citrus-y at any rate. It does have some, but it’s mostly just the pu-erh. Maybe I’m too used to the orange pu-erh from Nothing But Tea which is a Standard Panel tea, but I really was expecting more fruit.

Surprised at how well the tea flavour came out through the mandarin peel though. It’s a quite good pu-erh, if somewhat generic. It’s nice but not really anything outstanding.

The boyfriend was in favour of this cup as well. I think I should find another pu-erh for the Standard Panel for him.

So a good but fairly generic tasting pu-erh is worth some 80 points or so, I think. The fact that it’s inside a citrus fruit adds another few points as those two flavours go well together, even if there isn’t a lot of the fruity flavour. Finally, the over all experience of brewing this, the uniqueness of the presentation (unique for me anyway, I know it’s not completely unheard of) and the specialness of it are also worth something on the score.

I was thinking around 90 points was a fair score for it, and look, that’s exactly where it ended up. That was not adjusted afterwards!

Greetings Steepsterites.

I am celebrating the fact that I’ve washed my floors by having a good cup of tea. In fact I have actually withheld said tea from myself until after the floors were done. They are now done. For bonus effort, I have de-crumbed the boyfriend’s toaster.

Now, the first time I had this tea, I was at a complete loss for words. Just… no inspiration at all. I shall try to do better this time. Considering it’s the last of the leaves, I certainly hope I will. Back then I described it in very basic terms. Typically Yunnan-y qualities, but of a raisin-y note to the aroma, quite nice on the whole.

The aroma of this cup does indeed have a slight raisin-like quality to it, but that’s far from at the forefront. The first thing that actually struck me about it, was this unusually sharp note. Very fruity and pepper-y, but with a surprising sting to it. Being prepared for that sting, however, it seems a little less pronounced. It just sort of jumped me from behind and tried to jam a pick up my nostrils. Pretty violent, eh? I’m on to its game now though, and the loss of the ambush advantage has calmed it down somewhat, so that I am capable of concentrating on the notes that lay thickly beneath.

As mentioned it is indeed quite fruity. It’s sort of warm juice-y, or perhaps warm wine. Yes. It’s best described as having a cup of mulled wine in a barn surrounded by fragrant hay. I find that spice-y hay-y note to be quite standard from Yunnan teas. It lends a very characteristic profile to the teas from that region.

It’s amusing, however, that I once thought Yunnan teas to be quite smoky, naturally. I can find none of that smoke today. I eventually found my perception of the note developing into something more pepper-y. There is not a lot of pepper in the aroma of this one though. The hay note, however. The hay note is alive and kicking both in aroma and in flavour. It’s a very deep golden coloured flavour, exactly like a bale of straw.

I mentioned above that I could only find pepper in the flavour but not in the aroma. To make up for this, it seems like there’s about three times as much pepper in the flavour as I was expecting. Once again the tea got the upper hand on me, giving me a mouthful of pepper and holding my nose so I’d have to swallow. That too, however, I managed to subdue by letting the cup cool to a more managable level.

Back in control, the pepper is still strong and it leaves a fair amount of astringency behind. The whole mulled-wine-in-a-barn idea that embodied the aroma is a little lost to me at this point. I think it’s all the pepper. Imagine that barn with fragrant hay and having your mulled wine in it, only to discover that someone emptied the pepper mill in it when you weren’t looking. At first there’s shock, then curiosity and then to your enormous surprise, appreciation.

In spite of all the above it’s a rather nice tea, but it’s not a tea for weaklings. You have to be able to take some flavour with your cup. It’s strong and forceful and you can’t really trust it. Turn your back for a moment, and you will likely as not receive a firm kick in the rear. Ill behaved and borderline feral, that’s this tea. But once you have tamed it, it’s very enjoyable.

Gosh, what a cup. Is it tea or is it a wrestling match? Either way it put up a damn good fight.

Another one from QuiltGuppy. Turns out I’ve actually had this one before. I’d clean forgotten that. And basically I’m only posting now because my brain suddenly realised that it wasn’t just any old standard LS, but a gift LS and therefore it ought to be documented. As is only right and proper.

I’ll be brief though, because there are plans for today and there are few things I want to get out of the way so that I can sit quietly and conquer the world for a while before leaving. (Civ V. Have wiped out Arabia, am in the process of making cat’s meat of Japan. After that Napoleon won’t know what hit him. Rocket artillery. Yeah.)

The aroma of this tea is pretty much what I tend to look for in an LS these days. Sort of thick and creamy with a good layer of smoke. In fact it could be rather more smoky and prickly without it hurting anything.

Strong note of fruity sweetness in the flavour, which is exactly how I like my LSs to be, but again, a little stronger smoke wouldn’t have gone amiss.

To put it briefly, this is pretty much the ideal LS, only in a Light version. All the properties and stuff about it are all correct; it merely lacks some shine to take it from nice to awesome.

Chinese mutant white tea buds, with almond, coconut and vanilla to tas- Wait, what?

Oh Mutan! Riiiiiight. Anybody could’ve made that mistake!

The dear QuiltGuppy included this one in the package she sent me a little while ago. I was dead-lucky with that one because it contained among other things a number of things I had been curious about and one thing that I’d had before and liked. And she didn’t know anything about that when putting it together, so I’m thinking she must have access to some powerful psychic powers.

This has been widely appreciated across Steepster and I’m glad I got to try it as well, even though it’s been a long time since the actual wedding took place. I’ve got some pretty high expectations of it. Of course I should have actually looked it up before putting the kettle on, but at that time I hadn’t chosen a tea yet. And then I discovered it was a white, so I had to wait for my already boiling water to cool so that I could heat it again. It sounds pretty stupid put into words and it felt pretty stupid too. (And as for why I didn’t just get new tap-water, it’s because I filled the kettle all the way so that I can just press the button the next time I want tea water. It’s easier, and while I’m aware that I’m technically supposed to use fresh tap water every time, frankly I can’t taste a difference, so why bother?)

Now, let’s get down to business here. This cup is important as it’s also the first one I’ve had all day, and I’m finding the fact that it smells like a Bounty bar extremely up-lifting. It’s not my favourite type of chocolate bar at all and I’m not generally one to have a lot of luck with coconut in tea, but anything that smells like sweets surely must get a goodly amount of points.

And you know what? This is actually one of the few where coconut in tea works for me. It’s there and it’s very obviously coconut, but it’s not assertive. It’s just sort of standing there, a bit to one side of the room, making a presence of itself but not causing any sort of fuss. Just quietly minding its own business and chatting with the almond, which is behaving in the same way.

The vanilla is a bit more lively, but not as obvious. As opposed to the coconut, the vanilla is trying to get the attention of the room, but failing spectacularly which in turn causes it to behave in an adorably desperate and cheerful way. Refusing to accept that nobody has discovered what it’s trying to do.

Let’s stick to this metaphorical room of party-goers and turn our attention to the white tea itself. It’s quite grassy in flavour and nicely framing the rest of the flavour profile. The tea obviously represents the room itself. The surroundings. The barkeep, polishing pint glasses and asking younger notes for ID. The decorations. All those guests that are there, but you don’t know who they are.

All in all, as befits the name, this tea is a party in a cup, and therefore it’s probably not quite as bizarre that it’s reminding me strongly of carrot cake. With coconutty icing on it. Gosh, I wish I had some carrot cake to go with this.

Not bad for a mutant tea. ;)

NATURE’S OWN COUGH MEDICINE, DAMMIT!!! shakes fist

“What, again?” I hear you ask.

Yes. A-plocking-gain!

sniffle

The mood was green this morning, so I just picked first and best unflavoured green out of the basket. This process was made a lot easier by the fact that I’m not so set in my ways with greens as I am with blacks. Had the mood been for a black tea this morning, choosing one would have involved a whole lot more dithering.

Anyway, this sample contained, I think, just about the right amount of leaf for my brewing preferences and the leaves were large and a nice, bright green colour. They looked happy and lively, and made me expect a flavour with lots of pizzazz in it.

It’s surprisingly light in colour though. Even after a whole minute’s steeping, it’s still very pale. Most green teas, at this point, will be very yellow in my experience.

The aroma is quite light as well. It’s very difficult to find it, even when sticking my nose so close to it, it’s almost getting dipped. When I do find it, though, it’s quite fruity. I’m reminded of pineapple and green apples, and not really finding any of the vegetative grassy notes.

It’s incredibly delicate in flavour. It’s so frail and shy, I almost expect it to blush when sipping it. Unfortunately, the fruity notes that I found in the aroma are not carrying over into the flavour. Shame, I had quite looked forward to a naturally occurring pineapple note. Some of the apple-y note is still there, but it’s not in any really significant amount.

It’s a rather floral flavour, in a not scented to death sort of way. Naturally occurring little flowers that nobody is paying attention to because they’re just weeds. It doesn’t really have any significant grassy notes. There is some of it there, but it’s so delicate that it barely registers. These are some great notes, but I should have liked for them to be stronger. A little less shy and blushing and a little more ‘look out, world! Here I come!’

This is not really a tea that one can easily pick apart like this. It doesn’t work like that. A flavour this delicate should be viewed more in the big picture, which is lightly floral, mild and sweet. Not really suitable for a morning tea, however green the mood may be, but later in the day it would be a really nice choice. Imagine coming home from work, tired and stressed, and then sitting down with a cup of this tea. Just quietly sipping a cup without paying attention to the rest of the world for a few minutes. Zen.

Currently at the fifth steep of these leaves, started yesterday evening/afternoon.

I am going to steep the heck out of them, because they were the last in the tin.

That’s two Standards I’m now out of, Tan Yang Te Ji being the other one. If only they had been from the same company, it would have warranted an order, but tea corner organisation, or lack of same, currently dictates that I wait until we have either used up some more stuff or got some sort of shelfing business sorted out. We went and found some suitable shelves today, but couldn’t carry them home ourselves on the bus along with the vast number of, frankly more important, blinds.

So it’ll have to wait. But at least we know now what we want. It will be awesome.

In the meantime I’m putting off the moment when I’ll have to say good bye and so long to this tea.

We’ll meet again. Don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day…

As mentioned before I’m not an Earl Grey fan, but you don’t get to be a tea lover without at least at one point in your tea carreer getting yourself outside an Earl Grey of some sort. It’s so much a classic that acquaintanceship is inevitable.

I’ve met a few in my time.

A few I have actively disliked.

Many I found drinkable, but otherwise neither interesting or pleasant in any way, shape or form.

Some I liked.

A few I found surprisingly nice.

Only one have I ever loved.

And this is it.

Green and white teas are teas that belong to spring and summer. I just don’t feel like drinking them much during the colder months of the year. Funnily enough, the reverse is not true for blacks and similar. I can drink those all year around. Anyway, it’s summerly outside and I felt like something sweet and refreshing, but also tea.

Therefore we turn towards these summer-teas, and I just happen to have a sample of this one kicking about in the Bits’n’Bops Basket. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve only ever had good experiences with the samples I’ve had the good fortune to try from this company. Seeing that the lowest amount of points given to this one so far is 83, I suspect I’m in for yet another one of those success-stories.

In spite of the fact that I’m not usually a very big fan of flower scented teas. Flowers so easily take on a soapy quality for me, a very basic and dusty sort of flavour which I don’t find particularly pleasant. Like getting shampoo in one’s mouth while showering. Especially jasmine has a tendency to do this for me.

I’ve never had anything with pao blossoms before, and I’m a little concerned about them being compared somewhat to jasmine in the description. I don’t care much for jasmine, so I’m not sure I’d care for some sort of super-jasmine-y flower either. Mentions of grapefruit, however, calms me down a bit again.

It is indeed very aromatic, rather too much for my taste. I’m not really a flower person in anyway. They’re nice to look at and all, but I don’t much care for the scent. Not just in tea, but in real flowers as well. It becomes too heavy too easily. There are even a certain kind of potted plants which I have banned from the house on account of them being stinky (little pink/purple flowers, large, hairy, dark green leaves). I haven’t the foggiest what it’s called but the boyfriend knew which one I meant and thankfully agreed with me on that one.

So yeah. I’ve got a cup of tea on my desk and it’s positively stinking up my room. Having stood there for a few minutes, the worst of the floral odoeur has wafted off, and I have to put my nose down to the cup in order to smell it. It’s much more pleasant now! Can’t say what it smells like though. It smells like flowers. I can’t find any notes of the actual tea in the aroma. If they are there, they are concealed underneath the flowers.

The flavour is not even remotely as offensive as the smell. To my vast surprise, even with my previous good experiences of this company, I find it’s actually really nice. It’s only slightly basic and dusty floral in flavour. Very very slightly, and yes, there really is a good note of grapefruit. I love grapefruit. I eat one nearly every day. Especially the aftertaste is strong on grapefruit.

It’s hard for me to tell how much of the white tea I’m getting through the flavour. There’s definitely tea in there, but beyond that I can’t really tell. I don’t think I’m experienced enough in white teas for that.

Yet another hit from Shang tea. I’m giving it around 95 points to begin with, but I’m deducting some for the fact that I found the strong aroma so unpleasant. I believe that’s fair.

Okay, so I failed Sample Week on the very last day, but only because the sample I had done turned out to be one I had tried before, and I never got around to doing another one. But if it hadn’t been one I’d tried before, I would have made it, so I still say I almost succeeded.

Anyway, Sample Week over, I can now get back to some of my other larger samples, such as the ones I received recently from the lovely QuiltGuppy. Including OH JOY a Panyang. Or Tanyang. Or Tan Yang. Or Pan Yang. Or whatever you prefer. Same difference.

I’ve been out of my favourite Tan Yang Te Ji (♥) for a while now, so this sample was a really well treasured one. Unfortunately, though, I will have to say that the TeaSpring one is still my absolute favourite.

This one seems slightly thinner, slightly less powerful than the Te Ji of TeaSpring. It’s almost but not quite the same. And what I’m really looking for in a Tan Yang is pretty much the exact flavour profile of the Te Ji.

That said, it is still an awesome tea. By default, really. All Tan Yangs are awesome, and all Fujian blacks are wonderful. It’s amazingly sweet naturally, a mildly fruity sort of sweetness rather than the more grainy sweetness that we see in for example Keemuns. I’m not getting the hint of pseudo-smoke out of this one, unfortunately. That’s also part of what makes the aforementioned Te Ji so perfect for me. Instead there is something quite floral about it, which I believe is very close to the same thing.

“Wait a minute, how can pseudo-smoke notes and floral notes be the same?” I hear you ask.

“Opposite sides of the same coin,” says I. I believe it’s the same ‘bit’ of the flavour profile that creates that pseudo-smoky or floral note in the flavour. If it’s vague and delicate it comes across as floral, but if it is allowed to develop more and grow stronger, it turns into something more prickly and aggressive. Like the smoke note. Most often, though, we end up somewhere in between where some people will find it floral, some will find it lightly smoky and some will be unable to decide what they think it’s most like. This characteristic, I think, is more common in black teas than most people realise.

So yeah, this is leaning more towards the floral end of the spectrum whereas I tend to prefer the other end.

It’s a good tea. Sweet, floral, medium strength. Worth oodles of points in my book, but not as good as the Tan Yang Te Ji.

Not at first impression anyway. (And to be honest, one brewing isn’t really representative basis for comparison. I retain the right to change my mind, fat lot of good it will do me as this one isn’t available to me without using kindly Steepsterites as middle-men anyway)

I thought I would be finishing off Sample Week with this one, but it turns out I’ve had it before, although it’s a decupboarding, it doesn’t count for Sample Week.

Apparently I wasn’t best pleased with it when I had it before. Too spicy and grassy and with a funny feeling in the esophagus like the heat of alcohol, and I said I couldn’t figure out what the supposed muscatel was supposed to be like. (I know it’s a sort of dessert wine, but I don’t like that sort of stuff so I don’t know what it tastes like)

There’s a strongly wine-y aroma to this cup. The first time I described it as honeyed, and I don’t disagree with myself on that, but it’s definitely wine-y this time. Hot wine, some sort of sweetening agent and something floral-y spicy. Mostly the fruity, tangy wine though. Very grape-y. NOW I get what the muscatel is supposed to be covering here!

The flavour is exactly the same. It’s smoother than the first time I had it, from what I can tell from the first post I wrote, but it’s tangy, wine-y and grape-y and it has retained that alcoholic warmth feeling as well.

I’ll stick to the old rating of this. I don’t really like the alcoholic note, and it feels like drinking warm wine. No thank you.

It is saturday, early evening and the boyfriend is cooking something or other involving lentils. I’ve been editing all day (booooring!), and it occurred to me that the Sample of the Day would have to be now, because when we’ve eaten, I’ll probably be elsewhere watching tv for the rest of the evening.

For that reason Sample Week continues with something easy, and ‘something easy’ is defined as ‘something in a bag’.

I’m not really that fond of mint. I can eat it in most things, and I can tolerate it in teas although it’s not something I’ll ever really seek out, I don’t think. I absolutely cannot stand it as the filling in After Eights or similar chocolates, although there I believe it’s more a question of not liking the cream than not liking the mint.

So mint herbals is something I drink when I’m ill and real tea tastes funny, and it’s not something I would be likely to seek out as flavouring in tea on my own.

The aroma is quite minty. It’s very like a basic mint herbal only a bit weaker. Probably the green tea holding it back a little. I can’t find any notes of green tea anywhere in the aroma though. Only mint.

So the aroma isn’t really that promising for me, but the flavour turns out to be better than the aroma. The actual mint flavour isn’t really that overwhelming although it is still pretty strong, and here I can definitely identify the presence of some generic green tea of some sort. It’s not possible to discern any specific characteristics of it, other than the fact that it’s definitely there.

There is a whole lot of mint flavour, but the base of the green tea, and the fact that it’s detectable, is keeping the whole thing grounded a bit. A pure mint herbal, when the tastebuds are not hindered by illness, to me tastes a bit like a solution of water and toothpaste.

The green tea here keeps the same fate from befalling this tea. It’s more grounded, less flimsy and a lot more pleasant.

or ‘Rosted Dong Ding’ as the sample pouch would amusingly have me believe.

Irrelavant typos aside, however, I have in the past had some very good experiences with roasted Tie Guan Yins, so based on that I have high expectations of this one.

The aroma is very distinct green oolong, but with a layer of toastyness surrounding it. It’s acutally a pretty interesting smell. It’s all crispy and crunchy and stuff. Í would say that it’s a golden-orange smell, but given that the colour I’m thinking about is the exact same colour as the brew in the cup, I don’t think I can blame synesthesia on that one.

It really is a very nice colour. The white china is looking quite handsome as background for this tea.

The flavour is interesting as well! It has a strong note of something sort of tangy and fruity, like a middle thing between mandarins or apples of the not too sour sort.

Then there’s a note of pure green oolong. Not at all buttery and with just a touch of that earthyness that makes it different from a regular green. Isn’t it funny how oolong is kind of earthy and pu-erh is kind of earthy, but it’s not the same sort of earthyness at all? Oolong-earthy has a more floral tinge to it. Oolong-earthy is spring-y. Pu-erh earthy is autumn-y.

Anyway, this is slightly floral and oolong earthy, plus the indeterminable fruit-note, and all of it shrouded in nutty toast-ness. Flavourful and interesting.

And so Sample Week has reached Friday.

I am so tired today. I’m not sure this really counts for Sample Week. Oh, it does live up to all the criteria. It’s only the one cup and I haven’t tried it before. However, it was chosen specifically so that I wouldn’t get a sample that I’d end up writing whole little novels about, which I’m not sure whether or not disqualifies it. So I’ve decided that it counts if I don’t do another sample later tonight, and if I do, it didn’t count.

Being an Earl Grey and all, you know?

So what we’re expecting here is a strong black tea and a grey and dusty taste of bergamot. And hopefully not just some random lemon-y citrus, which ironically I would actually prefer tastewise, but would take off points for if it was being passed off as Earl Grey. Authenticity and whatnot, you know?

The aroma is somewhat creamy and smooth and kind of vanilla-y sweet. Still grey but leaning into a more silvery colour. (Synesthesia. I has it.) Okay, that’s a good sign, then.

Flavour, not so much. Here we have the dustyness, and something kind of lime-y as well. I’m not getting much out of the base at all here, so it feels a bit like I’m just having a week generic black with citrus juice in it. I find it disappointing that something with such a promising aroma can be so absolutely uninteresting in flavour.

Nope, this is not a winner.

And now on to other things.

Okay so it’s not a sample. It’s not even a decupboarding.

But it’s summerly and awesome and fruity fruity fruity with fruit on. And I haven’t had any of it in absolutely ages. Abandoned and forgotten, it has been kicking around at the bottom of the sample basket, but I dug it out today because I wanted something fruity and summerly.

I think I’ve got enough leaf left for one more round and then it’s over. In spite of having forgotten it for such a long time, I have really enjoyed this one.

Two out of three parts of my recent Amazon-avaganza loot arrived today and I’ve had watermelon for lunch. Lots of it, and nothing else. It’s just that sort of day. :)

We are continuing with Sample Week and after nearly forgetting it yesterday, I’m starting early today. :)

Today’s choice is a yellow tea, and I’m not very experienced with the type. I remember having had one relatively recently, but I can’t recall what it was that made it ‘yellow’ other than a process to make it less something than green teas. Grassy, I think. I can’t recall which tea it was either or even where it came from. I can’t even remember what I thought of it other than I found it fairly nice. But wether that was 60 points worth of nice or 95 points worth of nice, I have no idea.

Which is just as well because it means I can assess this one on its own merits, seeing as I still have very little idea of what to expect. Chi of Tea is another one of those companies that I’ve had a good experience with so far. I’ve liked what I have tried from them, some more than others of course, and shopping with them has been completely without problems. And they USED TO HAVE the best vanilla tea I’ve ever met. (If you’re looking, Chi of Tea, that’s a great big hint there!)

Now, this one has the same sort of aroma as the one I had yesterday. Yellowish green is the colour, my brain says. The Chinese colour. It’s thick and buttery, slightly salty and grassy and with an almost sticky quality to it. It’s the sort of aroma that gets into the nostrils and then clings on for dear life. A sort of ‘after-smell’ if you will. :)

It’s not the sort of aroma that would lead you to believe you were about to have a sip of something refreshing, and at first taste you find that it is indeed a quite buttery cup. As mentioned yesterday it takes a lot of butteryness before I think it’s properly buttery, butteryness not necessarily being a wished for quality, and this one is getting closer to it than the green tea I had yesterday, although it’s still not quite there. I do get that feeling of the palate going sort of round, but it could definitely be a lot worse.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that the flavour experience is twofold here, it probably would be. That round buttery note is one part. The other part is cleaner and crisper. It’s like a single clear-sounding little bell striking out in a murky, silent darkness. A very small sound but still heard far and wide. I like this note a lot better than the former. It tastes like hay and spring and it leaves a cool, almost minty aftertaste. which doesn’t seem to be turning sour. It just goes on and on being there, being minty, refreshing me and making me think I have nice breath as a result.

That freshness is what really makes the deal for me and seals the score. It’s not something for me to invest in, but it’s very pleasant to get to try. It’s rare for me to find a tea so awesome that I must keep it around always and have it NOT be one of the darker types of tea.

Gosh, I nearly forgot the daily sample!

Sample Week continues with a hastily chosen random sample of randomness. It was literally then topmost one in the basket.

I have a tendency to prefer Japanese greens, or greens that are similar to Japanese greens. Therefore, I’m feeling slightly wary of this. Because as far as I can tell, it’s not Japanese. Chinese greens are bit touch and go. I’ve never met one that I absolutely didn’t like and I’ve met plenty that I do like, but there is just such a large group of green Chinese teas that I can’t feel more than indifferent about. (Unless they’re flavoured, but that’s a whole other crate of fish)

There’s something I want to watch on tv soonish, so considering the amount of time it usually takes me to write these posts, I’ll try to be brief.

The aroma is, in quick summary, not particularly strong, quite ‘thick’ in character, and it has a strong note of fresh greenery. Not grassy as such, but leaning in that direction. It seems slightly salty as well, but again not particularly much. Not enough to put my off at all.

The flavour rather reminds me of Dragonwell. It’s got that same sort of boiled spinach-y kind of note to it. Again, the same greenery note from before, I think. Funny thing is it tastes exactly like it smells. I could just repeat verbatim what I wrote about the aroma and it would be true.

It’s not that very strong in flavour, not nearly as strong as Dragonwells are, and it’s a bit like taking a sip and then having to pass through some sort of curtain of hot water before getting to the flavour. It’s very smooth, and quite ‘thick’, a fat flavour, but not a buttery one. Although I think this is the character that people think about when they say a green has a buttery note. For me, though, it has to be a lot stronger before I’ll call it buttery.

This is a friendly cup. It doesn’t demand a lot from the drinker and it doesn’t attack and overwhelm the mouth completely. It just compliantly sits there in the cup, waiting to be sipped and doesn’t require a whole lot of attention in order to be enjoyed. It’s the sort of tea that would go quite well along with reading a book or watching something on tv.

Speaking of which, I seem to have written this post in record time and now have 15 whole minutes before my program actually begins. Zoooooom!

My dear Steepsterites.

Let it be known to those who have not worked it out already that Earl Grey is really not among my favourite types and that the ones that I have actually appreciated rather than just drunk are few and far between. I just don’t really care that much for bergamot, it’s such a dark and dusty flavour. It tastes so old.

This however is Monday’s Sample Week tea, and I’m sharing it with the boyfriend who has returned home from the wild abroads and brought with him our new kettle. No more messing about with saucepans, yay! It has little blue lights, five different settings, a keep warm function and temperatures and amounts written on it in two different units. And it goes beep when the water is boiling.

Anyway, the tea. It’s the first tea we’re having with the new kettle, and it was the first sample that I found in the basket which fit the criteria for Sample Week and the size of the pot needed for two people.

It has a surprisingly sweet aroma after brewing. It smells like some kind of lemon-y pudding. Creamy and sweet and not at all like an EG. Oh you won’t see me complaining here! It actually makes me really very hopeful about it.

Upon tasting my hopes are not dashed. On the contrary I discover to my surprise that for an EG this is not half bad. It’s pretty good actually!

In the flavour I can identify the bergamot, but there are other flavours going on as well, so I don’t really get that grey and old feeling from it. It’s like Earl Grey in his earliest youth, galloping about the gardens on a stick pony with his pockets full of frogs and bits of string. Maybe a scraped knee as well.

The creamy sweetness noticed in the aroma is there, tasting sort of pudding-y or slightly cake-y, and then there’s a strong note of some kind of citrus fruit. I can see PattiM suggested pink grapefruits when posting about it, and I agree with that. I eat a lot of pink grapefruits, and tasting this tea seems very similar to the flavour of a good, juicy grapefruit.

This is summerly and fresh, not so heavy and lumbering as your average regular Earl Grey. This one, I like.