Angrboda

I love smokies. I love the way they prickle on the tongue and the surprise of sweetness that shows up on the swallow. Sometimes a lot sometimes just a hint.

I love Tie Guan Yin. I love the almost floral freshness of them, the lovely green colour of the leaves and the lightheartedness of the flavour.

Smoky + Tie Guan Yin = ?

What could possibly go wrong here?

Well, I am about to find out, as Cait happened to be in possesion of some and very kindly offered to send me a sample of it when I expressed my curiosity.

The leaves have darkened so they look like an oolong from the darker end of the spectrum. They smell very oolong-y and grass-y, but not really smoky as such. It’s definitely not a ‘normal’ oolong smell, but it’s not really smoke either. It’s more like… a touch of smoke. The memory of smoke. If I search really hard in the aroma, I can find real smoke, but the grass-y oolong-y parts of the aroma are just so strong and insist on being in the foreground at all times.

Tea-making not being an exact science, I think I gave it a slightly longer steep here than what is strictly necessary, so that may account for the appearance. It looks a bit more reddish brown than the regular Tie Guan Yin. The aroma is very oolong-y but with a crisp sort of bite to it. Again, not really smoke. More like… toast. There’s something very fruity here too. Sweet apple-y. Interesting. I’ve never found that in a Tie Guan Yin before.

Oh my ceiling cat!

First sip made me really widen my eyes in wonder. This tea must have gold dust in it, that’s how good it is. It’s not smoky as we know our regular smokies. It doesn’t have that same bite, not at first. At first it’s more toasted than smoky and then the smoke shows up on the swallow. That’s so backwards!

This actually reminds me quite strongly of Genmaichas. There is the same sort of nutty toastedness in it. That apple from the aroma is a bit harder to find but if the tea isn’t too terribly hot, there’s a touch of it for a brief moment when it first hits the tongue.

I’ve got enough leaves for one more pot, but I’ll have to check the vendor because I can’t remember now if they were one of the places to have reasonable shipping to Europe or not. If they do, I will without a doubt need more of this.

This would be the second steep of the leaves from this morning. I don’t know if that’s the reason or if it’s because I drank it quicker, but it seems to have lost that ash-y flavour that I noticed the first time around. It’s still both smoky and sweet though, but I really think this one would benefit from a little milk. I’ll have to try that another time.

(Also, Paris trip report up at LJ http://iarnvidia.livejournal.com/773.html for those who might be interested in that. You don’t need a livejournal account to read or comment)

Greetings all! Some of you may have noticed that I’ve returned from the Wild Abroad (AKA Paris) where I’ve spent a weekend in nice company with friends and a number of scary moments in airports. I do not like airports no I do not. I meant to look for both Kusmi and Mariage Freres while in France but as it turns out, I got to visit a Kusmi store as one of the first things we did and then forgot all about the Mariage Freres. Oh well, sometimes stuff doesn’t work out like we’ve planned so I’ll have to satisfy my curiosity in that department in the old fashioned way. Internet shopping. :) If you want to read more about my trip, I will put up a trip report later at iarnvidia.livejournal.com (I just have to, you know, write it first)

Anyway, this was one of the two things I did get. We do have a selection of Kusmi fairly easily available in Denmark, but this isn’t one of them and I had been very curious to try it. The information from Kusmi says ‘slightly smoky’. Slightly? No. This is properly smoky. It has a bit of a bite on the tongue at first, a soft feeling of phantom milk and then a remarkable sweetness on the end of the flavour.

I let the cup cool off a little bit too much before drinking it and it has developed a sort of ash tray-y aftertaste which isn’t entirely pleasant. It’s a taste a bit like when you’ve just been in a room where you’re the only non-smoker and then go outside. I haven’t had that experience with any of my other smokies, so that’s a little disappointing for me.

The rating currently reflects my initial impression, but I think I might change it later.

Good morning all.

Just a small cup of this before leaving. I’m going to be away for a few days, so I’ll see you again on monday or tuesday (depending on exhaustion levels). Just a little to wake up on and settle the nerves and such.

I got this one from EvaPeva, and I just realised that I haven’t posted about it before. I know I’ve had some of it at least twice though, so that’s bad negligence on my part I guess. She was sending me some japanese greens, as you know, but included a couple of other goodies, like a good supply of this. You would think she knew that this is a green type I’m quite fond of!

I just wish I had time for more than these two steeps. At least I used the gaiwan, otherwise I wouldn’t even have had time for one. It’s really very nice. I don’t really have time to go all in depth about it, but it’s definitely a very nice little tea.

Okay, I gotta be off, Steepsterites! I’ll see you in a few days.

This a backlog from last night just before bedtime. It was supposed to be another Tie Guan Yin steep but then there was gaiwan-fail and a lot of wiping up of leaves and such. Then I remembered I had this bag and decided to do that instead.

Then as I was sitting in bed reading and sipping, I realised that it was gift tea from a swap with EvaPeva so I really ought to make a proper post about it. It was really late so I wasn’t about to get up and turn the laptop on again though, but I’ll tell you what I remember.

Overall, I liked it a lot. It was sweet and very velvety smooth. It felt almost soft in the mouth. The nuttyness from the rice was quite nice too and not overpowering. It was just right.

I wouldn’t be able to say whether or not I liked it better than other genmaichas, but I will say that overall I liked it better than I have generally liked bagged Kusmi before. I haven’t had any of their loose leaf stuff (yet) but I have had a selection box with some of their bags. It’s like it makes a difference with their loose leaf, but my overall thought of that sampler box was that Kusmi as a brand was somewhat overrated. (I’ve also occassionally had a bag in the train home from my parents if I’ve been travelling first class, but that was brewed with water kept hot in a thermos, so I’m not really sure it counts)

I’m glad I had this one that was just genuinely good. It has renewed my hopes for Kusmi teas again.

I’m bagging it with one of these teabags that TeaEqualsBliss sent me ages ago. Which reminds me that I also have some notes on swap teas from her that I haven’t got around to typing up and posting yet.

This one smells like coconut. Very much like coconut actually. The bag is one of these big nylon things so I can see that it’s real leaves inside. Bit broken, but not your average teabag dust.

It’s the same aroma after steeping. Probably more coconut milk than coconut proper, but it’s close enough. I really like coconut milk in food, but I’m feeling a bit sceptical about it in tea. In spite of the fact that I’ve seen many of you have coconut-y favourites.

It’s not so bad on the flavour, though. This is actually quite nice. The primary flavour is the oolong from the darker end of the spectrum. Almost a bit earthy. Then on the swallow the coconut is there, waving a little flag and going ‘Coconut Was Here!’ Fairly long aftertaste of coconut too.

I like it, but I don’t love it. I’ve only had a few sips so far, but I suspect the coconut might become a bit cloying further down in the cup. It’s definitely not one for large amounts of tea, this, but it’s good for one cup. Or maybe just half a cup.

I don’t think I’ve had a coconut-y tea before. Interesting.

No notes yet.

This is actually a backlog of what I had last night before sleeping. I made it with the gaiwan (really need more of those things!) and with cooler water than I have before. The reason for the c ooler water being that I forgot it and then couldn’t be bothered to boil again.

I think the steeping time must have been shorter too. The only thing I know for sure, really, is that I used more leaf.

The result was VASTLY different to what I’ve had before. At least it seemed like it. It came as a bit of a surprise to me when I took the first sip, because that was just not how I remembered it at all. It wasn’t as walnut-y and borderline astringent. It was sweet, a note of nuts but over-all insanely buttery.

It was good enough at all, but I think I prefer it the other way. I’ll have to experiment a bit here.

No notes yet.

I’ve been sitting here for HOURS trying to figure out what sort of tea I felt like having. I couldn’t even agree with myself on a type, so I eventually took my troubles to the random pick thing that Teaplz’s boyfriend came up with.

I’d call this a pretty unfavourable result. It’s ancient and I didn’t like it the first time. On the other hand if I do it now, I’ll be rid of the sample for good and ever and won’t have to actually throw it out, which is difficult for me.

My previous note for it mentioned something like a washing up soap aroma and not really being terribly impressed with it. Well, 21 points, I think that illustrates my level of non-impressedness pretty well, doesn’t it?

I sat for a while and pondered this pick and eventually decided to go ahead and do it. I happen to be in possesion of some milk at the moment, so maybe that’ll help matters a bit. Sugar too.

It’s not really a fruity blend because it’s so full of lemon grass and spices. And it’s not really a spicy/chai-y blend either because it’s so full of fruity stuff like pineapple and what have you. In my head it’s a sort of in-between thing. Like… fruit chai or something like that.

Which frankly doens’t sound all that inviting, does it? The washing up soap memory is coming back again here.

So after all this introductory chatter, how does it actually fare when being introduced to additives?

The answer?

Not well. Not well at all.

As I mentioned the last time I posted about this five months ago, it’s an ancient sample. It was ancient already then. It’s unlikely that it hasn’t faded somewhat over time. Maybe when it was fresh I would have liked it better. Or maybe I’m just not a fan of lemon grass, period.

Okay, I gave it a fair shot. I even experimented with additives. Can I have something else now, please?

Goodbye Tan Yang.

You were a truly yummy tea with your cocoa notes and second steep smoky goodness. I’m in great misery and I’ll miss you like an amputated limb. What’s to become of me now?

’Scuse me.

_{(WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*sniffle*WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)}

ETA: Also, I just noticed I’ve been a Steepster member for a year today. But I’m still mourning the emptying of this tin, so I can’t celebrate. Someone else do that for me, please.

The gaiwan method is good for more than just greens, I realised. And then I found this baby in the cupboard where it had been stuffed in a tin and forgotten about. I’ve had it before, brewed western style. I wasn’t sure how much leaf to use, but I winged it and used too little. I can’t remember much about other than I was a bit disappointed about how weak it seemed.

Trying it with the gaiwan today. Still not sure how much leaf to use and I couldn’t really judge it on how much space it took up in the gaiwan, because it’s so compressed. So I crossed my fingers and then added a little extra with an thought to the first weak attempt.

I did two pre-steeps of 30-45 seconds each.

First real steep was at 30 seconds It smells like a rainy day. Wet dogs. Also earthy, but a mild sort of earthy. Mostly though, I’m thinking umbrellas and wet dogs.

The flavour is sort of bitterness dissolved in rain water. I definitely used too much leaf here. It’s almost coffee-y and this is NOT a good thing. It really tastes very much like tea that has been served from a pot usually used for coffee.

BLERGH!

It’s very disappointing and I just can’t drink this, so out it goes. Good thing about the gaiwan is that it’s actually a very small amount of tea being discarded here.

Second steep was also 30 seconds and I’ve taken about half the leaf out of the gaiwan. That helped. The aroma remains the same, but it’s smoothed out a bit. The taste is earthier and definitely better. But it’s still a bit bitter, and not really…

Well, it’s drinkable, okay?

I kind of wish I could try to recreate the traditional tibetan way of brewing here, but since danish grocery stores don’t stock yak butter, that’s not possible. Maybe I’ll try an approximation with cow butter later on, but I’m not promising anything.

For the moment I’m not really terribly impressed, but it does have a certain win-factor in being a compressed pu-erh. Never had that before.

Finally working out how to pour from the gaiwan into a cup without spilling all over the place has totally revolutionised the way I drink greens! I like greens, but they do require a certain mood to be taken in larger quantities. Even my small pot is a bit on the big side there. This way is so much easier!

Leaf-saving too, because I can get way more steeps out of a smaller amount of leaves. In a pot I rarely do more than two steeps of a green, three if I’m doing a lot, because after that I’ve just become bored and want something else.

So I’ve dived into my stash of semi-forgotten greens and found this one. Very nice. I’m reminded a bit of the Long Jing I had the other day and not just because I’m brewing this the same way, but also on the flavour. Hint of asparagus there but not nearly as bright and bouncy as in dragonwell.

Of course, just like the Long Jing, I have no clue about which number steep I’m on at the moment.

And to think I was on the verge of putting the gaiwan on the shelf as a nice little tea-related decorative item. Now I think I need some more of them. :D

ETA: Without spilling… Ahem. wipes up

Goodmorning Steepsterites.

Yeah, I know it’s nearly… nevermind. I’ve slept in, so it counts.

I have also successfully managed to whittle my following list down to an amazing 139! That’s a far cry from the 1100 or so I think it was before. And at least 80% of them were inactive accounts. It feels good to have done a little house keeping and I think I’ve discovered (maybe) and easier for me way to use the site and still try to keep an eye on a lot of people with the recent posts page. It means an extra click and seeing some things twice and some things from people I had previously chosen not to follow for this or that reason, but I can deal with that. So again, to the few I have dropped that wasn’t inactive, it’s nothing personal against anybody, it’s merely a change of tactics for me. I might readd some people again in the coming days

Anyway, I decided to go for the Irish Morning again this morning, and this time I tried to use a little less leaf. A C Perch’s recommends steeping for six minutes which seems like an awfully long time for such a small leaf tea, but I think it’s because they’ve based it on people who like to add milk. I happen to have milk at the moment, so I think we’ll give that a try.

I’ve just poured a little bit first to try and tell what it’s like without milk. My first thought was that it was extraordinarily sweet! I would never have guessed that from yesterday’s dosage problems. Sweet yes, but not that much. As it cooled a bit, the sweetness went away, so that only really works when it’s still very hot.

Adding a (good) bit of milk, I discover that either I’m not really a big fan of it with milk or my milk has a too high fat content (I tend to prefer 1,5%) to really work with this one. It tastes more like I’ve added cream, and that has not been a problem for me before in adding milk to any other tea. The tea itself seems a bit overpowered by this. So either it needs less milk than I added or it needs a thinner milk. Since I’m not about to change the type of milk I prefer for everything else or begin to buy two types of milk, I’ll have to experiment with less milk.

Or even with no milk at all, which was better yet. Yesterday I got a great resteep, so we’ll try that today as well. And definitely not add milk.

Rating sneakily sneaking upwards, a few points at a time.

Whoa! I’ve ‘unfollowed’ a LOT of Steepsterites today. Many of them people who have gone inactive or who had seemingly decided not to follow me. In many many cases both. But also some others. I just want to make it quite clear that there is nothing at all personal involved in the people I’m dropping. It’s merely a case of trying to re-invent the way I use the site.

It’s a lengthy and honestly rather tedious process (that I have, I admit, brought on myself by initially trying to follow literally everybody with one or two exceptions), but I’m down to 814 now. Not nearly done, but I’ve got two whole pages now of people I’ve decided to keep. And at this point I’m realising that instead of clicking and unfollowing people one by one, it might have been easier to just unfollow everybody and re-add the ones I wanted to keep instead. Bit late for that now, though, so we’re plodding onwards.

For this purpose I of course need a good strong tea, preferably a smoky and one I know so well that I don’t have to put a lot of thought into drinking it. Enter Black Powder. I have this at work every day. It’s my work tea, which is also why I rarely have it at home anymore. It’s perfect for work really and because it’s smoky most people make this face o.O and I get to keep it for myself. (I do at the moment have one curious colleague though, but she’s not yet finished gathering courage for it. I’ve told her she’s welcome to dive into the tin/pot whenever she feels ready for it. I hope she’ll like it. )

I’m actually on second steep now. The smoother, slightly sweeter, but still very smoky one. I can’t remember if I’ve ever tried a third steep of it or what the result was if I did, but it would appear that today might very well be the day.

Seems I’ve generally had pretty good tea luck recently. Lots of yummy stuff.

Okay, I have re-familiarised myself with the beloved raspberry oolong. I can’t believe how long I’ve gone without it. Now for the second reason for my latest ACP purchase (the third being dangerously low levels of Lapsang Souchong left)

What we’ve got here is a blend of Assam and Travancore, the latter of which is one of those areas that I can never remember exactly where is. Luckily I have literature and atlasses at my disposal, so it was easy enough to figure out. South India for those who suffer from geography deficiency like me.

So far of the Irish Breakfast blends I’ve tried, I have found Adagio’s offering suited me best. Granted I haven’t yet had that many, but this is the way things stand at the moment. I’m a big fan of A C Perch’s as many of you have likely figured out by now, so I have great hopes that their morning tea can, if not beat Adagio’s, then at least be equally as good.

The leaves are quite small and dotted liberally with lovely pretty golden bits, just like my Assam is. Seeing as the leaves are so small though, I will have to play with dosage a bit with this one. My usual dosage in this size pot has turned out to be a wee bit on the strong side for me. The aroma of the dry leaves is absolutely lovely. Assam honey-y sweetness all over the place and something that smells almost, but not quite, smoky. The bag it came in actually had a very smoky aroma hanging at it when I tried sniffing it through the wrapping, which surprised me a bit, because I wouldn’t call this normally a smoky blend. Turns out it was just aroma from the lapsang souchong stuck to the outside of the bag as the leaves inside smell very differently.

After steeping, I have to admit I didn’t consider paying that much attention to the aroma, and it’s gone a bit too cold now to really tell. At this temperature, though, where it’s good for drinking, it smells kind of smooth. Maybe even a bit milky. The actual aroma notes are too weak for me to register at this point. Not because the aroma as such is weak or non-existant, but more because I had an incident at work a few days ago, which involved me, a garbage bag with a hole in it, a bucket with a popped off lid and a few liters of formalin on the floor. To be cleaned up. By me. That’s a few hundred brain cells I’ll never see again. It was quite unpleasant, and I don’t really think my nasal mucus membranes are completely recovered from all the formaldehyde fumes yet. It makes it a bit difficult to really tell what I’m smelling here.

Taste, though. As mentioned, I made it a little too strong for my liking, so next time I’ll have to knock a little off the leaf dosage. The Assam is definitely there, but it feels a little more rounded off here. Relatively astringent, which may be caused by the extra amount of leaf. I tend to be pretty tolerant to astringency, but this cup is right on the border of my limit. I’m trying to look away from that, though.

There is indeed no smokyness in the tea at all. Only the cardboard-y Assam and that other fuller, rounder flavour that is more difficult to pin down. Like the Assam is only providing the frame around this other flavour. Like how a pretty picture is marred by an ugly frame but enhanced by a pretty frame, you know? It’s rather abstract, I’ll admit. Difficult to explain what I mean.

It’s definitely a blend with a good punch, this. It reminds me of Teaplz and the pirate analogy a while ago. I wonder if I can say the tea has that ARRRR-factor. ;) I’m rating it like this for the time being and deeming it indeed a worthy rival of Adagio’s IBB. As I experiment with the leaves, this rating may change.

Isn’t it ironic, by the way, that while I’m sitting here posting about breakfast blends, my actual breakfast is standing on a plate in the kitchen, quite forgotten?

ETA: Very good on the resteep too. A bit smoother and still full of flavour.

Oh Rickyyyyyyyyyy! Guess what I’ve gooooot!

I made a little pot of this, drank it and resteeped. And angels started singing.

Oh berry! Oh oolong! Oh welcome back in my cupboard.

I don’t think I really fooled anybody with my post yesterday… As Lena pointed out, I should probably have left out the hibiscus bit.

But I can assure you all that my infatuation with smokies is unchanged and there is no force on the planet that could make me give them up.

(Which is kind of odd, really, considering my strong dislike for tobacco smoke)

Had a cup of this one this morning and it was yummy.

No notes yet.

JacquelineM actually inspired me this morning, so after finishing the morning pot of Lapsang Souchong, I switched to this.

I’ve never really managed to get the hang of Dragonwell before and I’ve never really been able to agree with myself on whether or not I like it much. So I was in a weird situation where I had a sort of semi-craving for something that I wasn’t really sure I liked.

What to do, what to do?

It’s not really practical to brew half pots at the time, because I have a tendency to forget that I’m only supposed to fill it half up with water and end up with a totally weakling cup of tea. I don’t really have the brain capacity to do it that way when I know I’ll be steeping it several times. If it’s just the one or two times, it can be done, but more than that and chances are it’ll go wrong at least once.

Cue the little yellow gaiwan that I hardly ever use, because I always spill and/or burn myself. I was feeling brave though, so I brewed in that and carefully decanted after steeping into another little cup. That gave me half a very small cup on each steep which isn’t so much that I’ll give up on the questionable flavour or get too much of it, and it allows me to do a multitude of steeps.

So I’ve been drinking Dragonwell for oh about… let’s see… hmm… about four hours or so. I haven’t got the faintest idea of which steep I’m currently having, the counting got messed up, but JacquelineM totally nailed the primary flavour note when she called it asparagus-y. It’s like with Takgoti and the walnut note in the Pai Mu Tan. I knew it was a well-known clear flavour, very easy to pick up on. I just couldn’t work out what it was.

At this point though, on Steep X, the asparagus-y-ness has diminished quite a lot. It’s not really a flavour that tries to invade and conquer, it’s just sort of there. Much more toned down. The flavour has sort of deepened, if you know what I mean. It’s not as bright and bouncy anymore. It has calmed down and turned darker. Like the difference between brand new leaves on trees at the beginning of spring, and leaves that has been on the tree for half a summer already.

I’m liking these ‘older’ steeps better than the first ones, definitely, so it seems like with this one the gaiwan is the way to go.

As I said, I lost count of what number steep this is, but to give you an idea of how far I’ve approximately come, I’ve become quite good at transferring from gaiwan to cup. I don’t spill every time anymore. And I haven’t burned myself either.

It’s still not a tea that I really see myself drinking a lot of though, so I’ll leave the rating where it is and let first impressions count for this one.

No notes yet.

It would appear that overnight I’ve gone off smokies completely.

In the future I’ll only drink herbal infusions. Preferably with tons of hibiscus in it.

;)

You are not seeing this post. This post does not exist because I am totally working on writing and totally not posting on Steepster. If you can see this post, you need to get your eyes checked. Cause it ain’t here.

That said, TeaEqualsBliss sent me a sample of this when we swapped earlier and I can’t really remember why I rated it so low, but I gather that I rated it that way in comparison to the Adagio IB which I can’t currently remember what tastes like, so I’m not going to tamper with the rating.

I used 50% more leaf for this pot because I thought I could finish the sample off that way. Turns out the sample was larger than I had expected and now I’ve only got an estimated amount of leaf left for half a pot. By the time I discovered that, though, it was of course too late to do anything about it.

The tea actually carries the extra strength quite nicely. I can’t tell in the flavour that it’s stronger than usual, and reading my previous comment on it, I still completely agree with myself.

So evidently what we’ve got here is a pretty forgiving blend, which kind of surprises me a little considering that it must surely have Assam in it, and in my experience you can call the Indian blacks many things, but ‘forgiving’ generally isn’t one of them. It’s possible that the Assam aspect is a bit more astringent this way, but it’s not something that really mars the flavour on the whole.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the Irish Morning Blend from A C Perch’s hold up to this and to Adagio’s equivalent.

Back to work (HA!) for me, and remember, this post does not exist, it isn’t here and I never wrote it.

The start of my Easter holiday.
Payday.
Having a minimum amount of bills in april.
Lexitus informing me that the AC Perch’s order has arrived, and I can get my tea on friday.
Caravan in my pot.

Plenty of things to celebrate.

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!