Angrboda

Look at me with a tisane! Be sure to pay attention, Steepsterites, as this is not something that happens that often, but it’s too late really for tea when I’m trying to re-learn getting to bed at a proper hour, and I wanted to try something else of what TeaEqualsBliss sent me.

I dipped my sleeve in the cup (no, not on purpose), so it’s not starting well.

It smells strongly of spearmint and I can’t really find any tarragon. It’s like a mix of toothpaste and that chewing gum that my mother prefers. Daunting… Maybe it can help on my stomach reflux though. (Oh avocado… so yummy, yet so deceitful!)

It tastes a bit like that chewing gum too, but it’s not as overwhelmingly spearmint-y as I had expected. I think it’s because the tarragon is lying down a base and controlling it. It’s just spearmint-y enough to give me that prickling on the tongue and brief fresh mouth sensation. The latter doesn’t seem to last very long after swallowing, but then again, it’s a tisane, not a tooth-paste replacement.

Tisanes don’t really interest me at all, and I don’t buy them unless for someone else or because I want to mix with stuff. Although I’d be unlikely to purchase this if the brand was available here, I still like it rather more than I thought I would.

A case of mistaken identities have placed a hand-delivered non-signed envelope of creepiness in my letterbox today. Print outs of someone else’s private email conversations of a personal nature. In place a VERY personal nature. It’s creepy enough that I’ll be saving envelope+contents for a while and see if anything else happens, because my immediate guess is that somewhere out there there is a betrayed wife thinking that I’m someone else. And she knows where I live. And she doesn’t know that I’m not Not-Me even though Not-Me has the same name as me.

Luckily I have also received a package from TeaEqualsBliss which is MUCH less creepy and in which I found among others this tea with which I will try to calm myself down again. I was stumped by the amount of choice available to me! Eventually I decided that since I needed some fairly quick nerve-settling a bag was the thing to go for this time. I picked this one by closing my eyes and choosing one at random.

I’m a bit wary of the brand. I’ve seen a lot of posts about this brand and most people seemed to find it somewhat mediocre.

It definitely smells jasmine-y while steeping and not synthetic. So that’s one point in favour. The flavour is a bit… brine-y and a bit flowery. It’s not like the jasmine green to end all jasmine greens. But it’s nice enough.

And was it capable to stop my imagination getting out of control RE post intro? To an extent yes, so that’s another point in favour.

This one again. It’s in my to be finished pile. Some of you will remember my first experience with it. Well, my colleague gave me the rest of what she had since she would never get around to using it herself anyway, not being a very big tea-drinker.

So I got the rest in a cleaned marmalade glass and can now inform you that she must have stored this in her spice cupboard. It’s the only explanation I can come up with, because she swears the glass has only ever contained marmalade before and I can’t really imagine that anyone in their right mind would make curry flavoured tea.

I sincerely hope it only took on the curry in the aroma and that it will go away upon brewing!

I’ve used more leaf this time, for a more authentic experience, and am steeping the bejeezus out of it at the moment. One heaping teaspoon per cup (and then some, because the leaves are large and my teaspoons don’t heap that well) and at least a fifteen minute steep in only half the amount of water.

The result is nearly as black as coffee, even when diluted half and half with freshly boiled water. The aroma is very tea-like and very very dark. Just by smelling it I can almost feel my tastebuds cowering in fear. There is, unfortunately, still a note of that blasted curry. Woe ruined leaves!

Authentic turkish tea is always taken sweetened with sugar, which I’m sure you could guess from the steeping parameter and dosage of leaves, but I am either fearless or remarkably foolish (the latter being more probable) so I gave it a test sip before sweetening.

ARGH! Astringent! My tongue is dead! I think it just turned to dust and disintegrated or something! Astringency, however, should not be confused with bitterness, of which there is none. As for the curry, I’m not sure. I feel like I can pick up a hint of it, but I’m not sure if that’s not just because I know it’s there and was half expecting to find an unauthorised flavour.

One teaspoon of sugar helps. Two is better. Three is perfect. There’s still a lot of astringency there, but it’s sweetened so much that the sugar go rather well with it. Like the astringency means it can handle more sweetener before it gets cloying and the sugar and astringency in combination sort of bring out each other’s best qualities. Bit like in a sweet and sour sauce.

My tongue is all prickly and confused, though. It can’t seem to decide between ‘AAAAH! Astringent! Shrivel!’ and ‘OOOOH! Sugar! More!’ It’s a strange sensation.

Also, having tasted carefully, I definitely can’t pick up the curry. Maybe smell contamination isn’t such a serious thing when you give the leaves such a harsh treatment.

I stand by my initial rating. It’s much different from what I normally understand to be tea, but it’s still quite nice. It’s not a brewing method I’ll be using very often, but it’s fun enough to do once in a while for the exotic experience.

It was one of those days. Clumsy like a very hot place. At mid-afternoon I was thinking if we couldn’t just skip the rest of today and go straight on with tomorrow. I needed a cup of tea really badly and actually had one planned until I came home and face to face with the to-be-finished pile. Right then. My conscience bid me to look through that first, and as I did I discovered a tea from Bethany that I had completely forgotten I had! First win of the day. No, really. First win.

I actually needed a cup so badly that I just brewed it up and quite forgot to even look at the leaves. I didn’t even think to look up what sort of tea it was. Let’s just say that I was lucky it wasn’t a fragile green…

After having steeped it though, I looked it up and read the description. The colour was golden as promised and the aroma was floral and somewhat wood-y also as promised. There were some talk about notes of tropical fruit too, but I couldn’t find any of that.

The flavour had the same sort of wood-y, almost rooibos-y note. What is it with me finding rooibos-y notes in indian teas lately? First that decaf indian vanilla thing from Numi the other day (the one with the Cup of DOOM!) and now this? Again, nothing on the tropical fruit front, though.

I’m not a fan of the wooden rooibos note, especially considering that there isn’t any rooibos in it at all. I like oolongs but I swing towards the greener chinese ones, generally. I have yet to meet an indian oolong that I fell for. This one is from Darjeeling and even though a lot of black Darjeeling teas are technically borderline oolong, an actual oolong from the area just tastes kind of unfinished. I’ve had a Darjeeling oolong before, but that was years ago and I honestly can’t remember anything about it, so I can’t tell if this is characteristic or not.

No notes yet.

Smells pretty much like the one from 52teas. There’s a peppery sort of note in the aroma too that prickles my nose and make me want to sneeze.

It’s sweet. Somewhat spicy, it sort of warms that mouth with prickly. And then it’s kind of sweet as if it has sugar in it.

I am still getting a hint of that slightly soapy, rough sort of flavour that I’m also getting in the one from 52teas, it’s just less here. I’m thinking maybe that would be the pumpkin. And if that is the case then I’m still not sure I actually like pumpkin very much.

Thanks for letting me try it, though, Jillian.

Dear me, I sure am having a lot of tea today…

Night and stars above that shine so bright
The myst’ry of their fading light
That shines upon our caravan

I don’t care if that’s supposed to be a desert caravan and not a russian one, it still pops into my head whenever I see the name of this blend. Rather like JacquelineM’s River Shannon blend inevitably makes my brain go Oh Shenandoe, I love your daughter… Even though it’s not even the same river. Or the same country. Or the same continent. Can’t help it.

This one was put in the to-be-finished-off pile due to it being sample-sized and, I’m sorry to admit, quite forgotten.

The aroma right now just after pouring is pure bonfire and a hint of what I think Auggy and Takgoti mean when they say ‘burnt sugar’. Just a little bit. Not so much that you really recognise it as sweetness, but it’s enough to make me stop an wonder what that was. The more I sniff at it, the more clearly it comes out along with a note of dark chocolate.

I steeped it only four minutes (using the phenomenal steep.it site), and the flavour here strikes me as rather smokey. There’s something else too. I can’t quite identify it but it’s sort of like a middle thing between nuts and flour, or perhaps borderline cocoa-ish. Which weirdly is an entirely different flavour from both nuts and flour. Yeah, I don’t know either.

It certainly has a good kick, but I do think it’s a shame I did that shorter than usual steep just to see what would happen. I’m wondering what would have happened with that sweet note in the aroma if I hadn’t done that.

ETA: As I make my way down through the cup and it cools off a little bit, the unidentifiable flavour is turning out more and more cocoa-y, I think.

I’m giving this one another shot today. It’s not in the pile of teas I’m supposed to be finishing off, I just wanted it, so it’s a semi-sinful indulgence for me.

My first encounter with it was the inevitable disappointment that comes after having had seriously impossibly I’m-not-kidding expectations of it from the start. Second I tried to recreate the cola aspect in a more authentic sort of way by making a strong concentrate of it, putting it in the fridge and then mixing it with ordinary unflavoured carbonated water. This did not go well.

After that I was a bit put off and wondering what to do with all the rest of it.

Today though I’m trying again, to see what I think now that I’m not expecting it to be a miracle in a cup. I have to say I’m still getting a sort of artificial like soapy sort of flavour, but I can ignore that. Underneath is the astringency of the black tea base, which is probably in some way partly my own fault. I wasn’t being very particular about steeping parameters. I can definitely find the cola and a touch of vanilla. The cherry, apart from in the aroma where it’s strong, is still escaping me.

Jillian sent me another couple of bags of this yummy yummy stuff. It seems fitting that I should have one of them this morning just as I stumble out of bed to find the winter olympics ceremony is on tv. I’m not sure if it’s a direct transmission or not. If it is, it must be seriously late in Vancouver… But hey, I turned it on just a few minutes before the danish delegation came in. How’s that for timing, eh? :)

Of course I did mess up the brewing of this. Yes, Angrboda can’t even brew a teabag! It was a minor incident involving me pulling the string off the bag and then managing to poke a whole in the bag with a fork when trying to fish it out of the cup. Oh well, I’m used to having leaves in my cup. Just now this size. And I can probably resteep it, but I’m not sure it would be a good idea under these circumstances.

I was a little worried about whether I would like this less now that it’s not christmas considering how it had initially reminded me of a liquid christmas cookie. I’m glad to report that even with christmas behind us and with a small teabag-mishap, it’s still yummy.

Cheers, Steepsterites.

(Oh yeah, btw Jillian, your package arrived yesterday)

I’m apparently all about the caramel these days. Luckily it’s in my to be rid of pile, but clearly I had more of it than I thought.

It makes me wonder if I might not miss it after all when it runs out.

I’ve never tried had a green pu-erh before and I’m surprised at how large the leaves are.

Today’s cup isn’t very good for determining anything about colour. It looks a deep yellow, borderline orange, but it might be a bit off.

The aroma is rather sweet with a note of citrus fruits. It smells fresh. Not fresh as in ‘just off the bush’, but fresh as opposed to cloying. Fresh as in something that perks you up a bit. Airy. Not at all like regular pu-erh smells. I wouldn’t even suspect this was a pu-erh if I didn’t know it to be.

The flavour on the other hand completely blindsided me. Based on the aroma, this was NOT what I had expected. I thought I’d be getting something light and slightly sweet maybe with fruity hints. What I got was a strong green tea with some prickly notes on the side of the tongue and upon swallowing. But again, I wouldn’t have guessed on a blind test that this had ever been anywhere near pu-erh. Knowing, however, that it is a pu-erh, I can recognise the aftertaste as such. Here it is much much more pu-erh-y than in ANY of the other parameters.

Nothing But Tea recommends using boiling water, which strikes me as odd considering that this is based on a green tea rather than a black, but maybe the fermentation into pu-erh hardens the leaves to better withstand the higher temperature, I don’t know. I personally thought it best to let the water cool for a spell like I would with any other green tea. The steeping time was also based on NBT’s recommendation.

What, I wonder, is this supposed to taste like? Is it really supposed to be like a strong, badly brewed green tea? Say it ain’t so!

ETA: The wet leaves after steeping smell exactly like whiskas tinned cat food. Now I kind of wish I hadn’t tried smelling those…

Hey, my supermarket have new do-it-yourself check outs! I scanned all my stuff myself and paid and everything. Great fun! It takes remarkably little to entertain me, but that’s probably just because I’m not doing it 7½ hours every day five days a week.

I thought that called for some small amount of celebration, but since I’m on a strict mission to get through the pile of Teas To Be Finished Off, the dearly beloved pai mu tan is currently off limits. Luckily I had this caramel tea which I put in the pile not because it was almost out but more because I had completely forgotten I had it.

A rediscovery. It should do just fine. Using the steep.it site I’ve given it 4½ minutes. The label says 5-6 minutes but I thought 5 last night was a bit rough, so we’re going for a slightly weaker route today. It’s not as rich on the caramel and a little watery, so I’m not sure I like this weaker version better than the slightly rough five minutes steep.

Still though, based on how much I found I enjoyed it last night, although I didn’t post about it, I gave it a small nudge upwards on the rating.

This was without a doubt the worst cup of tea I’ve had in a long long time. It even surpassed Adagio’s white cucumber concoction in terms of vileness. And it probably wasn’t even the tea’s fault.

See, this is a backlog from this afternoon on the way home from work. I’ve got a 45-50 minutes train commute and sometimes I buy some sort of coffee drink to go for the trip. Today though, I was super-sleepy (through every fault of my own) so I thought it would be good with some caffeine on the trip. Coffee does indeed have plenty of caffeine, but cappucinos and cafe lattes also have lots of milk, and milk is not all that good at keeping people awake. So something without milk and with caffeine in it. I thought, “hey, this place has Numi teas! Why not give that a shot?” Of course they only had a smaller selection and not the chocolate pu-erh one, so I picked this one because it sounded nice with a vanilla tea.

Erm yeah. Staying awake. Decaf. NEVERMIND!

So that was the first mistake.

I get a to-go cup of water of a temperature that means business, but with my mitten on it was possible to hold the cup. I steeped and then removed the lid from the cup, so I could drink it and get the benefit of the aroma as well. And this is where is started to go wrong, Steepsterites.

The aroma was extremely fruity and sweetly berry-like. Vanilla was there as a hint and I think the thing that added the sweetness.

The tea itself was pretty weak in flavour, and what flavour that actually was there was largely cardboard-y and rooibos-y. Very much on the rooibos, actually, in spite of the bag wrapper not saying anything about it containing rooibos. In fact nowhere I look does it say anything about it containing rooibos so I can only conclude that it’s not supposed to be there.

There was no vanilla in the flavour at all. Not one bit. As a matter of fact there wasn’t even any black tea in the flavour either. Nothing. Not even a hint. All I could pick up was a watered down plain rooibos, which a) wasn’t what I wanted, b) I don’t even like that much and c) doesn’t exist in this place. In fact you could have blindfolded me and let me taste it and I would have said it was a rooibos and I probably wouldn’t even be
the slightest bit in doubt.

How in the name of all that is sweet and wholesome could this have gone so dreadfully dreadfully wrong? I wasn’t expecting perfection but I thought I’d at least be able to get a mediocre cup of tea. I think I know the answer to this.

Cardboard. Cup.

I’ve had that happen before. A cardboard cup that stole all the flavour from an otherwise strong and oversteeped teabag. It was like drinking just hot water. I think this phenomenon was at fault here too. It stole most of the flavour and warped what was left of it into the rooibos-y stuff.

I’m not going to give this a rating due it the nature of the taste-thieving cup. Under other circumstances this might actually have been a lovely tea, but right now after having tried it, I still have no clue what it tastes like.

Let this be a lesson for you, Steepsterites. Cardboard to-go cups = Eeeeeeeevil! Beware!

I’m freezing! Also, I’ve followed Bethany’s example and gathered together all the teas that I only have a little left of and therefore needs to be finished off. I figured this was the closest one for getting warm what with all the spices in it.

Usually when I’ve had this I’ve done it the traditional way with Lena’s and Takgoti’s recipe, but I don’t have any milk so I went out on a limb and just brewed it like I would have any other ‘normal’ tea.

It’s been a good while since I’ve had any of this, but I definitely remember that I could have lived without the black pepper. For some reason, when taken plain like this it’s actually a lot smoother. Probably because I’m using less leaf this way, but it works. Pepper is diminished, although I could still cope without the note of it that’s left.

It’s still not something that I’m likely to be stocking up on, though.

Yay, I found the one I’d lost! I had two, brewed one and the other escaped and rolled off into obscurity. I even thought I saw which way it went but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

I figured it would show up eventually and dealt with the loss. Now I’ve found it hiding behind some tins in the cupboard. I don’t understand this because I definitely saw it rolling away. I’m sure I saw both of them rolling away. Now I’m in a funny sort of position where the one I found was actually the one I lost and the one I lost was the one I found.

It came at a perfect time though when I just needed a quick cup, but I have to admit that I’m not really capable of paying too much attention to it beyond ‘caffeine = gooooood’ at this moment.

I experienced a sudden craving. And to my delight (because I had given the last I had away in a swap) I had actually ordered another round of this in my forgotten 52teas order at the beginning of the year.

Lovely. Just a shame I haven’t got any milk. I’ve found that this is rather nice with a bit of milk.

Also, it is steeped to perfection with this awesome tea timer site that James Deville found.
http://steep.it

I made a cup of this earlier and then forgot about it, so it’s all lukewarm and dull now.

As usual though, I had to test-taste it before tossing it and for a brief brief moment I thought I had actually managed to spot the peaches that JacquelineM found earlier in a different brand bi luo chun. I was all, “YAY!”

And then I realised that when I rinsed the pot out after the passion fruit from Adagio (unlogged) earlier I hadn’t done it properly and missed the pinch of leaves lodged in the spout. I’m pretty sure that’s where the sudden fruityness came from.

As lovely as this is when it’s warm, it’s rather dull when it’s not. So I think I’ll go make something else. I’ve quite lost the desire for this particular one right now.

I’ve been craving this one since last night when I went home from Lexitus’, but given the time I thought it best not to have any. I’m trying to learn to get back in the habit of getting to bed at a decent hour, and I have finally admitted that it may have something to do with the tea I’m having in the evening. I hate to admit it because this is not something that has ever bothered me before. But people change and people get older you know? Maybe it’s just one of those things. Possibly the development of Steepster into a more social site to hang out on compared to the very first incarnation of it is also making me drink more tea. Bottomline is, I knew I couldn’t have any when I got home at 10.30pm. (train delays for the GRRR)

But I can certainly have it now. Haven’t done any of my chores yet, of course, but I can certainly have my tea.

Mmmmmmm…. coconut.

I’m not really feeling the inspiration to write a long and insightful post today, but I have other stuff that I’d like to be writing on, and I need to sort of get the floodgates opened up. Preferably before the time where I actually ought to have already gone to bed, you know? So I’m choosing to have one of my NBT samples tonight to force myself to write a proper post and hopefully get in the swing of things so I can work on my other project.

The leaves green and smells rather… At first I thought flowery, but the more I smell them the more I’m thinking citrus-y. My immediate thought here was, ‘did they give me another sample of the lemon oolong by mistake?’. I can’t see that there are any rose bits in there either. I was rather expecting petals, you know? The lemon oolong was super-yummy, so taste-wise I know I’m not in for a disappointment if there was indeed a mix up. At least that’s something.

I can’t say anything about the colour because of the nature of the cup, but I still think it smells rather citrus-y. However, there is also a flowery note that makes me think ‘roses’, so I don’t think they actually screwed up. I’ve also looked at the site and the pictures of the lemon and rose oolongs are very similar. I’ve left the cup to stand and develop a bit more and the more it does the more rosy the aroma becomes. Okay, so they didn’t mess it up. But it was weird that they seemed so similar initially. Considering how much I liked the lemon oolong, I’m taking it as a good sign though.

It tastes slightly overdone, but I’m pretty sure that must be my fault. I think the water was a bit too hot and I think I oversteeped it some too. It’s quite rosy in flavour though. Quite rosy. Very… rosy, in fact. Quite a very lot rosy to be honest.

I think maybe the extreme rosyness wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t mistreated the leaves. Right now it seems hugely dominant. Lovely, but too much.

On the second steep, I’ve let the water cool off for a few minutes before pouring it on the leaves and I’ve made sure to pay attention to when I did that instead of just winging it like I usually do. I’m hoping it’ll be more oolong-y and a little less rosy this time around. If it is, it’s lovely. If it’s not, it’s just good.

It’s actually quite nice on the second go around. A bit understated, but I’m getting a pretty good idea of what the first steep would have been like if I hadn’t maimed it. The rosy notes are not as overwhelming here and the oolong is not as sour. Not quite lovely but definitely better than good.

It’s definitely a girly girl tea, this. I’m not sure I can get Lexitus to drink this. (I’m not sure I’d do that to him anyway) I’m not sure it’s one that I’m going to buy more of, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did either.

Another one finished off! I decided that what I really needed was something black and fruity sweet, not something plain black.

So I took the rest of these leaves, again, enough for just half a pot, and botched the brewing. I put them in the pot, but by the time the water was done boiling I’d forgotten that I only had enough leaves for half a pot so I filled it up. I don’t like pouring a botched brewing away without tasting it first, so we’ll see if I just wasted the last of my leaves of this one.

Yes, it’s definitely a bit on the weakling side. It’s still tasting like a black tea though and there’s they sweet fruity note that I wanted clear enough. It just doesn’t really have much body. But that’s my own fault.

I like it. It was fun to try and I’m curious about this guanabana fruit. Unlikely to ever get to taste one, but still. I kinda suspect that I would like it. But it’s not a tea that I feel any need to stock up on.

Another one finished off. This is the last of a sample that Jillian sent me. It’s been a while and I can’t actually really remember what I thought of it at the time. I’ve only got a single cup here, because I only had leaves enough left for half a pot.

I steeped it a bit too much I think because it’s got a fairly astringent bite. There is a sweet note though, a sort of tongue coating one. Not quite caramel, but similar. Mostly I got the smokey peppery note which was probably brought out more by the fact that it was steeped a bit too long.

Anyway, this was a good enough tea to have in a sample. It was good to try and overall I liked it. I’m definitely interested in exploring the yunnan blacks further, but it probably wouldn’t be this particular one.

Right. So the raspberry I-just-need-something phase is over with.

This one is very deliberately chosen. I was sitting here and thinking about it. Like, it wouldn’t leave my head at all. I was telling myself that I had just decided to try and finish off some of my tiny amounts, but it wasn’t working.

I’ve only had this once before and the rating says I liked it, but apart from that I can’t actually remember what I thought of it. (I do remember that eating one of the raisins post steeping wasn’t particularly successful. No flavour left. And eating one pre steeping was even less so, covered in dry-leaf-taste as it was.)

There’s a jasmine-y note to the aroma. Having checked my previous note, I can’t believe I didn’t catch that before. Anyway, this just hitting the spot right now.

I like this best after it has steeped and then cooled off just the tiniest tad, because that’s where the sweetness of the raisins come out and they rather suit the oolong.

GRRRR! ARGH!

I’m mildly irritated at just about the whole entire world today.

I picked this one pretty much at random from the cupboard, going for something that I could finish off. I have a lot of samples left that have only one go left in them or so and I need to get around to getting rid of it. (And no, I’m not particularly interested in giving them away just because there isn’t much left. I believe in swap via wishlist or because I think someone might like a particular one (or it’s one that I like enough that I want others to try it too)). Maybe I should make a finish-this-first pile ala Bethany.

I’m rather busy spewing my irritated rant elsewhere on the internet at the moment and the tea was semi-forgotten in the process. It’s just lukewarm now and in this condition it’s fairly boring. Shame actually, because I can see from my previous rating that I’ve otherwise enjoyed it.

Maybe what I really needed wasn’t any particular flavour but just something warm to drink. I’m not in a condition to pay too much attention to flavour profile anyway. I just needed a cup of tea. The kind was pretty much irrelevant at this point.

If any of that even made sense.