Angrboda

Raisins are a very very recent vice for me. Since december 30th 2009 actually. I was baking something that included raisins. I haven’t had problems with raisins in baked goods for years now because I’ve just learned to taste around them. But after having put my baking project in the oven, I caught myself, to my extreme surprise, standing there and eating the rest of the raisins right out of the box! This is huge, because just an hour before, if you had asked me, I would have said that I don’t much care for raisins, and I assume that this was what prompted me to get this particular blend.

Upon opening the pouch I’m immediately greeted by a smell that rather reminds me of that vanilla date concoction that I didn’t like. It’s not nearly as strong here, but it’s defintiely there and it’s the same type of smell. This has me a little worried. Also, the leaves look small and very dark, almost as if it’s actually a large leaf black tea and there are lots of raisins in it.

The tea brews up rather dark, almost like an average black tea. I’m used to greener oolongs, so that’s probably why I’m getting a little type confused here. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly oolong-y or raisin-y in flavour. There doesn’t seem to be anything very characteristic of either of the two. Deepest down I would say that it still tastes a bit like a mild black The raisins are only coming through as a slight fruity sweetness while it’s hottest. They are more pronounced as the cup cools a bit.

I like it this way. It’s not very raisin-y, but it’s enough. Had the raisins been more dominant I expect I probably wouldn’t have liked it much at all. But this way it’s very nice.

Favourite oolong… sounds about what I need. (actually what I probably really need is another nap, but I’m tired of sleeping and there’s something on tv in 45 minutes that I want to see)

Teaspring’s is the tie guan yin I’m most familiar with and also, so far, the one I have preferred the most. The interesting legend behind the origins of the tea. The prettiness of the bright green leaves, so clear in colour as if they had been dyed. The aroma so sweet and rich, like a lovely brocoli broccolli broccol green vegetable boiled just to perfection and with just the right amount of butter. The colour such deep yellow, looking like it’s actually a green tea.

The flavour! So round and vegetally sweet and lingering perfection.

It’s just right.

Bah, still feeling rather under the weather. I really wanted a january in which I wasn’t ill, but people around me seem to insist that there is probably more to it than just average female issues. And the more they say so, the more miserable I feel. At this point I’m strongly suspecting that they might be right too. Lexitus has reminded me to have lots of fluids, so I might as well continue posting about tea, yes?

Switched back to the Teaspring order for this one. I was in need of just a plain black cup. No additives.

The leaves look a lot like my Assam Deluxe FTGFOP from AC Perchs, except with fewer golden tips. They have a very fruity raisin-like aroma as well as a strong note of cocoa.

Due to the nature of the cup chosen, I can’t really comment on the colour, but in this cup it looks pretty default black. The aroma is very sweet and raisin-y. The cocoa is still there too, but now it’s less dominant than before. There is also something there that reminds me a little of vanilla. A malty sort of vanilla, which sounds weird, but it’s the best way I can describe it. I would not believe, based on aroma alone, that this was not a flavoured tea. But it isn’t. It’s plain.

The taste is surprisingly sweet for a plain black, and it’s definitely fruity. Teaspring speaks of plum-like notes, but I think personally I’ll stick to calling it a raisin-y note. I will agree with them, though, on the floral note. It’s only there if I really concentrate and taste it thoroughly, but once I’ve found it, it’s there. Dry-ish and floral. Like just a smidge. Like the tea bush grew surrounded by flowers.

I’m reminded of the Fujian Baroque that Bethany shared a sample of with me, which isn’t surprising because this tea comes from the Fujian province too. I like this one better though. It’s a little less loud on the fruity notes, and I can also find a cocoa note on the swallow. A very dark one that lingers as if there’s a layer stuck to the inside of my mouth. I couldn’t find that in the Fujian Baroque.

The success of the coconut cream pie inspired me to try one of the other ones I bought from the forgotten 52teas order. I’m not surprised I ordered this one and it was sort of screaming to me. Here’s the thing.

I. Love. Cherry. Cola.
Favourite soda (after orange) FTW.

Unfortunately it’s not something we can usually get here. I don’t know if you can over there on the other side of the water. I know you have Dr Pepper which to me is very similar, but also not available in Denmark unless you’re really lucky. We had it for a couple of years recently, but it was taken off the market again. Apparently it didn’t sell well enough. (I fear Mountain Dew has gone the same tragic way, because I can’t find that anymore either). Recently we’ve had a limited edition cherry cola from coca-cola which was yummy, but alas, that one seems to also have run its course. In my deprivation of proper cherry cola or similar beverage, I’ve found that I can make a relatively good substitute with ordinary cola and cherry cordial. It’s not the same, but it works okay.

What all this means is that I have VERY high expectations of this one. So high, that I’m likely to be disappointed. Anything below a clean 100 on this is not good enough. The question just is exactly how disappointed am I going to get?

The leaves actually do smell a bit like cola and something that I’m willing to call cherry-like. There is however also a note which to my own surprise I can only describe as vaguely menthol-like. This is worrysome.

After steeping, the tea has pretty much the same smell, only hot. The mentholness is sticking out a bit more here, which is a little odd to me because menthol (along with mints) is usually a cool sort of flavour.

Hmm… Flat cola with dusty vanilla. I can’t find any cherry outside of the smell. Something sour-ish, kind of citrus-soapy-like. So, yes, I did get disappointed. It’s just a question of how much.

This does require an amount of experimentation, but for a first experience, I cannot in good consciousness give it more than 65-ish.

Ah, so I did make an order with 52teas. The one I couldn’t remember if I made or if I had changed my mind. Either that or someone decided to send me a present which would be cool but also kind of improbable.

I’m starting with this one, mostly because the picture on the pouch looks like something that would be right up my alley. The leaves smell lovely sweet of coconut. Not so much of tea though. Dessert-like.

After brewing I’m finding an odd note of raisins… it sounds weird but somehow it fits. Again the coconut is prevalent. There is also a creamy smell which suggests that I ought to try this with milk also.

For now, I’m sticking to plain. Coconut, defintiely. Sweet, but not cloying at all. I can pick up the tea underneath too. It’s a strong base. Somewhat malty. One that would carry a little sweetener well, which is probably why it’s doing so well with the coconut.

I shall definitely have to try this with a little milk, but on its own as I’ve got it now, it’s quite nice too.

Here’s another one from my recent Teaspring splurge. Another tea that I have fond memories of. If I recall correctly it was on my first ever Teaspring order. I remember liking it a lot and then when I wanted to reorder, it was sold out. For a long time it kept saying ‘out of stock’ and eventually I gave up and forgot about it. But now we’re back in business.

Apparently, according to Teaspring, Queen Elizabeth really likes this oolong and is the source of the ‘oriental beauty’ name it also goes under. For a royalist like me, that’s a big selling point. :) Note how it doesn’t even have to be the royal family of my own country.

I can’t give a great description of the leaves at this time, other than they’re large, twisty and ranging in colour from black to almost whiteish, the reason being that I open the bag a little awkwardly and now it’s slightly broken. I need to handle it as little as possible, so that it doesn’t break further until I have a free tin. (Note to self: Buy more tins. I’m at least five tins short.)

The tea brews up very dark, looking rather like a black tea, and it has a very strong aroma. You don’t have to search for the scent and it seems sweet and floral. For some reason my mind insists on marzipan. Which is odd because it doesn’t really smell like marzipan at all. The little grey cells (or not so little, actually. Brain cells and nerve cells are actually quite large because they stretch so far) are very stubborn and won’t give it a rest at all. What is that other smell I can smell, though? I know I’m supposed to be able to connect it with something, but the stretched grey cells won’t recall what it is. I think they’re just prissy that I’m not giving in on the marzipan issue. It’s floral, but I kind of think I ought to be able to get a bit closer than that. Maybe I’ll think of it later.

It is indeed very floral in flavour too! If I didn’t know any better, I would think this was scented. It’s very vegetal and flowery and exTREMEly girly. The flowers that aren’t really there are so dominant in this, and I find myself wondering what it was about it I was so taken with way back when.

Unlike the Bi Lou Chun, this one is just not living up to the memories I have. I’m not very impressed. How disappointing.

I’m falling asleep at my keyboard here, and I need a pick-me-up. So, a strong black tea, yes please. So I picked this one.

It wasn’t until afterwards that I realised that this was the tea that I had yet to manage to brew successfully. This time I was careful not to oversteep though.

This tea has two very distinctive primary notes, and they are entirely, it seems, independent of one another. There’s a very sweet, honeylike smoothness and then there’s a somewhat astringent malty kick. It kind of feels a little disjointed. As it develops, the malty note starts to take over, but with the promise that the sweet will be back with the addition of a little milk to smooth the astringency.

(Given how sleepy I am as I’m writing this, there’s NO WAY I’m adding milk to this. That would knock me out for sure.)

Teaspring order is now home and unpacked. And yes, it did contain the beloved tie guan yin. phew! It also contained a load of other goodies (including a tibetan tea brick which I’m looking forward to trying as soon as I can persuade myself to break it to bits) and it was really difficult to choose which one to try first. Ippy-Dippy came to my rescue and here we are!

A lot of my Teaspring order appears to have been nostalgia. I remember this one as being one of the first ever green teas I had ever, and I remember being rather fond of it.

I love the look of the leaves. All thin and twisty and soft looking. Really they look like they ought to be downy but they’re not really. Cute leaves ftw!

It brews up, even slightly oversteeped, to a pale yellow colour. I tried with a short steep first, but after one sip, I poured it back in the pot and let it steep a little more because that was like just drinking hot water. The aroma was a strawlike grassy thing with hints of salted butter.

Due to the slight oversteep (I got distracted) it was a little astringent, but not bitter. It had the same sweetish strawlike notes as in the aroma. There was also a strong nuttyness that reminded me a little of the beloved pai mu tan.

The thing I remembered about this one, was a lingering, slightly minty aftertaste, and I’m pleased to say that I did not imagine that. It’s there too.

Towards the bottom of the pot it turned a little more buttery and vegetable-like and the minty aftertaste went away while drinking that. Strangely, now, several minutes after having finished the last cup, minty aftertaste is back with a vengeance. Cool.

This is definitely living up to the fond memories I have of it.

def living up to the fond memory

::Sips::

::Stares at cup::

Sugar? O.o I did not add anything to this cup, where did that come from? In a lapsang?

::sips again several times::

Yes, there is an undeniable sweet note there. I didn’t brew it differently or anything. Weird. It wasn’t there before, I could have sworn! Or was it, and I didn’t notice?

I’M SO CONFUUUUUUSED!!!

(I’m also a bit over-tired at this point just in case you hadn’t guessed.)

ETA: Also, I did not ask for that bit to be in italics, what’s going on? O.o
ETA again: Evidently you can also make italics by use of double ?s…

I have learned something crucial about this tea today. It can handle a magnificent oversteep relatively well.

My colleague made tea for me, but when she does, she just pours the water on and expects me to remove the filter bag myself after an appropriate steeping time. This is very easy when she makes it without telling me until half an hour later when she comments on the fact that I hadn’t taken any yet. Well no, I didn’t have time yet. And it took some two hours more before I had.

As is my habit, I always taste it before tossing it away, and while it is definitely strong and definitely astringent, it’s not bitter and it’s not at all undrinkable. It’s far from optimal, but it’s tolerable. It gained a coffeeish side-flavour which I’m not all that fond of, but it wasn’t completely ruined.

That’s good to know in other similar emergencies.

My order from Teaspring.com is waiting for me at the post office, yay!!!

… I wonder what I bought…? I can’t for the life of me remember what’s in it. I do sure hope there’s Tie Guan Yin, because this is the last of the good stuff that Jillian sent me. Unfortunately what with the closing times my local post office has, I can’t pick it up until wednesday. (Yes, I could probably find an order confirmation in my inbox and check what I bought, but let me have my little game, please.)

So now I’m still waiting for… uh… Well, I ordered from Nothing But Tea yesterday, so I know I’m waiting for that. And I seem to recall placing an order with 52teas a while ago. I think. I was definitely at the site, so the question remains, did I buy something or did I change my mind? (And again, if I did, I wonder what I bought?)

Just in case I didn’t buy any Tie Guan Yin (oh my gosh how will I cope if I didn’t???) I am savouring the last of this cup. There’s a reason it’s named after a goddess, I’m just saying!

Yummilicious!

After steeping fail on both teas I’ve had today, one of which I’ve documented, I just needed a proper cup of tea. One that can’t go wrong. I had a funny feeling that it was a specific one I wanted but it wasn’t until I saw the tin that I knew which one it was.

It’s funny with this one. When I was first introduced to lapsang souchong, I thought it was a really harsh and rough sort of flavour with smoke all over the place.

Now, the more I drink it, the milder it seems to become. The aroma is still the same. All rough and tough and smoke and manly. But the taste seems to have smoothed out for me.

If I pay attention and seek it out the smokyness is there in spades. But it seems to be a bit shy. If I don’t speak to it first, it doesn’t speak to me. The rest of the tea seems surprisingly smooth and mellow and with a round sort of feeling to it, as if I had added milk. I haven’t actually added anything, and I’ve only used the cup for the white pomegranate earlier today and rinsed it out in between.

You all remember my black powder blend, the one I recently bought a huge amount of. I’ve filled my tin at work with that so I have a good amount of that four days a week. It has lapsang souchong in it, the smokyness of which I think is part of the reason for the name of the blend, so could it be that I’m getting so conditioned to lapsang now that I’m having this experience of it?

The first time I had lapsang souchong, after I had first got into the black powder blend, I found it strangely lacking. Watered down. I was expecting the fuller flavour of the blend, not just one of the ingredients in it. I was afraid lapsang souchong as a plain tea had been ruined for me forever. I’m pleased to say that this is definitely not the case, as what I’ve got here tonight is an extraordinarily pleasant cup of tea.

Thanks to the awesome tea picking randomiser that Jon provided, I’m finishing off this tea. It’s the first tea I’ve had since this morning where I was trying to brew Gunpowder by a different method but forgot to time the ultra short steeps so it went terribly horribly wrong.

I’d quite forgotten I had this one, and most of it is fannings. I only have enough for one cup, so I have to remember to only fill the pot halfway up, or we’re in for a weakling cup of tea. I considered adding a pinch of the Pai Mu Tan or the white Darjeeling to it to stretch it to a whole pot, but decided that they were both too good for such a purpose. I’ll just have to randomise myself another cup afterwards then.

Due to the large ratio of fannings in this, I’m giving it a fairly short steep. It’s all orange! It’s been so long since I’ve had this that I’ve completely forgotten what it’s like. So yeah, the colour of the brew is surprisingly orange and it definitely smells of pomegranates. Pomegranates and perfume and something that strangely reminds me a little of jasmine. That same dusty floral sort of smell, but it’s just a hint of that.

Although I only made half a pot, I was still keen to drain it as well as I could. I did drain the pot, but right now, if you added another drop to the cup it would flow over. It makes sipping a little complicated, and involves me sticking my head down to the cup and generally looking pretty idiotic.

Ack! Even with such a short steep (I normally do about five minutes, give or take) it’s still got some bite to it. Clearly I underestimated the fannings. On top of that, the jasmine hint is still there! It doesn’t say anything on the bag about jasmine as far as I can tell, only pomegranate.

The pomegranate may or may not be there too, but the tea itself has gone so strong that more or less anything would have been drowned out, and it’s just making me thirsty and I have to remind myself that opening a can of the cola I’ve got in the fridge is a bad idea when I’ve got almost a whole cup of tea right here.

Looks like it’s just the day for steeping fail.

Gather round, Steepsterites, because I am going to have probably one of the most interesting teas of a long time now.

I have a colleague, a turkish girl, and she asked me, “Have you ever had Turkish tea?”
I told her I had once. I’ve never been to Turkey, but I’ve studied with a turkish girl and once when we were writing a paper to do with some questionnaires she had asked her uncle to take a stack with him to the mosque next time he went. He invited us for tea, so she could explain to him what the questionnaires were about. Her aunt made traditional turkish tea for us.
Then we talked about about how to brew it and my colleague told me that while they do drink a lot of that apple tea, they also drink a lot of plain black tea, taken with sugar. They brew it so strong that it’s nearly undrinkable without sugar, and my colleague gave me this that she had and never drank at home and explained to me how to brew it like a turkish person would. Of course I didn’t write it down at the time, thinking it was easy enough to remember, but when I came home I still had to google it. I found this site (http://turkish-food.suite101.com/article.cfm/turkish_tea) which has guidelines for brewing. It rang a bell, so I feel pretty confident that this is also how my colleague told me to do.

_QUOTE
1. Prepare a small teapot by adding about one heaping teaspoon of good, black tea (Keemun, Assam, Russian Caravan, English Breakfast all work well) per cup.
2. Boil about 1 cup of water per cup of tea (either in a samovar – or on a stove top).
3. Pour HALF of the steaming water into the teapot and let it steep for at least 15 minutes, keeping both the teapot and the remaining water piping hot. (Without a samovar, you can accomplish this with a good tea cozy for the pot and a very low flame for the water. (I almost hate to admit it, but a microwave works pretty well, too, for keeping the water very hot…. but I “didn’t say that…”).
4. Pour the tea into a small glass cup, about halfway up, and add the water to fill the remainder. Add sugar to taste – BUT NEVER MILK OR HONEY.

Read more at Suite101: Turkish Tea: Brewing and Drinking Tea in Turkey http://turkish-food.suite101.com/article.cfm/turkish_tea#ixzz0chWxExdO
END QUOTE_

So now I’m wondering what sort of leaves she has actually given me. They don’t have a very strong aroma. Ever so slightly smoky-ish is about the only characteristic I can pick up. It’s a quite large leaf size for a black though. Since my colleague actually travels to visit her husband’s family in Turkey at least once a year, I wonder if I could be so lucky that it was actually a tea produced in Turkey. Think about it, it’s not that unlikely. It would be cool if it was. I may have to interrogate her some on this matter. She gave me a relatively small amount. Big for a sample, but small for an amount to have lying around when one never takes tea. I’m not sure if that was what she meant but it did sound like, if I liked it, she had more that I could have. Anyway, the leaves look a bit faded in colour, so they’re probably getting a bit on in age. With this method of brewing, though, I can’t imagine it would spell disaster.

Five minutes still to go of this extremely long steep!

Okay, ready for the next step! Obviously, I don’t own the proper tulip-shaped tea glasses, so my cup with the farm animals on it will have to do. I tried a sip of the tea before adding more water to the cup. It had a nice reddish amberish colour and while it did have a strong flavour, it wasn’t undrinkably strong. Not at the one small sip, anyway. Quite astringent, but it didn’t taste bitter or oversteeped.

After adding water the taste was a little less astringent, but still not undrinkably strong. I was expecting something almost tar-like here and I’m actually wondering if I didn’t add enough leaf. I think I was supposed to have made it with another spoonful.

I feel pretty certain that I could easily have taken it without a grain of sugar and enjoyed it, but I’m trying to be authentic here. I did wonder about whether the type of sugar used was important since the instructions said to not use milk or honey. I’ve decided they probably would have said if it was, so I used cane sugar.

The aroma is very similar to the dry leaf. Not as smokey, though, which I think must be because of the sugar in it.

It’s definitely sweet to the taste. If you want a dessert tea, forget about any odd additives and flavouring, because this is a dessert in a cup. I can’t really pick up anything underneath the sweetness though. It’s a flavour where you’re aware that there is tea there, but apart from a light astringency, I can’t really tell you anything about it. I know it’s odd to my colleague that I can drink tea at all without sugar in it, so it’s supposed to be very sweet, but the unobtrusiveness and the lack of strongness of the black tea, only strengthens my belief that I should have used a spoonful more leaves.

Still, I used a third more leaf than usual (should probably have been double) and I steeped it for a quarter of an hour. I’m shocked that it didn’t turn out stronger! I’ll have to try again though, but for now… I don’t know if I’m really a big fan of tea turkish style, but I think I might rather like it as a rare treat rather than a regular occurence.

eta: why is it the quoted bit refuses to be in italics? What am I doing wrong? squints at it

I met a friendly kitty on my way home from work today. That saved the otherwise seriously boring day.

It put me in the right frame of mind to do a proper first-time review of a tea and I remembered this one that I got from Lexitus for Christmas and didn’t have the energy to review properly the last time I had it.

I did today. But then I got distracted and it oversteeped, resulting in a rather bitter bite.

So, still no rating, still no review. Just steeping fail.

I’m bagging it this morning because as usual I’ve slept far too late and I dreamed something seriously strange that made me cry buckets (in the dream) so now I’ve woken up with a post-wail headache without actually having shed a single (real) tear. Lovely.

No matter how deeply mediocre and dull these bags are and the lowness of the supposed quality, it works for me in a situation like this. I think it’s because it’s so much easier and quicker than fussing with pots and leaves. I don’t really need something awesome right now. I just need to wake up.

Wasn’t around all day yesterday so I’ve woken up to 70+ notifications and who knows how many reviews. I can’t promise to be able to catch up with that, so if someone wrote something really interesting, could you link me please?

Yes, it’s just the good ol’ Gunpowder Blend that I recently bought serious amounts of. I edited the name of it because ‘Gunpowder Blend’ was a direct translation from the danish name ‘Krudtblanding’. ‘Krudt’ = ‘Gunpowder’ as in the stuff you use to shoot a firearm. Although the blend contains a green tea I don’t think the green tea in question is actually Gunpowder as in the green tea, but the name of the blend as I had first translated it led to a number of very understandable misunderstandings. So after consulting a number of internet sites I found this alternative name for gunpowder as in the explosive stuff. Therefore I changed the name.

I know I added some to the TTB so if someone could correct it there too it would be awesome. Please?

Anyway, my flat is Procrastination Central today. I’m working on something that requires brain activity SHOCK! HORROR! and I’m still feeling like I could hibernate for the entire day like I did yesterday.

Pick-me-up is needed, so I made me a big cup of this, and on a whim, added some milk. I can’t remember if I’ve tried it with milk before, but I think I have and I seem to remember it having drowned out some of the green tea in it.

I’m not really getting that this time. First part of the sip was all green, and then immediately after that came the smokeyness. Underneath it all the English Breakfast component is going all ‘YAY MILK!’ which is rather weird for me because I hardly ever drink anything with milk except the pumpkin pie blend from 52teas.com or the pot of Assam my colleague and I share at the cafe we like. I don’t think that I would want to take this with milk always though. It seems kind of like a luxury that should be spared for just occasional events, especially considering that I think it’s also awesome without the milk.

It does really bring out the sweetness from the green tea. I would never otherwise EVER add milk to any tea that wasn’t black, but I think the effect that I’m getting here has something to do with previously mentioned EB component.

It’s a bit like the three components start vying for my attention. The green tea is all suave going “I’m sweeeeeeeeeeeet and buttery!” and the EB is going “I’m smooth and milky and sensible!” and the Lapsang Souchong is getting all bouncy and eager and going “I’m here too! Smokey! Me! Me-me-me-me-me!!!”

It’s kinda cute, actually.

This one is growing on me. Or maybe not so much growing as me getting more accustomed to the flavour. I take it with a good amount of milk and that helps the heavy scratchy flavour a lot.

I still don’t really think I would like pumpkin pie if introduced to it though and I’ll leave the rating where it is.

Hello there Steepsterites.

I bring to you a post that it took most of the day to write. I just took notes when drinking and figured I could write a proper post afterwards so as not to get distracted away from the cup by the forming of proper sentences and hopefully coming up with something witty here and there. I’ve been hibernating for most of the day, so I’m not really in any condition to be seriously posting about a tea I’ve never had before, but for some reason I was inspired to try this one today.

It’s a Bethany-tea and she sent me four balls. I used two for a glass cup and saved the other two. The pellets are large and tightly pressed. It’s hard to pick up any sort of aroma from the dry leaves but I feel like I’m catching a small whiff of cocoa. As I dropped them into the cup, one of them bounced off the edge and rolled off on adventures. Those little things can really roll! Found it again several meters away on the other side of the living room.

First Steep

Having thwarted the escape attempt, I poured water on and watched the cup while it steeped. The unfurling seemed rather slow and the occasional small bubble of air escaped to the surface. I resisted the temptation to stir the cup to see if I could get something to happen, but I could see a clear difference in colour around the leaves at the bottom and the water at the top of the cup. I didn’t want any thin nearly tea, I wanted a representative cup, so I waited until I thought it should be well steeeped and gave it a gentle stir, trying to not whirl everything around too much and let the leaves stay at the bottom of the cup. If I had made it in a pot instead this wouldn’t have been necessary since pouring would have mixed it up. It made the balls fall completely apart and the colour went from palest pale of paleness to a reddish amber that actually looked like a black tea. A bit cloudy, though.

Sniffing at the aroma I suddenly learned to recognised ‘malty’! I’ve noticed that particular taste and smell lots of times before, but I’ve never connected the two until now where it seems wildly obvious. I once upon a time found a tea glossary (here: http://www.chowbaby.com/10_2000/glossary/glossary.asp?synchpage=1&Z=4597646780) but I’ve learned that such a thing is pretty useless, because the only way to really learn how to recognise these things is by experience. To me, anyway.

Anyway, while waiting for some of the top water to get any tea into it, I managed to oversteep the bottom of the cup. Lovely. By the time I gave it a stir, the whole thing had acquired a slightly bitter bite. It had a malty flavour, but I couldn’t really find any of the cocoa notes that I had spotted in the dry aroma and remembered having seeing others mention. I even started wondering if it was something I had just imagined to be able to smell because I thought it was supposed to be there.

Given the slight bitterness, it probably would have helped with a little milk or a little sugar, but since it was brewed directly in the cup, that was not an option. I don’t really like the idea of those additives directly on my naked leaves.

Rating-wise I would say it was around 65, having knocked it down a bit due to the oversteep.

Second Steep

Second time around it was still a very malty aroma. An aroma that really filled the nose when sniffing it. I like that much better than the ones you sit there and smell and search for something TO smell.

It coloured up much quicker due to not having to wait for the balls to unfurl and it also meant that stirring wasn’t necessary. It had a more golden colour this time.

First thing I noticed on the first sip was a very sweet aftertaste. Almost as if it had been sugared. It was less malty that the first steep but I did find some cocoa notes this time, although still not as much as I had expected.

I liked the second steep a lot better, and I would rate this around 78

Third Steep

The colour is really pale now, and the aroma initially is just the smell of steam. I tried so hard to find some that I actually ended up dipping the tip my nose in it. Found nothing. Except, of course, a wet nose. After a really long steeping, mostly because I got distracted and momentarily forgot, some aroma showed up. No malt, but definitely cocoa.

Tastewise the third steep was very like the second, only much weaker. The sweetness was a little sweeter and the cocoa was a little cocoa-ier, but otherwise there wasn’t really anything noteworthy about it. I wouldn’t recommend bothering with a third steep at all.

This one was down at around 55.

Based on these three steeps, I’m landing at an average of about 66, but I’ll push it upwards a bit on account of the first steep having been a bit overdone.

Second steep of the leaves from last night this morning.

You know, I think I really like the first steep better. It was much more buttery this time around, and rather too much so. Not nearly so far as to be greasy or nauseating, but definitely headed in that general direction. The chameleon colour shifting is gone too.

I will say this about it though, it has a certain snacky quality. For me it works remarkably well as a way to avoid those naughty little snacks during the day. Chocolate, biscuits, popcorn, pudding, whatever. Have a cup of this instead. It doens’t work every time when I’m craving something, but it’s close enough.

A ton of people posted Genmaicha or Genmaicha-type teas and it reminded me that I still had this tin which has been untouched for a while, so I thought I’d join in. It’s been so long that I have to do a post about it with all the details in it.

It’s magic colour-shifter tea! Immediately after brewing and pouring, it was a brilliant sun-yellow. After a few seconds of standing in the cup untouched, it’s turned that funky radio-active green colour. It’s funny because if you remember the blustery-day-on-the-beach kind of green tea bag I had the other day, that one was the other way around. Neon-green first and then yellow.

The name, Genmaicha, is actually misleading in this one, because it’s one of the ones that also contain a small amount of matcha powder, so I know from experience that it should have a short steep. I counted 30 elephants.

The aroma is primarily popcorn and just a little bit of nut-like sweetness. It’s funny how it can smell so strongly of popcorn and taste completely unlike same. It tastes like rice, but with the sweetness from the green tea. I’m also getting a strong hazelnuttish note from it which completely blindsided me. I had not expected anything like that. No notes of saltwater or seaweed which had been feared given the colour.

Again, it’s showing some chameleon-ish tendencies. Colour is now back to yellow, but a darker, warmer and more brownish sort of shade. I wonder what sorts of colours it might turn if I left it long enough.

AC Perch’s claim the Queen of Denmark actually drink this blend. Since they deliver to the royal household I see little reason not to believe them. This is a very awesome detail to know for a royalist-to-the-bone such as me.

I’m not really an Earl Grey fan. To me it’s either so citrusy that you could have called it a lemon tea and fooled me easily or it’s rather bitter. Bergamot is, to me, a fairly rough and throat-scratching sort of flavour. On top of that, it’s too common. Tell someone to name the first tea they think of and I would be shocked if most of them didn’t blurt out ‘Earl Grey’. It’s boring and every-day-ish when there are so very many other interesting teas out there.

Still, for some reason I made cup of this today. I think it was because I saw someone make a post about an Earl Grey creme, and of course now I can’t remember exactly which tea it was or who the poster was, but it did inspire me to try this one with a bit of milk in it. Normally I don’t really do milk in tea. 97% of all my tea is taken plain. No milk, no sugar, just tea.

It’s definitely benefitting from the milk. This is a fairly strong Earl Grey so it’s got a lot of the scratchy bergamot flavour and none of the lemony wannabe, and the milk is smoothing it out a lot. I think I definitely like it better this way.

On the other hand the addition of milk seems to have drowned out the Gunpowder in the blend, so it’s really like a two-in-one tea. It seems to me to be very different with and without milk.

I’ve been gathering courage for this. After dropping a certain package off at the post office I was attacked by sudden drowsiness. Initially I thought, “bad time for tasting a new tea”, but then I thought, “half unconscious is probably a pretty good time for tasting a new and intimidating tea, actually…”

For Christmas I got this great big mug with the word ‘tea’ on it (which btw isn’t very good to drink from. Too large and unwieldy), some biscuits, a tea measuring spoon and a tin with these bags in it. I can’t find anything about which brand it supposedly is or which type of green tea it supposedly is.

It looks like dust and fannings in the bag, so I’m not getting my hopes up about the quality. Also, it smells rather a lot of salt water and seaweed. Like, when I smell it, I can almost hear the seagulls. It smells like something you ought to drink on a blustery day while standing in the dunes and looking out towards the sea.

Oh look, it’s radioactive green tea again! That must mean there’s a good chance for it being a japanese green, but then it quickly turned a much less amusing sunny yellow, so now I don’t know.

It still smells pretty salt waterish, but not as blustery-day-in-the-dunes-ish. It’s more like after you’ve gone home again and you’re feeling all blown through, so you need something warm so you can feel like a person again, while waiting for dinner to be ready. The dinner bit comes from a buttery note in the aroma.

Okay, there’s no way out, so I’m taking a sip. Aaaaaaaaand we’re back on the beach. Very strong note of seaweed in the flavour here. To continue with the blustery-day-at-the-beach scenario, a fricking seagull just flew off with my dinner so now I have to make do with seaweed in a cup! And not that fancy sushi stuff either. I’m actually finding myself wondering what it would have tasted like if it had been brewed on lightly salted water instead of just tap water. (I’m not even remotely dumb enough to actually test that particular theory out, though)

All that said, I’m not actually completely disliking it, it’s just different. It’s a pleasant enough sort of taste once you’ve reconciled yourself with it. If you expected something sweet and grassy, you would be hugely unhappy with this. But if something like this was what you were expecting, it’d probably be quite nice. Having remembered to take a good sniff at the bags before steeping, I had a fairly good idea of what I was in for, so I’d probably give it around 65 or so.

This isn’t the first unknown green tea I’ve had and others might need it too, so I’ll refrain from using the rating slider.

Goodmorning Steepsterites.
The last of the three Lexitus-teas.

Somewhat oversteeped and gone a bit cold due to me being distracted, so I’ll have to try again for a proper post and rating later.

The initial impression is promising though, and it may indeed live up to the ‘Deluxe’ and the *F*ar *T*oo *G*ood *F*or *O*rdinary *P*eople.