Angrboda

Another one bites the dust. Like with the blueberry, it’s a bit stronger than I would normally have made it because of the amount of leaves I had left.

I see I gave it a mediocre rating, and that sort of thing always surprises me with a fruit tea. Did I really mean that? I have learned to start trusting myself with this though. Sometimes I push the rating up, but most times it’s left alone.

It’s steeping now and the pot is standing with the lid off (because I’m lazy and I can’t be bothered to search for it) about an arm’s lenght away and I can smell apricot all the way over here.

Yes, I was right about the rating. Again. It tastes like apricots, yes. But it’s a sort of creamy kind of apricot flavour. It actually tastes like there’s milk in it and there isn’t. It’s the wrong sort of sweet. I could have wished for some freshness. So while it does have apricot flavour, fresh apricots don’t taste like this.

This is to kill the last dill remnants from that awful cucumber stuff. Unfortunately this is also the last of my tin. I made it a bit stronger than usually because there wasn’t enough leaves left for a small pot if I didn’t.

Didn’t hurt it any, though. If anything the blueberry flavour is even more clear, making me wonder if I’ve actually been making it too weak before?

The first few sips tasted a bit odd, mingling with the lingering aftertaste from the white cucumber. Dill/cucumbers + blueberries = bad match. Just saying. Half a cup down now though, and it’s helping considerably.

I need to get some more blueberry tea. I’ve never met a blueberry I didn’t like. Now I get to explore various brands and shops that are more readily available to me than Adagio is.

Goodmorning Steepsterites.

Word of the day is ‘BRRRRRRRR!!!!’
I’m having an unplanned day off because my city looks like a christmas card (Look! http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iwBGrA_DuCCny_0D9mhQfw?feat=directlink and http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/AS7NtzJwc9yVtSMUwALKsw?feat=directlink)
and the train service is unreliable enough today that I got a bit worried about whether or not I’d be able to get home again if I managed to fight my way to work. So I gave up and went home. It’s actually more or a hot cocoa day rather than a tea day, but I haven’t got any milk, and hot cocoa made on water is not worth the effort.

What better time than now to give this white cucumber stuff that Ricky sent me a whirl?

The leaves look fairly normal and of a good size. Some of them are pretty dark. I have to say I agree with other reviewers though. They absolutely reek! They smell like pickles and vinegar and something kind of chemical and it’s the same thing in the finished brew. I was rather imagining fresh cucumbers. Not pickled ones.

The colour is sort of yellow with the slightest hint of green, and surprisingly, because of the smell, it actually tastes more like fresh cucumbers than it does of pickles. It’s so weird! It’s got that same sort of bitterness that cucumbers can have, especially in the peel, and I’m picking up a strong note of dill too. I’m always happiest with something that will leave me with a good aftertaste, but this is a bit much. My mouth tastes like I’ve just been chewing a wad of dill and it feels all green. If I go and look at my tongue in the mirror, I’d probably be surprised that it was still red. As it is, I keep catching myself searching for a note of fish that isn’t there, of course.

I’m glad I only made one cup and it only got worse as it cooled. I’m so not a fan of this. Spitty! Spitty! I’m going to go and make something else to take the bad taste out of my mouth.

I saved the leaves from this morning on this one, and I’m switching tea-gears mid cup. I’ve just received some hugely bad family news, and I need a cup of this. Not in the way of a celebratory cup, but a comforting cup and a calming down cup, because I’m so angry right now.

I’m beginning to think I actually like the second steep of these leaves better than the first. It seems smoother and sweeter. More pat-on-the-head-everything’s-going-to-be-okay like. Or is that just because I’m using it in this particular situation?

Christmas shopping is all finished and done (except one thing, Lexitus!) and now I’m in bad need of a cup of this to warm me up again.

I was shocked at how little I had left! Someone must have been nicking it behind my back, it’s just not okay! I should have stocked up on it while I was out anyway. Maybe one small pot’s worth left.

I’ve grown quite addicted to this. A little while ago I had a cup of plain Lapsang Souchong, which I have otherwise loved, and suddenly it just seemed… less. Something was missing. There was just the smokyness and nothing else. I kept catching myself searching for the smoother, stronger base of the green tea and the English Breakfast and it just wasn’t there. Plain Lapsang Souchong just doesn’t cut it anymore, and here I am with nearly 100 g of the stuff.

This, though. This is the stuff. The smoke, the black base, and the green freshness. Yum. It’s great for a cold winter’s day. (And frankly, any other sort of day too)

The problem with a celebration tea is that it’s all too easy to think of things to celebrate. Today for example it’s snowing on my city. The real deal! White stuff falling out of the sky! Winter, REAL winter, has come to Denmark at last. I hope it’s snowing in Copenhagen too, just to give some of those state leaders from far away countries an experience. Some of them might never have seen snow before in real life.

This is my fortifying cup before going out in the winter weather (SNOW!!!) and getting the last of the presents. It’s a bit understeeped today because I’m impatient and I wish I could say that it wasn’t damaging it any, but it is a bit watery. At least with the cup I’m using today I couldn’t drain the pot entirely, so I should be able to top it up with some more properly steeped tea.

Still good though.

ARGH! I knew I should have copied my text before hitting post seeing as I had been poking about with other stuff on the site in a different tab, but I forgot! Starting over then.

I think this was the name of the brand. I asked in the cafe, but couldn’t write it down at the time and I thought I’d be able to remember. Now I’m a bit uncertain and I can’t seem to find anything about it online. So if anybody is familar with the brand, feel free to correct me.

Anyway. My colleague and I finally got to go to Sofie’s Parents, our favourite cafe in the city after work today. You may remember I tried to get their English Breakfast blend a couple of weeks ago and was served a rather disappointing Earl Grey instead. Well, today we did manage to successfully get a large pot of the English Breakfast Blend. The details given about it said that it was a mix of Ceylon, Assam and Kenyan teas. (The latter surprised me somewhat. I thought it was more often Keemun in EBBs?)

You should have seen the amount of leaves used when they made this! It was amazing! I don’t know what they had been thinking when preparing the tea, but something had definitely been going on in the kitchen because they don’t usually try to steep some 25g of leaves at the same time. O.o It was our good luck that my colleague didn’t want to risk it starting to get bitter so we took it up before the time they told us.

Firstly, the scent: Very strong honey note in this one. I like that in English Breakfast, and it’s both a smell and a flavour note that I’ve always associated with English Breakfast. So that’s a big win with me.

Secondly, flavour sans milk: It’s got a touch of smoke. Not as rough as in Lapsang Souchong, but definitely some pricklyness there. We thought this was probably the Kenyan ingredient.

Thirdly, flavour with milk: Still a note of smoke, but the prickly is smoothed out by the milk. I can’t actually decide if I liked it best with or without milk, but I’m leaning towards without.

Fourthly, development: As you know, tea continues to develop even after the leaves have been removed. This turned significantly darker and as it did, the Assam came out more, dominating the (assumed) Kenyan. I liked this. It kept the tea interesting.

All in all, I liked this a lot. (And you should have seen the piece of strawberry cake I had that tasted of real strawberries. OMG Cake Heaven!)

Travelling Teabox Reminder! Don’t forget to send me your address at iarnvidia@gmail.com before Dec. 31st if you want to participate. There is a thread at the forum with all the details and guidelines.

Grinnyguy posted about Earl Grey. I got a fit of inspiration even though Earl Grey is normally not my first choice. Most days I find it kind of dull and every day-ish. Maybe a little overrated as a type. Classics don’t seem to hold much appeal to me.

It’s got a strong bergamot smell. That slightly bitter citrus-y smell that I’m learning to recognise. Kind of sweet, but not the way oranges are, and it’s not a bitterness like the kind you find in grapefruits. It’s sort of prickly and when you know what you’re looking for, probably fairly easily recognisable.

Apart from when I’m at Lexitus’, the last time I had Earl Grey was a few weeks ago when I was at the cafe and they gave me the wrong tea. I remember finding that one rather too bitter and smelling strongly of citrus as soon as I poured. This one is very much more controlled when it comes to citrus scent. It’s there, clearly, when you smell it, but it doesn’t invade your nostrils when your nose is an arm’s length away.

Citrusy, but not sour and without making you feel like it might as well have been a lemon tea. It’s got just a touch of bitterness on the swallow, but not nearly as much as the presumed Kusmi had. Of course I haven’t brewed this as strongly as they did that day in the cafe.

As for the cornflowers, I can’t pick them out in the flavour, so I don’t know if they actually have any effect on it at all, or if they’re just there for show. I like to think that they smooth it out some, but even if they are just there for show though, I’d still get this version. Just because they’re pretty.

My local shop beats Kusmi by several horse lenghts.

Ah Chun Mee, the green tea I really wanted yesterday. Remembered that today and made me a small pot.

I like the leaves in this one and how they’re twisted. They’re cute!

I’m currently waiting for the second infusion to steep. It’s very light in colour compared to the first one, but it’s nice all the same. I’m not sure how many steeps I think it’s possible get out of this one though. I think maybe one or two others, but the first time around was definitely the best.

(Additionally, is one of you trying to add me as a chatbuddy on Gmail? I’ve posted my email address freely here a few times, but I can’t think of anywhere else someone might have come across it as I use a different address for other things.
Anyway, if it’s one of you, could you drop me a comment, please? Otherwise I’ll just say no. I’d rather not have random strangers on my chat list….)

Green moods don’t last long when you discover that the green you made wasn’t the green you wanted. I was packing up tea samples for Jillian and Bethany (if she’s still interested), and spotted this tin and decided I was really in an oolong mood now instead.

Mostly because whenever I see this tin I have to take the lid off for a couple of sniffs. Yummy.

I can definitely see myself stocking up on this again when it’s gone and I’m beginning to dread the day when it is.

I’m in a green mood, so I grabbed this tin and made me a pot. Now that I’ve taken the first couple of sips, I suddenly remember that I also own a rather nice Chun Mee, and I’d actually rather have had a pot of that.

sigh

It’s probably just as well, because I have discovered that I didn’t rinse the pot out properly before brewing. My gunpowder has gained a weak note of liquorice root from yesterday’s Black Satin.

Interesting, actually. It adds an element of surprise to it. ‘Ahhh green tea… wait, what’s that?’ If I had any liquorice root, it might be fun to experiment with.

This is the first decent cup of tea I’ve had AAAAAALL DAY! First there was the bagged stuff in the travel mug, then there was the taste of Ceylon Pekoe which had been forgotten and steeped for some 2½ *cough*hours*cough*. Yuck oh yuck oh double yuck! Made a new pot of that, nearly forgot that too so it got ten minutes, but it was somewhat drinkable and I made do with it.

Now I’m home, I’ve had dinner and I’ve had dessert. Now I want tea. I saw the label on the tin among the many tins on the table and thought, “Yes!”

The more I have of this, the more the liquorice root is coming out. I think I’ll give the rating an itty bitty push upwards.

I couldn’t let Mike stew in uncertainty for too long. And I was curious as to what this would be like when it hadn’t been ruined. So I made a small pot and carefully carefully timed the steeping with the kitchen timer.

The aroma was pretty much the same. Sweetly spicy, sort of, with the fennel note. And a note of pepper too. I nabbed a small moutful of it plain and the first thought I had when I tasted it was… soap. Spicy soap. A bit sweet too, a sweetness just exactly out of reach, but mostly soap. I’m struggling really hard to not find such a negative word, but I can’t. I’m not entirely certain I’d like pumpkin pie if I was ever presented with it.

On recommendation from several people, I had the rest with a bit of milk.
That helped! It took the odd note off the aroma. It was pretty much the same, just toned down. I liked the taste a lot better too. The soapiness dissappeared. The milk did get a slightly sour note, which was definitely not because it was getting bad because I tested it first.

While I was at it, I tried adding a bit of cane sugar too. That was nice too. I don’t know if maybe I’m just drowning out the flavour this way, but for me this works.

But I still don’t think I like pumpkin pie much.

It’s been a while since I had this, but I bought a cup for the trainride home today as a reward for having walked from the hospital to the train instead of taking the bus. I need to get better at doing that again, I’ve just been lazy about it lately.

It’s been so long since I had one that I was suprised by the sweetness of it when I first took a sip. It was nice though, and I keep liking it more.

I noticed today that they now also seem to have two other David Rio chais available, bringing it up to five to choose from. Including a green one that I’ll have to try sometime, mainly because I have the hardest time imagening how that would work out…

Today, though, I’d been thinking about this all the way as I walked, so I couldn’t very well try something else.

(Travelling Teaboxers, don’t forget to sign up before Dec. 31st by sending me your address at iarnvidia@gmail.com. There are guidelines for the box in the Travelling Teabox thread in the forum.)

I gave up on the pumpkin thing. It was no use, I’d ruined it. Obviously it didn’t handle oversteeping very well.

So we’re taking this one. The one that I know what’s like and is a known like. I think I’ll try it with a touch of milk for the liquorice this time because it’s a known fact that a handful of liquorice and a glass of milk goes hand in hand. We shall see if this is also true for liquorice root.

It feels a bit wrong though. Like… I’m girling up an otherwise fairly masculine tea…

Girling it up or not, though, it works very well with the milk and it really brought out the liquorice root. Yummy.

YIPPIEEEEEE! I BOUGHT A STEEPSTER SELECT ITEM! Now that that’s out of my system here’s the confession. I haven’t got the first clue what pumpkin tastes like. Or smells like. Or anything. Pumpkin pie even less. In Denmark we get little bitty pumpkiny things for decoration in variating colours and shapes and big ones that people make pumpkin lanterns out of. It’s not something we really eat a whole lot of.

Therefore I’m not particularly concerned when everybody seems to complain about their various pumpkin pie teas not tasting all that much like pumpkin. Because… I wouldn’t know anyway. After the vanilla date debacle this probably ought to worry me a bit. I mean, what if it turns out I don’t like pumpkins at all?

Well, the smell of the leaves is sort of dark. It’s a dark smell. I can find the cinnamon but mostly it’s dominated by this other smell that I don’t know how to describe. Kind of spicey but not. Sweet but not. I’m reminded a bit of fennel which I suspect I shouldn’t, but it’s the closest I can get to a description.

It brews up a sort of dark golden. A bit like a dark liquid honey. The aroma is a bit like the loose leaves, but the tea itself is shining through, making the whole thing sweeter, less spicy (but not) and less of the fennel.

Okay, I oversteeped this a bit, I think. It’s got a very notable astringency like Indian black teas tend to get if you overdo it. I can’t figure out how to rate it because of this, as it’s difficult for me to look away from it.

I’m not going to give it a rating yet. I think I’ve ruined this pot. sigh Oh poot!

Five down, four to go! Yup, I have been christmas present shopping. These were all the easy presents, to the people who are usually difficult to buy for. But this year I have actually been supplied with wish lists. For! The! Win!!! I guess my grandfather wasn’t about to risk a repeat performance of last year where he got three copies of the same book.

When I was about halfway done I passed a cafe and sat down for a cup of tea and a yummy yummy chocolate orange cake. If ever there was a spongecake rating website, I’d give that one at least a 95.

This tea was a bad choice though. Oh the TEA was just nice. Very jasmine-y aroma and a surprisingly light brew. I thought it tasted pretty good, and was for once pleasantly surprised by Kusmi. They’re better than your average teabags for sure, but I’ve always felt that Kusmi was generally just the teensiest bit overrated. I liked this one, though. It could have had a better balance between tea and jasmine as the majority of the flavour was jasmine, but it could definitely have been so much worse too.

It’s just a shame that it was a far too delicate tea to go with the cake I had chosen. :/

I don’t know why I bought this. I don’t even like dates! O.o pokes tin
Processed dates, I can eat. Dates by themselves, no thank you. So why oh why is the first tea I see when first visiting 52teas.com a date flavoured one that makes me all yearning to try it? No, I don’t get it either.

The dry leaves have big pieces of coconut in them and they smell like… like… like… I don’t know actually. They have a VERY strong smell that’s making me sniff-taste the tin, and finally coming to the conclusion that the aroma that I’m picking up is coming from the label which I’ve cut off the pouch to label the tin with. The aroma is sticking to it so much that I can smell it as if it was right under my nose even though it’s lying an arm’s length away from me.
It smells sort of like perfume. Not artificial, just something that you could imagine being a note in a perfume. It’s got a sort of spicy-ish but not quite smell. It’s a sort of smell that’s easily recognisable, but I can’t really tell you what it smells like. Maybe this is just how dates smell? How should I know?

The brew is a dark amber colour and the aroma is the same as the leaves but a bit sweeter and has a note of raisins. That’s not surprising because dates have always sort of reminded me of giant raisins, only not as wrinkly.

Okay, the date flavoured tea for the person who doesn’t like dates. (WHAT was I THINKING???) Here goes!

It’s like… It tastes EXACTLY like it smells. It’s like liquid aroma with a dusty sort of note and weird aftertaste. I can’t really find the vanilla but I can definitely find a strong note of coconut. It sort of reminds me a bit of the honeysuckle flowers that I’ve got lying around that I’ve learned to be very careful with. I can drink it but… Another time I probably shouldn’t fall for a tea flavoured with something that I already KNOW I don’t like.

Srsly, what WAS I thinking? I hate to admit it, but this just didn’t work for me.

IF you like dates though, I feel pretty confident that you would like this a lot.

Sshhhhhh! looks shifty I’m skiving off for a few minutes!

I took this one with me to work, because frankly it’s too boring really to drink at home. I have now found out that it’s not very suitable for work either. It’s difficult to brew it consistently and there are enough distractions at work that oversteeping happens every now and then. It’s not a very forgiving tea about that.

It’s got a bitter edge today because I forgot to take the leaves out in time. I don’t think I’ll buy this one again and I’m not sure I’m going to keep it here at work. I think maybe I’ll take it home again and bring something else. If I get around to it before the tin is empty, that is.

Better get back to some sensible, productive activity.

YAY! I received my tea from 52teas today! It was an awesome day for it too because I’ve been feeling kind of odd all day, like the head I currently inhabit doesn’t really belong to me, and finding this package in my letterbox when I came home from work helped the mood considerably.

I got this one and two others and I’ve spent a good half hour just trying to decide which one to try first. I’ve even been sniffing at all the bags, but they’re packed in a smell-proof pouch, which for some reason smells like curry. Maybe the postman had Indian food for lunch, I don’t know.

Finally I decided that this one was shouting the loudest in the chorus of “TRY ME! TRY ME!”

The leaves look nice. Not the hugest leaf size in the world, but there are plenty of liquorice root bits and cinnamon bark bits and the whole thing smells sweet and sort of a bit like cough medicine. I had a nasty throat infection a few years ago and the doctor prescribed me this absolutely vile cough medicine to help me with the cough. It smells a bit like that, so at this point I’m a leeeettle bit worried.

Those who have tried steeping a bit of liquorice root all by itself will now that it results in a very yellow liquid. The colour of this tea is hard to describe. It’s sort of a normal sort of dark sort of goldeny tea colour, with a sort of liquorice rooty yellow sort of edge to it. Sort of.

The aroma is not reminding me nearly as much of cough medicine now that it’s been steeped. Now it’s more like a set of individual smells. I can pick up the cinnamon and the liquorice root easily enough and if I concentrate a bit, I can pick up the tea underneath as well. Cinnamon and liquorice root are both really sweet things and the tea is sort of binding it together and preventing it from getting too sweet and cloying. It lends a bit of strength to it. I keep sniffing at it, trying to figure out how to describe it and if I’m not careful, it’ll just go cold, so let’s just leave the aroma and appearence bits at this.

It’s the taste that matters, anyway. At first go, I’m thinking it’s a bit watery. I don’t know, maybe I should have used just a few more leaves. It felt a bit thin. I’m not getting any of the sweetness from the cinnamon and liquorice root. I can find both, but they don’t taste sweet. The cinnamon is reminding me a bit of chai, and it’s making me wonder if a spot of milk might not suit this tea nicely. On the other hand the thought of liquorice root and milk together just doesn’t really work in my head at all.

Mostly, I’m just picking up the tea, and while it doesn’t say anything about the origins of it other than it being Indian, it definitely feels Indian too. It’s got a full sort of flavour and the liquorice root and the cinnamon is just sort of undertones rather than taking over the flavour.

It’s not really what I was expecting (I don’t even KNOW what I was expecting), but I definitely like it. I think I’ll have to experiment a bit with milk and cane sugar, because I think it might work with either of those two. But not both, I think. Not at the same time, anyway.

I can’t seem to make this consistently. Maybe it has something to do with whether or not it boils over horribly. Last time it boiled over and it turned out kind of concentrated and sweet. This time it didn’t boil over and it’s extremely peppery.

I could still live without the pepper.

It’s very christmassy, I think the next step on the christmassy scale would be glögg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulled_wine#Gl.C3.B6gg) and that’s an entirely different thing.

I’m being encouraged to try and blend my own, so I’ll probably give that a go one of these days.

PS: The link up there looks strange, but it’s been tested and it works. Even if it looks strange.

Goodmorning Steepster. If it is a good morning. I doubt it.

It’s one of those mornings where I first woke up and went, “OMG it’s light outside, I’m late for work, why did the alarm clock not ring?” and I’m halfway out of bed in a state complete panic before I remember, “Oh wait, I think it’s sunday…”

And then went back to sleep which turned out to be stupid because I proceeded to have a strange dream about nuts and woke up with a massive headache. Lovely.

This calls for a good plain black, and while I had initially thought Lapsang Souchong, I changed my mind and decided that I might as well finish off this tin instead. Apart from the Pu Ti Cha which is for even more special occasions than the Pai Mu Tan, I’m officially run out of Teaspring teas.

So what do we think of it? I can’t remember what I thought the last time I had it but the rating I’ve given it seems to be a bit mediocre. The aroma reminds me of english breakfast. It’s the same sort of prickly tea smell with honey notes that you also get in the average Ceylon. It has a bit of that special Ceylon smell. I wonder if that prickly bit is what people mean when they say ‘peppery’, although it doesn’t remind me of pepper at all.

Teaspring describes it as having a peppery note and a sweet finish. If the prickly that doesn’t remind me of pepper at all is the peppery note, then I’ve found it. If it isn’t, then I’m stumped. Not sure about the sweet finish, though. I’ve got a finish that’s different from the initial flavour, yes, but I wouldn’t call it sweet. I’d call it… slightly grassy. Slightly green. Mostly though I’ve got the peppery stuff in the aftertaste.

It’s a pretty strong black, this. Dark in the cup too and with plenty of flavour. LOTS of flavour. It’s just a shame that it’s not a flavour that shouts, “HEY! DRINK ME!” At least it’s not shouting very loudly. I might as well have had a Ceylon or a good quality english breakfast blend.

I’m pushing the rating up a bit, though, because it’s better than that when put in the right comparisons. But I can’t give it more than this.

Seventh steep now while watching Midsomer Murders and still no crutches. It’s definitely getting a bit thin now, but still seven steeps is like a new record for me. I’m really depending on that little stir before drinking to get it all well-mixed at this point. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of flavour at this point. It just that it comes with a side of… water. It’s like you get two different flavours. There’s the white tea. And then there’s the hot water.

(And for those keeping track, Barnaby is put on a diet and to make matters worse is initially put on the case of a stolen goose. So much lol involved with this. Poor Barnaby!)

EDIT: 8th steep like 7th. Nothing new here. Just wanted to add in a reminder about the Travelling Teabox! Don’t forget to sign up by emailing me at iarnvidia@gmail.com before 2009 is out. Details on the forum thread here: http://steepster.com/discuss/102-travelling-teabox

STEEPSTER! You are BACK! Never leave me again! cries, cuddles

This is the fifth steep of these leaves, the same leaves that I started last night. I’ve been so panicky about Steepster not working that I kept forgetting to make tea. I boiled water for these leaves several times and then forgot to use it so the water got way too cold. You would think this downtime would mean that I’d be getting my chores done instead, but uh… Let’s talk about something else.

But we’re back in business (I hope), although I’ll probably be pressing post with my fingers crossed.

For four steeps now, and one of them a bit overdone, I’ve used these leaves with success and lots of flavour. No crutches this time at all. They fade a little but it’s not really noticeable. If you served fourth steep of this and didn’t tell me it was a resteep, I’d never catch on.

The thing with steeping in the cup instead of the pot though, is that in the cup I feel like I get the best result if I give it just a little stir before drinking so that the concentration of extract from the leaves is the same all over the cup, or the top ‘layer’ is just warm water. This happens automatically when pouring from the pot.

I’ve kicked the rating the rest of the way up and am making myself a sixth steep now (still without crutches) in celebration of Steepster coming back to me after several hours (so many hours!) apart.