Angrboda

I’ve written about this one before, as having not a huge amount of flavour to it, but it helps if it’s allowed to sit for a little while.
This morning I have tried making it in a gaiwan gong fu style (or an approximate of gong fu, since I’m not sure I’m doing it entirely right). The aroma is strong and spicy when brewed this way, and the flavour is too. I haven’t quite got the hang of steeping it, so it’s a little oversteeped and slightly bitter, but not so much that you can’t tell what it’s supposed to be like. Strong, spicy and nutty. It’s actually a much better tea when brewed this way.

At first I brewed it in the traditional western way with a proper tea pot. I found it a mild flavour, a bit delicate. Pleasant, but not something that sticks out as exceptionally good. It’s a pretty good every day tea.

Then I got the mad idea to try and brew it gong fu style in a gaiwan. I’ve never really managed to get the hang of gaiwans. I always spill or burn myself or both. I used the last of my leaves to do this. Unfortunately I failed to remember to do this with caution as it is now severely over-steeped, bitter and undrinkable. First steeping has therefore been disposed of. Second (very short!) steeping is much much better. The flavour is noticably stronger than when brewed in a teapot and more complex. There’s a sort of nutty finish to it, I think. It definitely wins by being brewed this way.

I suppose what I really need is a crash course in gong fu and use of gaiwan.

The only Pu-ehr I’ve got and it was sample-sized to begin with! This is not okay, I need to be tea shopping soon. Except then I’ll be laughed at by friends and family for already having more teas than I can remember.
Unfortunately it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to get more of this particular one. Not very old for a pu-ehr, but very mild in flavour, I think. I’d like to try something older than this.

Fairly average bagged green tea. But it tastes like a better quality than the average supermarket-available brands around these parts

I have proclaimed the strawberry tea of this brand my ideal strawberry tea. I’m not sure if I can do the same with the lemon tea. I mean it’s not like I was expecting something else, because I haven’t had better. But I haven’t really had worse either. I keep wanting to log this one, but in the last two days I’ve had three pots of it and I just end up drinking it and forgetting to log or even think about what I’d write about it. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I’ve decided that it must be good. If it was bad, surely it would be easy to log, right?d
It’s a pleasant tea, not so lemony as to be sour, but not un-fruity either. I think it has a pretty good balance considering the fruit, and I’m toying with the idea of blending it with the strawberry tea. On it’s own I think it would also be great as an iced tea.

I had this on the train home from my parents’ last night and once more came to the conclusion that Kusmi is indeed drinkable but otherwise overrated. This one isn’t as perfumed as other teas of the brand that I’ve tried, but it’s not particularly memorable either.
This review however must be taken with the understanding that making tea on the train involved hot water from a thermos rather than freshly boiled, so the steeping process was far from ideal. I think I might just stick to coffee on the train from now on.

No notes yet.

In a fit of experimental inspiration I took a pot of generic Gunpowder and added a smidge of peppermint to it. The result is… interesting. Minty. It’s sufficiently drinkable that I’m not going to pour it out, but I wouldn’t really recommend the combination. Not as served hot anyway. I suspect it would work a lot better on ice.

When smelling the leaves or the steeped tea, you’re not left in the slightest bit of doubt as to what marzipan is made of. When they say it’s a sweet tea, they’re not kidding! Show me a person who takes this tea with sweetener and I’ll show you a person with a sugar problem. It’s not unbearably sweet though, and the actual flavour is more black tea with a streak of almond than it’s the unbearable sweetness that you get from the scent. It’s actually much better than expected, but unlikely to be a tea I’ll be drinking large amounts of. One small pot now and then should suffice.

One of the reasons I like shopping at Teaspring is the bonus points you get for each purchase. This is a sample sized piece of the brick bought for those bonus points. I don’t drink a lot of Pu-ehr, but when I do I tend to like it. The colour of this one is bright reddish brown and the aroma is spicy and so strong that you can smell it already when pouring a cup. No need to get your nose anywhere near the cup for it actually. The flavour doesn’t quite live up to the aroma, though. You expect something strong, but it isn’t. The flavour is mostly there in the after-taste. It’s still good though.

This is now sold as Princess Blend, but when I bought it was called the Isabella Blend, named after the youngest of the danish princesses (turning 2 later this month). It’s a nice, fairly sweet tea, and I’m even able, with some concentration, to find the vanilla and raspberry notes. They’re very subtle though, I think. It’s a pretty girly sort of tea.

I had this on the train home from my parents’. I had a 1st class ticket which means access to free coffee and tea. I’ve had a sampler of Kusmi teabags before and found the brand largely overrated. I haven’t changed my mind. It’s better than your average cheap teabags, but it doesn’t really live up to what people have said of it. Even this one, that is merely a blend of Darjeeling and Assam has a synthetic sort of hint to it. Could be from being stored right next to some bags with a jasmine tea in it, but with each bag sealed in an air tight foil satchel I kind of doubt it.
I don’t know whether to give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. I don’t hate it, but I wouldn’t buy it for myself.

This is one of my favourite greens with additives. It’s got a really sweet flavour. Hard to describe it exactly, and this is going to sound really strange, but it’s sort of like Dr. Pepper only not. This particular batch that I’ve got though is getting on in age, so it’s turned a little dull, but it’s still enjoyable.

I only bought this because they were out of regular strawberry and I wanted some strawberry tea. I have a strong dislike of cream in tea (Milk! ALWAYS milk! Never cream! Milk!) but I was desperate enough to try it on the promise that it was supposedly sweet and summerly. The leaves smell lovely but all I can taste in the cup is the black tea and the cream. No berries of any kind. It’s drinkable, but I won’t be buying this again.

The leaves are large and pretty and the first cup is almost colourless. It grows darker as it is allowed to sit and develop. The flavour and the scent of it are very delicate just like a white tea should be, but if brewed too strong or oversteeped it becomes very bitter and nearly undrinkable.

When I bought this I wondered how it was possible to make a white fruit blend without overpowering the white tea. It is, however, entirely possible. I wouldn’t say it tasted particularly fruity. Most of what I can taste is the white tea, but it’s got a fruity sort of after-taste instead which I find much more pleasant than had it been a stronger more full-bodied fruit flavour.

Doesn’t have much in the way of flavour at first, but if it’s been allowed to sit and develop a bit it helps considerably. Floral sort of note to the flavour. Still, it’s good, but it’s not OMG!-good.

I got this one in a trade once with someone who had tried the Lemon tea from Whittard of Chelsea and found they didn’t like it and therefore assumed they wouldn’t like this either. Their loss, my gain. The very first time I smelled the dry leaves I knew without a doubt that I had found my ideal strawberry tea. It smells very sweet of strawberry, but not overly synthetic. You can see lots of bits of strawberries and strawberry leaves in the tea. The finished brew smells nicely of strawberries too, but not overwhelming the smell of the tea. The flavour is the same. It tastes primarily like tea, but with a sweet and fruity addition to it.

This is what I’m drinking at work at the moment. It was part of a christmas gift, bought it a small local store where my parents live. Keemun in general is one of my favourite blacks and is no different.