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Whoo, first post since I’ve been back from Ethiopia!

I was there on a paleoanthropological field seminar with my professor. It was an amazing experience. We were in Addis Ababa for the first few weeks, doing labwork, and then went out to the desert for about a month to collect fossil specimens. It was the first time I’d ever done fieldwork this intense (I did go to Israel for an archaeological excavation last summer, but it was only for 2 weeks and the conditions were considerably more comfortable, since we had air conditioning in our cottage). I learned so much about anthropology, working in the field, and Ethiopian culture, and had a lot of fun in the meantime. The people I met were so friendly. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

Anyway, on to the tea!

When I first brewed this up, the aroma instantly reminded me of sticky rice. Sweet, light, with a hint of earthiness. It tastes exactly as it smells and has a very smooth, slightly creamy mouthfeel. Very refreshing!

Almost finished with my pouch. Yum, the creamy butter and coconutiness!

Anyway, I’m mostly writing this to say goodbye for the next few months to my fellow Steepsterites. I was accepted to join a professor’s field seminar in Ethiopia, so I’ll be in a rural area for most of the next two and a half months and probably won’t be getting internet until the last few weeks of the seminar, in Addis Ababa. My flight leaves early tomorrow morning. Take care, everyone, and I look forward to reading all of your notes when I get back! :)

No notes yet.

I thought I wasn’t a fan of white tea, but I suddenly felt like giving it a try and came across a sample of this in my tea drawer.

Wow.

Backlog from yesterday.
This kind of reminds me of Florence, probably because both have chocolate flavouring. The main difference is that this is a creamier milk chocolate, which is likely because of the coconut flavours. Good balance between chocolate and coconut, and quite tasty overall.

Backlog from earlier today.
Mmm. The coconut in this is amazing. It’s almost as if I were drinking coconut milk. Yum! So smooth and creamy, with an authentic coconut flavour. Getting some floral notes, too. I’m guessing it’s the pouchong? This is so good… I’d imagine it’d taste amazing iced, too.

Resteep: Not as flavourful as the first steep, but still quite tasty! I might try a third steep, but I think that’d be the limit for this.

No notes yet.

Whoo, one tea down… so many more to go.
I’ll kind of miss this tea. It’s a nice one that really hits the spot when I’m in certain moods, but I don’t think I’d consider it as a cupboard staple. Might get more someday, once I get through some more teas.

Backlog from two days ago. I’m slowly getting around to writing notes on samples I’ve received from various merchants.

Not usually a fan of Earl Greys, but I’d heard a lot about Earl Grey cream teas around here, so I jumped on the opportunity to try a sample of this from Zen Tea.

I was pleasantly surprised with this! There’s a very creamy aroma, even with the dry leaf. The balance between vanilla and bergamot is perfect. Great on its own or with a tiny bit of sugar.

Backlog from yesterday.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a straight Keemun before (it may have been in some blends I’ve tried), but if this is what Keemuns usually taste like, I think I can safely say that I quite like them. Chocolatey and smooth. Tasty afternoon tea. Thanks to Zen Tea for the sample!

Backlog from this afternoon/evening.
I’m still not very experienced with pu’er, but I really enjoy this shu. It’s earthy and musty, but very pleasant and comforting, like the smell of the earth in the woods after the rain. There’s a bit of sweetness to it, too. And it lasts for a number of short (< 1 minute) steeps.

Backlog from yesterday evening. Delicious! I really wish I’d picked up more of this when it was around.

I feel like I’ve been in an endless reading/research/writing cycle over the past few weeks, and I was feeling something similar with my tea drinking (I’ve been avoiding making any new purchases until I clear out some of my stash). I remembered that I still had several samples Azzrian sent me, so I decided to break my usual tea cycle and try out a new flavour.

I’ve never had a flavoured pu-erh before, so I’m excited to try this.

The dry leaf smells quite citrusy, but I can’t really smell anything chocolatey. When steeped, the tea smells like an earthy citrus, with a hint of chocolate. It tastes like that, too. The pu-erh base isn’t very prominent, but it’s there to provide the earthy background, while the citrus flavour takes the spotlight and the chocolate comes out in the aftertaste. I’m not a huge fan of chocolate orange flavoured things, but this was surprisingly pleasant to drink.

All in all, an interesting and refreshing tea. Thanks for the sample, Azzrian!

Gah, I haven’t posted here in such a long time. Midterms and essays, followed by a visit from a good friend whom I hadn’t seen in about a year and a half, followed by getting a cold have been keeping me away from this site. :(

Anyway, I brewed up a cup of this… kind of an odd tea to brew when you’re sick, but I just had a craving for a toasty Oolong. :P

… and I’m going to head back to bed, watch sitcoms, and write. Last day of break, hopefully the worst of this cold will have passed by tomorrow!

Thanks to Teajo Teas for a sample of this tea!

Yikes, it’s been a while since I was last on Steepster! Midterm exams and papers have been pretty intense over the past few weeks.

Anyway, this is a very nice tea with a definite peach-y flavour. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to be tasting very much ginger, but that likely could have been because I had just finished making some ginger ale and was expecting a strong ginger taste. No astringency, slight maltiness.

Overall, this is a very nice tea that makes me want to curl up with a book and think of summer.

I’ve never had a purple tea before, but this served as a pleasant introduction to them. Like other reviewers have noted, there is a bit of an earthiness to it, along with a slightly bitter aftertaste which doesn’t seem to resemble other bitter aftertastes I’ve experienced with other teas.

I’m pretty groggy at the moment, since I only recently got off a 12 hour night shift for the campus EMS program, so I’ll probably add more to this note later when I try this when I’m more awake.

Thanks Azzrian for this sample! :D

So, I have no idea what on earth boysenberries are, but now I want some if they’re similar in taste to this matcha. This tastes great!

I’m drinking it straight right now, and I’m loving the juicy, fruity, berry flavours I’m getting out of this. I may try this as a latte at some point and see how it tastes, but I’m not in a latte mood for now. I imagine it’ll taste great, though! Probably like a berry smoothie or something of the sort.

Yum!

Thank you so much, Azzrian, for your generous samples!

I’ve never had a matcha until now, so I’m super excited to try this!
Since just about the only thing I knew regarding preparing matcha was that it needed to be put through a strainer to make it less clumpy, I went off to Google to look it up. Some site mentioned that preparing it in a travel mug and then shaking it could be used in place of a matcha whisk and bowl (both of which I lack at the moment), so I’m opting for that method instead of whisking the tea in a bowl with a fork or egg beater (I’m feeling a bit lazy at the moment).

Now that the whisking part was taken care of, I tried to find out what the equivalent of a matcha scoop was in teaspoons. I wasn’t able to find clear answers, so I’m just going to use the smallest spoon I can find and then eyeball it with matcha amount and water. How I’m going to eyeball something I’ve never done before, I’m not too certain, but my mother is fantastic at doing it when cooking, so I’m hoping that I picked up that trait from her somehow!
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Well, I’ve just had my first sip of matcha! It tastes AMAZING. The powder did smell quite like butterscotch when I was putting it through the strainer, but I was expecting for it to taste a bit less like butterscotch when it was finally prepared. It’s basically like a less sweet version of butterscotch, which is great, because I love butterscotch candies but dislike how sweet they are. I think I can taste a bit of the matcha base, but I’m not sure. I also don’t know if that’s supposed to happen or not, but I’ll make a mental note to put in more water or less powder the next time I make matcha (hopefully tomorrow morning!). For now, I’ll try adding some milk to see how it tastes.

Oh, wow, the milk brings out more of the butterscotch! Yum! This will definitely make my (many many) homework readings for tonight much more enjoyable. If many of Red Leaf Tea’s matchas are this great, I’m really looking forward to making a purchase from them when I’m able to!

Thanks again, Azzrian, for sending me this sample!

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Cookies, anyone?

That’s basically what this tea smells and tastes like when brewed. Sugar cookies, if I had to be specific about cookie types. (Note that I didn’t have this with sugar or milk, so it was more like an unsweetened cookie, but still cookie-like all the same).

At first, I was worried that the Earl Grey would overpower the hazelnut and caramel, but they all mesh together into a wonderful, soothing tea that is perfect to drink when comfort is needed. The Earl Grey is the easiest flavour to pick out, but the caramel and hazelnut seem to subtly balance out the bergamot.

If drinking tea is like a conversation, this tea would basically be a very big hug!

Not bad for a bagged tea! Sweet, with a creamy mouthfeel. On another note, I love the little notch in the teabag tab thing at the end of the string! I hooked it over the edge of my mug to prevent the whole string from falling in. Nice little touch there.

On a totally random note, does anyone know how to lure a wasp into a trap without using chemicals? One wasp decided to divebomb my face as I was getting ready to go to class and it made its way into my room. I’ve got a cup with juice in it and have duct taped most of the top (leaving a hole small enough for the wasp to get in but hopefully not find its way out), but I was wondering whether anyone had any other ideas/methods of getting rid of them.

I got this as a sample from Joy’s Teaspoon a while back. Thanks!

First off, this tea really does smell like plums. Fresh, sweet, juicy plums with a hint of some spice to it. Plum jam then, I guess.

The tea does taste rather like plums, too, but lacking in the sweetness… I probably should have added some sugar, in retrospect. As in my last note, I was tempted away from my tea by freshly baked goodies from my suitemates. Half of us decided to go off the meal plan to save money and hopefully eat slightly healthier. I guess the problem is that all of us like to bake things on top of cooking (each of us a different item, too— I deal with pies, another deals with cookies and brownies, and the other any random recipe she can get her hands on). So, if we keep it up at this rate, we’ll have enough baked goods to last us through a zombie apocalypse, heh.

So anyway, the tea was cold by the time I got back to it. I finished it up, and I have to say, I’m pretty sure this would taste wonderful as an iced tea. The one major thing I thought of when sipping it was the poem “This Is Just To Say” by William Carlos Williams, which I’ve cut and pasted here:

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold