Batrachoid

Third steeping: I tried it with four ounces water and two ounces hemp milk, and a teaspoon vanilla sugar as dessert. Just that little bit of sugar and milk made it so sweet and rich I had to leave half the cup for a while just to finish it. But it was too good to leave at a thrid steeping, so I poured some milk and water in with the leaves and tucked it in the fridged to try iced tomorrow. Yep, nothing like iced oolong for the sweltering 28 F snow day ahead!
As amazing as this oolong is I don’t see myself needing this one on hand all the time. Just frequently. Perhaps it’s just not the milk oolong for me or perhaps I need to brew it a little stronger for my tastes or in a way that adds some of Ti Kuan Yin greeness.
Either way Meghann deserves a pot of gold, three wishes and the keys to the city.

In need of a sketching friendly snack and in awe of the first steeping, I made garlic vanilla popcorn to match my tea. What? Garlic and vanilla pair amazingly wheither prepaired sweet or savory. Try it! Last night’s endevor is one of the best popcorn recipes ever! Quick too. I made while cooling the second infusion. Much to my surprise I couldn’t smell the tea leaves in the pot already. Closer sniff realed that I could, but it smelt identical to the popcorn. They unfurled nicely too, which I love about Ti Kuan Yins. A couple leaves were light yellow like the popcorn. Absent mindedly I wondered if they tasted like it too.
So I ate a leaf. Stopped. Then I ate a few kernals of popcorn. Ate another leaf. Ate another kernal. The difference in taste was largely in moisture.
To continue my dignified straight-from-the-teapot snacking, I poured some hemp milk in a sauce bowl and dunked popcorn in. And it tasted exactly like the tea!
Unbelievable. This tea even tastes like popcorn. Rich hemp milk and buttery vanilla roasted garilc popcorn. This is definately the tea to convert all latte addicts.

Dry aroma: Movie buttered popcorn, Ti Kuan Yin smell, (a hint of spearmint? Maybe that’s from being next to a bag of Grasshopper for day….), black pepper, butter, milk chocolate, burnt popcorn, genmaicha
The movie butter is only in the aroma. The first sip is swoon worthy splash of real sweet butter and other people are wrong here-milk. Hemp milk specifically. Ooh, I love hemp milk.
I let it cool quite a bit before drinking so it felt thin and hydrating, a lot like hemp milk that hadn’t been shaken in a while .After the first sip the butter mellows a bit to silky smooth vanilla, and tones of other planter variety orchids. This makes extremely happy as I planned on painting some orchids tomorrow. I’ll have to keep the bag by my desk for good luck, eh? ;)
Ooh, I can’t wait to try the second steep later.

Best. Oolong. Ever! Another day making sample from the generous Meghann M who saw this on my shopping list and sent it. Miles de gracias.

Trying this iced~! So of course this was the last song on my painting playlist. =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgNEDbiHqF4

Something Cool by Jennifer Zarine from Fresh Made Cuppa Tea

I actually was listening to June Christy’s version but this came up when I searched for a matching video. I think Zarine’s got better pacing and music but Christy’s voice is unbeatable.

I Tbsp leaf, 1 Tbsp raw honey, 1/4 tsp hibiscus, and eight rosehips
12 0z for five hours.
Ooh, this is a bit better iced. I didn’t add any Bai Mu to give tea a chance to peek out from under the mountain of strawberries and flowers but the poor leaves remained entombed. Ah, well. Still a nice, refreshing rise in blood sugar before dinner.

I was considering reordering either this or Florence …

So for pre-painting pick-me-up, this tea, some raw chocolate, a honeydate and coconut yogurt.
I wanted to save today’s sugar budget for my glass of iced Garden Aria for pre-painting pick-me-up. I just got some great rosebuds and honey dates, which are apparently used to flavor/sweeten tea and are good for digestion. So three rosebuds and a crushed honeydate with 1 1/4 tsp.
?…!

Alone I gave this tea 77, with a honeydate and more rose? 95. Seriously. Now this really does taste like a rose covered in chocolate-raw chocolate. I LOVE raw chocolate (^ See above). This combination just dragged the earthiness and red warmth right out of the nibs and tea base. And then I ate the honeydate. Whoo! Much better than medjool. Very spicy like a cinnamon heart. I’ll have to try these with chai. And Florence. And everything else. Shoot. I just wanted to sweeten it. >.<

Oh, and some jazz for your leaf juice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M51UqyWpYko&feature=related

Yesterday (and today, for that matter) was a gloomy snowday…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCEJtUNe90A (Emilie Autumn’s version is too haunting to hear between the dark, the cold, and BBC. What a recipe for night terrors. )
Last night was BBC News about Tuscon and Teavana’s Garden Aria, this time perfected with a pinch of hibiscus, two rose hips, and Tangerine Bai Mu Dan. Very complex and full. It didn’t take much to weave a little tea taste back into this fruit basket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dsngKEtA-k
I need to focus and finish this drawing before we move next week. I’m getting too nit-picky for the level of detail I should allow myself at this stage. It’s very counterproductive.

I really love that little store; they are an amazing source of health and tea relief in this wasteland Ohio. I’m not a big fan of chrysanthemum, but Tao has enchanted me into loving very impossible things before. So I picked up a couple ounces and scurried home. And surprise! Tao doesn’this tuocha doesn’t even sell on their site! O= Bless their magic restocked.

Twenty second boiling rinse.
First steep: Brewing it like the rose first, two minutes and 5oz 212 F water. Light aroma, some oceanic pu-erh scent with chrysanthemum underneath. Tastes very earthy with chrysanthemum loudly taking over but wakame and sunflower make it interesting. It gets much thicker as it cools, almost gel like. You really don’t like being treated like your rosy sibling, eh? Noted.

Second steep: 3 minutes, 200 F
Still too light. The chrysanthemum has settled down and let everything start to harmonize. Thick but light, tastes land feels just like coconut milk, straw pu-erh, and air from a nearby beach. I don’t like chrysanthemum much but this is delicious. Once again the second cup is the best, under steeped or not! And I know exactly what this tea is for!

Third: 4 min 30 seconds, 200 F
Oops. Got a tad distracted and it’s definitely a smidge over-steeped.
Fourth steeping: Chrysanthemum’s all gone, just like in the rose tuocha. It’s a little darker and made of pure pu-erh tastes, like a lakebed. Much thinner as well. Very relaxing and the perfect end to a good transformation of tuocha but…

Fifth steeping: 5 minutes 212 F water
Yeah, it’s done at four. Even if I had extra chrysanthemum to pop in like I did the rose, the pu-erh has lost too much. No lakebed, no beach, just lake water.
Every tea has its purpose and each of Tao‘s tuocha have made theirs very clear to me; this one is definitely for chilly spring days , steeped throughout the morning to remain refreshed and focused on a good start to a project. Given how soon I start art school, this tea is another perfectly timed find for which I am very grateful.
Glancing out at the literal blizzard that just began, inexplicably grateful. Shudder I might go through another of these today.
Long post short: I love Steepster, I love tuocha, I love my magic health food store that thinks it’s a Tao of Tea store. This tea has simple, cleaner tastes than Tao’s other tuocha that could win over some on the ‘”weird” taste of chrysanthemum, but I can’t see myself drinking this past lunch. Very good for getting going early and all the way to lunch.

Edit: XD Oh wow this all fits so perfectly! So glad I checked the dashboard before I got back to things.
In response to TeaEqualsBliss’s song-and tea matching challenge: This song from my favorite video game is appropriate to both my situation and it sounds like the scene I imagine while drinking this tea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3H56O1iP9Q

I usully save whites for late night headaches/ and iced tea but I’ve been dying to try this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvUxHkdzx6I
Amapola is a red hibiscus, one of the main smells that I get from this tea and what i hoped it would taste like.
This is a very nice, light tea that’s bizarrely peachy with hints of apricot. Cherry and strawberry too. I might try it iced once or twice. Very little rose and hibiscus, but I have large jars of both to boost it. On its own it fills the role of honey friendly throat soother nicely.
Thanks to AmazonV for this.

I let the water get too cold this afternoon but it dissolved well enough to help me focus.

I’ve been avoiding this one but I’ve had too much good tea today and I want the canister this one’s been in for something else.
This tea is pretty flat but sufficently toasty. It’s very temperature sensitive; A hair over 180 F and it sours with a spiteful fury. I use it for cooking too. Genmaica chocolate is is something most people love, if only for the entertainment value. That is, when I can save enough from myself to give to someone. XD

Not drinking it again today; I managed to distract myself with some genmaicha/ morrocan mint blending. Just noting with grateful awe that the infuser basket still has scent of spearmint ’round it. Astounding.

Oh. My. Frogs. No. Grasshoppers. Great green gorgeous grasshoppers with minty orchids of Madagascan mirth. I think I just drank the secret of happiness.

This tea is perfect from start to finish. The dry leaf radiates the aroma of spearmint and what I’m guessing is honeybush underneath the fruity, complex vanilla bean, even through a plastic bag and sealed envelope. And-is that Tahitian vanilla?! A deep and awkwardly enthusiastic hug of thanks to Meghann M for swapping this with me.

I broke out my Scottish thistle china cup for this one. This grasshopper should feel right at home.
Habit is hard to break, so I steeped three sencha style infusions of four, four, and three ounces water for 8, 10, and fifteen minutes with a scant teaspoon of homemade Indonesian vanilla sugar in each and one chocolate covered cacao nib due to the small number of chips.

It didn’t need the sugar. It didn’t need ANYTHING.
Although the two kinds of vanilla (I’m assuming it’s Tahitian) could be part of why it came out so complex floral, fruity, and satisfying, like watching grasshoppers and spearmint bubblegum ice cream after a weekend of yard work. Or in this case, a warm, sweet cup of tea after hauling the garbage down the snow packed drive way, knowing it came from a new friend. Thanks again, by the way.

I have never spent so long smelling the bottom of my teacup in my life. I don’t know what I’m going to do when my small mint tin of this vanishes. Ooh and it’s tea time again. Where’s that strainer? I think it might still have a whiff left around it…

No notes yet.

61? Why was my rating so low? Dyslexic moment, I suppose. Anyway, not much to add, Ricky basically said it and it’s been a while. I was rushed when I tried this and only got to steep it twice. It was a nice general black pu-erh taste and probably would’ve lasted quite a while. I recently had better but I’m still picking up a few when I finally order from CTG.

Backlogging from Friday afternoon. Another thank you to the generous AmazonV for giving me this tea.

Every year mandarin and blood oranges come into season I’ve diligently saves every scrape of peel to dry for tea blending, along with other citrus. I suppose it occupies the time I’d spend mowing the lawn. And having iced blood orange tea in June is worth it.
Since I’ve been ordered at least two weeks of rest at home, I’ve had ample time to observe this squirrel-like hoarding. But twenty minutes of releasing the smell of blood oranges into the air with none left to eat morphs from distraction to torture quickly. Then the mailman came, leaving this on my door step.
Bless AmazonV.

Since I was sent this with the warning of “mint containation” a gave it a sniff. There’s a little mint lingering around the lazily drifting orange smell. It actual smells quite harmonious.

I was skeptical about the six minute steeping time but I don’t really drink darjeeling based teas. So I tested it at four. WAY too weak. Another three minutes did the trick.
The taste is the opposite of my usual sencha as well. The orange is simple, murky and relaxed. This is a nice change of pace.The unimpossing darjeeling is actually detectable; when I think about it any other green would probably fight with the mandarin esssence. A frog friendly darjeeling? Another Tao feat of magic.
I sipped this tea for an hour without tastebud overload nor boredom.The hint of mint that’s there sometimes keeps it interesting.
Yep, the is made to be nursed in a big mug with a bigger non-fiction book. This is exactly what I think I’ll reorder this with my next Tao order (my happy health store doesn’t sell this one. Curses!). And I’ll might “contaminate” my mug with mint on purpose. =) Thanks for the book brew!

That talk about mouthfeel and zing made me thirsty and cleaning stole my energy. The remedy? A pre-lunch appetizer of two whole raw caco beans, a tablespoon of raw nibs, and a bowl of Liquid Jade to wash them down.
I took a sip with a clean, less sleep deprivation deadened palate first. I must bump the rating now that I can taste fresh half-steamed spinach over the ashy aftertaste. The cacao was eactly the chewy fix I needed and tasted phenominal with a slurp of matcha mingled in. The matcha didn’t exactly wash the cacao down so much as create a grassy, earthy coating on my gums but anything that extends a bowl of matcha for ten minutes is a plus. Between savoring matcha and chewing cacao, I think I found my new favorite long, meditative snack break. I almost skipped lunch it felt so filling.

It started snow a little while after the gas guy left. I had some things to do before I could sleep so I waited out the disappating cold with some matcha.
I understand it’s named Liquid Jade. It feels like warm molten jade going down, thick, frothy, and satisfying. It doesn’t taste bad but it has that ashy aftertaste of lower quality matcha that reminds one it’s use is as an economical usucha. Which is fine. I got my taste fix from Tao’s tuocha and the energy I needed.

Ah, I feel better. I guess tuocha is a good digestive aid for both heavy meals and stress induceded dry heaves.
The 175 worked for this steep. So 170 for the first three with a splash of lemon. Nice to have a tea worked out on the second try.
Summary:
While the rose is a sit down, super attentive session of bliss, this is definately more of a through the day everyday tea. I suppose this kind of morning is exactly what it is for. Gah. Exactly the kind of morning for which it is made. I need to administer tea until my grammar returns.

Okay. I’ve calmed down with half a bar of chocolate yogic breathing. Ahem.
I’m definately going into this with high hopes. Tao’s Rose black tuocha is a lot to live up to a mere week later.

The presteep smell is certainly not diappointing me; I almost tried to crawl into the jar at the store! It has that refreshing dried grass clippings background with a good pile of timothy hay to make it extra nostaglic and invigorating. Some peat moss too and what is definately the “pu-erh” smell. It’s becoming as comforting as timothy hay.

10 Second rinse with 170 F/75 C water. Just to be safe.
First steep: 2 min 45 sec with 5 oz 175 F/79 C water
Light yellow orange liquor. The teapot leaves smell wonderfully like well, green tea leaves. A blend of Chinese sencha and medium quality jasmine pearls. Now drum roll…
Sip
Huh. That’s good. Oh, re~ally good. Goooooood. Mmm. Not swoon or shriek good like, but nod and sigh good.
For starters: timothy hay. Surprise! This pure umami with smoked, grassy edges. Definately mushroom: sauteed portobella and shiitake. Too earthy for chantarelle. Maitake? I haven’t had some in so long. A tinge of lemon or maybe that’s the strong pucker. Odd given how thin this feels.

Steep two: 2 min 55 seconds with the same water
Okay open mind, recognition that this is a different sort of pu-erh, so who are you, Lu Tuocha-san?
Hmm, duller scents in the teapot…Tastes toned down from before with less mushroom and more straw and-hello!
Jasmine?! Wow. Oh wow. A whole soft floral carpet rolled itsef out. It harmonizes after a few sips into one. But it’s very astringant. Adding some lemon juice to the last couple sips fixes this and boost the jasmine an timothy notesMaybe 170 F water? Or are green pu-erhs as astringant as strong Assam? I don’t care, I am HOARDING this tea for this steep alone.

Third steep: 3 min 175 F water
A bit weaker but there’s still some notes of jasmine and hay but it’s not smoky, it’s all sunshine and yeah, astringancy. Definately lower the temp to 170 next time. The umami is going out and it feels thicker.

The fourth steep will have to wat because the gas guy just came! Yes!

It’s official; I live in hell. And see this little bird nest? This is my return ticket to sanity.
Back from my first tea shopping trip in nearly six months lo and behold the gas has been shut off! Apparently thespecial split December payment arangement was poorly coordinated so my and dozens of others all had their bills automatically payed two days late. Happy Holidays from the gremlins at customer service.
Fortunately we have emough space heaters to survive at 63 F in the living room/kitchen-until a fuse blew. I had to stay up to fix and prevent another. I had no problem keeping vigil-my stomach kindly did so by trying to rocket its non-existant contents whenever I breathed in.
So of course I burned the first tuocha with 190 water! Crazy laugh Isn’t that HILARIOUS?!
Only 5-8 more hours until the gasman gets around to us.

I am obligated to increase the rating for versatility. This tea tastes so amazing and swampy and floral on its own it took a few cups to even consider the addition of monofloral honey but it was a great idea. I’ve tried a couple different kinds of honey and they’ve all paired perfectly with this tea and created amazing flavor profiles well worth the slurped sugar intake. A blessing for my constantly partched throat, as this is one of the few teas I have that I’ll sweeten.

In innerchild terms:
This tea + Honey= superb!
My favorite combination is carob tree honey or blackberry. The carob creates a rich red, fruity layer to the tea’s grassy malty tones that tastes a bit like cacao nibs and one of my favorite chocolate bars: Pralus’s Madegascar. <3

No notes yet.

Definately not the best vanilla tea out there but I think this one of the best bagged teas. We keep this one around because it’s convenient; perfect brewed double strength with equal parts water and Trader Joe’s vanilla hemp milk. They’re probably literally made for one another.