Cait

I just got the rose tea “sampler” from Tea Farm, and seriously, this is a lot of tea! I have no idea how I’m going to store it; right now it’s still in bags in the shipping box. They’re the clear-sided bags which show off how absolutely lovely the tea is (do take a closer look at the official tea photo here!), but they are rather inconvenient for someone like me who has open tea shelves instead of a tea cupboard.

Anyway, the tea! I tried it in cooler water first, but I think I like it better with water that’s just down a bit from boiling to bring out a little more bitterness. This is a very smooth tea, hardly bitter at all, but I’m not convinced that the pu-erh and the rose are mingling as well as they could: both flavors are lovely, but they seem to be happening simultaneously instead of together, if you follow me. Also, the aftertaste lingers as slightly sour, which I don’t much like. I think I need to play around with the steeping parameters on this some more.

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This is also a very nice hot tea. It has the same toasted flavor to it without being quite as earthy, and intriguingly adding a small bit of honey makes it taste almost milky with the sudden sweetness.

I’m also amused that this tea is so much darker when brewed hot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4616069126/in/set-72157623664718933/

Tried this with a tiny bit of honey. It tastes like candy. (One of the chewy sorts, kind of like taffy or those sugar-water-filled wax straws.) My teeth are aching in sympathy.

Okay, wow! This is a tea meant to be cold-brewed (which is how I like my iced tea) so when this arrived for my tea-of-the-month subscription I was very excited to try it. Sadly, the weather lately has been rainy and cold and entirely off-putting to the whole concept of iced tea, so it took me a while to finish up my previous carafe of iced tea so that I had something to brew this in, and then I wound up leaving this tea brewing in the fridge for something like three or four days!

Given how long it was brewing, I was pretty worried when I pulled it out: it looked barely darker than plain water, and I thought that maybe I hadn’t used enough leaves (I put in my standard three heaping spoons for two liters). But I poured myself a glass anyway, and even before I tasted it I could smell the tea as I lifted the glass. It smelled earthy and green and not at all weak, so I closed my eyes and had a sip — and wow! That’s some tea! The adjectives that come to mind are “hearty” and “toasted” and “solid”, which clash oddly with visual ones such as “watery”.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4609134579/in/set-72157623664718933/

Definitely a new standard in iced tea for me.

Mmm. Apparently, on the right sort of day this is very soothing mug-steeped.

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This tea was really, really tasty, so I really, really hope it wasn’t what gave me such an awful stomachache last night….

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Okay, I think I can officially say now that I like pu-erh tea! It’s all…heavy and tasty and has that interesting flavor-kick at the end. Mmm.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4601944730/in/set-72157623664718933/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4601335215/in/set-72157623664718933/

Thank you, Angrboda!

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I’m not entirely sure what to think of this yet. The lime is rather…puckery, and I think I need to steep it a little lighter to get the balance right.

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Oh, this is a great iced tea! Just the right delicacy of the cherry flavor.

It’s nice, but it’s nothing particularly special.

…I get no bergamot here, not to smell and not to taste. Nothing citrus. Nothing but a generic sort of green-tea taste. Well, and some bitterness when I tried steeping it longer in case that brought out more flavor.

Huh. This tastes like I stirred in a big spoonful of honey! It’s a very herbal-tea taste; I wouldn’t have said it had any tea-tea in it at all. It’s a very nice herbal tea, though, fruity without being tart, with the occasional tantalizing peppery note. I think I want more!

Yes, I was right: very light and lovely! I can see why Gingko compared it to a green style Tie Guan Yin — it’s got that same flowery sweetness to it. This one seems a bit earthier, but definitely in the same family. It only lasted through a few steeps, but it was really great while it lasted!

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I mug-brewed two bits of this with a few wild purple chrysanthemum flowers, and it turned out very nice. The heaviness of this tea brought the chrysanthemums down to a more afternoon-tea level, I think.

However, here’s the crazy part: when I finished my mug, I took a look at the unfurled leaves, and then I went and got my camera and some fresh tea for a comparison shot:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4585160941/in/set-72157623664718933/

How does that fit?!

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