236 Tasting Notes

85

I’ve not had a good night’s sleep in almost a week. Each night I wake at 3 am and obsess about stressful matters at work and then don’t get back to sleep until 5:30 am. Since I must rise for the day at 6 am, this is completely inadequate. As a result of this lack of sleep my husband told me this morning that I look like a particularly ill raccoon.

I pulled this tea from my collection of samples because it looks like it can work caffeinated magic on my sleepy soul before a critical vendor contract meeting this morning. Straight from the envelope it smells strong and bracing. The malt rises to my nose and slaps me around a bit as if to say, “Wake up, Sleepyhead!” Once in water the flowery fragrances of Darjeeling mingle with a musky tea aroma. It smells appealing.

It brews up into a dark burgundy liquor with a nice no-nonsense sharp malty flavor with very little bitter and no astringency. I can feel it filling my veins with liquid power enabling me to negotiate well.

It is not a Dawn substitute since I wouldn’t want it strong musky malt every morning, but it’s great for mornings like today when things must get done and I lack the strength pre-tea to do them. This is truly a sturdy cup of tea.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 15 sec

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88
drank Florence by Harney & Sons
236 tasting notes

The Search for a New Dawn continues today: One of the first things I did after bemoaning the evil fate that had befallen one of my two favorite breakfast companions (Dawn tea) was to check on Steepster for a set of teas to try to replace my favorite morning cup. I quickly came upon this one which looked promising. I love chocolate and hoped this would be a good Dawn replacement. Since it received rave reviews here, I ordered it and a few other Harney tea possibilities.

It smells more of hazelnuts than of chocolate in the envelope but once I brew it the fragrance changes to a more complex meld of scents that include nuts, chocolate, sweet tea, and some undefineable sweet note. Chocolate is among the fragrances but it is a softer chocolate than what I think of when I think of chocolate. (I like the darkest of chocolates so that is my benchmark.) The smell is pleasant.

The taste is better. There is a slight bitter edge that adds to the rich feel of chocolate in the tea and it combines nicely with the nuttiness and tea. It is more of an afternoon tea in my opinion since the flavors are a bit too rich and demanding for the morning and would do best with time to sip and a bit of bread or croissant to have along with the tea, but I’m happy with it today since today is the one day we don’t go for our run in the morning. I can’t really see quaffing this tea to get my pre-run caffeine and then haring off. However, it would work marvelously as a post-run treat after one of our long weekend runs, especially in the fall and winter or as a treat prior to going to the theater.

Will I buy it and add it to my unmanageably huge supply of flavored teas? Yes. I will.

Update: Out of curiosity I added a scant bit of creamed cinnamon honey made by a local woman to the tea. I just had the feeling it would work well and it does. It transforms the tea from a delightful chocolate treat to a wonderfully complex dessert. Now if I only had a croissant to go with the tea.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 30 sec

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90
drank Vanilla Comoro by Harney & Sons
236 tasting notes

It smells delightful in the package, like some sort of sweet maple cream candy. Once drenched in hot water the smell begins to include the typical tea fragrance. It darkens very fast, turning a coffee-black so I remove it from the water before the three minutes are up. There is a slight astringency to the taste but no bitterness. Mostly it tastes of warm, cozy vanilla or like marshmallows with a bit of tea. I like it. I’ll probably be ordering some since it is a very nice, undemanding decaffeinated tea I can have anytime in the evening to calm after a difficult work day.

It is, of course, not a Dawn replacement since it’s decaf, but I like to try a company’s decaf tea in hopes of finding the perfect tea for night drinking and this one is definitely worth spending more time with.

Update: Now that I’ve spent more time with it (have almost finished the cup) I find that I need to upgrade the rating a bit. It really is comfort in a cup. All the emotional pain of the week has been bandaged up and kissed away with this tea. I will need to order more, but not until I finish the rest of my Harney & Son’s samples. At least waiting would be the responsible thing to do….

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 15 sec

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71

Welcome to the first day of Seeking a New Dawn: Carolyn’s quixotic search for the tea that probably doesn’t exist any more. I’ve ordered several batches of trial black teas from various companies: from inexpensive to pricey. In truth I really don’t care how much the tea costs as long as it fills that Dawn-shaped hole in my morning.

Today we start with an inexpensive Yunnan. The leaves are somewhat pretty with little golden bits. It has a classic tea fragrance with something light and fruity in the offing. It darkened up reasonably fast in the cup so I removed it. I’ve had a enough of over-steeped bitter tea after yesterday’s shenanigans in which no less than 3 cups of tea were ruined by my over-anxious boss’ sudden demands, which caused me to ignore the tea until it had reached the toxic stage.

There is a slight astringency but not so much as to be offensive. I’m not getting any bitterness but I suspect that it would not stand up to much more time steeping before the bitter set in. There is a very slight raisin after-taste. Overall it is an average tea. I would’t toss it, but it is not the Holy Grail of teas. I’ll finish my sample today (hoping it gives me strength for what has been a very difficult week) and move on tomorrow. It’s not a re-buy tea.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 30 sec

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80

Slightly smoky fragrance with a leather undertone. The first cup was bitter so I dumped it and poured a second which had a leather taste but not much more. (Puerh improves with re-steeps.) Third cup still has a strong leather component and a slight bitterness but is developing something fruity in the fragrance. Third cup the fruitiness is gone replaced by a sober, rich flavor and fragrance as if apricots had dried without their classic sweetness.

Throughout this tea has a nice calming quality to it with just a little of the puerh buzz, that sense that one can be both meditatively alert and drunk on summer flowers at the same moment.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 30 sec
Cofftea

Carolyn! We haven’t seen tasting notes, comments, or discussions from you in months and some of us were pretty worried. Welcome back, you were missed. <3

LadyLondonderry

Welcome back, Carolyn! It’s great to see you on my Dashboard again. :) I have you to thank for introducing me to Panyang Bohea Select, which in turn led me to Panyang Bohea Supreme, now one of my all-time favorite teas!

Carolyn

@Cofftea: No need to worry, everything was just really busy and I settled into drinking The Simple Leaf’s Dawn tea everyday (and therefore had nothing to say and no time to write). Unfortunately I went to order more Dawn and they’ve closed up their shop. Obviously this means I must find a substitute for Dawn and Steepster is a good place to work things out. I’m still busy, but I clearly can’t deal with life without tea, so I’m back.

@LadyLondonderry: I love the Panyang Bohea Select. I’ll have to try the Panyang Bohea Supreme. Thanks for the comment.

Cofftea

Yeah we’ve been talking about SL’s closing for a while. No one can find out what’s going on. I still think of you every time I drink or comment on a pu erh tasting note:)

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100
drank Dawn by The Simple Leaf
236 tasting notes

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100
drank Dawn by The Simple Leaf
236 tasting notes

This is my favorite breakfast tea. I’ve had it most mornings. The taste has a lovely chocolate note that wakes as it soothes. It is also difficult to oversteep it. I don’t think I’ve had a single bitter morning when Dawn was in my cup.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 15 sec

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78

I steeped the tea and sniffed it only to recoil with an “Oh no! It’s kasha tea!” Kasha is a strong-smelling Eastern-European grain dish that my family makes. My father loves eating kasha mixed with eggs and fried onions and served with a side of pickled herring. (The kasha smells stronger than the onions or the herring.) My husband loves eating plain kasha. (I consider kasha to be a man-dish. One of those strong tasting things that only a man could like.) A few times a year I make kasha for my beloved and then pray for the smell to leave the kitchen soon. Once I made a cinnamon bread at the same time in the hopes that the cinnamon would defeat the kasha. No dice. Nothing defeats kasha. Nothing.

So, here I am sipping the kasha tea, I mean soba-cha. I’m surprised. It tastes good. The tea is roasty and sweet like cereal grains and it makes me feel good to drink it. But it still smells like kasha. I don’t know if I can get over that part. I’m going to share the rest of this tea with my kasha-loving beloved when I get home. Won’t he be surprised and pleased!

Much thanks to takgoti for sharing the experience!

Update: I’ve given my beloved a cup of Soba-Cha and he sniffed it and said, “It smells like kasha” then happily began sipping. He says it is wonderful and a very soothing tea. So I’m upping the rating to acknowledge his liking of the tea.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Leafbox Tea

Is it good to compare a tea to this Kasha???

So this is a hold-you-nose kind of tea…

Pete

Carolyn

The tea smells exactly like kasha and I think it actually is a version of kasha when I note that kasha’s other name is roasted buckwheat groats and this is a roasted buckwheat tea. However, it doesn’t really look like kasha. Kasha has grains about four times the size of the grains of this tea. (This tea’s grains look like they’re the size of aquarium gravel.)

A lot of people like kasha. I think it’s a stinky cereal. However, when my husband comes home and the house smells like kasha he gets more excited than when the house smells like bread. So it is clearly a pleasant smell to him and when I’ve made it for guests they’ve claimed to like the smell (or pretended to).

The problem with kasha is that it really isn’t possible to hold your nose. It has a very penetrating aroma that lasts. When I make kasha the house smells like kasha for a week. This tea isn’t quite so penetrating, but it is very strange to catch a whiff of it and think “kasha”.

Aren’t you in New York? If so, it is easy for you to get a bit of kasha. Just go to your nearest Jewish deli and ask for some kasha (they will almost certainly cook it with egg). Or drop by Nathan’s in Coney Island and get a kasha knish.

Carolyn

OK. I just asked one of my co-workers (male) to sniff my tea. He’s pretty white bread in his tastes so he’s a good test of a normal person. He says it smells delicious and makes his mouth water. This lends more support to my hypothesis that kasha is a guy thing.

sophistre

It’s interesting…I’ve never had kasha, but I’ve had soba. I know that I like soba, but I wonder if the end-product of soba isn’t as aromatic as kasha? I can’t for the life of me recall what it smells like. That’s probably the answer to my question. This one is totally on my shopping list now, though!

DragonWell

I’ve never had kasha or soba-cha, but they both sound great! I’ll have to try it. Thanks.

Carolyn

@sophistre Soba does not smell like Kasha. Soba has a very neutral smell and a slightly nutty taste. If soba and kasha had a cage match, kasha would wipe the floor with the noodle-like soba.

@DragonWell You can have my share of the world-market for kasha. I’m glad it sounds good to you.

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I’m a suddenly enthusiastic tea aficionado. I had no idea how varied and delicious teas could be. Also I’m a dairy-free vegetarian, so if you see me say “cream” or “milk” it means soy milk or soy cream.

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