Chizakura

Argh, I’ve been having a bit of an awkward week. Fairly busy, and the way my work schedule’s been, I only have time to have one cup of tea before work and then I pretty much only have time for one after work because by the time I’ve had dinner and my shower, I need to go to bed in two hours which is my cut-off for tea.

So despite all of my lovely teas that newly arrived, I haven’t had time to write many tasting notes.

Generally if I have such a limited amount of teas in a day, I won’t have any flavored ones. They’re just a low priority for me generally. (excluding Earl Grey. I treat Earl Greys the same as unflavored tea.) Today though is different. Today was the last day for my favorite co-worker, who feels like a close friend to me. I took her leaving very, very hard. Some people on here might remember me mentioning having a crummy day a couple weeks ago. That was when she told me she was quitting.
So hence the desserty teas today (I had Banana Walnut Treat earlier today, which was even tastier than I remembered) for cheer-ups. Anyway, onward to Ruby Pie!

The leaf amuses me. All the red bits from the strawberries, and cute chocolate-chip graham character pieces mixed in. It’s both pretty and cute at the same time! The scent has a bit of a lip gloss-ness to it — which is weird since there are actual strawberries in here — but you can’t go by smell alone, so still looking to trying this!

Anyway, since this is a fruity black tea, I was a bit apprehensive about adding milk to this. Adding milk is my habit for black teas, but I don’t like fruit+milk as a combo. So I poured some of this into another cup in case milk ruined it, in which case I’d still have some left. Turns out this was a good decision. With milk, it kills all the hibiscus which even though that’s normally an improvement, in the case of this tea it’s not. The amount of hibiscus in here isn’t enough to take over, but instead gives the rhubarb a more realistic flavor by giving it a slightly tart taste. It gives it a slight fakey taste when the hibiscus is lost. HOWEVER, with milk, the pie crust notes are far more detectable.

Without milk the fruit flavor is better. It doesn’t taste like lipgloss, and the hibiscus adds a pleasantly tart flavor without making you pucker. The black tea base isn’t bitter, so you don’t suffer without milk in that regard either. However, without milk, I don’t really taste the pie-crust notes so much.

So while this tea wasn’t perfect in that it appears you sort of have to pick rather than getting the best of both worlds (maybe milk+sugar is the magic combo? I should try that at some point), overall it is quite good! :) I LOVE the pie-crust notes the milk provides, and the fruit flavor without milk is wonderful! Now if I could just merge both together, this would be perfect, haha xD

Overall I like this with milk better. I really like having the pie crust notes. :)

No notes yet.

Dare I say it? Am I being too impulsive by already saying that this has become one of my favorite teas?

Eh, let’s say it. I think it’s safe. This tea was so great! It’s the first Golden Monkey I’ve tried, and I think it’s pretty safe to say I’ve found a winner. :) It had a very interesting taste. It tasted chocolately, yet it was fruity, and yet it was also had a slight tinge of pepper too. Very slight mind you, the tea is very pleasantly sweet! I practically guzzled the cup, and I have my next infusion steeping now. The shelf life on the package said 36 months. As if this’ll be around for three years. More like three days. Haha. Next time I order this, I’ll be sure to order it with a tin. This’ll be a permanent one. Very glad I was confident and ordered a good pouch rather than just a sample.

I’m feeling much more comfortable about my likes with black teas. I tend to love them either very bold and roasty, or really naturally sweet. I enjoy the nutty ones, and I’m not a huge fan of super peppery ones, nor super smokey ones as I discovered with lapsang souchong.

Edit: Second infusion, the chocolatey and fruity notes have really receded, and it’s mostly hayish now. It’s still quite flavorful, and really good! I’ll be sure to try a third infusion. :)

Got this as one of my samples from my first Teavivre order! :D

Well this is my first lapsang souchong. I felt it was a type of tea I ought to try, but so far I’m not terribly sure if I like it! I always thought of myself as someone who liked a smoky taste, but yeah… wow. Heh. One thing I can tell you though, is that it tastes like the old campfires from days dearly missed with the family on camping trips from my childhood.

In the sense of the nostalgia, I love it dearly, as it brings back so many memories. If I close my eyes, I can almost swear I’m in front of a nighttime campfire at Christina Lake. It doesn’t taste entirely like smoke, I definitely can taste the wood they used in the fire. I feel like this would be best drunk outside in the fresh air with the birds chirping. I think I might wander outside with this in fact.

All that said though, while I’m happy to go down a trip on memory lane, I think I’d rather think about my camping memories than drink them. I’m happy I tried this, as I really felt like this was something I should try as a black tea lover.

EDIT: yeah, not loving it. Made it halfway through the cup and just tossed it. xD; Definitely glad it was a sample, and still happy that I finally tried a lapsang souchong for the first time.

Yay! I’m so excited. I feel so privileged to get to try this. Unless I’m just sleepy and was stupid with the search, this tea is neither on Steepster’s database, nor is it available to purchase yet.

Anyway, I got a sample of this with my Butiki order. Stacy asked if I was interested, and I immediately responded with a resounding YES even though I detest all kinds of soda, and I’ve never had honeybush ever. It just sounded so fascinating, I had to try it.

I held out the dry leaf to everybody and asked what they thought it smelled like without telling them what it was. They all said rootbeer! You know when something smells authentic when you can tell that story. :) Anyway, this smells and tastes so much like rootbeer that it’s mind blowing. Even though I’m drinking it hot, it feels so much like I have a glass of rootbeer, that I can almost swear there’s even fizz in this, haha.

Now, I don’t really taste “float” (AKA ice cream) but I’m drinking this without sugar, so it’s entirely possible that you’ll get more of an ice creamy flavor with sugar. This tastes so much like rootbeer, that it’s actually unbelievable. I honestly didn’t think this was possible.

For anyone who even mildly likes rootbeer, definitely pick some of this up when it’s available! :)

Hooray! My big box of Butiki arrived today! :) My sister asked me “How was your shift?” as I came into the door, already tearing into the box. My response was, “Who cares, look what I’ve got! :D” as I started pulling out the almost embarrassing amount of pouches of tea from the box and onto the counter.
(I did have a good shift though, mind you. But even if I didn’t, it’d be forgotten at this point anyway)

The only sad thing though is that by the time I had a quick shower, and a quick dinner, this’ll probably be the only tea I get to drink. It’s 7:50PM right now, and I have to get up at 4:30AM tomorrow for my early shift, so … yeah. Technically I probably shouldn’t be having any caffeinated ones at all, but … How can you tell yourself that when a huge beautiful box that contains 98% black tea that you have to wait until after 12:00PM tomorrow? You can’t.
(By the way Stacy, thanks for the little present! Such a nice surprise, and very pretty. :D)

Anyway, so here we are with the tea. This is one of the samples I requested with my order. At the scent of the dry leaves, I’m getting pretty excited. See I’m crazy picky with chai. In the sense that I have yet to find my ideal perfect chai. This smells pretty close to that. Mostly cinnamony+cardamomy, but still with a good kick.

I’m drinking it now with milk, and then added a bit of brown sugar. Afterall, what is a chai without milk and brown sugar? Anyway, this is very good! It’s mostly cinnamon which is fantastic, as I have a bit of a fixation on cinnamon… (it goes on oatmeal, red river cereal, pancakes, French toast, hot chocolate, cheerios, blueberry bagels, raisin toast, buttered toast, vanilla ice cream, apple crisp/crumble/pie … and I’m sure I’m forgetting something)

While it is mostly cinnamon, it’s more complex than say DavidsTea’s Pure Chai (which it should be, the whole point of that DT one was to be simple) I get a bit of cardamom taste and it has a pleasant burning spiciness, but in a the cranked up cinnamon way, rather than pepper and ginger that brings roast beef to mind.

I’m curious to see what this would taste like blended with Butiki’s Pumpkin Crème Brulee… I’ll be sure to pick up a bit of that along with this sometime in the future. That’s a combo worth exploring. :)

All in all, this is excellent! As of this note, so far this chai is the closest to my ideal, so I’m quite thrilled. Thanks for the chance to try this, Stacy! :)

I’ve gotten wiser with re-steeping, so I can now get three excellent infusions, and a fourth still worth drinking infusion. I love the third steep. Not as good as the first, but much better than the second. It goes super creamy, and tastes exactly like how I imagine sweet potatoes do in my head. (But I could be way wrong, I’ve never had sweet potatoes before) Whatever that flavor is, it’s delicious :)

Everytime I have this tea, I have this impression of ‘why do I drink other teas?’ haha. I think this is gonna stay my favorite for a long, long time. It’ll take something mighty special to dethrone this. :)

I was very comforted to discover that I hadn’t written a tasting note for this tea yet. Having a tea on hand that I had yet to write about is helping suppress the urge to place an order at Verdant after already reaching my maximum for ordering for the month of May. (Yes, I did it that quickly. I need to learn to pace myself)

Anyway, I am glad I held off on writing a note for this. I went through a bizarre week where no matter what tea I drank, all I tasted was black pepper. ._. Even in Mi Xian Black which is currently the sweetest black tea — unflavored — I’ve ever had. I might’ve thought something had somehow gone terribly wrong were it not for the fact that I was even getting that taste in teas I’d already had in my stash and had drunk from, so it was clearly just me.

(Speaking of which Stacy, disregard my comment on how Hattialli Golden Lion Assam tasted on the long steep. That was during my BLACK PEPPER phase. When I order some up next, I’ll try the long steep again and tell you what I think. :D)

So because of that phase, the first time I drank this, it was just PEPPER so I took a break from drinking this until I went back to normal.

Anyway, I find this tea works great both at the 3 minute steep, and at a 4 minute steep. I vaguely taste a bit of a chocolate note — though it’s wrapped up in something I can’t quite put my finger on — and then just when I think it’s going to turn into CHOCOLATE, it then has a very strong nutty pecan like flavor that lingers after the sip.

I find if you hold it on your tongue longer, you can taste the cocoa-wrapped-in-something flavor longer, as the pecan taste comes more just when you’re swallowing.

This is my first Yunnan tea and overall I think it’s a very good experience. :) It’s a very nice cup. It has a very creamy texture even though the pecan gives you an impression that the tea tastes salty. (Which it doesn’t really, it’s just that I tend to associate nuts with salt)

While this didn’t leap to my favorite, I would definitely purchase this again. This tasting note was based on the three minute steep which is delicious, but I think I like a bit of a longer steep to really make the flavors pop a bit more.

DAY AFTER EDIT: Hmm, this time I’m tasting more chocolate with a hint of pecan. Funny how the more you have a tea, the different it becomes. If this is how I taste it from now on, this’ll definitely be a regular tea for me, yummy! :)

Okay. I’ve decided to play Gongfu. After looking at the very beautiful gaiwan sets at Verdant, I decided I wanted to try and give it a go. That said, I’m simply using two mugs (one to steep with, other to drink out of) so it’s not terribly official. xD But you know, before going all out for the “authentic” experience, I figured I better at least try it out to see if I like it.

This is my first gongfu attempt, so it might turn out to be an utter failure. But let’s try it. I wasn’t sure what size Verdant meant by “medium Gaiwan” so I decided to assume 6oz and did a tbsp of leaves, once again assuming that that was how much ‘5g’ was.

Okay, I did my rinse. It was a disaster. I panicked so I didn’t know what to use to hold back the leaves, so the rinse was around 15 seconds. XD Lost some of the leaves when pouring, and also made a bit of a mess on the counter. Dangit.

1st Steep 3 Seconds:
This tastes like how when I western brew it. Deep, dark chocolately, not to bitter not too sweet. Interestingly, when I brew western, I always feel the need to add milk to this. With this, I don’t feel the need for it at all.

2nd Steep 6 seconds:
Another mini disaster. Was tilting my infuser without thinking when using it as a strainer, lost some more liquid onto the counter. Also, now that my mug was pre-heated from the first steep, I forgot how much hotter it’d be to pour boiling water into a pre-heated cup so I burned my tongue. Note to self, use hot but cooler temp.
I feel like I’m getting more of that cinnamon taste that Verdant promised, which I never really got out of Laoshan black western style. Even as a resteep, I never tasted cinnamon, I’d just get the same flavor but weaker. Chocolate taste still in the background, and it’s sweeter now.

Steep 3 9 seconds:
Realizing that the infuser can fit onto the mug I stopped pouring it over my drinking mug like an idiot and instead inserted into the drinking mug, and poured the steeped tea through it. There. No mess.

It’s still cinnamony and chocolately. I feel like it’s weaker already than it should be. I suspect the boiling water and the stupidly long rinse is the problem. Next I’ll use under boiling and be sure to be prepared from the beginning. This is tasting like steep two would with western brew.

Apparently I’m tired. I missed my mouth at the second to last sip and the tea went down my shirt instead of down my gullet. Oh well, keep drinking. I’m going to have my shower after this session anyway.

Steep 4 12 seconds:
Yeah, I definitely messed up with that long rinse. This tea is already starting to be done like dinner, and it should be good for several more steeps yet. I’ll try a couple more in case it resurrects itself suddenly.

Steep 5 15 seconds:
… And it’s done. It’s now a shadow of what it was, with a feebly colored liquor.

Well, I won’t rate this session, as it wouldn’t really be fair seeing as I messed up. I’ll try again sometime. xD; Hopefully this provided some giggles at least.

When I discovered that Mattu’s served loose leaf, I was quite surprised. I was even more taken aback at the surprisingly large variety! They even have a few oolongs. I can’t think of any coffee shop that serves oolong period. So needless to say, my curiosity was piqued so I happily went in and grabbed a cup while I was at the mall.

Anyway, this blend is a bit more on the Ceylon side than I would’ve preferred, and sure the paper cup taste was getting up in my face while drinking, but it was actually a pretty decent cup of tea! Not as malty as other Irish Breakfasts (probably because it’s so heavy on the Ceylon) but it had enough weight to be satisfying. The water was boiling hot, and the tea didn’t go bitter at all, so it’s definitely not poor quality even if it’s not the best.

This of course isn’t an end-all tea, but it was definitely enjoyable! When I’m in the mall, I’ll be sure to ignore Starbucks and go to Mattu’s instead from now on.

I’ve been quite enjoying this one. I find this one is a bit of a mystery, as I’m tasting a lot of things, but this past week or two I’ve been having difficulty pinning down exactly what those tastes are.

I definitely like it more at the five minute range. I think the best way I can describe the five minute steep, is that it goes sort of walnutty. It’s like, take a walnut, sprinkle some cinnamon and cloves on it, and throw on a couple pieces of hay for good measure. It finishes with a woody sort of taste, and as the cup cools, I can then taste the raw cacao notes at the finish as well, whereas I couldn’t really taste that while it’s still piping. Even then, very mildly mind you. The finish is woody with a trace of cacao. If I wasn’t looking for it, I’d probably have missed it.

Along with how it’s difficult to describe how it tastes, it’s also difficult to put a rating on it. I’m not really sure where it stands as a number. However, I know I really like this, and while I wouldn’t order it every time, I’d definitely order it every two or three times. :)

No notes yet.

I expected to like this, but I wasn’t expecting it to like it as much as I do. :) You see, I tend to enjoy really strong black teas, and this one is advertised as being pretty mild, designed for some kick back and relax sipping.

Which is exactly what it does! Despite the fact that it is indeed a milder black, it’s still plenty flavorful. Now my learning taste buds are mainly picking up on the peachy notes at the end of the taste, but I do pick up on a very slight hint that could be a woody taste, though I wouldn’t have been able to identify it as mahogany! :)

Thanks to this tea, I now understand what a certain taste I got out of Premium Taiwanese Assam Upgrade was: the tobacco taste. While it’s not as heavy as the aforementioned, I can lightly taste its presence, and I feel super enlightened for understanding what that note is, now that I’ve recognized it in this tea too!

The texture of this tea is thinner than some of the teas I’ve been drinking lately, such as Assam, but it has a slight malty thickness that’s very satisfying.

As the cup cools, the peach recedes a bit more in the background, and I’m beginning to pick up more on that tobacco note, but that’s not a bad thing.

This tea suits two prefences: A black tea lover who’d like a calmer gentle cup now and then, or someone who wants to give black tea a go but is wary of it being overly bold. If either of those sound like you, then pick this one up! :) I know I’ll be getting more of this! :D

No notes yet.

I really really like this. Partially because the name means Elephant Road (in addition to ducks, I’m pretty crazy about elephants. As is evident by my elephant mugs, and elephant pillow buddy thing among other things) and partially because at the 3:30 steep this tastes a lot like Mi Xian Black + malt which is fantastic!

I think this is the one where Stacy personally recommended throwing an extra minute on the steep time, so I’ll try that for the next cup with fresh leaves. My first cup I went with the website recommendation. I wanted to try both and compare, and pick which way I like better. The three and a half minute steep is lovely. It’s not extremely strong, but it’s still well flavored and fairly robust. I mainly pick up on the apricot notes than anything else, and it has a malty finish.

The leaves are quite different than what I expected. I guess after two different Premium Taiwanese Assams, Mi Xian Black, and Laoshan Black from Verdant, I tend to expect to see twisty bramble like tea leaves now, but these ones are greeny gold and curly. :) Thanks to the strong apricot notes, this is really nice and sweet. Yum! :)

I’m really in love with this already, and will definitely be picking more up on my next order.

I was very excited to try this. :) For one, Premium Taiwanese Assam is currently my favorite tea, and I also love caramel. So this combo almost seemed to good to be true! :)

At the beginning of the sip, I can really taste the Taiwanese Assam, but just when I’d normally get the raisin note at the end, it turns into CARAMEL~ instead. It’s a very buttery, creamy caramel that’s very guilt inducing, haha! I don’t really taste vanilla, but I suspect it’s what’s contributing to the creamy taste and texture.

This is probably my new favorite flavored tea. It’s just so yummy without being sickeningly sweet. If I could only have one between this and regular Premium Taiwanese Assam though, I’d choose the latter. But this does make a very tasty alternative for when that sweet tooth kicks in.

Yum.

To be honest, I’d been dodging trying the Keemun tea from Butiki, ‘cause the description kind of scared me off. But I was so excited about ’banana walnut’ that I requested a sample of this in my most recent order.

This tea has a very earthy flavor from the Keemun, with a sort of nuttiness added by the walnuts. You don’t taste walnut really, but it definitely adds this sort of nutty hint of flavor that’d definitely be noticeably missing were it taken away.

And the banana … OH the banana! It comes out so strong and so irresistibly sweet just before you swallow. Don’t guzzle this tea, or you’ll miss out on the banana. Sip it, let it linger on your tongue for a moment, and then swallow with the glory of the banana. :)

Definitely avoid adding sugar to this, as it’s plenty sweet and not bitter at all. I feel like the natural banana taste would be ruined if sugar were added. Would turn it sort of artificial.

That said, I think I’m right about the Keemun. I’m not sure if I’d enjoy it plain because I’m not really into earthy — think soil rather than of roots or leaves or something — teas, but with the sweetness of the banana it’s become something quite fantastic and special.

So as soon as I heard about David’s new mug, purple with a gold elephant on it, I had to have it. I decided the purple elephants on my white David’s mug needed a friend, so I went out and got it on Wednesday after work.

While I was there I bought a few tins, 100g of Cream of earl grey, and 20g of this. I forgot to order Citrus Dream on my last Butiki order so I bought a b it of this to tide me over until my next.

It’s less complex than I remembered, but it has that sweet lemon taste that I remembered so that’s good. Not sure if I need to adjust the parameters or if it’s because of the horrible Thursday I had that’s at fault :( I’ll try this again tonight.

Either way though, this is a pretty good tisane, and is fulfilling the need for an herbal for a little while.

No notes yet.

Taste note numba 50! :D

Okay, I’m weird. I don’t taste what everyone else tastes, but what I taste, I love. So I guess that’s okay then. :)

Taiwanese Assam Upgrade version tastes like sitting in a log cabin in front of a roaring fire. It’s thick, and hearty, and especially goes great with a hot bowl of Red River cereal in the morning. What’s really strange though, is that for me this tea tastes really savory! It’s amazing how differently people interpret different tastes, but no matter when I have this, or regardless of if I have anything before it or not, that’s what I taste. I don’t know how else to describe it. I’ve had multiple cups of this now, and I can’t really tell you what it brings to mind other than the image I explained above.

Sadly, due to it being a AAA tea, it’s pretty expensive. Dx; Especially when you factor in how much leaf you use per cup. If I was as rich as the impression I’m giving a certain tea retailer by my multiple large orders this past month, I’d make sure to have this on hand at all times, but since I’m not and there are other teas I do ultimately like better, this’ll be a once in a while indulgence purchase. :)

(By the way, for Steepsterites outside of Canada, Red River cereal is a type of porridge, but it’s kind of seeds and grains rather than being composed of oats. It’s very hearty and delicious, and I feel for you that it seems to only be in Canada.)

I was a bit worried when I smelled the leaf. It smelled of caramel and … something funky. Wouldn’t know how to explain it. My worries melted away after I steeped it though. Apparently this tea just has a bit of a funny dry smell! :)

I couldn’t find any steeping instructions on the website, but maybe I was just impatient and didn’t read thoroughly enough. This is already later than I should be having a black tea as it is, so I was in a bit of a hurry to get this going. So I went with the assumption of one teaspoon per 8oz, used boiling water, and steeped for three minutes, which is always safe for a black tea.

Anyway, yum yum~ :D This tastes like caramel popcorn! Makes a great dessert, but I wouldn’t drink this every day. For a sweet tooth day, I’ll definitely be scooping some of this up, putting in a little milk and sipping happily with no guilt.

I am going to adjust parameters for the next cup though. This tastes really good, but I do feel like it’s not at its full potential for delicious. Perhaps I should try a four minute steep. That works well with the Coconut Cream Pie. :)

I’ll enjoy this pouch to the end, but this isn’t a re-order for me. Meanwhile Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish and Coconut Cream Pie I’d have on hand all the time if I could for my dessert cravings. :)

So I’ve been a bit worried about trying this. I was so excited to try this I could hardly stand it, but after hearing about all about the “chemical taste” “cheap wine taste” “off-taste” etc comments from Steepsterites the past couple weeks, I almost dreaded my order arriving, and finding out if I was one of the unlucky ones too.

The smell is promising so far. It’s overwhelmingly of blueberry, and doesn’t seem to be anything weird. I like my teas fairly strong, so if I’m given a steeping window, I always try it on the strongest first. The website suggested 4-5 minutes, so I went with 5. The liquor is … VERY dark. Haha. Like BLACK. This black tea earned its name, hehe.

Sipping it now, I get a strong blueberry flavor, and a thick sweetness, which I imagine is emulating the ‘cream cheese danish’ part. I’m wishing I tried this before I ate that lasagna though, because I’m not sure if that tang yet is authentically like cream cheese, or if it’s that chemical taste I’ve been hearing about since the tomato sauce is throwing me off.

I’m thinking this one would do better with a four minute steep instead of a five. It has that funny taste that you get when you steep a strong black for too long, almost like you’ve just cooked it a bit.

I tried a second infusion, and either this one does NOT re-steep well at all, or it’s because I killed it with a five minute infusion the first time around.

All in all, it’s promising. Now when I smell the dry leaf after having a cup, I smell the the cream cheesy sweetness in addition to the blueberries. Grabbed some fresh leaf and going try out a four minute infusion this time around, still with boiling water.
--

Now that my mouth is rinsed of the lasagne, I’m trying the second cup of this, this time at four minutes judging by what I could discern from the first. Now I can definitely tell that losing that minute has caused less of the actual flavor to come through, but the black tea itself has improved now that it hasn’t been oversteeped. Perhaps five minutes and under boiling will be the magic touch? I want to avoid the using extra leaf route if possible, because extra leaf means less cups, which means this face: :(

Anyway, musings about the perfect parameters aside, this is some serious yum in a cup. The blueberries taste JUICY, and there’s that thick, tangy sweet cream cheese flavor which practically makes my eyes roll back into my head.

I’m going to say something extremely selfish, so you may want to avert your eyes from the following sentence: Why did I not order all seven pouches that were available at the time of ordering!?

This is good. Really good. I’m putting myself on that waiting list on the website. :)

No notes yet.

So I went laser tagging with my work friends last night, the first time I played since those elementary school birthday parties from a million years ago. :) I had tons of fun, but now my throat hurts from screaming too much. DX; So I thought I’d give this tea a go on my break.

I didn’t realize this had hibiscus so I oversteeped it. It’s a really dark color now and I can’t really taste the chamomile anymore. It’s still fairly sweet though naturally, the cool mint feels good on my throat. I agree with others who said this was a bit on the busy side. I kinda just wanted the chamomile. Overall it’s okay, but I couldn’t be bothered to bring a tin home even though it’d be free.