I’ve lightened up my tea drawer at work for the Spring and Summer! All of the heavy black teas have gone home, and I have a bunch of oolongs, greens, and whites for the warm months. I thought this one – organic jasmine, organic orange peel, and organic Pouchong – sounded like the embodiment of the warmer weather!

First a sniff – heaven!!! The three ingredients combine for a slightly sweet and flowery aroma. Now a taste – mmmmmm! The smell pretty much describes the taste. I am surprised what a subtle, delightful detail the orange peel is. It gives a touch of sweetness and flavoring that I am loving.

Second infusion: (4 min) Light. Still jasminey and a little orange peel on the end of the sip. A bit disappointed that it was so light.

Third infusion: (5 min, and I upped the water temp to 195 since the second infusion was light) Sigh. Hot water with a jasmine taste. Drinkable but..

A question! It was a delicious first infusion at 185 but when I looked up Pouchongs, some people used 195, some 205 – does anyone have any temperature opinions about this type of tea? Maybe 185 for the first infusion then 195 for the subsequent infusion? I don’t think this one can do three. Do people change temps from infusion to infusion? Halp! Tea may get a bump if I can figure out how to make it more multiple steep friendly.

I also have to say that I was very happy with my serendipiTea ordering experience. My order arrived quickly and well packed in tons of colorful shredded magazine pages! I’m thrilled with their packaging. The teas come in a recyclable box and then a “plastic” bag which is actually a vegetable material and fully able to compost. The artwork is beautiful, and the tea names are whimsical and thoughtful. They use many organic ingredients. A real pleasure to order from them :)

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Miss Sweet

That tea sounds lovely! And thanks for the note about ordering & packaging, always good to know. I see this company ships overseas too, will definitely be checking them out!

~lauren.

I liked the name “three part poetry” – but had no idea what it meant, so I wiki-ed it – “ode generally has three parts: a strophe, an antistrophe, and an epode” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry#Ode; maybe everybody else knew except me but I learned something new today on steepster and your tea choice!

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Miss Sweet

That tea sounds lovely! And thanks for the note about ordering & packaging, always good to know. I see this company ships overseas too, will definitely be checking them out!

~lauren.

I liked the name “three part poetry” – but had no idea what it meant, so I wiki-ed it – “ode generally has three parts: a strophe, an antistrophe, and an epode” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry#Ode; maybe everybody else knew except me but I learned something new today on steepster and your tea choice!

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I love to cook, bake, read, paint, knit, do needlework, and garden. I need my coffee, but I LOVE my tea. I work at an Art School, and attend a large public university doing post-bac work (my BA is in English). I’m interested in the liminal spaces between art and craft, the academic and the practical, the individual and community, and the old and the new. I’m currently exploring these ideas through the disciplines of education, literature, history, and psychology.

I enjoy writing tasting notes, but have decided not to numerically rate teas as of 9/14/10. For an explanation, see my looooong tasting note about Mountain Malt from the Simple Leaf.

My favorites:
Chinese black teas
A good “milk and sugar” English style black
Earl Grey (classic, and in all variations!)
Vanilla teas (classic, and in all variations!)
Jasmine, Rose, Violet and other froofy, flowery teas!
An Occasional Oolong
Flavored Rooibos
Herbal Tisanes

Location

Collingswood, NJ

Website

http://jackiemania.wordpress....

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