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A tea I was looking most forward and luckily, it delivers my expectations quite right.

It is EG, for sure. Not sure how much bergamot, rather quite generic citrusy note. I mean, I had more bergamot forward teas. But at least it wasn’t overpowering the light, but present base tea.

Sadly, other ingredient I was looking forward, isn’t much present. As Roswell Strange mentioned, it needs more juniper! It was pine-y; but somehow it just complements the citrus notes. I was expecting stronger note of it. Not sure how much berries were in my sachet, I will try to crush them next time a bit. They use cotton and thus opaque sachets, for two steepings. I will try second steep now… but I don’t expect much difference.

And not sure if jasmine flowers are in, but it was nicely floral too. Better than yesterday experience, but still I have expected more from it.

I have ordered myself a P&T Advent Calendar as, honestly, a sampler of this Berliner company. But I couldn’t order just that, so I took one variety box as well (Good Day Variety Box). They have decided to send it in two packages and although they were scanned very same time on courier service; they decided to deliver variety box only. And with wrong weight… no, the box wasn’t 10.15 kilos heavy. Probably extra zero…

Anyway, I took another new tea today and I had no mood to brew gongfu, I took a bold black tea. At least that were my expectations.

They weren’t met. Sadly, it is pretty simple base (how weird, when there are black teas from India and China; and Chinese pu-erh) and flavouring wasn’t great as well. It contains pure barley malt, which is something I have tried and well, it is pronounced in taste as well in the aroma. But I expected that brisk tea maltiness and unfortunately, nope. It was mediocre in almonds, which are in as well; it was like a bit of marzipan (in the first steep), while in the second steep it was a bit more nutty.

Maybe you now just wonder, why I tried brewing the sachet two times — simply, they suggest doing it.

The base is reminding me rather caramel, but sadly very one-dimensional and very simple. Way too much, especially when there is pu-erh, which can be dark and robust… which I would enjoy with the other notes I have noticed.

For the price I have been expecting more interesting flavour profile.

I searched what “Hunky Dory” means and found out it is name of the Bowie’s album name. Sorry for being so ignorant and not knowing it.

A tea I have received from derk, thank you!

Decided for gongfu, as again, I haven’t done it for long; and I had mood for that today. And what to brew? Why not something absolutely new in my stash?

When I took the sniff from the pouch, I thought it is some kind of lapsang, as it is smoked tea. And then some mushroomy aroma appeared. It is pu-erh? As it is quite cold today here; I decided to go through and preapare it. I saw lots of small branches and and it freaked me a little. I thought it will be boring; or not so great at all.

Boy, I was wrong!

I preheated the gaiwan and added dry tea in. That release of the aromas brought me again to the birch covered sauna 5 years back in Finland. It was so cozy aroma. So mellow and a bit of agressive too. A little of meaty note, but that was okay!

I did 10 second steep. Too short? Maybe! But hey… it is already full of flavour. And it is so mellow-creamy, but on the other hand it is woody and lightly smoky. Sweet aftertaste and mouth coating qualities. I wish my tea stays longer warm; I use too big bowl for it. Nevertheless, it is tasty even lukewarm.

Second steep, 15 seconds long, reminds me even more that sauna experience. But instead using my noste, I am using my mouth for feeling it. It is woody, but creamy in same time, again mouthcoating and some light and refreshing note there. The smokiness is low, but decent in the flavour profile. Derk said it is comforting and I have to agree. Of course, I have opened map of Japan to see where my shipment is heading and how far it is from the Japanese plant, but I am rather checking the tea plantations nearby. It is in the Shiga prefecture and not even Yunomi is helping much with teas from this place.

It’s a bit drying, but so highly drinkable. You never feel complete dryness in the mouth, because, as I have wrote, it is mouth coating and creamy.

It doesn’t hold for long. I felt in fourth steep it loses its power, and goes more into fruity notes. It is not a flaw though. Maybe my steeps were just too short. I feel it is redfruits. Not present too much, but they are there? Not stonefruit in my opinon.

Unique.

A tea I have finally recieved from derk but actually there is White Antlers written on the pouch, so… thank you both!

I took this one, as it is only tea I have received today (more to come…) which is not single or two serves only. Decided to go western, rather than gongfu, just because I was lazy with preparation as I am truly tired from work today. Two urgent consigments aren’t fun to manage well, especially when one is hazmat and second is safe, but liquid. And you don’t have proper cardboard box for the jerrican, so you use steel drum instead.

But I have digressed greatly, so sorry if you don’t care about my work troubles. It’s my problem and not yours.

Honestly, the aroma of the dry tea was quite strongly mushroomy for me, with some decaying wood notes. Kind of medicinal too.

I took only one tea spoon, and not even heaped, because, what if, I don’t like it. I let it steep for 2 minutes approximately, and I was moving up and down the bag, mostly because I wanted to steep it properly and all the tea I had in.

The taste was indeed savoury as derk noticed not that long ago. I can notice the leather too, and it was, as the smell prepared me for, kind of mushroomy, wet wood, and sometimes a bit medicinal. Sometimes a bit stone-like — read: mineral, and some sips this quality overpowered the others. I don’t know why, as the mug should be same all the time. It was easydrinker though and it gave me so much needed comfort.

Certainly a tea to dig more into. So, that said, no rating from me yet.

Well, well… tea I have received from Shae in last year handmade Advent Calendar. And now I have received it in the subscription, so a fresh batch.

It wasn’t bad — I have overleafed it a bit and I have steeped it for a bit too long. But nevertheless, it was tasty and strong black tea which I needed this morning. There was a very nice smokiness, but not the overpowering the Ceylon, quite simple, base. The lapsang used was smoked nicely and it wasn’t reminding me some smoked meat as some lapsangs do.

The apple flavour was there nice. I have noticed it and it was adding some sweetness which was necessary. But something was missing. And that is toffee. There is no toffee flavour of it. And no caramel. Nothing like that. And that is truly missing here. Sadly.

I think that tea-sipper remembered there were real toffee cubes in. If so, I think it is exactly what is missing. Milky sweetness of toffee.

Logging as sipdown from yesterday (or it was Friday?) at work.

Last teaspoon I had was full of small tea pieces and a few jasmine flowers. And the result was like the tea visual — green tea with jasmine. There were some fruit notes, but I can’t say it was pear.

Expected more, but this time it was fine jasmine tea. Keep away the pears and it would be fine for me.

Now, let’s pick another pouch to bring to work.

Oh well. Those rapid temperature changes doesn’t make me feel well. I have in my office around 24 °C, outside is around 5°C, warehouse is heated somewhere between 20°C and 30°C. I was packing up the material with strech foil on Thursday, which is pretty much exhausting and I sweated a lot back then. So I was only in my T-shirt. But again, I was returning to the office going outside for a few minutes. So, temperature changes! My inner thermometer is broken. I feel hot sometimes, then I feel cold in a few minutes. Weird…

I feel having caving a common cold. So, home-made herbal tea comes into my mug.

It’s a blend of mint, salvia, lemon balm, mallow flowers, and noone knows in which ratio, nor how long it should be steeped. But it is helping all the time with this situation. Or, it won’t hurt. This year blend doesn’t have lavander flowers as the vintage I sent to derk a few years back. But I added a flower of mallow, fresh one and and fresh leaf of Coleus amboinicus which is called “cold-fighter plant” here. I must say it is actually helping.

Whole mug of a tea helped me for sure. I drank something hot, so I started sweating a bit and my throat was feeling better too. I will make another mug now.

PS: I am working for a month and a week now and it’s getting good. I have even official English name for my position and it’s Warehouse office technician which isn’t probably the best translation, but well… I can’t bring up better name.

I started to understand how things work there, we had a few tricky situations, now November will be very hard as we will have to ship lots of containers (four or five) all around the world. Those containers, are naturally going to be filled with hazmats.

I have even helped my boss with doing a presentation because of customer audit, translated his layout plan because he had a typo there and abbreviation that English-speaking people won’t understand. I feel like a member of a team already!

It has been a while since I opened the pouch with this tea.

Not a real fan of popcorn at all, it doesn’t suit me much. And moreso, sweet one. I prefer butter only.

But, as I want to finish it soon (it has got last Christmas pouch theme), I decided to brew it.

Honestly, the flavours are still great. It is popcorny, puffed rice, but as well toffee and kind of buttery. Smooth, sweet, great for afternoon. Enjoyable, but nothing I would order myself :)

Hello there…
my work is somehow more demanding than I thought, moreover no new teas being drank, so not much notes from me recently. Hopefully it will change soon, as I truly miss seeing the likes and sometimes even some comments from you.

I was in a mood of green tea today after work, and although I have a orthodox tea there (which I even had today), it is one of the oldies from White Antlers, which is just needed to drink, but there isn’t much to write home about anymore.

So, I have prepared this cup, and I think I have caught temperature just right. It produced wonderful green colour, very vibrant and fresh. I remember seeing a few pieces of pineapple when I was putting teaspoons in, but there weren’t much of them.

But, in flavours, it was a different story. It was very tropical, with very nice pineapple flavour complemented with grassy green tea, which tasted so fresh, even I have this pouch for 8 months already. Dustin, thank you so much for this tea. It has got some floral note as well, but honestly not sure if it is lotus, or anything else.

So yeah, this is a tea I would order myself. Hopefully one day!

A miss for me, but… for visual it gets A mark.

Flavour was weird. It was like washed out hibiscus tea with white tea light notes. I noticed a bit of tartness, but no fruits at all. The base was present, but quite lightly.

Was it like cotton candy? Not much. Maybe in color…