424 Tasting Notes
I received this as a sample from Laurent at Nina’s. Thank you! From the smell of it, I thought that it was going to be like so many other vanilla/caramel black teas. But, it tastes distinctive. There is almost a burnt sugar flavor to it, like creme brûlée. I am enjoying it quite a lot. This is filling that spot in the day where I still want something strong, but flavored/dessert-y is ok as well.
Preparation
This came as a free sample in a Darlene’s order I made. Since it was so small I decided to drink it and get it out of the way.
The leaf smelled and looked a lot like Adagio’s Earl Grey Bravo. Blue flowers, vanilla scent. It doesn’t taste exactly the same though. It’s nice, although I think if I had been in a blind taste test, I would have thought I was drinking a caramel tea rather than something with bergamot (I’m actually getting no bergamot at all) and cream.
Not a bad cup, but with so many good EGs out there, not top of my list to reorder. It also left my mouth very very dry.
Interesting on the packet, they recommended a 4 minute steep and then said that the longer the steep, the stronger the tea – but no caution to not steep too long. That surprises me from a tea company.
Preparation
This will sound worse than the reality, but for your first world problems enjoyment: today I can’t sleep in because the cleaning lady is coming.
I know, I know. That sounds just awful. But let me temper it by saying I work from home, nights, weekends, holidays are all fair game, and most days I choose to sleep until 9 or so (although I get up at 6 to make breakfast for my daughter and go back to bed). Then I get up and work until…..? Whatever it takes. That doesn’t sound as bad does it? I haven’t had a vacation in 8 years that I didn’t work every day. It’s just my reality. It’s also why I have a cleaning lady. Since I am always working in my home, by the time I stop working, the last thing I want to do is work ON my home. I just want to BE. She’s inexpensive and comes every other week to do the heavy stuff.
I started a company quite by accident 8 years ago, and now have 35 people who work for me, all from home. The beauty of the job has been the absolute flexibility to be a mom to my kids since they were in middle school. I never had to miss anything, and I was always home with them after school.
Anyway, the cleaning lady comes early, so I can’t catch a little nap before starting the day today. This tea is waking me up! It’s nice. I like it. Not as much as Butuki’s Malty Irish Breakfast but it’s a nice bold kick in the pants nevertheless.
Marzipan – That does not sound awful (not getting a nap in before the cleaning lady arrives). Flexible hours and working from home is not as uncommon as it used to be. I’ve been working from home (engineering) for 17 years and you’re right that nights, weekends and holidays are all fair game for work. Whatever it takes to meet the deadlines and get the job done. You nap when you can.
I think it’s awesome that you can work from home! I don’t work from home and I’m still considering getting a cleaning person :)
What sort of work do you do, Marzipan? And congratulations on your company’s growth – 35 people is pretty good!
This is always a little difficult to explain, so please bear with me. Lots of major companies have mystery shopper programs, and they hire companies to run those programs. Those companies often find that they can’t find shoppers for the shops that they have, and they hire a scheduling company to recruit for shoppers and manage the projects. That’s what my company does. We have a lot of big projects, things like Costco, Godiva, Northface, Stop & Shop, Giant, Hyvee, Progressive, I could go on and on. It initially started out being just me with one client, then I started getting more and more work and had to find people to help with the projects, and we branched out into editing them too. So I have a staff of about half schedulers and half editors who work on the projects. I still do a few of the projects myself, like today I’m trying to fill my last four Costco shops, about 15 Holiday Inn dinner shops, and four dry cleaning shops. But for the most part I try not to schedule much anymore so I can maintain a management/support role. Today I also have to jump in and edit because one of my editors had a death in her family. https://www.facebook.com/SummitScheduling
Aww, that’s too bad about your colleague. But that sounds quite interesting.
Marzipan – Just browsed your FB page … fascinating stuff! Congratulations on a successful home-grown business!
There are advantages to working from home, and advantages to coming into the office. I do have to point out, though, that even though I generally work from the office, I feel like my weekends and evenings are fair play as far as my boss is concerned. (Like last week, were I was super sick, but still on call overnight when that is never supposed to happen.) Then again, I could also use a house cleaning service. It’s on my list of things I want, and I can afford it. I just don’t have my house in a state where I would hire someone to come in and clean it.
To be honest it used to be super weird for me to have someone cleaning the house. Some parts I just ask them to leave alone, like my desk, and just have them do things like the bathrooms, floors, vacuum, etc. It was super weird being here because my tendency is that if someone is doing something near me, I want to get up and help them, but after a few years I got over it. It’s $70 every other week and totally worth it!
As a self-employed work from home person, all I can say is, “Rock on!”.
Your page on FB IS amazing! I’d sign on to be a shopper in St. Louis, but I’m kind of weirdo who almost never buys anything at the stores, can’t eat any of the free samples due to allergies, & am in general a pain in the ass, LOL.
Don’t worry Terri, I’ll eat all of the free samples you can’t eat.
It’s a deal! :)
Somehow I managed to delete my earlier note when I was trying to correct a typo. Anyway, I got this in a trade today from DeliriumsFrogs, thanks! I liked it so much I finished it all in one sitting. While it was a hearty dark tea, I don’t know that it was that different than others I have had.
In other news, I ordered my first gaiwan and cup set, in anticipation of the Butiki educational boxes. So exciting!
I think this was the first non-flavored black I fell in love with. Soooo good.
ooooh! I’m so excited that you’re getting a gaiwan! I absolutely love mine. The way it transforms the tea drinking experience is unreal—that it divides it into acts instead of one infused cup… it’s really magical. :)
Lazy day. I have been parked on the couch watching Netflix all day. I found a BBC series that I am enjoying: The Paradise. I admit that I grabbed a bag so I could get back downstairs and watch the show without having to wait for a loose leaf brew.
Anyway, it’s fine, not an EG that makes me go “nom nom” but a nice cup. I definitely get the bergamot and I can’t tell that the flowers are there. The review where someone said the opposite surprised me.
I ordered two packages of this, and I am glad that I did.
I tend to have trouble with white teas, I think in general they are too mild for my taste. It could also be that my palate for tea isn’t as developed as it will be later. I know normally whites are steeped short and at lower temps. But, I ran across a thread on Steepster where a tea company owner recommended trying boiling water and a long steep.
So, I tried this tea two ways before posting this. The first steep, I tried boiling water and a (gasp!) 5 minute steep. The second time was preboiling and a 3 minute steep.
While I know the former will look like sacrilege, I enjoyed it far more than the second one. So now I want to go back and try that with the whites that have missed the mark for me before.
In the pouch, this tea has a strong and very appealing berry smell. It also smelled sweet and I have no idea how Frank accomplished that. Steeped for the longer time at boiling, the cup was strong but not bitter (I sweeten my tea a bit). There was a very robust raspberry or blackberry flavor and that stayed behind as a pleasant aftertaste. I tend to like strong black teas best, and steeped this way the tea definitely stood up flavor wise.
The shorter steep didn’t taste like a lot and had a very light color. I also thought the leaves didn’t look like they were “done” if that makes any sense. Method one is definitely the one for me!
I recently read someone tasting note that person always steeps white at 165F long steep like 5-7 min. She says its the best and flavorful. You got lotsa tea to experiment;)
I’ll try that next!
I did a double take when I saw this name. Then I saw it was you and I was far less surprised. Did you put him up to this one, then?
Hindbærsnitter is pretty much the only cake that I actively dislikes. Far to dry and cloyingly sweet. I just can’t see the appeal. I once bought a piece of cake in a 7-11 and not only did they give me the wrong one, they gave me a hindbærsnitte! One of the only times I’ve actually bothered to go back and quibble. Anything else, I’d have just eaten whatever they gave me instead.
Guilty! I think the flavors lend really well to tea. When we are in Denmark, my favorites are vandkringle and brunsviger, but the rest of the family likes the hindbærsnitter a lot. So much that I have to make them in the States a few times a year.
http://i.imgur.com/g8QXMB9.png
http://i.imgur.com/Sg1O1nm.png
Looks authentic. :) I’m fond of brunsviger as well, but I haven’t ever tried baking it myself. I enjoy baking but I don’t get along well with yeast. It just won’t succeed for me even though I do exactly like it says in the recipe and everything seems to be the correct temperature. I attempted a beesting cake the other day, though, which was moderately succesful. Not properly risen (of course) and a bit dry, but with the custard in the dryness didn’t matter too much. I do have 3/4 of a packet of yeast lying around now, though. Perhaps I’ll try a brunsviger tomorrow. Last day off for Easter and also my birthday. Stands to reason I should have some kitchen-fun then. :)
Sounds good…I often like a loonger steeping time
as I prefer a really bold flavor and I sweeten with stevie
so the bold taste is better with the sweetness…JMHO
I loved your baking pictures!!
Love old friends! Real ones and tea ones :)
Of course, new ones are amazing too!