557 Tasting Notes
So, I’ve woken up this morning to a little lesson. Don’t drink wine before bed and then be surprised if you wake up with a headache when you also stay up late because of your paranoia over spiders.
At least this morning will get a cup of tea. Hot with milk and it is comforting. Good way to start my day before work.
Thanks to Teavivre I have a lot of new samples and a lovely little gaiwan to try out. I figured I would try it on something that I know first.
Wow! Bitter! Either I used way too much leaf or this was not a good first tea to try with this method. Or a little of both. I tried five steeps of this, each with a shorter and shorter steep time getting down to pouring out the steeps as soon as I got the little bowl covered. Still bitter, bitter, bitter.
Not the teas fault, just my inexperience.
On the other hand, the gaiwan was really easy to use. It is the perfect size for my hands and it wasn’t awkward at all to use. And it is amazingly fast to clean up. I didn’t even spill any water anywhere. As soon as I figure out the right tea to use and the right steeping times, this little thing might be my new best friend.
I’m going to try an oolong next as soon as I research a little bit about leaf amounts and steeping times. The bigger leaves should be easier to handle in the gaiwan than the small leaves in this green. (I thought the leaves were bigger, but no! They are small.)
Yeah. I really don’t like this one as much as the caramel one. I think the next time I have it I’m going to double bag it and then try it sweetened over ice and see how it is. If I don’t wait until late at night then it won’t be too cold and I might have a new drink to take to work.
I really, really like this one. Just sweetened enough for my taste and the spearmint is wonderful. It goes well with everything I’ve eaten as well, so there are bonus points for that. I also like that it is packaged in a glass bottle. It helps hold the temperature of the tea even though it is sitting for me out in my car.
Fair warning: my first cup of this was actually the second steep because I gave the first steep to my dad at his request for a green tea with a bit of sugar to help his sore throat.
When I first smelled the leaves, it smelled like matcha tastes. Full and green and seaweedy. It was fantastic! That would be another smell I wish I could bottle up and wear it around my neck in a perfume locket.
The second steep is just smooth and mild and buttery. It is my first Japanese green and compared to my Chinease greens, it would be much too buttery for my fiance. But it is just so creamy that I love it. Smooth and relaxing and calming.
And to think I saved this from my fiance’s mother who just wouldn’t appreciate it. (or to be fair, he stuck it in my purse as a surprise for me a few months ago) She had a total of three packs and I don’t think she even drank any of them. Oh well, I will appreciate the heck out of this sample packet.
So, I was drinking this the other day and I gave the cup to my mom to try and I almost lost my tea. Dad thought that was hysterical of course since she already had a cup of tea next to her.
She thought it would taste better with some milk in it, so I tried it with milk. It tastes exactly like a lemon cream puff. Not as good as the caramel tea, but still a pretty good tea. I’ll probably finish the box without too much thought to it because I’ll be sharing it with my mom.
Since I liked the Creme Caramel so much and my tea basket is slowly dwindling, I decided to pick up a box of the Lemon Chiffon tea to try. Now, I normally don’t like lemon in tea very much, so I am not expecting much out of this.
My mouth was watering before the water even heated up because of how this teabag smelled. It was like I had just taken a sheet of lemon bars out of the oven. Sadly, once you get the tea brewed the smell goes away. Very sad. Tea companies really need to figure out how to get the dry leaf to smell like the prepared tea when they smell that good.
Plain the tea was underwhelming. It had a nice smooth base and it just tasted like you squeezed a lemon into it. While some people may appreciate that, it is just not my cup of tea. (puns, love them)
So I put in two teaspoons of sugar and tried again. Ah! This is what I was hoping for. You can still taste the tea, but the flavor has been transformed from a fresh squeezed lemon to a cake-like lemon bar. The kind where they have sugar on the bottom of the bar and the filling is so gooey it is almost like lemon pudding instead of cake? It is that sort of bar and it was one of my favorite treats in college.
I prefer the caramel creme over the lemon, but this is pretty good as long as I remember the sugar.
Best of all, this one is decaf so I’ll get to share it with my mom. I am sure she will love it.
(Also, this is my 500th tea note!)
Preparation
Backlog:
I had a cup of this before we went to New York on friday morning. It was so much fun! We went to the big Old Navy Store and the big Macy’s. Then we went around Times Square and I took pictures of pidgeons (I can’t help it, I’m strange). Then we went to Nintendo Land where I got a new game and a plush Fennikin just in time for the upcoming Pokemon X and Y release. And we got to walk around Rockafeller Plaza for a while and ended with a carriage ride through Central Park.
It was my first time in the city and I can’t wait to go again!
Have I mentioned how much I really like this one? Honey-like sweetness and a mellow boldness. And this is the third steep. I’ve been drinking this one since I got home and I just don’t want to change my leaves because they just keep going and going and going.
On a side note: my french press is leaking water when I pour. It is strange and weird and causes me to lose tea. Very bad.
