Where the hell did my yummy cup of num-num go?!?!? I ordered a larger bag (she says hoping that no one notices that her tea-buying ban for May fell through, ahem. Hey, it was for a good cause with the giveaway and all. Uh, yeah. The giveaway: that’s the ticket! Riiiiight.) and was all excited to try another cup last night. Last night didn’t go well. It was nowhere as sweet as my sample had been and as the cup cooled I was getting what denisend referred to as “wet sock.” And I don’t think it was the power of suggestion.
I bravely tried another cup tonight adjusting the temp to 180 and upping the steep time by a minute. (I can’t recall what temp I had it at last night). I also tried to pick around the dreaded chamomile so only a few flowers made it into the cup. What the hell?!?! Oh this tea is ticking me off. It started off “wet sockish” but as I’m typing and the cup is cooling I’m starting to get glimmers of the tea I had fallen in love with. I’m removing my rating (originally 90) until I figure this fickle tea out. Next time I’ll try boiling and 4 minutes again. Or maybe I should drop the temp and steep it longer? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa::gasp::aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I can’t figure this tea out soon, then the rating’s gonna drop drastically. This tea’s goin’ from TG to M on this steep. Grrr.
ETA: I actually found the sample packet with a bit of this tea left in it that I threw into the second steep. Before tossing it in I smelled the packet. Okay, so there’s something different between this sample and the larger bag. The packet has almost none of the “musty” smell that the larger bag has. I wonder if this is a result of the qty of chamomile or something else in the mix. I dropped the temp to 175 and kept the time at 5 minutes. It’s a lot more palatable, but I’m still somewhat disappointed.
