Roughage

Roughage drank Huo Shan Huang Ya by Canton Tea Co

I just restocked this one. Mrs Roughage had commented that she thought she would like yellow teas after seeing a chart that described the differences between all the teas. I used that as an excuse to include it in my newest purchases.

It’s nutty, fairly light and really quite sweet. I still like it a lot. Yum. All that said, my tea tastes are evolving and I have tried a lot more teas since I first drank this, so I feel the need to downgrade its score a bit. That is not intended as a reflection on the quality of this tea, but it is more a comment on my broadened experience since I first tasted this tea. I really feel that I should go back and do a proper comparison of all the teas I have drunk in the past so that I can get the scores more in line with how each tea compares! Ah well, the scoring is rough and ready anyway so maybe I can forego that.

To all the teas I’ve loved before,
Who’ve been delivered to my door …

2012-11-15 05:10:35 -0500

165 °F / 73 °C

2 min 0 sec

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I am a professional Vikingologist and I like tea! To be honest, I have always liked decent tea, but in 2011 I started working at learning what good tea really is. I am busily expanding my tea horizons quite significantly, much to the chagrin of my wife, who despairs of my enthusiasm. My favourite teas are Darjeelings and sheng puerhs, but I struggle to find black teas (other than Darjeelings) that really float my boat. My absolute favourite teas at the moment are Anji Bai Cha and Dong Fang Mei Ren both from Canton Tea Co, neither of which are shengs or Darjeelings. Seems odd, but that’s the way it is. I do wonder if the scores I give out actually reflect my predilection for Darjeelings and shengs.

I am slowly adding to my experience by trying as many different products as possible. I like to think that I am developing my palate and becoming more learned about tea, but I suspect that may be wishful thinking!

I find rating the teas difficult. Often a particular tea will appeal to me because of my mood, even though it does not get a top rating on here from me. As a general guide, I use the following ratings:

0-25 Undrinkable
26-50 Really not to my taste
51-75 Ok to good
76-99 Always welcome in my pot
100 – There ain’t no such thing as a perfect score!

As I rate teas, I try to revisit my scores and check that my old scores are in line with the new ones.