Scheherazade Send Message

157/365

The fifth of Bluebird’s Tea Election candidates. As an aside, there was something odd about this tea’s profile when I tried to add my note earlier. It looked different, and clicking “review” just took me back to the Steepster home page. I faffed around for a while, since the records for other teas looked fine and seemed to be working. I finally got this far by clicking “edit tea info” and then saving. Not sure what happened there…

Anyway, the tea. I made this one up as a latte using Bluebird’s recipe. It’s the first time I’ve made a green tea latte, so that was kinda exciting! I used 300ml of 80 degree water and 100ml of milk, plus 1/2 tsp each of honey and vanilla essence. I was a little worried about bitterness from brewing at double strength, but it actually turned out fine.

I get the treacle aspect of this one, although it needs to cool a bit before that really comes through. Initially, it’s very smooth, sweet and buttery, but little more than that. Once I found the treacle flavour, though, it was all plain sailing. I should probably say at this point that what I can really taste here is golden syrup; this tea reminds me most of those microwave puddings I had as a child, only minus the sponge. Treacle to me is the black, molasses-y stuff, and that’s not what I can taste here. I don’t think it’s what Bluebird intended me to taste, either, so I think I’m on the right lines.

The sponge is the only aspect that’s slightly lacking. I suppose the buttery flavour approaches that territory, but for me it falls slightly short of actually tasting like sponge. I’m more than happy with the syrup, though; that’s spot-on. I can’t even imagine what’s creating that flavour, because the ingredients seem fairly innocuous in and of themselves. Bluebird magic, clearly!

I like this one, but I still don’t think it’s my favourite of the six. I’ll give it a couple more tries before I make my final decision, though.

156/365

The fourth of Bluebird’s Tea Election candidates. This is one I haven’t tried before, and I don’t even remember when in was released. I must have been absolutely and completely off the radar at that point…

I’ll admit, I was worried when I saw liquorice root on the ingredients list, and large chunks of it in the actual blend. Initially, it’s not a problem – I get delicious banana flavour (ever so slightly underripe…) and for once it’s not super artificial. I don’t get much in the way of custard, but there is a light creaminess. It tastes to me like banana yoghurt; custard is pushing it a bit. The green tea base works well here, though. I think it helps with the slightly “green” banana flavour.

The end of the sip is where it all goes wrong, because liquorice. It’s all very nice and banana-y, and then there’s this smack of excessively sweet, cloying awfulness. The thing I hate most about liquorice root is how it seems to linger at the back of my throat, so I can taste it for ages afterwards. It seems to build with successive sips, which makes it more of a problem mid-cup than it was to begin with…

As it cools, I can taste a hint of chocolate from the cocoa shells. It’s quite pleasant, but not enough to override the liquorice. At this point, every other flavour is having to compete hard for prominence.

There are a lot of good things about this blend…if only it wasn’t for the liquorice.

155/365

The second of Bluebird’s Easter collection. I feel like I’m so behind with stuff right now! I made this one up plain at work this morning; just 1 tsp of leaf in boiling water. I thought at first I might want milk with it, but it’s actually just fine – a little woody/dry from the rooibos base, maybe, but nothing I can’t overlook.

I get a lot of cakes notes from this, and it reminds me a little of Bluebird’s Birthday Cake. There’s less vanilla than there is with that one, but it’s the same kind of white cake flavour. The mid sip is sweet and slightly nutty, with just a light touch of cinnamon/nutmeg spice. It’s deliciously creamy, and pretty spot-on carrot cake in my book. I even get a hint of cream cheese icing in the aftertaste, which is a thing I feel like I rarely find in carrot cake tea.

This one’s right up my alley!

154/365

This is an interesting one – a CTC, from LP! I think it came as a sample with one of my orders from him, but I don’t really remember given that it was so long ago. I’m not the greatest fan of CTC, except when I’m super tired and want an instant perk-up, or purely for the sake of convenience. Today falls into the former category, because getting up to go to work never fails to make me feel exhausted. Let’s be honest, it’s mostly because I hate my job. Might need to do something about that.

Anyway, for now I have tea, and that makes the world a better place. This one brews up quickly (of course) to a rich, dark chocolate kinda colour. To taste, it’s a lot smoother than I expected – perhaps because it’s a Dian Hong. It’s quite dry, in the way of cocoa, and a little tannic, but still pleasantly rich and malty.

It comes off fairly ordinary at first, but I keep getting little fleeting flashes of something at the back of my throat. It’s a little bit like smoke (wood smoke, not sweet like tobacco smoke…), and a little bit like root beer (chicory?) It certainly makes this experience a whole lot more interesting!

I’m glad to have had the opportunity to try this one. It’s loads better than I expected.

153/365

Finally getting through my much-overlooked LP blends. This was one I was really eager to try, particularly since I enjoyed 52Teas Razzleberry Genmaicha many moons ago. This one has a similar vibe, although the berry flavours are more subtle and muted. It’s maybe worth nothing that this is a more traditional genmaicha, with toasted white rice and what looks like sencha, in a roughly 60:40 rice to tea ratio. It’s not like LP’s Laoshan Chocolate Genmaicha, which was entirely unique.

The initial flavour here is toasted rice, followed by a light juicy strawberry flavour. There’s a hint of raspberry towards the end of the sip, and the tart-sourness from that lingers well into the aftertaste. The strawberry sweetens and lightens the whole thing, and it’s a great combination. Mostly, I’m just glad that “berry” aspect is a big part of the flavour, more so when it’s as nicely balanced as it is here. Although the toastiness is prominent, it doesn’t overpower the fruit flavours, and the blend as a whole isn’t overdone, artificial, or particularly in-your-face. It’s just a natural sweet fruitiness, with toasty rice, and a hint of lightly vegetal green underlying it all. Pretty much a perfect genmaicha, then?

152/365

Finally getting to the older White2Tea pu’erhs in my cupboard. I’m pretty sure I bought these at least a year ago, maybe longer. I gave the leaves a quick rinse, at least partly so one of the pieces would fit in my infuser basket! My first steep was around 1 minute in boiling water.

The flavour is a little lighter than I was expecting. The initial sip is a touch earthy, with notes of dry wood and a touch of camphor. It really comes alive in the mid-sip, though, with sweeter flavours of bourbon vanilla and molasses. The aftertaste is almost too sweet, in a way that reminds me a little of stevia or liquorice root; it lingers at the back of the throat in the same way those do. Hopefully the flavour will deepen a little with successive steeps!

Second steep has very slightly stronger flavours. There’s more woodiness to the start of the sip – it’s become more obviously a dry wood flavour (kind of like sawdust?), rather than the “wetter” flavours I’d usually associate with a ripe. The sweetness is there at about the same level, although there’s more sugar and less vanilla this time. The cloying sweetness in the aftertaste has dissipated a little.

Third steep is softer and more mellow, with a little more sweetness prevalent and less woody notes. The flavour of vanilla sugar flavour is foremost, with an underlying earthiness; the mouthfeel is smooth and silky.

Fourth steep is similar, although becoming less flavourful. The sweetness is starting to fade now, with just a light earthiness remaining. There’s a creaminess to the mid sip that I didn’t notice previously, but it looks to me like things are beginning to wind down. While this has been a pleasant shou, it’s not one I think I’ll find especially memorable.

151/365

I love this one, entirely unexpectedly. It’s not really like any oolong I’ve tried before, tasting mostly like brown sugar with the tiniest hint of wet wood and a background hint of charcoal. It has a pleasing caramel smoothness, and is nowhere near as mineral as I was expecting given that it’s a rock oolong. It reminds me most of some of the more upmarket roasted oolongs I’ve tried from LP’s group buys, although the flavour profile is unique even by those standards.

The sweetness develops as this one cools, so it tastes almost like brown sugar spooned straight from a fresh bag. It overtakes the woody smokiness completely, but there’s also the beginnings of a menthol-like coolness in the aftertaste – not super powerful, but there nonetheless.

I’m impressed with this one – unique and delicious!

This is the third of Bluebird’s Tea Election candidates. I actually think it’s an unusual choice, since it wasn’t exactly a successful blend in flavour terms. I know I’m not the only one that thinks so, either…

Still. Last time I tried this one, I said I’d like to revisit it as a tea pop. It looks like the moment has arrived! I made up a simple syrup (1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar), infused with 2 tsp of this blend. I’ve topped it off with sparkling water, and the result is…meh.

It still doesn’t taste like lemonade, but that’s because the tea doesn’t taste like lemonade. It tastes like lemongrass. The sparkling water helps, undoubtedly, but what’s missing is copious amounts of lemon. I could perk this up with some actual lemon juice, or a wedge of lemon, but that’s not really the point. It’s nice, as a tea pop, and I can see it being really refreshing come summer. Unfortunately, for a blend with the name “lemonade” it’s just not meeting any of my expectations.

150/365

This is another from Bluebird’s recent Dreamtime collection. I was slightly wary since it’s pretty heavy on the chamomile, but I figured the cinnamon might be an interesting twist. Besides, anything that’s going to help me sleep at this point is welcome – and there’s valerian root in here!

I drank this without additions, and sadly it tastes pretty much like a plain chamomile tea. There’s the tiniest hint of cinnamon, but it certainly can’t compete with the thick sweetness of the chamomile. There’s also a light earthiness from the valerian root, but it’s very much in the background – which is probably a good thing since it’s a relatively musty flavour. It certainly has an impact on the scent of the dry leaf, and I was hoping it wouldn’t be that strong once brewed – fortunately, I got my way on that count!

I am a little disappointed that the cinnamon isn’t stronger, since I think that could bring this blend to life. As it stands, the taste is little different plain chamomile, and there are many other blends that could stand in if you’re going for flavour alone. In terms of effect, though, it’s reasonably effective. I did have a pretty good night’s sleep, although it still took me some time to drop off. It didn’t make me feel as relaxed or sleepy as Lazy Boy, but there could be any number of reasons for that. On the whole, I’m pretty happy with this one – except that a more unique flavour would have been appreciated!

Now I’m back at home, I can try this one for the second time – cold brewed in coconut milk. It works – of course it works. The coconut milk amplifies the coconut flavour, and augments still further the milky creaminess. What I’m finding, though, is that it’s actually a bit much – it’s sweet(ish), rich, and the plant milk has given it a thicker texture than it would otherwise have. I can only drink tiny sips, and even cold it’s not particularly refreshing.

Tastes good, in small doses. I think I actually prefer it brewed in water, though, even though the flavour payoff is less.