Terri HarpLady

This tea is so popular at my house that it’s almost gone! We bought the 6oz tin, & we’ve probably only got about an oz left, if that!!

Anyway, it was the tea of choice for Game Night, along with the raspberry muffins we pigged out on. Drew, Leif, & I played Pirates of the Caribbean Monopoly. I went to jail almost immediately, & every time I got out, I ended up back in there! It was 6 times in jail before I finally made it around the board & passed go. I rolled doubles 3X in a row on 3 different turns, I landed on the ‘go to jail’ square 3 times, I drew 2 cards that send me to jail. I also drew one card that got me out. Needless to say, I think I only passed go 4 times in the whole game, & I was the first to fold. Leif had a glorious win, however, & was quite pleased with himself.

Drew & I also played a full 6 rounds of Yatzee. We each won 3, but I ended up with the highest score. Then we played competition Solitaire. He won 2 out of 3. And so ends Game Night, which we plan to alternate with movie night I think.

This is one of the Reserve TOMC offerings.
The dry aroma is incredibly sweet, & brings to mind the color orange, like the Day Lilies blooming in my yard.
I love the color green, it is my most favorite color, & one of my favorite things about Tieguanyins is the amazing almost irridescent green. This one looks pretty much the same as other TGYs: Beautiful!

I followed the recommend steeping parameters, using my test tube steeper (I LOVE that thing), as it allows me to control the steep time a little better.

The first steeping was a pale yellow, delicately floral, & in my mind I saw a field of buttercups.
The second steeping became even more floral & sweet, & I thought of when my kids & I used to make candied violets.
The Third steeping created a scene (in my mind) of tiny spring flowers: violets, wild strawberry, wild onion. Tiny flowers bloom all over my yard & my neighbors yards in the early spring.
Beginning with the 4th steeping, the florals began to gradually diminish the be mixed with a growing green flavor & a creaminess as well.

This is a lovely Tieguanyin. As with the other Reserve TOMC teas, I’m not sure that it’s really that spectacular, but it was a pleasure to drink.

I’m enjoying a lunch of yesterdays leftover Potato & Lovage Frittata with some homegrown radishes & asparagus. A tasty black tea is just what I needed to complete the meal.

This Nilgiri is from an amazing assortment of mostly black teas that I got in an awesome trade with NofarS. This is only the 2nd tea I’ve sampled from the box, not because I don’t want to drink them, but because it’s just so hard to pick one. They are all beautifully packaged, I might add, & I’m truly grateful for the trade, Nofar! I’m also grateful that neither of our boxes got stuck in customs! Yay!

This is a medium bodied tea with some brightness too it, kind of fruity in the sense of blackberries. Not particularly bold or bassy, no bells & whistles, but it’s a pleasant cup & nice with lunch.

Major Sipdown!
Leif & I wanted a large batch of ice tea to drink all day, filling the gallon jug with the spigot on the side (which we forgot always leaks…I hate those things). So we didn’t have enough of any one thing, but we had lots of odds & ends that we never drink. Here is the list of teas that were combined & used up:

Tarocco Ruby Orange – Teavana
Wild Sweet Orange – Tazo
Lemon Zinger – Celestial Seasonings
Mango Tango – The Tea Spot
Earl of Grey – The Tea Spot
Organic Tangerine White – Frontier
Lemon Verbena – from my herb garden
Sweetened with Stevia

The resulting brew is Fruity, tart, & tangy! Also very refreshing when you come in from the garden!

Sipdown!
Leif & I did some gardening, pulling weeds & re-trellising some of the raspberry canes. My raspberry patch is really crazy & happy, & very productive, so we also picked more berries. Tonight is our first official “game night”, so I think I’m gonna make an almond flour cake with black raspberries in it, topped with coconut whipped cream & red raspberries. I still have to pick the black raspberries, later when it cools off a bit.

Anyway, it got too hot & sunny, so we came in & made an iced version of the last of the watermelon xylo, adding a little stevia. It was so yummy & refreshing, & very quickly gone!

Sipdown
What? Already?
Sadly, yes it is true. I split this oz with Sil, & I’m sending a sample from my half to TastyBrew, so this is it.
However, I will re-order this one, as it is very tasty. I went with the western brewing parameters & the flavor is thick, rich, & a little spicy with essence of chocolate, caramel, & coriander. A delicious & unusual black tea, with the earthiness of a Qimen, but it’s own unique flavor.

This is my favorite of the 2 Laoshan Oolongs, which is no surprise to me, as I tend to prefer roasted oolongs over the green ones.

It tastes a lot like laoshan black, with barley & chocolate essence, only there is a hint of pineapple in the center of my tongue, which is very interesting & sweet. Drew says it tastes like toast to him. I’m really glad Drew is sampling teas with me this evening, as I’ve steeped ALOT of tea!

The later steepings have a mouth watering caramel feel, an interesting aftertaste that I can’t quite pinpoint, a sweet barley maltiness, & a buttery quality. OH, I just figured out the aftertaste! It’s like a butterscotch hard candy! yeah, that’s it!

I’ve just spent the last hour or so washing various veggies that I picked right before the storm: radishes, bokchoi, lettuce, asparagus, Chard, mixed asian greens. Can you tell that we eat alot of greens at my house? :) I also picked a bounty of raspberries!!

This tea tastes a lot like laoshan green to me, but it also really reminds me of Matcha. The earlier steepings had a thick green-ness to them & Drew, who is sampling this with me, said that it reminded him of chewing on rubber bands, a favorite pastime of his apparently.

I really didn’t get a lot of floral out of this, but the later steepings were somewhat sweet & sort of crystalline feeling.

I had a hard time finding this tea on Steepster. On the TOMC paper it is listed as Master Zhang’s Daping Spring Tieguanyin, which is what I was looking for. Then I realized that on the actual package it’s listed as Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin, so at last I am here!

It’s beautiful. The dry aroma is the color yellow, absolutely. As soon as I smelled it, that is what I saw. The tea itself is a clear spring yellow, with a delightful floral aroma & taste, & it’s sweet & clean & fresh, like it just rained on the first day of spring. Daffodils sparkling with rain drops as the sun comes out from behind the clouds.
That was the first steeping, LOL.

The 2nd steeping brought in a creaminess to it, & a hint of lilac.
The 3rd steeping is completely different. It had the headiness of sweetgrass, although not exactly the same.
I kept drinking, but was also teaching, so I lost track of the steepings, but they gradually lost the yellow taste, although the color remained. I’m not the hugest fan of the color yellow, but today it is a delight to my eyes, & just looking at this tea makes my 3rd chakra feel clearer, & I’m feeling a sense of clarity throughout. An inner voice is telling me to drink more Tieguanyins for awhile, & so I may.

Later steepings take on more mineral notes, & in my mind’s eye I see limestone & Travertine & Marble…smooth & rich with calcium. I taste a hint of vanilla, & then it’s gone. The aroma is still lightly floral, the flavor still gently sweet, although its taking on a dry sensation now, & I think I’ve reached the end of this session.

We’ve been having an awesome storm! I’m always happy when it rains, it makes me want to laugh & dance around (that would be the little terri part of me anyway). I also like it for my garden, because rainwater is always better for plants than tap water, & it’s free!
It’s suppose to rain on & off until midnight, and I say, “Let it!” :D

I really enjoy this tea. It has a nice rich oaky flavor, is very malty, & a little fruity too. Not as bold as some of the other teas I like, but variety is the spice of life!

This is another lovely sample from Angel @ TeaVivre. Thanks so much!

The aroma of the leaf is very rich & buttery, & once steeped it yields a tasty cup with an essence of sweet potato & a slightly floral high note.
This is one of those teas that has a really rich middle range, with what I can only describe as a “cheesy” taste & feel, as in a fine aged rich cheese. Of course, being allergic to milk, it’s been 30+ years since I actually had any, and it’s taken me awhile to come up with a description of this, but it just hit me as cheesy, so that’s what I’m going with. A nice thick mouth, now I’m thinking yeasty & malty too.
Delicious!

First cup of the day. I need to re-read my notes before steeping, as I forgot that this one requires 2 tsp to be more satisfying.
That’s not to say that it isn’t a tasty tea, because it is, with an essence of honey & a rich nuttiness to it. It’s just not particularly bold, & I like to start off with something bold.
I’m gonna make a note on the bag so I don’t forget to increase the amount next time.

I used to drink a lot of Dragonwell at one time. This one is the classic embodiment of what a Dragonwell should be. The leaves are beautiful, flat, sage green, with a heady aroma of green-ness. They brew into a pale yellow.

The flavor is sweet & green, with a thickness to the mouth. Delicious.
Thank you Angel & TeaVivre for this lovely & generous sample!

Sipdown!
This is the last of this sample from SIL, & probably my favorite of the sloane samples she sent. It’s dark chocolate liquor with some almond essence. I added stevia. My only wish would be a thicker or creamier mouth feel, if that makes sense to anyone, as it feels ‘thin’.
Not really a problem though, it’s tasty.
Thanks Sil :)

This tea also came with me to breakfast. In retrospect, I wish I would have saved this one for later, so I could really focus on the sample, which Stacy sent to me a few weeks ago. I usually like to drink these samples when I’m just sitting around so I can pay attention to them, but it was in my purse, & I wanted more tea, so there it is.

It’s a greener Darjeeling, & the main thing I noticed about it was a pleasant peachy flavor & some nice malt, & some vegetal notes. As the cup cooled a little these were joined by a floral essence, very jasmine like.

Thank you Stacy. This is a very nice Darjeeling.

Tony & I went to breakfast with his daughter for father’s day. Luckily I had a few teas & a steeper in my purse, because the selection at the restaurant was pretty lame. I drank this one while I was waiting for my breakfast to come out, & it’s such a wonderful cup that I didn’t mind the wait. German chocolate cake with coconut caramel frosting, with a rocky wuyi essence. I think the 2nd steeping is always my favorite.

First tea of the morning. Tony has a thing for Ahmad Earl Grey, so when he ordered some, several months ago, he also got a 100G tin of this for me. I feel that I should drink a cup from time to time, & since today is Father’s Day, here it is.

It’s not a bad tea, actually, but not a tea Im fond of.It’s sufficiently bold, pretty bassy, with an astringent bite. It is the type of breakfast blend that I shouldn’t drink before breakfast, or that I should include some form of sweetener or coconut creamer with, as I can feel in my gut the rising of queasiness that comes from certain teas on an empty stomach. I should drink it more often so that it gets used up, & then I can take the tin home & refill it with something wonderful.

Enjoying a cup of this after dinner. I probably don’t need any more caffeine tonight, but I really wanted a dessert, & here it is.

thanks to Sil for the chance to sample some teas from Sloan, including this one.

Admittedly, this one isn’t doing it for me.its ok, but there’s an odd aftertaste I just don’t care for.
Oh we’ll, I guess you can’t like everything! Still worth trying, & I still have a bag left, so I’ll try again another day.

NEXT!

Yum!
I’ll say it again, with a little more enthusiasm, “Yum!”
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to like this, much less to love it. I’ve never been a big fan of flavored green teas, & without sweetener it’s just ok. Add a little bit of sweetness & the deliciousness of strawberry & buttery toffee step up. I didn’t taste the ginger at all.
Thanks for the tasty sample Stacy!

WOWZA!
This is one potent cup of tea!
So, admittedly, this is one of those teas I probably would never have ordered. It’s so finely chopped it looks like coffee grounds!
Stacy sent me a sample, so here it is. It’s really intensely good!
I haven’t drank for 30 years, but it reminds me of one of those really dark thick beers. It’s malty, fruity, a little edgy. This is what I expect an Irish breakfast tea to be like, really In Your Face!

Not something I’d want to drink every day, but I might add a little to my cupboard from time to time.
Thanks Stacy!

Sipdown!
Thank you, Cavocorax, for sharing your sample of this tasty blend of teas with me! I had breakfast with his lordship, while Tony invited the Earl of Grey.
Petersham is a fine fellow, & I’d be glad to take tea with him anytime!

I came home from my gig yesterday in the mood for a sipdown. Michelle sent me teas months ago, & I still haven’t drank some of them, so I randomly reached into the envelope & pulled out…this?
Egads, I’ve been avoiding this one…it’s creepy looking…it has silver candy balls &…sparkles, for heaven sakes…just the idea of having things like that I my tea kind of freaks me out.

Oh well…might as well get it over with.
So I did.
Actually, it was much better than expected, with a believable apricot flavor to it even. Not something I’ll ever buy, but I’m glad I faced my fears & survived.
Thanks Michelle

The instructions for this tea call for “a level Tb” of tea. If you’ve seen this tea, you know that it is wild & crazy looking, & there is no way you can measure a level anything, so for me, it’s a slightly heaping Tb, & it’s perfect.
This is a very tasty tea, as long as you don’t compare it to the regular Premium Taiwanese Assam, which I’m pretty sure everyone likes better.
Left to stand on it’s own, however, it is very smooth & tasty!
The perfect accompaniment to the bowl of Roasted Beef & Parsnips stew with caramelized onions & carrots that I’m having right now. A black tea that is bold enough to stand up to a meal like this is bold enough for me!