Yes, I’m drinking Elder berry again.
It’s the best protection I know again viruses, & they’re all around me!!
952 Tasting Notes
The first time I tried this, I followed the suggestions of 2 tsp & it was kind of meehhhh…
Tonight I was looking for something, anything to drink that didn’t have caffeine, but maybe a little flavor would be nice, right? I tried this again, using 1 T, steeped the full 10 minutes, added stevia & coconut milk creamer, & it was definitely an improvement, & somewhat satisfying.
This was my tea for the afternoon. It’s a nice sheng, with flavors of almond & hints of apricot, but the thing that I notice the most about it is a lemony mouth feel, especially under the tongue!
Sipdown!
7G + 4oz (rinse) X 10sec
I know I keep saying this today about every tea I’ve drank so far, but this is just what I needed! We’re going through a little stress in my family right now, & I’m finded myself exhausted & in need of nurture. The best ways I can nurture myself (so that I have it within me to nurture my family) is by restings, eating well, doing my yoga, & keeping on track. This includes drinking teas that energize & inspire me (and also teas that help me to relax & unwind, but that’s for later).
I love Laoshan Black. It’s so good, with it’s honeyed chocolate maltedness & I enjoy trying different incarnations of it. This one is quite tasty & elegant, but I must admit, I prefer the ‘original’. Still, it makes for a wonderful Gaiwan full of goodness, & I’ll continue sipping from these leaves until they have nothing left to offer.
It’s been awhile since I had a cup of Genmaicha. It’s so soothing, & this one is especially nice, because we all know that there is no green tea better than Laoshan green! It’s gently sweet, creamy, greenbeany goodness, with just the right amount of toasted rices, like a green bean & rice casserole, only better.
This was my first tea of the day. It’s been awhile since I drank it, my stock is low & I’ve been in hoarding mode, but I’m really trying to rotate through all these amazing black teas that I currently have, & I keep reminding myself that there will be more, “so drink up & enjoy, me hearties!”
I love the savoriness of this tea: Malt with a touch of honey & black pepper! It’s such a great way to start my day, like a reminder that I can be direct, strong, & assertive, but still warm & nurturing.
Thank you, Ysaurella, for this wonderful tea trade! I hope the teas I sent you have finally arrived, & I also hope you enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed the ones you sent to me!
I love the photograph of this tea! It is so graceful, so beautiful, so enticing. As far as Rose teas go, it was nice. I have had stronger ones, & many weaker ones, & this was a very pleasant cup for me, especially because the flavor was a true rose flavor, not artificial tasting at all.
This was my 2nd cup for my bubble bath, & I chose to have this because the scent of roses can be so soothing, & I’ve been out of sorts today, with a headache & a sense of irritation throughout. These are classic early allergy symptoms for me, including itchy eyes. My oldest daughter, who lives a block away, is having some of the same. I can’t believe we’ve had snow flurries on & off throughout the day, & some kind of allergen in the air already. This tea offered the cup of soothing that I needed.
Thank you Ysaurella, for another lovely tea!
This was one of my 2 bubble bath teas this evening, & it is quite nice! I enjoy the mellow smokiness of Keemun, & the fruity & floral flavors with it were very nicely balanced.
On the way to get the Harp, I got a speeding ticket. Dammit!
On my way home I found myself craving this! I love that German Chocolate cake essence. It’s not so much in the taste, as in the aroma, I think, & it includes the nuts, coconut, & caramel that my mom used to frost the cake with (I’m sure everyone used that same frosting, it is what MADE the cake, right?). It’s also in the lingering aftertaste, which I love.
Anyway, I’m headed back out the door to visit my Chiro, & then get a few groceries. I’ll return to steepings of this tea when I get home, something worth coming home to.
I had to go pick up a Harp that is being donated to UMSL, the university where I teach Harp. It’s a sweet, very well cared for older instrument, & is now in my house. I’ll call the music secretary & get her to order a set of strings, & then the harp re-stringing extravaganza will begin!
I wanted a cup of bold & malty assam for my drive to get the Harp, & this one, which is rapidly reaching sipdown level, hit the spot.
2nd tea of the morning, brewed in the cup: 1 min, 2 min, 3min, 4min steeps
I’m on my 4th steep.
This is not a particularly bold brew. I upped the leaf from 2 t to 1 T, and I’ve concluded that maybe I’ll try a longer steep next time. I’m also tempted to cram my Gaiwan full of leaf & do short steeps there.
That’s not to say that this is flavorful, because it is tasty, very mild, but tasty. There is an incense sensation in my sinus, my tongue is tingling, the Chaqi in this tea is wild & beautiful. So maybe I should just keep doing what I’m doing with it, LOL!
I usually start the day with a slam dunk bold tea of some sort, but today I started off with this one because…well, the leaves from yesterday just weren’t really steeped out all the way yet. Not bold, but gentle & flavorful!
I’ve been drinking this for the last couple of hours of teaching, & it is a really nice one. I’ve come to the conclusion that I prefer the roasted oolongs over the green ones most of the time.
This one makes me think of sweet summer stone fruit today.
Sipdown!
I love chrysanthemum tea, so I’m amazed this lasted as long as it did on my shelf, & really it’s only because I had so many other teas & forgot about it for awhile.
This is part 3 of my Feb TOMC tasting extravaganza. To be honest, I wasn’t real excited about this blend, due to my unfavorable experience with another blend that had Frankincense in it. But I figured,“what the heck, I’ll try anything once.” And so I did.
The dry blend has a sweet earthy spicy aroma.
As for the tea, the burdock takes the front seat, & behind that is a fruity spicy flavor. It’s actually not bad, but probably not something I’d purchase.
Part 2 of my February TOMC tasting party with myself, to me this tea has a slight salty & green taste, & made me think of yellow flowers.
I organized my teas the other night a little more. My TOMC & TOMCR each have their own boxes now. I cut the flaps off the boxes & am using them as file folders, to divide each month’s selections. So although I’ve sampled the teas from each month, I haven’t really sampled them in pairings, as suggested on the page that comes with them. So today I did the entire pairing scenario for February. I lined up 2 Gaiwans & a mug, & brewed & sampled all 3 teas. This was a nice way to spend the early afternoon while I was teaching.
Today I tasted oatstraw again, but also dulse & a creamy caramel.
This tea is so awesome!
It’s just what I need today, when I’m feeling a little grumpy, & thanks to BoxerMama Little Terri is throwing a fit over wanting pancakes for breakfast ;p
I reminded her that pancakes are only for days when we don’t have anything to do, because even paleo pancakes will be slathered with Maple syrup (grade B, & real. Is there really any other kind?), rendering us all worthless for the day.
I promised pancakes for Saturday! She also gets to pick out next tea…
So we’re having eggs & bacon on a bed of sauteed veggies, & this glorious tea, which competes pretty highly in my mind with Laoshan Black. I drank the first 2 steepings while cooking, & am having #3 & 4 while we eat.
I have just enough left of this for one more session.
That will be a sad sipdown day.
I really hope David brings this one back!
“Please, sir, I want some more.”
So the Tea Party was a wonderful time!
Roughly 25 people came, a mix of professionals & students. I made a couple dozen deviled eggs, a batch of humus, sliced up veggies, & set out olives & the chocolates that 2 of my students gave me over the holidays. I can’t eat them, so I saved them for the tea party. Everyone brought finger foods to share. It was a pretty nice spread!
I set up my electric kettle on one counter with all the bagged teas, so people could serve themselves, then I manned the other kettle on the stove, brewing pots/Gaiwans of tea for those who wished to sample things. We sampled:
Golden Fleece (Which I also drank all morning)
Anxi Fo Shou
Taiwanese Dong Ding Oolong
Handpicked Summer Laoshan Green
These were all enjoyed. One gal said, “This is the best green tea I’ve ever tasted!”
There were chai drinkers, so over the course of the afternoon, I also made 3 pots of Chai (adagio) in my big green dragon cast iron pot for them (each pot holds about a Qt & a half).
While we were all hanging out, eating, sipping, & visiting, each harpist took turns playing for awhile. That way we had Harp music for our party!
Today I’m hosting a tea party in my home for the Gateway St. Louis Chapter of the American Harp Society, of which I’m President. Of course, this title doesn’t confer any actual power, I just organize a few events & things like that. I might as well tell you all, I’m not a great housekeeper, and I tend to put everything off until the last moment. I guess you could say I work well under pressure.
My plan had been to come home from last night’s gig & “clean like the wind”, as we like to say in my house. (OK, nobody really likes to say that, but I started saying it when they were little kids, so when I say it, they know what I mean). The truth is, I was wiped out, so I went to bed. This morning I’ve been ‘cleaning like the wind’, & also delegating which boxes get hidden away where in the basement, or on the 2nd or 3rd floor, for some future day when I will go through them & probably throw most of the contents away.
So my main floor is looking pretty good! As a special treat, I’ve had multiple steepings of this awesome blend, which truly is everything a breakfast blend should be!
I have a fancy gig tonight, a very profitable gig. The kind of gig that requires my Barbie wardrobe. The problem is my Barbie clothes (long sequence gown & other fancy pants blouses, skirts, & pants, all in black) are all getting old. I wanted the awesome crochet tunic with the chiffon palazzo pants. Sadly, it’s coming uncrocheted. I settled for the beaded blouse, whose beads are starting to fall off. Nobody will get close enough to notice.
Next irritation: a water main broke, so the water is suddenly off. No shower, no tea!
I packed my go cup & strainer & tea, grabbing my duffle bag with my outfit, etc.
Drove through Starbucks & got a Venti soy chai, 9 pumps in my insulated sippy cup.
Now I’m sitting at PF chang’s, sipping dragon eye oolong, & waiting for my food.
It’s gonna be a great night!
I just realized the I’ve logged my teas this morning in the reverse order of how I drank them, LOL. I started with the one I was currently drinking, back tracked through the 2nd one, & now I’ve arrived at the one I sipped in bed.
This is a basic EB. No real high or low notes, but drinkable.
Another lovely tea from France, thanks to Ysaurella!
This is a delightful earl grey, not too heavy on the Bergamot. This cup was proceeded by a cup of Sinharaja, which is a stronger tea, so at first the tea base seemed thin. BUT about third of the way through the cup, something balanced out in my tastebuds & it really began to be a very nice experience, & especially wonderful after each sip, as the bergamot in this tea is not so cloying, & left a pleasant aftertaste in my mouth & throat that lingered, so that I could really relax & sip slowly.
Wow!
This tea has a very strong, almost coffee like taste! I followed Ysaurella’s suggestions to only steep for 2 minutes, & I’m thinking caramel latte.
Of course, being a fan of strong teas, I like it! It’s bold, but smooth. The flavoring is deep Assam, with caramel floating throughout, and a hint of bitter chocolate to round out the cup. I drank part of the cup plain, & then added some stevia, & both were satisfying.
Thank you, Ysaurella. I’m enjoying my ‘tour’ through the teas you sent!
