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.
1069 Tasting Notes
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!
This was the other bubble bath tea, & it was so nice. Richly flavored with black currants & vanilla, I like to add a little stevia. Very intoxicating & relaxing brew to soak in the tub with. Now it’s time to load up to go play a wedding, then I have the weekend off!
I’m taking a cup of this, & a cup of the Naughty Vicar (The London Tearoom) to the bubble bath. I’ve been taking short showers lately, I miss my bubbles. Nothing like a sweet cup of tea to soak with, & 2 cups are even better than one.
I already took a sip, & this is the best cup of this yet, just right. Maybe it’s because I actually followed the steeping parameters? LOL.
I just realized there is a crack in my glass 12 oz little teapot, which I mostly use as a pitcher during gongfu brewings.
…sigh… the crack is by the handle, & it also leaks, a drop at a time. I have really enjoyed this little one. I always feel sad when it’s time to say goodbye to good teaware, but of course this also means I get to look around for a replacement…
This lovely tea is a sample sent to me from Angel @ TeaVivre Thanks so much!
The aroma of the leave is green, of course, but also buttery & rich.
I steeped the whole sample packet in my 12 oz (cracked) glass pot, at 185 for 2 minutes. It’s a delicate, sweet & rich little tea with a light fragrance. It reminds me of eating sunflower sprouts. I haven’t grown those in awhile, & they are just SO good, kind of nutty & buttery & freshly green. This tea reminds me of those, & it is a very nice delicate fresh lightly vegetal cup. Very lovely.
Thanks again Angel :)
I think the next time I drink this tea, it will be a sipdown probably. I originally tried this several months ago when Angel sent me some samples. I enjoyed it so much that I purchase 100 G of it, along with some of TeaVivre’s other tasty teas, & I haven’t regretted that purchase, not one bit! This is a gentle, sweet & somewhat malty tea, with a nice clean & thick linen mouth, & a little bit of a sweet potato taste to it as well. Very tasty!
This tea is like the younger brother to Tiger Assam.
Tiger gets most of the attention because Tiger is so awesome, & older brothers usually do, but DK (that’s Double Knit’s nickname around the house) is also awesome, he’s just overshadowed a bit.
Right now we’re having a wonderful breakfast together, & he’s a little bit of a hipster, but he’s actually kind of hot. I heard him singing, “space cowboy” a little while ago, “I’m a joker, I’m a smoker…” ;)
I enjoy straight varieties of tea, as they each have their strengths & occasional weaknesses, but a good blend is nice too, & this one is especially good. I’m not gonna sit here & try to analyze the genetic pedegree, although there is Keemun in there to be sure.
I’m just gonna enjoy his company, & maybe sing along.
All I can say is Yum!
I ate one of the re-hydrated bananas. It was real creamy & good.
I never would have thought that I’d like a banana tea, but with really is good!
This is a bold ASSAM, & today I was really tasting the wine like elements to it. It’s very fruity!
I’m sitting here polishing off a sweet potato before bed. I just got home a little while ago from playing a gig & I’m not drinking any tea right now. But I drank ALOT of tea over the last 24 hours. It started yesterday when my sister arrived with her 2 adult children. I have 2 sisters, one is on steepster & goes by the name MsWhatsit (everybody friend her all of a sudden, it will freak her out, LOL). So it was my other sis who came to visit, & I’ve been introducing her & her kids to all the crazy teas I obsess over, so of course, we had to have tea last night, right?
I passed around my ‘menu’ of 300 or so items, each person picked one. My niece picked Adagio’s Almond Oolong. Then out came the gaiwans! First we drank Mi Lan Xiang Phoenix Mntn Dancong. Several steepings later we started another Gaiwan with Master Bi’s Jin Guanyin. We drank both of those for awhile, comparing flavors, etc. Next up was some Qianjiazhai Old Growth ’12 Sheng, followed by & interspersed with Xingyang Golden Buds 2010 Shu.
It was really fun to serve tea to everyone. They all think I’m some kind of tea expert now, LOL. We got to sample a lot of tea, & everyone went to bed waterlogged, about 2am.
This morning the fun started again.
My nephew & I fixed breakfast & drank a pot of Laoshan Black together, with resteeps. Then he wanted to try something smokey, so I fixed a pot of A & D’s Caravan. He decided he doesn’t really care for smoke.
Everyone wanted Bilbo Brew with breakfast.
Once breakfast was over they headed for home (Mansfield). I went to the Chiropractor.
Thank you Garret for including a generous sample of this tea in my last order!
I haven’t really been drinking that much Puerh lately, & I’m trying to add it back into my life, as I really enjoy it. This one is a deep dark chocolate brown, with beautiful strands of gold weaving through it. It has the aroma & flavor profile that I tend to love, kind of a buttered semolina taste with a pinch of salt. It has a nice grounding feeling initially, & then the qi starts circulating. Although it’s earthy, there isn’t any ammonia, fishiness, or barnyard kinds of things here, but more of a warm forest floor feeling.
I finally got a chance to relax & run through several gongfu steepings of this one today. The predominant element was a clean earthiness & a minty fresh sensation.
Edit: AND the flavor of Hominy (grits). That came up in later steepings.
For those who haven’t ordered from thepuritea yet, each of their teas are offered as a 1oz sample, or in quantities of 4oz, 8oz, & 16oz.
The sample comes in a little pillow box with 2 foil 1/2 oz packets. I ordered several varieties this way to split with my awesome tea sister, Sil. It will be easy to just tuck her foil packets into the next package I send to her. No baggies required.
To use, I just cut the end off the little bag, remove the amount of tea I want, then gently fold it over & tape it shut. Alternately, you could put it in a baggie, or if you have a little tin sitting around, put it there.
They give free shipping if you spend $50. Also, if you buy 4oz or more of a tea, they send you a free sample of the same tea, so you can try the sample & if you don’t like it, you can send the unopened bag of tea back for a refund. I think that’s a pretty cool deal :)
This tea is a sweet malty golden yunnan curls type. I brewed it twice.
The first time, I used a Tb of tea, steeping for 2 min, & then 3.
The first steep was deeply malty with a little, smooth & fruity. The 2nd steep had a wood element to it, & pumpkin seed essence. Both were richly flavored with a little butteriness to the mouth.
Then I tried a heaping tsp, steeped for 5 minutes. Wow! Malty, fruity, yummy, not a hint of bitterness, & in the background the distinct taste & tongue-feel of licorice root! Totally unexpected! It doesn’t have the sweet aftertaste of licorice, just the forward taste, if that makes sense to anyone, LOL.
NOTE Ignore the licorice comments, & read further comments below. :p
Drew & I had breakfast together this morning, & he picked Bilbo Brew. I love this blend, but when we run out I already have plans for improvement, LOL. I’d like to swap out the green vanilla for a black vanilla. I don’t really like combining green & black teas in the same pot, as their brewing parameters are different.
We also enjoyed some steepings of this one, which has a tangy-er fruity-er taste to it. I have work to do, so I’ll leave my description at that, for now.
Sipdown!
This is a lovely tea that I have already reviewed several times. I steeped the last of it to share with a student. Gently floral with a taste of almond.
It’s been a busy day!
First, I actually left my house at 8:30 in the morning to meet with the new principal of the Visual & Performing Arts (VPA) middle school in St. Louis’ Magnet school system. For about 12 years I worked there part time teaching Harp. I had 10 students per class, with 3 classes (6th, 7th, & 8th grade). During the time I was there I had some really awesome kids, some of whom still keep in touch with me from time to time, & some who continued their studies with me at the VPA high school, & are currently studying Harp in college (Ball State, Webster University, Lincoln U). Sadly, the program began to fall apart, as we got a new principal who had no interest in the arts & set out to remove the “smart through the arts” emphasis. I quit, as it was a miserable environment. So now there is a new principal, who attended the VPA program years ago, & his big goal is to get the school back on track. He would like to start my Harp program up again, among other things. We had a nice visit.
Then I played at the nursing home, then at another event. I knew I’d be out & about for awhile, so I brewed up a strong batch of Tardis & then iced it down. I carried it around with me all afternoon in my venti sized double walled starbucks cup with a straw. It stayed nice & cold, & it is delicious as an ice tea, SO good. Leif agrees, he had some too.
Another tea I enjoyed earlier today. I love licorice. I love Chai. This tea is especially nice with a little sweetener (stevia, in my case).
It’s yummy.
Backtracking from earlier in the day. There is only one thing more for me to say regarding this tea (having already written about it several times).
“I LOVE IT”
:D
