Robert Godden

Enjoyed this last night for the first time.
From the dry leaves, it looks like it might be a little lighter than your usual Assam, but appearances can be deceptive. It’s strong and malty.
Good aftertaste. Shared with the other half, and it looked to take milk+sugar well.
Certainly worth a few more goes and a little experimentation with strength.

I’ve been partaking of green first thing for months, but today – a black.
This a truly a lovely tea. Alex at Café 16 – who I think is a coffee drinker really, but one must’nt judge – tells me this is the tea he drinks from his range.
(Can’t see why anyone would restrict themselves – I had a fair crack at the 164 teas we had in the tea store we used to own, only skipping those that presented allergy problems. I even tried all of the Japanese greens)
So, the Ceylon. It’s sweet up front, warm in the middle with a really fine woody character, and has the long-lasting aftertaste of the true Ceylon. Just lovely.

It’s hard when the staff in a cafe have no idea about the teas they have. After looking a few, I decided that their tea company didn’t, either. For example, a tea labelled “Orange Pekoe” had rose petals and orange peel in it.
So, the Ceylon Breakfast.
Dry, brackish, savoury, ok I guess. They used a little too much.
This is supposedly one of the best restaurants in Adelaide, but they failed to teach their staff anything about tea. typical. And they certainly don’t want to hear my opinions, clearly I must be a nutter.
So here it is, The Devotea’s Golden Rule 1 – If you let someone else choose the venue, the tea will be crap.

Tried this last night at the T-bar, was sensational but a little cool. They were about to close, all our tea seemed a little cool. Perhaps to move us along quicker?
What a great tea. Aromatic, I find it works wonderfully with or without a little sugar – I ofetn add a little to my first cup or two in the morning and last couple at night, and this suits that habit perfectly.
Oolong- like but less brackish. Just really lovely.
Which is why I bought some on the spot and am sipping this cup now.
Also, I can make “raise my eyebrow” puns to the glitteratea

My first thought on tasting this was “must change water filter” The water here is so bad I never use it without filtering.
As always, a good strong brew is the answer, so I poured in back in the pot for another minute.
And it delivered. Sadly, the last of this batch. Off to buy some more this morning.

This is my second tasting of this. I don’t seemed to have logged the last one.
I’m not sure what the “Red Thunder” refers to, but the tea itself does have a reddish hue. If I looked at it in a glass I’d think it was Kenyan, but it isn’t.
It has classic Darjeeling character, but there’s a spice element. Most of the Red Thunder listed on-line is a Darjeeling Oolong, but this isn’t.
Best guess would be to say that it has an alluvial, rich soil that is altering the character slightly. A bit like others I could name, notably Daintree.
All in all, very nice. Classic Darjeeling, and then that mildly peppery aftertaste.
My companions had milk. I don’t imagine that worked at all. It looked very light. But they both enjoyed it.

Shared a KMF with “Mrs Devotea”.
Great rich taste as usual. It really is a good, hearty black tea. One must always make sure one asks for the Mao Feng, as T-Bar has two Keemuns, and they’re both good, but this one shades the other.
Mrs D. also loved it in her milk+sugar configuration.

After a week with almost no internet access, it’s great to be back!
So, I find myself in my back yard, in the light rain, sitting next to an open fire, making a billy of tea.
Into the billy with the water, and when it’s near boiling, I toss the tea in.
After it boils, i took it off and had a taste. Black and savoury, as to be expected.
But then, I did what you should always do when camping (even if it’s only pretend) and thats to add a decent glug of sweetened condensed milk.
Warming sweet breakfast bliss with some damper.

I have not added any notes for about 6 days, because my ISP has virtually shut down.And it’s come to this: Drinking Lipton tea-bag Darjeeling at McDonalds.
I did so at MvcDonald Noarlunga on Saturday. And it was pretty bad. But then again, it’s one of the worst McDonalds for anything.
Sunday, hit McDonalds Reynella. Slightly better. I think they filter the water.
Today is Monday, back at McD’s Moarlunga and I have been served the single worst cup of tea ever. Not even my mother-in-law had plumbed these depths.
I waited 15 minutes. So did the tea, apparently. It was lukewarm – and that’s being generous.
So, I asked for it to be re-made. To be honest, I was a little prickly.
The remake is a slightly hotter version of the rubbish I was served.
Here’s how it goes: McDonalds aim at “cheap and cheerful” and generally get that half right. I had enough of sulky adolescents when I had two at home.
The tea is rubbish. Lipton bags are not up to any sort of standard – I wish I’d just had one of the Dilmah bags under the other counter. They’re better for being stronger and I like Dilmah’s ethics.
So a poor product, made by the incompetent and the unwilling, served to a massive tea snob in a bad mood.
At least when I’m typing, I’m not drinking….

Shared with my better half, she enjoyed it more. Perhaps as she has milk.
I found it strong and unpleasantly tanniny.
I doubt I’d try it again. Didn’t tatse like a quality tea should

A tale of two tea occasions.
Last night, I was feeling great, needed a nightcap. This was the one. Great smooth minty finish to the day.
This morning, woken up in horrible condition. real belter of a migraine, and of course, urgent work to complete.
So I’ve been re-steeping last night’s pot for medicinal reasons.
It’s helping. The clean palate of the mint helps clear my head.
Unlike other additions to tea, mint does not seem to disappear from re-steepings. It’s just as perky as when it was first steeped.
I wish I was.

NEWS FLASH: I have something new to say about this tea.
Amazing, having added 25 tasting notes on it.
But something has happened.
I’ve been buying it from Cafe 16, which is around the corner from my house. It’s been a very consistent product. And I’ve had it two or three times hot at T-bar.
But the batch I picked up yesterday is suddenly different. It’s bigger, and the flavour is stronger. And I’m not sure I like it.
I took some to our son’s place yesterday, and I noticed it was different, but I put that down to different water, different equipment, not being able to find anything and the fact that the kitchen was a tip.
But this morning, under the highly controlled scientific environment of The Devotea Test Kitchen, I have made some up using Cyril the Transparent Teapot.
It is woodier, has a mushroom tang, is stronger, is deeper.
And I’m not sure I like that, The jury is out.
It’s like waking up next to your partner of many years to find they’ve changed. It’s an uneasy feeling to find a tea for which you have professed undying love is now different.
Different crop? Different batch? Substitution? I will be worrying about this all day.

After writing a piece on Kenyan Tea workers and with three Kenyan clients, it was time for me to put aside my disdain for Kenyan Tea and give it another go.
So, I invested in 50g.
I made this is a little white one-person pot, so I used a glass mug to appreciate the colour.
Kenyan tea really does have a distinctive redness. So do a lot of tea bags these days, which is a clear link.
As a CTC tea, it was very fine (not in a good way) and I gave it a quick steep.
It was a decent cuppa, but really nothing more. Quite tanniny, long lasting flavour on the palate, some Ceylon characteristics but a thinner taste.
I think the perspective I have on this tea is this: While there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s an opportunity missed to have something better.

The last few grams of my Jim’s Caravan.
I actually had this as a nightcap last night, and have re-steeped this morning. My tastebuds are cold-addled.
And yet, it cuts through, it’s smooth, it’s invigorating.
A good choice.

Given this is my 25th tasting note for this tea, you think I’d have run out of things to say.
But not so.
Today I underestimated the amount of tea I needed, and produced a scalding beverage of really pale, 1st steep, PMT.
It’s actually lovely. More delicate than usual, but with plenty of aftertaste, even though my tastebuds are dampened by a horrible head cold.

I might have to recreate this one, I do love it.
On my second cup. I have developed a head cold and a sore throat- it’s not been my week – and this is keeping me going.
It’s invigorating and head clearing. Keeps the doctor away!
Oh, and I have it sweet. It’s traditional!

My first, 5:30 am, pre-jentacular kick-starting tea is always an important one.
Sometimes, I go really light with a white or green to ease into the day, sometimes a hearty black as a heart starter.
Unusually today, I’ve gone the middle ground.
The aroma is floral, due to the cornflowers. The taste is floral, due to the cornflowers. And the aftertaste is floral, due to the cornflowers.
In fact, it tastes like I have mixed together musk sweets and cornflowers with a stack of icing sugar, and painted the inside of my mouth with them.
The lesson today is: context! Don’t expect a lovely floral afternoon escape to fill in such a key tea timeslot. It’s not up to the job.
Just not the right tea at the right time.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Perfectly balanced, real classic Irish Breakfast / Afternoon tea taste. Much better than their organic English Breakfast

Ok, so now I have made this five times. I think I have it right. Incredibly quick steep time is the key.
So, the story here is that I have patriotically chosen to invest in another Australian Tea. This is my second of the three tea companies in Australia … and it’s disapointing.
It’s a blend of Australian and Imported teas.
I actually can’t work out where the rest of it is from. There’s an Indian hint here and there in the taste, not so sure if I can pick up chinese or even kenyan.
Colour-wise, it looks like the Aussie-grown Daintree that I love, taste-wise, it’s just tea,
If it was in a tea-bag, it would be at the upper end, but as a loose leaf tea – a CTC one at that – it’s all tannin and tar.
I’ll probably use up the box and never buy it again.

Interesting: CTC mix of Australian and imported. Tastes halfway between a Nilghiri and a Daimtree.
Will investigate further…

I don’t know about anyone else, but I re-steep greens and whites, but never blacks.
On this occaision, I decided to try it.
So I had a pot of this at about 4pm and gave it another run at 8pm.
I don’t think I could distinguish between the pots. Both had the fine, lingering slightly leathery aftertaste of a good ceylon following a refreshing front of mouth taste.
Looks like I’ll be resteeping some blacks from now on.
Has anyone else been re-steeping blacks?

Again!
Thius time I was feeling vaguely nauseous last night, so I made a PMT. It didn’t help, and I was troubled by it all night.
So, this morning it’s a second steeping and some antacids.
So far, feeling a little better.
The power of Tea? Or the antacids? Can’t decide. But the Pai Mu Tan was as sweet and lovely as ever! My theory that the second steeping is the best seems to hold.