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Will Work For Tea

Assam Banaspaty (organic) from DAVIDsTEA

Will Work For Tea drank Assam Banaspaty (organic) by DAVIDsTEA

I bought a few sampler packs from DT’s a couple weeks ago to get a feel for the range of their teas. This was in the manly-packaged “The Tea Aficionado” – a selection of 5 “mannish” teas in cigar-shaped tubes. Yes, I’m a sucker for packaging… and for manly stuff (I’m a man’s woman, or so I’ve been told)…

Anyway, I’m on an unflavored black kick today (oddly), so this is my second tea of the day. Brewed 3 grams in 8 oz of water at the below parameters. The resulting liquor is very dark – it matches the black-brown color of my furniture!

Uh, wow – this is quite a change from the Bailin Gongfu black tea I had this morning. This one slaps you in the face and demands your attention!

Quite bitter upon first sip, I immediately reached for the milk and sugar to calm this cup down. There’s still a bitterness underneath the additions, but it’s much more manageable now. There’s a slight honey undertone that I’m also getting…

This goes nicely lemon squares, by the way! :)

Overall I like it and will probably keep this around on those days that I really need help focusing, which sometimes is a lot!

2012-06-21 13:40:12 -0400

205 °F / 96 °C

4 min 0 sec

I Like This

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7 comments

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Comments

Bonnie 2012-06-21 14:06:21 -0400

Maybe this was meant to drink with a cigar?! Like Lapsang Souchong goes alongside Whiskey!

Will Work For Tea 2012-06-21 14:14:33 -0400

I was a little surprised the LS wasn’t in this sampler. I guess the Toasted Walnut is manlier?!

Azzrian 2012-06-21 14:27:14 -0400

Sounds good really! I am also a sucker for packaging and tend to like the manly stuff as well – I think it reminds me of the fake father I have developed in my head lol

Bonnie 2012-06-21 14:32:25 -0400

Mine is a fake boyfriend!

Kittenna 2012-06-21 15:12:53 -0400

Toasted Walnut manlier than LS??? I think someone made a mistake there!!! What’s manlier than a tea that smells like a campfire? :P

Bonnie 2012-06-21 16:02:01 -0400

A tea that smells like a gym full of sweaty men!

Bonnie 2012-06-21 16:02:47 -0400

Sweaty men with a platter of bacon!

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I’m a native Midwesterner (Iowa, specifically) who was happily uprooted to California twice. SoCal is what I consider home, even though I currently don’t live there. I hope to return home again!

Tea has really come to fill the void of my current displacement. My husband & I (with our two tiny weenies) moved to Indiana hardly knowing a soul. It’s been a tougher transition for me than I’d thought it would be. I have amassed a cupboard of teas to keep me company until I feel more familiar in my newer surroundings.

I will refrain from giving numerical values to teas because I am a faddist. My likes and dislikes are constantly changing. Flavored blacks are what I gravitate to the most. Having said that, I do enjoy a wide variety of teas – you name it, I’ll try it. I may not like it today, but I might revisit it later and love it.

Flavor note: I prefer my teas to be bold in flavor. I am starting to come around to drinking tea without additives. But I do like to dirty my tea with rock sugar/simple syrup and sometimes with half-n-half/milk. Unflavored greens are unsweetened, but flavored greens I usually add rock sugar. Lately I have been favoring flavored guayusa and matés.