Sipdown no. 200. A sample. I got this when I ordered my first yixing from Teavivre, the yixing The Tea Fairy suggested.
I opened this up this morning thinking what the heck, I’ll get another sample out of the way and continue my Yunnan kick at the same time.
OMFG. Little did I know how loved this tea is on Steepster. 142 ratings and an 89 average rating. Wow!
So now here I am about to drink a much venerated tea and totally prepared to have my socks blown off, and perhaps my feet along with them.
First, I have to say the leaves are gorgeous. Golden exceeding any golden teas I’ve had before. They smell earthy-malty with cocoa notes.
I steeped at the low temp recommended. The directions here say 3 minutes max, but on the packet they said 3-5, so I split the baby and steeped at 3:30. I don’t want to mess up the steeping because I want to experience this one in all its glory.
Lovely, clear, dark reddish-amber color. The aroma is an entertaining melange. The first whiff was all sweet potato, but after that I got some cocoa, honey and molasses notes as well as something dark and woodsy.
The tea itself is incredibly smooth and soothing. It invites you not to think about it too much, and to just sit with it and be. Calming on the stomach, too. There’s something light, almost perky about it, which is an interesting contrast to the dark dry leaf smell. It’s not what I’d call full bodied, but that shouldn’t be taken to mean it isn’t complex.
The flavor at first isn’t overly sweet, but the aftertaste leaves a sweetness on the tongue and behind the teeth. In the sip, I taste the root vegetable (sweet potato and perhaps some carrot), and an almost citrus-y note.
This is something I could easily drink every day. Fingers crossed I get a job soon as I would dearly love to order some of this. I’d even make an exception to my lockdown edict for this one.
By the way, I said when I got to 200 sipdowns I’d play a guessing game at how long it will take me to get out of lockdown. Current estimate based on the number of teas in my Steepster cupboard (plus at least another hundred or so samples) is probably a couple of years if I continue consuming at the current rate, but if I don’t, which is likely given past patterns, add another couple of years onto that. LOL
However, I think I’ll get out of lockdown on herbals/non-caffeinated teas earlier because those are being consumed at a faster rate as I feel comfortable giving them to the kids (even at night), and because I had fewer of those to start with. Current guess on when I’ll be ready to get out of lockdown on those is more like 2-3 months at the current rate.
And I am also considering the possibility that because I have less pu-erh than other types of teas, I might consider myself not in lockdown at around the same time as herbals/decafs (and perhaps before as I’m considering rewarding myself with an order should I manage to get a job sooner rather than later).
Flavors: Carrot, Citrus, Cocoa, Earth, Honey, Molasses, Sweet Potatoes
