86

Clue No. 3 “Full Moon” to those of you who are Francophobes.

If the title of this note means nothing to you, and you’re interested in learning about my little game, please read my tasting note at:

http://steepster.com/teas/todd-and-holland/3917-german-breakfast-tea

for an explanation of the game, and my note at

http://steepster.com/teas/mariage-freres/2642-the-a-lopera

for the second clue.

Now, on to the tea!

I am coming to realize that I have a weak spot, a very big weak spot indeed, for cornflowers in tea. They’re just so blue and lovely, in among the leaves. They go well with every color, but for some reason I find them particularly fetching in black tea. This has them, as well as some brown textures which I’m guessing are almond pieces and maybe some vanilla bean pieces as well. An aesthetically pleasing dry mix. It smells strongly of sweet almonds, leaning toward Amaretto rather than the nuts themselves. There’s another strong sweet smell as well, which I can’t really identify as vanilla because of the strength of the almond fragrance, but which, it stands to reason, is what I’m smelling.

It brews to a slightly cloudy chestnut color that smells much nuttier than liqueur-like. Almonds and vanilla. Yeah, I get that. Also get something that reminds me very vaguely of cinnamon and maybe even anise.

The taste is quite nice. I haven’t had a lot of almond teas so I don’t have a lot to compare this to, and the other one that comes to mind also had chocolate in it which is a definite thumb on the scale. But I’m enjoying it, and I am finding myself thinking of what it would taste like with just a tad of milk, or sweetened up just a bit. Or maybe even with some salt to bring out the nut, as LiberTEAS has suggested with other teas in the past. Almond is the predominant flavor here, and it is pretty true to the nut itself. The aftertaste is amazingly like what you get after having cracked open an almond and chewed its inner meat into oblivion. The tea supports this well, but is definitely second violin.

I’m loving Mariage Freres for the most part. They have the perfume of the dry leaves down like no one else for flavored blacks. Mariage me, freres!

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
Rabs

I think that I’m either gonna kick myself when someone figures this out, or I’m not gonna have a clue. :P

__Morgana__

I’m a little worried that it may be too obscure. But I’ll do what I can to leave a bread crumb trail that may at least make for good search engine fodder in the end :-).

Rabs

Did those zany Germans turn Twilight into an opera? ;)

I’ve tried the search engine (starting with clue #2) and so far nuffink. I think at this point I’m really hoping that I at least know something about your obscure geek answer ;)

Kristin

The Moon by Carl Orff ?

Rabs

The Beast Within (the Sierra game)?

__Morgana__

Ooooooh, Rabs, you’re good. Yes, it was Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within. I don’t even have to give clue four!! (Bowing before the Queen of Geekdom)

Meghann M

Lol at the germans making a twillight opera. That’s where my thoughts were headed when I put the three tasting notes together. Congrats rabs to getting the answer before the 4th note!

AmazonV

Congrats Rabs! yea i was thinking twilight opera in german and it was a weird thought

Rabs

Mwahahaha! It’s sorta sad how very pleased I am to have gotten it :D

I had Sierra on my mind and thought I’d google it since I was a big Sierra fan back in the day. I never did get to play the Gabriel Knight games (my parents thought that they were too mature for me at the time). I almost went with Phantasmagoria.

Adham

Congrats Rabs! Have to admit i wasn’t even close in my guesses…

Ewa

Wow! Grats Rabs! Yeah, I never would have gotten this one (I am bad at point and click adventures)

Rabs

Thank you all! I really loved the Kings Quest and Space Quest games. I thought that they were the most amazing things ever. When the second Kings Quest came out, and the flags on top of the castle “waved” in the air I thought that video graphics couldn’t get more advanced ;)

Oh, and no, my parents wouldn’t let me get Phantasmagoria either :P I can’t blame them on that one, though.

Rabs

And for those who haven’t the foggiest what I’m talking about: here’s a nice montage of almost all the ways that you could die in Kings Quest 1. And yes, I pretty much died every single way possible ::shakes fist at the rock crushing::

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn4dUhX_E_k

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Comments

Rabs

I think that I’m either gonna kick myself when someone figures this out, or I’m not gonna have a clue. :P

__Morgana__

I’m a little worried that it may be too obscure. But I’ll do what I can to leave a bread crumb trail that may at least make for good search engine fodder in the end :-).

Rabs

Did those zany Germans turn Twilight into an opera? ;)

I’ve tried the search engine (starting with clue #2) and so far nuffink. I think at this point I’m really hoping that I at least know something about your obscure geek answer ;)

Kristin

The Moon by Carl Orff ?

Rabs

The Beast Within (the Sierra game)?

__Morgana__

Ooooooh, Rabs, you’re good. Yes, it was Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within. I don’t even have to give clue four!! (Bowing before the Queen of Geekdom)

Meghann M

Lol at the germans making a twillight opera. That’s where my thoughts were headed when I put the three tasting notes together. Congrats rabs to getting the answer before the 4th note!

AmazonV

Congrats Rabs! yea i was thinking twilight opera in german and it was a weird thought

Rabs

Mwahahaha! It’s sorta sad how very pleased I am to have gotten it :D

I had Sierra on my mind and thought I’d google it since I was a big Sierra fan back in the day. I never did get to play the Gabriel Knight games (my parents thought that they were too mature for me at the time). I almost went with Phantasmagoria.

Adham

Congrats Rabs! Have to admit i wasn’t even close in my guesses…

Ewa

Wow! Grats Rabs! Yeah, I never would have gotten this one (I am bad at point and click adventures)

Rabs

Thank you all! I really loved the Kings Quest and Space Quest games. I thought that they were the most amazing things ever. When the second Kings Quest came out, and the flags on top of the castle “waved” in the air I thought that video graphics couldn’t get more advanced ;)

Oh, and no, my parents wouldn’t let me get Phantasmagoria either :P I can’t blame them on that one, though.

Rabs

And for those who haven’t the foggiest what I’m talking about: here’s a nice montage of almost all the ways that you could die in Kings Quest 1. And yes, I pretty much died every single way possible ::shakes fist at the rock crushing::

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn4dUhX_E_k

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

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Bio

I got obsessed with tea in 2010 for a while, then other things intruded, then I cycled back to it. I seem to be continuing that in for a while, out for a while cycle. I have a short attention span, but no shortage of tea.

I’m a mom, writer, gamer, lawyer, reader, runner, traveler, and enjoyer of life, literature, art, music, thought and kindness, in no particular order. I write fantasy and science fiction under the name J. J. Roth.

Personal biases: I drink tea without additives. If a tea needs milk or sugar to improve its flavor, its unlikely I’ll rate it high. The exception is chai, which I drink with milk/sugar or substitute. Rooibos and honeybush were my gateway drugs, but as my tastes developed they became less appealing — I still enjoy nicely done blends. I do not mix well with tulsi or yerba mate, and savory teas are more often a miss than a hit with me. I used to hate hibiscus, but I’ve turned that corner. Licorice, not so much.

Since I find others’ rating legends helpful, I added my own. But I don’t really find myself hating most things I try.

I try to rate teas in relation to others of the same type, for example, Earl Greys against other Earl Greys. But if a tea rates very high with me, it’s a stand out against all other teas I’ve tried.

95-100 A once in a lifetime experience; the best there is

90-94 Excellent; first rate; top notch; really terrific; will definitely buy more

80-89 Very good; will likely buy more

70-79 Good; would enjoy again, might buy again

60-69 Okay; wouldn’t pass up if offered, but likely won’t buy again

Below 60 Meh, so-so, iffy, or ick. The lower the number, the closer to ick.

I don’t swap. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that I have way more tea than any one person needs and am not lacking for new things to try. Also, I have way too much going on already in daily life and the additional commitment to get packages to people adds to my already high stress level. (Maybe it shouldn’t, but it does.)

That said, I enjoy reading folks’ notes, talking about what I drink, and getting to “know” people virtually here on Steepster so I can get ideas of other things I might want to try if I can ever again justify buying more tea. I also like keeping track of what I drink and what I thought about it.

My current process for tea note generation is described in my note on this tea: https://steepster.com/teas/mariage-freres/6990-the-des-impressionnistes

Location

Bay Area, California

Website

http://www.jjroth.net

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