alaudacorax

alaudacorax drank Rwanda Rukeri OP by Nothing But Tea

I made a mug of this with a heaped teaspoon brewed for three minutes – boiling water. This one was not on the instruction sheet and I made it first thing in the morning before I had the computer up and running, so I hadn’t realised that the tasting notes on the website give a steeping time of six minutes. However, there were still a few strands of tea not sunk when I removed the filter.

This brew was not very noteworthy. There was basic tea flavour, not very strong, and a slight hint of something giving a very little smooth richness, difficult to describe, not chocolate – if one could imagine a flavour somewhere between chocolate and a good beef or lamb gravy, but definitely one flavour, not two elements. There was also the tiniest ‘bite’, again difficult to describe, perhaps the ghost of a hint of white pepper.

It was a very attractive colour, though: an intense, clear red-brown leaning very much to the red side.

So I made the next mug of this brewed for six minutes, but this turned out to be slightly stale-tasting – steeped too long.

Then I tried four and a half minutes and this was okay but not really much of an improvement on three minutes.

So I’d describe this as an ‘okay’ sort of tea but nothing really special.

2012-03-31 11:52:11 -0400

Boiling

4 min 30 sec

I Like This

1 like

0 comments

People who liked this

Profile

Bio

Happily retired male.

Started exploring ‘proper’ tea in March, 2010 after decades of PG Tips teabags. I was initially looking for ‘the perfect tea’; now I don’t want to find one – I’m so much more enjoying exploring the variety.

A confession: I take my tea with four sweeteners to a half-pint mug.
28/05/2012 – I’ve decided to wean myself off the sweeteners, starting this morning, so, three per mug instead of four (I’m getting a growing feeling that I’m failing to get the best out of some of the oolongs and greens I try and I intend getting a gaiwan and the appropriate little cups, and sweeteners don’t seem to be appropriate, there). 16/02/2013 – since New Year’s Day I’ve only been using two sweeteners. I’m struggling to get used to it, to be honest – some teas are more difficult than others.

How I make tea: either in a traditional teapot which holds enough for three half-pint mugs and has a removable infuser (London Teapot Company); or in a half-pint mug with an Agatha’s Bester filter. Sometimes I vaguely think about getting some nice, genteel cups and saucers …

Important: I measure the tea with plastic kitchen measuring spoons – teaspoon and half-teaspoon sizes – so when I say a ‘heaped teaspoon’, as the correct measure is a levelled one, I should probably be calling it ‘two teaspoons’!