I gotta remember to back off the steep time just a hair with this one. The savory taste of the sesame doesn’t need a super-bold tea taste behind it. It can make it a bit overwhelming.
I usually pick a certain type of tea in the mornings before work. Stout enough that it helps me wake up but gentle enough that it isn’t a mean wake up since my stomach usually wakes up about 2 – 3 hours after I do. Anyway, I wasn’t 100% sure about having this as a morning, take-to-work-in-my-tumbler tea. But I figured what the heck, right? I added a little bit of sugar (1/2 teaspoon for my 12oz) and off I went.
Okay, I haven’t tried this with milk yet but I think I’m going to the next time I decide to start my work day off with this. The savoriness was a bit abrupt for me this morning. It was good and I liked it, but the first few sips were a bit shocking. Not a gentle wake up tea. Of course, I miiiiiiight have made it a wee bit strong (when I’m tired in the morning (aka ALWAYS) I tend to be a bit heavy handed with the leaf weight). But I think in a few hours I could have handled the tea much better. I still had some left when I got to work (unusual for me but again, it took a bit to gear me up for this) and by that time, all of me was fully awake and thought this tea was a fantastic idea.
Taste-wise, still as yummy as my first experience with this. Hello toasted sesame! I’m not craving unadon from it though, but that could be because unadon just isn’t a morning dish. Mmm, unadon. Anyway. The mouth-feel on this puppy is… AMAZING. My fukamushi from last night had less savory mouth-feel that this one (though I blame part of that on my decision to use a metal strainer, not my kyusu with the sasame filter – and how big of a dork does that sentence make me?). Post-tea I’m kind of left with the feeling that I need to brush my teeth. Not so much for the taste because I’m kind of grooving on that but for the mouth-feel-created-fuzz-factor-feeling. It rivals the tooth sweater feeling first thing in the morning. Kind of fantastic that it can be that thick tasting but weird in a black.
Randomly, I think if I were to add yak butter to any tea, I’d want the tea to be like this. The tea is strong enough and bold enough in flavor that I don’t imagine butter – even yak butter (which I equate to having a taste similar to goat cheese because, you know, it’s a YAK) – would be able to overtake the tea. Of course, I don’t imagine ANY tea could overtake yak butter but at least a tea like this would have a fighting chance of not being overpowered and, in my mind, balance out the tea/yak taste experience.
Not that I plan on adding yak butter to any of my teas. But you know, if I had to.
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“balance out the tea/yak taste experience”
I don’t know if this is incredibly genius, Auggy, or ridiculously disgusting. Your pick!
“My fukamushi from last night had less savory mouth-feel that this one (though I blame part of that on my decision to use a metal strainer, not my kyusu with the sasame filter – and how big of a dork does that sentence make me?).”
This sentence makes absolutely no sense. Now I feel like a tea-tard. :(
Well, I can’t imagine yak butter being all that good (though I do love me some goat cheese). But after the whole thread back when about Tibetan tea being made with yak butter (and salt too but I don’t think I’ll be adding that to my tea, thanks… uhm, actually, won’t be doing yak butter either), I have been contemplating in my odder moments, “What EXACTLY does yak butter tea taste like?” So far this is the only tea I think that could stand up to yak butter. Though I am sure the Tibetans don’t use Adagio’s toasted sesame for their tea. But they boil it for hours so I imagine it’s pretty… ahem, bold. Yeah.
I will decode the last sentence which should help…
Fukamushi = deep steamed sencha… it tends to be made of lots of smaller particles due to the deeper steaming so it easily clogs filters (and tastes so good!).
Kyusu = Japanese teapot, the ones with the little side handles.
Sasame filter = a clay filter at the base of the spout in a kyusu (though some kyusu use metal strainers since they have a finer mesh than what you can make out of clay). Here’s a good pic (not mine) http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerford/2243135726/ My filter is much smaller. Clogs easily with fukamushi. :(
“balance out the tea/yak taste experience”
I don’t know if this is incredibly genius, Auggy, or ridiculously disgusting. Your pick!
“My fukamushi from last night had less savory mouth-feel that this one (though I blame part of that on my decision to use a metal strainer, not my kyusu with the sasame filter – and how big of a dork does that sentence make me?).”
This sentence makes absolutely no sense. Now I feel like a tea-tard. :(
Well, I can’t imagine yak butter being all that good (though I do love me some goat cheese). But after the whole thread back when about Tibetan tea being made with yak butter (and salt too but I don’t think I’ll be adding that to my tea, thanks… uhm, actually, won’t be doing yak butter either), I have been contemplating in my odder moments, “What EXACTLY does yak butter tea taste like?” So far this is the only tea I think that could stand up to yak butter. Though I am sure the Tibetans don’t use Adagio’s toasted sesame for their tea. But they boil it for hours so I imagine it’s pretty… ahem, bold. Yeah.
I will decode the last sentence which should help…
Fukamushi = deep steamed sencha… it tends to be made of lots of smaller particles due to the deeper steaming so it easily clogs filters (and tastes so good!).
Kyusu = Japanese teapot, the ones with the little side handles.
Sasame filter = a clay filter at the base of the spout in a kyusu (though some kyusu use metal strainers since they have a finer mesh than what you can make out of clay). Here’s a good pic (not mine) http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerford/2243135726/ My filter is much smaller. Clogs easily with fukamushi. :(