Auggy

Kusmi says that this goes well with spearmint and I’d have to agree since it seems like this is slightly contaminated with minty from the green assortment tube it came in. But it’s okay because it’s not too overpowering and it adds a nice little note to what seems to be an otherwise overly average tea. There’s nothing really too exciting about this one but at the same time, the fact that I don’t have any issues with something that is a Chinese green says a fair amount of good about this tea. There’s no salty/mineral taste (though perhaps the tinge of mint is covering it?) and it actually feels very smooth and silky while drinking, something I can’t recall from a Chinese green before.

Taste-wise, it’s pretty average. It’s green, it’s tea, it’s there. There’s not too much more to say about it. The feel is the neatest part – and that is pretty neat.

So ultimately, I’m a bit mixed about this tea. It’s good for a Chinese green – I like it – but it doesn’t seem that special other than the fact that I don’t find it offensive. Totally drinkable and even enjoyable, I just don’t know if it will stick in my mind enough for me to remember to drink it.

ETA: Second Steep (2:00) is a little rougher with some slight astringency and I can taste some smoke now, though it is more cigarette than pipe or campfire.

The last of the Zealong oolongs for me to try, this one just might be my favorite. It’s got the toasty, honey-sweet notes of the Dark but also the lighter, lemon-tinged notes of the Pure. There’s a moment of thick creamy but it flashes by and the majority of the taste is light, refreshing (though without astringency) sweetness. There’s a lot of fruitiness (apples perhaps but without the tartness?) and a hint of refreshing lemon fruit-ness. As it cools, a slightly darker flavor comes back out – the toastiness from the Dark, but not as heavy. Perhaps somewhat floral? Like grilled flowers sprinkled with sugar and nuts or something.

Honestly, I thought Pure was good. (Okay, it is. Really good. As is Dark.) But Pure has some lighter flavors that I have to pay a bit more attention to. This one? Light enough that it’s not roasted tasting but with just enough roasting to make the flavors truly pop. I’m kind of in love and want to buy a massive tin of this.

ETA: Second steep (1:00) makes me think of a mildly flavored lemon pie.
^8.2g/8oz

The dry leaves smell fairly uninspiring. A little floral and perhaps a bit of salty plastic (the type of plastic that they make Cabbage Patch Kids faces out of). Post brewing, though, is a much different story. Sweet, floral, creamy.

The taste isn’t as thick as some pouchongs I’ve had but it is very tasty. Creamy, green, it is simultaneously a warm cuddle and a happy puppy. The front end is somewhat heavy, thick and creamy with floral and some sweet milk-oolong-like notes. Then the second half of the taste brightens up, tasting less cuddly/cloudy and more clear/springy as it brings up hints of white grape and gardenia and a faint astringency after the sip.

I tend to like my pouchongs on the richer side of the spectrum and the end note here makes this one seem brighter, but I really like it. I’d like to see what it would do at a lower temp – if I could get a little more cream, a little less grape – but I’m pretty sure that no matter what, I’m going to enjoy working my way through the sample.

Second Steep (1min) It tastes wilted and boiled. Not even worth drinking the cup. Boo.
5g/10oz

This will be a drive-by logging of this month’s freebie teabag.

Smell: Dry Leaf – Alternately like sparking white grape juice and muscat. Occasionally with strawberries or something pink.
Liquid Tea – Mellow muscat gummy.

Taste: The front is floral. The name says ‘Rose’ but nothing in the description that indicates that there is rose in this… Is there rose in this?

Next is slightly tart berries. (Yay for a Lupicia Strawberry tea that is not strawberry Quik flavored.) There is some light astringency that plays into the whole fresh berry feel. Not too dissimilar from this morning’s Marco Polo but a tad thinner.

Last up is an endnote that is a cross between white grape juice and muscat. (The tastes are similar but white grape juice tends to be sweeter and muscat more wild/pungent… at least to me.)

Verdict: Pretty darn good. If it didn’t have the astringency, I could see this vying for Marco Polo’s place in my pantry. But it is a little drying, which does fit with the whole champagne and strawberries thing but don’t always appreciate astringency, particularly in black teas. Otherwise, great flavor and the first strawberry tea from Lupicia that doesn’t make me think of that cartoon rabbit. If they stopped making Marco Polo, I’d probably replace it with this and only be a little sulky.

Looks like Gunpowder. Smells like mint. (Of course, that could be the mint from the sampler tube, not this particular tea.) Tastes… like green tea (tastes like the same one from their Almond Green) with an astringent chaser of… something, then followed by a grassy/hay-like aftertaste.

I can’t figure out what that astringency is but it’s pretty surprising. Almost like I overbrewed the tea but I used the same parameters that worked well with their Almond Green. So I’m guessing that buffalo grass is somewhat bitter/astringent?

I’m desperately trying to figure out what that bitterness is from. Fortunately, it seems to be fading as the tea cools. The cooler it gets, the more I can pick out. At first, slurping brings out some smoke? Have you ever driven through the smoke from a massive grass fire (like the controlled burns they do near highways that you drive on for miles and miles without seeing another car)? Yeah, slurping makes it taste that that.

More cooling and then there is a flash of flowers. Not so much garden flowers (highly fragrant sweet roses and the like) but more subtle, smaller flowers that you’d almost ignore the scent of as you walked by, but if you noticed you’d smell them everywhere.

More cooling and now I can pick out a savory herb taste. I actually went to sniff around in my spice cabinet to see if I could figure out what herb. Oregano. (Thyme was the second runner up but it was too sweet.)

And now that it is almost room temperature, I taste green tea and oregano. Oh, it’s not exactly like oregano. It doesn’t have quite the same high note. Perhaps like old oregano? But yeah. Oregano tea.

Not sure how I feel about that.
^10g/20oz

^{I had a Tea-Off today between this (previously untried) tea and Chicago Tea Garden’s Golden Bi Luo. If you want to see the tea off (and pictures), you can hit here http://pinkness.danzimmermann.com/2010/12/tea-off.html. But for those just interested in how this tea shakes down for me, here you go:}

This is a really good tea. It’s sweet so somewhat dessert-y but the flavor kept developing (and surprising – bake-y! cinnamon! tobacco! honey! brown sugar!) through multiple steeps (and all signs point to it being able to go for more). Later steeps (I have currently stopped at 3 but might go for another one or two as I make dinner) had a heavier flavor so would be morning appropriate but it is smooth enough for any time of day. (If you are a first-steep only type person this is probably more of an afternoon tea since the first steep is the smoothest/lightest bodied steep.) I really enjoyed this one and it’s definitely something I would buy again.

I’ve had all new teas today so I thought I’d continue the trend with this one, my only untried herbal. The first sniff of the dry not-leaf was full on caramel. The second was rum. The third I got almost totally rooibos. The forth things started to meld a little and it smells like rum cake. Toasted.

Brewed, the rooibos is kind of there but it seems to meld with the rum. Again, the rum gives me rum cake thoughts, not a shot of rum. I’m thinking that is because of the sweetness added by the caramel.

The taste is… unexpected. Clean and sweet on the front – caramel glaze more than a caramel chew – and rooibos woody on the end. The aftertaste is a mix of caramel glaze with an alcoholic note. I love love love the flavor on the front. It’s so tasty and sweet and yum. But the transition into rooibos is a little confusing for me because I don’t really like rooibos and the rooibos taste comes right after such a delightful taste that has no hint of rooibos. See, it’s confusing.

The rooibos taste isn’t sour or rotting wood sweet or anything so that’s good. It’s obviously there but it’s just wood. Plain, dry, unrotted wood. I’m still not jumping up and down for the rooibos but the more I sip, the more I don’t care that the rooibos is there.

It’s not the best rooibos ever simply because it’s rooibos. But for those that can deal well with rooibos when it doesn’t taste like rotting wood, this one is pretty freakin’ good.

So this is pretty cool. The leaves smell strongly of marzipan (and a little mint but I think that’s because it was in the sampler tube with the spearmint green sampler) but post-brewing, that smell disappointingly goes away. Fortunately, the marzipan shows up at the front of the sip (particularly when the tea is hot), then transitions to a more straight almond flavor which melds smoothly into the nuttiness of the Chinese green.

The Chinese green base in this doesn’t seem overly fancy or spectacular, but it works so great with the flavoring. As the tea cools, the marzipan sweetness fades and it becomes more raw almond and green tea, but again, the flavors meld delightfully.

Once again Kusmi surprises me and makes me like a flavored green.

Second Steep (3:00) – The flavor is softer now, predominately green tea but there is still a noticeable flavor of almond underneath it, mostly straight almond but with occasional sweet little marzipan spikes. Toward the end of the cup there was a little not-quite-bitterness, not-quite-astringency but almost thick, dark nuttiness. If it were stronger it could edge into unpleasant but as it is, it just makes it move fully away from the desserty marzipan almond and into a more natural/straight almond flavor. Honestly, it’s really tasty.
^5.3g/10oz

I needed a little oomp to get through my afternoon slump so I yanked this one out of the cupboard to give it a go. I had every intention of spiking it with a little milk but I didn’t have room in my cup so I drank it straight.

The dry leaf smells more Assam but the taste is pretty evenly Assam and Keemun. When it is hot, the Assam comes through more and it reminds me a bit of Thomas Sampson. When it cools, the Keemun comes to the fore more. It’s a fairly average Keemun so I’d have to say I prefer it hot but unfortunately I got distracted with cooking and the cup cooled down a bit before I finished it.

I’m not entirely sure if it’s given me the oomph I was looking for – it was milder and smoother than I was anticipating based on the smell – but it was a good late afternoon break!

I am officially withdrawing from The Final Sipdown. I’m pretty much at the point that any teas I have left are gianormous and unless I start bathing in it, I won’t be able to finish off one tea a day, much less two. But I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made with it – 43 teas down. Forty three! And now I have a much more reasonable 94 teas in my cupboard. Yay! I really did enjoy seeing 80-something earlier so I think I will slowly work toward the goal of getting my cupboard back down there, but not as rapidly as The Final Sipdown would require.

Anyway, this means that I can no longer focus on what teas I’m almost out of but can instead take the time to enjoy some newer teas! First up, this lovely smelling one from Angrboda. I admit, I’ve been saving some of Ang’s swap teas for a special occasion. Today I need a pick me up, so I’m dubbing that a special occasion.

The dry leaves smell delightful. Thick and rich with a touch of dark chocolate. It smells like it will be smooth and flavorful – there might even be a hint of something fresh and tingly in there? – so I’m thinking it will have a good depth, too. Per TeaSpring’s orders, I’m using 4g/10oz and steeping it for one minute. And it smells so good. There’s malt, honey (or perhaps a bit of sugar) and some sort of spicy tingle laying on top of it. I’m hoping (based on the vendor description) that it is citrus peel note.

The first sip literally wowed me. It’s not as thick as I was anticipating but it’s such a clear, beautiful flavor. Raw sugar, a hint of creamy chocolate and then that same fresh, spicy note that I’m not sure I would have pegged as orange peel but yeah, that’s what it tastes like. The husband has a family recipe for homemade cranberry sauce and it includes whole oranges (peel and all). I like getting the pieces of orange peel that don’t always get ground into super-tiny pieces because there is this fresh sting that’s not so much bitter as not sweet and has a bit of a spongy texture. It sounds weird, but I really like it. Thinking orange peel then sipping this tea, it taste like I’ve hit upon one of those larger orange peel bits in the cranberry sauce, even down to the texture.

As it cools, the orange peel note becomes a more orange flesh/juice note with under tones of peel. It strengthens as it cools and I’m to the point that this makes me think of one of those super-mild Earl Greys. There’s a delicious honey/sugar aftertaste to it and something almost baked fruit-ish? Baked plums perhaps? There’s also a bit of a starchy texture that pops up as it cools. Not rough, just a bit yam-ish. And about two breaths after a sip (if I don’t sip again) a soft floral taste seems to develop.

Okay, I probably need to wrap up before I start composing sonnets to this tea. It’s really good – not delicate, but not in your face either. Softly flavorful? Flavorfully soft? It’s not a wake-you-up-in-the-morning tea but more of a let’s-take-a-break-from-stress-and-turn-to-goo tea.

Simply delightful.

The dry leaf smells like the green pack Extra gum. Which is kind of awesome because I love the green pack of Extra gum. The liquid has a few notes of that Extra gum sweetness but there’s a more natural, heavier note in there that kind of settles it down. Surprisingly, I’m looking forward to trying this.

The taste isn’t as sweet as the smell of the dry leaf. The heavier smell in the liquid shows up in the taste more than the sweetness does. The mint is nice – not raw or edgy – and it has a nice sweetness and a good menthol whoosh at the end that balances well with the tea.

Normally, Chinese greens are iffy for me but this one seems to be working well. There is some astringency at the tail end but it isn’t salty/mineral-y and so the astringency is just a stab of fresh-feeling at the end. The green tea’s got a bit of a woodsy flavor that balances the sweet mint nicely. I’m not sure if it’s from the mint or the green tea but there’s also a little spicy flavor to this.

Honestly, not what I was expecting from the Extra gum smell of the dry leaf and that’s a little disappointing. But at the same time, this is a nice, winter-y, cuddly green/mint blend. I was a little concerned about how Kusmi’s green teas would go, especially since a lot of the ones in the sampler are flavored and I have difficulties with flavored greens at times. Not that this is “flavored” (it’s more of a blend, I’d say) but still. This is pretty tasty so I’m a bit less concerned about the other greens I have to sample (well, except the Green Bouquet which I am fearing will be like Bouquet of Flowers No. 108 which was… not good.)

Anyway, I’m not sure if I would make a Kusmi order to get this tea specifically but since I do like having a mint tea around (nice for those allergy-induced stuffy days) I could see selecting this one to be the one I choose if I’m going to be ordering from Kusmi (and face it, with Caramel, St. Petersburg and Troika, I will be ordering from them decently often) and I am out of something minty.

The Final Sipdown: Day 22
Decupboarding Total: 43

So I’m having some issues with The Final Sipdown. It feels like I have nothing left to finish off with just one more cup. I’ve been trying to do some pre-gaming, but to pre-game and decupboard two a day is getting difficult. Because of this, today I decided to heck with it, I’m going to take a short break and just have a good tea. So out came Royal Garland.

And one big cup later, yep, decupboarded. Oops.

Oddly enough, this has the Darjeeling notes I’ve been complaining about in a couple of other teas lately, but I like it in this. Perhaps because the Darjeeling taste is more on the front end here – a bit fibery, nicely bright but not astringent or tart – and then is followed by a buttered roll type taste. The kind of buttered roll where there is more butter than roll and the roll is warm so the butter is all melty and oozy.

Then the tea starts cooling a bit and that Darjeeling taste turns more tropical fruits but the warm buttered roll taste is still there, making me think of toasted buttery fruits. Grilled papaya or guava, perhaps. Then there is a lovely littler floral nectar poof at the end. Ah, that’s so nice. And the whole flavor and sweetness coats my mouth and clings a bit after each sip, making me feel like I just swallowed a bit of honey.

So yeah, kind of has the same Darjeeling note that I seem to keep picking out (and picking on) in teas lately. But yet, so totally not the same at all.

Surprisingly, this is not vile. I know, I know. I’ve turned out to be so anti-Upton. I don’t mean to be. I’m just constantly disappointed by them. For the most part I’ve either not liked their teas or liked them enough that I would pick them up at a grocery store but not go out of my way to order them online. (There are a couple of exceptions that I would possibly order online but there are better versions at other vendors so I’d ultimately go to the other vendors.) Anyway, enough Upton-bashing (I seriously don’t mean to, it just happens.) On to the tea.

Without additives, I was kind of prepared to have to add sugar and milk to it to make it drinkable but nope, drank the whole cup straight. It’s surprisingly smooth with zero bitterness and a decently full flavor. The only problem I really have with it is the main flavor was kind of… fresh, young tree limb. I think it was the Darjeeling in there but it made me think of a Nilgiri (though a bit smoother) and that’s just not a flavor profile I’m in love with. It makes me think I’m munching on plant-life.

It’s definitely a mellow tea and that’s kind of nice but it makes me wonder how well it would truly hold up with milk and sugar. Though I gave some to the husband steeped for 4 minutes with milk and sugar and it was good enough that he was surprised when I told him it came from Upton. So apparently it can hold up to sugar and milk. Though I’m the type that likes to pee on the electric fence myself so I’ll try it later just to be sure. Until then, this rates as a decent tea that I would have no trouble drinking but would only buy if 1) I could find it at the grocery store and 2) There were no other better options there.

The Final Sipdown: Day 21
Decupboarding Total: 42

I’ve been so busy today I haven’t had much time to do much of anything. Yet I hit a lull about 6:30pm and was able to squeeze in a last cup of this tea. I love coconut and I love pouchong so these two together are made of win. It’s so creamy and comforting. A perfect tea for the crazy day. Kind of sad that it is gone. I’m sure I’ll eventually pick up more.

The Final Sipdown: Day 21
Decupboarding Total: 41

The leaves post-steeping look like my irises did after grasshoppers had their way with them. Other than grasshopper memories, this tea can be explained in 4 words: unimpressive Darjeeling with bergamot.

The Final Sipdown: Day 20
Decupboarding Total: 40

Apparently it is decupboaring white tea day for me today. Sad to see this one go. I think it was the first white tea that I really liked. And I still like it. But it is gone. And I am sad. But I still have CTG’s Silver Needle so I’m not without a yummy white tea and that makes me happy.

The Final Sipdown: Day 20
Decupboarding Total: 39

Missed my second decupboarding yesterday. Honestly, it’s to the point that it’s kind of hard to kill stuff off with one cup. But I’m making headway on some slowly! This one I had actually intended to be a headway-making cup but, god bless the glory of fluffy white teas, it ended up being a decupboard. Yay!

Honestly, not all that fond of jasmine teas in general. This one was the first one I loved and it retained top spot until I met a Samovar one (I think it was?) from takgoti. Anyway, I still really like this one. But being a jasmine tea, it doesn’t get enough love sitting in my pantry. But now it is out of my pantry, so yay! Forward motion is again being made!

Tiny tiny little CTC leaves. Once steeped, they don’t look like fun GrapeNut tea bits. Instead, it just looks mushy. So unfun CTC + Upton? Yeah, I anticipated lots of not greatness. So I used a generous teaspoon of sugar and a good sized dash of half & half in my 12 oz…. and it was good. Like, really good. The tea wasn’t covered up by the milky or the sweet, instead it was a great breakfast tea with just a bit of astringency hanging out at the end of the sip (but not so much as to make it feel bitter – though that could be the glop of half & half I put in).

Now, I can’t say how this is without additives (yet) and honestly, I’m a little nervous for it, but with? This blend makes for a nice stout and uncomplicated breakfast tea.

The Final Sipdown: Day 19
Decupboarding Total: 38

At first, this one didn’t seem as shiny as it did yesterday. But it perked up about half way through my cup. So I’m going to say that this is one that does best closer to luke warm.

Shockingly, my cupboard is nearing the 90 mark. It snuck below 100 without me noticing but seeing it so close to 90 makes me happy. So what am I doing to celebrate? Duh. Ordering more tea.

The Final Sipdown: Day 18
Decupboarding Total: 37

I tend to use cooler water to steep my green oolongs simply because it seems that those not-so-sturdy teas can be cooked with high temperature water. But sometimes, a greener oolong doesn’t really sparkle at that lower temperature and it takes something a bit warmer to really make it tasty. With that in mind, I decided to do my last cup of this at 195° instead of 175°.

So close and yet so far. The taste is clearer and there are some new notes to this that I haven’t tasted previously – almost a lemon spark to it – but the astringency is also heightened, even more than the new notes of flavor. As the tea cools a bit, the lemon sweeten and mellows into something that, when blended with the floral note, tastes almost muscadine-y. Which sounds good, but then the ick happens.

The astringency kicks in hard, making the back of the roof of my mouth feel sandpaper-ish as I begin each swallow. After I finish a swallow, that prickle slowly expands up my tongue, making the back and middle feel bumpy, dry and a little sticky. Then a sour taste shows up on the dry, sticky bits and I am reminded of morning breath. I have to swallow a few times to get enough saliva in my mouth to make the dry feeling go away and to keep the tissues inside my mouth from being glued together. And that’s when I get a faint taste of armpits or maybe raw onion.

So on the plus side: lemon and muscidine.
On the con side: astringency, morning breath, armpit and maybe raw onion.

I’m going to go with higher temperature water is not the way to brew this one.

Upton and I haven’t been getting along much at all so I wasn’t expecting great things from this sample. In fact, I was planning on disliking this tea simply because I’m to the point where I just don’t like Upton. (Yes, I’m sulking about their general meh-ness and disappointing-ness. And I have no current plans to stop.) But, dangit, as much as I want to, I can’t dislike this tea. It’s good. Really good.

Boo.

The smell is strong but not overly thick – it’s all campfires, bark and crispy fall with no road tar or thick smoke syrup to be found. The taste initially seemed a little watery, which fell into my general “I don’t like Upton” plans. I don’t know if the flavor thickened up a bit as it cooled or if the flavor built upon itself as I continued to sip, but I that watery impression didn’t stay around for long. Instead, the taste is smoky but not overpowering or heavy. There’s a hint of sweet that flashes across my tongue every so often but I wouldn’t go so far to say it is a sweet lapsang. There is a taste at the end of the sip that’s a little warm and almost spicy. It blends with the bark-ish tea taste and brings to mind cinnamon. Not so much that it tastes of cinnamon, but rather gives a feel of cinnamon. It makes me think of unsweetened Snickerdoodles.

I’d say this tea compares pretty closely with Golden Moon’s lapsang, though I haven’t had that one recently enough to do much of a true comparison. I don’t believe this one is as sweet and it registers perhaps a little more on the autumn side of things. Regardless, it’s annoyingly tasty. Which means I can’t just dislike Upton across the board. Apparently, they do some teas right. Darn it.

The Final Sipdown: Day 18
Decupboarding Total: 36

My third and final tasting of this one, once again with additives. When I had it plain I was picking up on something almost spicy/peppery in it and I can still taste that here, even over the milk and sugar. It gives an interesting tingle to my tongue. The bergamot doesn’t seem overly strong but it is there – perhaps it doesn’t seem overly strong because there are no perfume-y or soapy notes to it which is actually a good thing.

I’m a bit torn as far as where this goes in the overall Earl Grey showdown (really wish I had tried Arbor Tea’s version with additives just to make sure it doesn’t turn into radioactive sludge when milk and sugar is added, though I seriously doubt it does) but ultimately I think this slides into second place – in front of Upton’s EG Supreme but behind Arbor Tea’s Earl Grey.

The Final Sipdown: Day 17
Decupboarding Total: 34

My prep work on this tea this morning had paid off and I get to decupboard it. Yay!

This one is tasty – a bit foggy, stout, smooth, and best without additives – the flavor is fuller without milk and it doesn’t have any bitterness that needs to be countered with sugar. It’s probably not the end-all-be-all tea blend, but a very respectable one that has been very nice to have around. And it’s a good celebration tea tonight for learning how to sharpen knives with a steel. Yay!

The Final Sipdown: Day 16
Decupboarding Total: 32

Apparently I needed to catch up on my sleep after this Thanksgiving. I spent most of today napping. Which makes it kind of hard to decupboard teas. Fortunately, I had one more Tea from Taiwan sample, which is good because they can be a single serving pretty easily so I’d still be able to make my quota for today.

The dry leaf of this one smells pretty awesome – fruity and honeyed and kind of sexy, actually. The taste is a little fresher than the smell but it’s still got that rich sweetness about it that makes me roll it around on my tongue. I think this tea is trying to seduce me.

Flavor-wise it really doesn’t strike me as a ‘milk’ oolong (which tend to bring up thoughts of Juicy Fruit gum for me… in a positive way, I promise) but this is still very good. There’s a touch of dryness that sometimes pops up in the middle of my tongue at the end of a sip but it’s just a flash and it’s actually not unpleasant. It gives the tea a bit of a sparkle which it might otherwise lack with the heavier flavors it’s got going on.

It’s heavy, silky, sweet, a little fruity, a little floral, honeyed, creamy but with a dash of fresh crispness that keeps it all from being too heavy. It’s all very attractive and seductive and pretty darn sexy for a tea. I don’t know if a tea can be sexy, but this one seems to manage it.

Honestly, I thought I was going to get through my Tea from Taiwan samplers without finding a ‘must have’ tea. But I think this one just broke that streak.
^8g/10oz