Auggy

Okay, so this is some tasty tea. But I’ve got a lot of other sencha to go through so I’m looking forward to finishing this one off and opening up a new one. Because of that, I’ve been trying this with somewhat heavier leaf than O-cha.com suggests. This time I did 9g for my 12oz and I steeped it on the longer side of things.

OMG. So good. It’s really sweet and pungent and thick and yummy. Absolutely zero bitterness and only a tiny hint of astringency. I think this is one of those really quality senchas that give a great cup no matter how you treat it.

Uhm, so I had this tea but I had it about 4 hours ago so it’s all kind of a blur to me. I remember thinking it was really good. It reminded me a lot of Samovar’s TKY which is pretty much the only darker oolong that I like enough to buy (I’m a green oolong girl) but this one was even sweeter and more fruity. Perhaps not quite as toasty/roasty but definitely not to be mistaken for a green oolong. Very smooth, very clean, very sweet, very fruity…. very tasty!

Right now, I’m going to tie this with Samovar’s TKY. I’ll probably end up adjusting the rating when I 1) get to try it and Samovar’s TKY close together so I can compare better and 2) have a chance to pay more attention to see exactly how tasty I think it is.

And wow, writing this log made me realize that I haven’t even tried a second steep. I’m going to go do that now! (What a crazy day!)
^8g/8oz

(ETA: Had Samovar’s TKY to compare and like this one better so I’m bumping up the rating.)

Initially, this smelled very smoky – ironically smokier than Upton’s Finest Russian Caravan – and very Keemun-y. I was a bit worried because I’ve been having some pretty kick-ass Keemuns lately and this one didn’t smell like it would match up at all. As it cooled, the smell became less smoky and began to get fruity and sweet, somewhat like plums. So maybe this tea will luck out and not end up competing against super-awesome Keemuns.

The taste turns into a good news/bad news type situation. The good news is that this tea isn’t Keemun-y enough to compete against my favorite Keemuns. There’s a little Keemun edge to the end of the taste, a little raw leafiness, but it doesn’t strike me as a Keemun. The taste is mostly Darjeeling, smoothed out by the Keemun and tiny, tiny bit of Lapsang Souchong. It ends up tasting just a little bit like a thin, light, sweet Yunnan.

But, here comes the bad news: it’s just not all that special. Yes, it’s smooth and sweet and has a nice flavor that doesn’t require any additives but all that just ends up being okay. Nothing really sings or sparkles or jumps out and, while it isn’t a flat, one-note tea, it doesn’t have a very complex or deep flavor profile. So, yeah, it’s just okay. I’d buy it at a grocery store if I needed tea but otherwise, not so much.

The tea bags smell fairly caramel-y with some cocoa notes and a bit of coconut. Brewed, I can smell the barley plus some sweetness and perhaps coconut. The taste is seriously surprising. The barely and caramel combine in a way that makes me think of some sort of baked and glazed dessert. The coconut and cocoa are more accent notes to the sweet, roasted barley, adding to the almost-savory-yet-still-dessert-like feeling. The last sip is the only cocoa-y sip; it looks like there is some cocoa sludge that settled at the bottom.

It’s not at all what I expected – I thought it’d be more sweet and desserty but it’s darker and more grain sweet – but I’m really grooving on it. So much so that I finished my cup and then I finished the husband’s when he turned his nose up at it. Tasty.
^{3 bags/18oz}

I’m not exactly sure what I was thinking this morning when I made this tea. Normally I steep it for 4mins but today I did 2mins. OMG, what a lovely mistake. It’s sweet and creamy and malty and a tiny bit peppery hitting the tip of my tongue. The texture isn’t as stout as with a 4min steep but honestly? It doesn’t lose any of the flavor – in fact, I think the sweet notes might be more sparkly with this shorter steep time. Looks like I need to turn my brain off more often when making tea.

It looks like this is a fairly polarizing tea – a lot of 80s and a lot of 60s. I’m going to be on the 80s side of the fence because I really like this. It’s very mild and I imagine that might be problematic for a lot of folks (the hubby likes much bolder flavors so I don’t think he’d be a fan) but I like the gentle softness of it.

The dry leaves smell of sweet hay and a little bit of buttered grass. The smell post-steeping is almost non-existent but has a little hint of sweetness and a mineral note. The flavor is very mild but really pretty. The front end is the softest with just a hint of sweet hay and floral nectar. The middle bit of the taste is probably the most ‘normal’ Chinese green tasting like… a Chinese green. The endnote is where the pretty really comes in. There’s a beautiful sugary sweet and floral endnote that flares up and couples with the more mineral note that I’m used to getting from Chinese greens. It makes me think of asparagus flowers. Not that I know what asparagus flowers smell (or taste) like, but in my world they smell pretty much like a floral version of asparagus.

Since the flavor is so very mild, it’s not a good tea for a grab-and-go kind of tea drinking. It’s for more of a sit-and-relax-while-meditatively-sipping kind of tea drinking. But I’ve been gravitating towards that type of tea lately so I give this one a big thumbs up.
^3g/6oz

Okay, who spiked my Tan Yang with cocoa powder? Because this is more chocolate-y than yesterday’s chocolate chai. Which, okay, considering the lack of chocolate-ness in the chai, that’s really not saying too much, but still. Added to that cocoa flavor is a little thick and chewy texture like a happy Assam, a little sweet like a lovely Yunnan and when I slurp it’s even a bit toasty/smoky like a Keemun. This tea? So awesome.

Thanks for sending me more of this little beauty, Angrboda! It’s so delightful!

My last bit of this one. Yay for decupboarding! I do wish there was more chocolate in this. When made with creamer and sugar, it ends up being a gently spicy, nicely creamy tea with a hint of chocolate. And for something with chocolate in the name, I want more than just a hint of chocolate. Still, anything made with lots of sugar and creamer is never going to be bad.

This tastes like a Darjeeling with a little hint of creamy on the end to cancel out any potential tart edge and then a little whoosh of faint citrus in the aftertaste. It’s not really a bad tea, but it’s not a special one either. The flavoring is too light for it to be considered an actual flavored tea, the bergamot is much too light for it to be anything remotely Earl Grey-ish, and the Darjeeling isn’t special enough for it to be a notable Darjeeling. So basically it’s one big ball of meh. In fact, the more I drink it, the less special it becomes.

Well, this was the tea I made myself this morning. This was also the tea that I accidentally dumped all over the carpet after only a few sips. Boo! So I’m going to hold off on rating this because a few sips just isn’t enough time to make an accurate judgment (well, unless the tea is truly awful but this one wasn’t). I did manage to have 2 thoughts about this tea before dropping the rest on my carpet. 1) This isn’t smoky like I was hoping. Instead it’s more toasty, which is a little sad. And 2) If this is their ‘finest’, I kind of hate to see their regular because the leaves here are large, non-uniform, a bit twiggy and the taste didn’t strike me as overly spectacular.

But who knows? Maybe it turns into liquid gold on the 10th sip – and since I didn’t get to that sip, I’ll have to wait until next time.

I’ve been saving this sample from Angrboda for a time that I could sit down and really enjoy it. I have decided that today will be that day.

The dry leaves smell like a smooth, cocoa-y Keemun. Post-steeping, however, it smells Keemun-smoky and toasty. But it also has a sour but perfume-y note that reminds me of used cat litter. Uhm, not cool. Thankfully, when it cools a bit that smell totally goes away, turning into a floral yet toasty note.

The taste is just like it smells –sweet and toasty. It’s really sweet in a floral way, like candied roses. There’s a toasted grain note underneath the sweetness but the sweetness is the dominate note.

Honestly, this is obviously a good tea – is so smooth and sweet – but I kind of miss the more rough and tumble MPD-ness of the Te Ji. I’m leaving this unrated for now because I think the rating I’d give it would be biased since I’m a little sad at how smooth and soft it is. But I think if I have this when I’m looking for and expecting tasty smoothness, I’ll be all sorts of in love with it.

ETA: The second steep (1:15) was very Keemun-y and tasty. The third steep (2:00) was more Yunnan-y. So maybe this tea is MPD, too. It just changes personalities each steep, not each sip.
^2g/5oz

Apparently I need to dig deep in my tea pantry every so often because I forget what all I have. I just rediscovered this one, something sophistre sent me ages ago that I managed to hide from myself behind other teas. Which is a shame because it smells lovely – a little woody with a floral sweetness that makes me think of candied (but not super-sugary) flowers. Hopefully it will taste as good as it smells, because after accidentally dumping my meatloaf into the bottom of the oven, I need a little pick me up.

Four minutes seemed like a long steep so I went with three. The smell is gentle and woodsy and alternates between nectar-y and honeyed. There’s a little fruitiness that reminds me of Samovar’s Royal Garland, too. All signs point to happy tea-ness.

The taste is thinner, higher and sweeter than Royal Garland but it’s still really good. Very fruity on the front end, making me think of a papaya-flavored drink I had once. There’s an end taste that is cleanly woody and an aftertaste that is very fruity. Once again I’m thinking of papaya but that fruity taste is what I’m guessing the tasting notes are calling apricot, which I can totally see (though more dried apricots than fresh). The eventual aftertaste (after not sipping for several minutes) is an almost bitter/sour astringency that actually makes me think of sencha. It’s not desirable, but it’s not icky either. All in all, a very pretty tea. I’m glad I dug it out of my pantry!
^4g/8oz

I have officially designated Thursdays as Ironing Day. I’ve got a fair amount of goodies to iron today but I’m extraordinarily tired. I need a good oomph to get me through the long ironing ahead. Mate is supposed to give quite a nice buzz and I’ve had this sample from Arbor Teas sitting on my counter for a few days to remind me to try it. Mate scares me a little bit, so I’m using the energy need for my ironing marathon as an excuse to bust this one open.

The dry leaf smells dusty and herbal-y and faintly sweet. Post-steeping, the smell is still a bit musty and herbal with an almost menthol-like whoosh to it. The taste is milder and less offensive than the other mates I’ve had (Samovar blends). It’s pretty much like it smells – somewhat earthy, hay-y, herbal. There’s a little ting on the end that is the menthol smell but the taste is a almost ginger-y warm. It’s a little rough but nothing that makes me think this would benefit in any way from additives.

I haven’t really felt all that buzzed but I am getting through my ironing without wanting to nap so that could be the mate at work. I’m not sure if I’d seek out this (or any mate) for a pleasure drink, but the sweetness definitely makes it my preferred mate drink of the ones I’ve had.
^2g/~9oz

This not-tea has gotten such good reviews here, when I saw it at the grocery store today I had to pick it up. After all, I’m always looking for herbal teas for evenings and I do enjoy coconut. I don’t always have much luck with rooibos, but fingers crossed!

It smells… interesting. Every so often I get a banana Runts smell from it, but when I stick my nose in the cup and sniff, I get creamy, milky, starchy green-ness. The green rooibos smell is obvious (it smells like chamomile to me) but with extra sweetness and fruit.

The taste is actually pretty good. I get a hint of Runts bananas (the only Runts I detest) but it’s balanced by a more natural tasting sweetness from the green rooibos and the coconut creamy sweetness. The Runts-ness goes away as it cools a little, leaving a banana + chamomile flavor that seems very plantain-y to me, plus a smoothness that implies coconut cream. The end result is something light, sweet, and tropical, almost piña colada-y. I could easily see this flavor profile served cold in slushie form and with a little paper umbrella in it.
^{3 bags/18oz}

Green, a hint of vegetal, creamy and sweet. The sweetness is more fruit than floral or nectar. Not a lot of dark undertones to this – just light, gentle sweetness and nom.
^4.1g/8oz

I like trying teas grown in unexpected places (basically somewhere not China or India), so when I saw Arbor teas had this one, I was interested in trying it. And now I get to!

I know the vendor notes say this is SE Asia’s answer to Assam, but it really makes me think more of a Yunnan. But it’s a bright, happy, more sparkly Yunnan than most of the Yunnans I’ve had, which strike me as a bit thicker tasting. I suppose that extra bright, sweet perkiness comes from the Assam-like malt aspect giving it a different sweet note? There’s a tiny hint of astringency on the tail of the sip, but it’s a sweet dryness instead of a more Assam-like nutty bitterness, so it doesn’t make me feel like I need sugar or milk to smooth it out. Instead, it’s actually quite smooth on its own, something else that bring Yunnan teas to mind.

Overall, this strikes me as a happy tea. Not as caffeinated as an Assam or as thick as a Yunnan, but somewhere in between. A Yunnan on antidepressants perhaps? Which makes it seem like I think Yunnans are unhappy teas. I don’t. They are just more solid, mellow and even-keeled. This tea seems a little peppier and enthusiastic. Somewhat like a puppy. A tea puppy.

And since I just compared this tea to a puppy, I think it’s time for me to run away. Maybe take the second steep out for a walk so it doesn’t piddle on the carpet.

Yeah, sorry, this one just isn’t for me. The dry leaf smells fruity and vaguely alcoholic, like wine or some variety of fruit Pucker. The steeped tea has a spicy, tart, stewed fruit thing going on and something that reminds me of a decorative soap. Sipping the tea gives me mild stewed berries or plums and soap. I find myself wincing three times during each sip – once to brace myself for the sip when the soap smell hits, once as it is in my mouth and I taste the warm tart flavor, then finally when I swallow and feel like I’ve just had my mouth washed out with soap.

Lots of others folks seem to really like this one so I’ll just say my rating reflects my personal tastes, not the quality of the tea.

OMG. The dry leaf smells soooooo good. When I was little, my grandma would buy key lime pie from the store every time I visited her – I don’t remember the brand but I think it came in a yellow box. Anyway, she did this every visit from before I was born (though okay, then the pie was for my dad) until that pie was discontinued (or the area stores stopped carrying it) when I was around 12 years old. So key lime to me equals visits to grandma. And the dry leaf smells just like that pie did. Like exactly. Makes me feel like I’m at my grandma’s house.

The smell of the steeped tea isn’t quite as obviously key lime pie-ish but it’s noticeably key lime. There is key lime then a bit of creamy (which I think is the coconut ‘cause I’m not picking it up anywhere else) and then tea. I have a feeling that drinking this tea will be disappointing simply because it will not be an actual key lime pie bought by my grandmother.

Okay, it officially does not taste like I’m actually eating pie, but it does taste like key lime pie (if that differentiation makes sense). It’s not as shockingly and heavily flavored as the key lime pie of my memories, but I can’t not think about key lime pie as I drink this. I know it’s supposed to be key lime coconut, but whether it is the actual taste or just the mental key lime pie association I have going on, the coconut just reads to me as the creamy topping on the top of a pie combined with the sweetness of the graham cracker crust. The lime is the most noticeable thing – it’s very fresh tasting, crisp and sweet with a faint hint of tart. The actual tea taste is very subtle – it hides behind the lime most of the time except when I just hold the tea in my mouth for a few seconds. And even then it’s still pretty quiet and non-distinct. It might also lend a bit of the graham cracker crust feeling/taste, I’m not sure.

Figuring out how to rate this tea is tough. Because, quite frankly, I love it. But I love it because it tastes like key lime pie and that is a taste that has a lot of happy childhood associations for me and I know that is influencing me. I just can’t quite figure out how much I would love the tea if it didn’t have those associations. Would I be disappointed that it’s not strongly coconut? Would I be sad the tea taste isn’t stronger? Or would I say, “Hey, this is a kick ass key lime tea!”? I dunno. If this were flavored after a pecan pie (which I didn’t like until I became an adult), I have to think I’d still love how the flavoring was done. The flavoring is so nice that I think that, if Lupicia did key lime pie flavored tea, it would be very similar to this (which, considering how well I think they typically do flavored teas, is a big compliment). So thinking about it that way, I can’t think that I’m giving this more than 5 or 10 happy childhood bonus points. Which means, yeah, good tea.

I seriously want a key lime pie now.

In retrospect, the best time to try a new tea is not right after a breakfast of quinoa covered in maple syrup. Though even with my mouth feeling very maple-y, I was able to pick out the bergamot in this. But otherwise, I can’t really judge it. Oops. At least I have more so I can try again at a later date!

Anyone remember Koosh balls? This tea makes it look like I’ve put a mini-Koosh ball in my teapot. Which sounds like a negative but I really liked Koosh balls a lot so I’m in favor of the similarity.

One minute isn’t a whole lot of steep time for a tied up tea (is it just me or do flowers and balls seem to take a bit to ‘wake up’?) but that’s what I went with. It turned out fairly light which was unsurprising, but I like it. It reminds me quite a bit of Rishi’s Jade Cloud, my go-to grocery store tea whenever I am out of green teas (which, considering how much tea I bought in Hawaii, won’t be for years now). It’s got the same sweet and vegetal thing going on but this LMD lacks the mineral edge that Jade Cloud can have (though that could be because of understeeping?).

Interestingly enough, when I poured the tea into my cup I got a whiff of something white wine-like. Sticking my nose in the cup, I didn’t get anything wine-like so I figured it was just some weird house-al smell but then at the end of each sip of tea, I got a little aftertaste – sweet with a little pucker – that made me think of eating a white grape. So yeah, the tasting notes say sweet/smoky endnote and apparently sweet/smoky in my world equals white grapes. Who knew?

Anyway, the second steep (1:00) was a little stronger but had all the same notes as the first – even the grape bit – just a little intensity. Light but nice. I’ll see how it goes next time with a longer steep.

Trying this one straight this time since I had it doctored before. Oddly enough, the bergamot doesn’t seem as noticeable now. It’s more of a faint juicy-like sweetness with a touch of perfumed bergamot at the tail end of the sip and hanging around post-swallow. But I still like this one – it’s smooth with no real astringency and a nice, non-fake flair of flavor. It doesn’t scream “I’M EARL GREY!” but rather states it in a dignified tone and in possibly a slightly snooty British accent.

I am feeling bold and daring today so I decided to give this one a shot. There was a time that I thought I would never try pu-erh – the idea of it was just too scary. But then Steepster(ites) came along and made me brave enough to try it. I’ve tried a handful of different pu-erhs and don’t hate them, but I haven’t found one that I can really get behind (at least, not a cooked one – I’m kind of loving raw ones so far). I keep trying though! I might be out of luck simply because they all have a taste that I end up mentally calling ‘earth syrup’ and it’s just a little too rich/sweet/thick for me to not feel overwhelmed. But again, I keep trying, so I’m apprehensively excited to be trying this one.

The dry leaf is more ‘hay syrup’ smelling than ‘earth syrup’, but after a quick rinse and then some steeping and the earth comes out. No fishy though, which is another pu-erh smell/taste that can be a bit much for me so the lack of fish equals good. There actually might be a little hint of something spicy in the smell, too, but I’m not exactly sure on that.

Okay, I have to say this first steep is promising. Yes, there is some sweet dirt taste going on but it isn’t thick or heavy enough to reach syrup status. Instead, there is a little almost-Yunnan-like tea taste at the beginning of the sip and a little peppery-type like warmth/spiciness left on my tongue after each sip. The damp dirt sweetness hits in the middle of these two flavors and follows through to the end. And while the tip of my tongue is tingling with spice after the sip, the sweetness expands in the middle of my tongue. The post-sip sweetness is almost into syrup territory thickness but not quite.

Amazingly, I finished off my cup and wasn’t too pu-erh-ed out to avoid more steeping! Second Steep (4:00) is sweet and smooth and edges a bit more towards earth syrup but still doesn’t feel too heavy. I’m thinking the peppery warmth has increased a bit but that could be residual lunch after-spice (but I don’t think so since sipping seems to increase it).

And I’m still up for another steep, so Steep Three (5:00)! It actually tastes a lot like the last steep. Smooth, earthy sweet but not heavy enough to be syrupy. Not as much depth of flavor as steep one and I’m not getting so much of the hint of spicy, but it’s still good.

Fourth Steep (6:00)! Mild, sweet but a little lighter/thinner than the last two steeps and more closely matching the first steep (but without the pepper tingle).

Honestly, I wouldn’t be adverse to taking this tea a bit farther (which is kind of amazing since it is a pu-erh and usually I’m done pretty early in the resteeping process) but I just finished a HUGE blog post about my Hawaii trip (http://pinkness.danzimmermann.com/2010/10/mia-ness-over.html) so I feel the need to celebrate and relax with something green so I’m going to call this tea done. I’m also going to leave this unrated for a little contemplation time. The fact that this never hit earth syrup is huge for me so I actually can say that this is a cooked pu-erh I really like. Shocking, I know. But now the question is: how much do I like this? Will I start craving it’s slightly lighter pu-erh profile? Is this enjoyable enough to break through my anti-cooked-pu-erh mindset to where I would actually buy it? That’s what I need to figure out so no rating for now, but it’s definitely a 75 or over.

Additives in this one? Make me happy. Not as sweet as I thought, but the creamy + candied bergamot is tasty with other stuff added and the lack of tea-ness in the flavor doesn’t really bother me like it did when drinking this straight. It’s similar to yesterday’s Upton’s Devonshire EG but the bergamot responds better to milk (doesn’t get all perfume-y) in this one so I like it a touch more.

So it’s official – good Keemuns are really good! Adagio’s Anhui, Chicago Tea Garden’s, Jackee Muntz and this one – they’re all a little bit different but they’re all good. They each have similar notes of rye and sweet and smoke but in different strengths and proportions. Adagio’s and CTG seem to sit on one side of the spectrum for me with softer, smoother notes and lots of complexity. Jackee sits on the other end, representing the Keemuns with a stronger, more straight-forward flavor and texture and oh yeah, if the stars align, major sweet-in-the-form-of-caramel notes.

This one strikes me as sitting pretty much in the middle of that spectrum, with some delightful characteristics of the Keemuns to either side. The dry leaves smell sweet and slightly smoky, which somehow combines to give me the strong impression of chocolate – more milk than dark, but listing slightly towards the dark side. Post-steeping, the smell is slightly smoky, rich and silky, with a bit of a dark grain/yeasty note that is too sweet to be bready and instead translates into almost crème brulee-ish. You might see where I’m going with this…

The taste is lovely. Not quite as complex as CTG’s or Adagio’s Anhui Keemun but still with that overall gentle smoky taste and almost-bready/grain-ish/woodsy solid note. Then a bit of stars-aligned Jackee pops up in the insanely smooth and silky feel. The end taste is especially smooth with no hint of a raw or acrid note that a lot of Keemuns seem to have. Instead, it’s silky, rounded and heavy. If this tea was a shape (other than, you know, the shape of whatever container you pour it in to) it would be a large, frictionless, dark garnet sphere – that’s how smooth it feels going down. It also has a strong sweet note – not quite as sweet as full-on-caramel-mood Jackee, but sweet enough that, combined with the thicker grain-ish/yeasty/solid note and the smooth, decadent feel, it makes me think a bit of crème brulee or custard.

Ultimately, I like the edge and greater complexity of CTG’s and Adagio’s Anhui Keemun just a hair more (a very tiny hair, in fact) but this is a really good tea. Those that find non-caramel Jackee a bit strong would probably really enjoy this one, especially the sweet notes and silky feel. Actually, anyone that enjoys Keemuns would probably like this one unless you tend to go for rougher, rawer feeling/tasting Keemuns – it’s truly delightful.

A big thanks to Angrboda for the share!