Thank you Roughage for this lovely tea sample!
Oh the people you meet on Steepster!
There should be a place just for the stories!
Roughage lives in the U.K. in a small town. We exchange Personal Messages at times about life in the U.K. and life in the U.S. since both of us live in smallish towns. His wife has a flower shop and sometimes he has to help deliver flowers and traverse the traffic (which he hates) when he’d rather be in his books with the cats laying about and a pot of tea. I can’t blame him there. We’ve discovered we’re both former athletes with aches and pains and both full of lame old codgery jokes and puns.
My conversations with my Canadian neighbors up North are delightful! They seem to drink as much cold brewed and iced tea as U.S. Southerner’s and are generous to a fault about sharing samples.
China, Japan, Denmark, Italy, India, Croatia, Australia and Equador. We are the TEA United Nations.
From San Francisco Amy Oh in the fog to New York and Washington D.C., we few in Colorado, Idaho, Seattle and Texas too…everyone has their own twist of excellent personality. The students and young professionals, mom’s, dad’s, and me…a grandma who lives in my tea cave.
We all belong. We’re like a group of kids who went to Summer Camp and gathered around the campfire for tea. It’s just the best.
Gush, Gush, Gush!
Review:(You thought I’d never get around to this!)
Roughage said that this was one of his favorite tea’s. He steeps it at about 140F which is a pretty low temp. for 2-4 minutes. I did the same and steeped the leaves 3 times.
I wouldn’t call this a grassy tea. The leaves were bright and beautiful nettles when dry, with varied greens. Mostly unbroken leaves. When wet the color was bright green spears and by the third steeping soft pale green. Very pretty.
The wet leaves smelled so wonderful that it was hard to pull away to drink the tea! Because I’m allergic to bean’s (even green beans) the opportunity to taste and smell this exquisite flavor without an allergic reaction was exciting. The aroma was very vegital and salty.
The taste was tender green beans sauteed in unsalted fresh cream butter then finished with a quick splash of lemon juice at the end to brighten up the flavor. The juicy, creamy tea filled my mouth.
The second steep was lighter and dry on the tip of the tongue, still juicy and lemony becoming creamy as the tea cooled. There was less of a pronounced bean flavor but overall this was delicate and an awesome cup.
On the third steep I noticed a little astringency, and just a slight bean taste. The flavor all through three steepings lingered well after the tasting making the experience smooth and enjoyable.
I enjoyed this tea as you can tell from the good mood and comfort it provided! One of the best things that tea does for me is provide an amazingly good cup and a great community to share with!
