Bonnie

OH MY GOODNESS

I prepared a cup of this sample from Stacy and it was amazing…so much so that I didn’t trust my own judgement alone.

I’ll tell you what it isn’t first. It’s NOT malty, yammy or chocolate. This black tea is unique. I’ve never tasted a black tea like this one before! I’ve had some outstanding black tea’s. They hit every mark that a great black tea should achieve and I’ve been happy (and I love my malty, chocolaty black tea’s).

Then Stacy sent this sample and it was different than the rest.

I had a little bit of tea left in the sample packet, enough for a
4oz. gaiwan at my Tea House, so I took the rest there Saturday Night.

I waited until everyone was gone except Preston, Joe, Sam and I.

Preston heated the gaiwan, put the long,wiry tea leaves into it and waited for them to warm up for scenting.
Then he lifted the top, put his nose down to smell the aroma, and said, “WAFFLES!”

Yep! Each of us sniffed the leaves and they smelled like the best Belgian WAFFLES ever! I couldn’t believe how delicious the aroma was.

The first steep was sweet, tasting like cotton candy or powdered sugar with an ice cream milkiness…thickening in the mouth in a delightful way. Such a dessert-like tea! Sweet and smooth.

The expression on Sam and Joe’s faces, and the “WOW, THIS IS FANTASTIC!”, (Said with gusto) isn’t something I hear from these young men.

I took a whiff of the wet leaves…coriander, honey maple syrup…interesting.

A second steep had a golden raisin flavor with muscat-honey syrup and butter. Thick in the back of the mouth and not cloying. I thought of sweet cornbread and honey-butter.

I didn’t have enough leaves to continue…and I want more. TEA!
We all want more. The raving (craving) about this tea carried over to today. Joe told Eric how amazing the flavor was.

By what magic Stacy acquired this tea, I have no idea, but let me tell you… when this becomes available on the Butiki Site, do all you can to get a hold of it before it’s gone!

It’s Golden Globe, Academy Award…you name it, this tea has it all.

Winner, Fabulous, Must Have in my Cabinet Forever!

I was talking to myself recently “Hey self, why don’t you ever drink flavored tea’s anymore? you’re getting to be out of touch and boring!”
(I’d probably be boring anyway, but to the point…)

It was true! I had slipped down the slope of tea mental-pause and was boring even to myself!
I love my Black Tea’s, Oolongs and Pu-er…but now and then I want DESSERT! (No umpteen steeps and no Gaiwan!)

So who do you call when the sweet tooth needs to be satisfied…
STACY at BUTIKI that’s who! (I know there are others you can call but honestly, if I have a choice on interesting (sometimes funny) flavors that are natural and ones I can count on, it’s Stacy!)…besides…she’s a hoot and nice!

If I melted down an Orange Creamsicle, and added a little chocolate it would taste like this. PLAIN AND SIMPLE!
(Hope ya’ll got that!)

I HATE tea that is so artificially flavored that it makes your tongue feel furry and the aftertaste goes sour…yuck! Gives me a migraine! Not Stacy’s tea’s and not this one!

It’s dreamy creamy…(not sour), orangy and fabulously good.
The chocolate is there but not the star. Creamsicle is the star!

Great Dessert Tea

Tea Discovery
One day, my timing was ‘just right’ when I went for tea at Happy Lucky’s. There was a line-up of tea’s and tasting going on from a new company in Denver (Nepali tea traders) and owner George was keen to carry some of their teas in the shop. But, which ones?

I took my seat at the bar and Andy placed what was left of 12 tasting sets in front of me for an opinion.

“Yes!”, I cheered internally! “I get to taste all this tea!”

I love Nepalese tea, and I picked 4 that I thought would be good for the shop to carry, which matched the tasters opinion.
Later, this Ruby Pu-er came in and when I tasted it, I said it should bump any of the other teas! An absolute must! Best of all the tea’s!

George was on the fence about it at first. Would a small town really respond well to a Pu-er like this one? (He only carried a handful of Pu-er’s in the shop) We talked about the new website which I knew would benefit from having a tea like this one and he agreed.(George is a smart man!)

Nepali Tea Traders donates all their profits to benefit the Nepali Youth Foundation and tea industry growth. (The owner’s parents worked in Nepal so there is a connection with a small area of tea farms)

Happy Luckys had a tasting at the shop which drew 45 people (a large crowd in our town), and the star of the show at that tasting and in the days to since has been this Nepal Ruby Pu-er Style Black Tea!

Taste
The flavor is warm and fruity. Cherries and brandied peaches, walnuts warmed in a skillet, wood and clover honey. All this might lead you to think of some dark and heavy tea but it’s not. The tea is light, almost like a wheat beer in color and smooth.

The second steep was sweet and buttery, a honey molasses stick of candy. No earthiness.

You’ll have to be careful not to over brew or the tea can become bitter. I added a little sugar (might add some honey next time) and the flavor was luxurious.
(If you like a little bitterness, it reminded me of some of the craft beers in town over at O’dells or New Belgium Breweries.)

Nepal is so close to Darjeeling that the tea can taste almost the same but fame has been out of reach for Nepal due to isolation and war.

Love, love, love this Pu-er style tea!

It is my understanding that this is the first Pu-er style black tea from Nepal

Story
On rainy days up on Mine Hill, my brother (the other miners kids) and I would go into the big 1870’s Bar in what was left of a ghost town that no longer exists today.
This was once part of a thriving town built on Mercury mining called New Almaden. The mining operation was necessary for processing the Silver which made California rich.

For us, the bar was a good place to set up old liquor bottles and skate around them as though we had our own private skating rink.

Behind the building was a locked map house with maps of the mines on the mountain. (Grandpa Charlie was in charge of the maps and mining)

Past a row of what used to be shops and a Bank was a School.

The School was brick and plaster all crumbling apart.
The worse part were BEES! You had to sneak into the schoolhouse without disturbing those pesky bees or else…you’d better run for your life!
Why would I want to go into the School and chance getting stung you may ask?
Behind the wallpaper, were pictures! Old photographs and drawings!
Students from a century before had somehow stuck little memories of themselves where I could find them later. There were funny black and white pictures of girls in long dresses and hats and boys in knickers. I was young myself so this was all curious.

Grandpa Charlie made a swimming pool out of a wooden water tank on the side of the road to his house. He painted it bright blue.
It filled itself from a spring through a pipe he rigged up and overflowed onto hillside below where deer would gather at night to drink.

Mom would blow a whistle, and the kids from the Austins, Kafka’s and Martinez families would come running to have a swim and some Red Kool-Aid.

When it was hot and the dusty Pine, Oak, Manzanita, Bay, Arbutus, Nettles and Hay would fill our eyes and noses, but a dip in the ‘pool’ refreshed us and the day glistened with light.

Yabao makes me think of this time on the mountain. The scent and taste takes me to this place.

Tea
Today, I went through 15 steeps beginning with 4 seconds and ending at 32 seconds. I could have continued…the leaves were generous.

These ancient tree Yabao leaves were beautiful, long, rose-rust and green colored.
Wet, the aroma was like sea air, a saline spray…savory and alive.

Invigorating!

I ’m not going to give a list of the entire 15 steep series of how the tea tasted.

In the beginning, the flavor was savory and sweet…like artichokes and chicken in butter, with the sweetness of floral olive oil on the finish.
Later the taste became cleaner, less savory but still sweet and mouth watering.
I was puzzled about the honey-aroma mentioned by Master Han until I stuck my nose into my glass cup after it was ‘empty’ and there it was! HONEY!
After 8 steeps the balance of sweetness to savory was even, and a pepper scent appeared. There wasn’t heat, but pepper and salty, savory taste with a buttery mouth-feel lasted all the way until the last steep.

The flavor lingers and reminds me of an extraordinary Sheng that has aged to the proper point and is ready. Everything that can be given by a tea is there. Full color, mouth-feel, smoothness, lingering flavor…everything.
The point is, that I am at a loss as to what to say.

I can tell you about how the tea makes me feel and where it takes me.

Yabao takes me into old dusty buildings, past fragrant bushes and herbs growing wild along the side of the road, into the School and bees buzzing, then cools me with a refreshing pool of spring water.

For a moment I’m in Second Grade.

Memorable

My ‘tea‘ recipes are not complicated. In fact, they are almost too easy.

Years of rushing home from work to hungry people taught me to whip up a meal from scratch in no time flat. Long before there was a movement to eat seasonally, or buy from local farms, I figured out that this was an economical way to feed my family. Boxed, packaged foods cost too much for a single mom.

Now that I’m on my own, I still adhere to a simple, fresh way of eating…and I can whip up a meal that tastes great without costing much time or money.

Now and then, I like to make whole wheat pancakes. I make enough for the week and stack them with foil between the layers inside a bag to make them easy to separate and reheat. They can be used for breakfast, with cheese for lunch or filled like a crepe for dinner and rolled over.

I made pancakes with this tea and have more info and a picture on my blog www.teaandincense.com

I thought I reviewed this but didn’t! Ha! I’ve lost my mind…approaching 65!
When I first brewed some of this blend the Chrysanthemum threw me off a little. It was an unfamiliar flavor. I was in the middle of the road about if I liked it or not and ended up more on the NOT side.

I tried some again, but it just wasn’t my kind of tea. (These things happen to all of us!)

The lonely packet of tea has been sitting in my ‘to be reviewed’ bin until today, ignored! It caught my eye for some reason, and I had a flash of inspiration based on Verdant’s own blending methods.

I removed some of the Chrysanthemum flowers then added some Laoshan Black Tea! Of course!

The flavor was so good that I made two pots of tea last night and one this morning!

Laoshan Black is a wonder worker! I’ve used it to enhance (or save) more than one tea. So glad I kept the tea until I remembered what to do!

Thank you Janet for this sample tea!

I reviewed an Oolong from Thailand the other day that JC had sent, one that was picked up by him on a trip there some time ago.
Right after that, I received a sample of this Thai Reistee that Janet told me was going to be added to her new straight tea selections and I told Eric at the tea house about it. His interest was keen to try tea from this region of the World.
What good timing that I could now take both tea’s down to the tea shop.

I’ve already written about my weekend trips to the tea-bar and how I have a green bag of samples that I bring to ply my friends with (especially newbie Preston who get’s a little tea drunk and funny by the time I’m done with him).

Eric had been on the West Coast for the Holidays, so we had some tea drinking to catch up on.

The tea house emptied out around 6PM, and we set up several gaiwans to taste tea.
This was our first tea. Rolled…dried spinach and herb looking leaves!

5 of us took sips in our little cups at about the same time and said…
“WOW, this tea is really good!”
Nutty rice tea that was very much like sticky rice in flavor,a little bit buttery and sweet. Savory, fragrant but not toasty like a Genmiacha. Preston held up a few of the leaves which were fat and long (at least 4 inches).

The many times the leaves were steeped, they remained savory and full of nutty rice goodness. (Eric was impressed.)

The Thai Oolong was brewed next (from JC), and Eric commented that there was a minty/camphor taste that he had only tasted in Oolongs from Taiwan. (Same thing I discovered)

After our tastings, Schey and I ordered LOVE MATCHA’S (Matcha Latte’s with Rodelles Chocolate (from Denver)). Preston was already a little tea drunk and changed the music in the tea-bar to fit the drinks he had prepared for us.

Yes, my friends…we were drinking Love Matcha’s and listening to Barry White on a Saturday Night…singing and doing a little dance while sitting on our bar stools, which was followed by some classic Al Green. It was a good evening!

This is North American ‘TEA’ Culture at it’s finest! Experience, experimentation, good friends, the mixing of generations!

If you haven’t been by the offerings at the Steapshoppe in awhile, Janet has been making changes and adding teas. This one is very good! There’s more to come!

WINNER, A GOOD DEAL AND UNIQUE!

I took some of this sample from JC over to the guys at Happy Lucky’s during the Denver/Ravens playoff gametime last week when I knew the shop would be quiet and we could drink tea samples.

We drank a lot of tea, especially Preston who is newer at tea and trying EVERYTHING to the point that we just watch him get a little tea drunk and smile.

This tea was his ephipany. He loved it!

I wrote about the event on my blog www.teaandincense.com

Thank you JC for this sample tea!

This is a TGY from Thailand! Yep, bought there in the market by JC himself and brought back to the USA, then shared with me. I feel very special getting to taste a tea that I know he probably had a hard time parting with!

I didn’t have directions so I took a look at how tightly the leaves were rolled, then did two quick rinses.

Steep one: 180 degrees for 20 seconds.
Surprisingly, the first steep wasn’t very strong or floral. The flavor was clean and fresh with a light savory taste and a cucumber seed bitterness at the end.

Steep two: I lowered the temperature to 140 and 40 seconds.
This pour was still sweet but had a buttery texture and camphor coolness like many Oolongs from Taiwan. (That was also a surprise.)

Steep three: Boiling water and 45 seconds.
The flavor was more floral, sweet but less buttery or savory. I preferred the lower temperature from my three tests.

The leaves were filling my small white Gaiwan now, they were not only long…but fat.

I returned to the shorter steep time and lower temperature and the flavor lingered after each sip with a savory coolness, the wafting of flowers somewhere close by reminding me this was a Tie Guan Yin.

Every cup I drank was delicate, smooth, sweet and fresh with a little butter coating my lips.

Now that I’ve tasted this tea, I’m watching what Thailand is producing!

Thanks JC! Unique TGY!

Thanks to my family who gifted this to me!
The instruction said to set aside an hour to enjoy this tea (which I did). I set aside my whole morning! (I recommend at least that much time)
This tea swept me off my feet. Not only did the cosmos shift but I felt it physically. Bravo!

I kept my steep time short (8-10 sec.) after one test which was just on the verge of becoming bitter.

Having time to properly enjoy tea feeds my spirit.
We tea people have learned to step back from the World and relax.
No frenzy. It’s why the people here on Steepster are so nice!

I remembered learning from someone here to warm my Gaiwan first, place in the dry Oolong leaves then put on the lid and smell the aroma.
The feeling is like hugging fresh warm linen plucked from a clothes line on a Summer day. When I smelled the tea, it was soft and floral with a hint of forest under the covers. There were very long, brown leaves like fingers of tea.

One quick rinse and the leaves smelled like light smoke and buttery gardenia.

The liquor was light champagne yellow, glistening in my glass cup.
This color never changed.

I sipped the tea and there was a strong floral aroma. My first flavor impression wasn’t flowers at all, but pineapple. The taste was clean, lightly sweet and not astringent or dry but still, pineapple was what I thought of and nothing else.

I continued to enjoy the scent of gardenia and brown sugar in the wet leaves, and the flavor began to taste like that aroma with a texture that was smooth but not buttery.

As the steeps continued, a background savory taste appeared…not associated with any vegetable in particular, just savory.

There was soon a complete Umami flavor. Sweet, sour, savory, and bitter in all the right proportions, that came together and caused a puckery feeling in my nose.

Sometimes, certain really good tea’s hit me hard. I get a very intense feeling in my sinus between my eyes…BAM!
I think this happens because we taste flavor with our nose not just with our mouths.
When the mouth gets hit with Umami and the L-Theanine hits the brain too…oh my goodness…it’s wonderful, but later on, I need a NAP!

What I thought of when I was drinking this tea was my parents home in the Sierra foothills. (I took care of them for several years)

The house was nestled in a forest of Pine trees with flowering pink Dogwood in the front yard. The property had a hedge of Camellia around the front that bloomed in Winter, and a Gardenia bush that did it’s best to produce fragrant flowers under the dappled shade of the trees.

When you’ve lived in a forest community, you don’t forget the sound of leaf blowers and chainsaws, the smell of wood-smoke and rain on leafy soil, the sweetness of pine and bark or flowering jasmine and gardenia wafting powdery perfume on a sunny day.

It was our Summer garden that I remembered when I was drinking this Oolong.

I’d sit at the old redwood picnic table with my dad Bill, under a tall pine tree with the warm sun at my back. My friend the chipmunk chattered at me from the fence to give him walnuts (I had trained the little thing to take them from my hand).
At noon I would bring my mother Pat’s wheelchair out the front door of the house and down the wheelchair ramp first, then dad’s wheelchair came next. Both were brought through the garage and into the backyard so that we could have our lunch in the fresh air. Dad would read the paper and mom would nod off to sleep.

It smelled wonderful out there, like life and hope.

Sometimes I can’t describe the flavor of a tea very well, but I say instead where it took me in my heart or memory.

This has been a memorable tea for me and for all those who drink it, take your time.

I smoked my own tea! (In the culinary sense of the word smoked)

I had tasted some smoked oolong recently and when my Camerons Stovetop Smoker arrived (a present from my brother) along with 5 types of wood chips, I made a plan to smoke some tea.

There were no instructions for smoking tea of course. I had been unable to find anything online other than Lapsang Souchong smoked with Pine.
That’s all, and of course no ‘how to’ included.

I chose Alder wood because it’s mild, and placed a half ounce of tea on some foil that I had poked holes in so that the smoke could freely come up through the leaves. One quick sprinkle of water and I began the smoking process.
8 minutes later, I was done.

Today, I took my packet of regular Kally Formosa Oolong and the Alder Smoked version for a tasting at Happy Lucky’s Tea House.

Joe set up 2 Gaiwans and a row of white (regular oolong) cups and a row of brown (smoked oolong) cups for tasting.

The consensus was that the smoked tea was pretty good for a first attempt, not harsh like many Lapsang Souchongs and not like anything anyone had tasted before (not in a bad way or great way but something in between). George (the owner) liked it, and we went over how to make the flavor better and which tea’s to pair with the wood chips (cherry, oak, hickory, apple, pecan, bourbon, mesquite).

Why would I do this in the first place?

I tried to find some culinary smoked tea and couldn’t find any.
Now I’m making my own. I make rubs and steaming potions out of tea and herbs but the Lapsang Souchong was a bit strong. Now I’ll have some options. When I’m finished with this project, I might have some samples to send out!

I’ve started to roll with this….and I’m having some fun!

Thank you mrmopar for this sample tea!

I gave this pu-erh a real good tasting at several steep times. Shorter at first as I usually do (30 seconds), then increasing to a minute and longer still after a few steepings.

The flavor was very, very mild at first. I thought there was something wrong…maybe I needed to rinse this puerh more than one time to open it up.

I poked my puerh knife at the rough bark, encouraging the breakdown of the leaves and more contact with the boiling water.

The tea was still bland.

I increased the steep time. 1 minute, then more after that.

Finally, I had to admit that this was one mild, mellow puerh that was just going to be what it was.

The flavor was juniper berry, (a little on the sour side) not very sweet and smooth. I didn’t find complexity or texture.

Too light a tea for additions too.

Blah

“Hear ye, hear ye!”…I’ve decided not to rate tea’s this year by number anymore…not because I think it’s a bad system, but because most of the tea I drink is pretty wonderful. I’ll say if a tea is good, great or mind blowing.

After tasting Master Han’s Wild Picked Yunnan Black a few days ago, I took a red packet of this Anxi Fo Shou Black Tea down to Happy Lucky’s Tea House, showed it to the guys (as a teaser) and made a plan to come back for a tasting when Steepster Eric would be working and the tea shop would not be busy.

Granddaughter Schey came along today for the tasting. It was 12 degrees out and sunny.
We received our “Hello’s” from Eric, Joe and Andie as the bells on the Tea-Shop door jingled the announcement of our arrival.

I always bring a green fabric bag, stocked with tea samples when I go to Happy Lucky’s Tea Shop. I’m the Fairy Tea Grandma.

“What’s in the bag today?” Is the question I’m asked.
My eyes light up and I pull out a sample of a tea I’ve tasted and reviewed on Steepster.

Friday night Preston drank 3 or 4 samples from my green sack and got quite silly. He drank some pu-erh (which he is learning about) that he loved and said it made him feel like he was “13 again, riding his ATV through the woods”. Pretty funny.

Today, the guys knew I was bringing the ‘red packet’ of Anxi Fo Shou.
Eric brought out a Gaiwan, heated it and dumped the whole packet in. (Eric teaches Gonfu classes so it was nice to be waited on!)

The color of the liquor was deep golden amber and had a chocolaty scent…there was a sweet fruity lychee aroma that followed.

Schey was the first to say that the tea tasted like baking chocolate and dark coffee. I asked her if she meant bitter chocolate and she said no, not that and not a burned flavor but the darkest chocolate with sweetness left in it.

I thought about that a moment and she was right. There wasn’t a ‘roastiness’ like an Oolong or a cooked taste, but a rawness. (I was very proud of Schey for her observation!)

My first impression was a thinned down caramel syrup and golden raisins…enough to coat the tongue but not a heavy sugary taste.
That raw chocolate flavor followed on the finish and with every steeping the caramel lasted becoming lighter towards the 8th pour.

The flavor was buttery and the tea has a great deal of body and lingering taste.

The color, and scent (lychee and golden raisin) reminded me of Oolong then the Black Tea scent and flavors (chocolate and caramel) was so distinct and interesting almost like two tea’s in one.

I’m loving these experimental ‘artistic’ tea’s that stretch the imagination. This enhances my tea education and helps me grow.

This was a very good purchase of a limited addition tea that won’t last long, and a good buy! (About as much as a moderate/low bottle of wine)

Winner

I decided some time ago that my one luxury in life would be tea.
I don’t go out to the movies or restaurants (unless I have an occasion) and shopping for clothes is an old habit. (I have too much from when that seemed important.)

Tea is my #1 pleasure.
My contact with other human beings is primarily through discussing tea, reviewing tea online and drinking tea with family and tea shop buddies.

I want the best TEA that I can get. Sometimes it isn’t possible, and sometimes…I find a way.

When I read about Master Han’s and Anxi Fo Shou Black Tea’s I knew I had to have them, if even just an ounce. I ran to my computer as soon as they became available. Then, I waited….

This morning when I opened my curtains to look outside, there were glowing silvery ice crystal flakes, floating down without the will to be snow or stick to anything. This is intense TEA WEATHER! I’m ready with my newly arrived tea!

I have a spotted green/brown gaiwan that I chose to use for the tasting.

I followed the Verdant instructions for rinsing, proportion of leaf to water (I used a little less leaf because I’m a hyper-sensitive taster) and used the suggested steep times.

I’ve never looked at the tasting notes of other people first.
I like to make up my own mind and then check them against other people to see if there’s a match or not.
This time however, I sat with the notes from the website as though I was at a tasting with another person in a tearoom and we were going back and forth discussing the tea.

One of the first amazing but truly Brilliant flavor discoveries was Olive.
(I have to give it to whomever picked this out of the flavors because it’s so spot on.)
The fruitiness of olive oil…pungent and rich…wow! In a tea?!

I began to blither on in my head…picturing myself driving towards Elliot Road and the incline to my old home in Paradise.
The country road was lined with Olive Groves. Sheep and cows grazed between the rows of dusty green trees, the red and gold clay of the Sierra foothills under their feet and purple wildflowers lining the irrigation channel at the edge of the road.
There are tasting rooms for Olives in this part of California, tasting rooms for almonds (ah-mands is how it’s pronounced by the farmers (ah as in achoo)), and wine. Kiwi stands, peaches and apples. http://flic.kr/p/dL2zmW

The next pour, there was Brandy…in the scent of the liquor, which was beautiful clear amber, honey, golden and luscious. (I can’t even go into how the wet leaves smelled.)

The Brandy…scent.
I read that there is whisky and that was not in the scent, it was in the taste. Yes, in the fruity sweetness with a broad finish of the tea the whisky went deep… and lingered way down in the chest like liquor does. A rolling, welcome warmth. (I loved the sensation.)

There were notes about other tastes but I was not tasting them yet. I stopped somewhere else at the third steeping and found a thick syrupy quince membrillo taste, ruby red garnet yam right before they disolve into sugar. Something was changing like a mash.

If there’s anywhere the tea was taking me, it was to the beginning of Spring. Bursting forth…here I am with all my glory! Pushing up and out of a slumber and becoming many things.

From the forth steep forward, I tasted full Grape.
I not only worked at 2 wineries, but I come from a family (on my dad’s side) from Napa and Yountville. Wine people.
This tea doesn’t taste like a cloying too sweet grape, not like a dark grape or a darjeeling with a muscat flavor.

The flavor is something else. I’ve had wines from some areas that are semi sweet and golden, grown in hot climates that are ambrosia.
This is that Springtime golden grape taste, not buttery and not like a chardonney.

In Murphy’s, there’s a winery called Ironstone.
The first time I went to Ironstone, it was early Spring and the roads leading from the small town to the winery had been planted with Daffodils and they were in bloom. Winding country roads with flowers and cows in the fields…on and on. It was magical. http://flic.kr/p/dKW5wX
Ironstone makes a wine that reminds me of this tea, so does Castillo di Amarosa http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/ (worth a visit).

The meaty fresh coconut aftertaste isn’t sweet. It’s more on the savory nutty side of coconut.

Pinning down such a complex and vibrant tea isn’t easy. One amazing Ping of flavor brings to mind a time or place…then another Ping of flavor…and off I go again! This tea is full of Pings!

If you can manage this limited addition tea, do so. The experience is worth it. So much so…I can’t wait to share this with someone!

When something is such a one-of-a-kind and has given so much to me. I can’t compare it with anything else and say, this is better than…what? It’s wild picked for goodness sake. It’s fantastic!

Thank you Nuvola for this tea sample!

Someone from The Food Network flew over my neighborhood this morning and dusted everything with powered sugar. It’s lovely. The grass is sticking through where the lawn mower didn’t stike, and the squirrel that lives under the juniper bushes ran out to gather some more food from his stash before the sub zero wind and snow arrives this afternoon.
I’ve done my squirrel-like gathering already. Even though I moved here from California, I’ve lived in the mountains and know that when the weather is changing, you must have enough food and movies, then stay home. (I have enough tea already) Who would want to be out in 14 degrees with the wind blowing at 40 miles per hour!

After breakfast, I thought that a floral Oolong would be a fresh contrast while watching the frosty snow outside.

I prefer talking about the experience without being overly technical. I used a tasting set so that I could enjoy the aroma of the leaves.

The aroma of the leaves was heady…an intoxicating orchid, powdery floral and hint of salty sea air. Later, the floral was lighter and towards the last steepings had a menthol, spearmint quality that I sometimes find in tea from Taiwan.

The taste of the pale yellow-green liquor was a balance of light savory and sweet as though I had eaten a piece of honeydew melon followed by fresh sauteed green beans.

I notice sometimes (and I did on the second steep) that some Oolongs have a rubber taste that’s not bad, but is peculiar. This round had a feeling in the mouth like slowly solidifying butter. The finish was a bit bitter then stopped short, morphed and became salty and sweet.

A third steep with menthol coolness, still floral but less powdery.
The taste of sweet baby white corn-on-the-cob, salty, fresh. Peppery bite on the end with no bitter aftertaste.

The forth and best steeping was the most subtle. Spearmint-like menthol and a gentle floral flavor which was lingering and buttery. Very smooth. It was the lingering, all consuming hug of flavor done in such a seductive way that I loved about this last steep.

Lovely way to spend time on a Winter morning. The snow is already melted and The Food Network plane needs to return and do another fly over for another dusting of snow sugar.

Later today, I’m going to try making pancakes with some orange tea and cardamom spice…stay tuned.

Thank you mrmopar for this Christmas present Pu-erh sample!

It’s a gorgeous day! The sun is shining brightly on small patches of lingering snow that are refusing to melt. They freeze at night and stick out their tongues in the daytime…laughing at the 54 degree dry heat. (Only 4 inches this year so far, more due Friday)

Every Winter my town fills up with birds. Mostly Geese and Ducks from Canada (Thanks guys! Next year, stick tea samples on them,OK?!)
Since open space isn’t at a premium here, there’s room for birds, fox, deer, elk and other wildlife (and there’s lots of it!)

Which brings me to BEES. (Yes, you didn’t see that coming but here we are at bees, right after the birds.)

Colorado produces lots of honey, especially clover, hops, alfalfa and wildflower honey. I’m fond of stopping into a honey store to sample local in-season honey and a few imports from Oregon (blackberry honey) or California (orange blossom honey). Just a little is enough to flavor a whole dish, but others are subtle.
Honey and carmalized onions, local stout (got lotsa breweries) with short ribs…then slow cooked is fantastic.

Where am I going with all this talk of honey and food, animals and bees?

The Tea
I began with 1 rinse then an instant steep and pour.
The tea I chose to drink had a Honey Amber liquor (among other things).
The scent was sugar cookie and the flavor was like Log Cabin pancake syrup (although not as sweet).

Steep two was 10 seconds and deep amber honey color. The texture was clean, almost a citrus but not astringent. Way back in my throat there was a thickness after swallowing the sweet tea and I tasted clove without any bitterness. The aroma was white cake.

On the third steep I tasted something savory like toasted sesame seed honey candies (the kind you find in the health food stores).
I expected the tea to become caramel, but it surprised me. This was a good flavor, richer and deeper.

Another steeping and the color was beautiful, glowing amber honey in my glass mug.

The flavor was spicy, like spiced honey or a very mild Chai (if it were sweetened and had milk added I thought maybe it would be like a Chai).

I added a little sugar and the sweet honey and spice revealed something new.

What had been undetectable before, a light shu earthiness that had poked it’s flavor personality into the tasting (much to my great pleasure!).

Such a whimsical pu-erh! A honey….haha…!

Thank you JC for this sample tea!

I’m a little late with my review today…had a ‘Senior Moment’ and ran out of gas in town. Too bad that the spot was in front of my favorite Tea House and it was closed for inventory. UGH!

This inconvenience just made getting home to tea all the more welcome!

Ever since I read JC’s review of Thousand Tael Tea with the little yellow flowers in it, I’ve wanted to try some.
He had graciously offered to send some to me…and what a wonderful addition to my New Years this is!

When you first read about the little organisms called flowers, you might feel ‘creeped out’ about them. I mean, what are they?! These little dots that are called ‘flowers’ are organisms that change the picked green tea leaves into drinkable tea.
The color changes, the health benefits found in tea are due to these good little flowers. Drinking them is good for the body in many ways.

The tea I used was crumbly as I lifted it apart with my puerh knife to expose the little yellow dots of ‘flowers’. I was going to drink this ‘science project’ looking tea with great interest.

I used 1 gram leaf to 1 oz. water and rinsed it once.
Steeping was 6 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds (ick), 10 seconds.

JC went into detail on his tasting so I’ll be brief.

At first taste, I thought of unsalted chicken broth (although it was a little sweeter than chicken broth). I didn’t spend much time thinking about the flavor, first steeps are usually misleading.

The second steep was still savory with a honey walnut aftertaste that made me think of walnut honey shrimp. OK, I was loosing it. Maybe I was hungry. The tea was pinging my taste memories like a pinball machine but in strange non-puerh territory.

If I steeped the leaves a little longer, I thought, maybe I would get a grip and find the base flavor I need to identify the flavor for this puerh!

So, I lengthened the time to 20 seconds which was a big mistake.
There was an odd rutabaga, sweet straw, vegital taste that was a bad move. Blech.

Back to 10 second steeping went I.
The taste was walnut, sweet with a slightly savory flavor but no straw. This was good and a little bit salty. Not dry or astringent.

I wouldn’t be afraid of the little yellow flowers, you don’t see or taste them when you make the tea. The tea flavor is mild. (Then again this is a 2001 which is very mellow)

Thank you to Nuvola Tea for this sample

I shared this sample with experienced tea drinkers in a side by side comparison with a very high quality matcha. At the end of the tasting a few people arrived not knowing which tea was which and made comments also. (This was all done in a tea shop)

The Nuvola Tea had a distinct fishy scent and flavor, as well as a very bitter taste. The aftertaste was grassy which I didn’t mind.
The late arriving tasters commented that the tea was bad.

I felt that something must have gone wrong with this batch of tea for the comments to all be so unfortunate so I’ll leave this unrated.

Thank you Roughage for this Christmas Tea gift sample!

The day after Christmas, I received a package from England with some tea samples and DRUM ROLL….REAL SCOTS SHORTBREAD!!!!! (And this tea)

My eyes rolled back as I swooned over those shortbread cookies, rich and buttery. Roughage told me that he went to his mums in Scotland for New Years and woke up to Bag Pipes being played in the village.

Ah…how perfect. (At least to me!) Of course, I’m picturing Rob Roy standing with a tray of tea at my door…ha ha!

I’ve been loving the Canton Tea Co. tea’s Roughage has sent twice now. Wish we had them available here through a North American Canton Store, because they’re just that good.

Today, when I began to sip this tea…my mind kept getting stuck.
I thought…“Smooth…sweet honey…”
I would stop and begin again. “Smooth, sweet honey and there isn’t maltiness or astringency…it’s mellow.” And I stopped again, resetting my notes.
“No, no…this tea isn’t like that at all. It is but I don’t want to say that, it isn’t a bland tea…I don’t want to use bland words!”

Fruity and floral. Apricot crumble hot from the oven. “Better.”
And honey. Clover honey, drizzled from a spoon into my mouth.
No, hot honey at the bottom of my teacup when I upend the cup and let the liquid slide down like gold. “YES!”

I wanted to drink this tea with a spoon like a dessert.

Suddenly, I knew what the tea tasted like. Honee’s filled candies. The Candies that have real honey inside…oh sooo good. I always loved the milk and honey ones that are creamy like the flavor of this tea.

OK, so I’ve blown the review. I’ve been all over the place from bagpipes in the morning to Honee’s Candy.

Let’s just say that I’d buy this and will look for it. It’s candy store delicious.

Thanks luv

TOOT TOOT TOOT TOOT TOOT TOOT TOOT TOOT TOOT TOOT TOOT
IT’S MY 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ON STEEPSTER!
TOOTING MY HORN (If you don’t toot your own horn, nobody else will!)

So, why did I choose Cream of Earl Grey by DAVIDsTEA? It was one of my very first loose leaf tea purchases, and I found some in the cabinet.
Time to say adios to this packet, but not without a last cup to remember my journey.

I had never been a life-long tea drinker. I thought that tea was all fuss and pinky fingers up in the air…not for me at all. I liked strong coffee. My coffee came from Community Coffee in Louisiana and a small roaster (Cornucopia) in San Francisco.
While in Vancouver, B.C. at the Metropolis with my granddaughter Schey (Sept. 2011), we stopped in at Teaopia. We had never seen a tea shop like that before so I bought some tea for my daughter and a little Pumpkin tea for me.
My daughter says I found Steepster and I say she found it (seems more likely), but whatever the case…I joined Jan.5,2012, adding my first tea’s to the cupboard. (A couple flavors of Celestial Seasonings and Good Earth bagged tea’s).

Like most of you, I was stunned that anyone followed me, but the encouragement and friendship was genuine and continued month after month.

I soon got the hang of Steepster, learning from more experienced tea drinkers. I picked up the popular brands…especially DAVIDsTEA,
52tea’s and Teavivre (what a great help Teavivre’s samples were to my tea education in the beginning!)

I ordered this Earl Grey, Chocolate Orange Puerh (my first puerh), Oh Canada, Black and White, Check Mate and a few other tea’s as first ventures into loose leaf tea and was hooked. It was cool getting tea from Canada too!

If you told me a year ago that I would be drinking unflavored tea…hahahahaha…or Pu-erh that I would break off a Brick or Beeng…hahahahhaha. I wouldn’t just laugh, I’d scratch my head and say, “Bing who?”
Then, “What’s a Gaiwan?”, “What’s Gongfu?”, “What’s Sheng and Shu?”
Really?!

I’ve been binge tea drinking this weekend! A celebration!

I went to Boulder with granddaughter Schey and began at the fancy, hand-painted Dushanbe Tea House.

Next we went to Ku Cha Tea House and had tea on lovely low tables served with care and attention. The ratio of tea to water was correct. There was a soothing waterfall, Asian art and lush plants creating a restful place for sipping tea. (I ran into Alex Alan for those of you who know him here on Steepster. He looks happy!).

Today, I went to Happy Luckys and brought a 1953 Pu-erh Brick (blend) to share, that the HL guys broke apart for me (a first for Preston), and a sample tasting of a Taiwan Green Tea Powder.

While choreographing the breaking of the brick (careful prying), I drank a delicious hot chocolate matcha with steamed milk!

When I returned home much later, still uncertain about what to review, I finally chose this Earl Grey. It seemed right to go back to the beginning.

This is a tea that I would probably not drink today. I don’t mean this to sound snobbish.
I don’t drink as many flavored tea’s as I used to and this is too stong to me now. It seems that with all the tea tasting the past year, my taste buds are much more sensitive and this is not a tea that is subtle in the least.

I have used this tea in other ways, to infuse flavor into lemon and vanilla pudding. It’s good used that way!

So many people have taken my hands and guided me along, answering questions, never putting me down when I haven’t known what I was talking about. I’ve been naive and childish many times.

Puerh people that I asked questions about what shu and sheng is, Darjeeling people that I had to ask what first flush and second flush meant have infinite patience.

I’ve just scratched the surface…but looking back, I’m amazed that at my older age, I’ve learned so much in a year.
What has happened to me was summed up by my Priest, Fr. Evan, after a visit when we were drinking tea. I had explained my tea journey after the devastation of illness and divorce.

“Bonnie, you’ve changed this past year. I can see that you’re much less afraid of people. You seem to have come alive and are interacting with people in a way that I didn’t see in you before. You are on the right path, so keep doing what you’re doing and write about tea.”

Being on Steepster this year with all of you has been what has brought me alive and I want to thank you.
All the followers, those who comment now and then, those who send the messages in the envelope up top, the swaps and gifts, the Vendors who email me asking how I’m doing.

I want to name names but I won’t. The list is long and all of you are so important to me.

Here are the pictures of my crazy weekend of binge tea drinking (so far)! http://flic.kr/p/dJ7cRu

Off to Boulder today to celebrate Scheys 19th birthday! I kept asking her to invite people,but she wanted to spend the day with me. What a sweet granddaughter! (Good thing she loves tea!) We have plans to stop at several tea houses.
OK…like many of you,I enjoy a strong cup of tea in the morning. I’m driving more than usual,so I made a pot of strong tea (steeped 7minutes) then added cream and splenda. Love the strong brew!Never makes me jittery either.

Off to a great day and photos.

Thank you JC for this Sample Pu-erh Silver Bud Sheng!

For once, I read the notes by Amy Oh and JC first, because I wanted to know how to best prepare this Sheng Pu-erh.
Amy steeped hers 30 seconds and JC 6 seconds so I did some of both to compare the two.

I used my white porcelain Gaiwan, 4gr. leaf to 4oz. water.

After 1 rinse, the first two steepings were quick…and my least favorite. The leaves seem to take a bit of time to bloom.

There is an aroma, very faint, that I have smelled before in finer Sheng…a savory scent that reminds me of roasting pecans or artichoke hearts.

The first steepings tasted light and sweet like a refreshing glass of mountain water on a hot day. I pictured a cool lake, granite rock with icy water running over moss.

Steeping three was longer…30 seconds. The tea was casaba melon, citrus and semi-sweet. No astringency…just smooth, delightful flavor.

As I keep steeping the leaves, I preferred the longer steep time. The flavor was intriguing. Savory Umami, citrus, exotic melon, sweetness and smooth mouthfeel.

I didn’t find the tea bitter which JC had mentioned.

I’m fond of Silver Buds…for some reason, this kind of tea reminds me of Lake Tahoe and the many times I would sit on the beach looking at the Lake surrounded by tall Ponderosa Pine trees. The scent of pine needles and the clean clear High Sierra pure mountain air is something you can taste (and never forget).

Found my picture…me on a bench looking at the Lake…
http://flic.kr/p/cNoyZJ http://flic.kr/p/c53H9Y

My big tree came down today and it looked like the first phase of Spring cleaning.

One thing leads to another.

Then the wreath and garland came down from the mantle, the mantle got a good scrubbing…and the Pacific Northwest, Native American Art (which I love) got a cleaning before going back up.

The floor, carpet, side table with mini tree in the dining room were changed back into their former configuration before the Holidays,but with a scrub.

The tea’s I ‘could’ have had today, new tea’s that I got from some kind Steepster friends for Christmas and New Year’s, need my full attention. I’ll devote a day to each one next week (maybe sooner).

Before beginning my tasks this morning, when I rummaged around in my cupboard pushing packets aside looking for a bolt of lightning to strike me with inspiration,…I brilliantly picked this tea for a couple of reasons. It’s tasty (no brainer) and it reminds me of days gone by (sigh).
This tea is very romantic.
I was feeling nostalgic with delightful memories of Christmas’s past.
My Dad’s WWII Navy trunk (called a boot) has stored my best ornaments since 1967 including some from the 1920’s. It’s one of my treasures.

Some of the ornaments were created by my Grandmother (born in 1901) out of walnut halves…made into little beds with a tiny baby sleeping in it.
My mother made Victorian Lace ornaments with empty spools of thread. Red Glass Bells from my mother’s childhood are carefully wrapped in tissue. These are my treasures along with ornaments made by my children and myself which are wrapped and stored carefully in Dad’s old trunk.

Bergamot Rose Laoshan Black Tea has the black tea base that I’ve loved from the first time I sipped it, so rich with chocolate.
The floral, citrus bergamot adds elegance and a slight briskness.

Tea is able to help us pause with our memories if we take the time, and this tea was the perfect choice for me today. Cleaning up from the Holidays, remembering the past.

Thank you JC for this sample tea!

New Year’s Eve mail…samples from JC! I picked this Black Tea for my first tea of the New Year!

JC had reviewed this tea using a Gaiwan and short steeps. I decided to use longer steeps and a finum filter in a glass mug, a more Western Style brewing method with a heavy and rich taste.

When I opened the packet of tea, the scent of the dry leaves was sweet and the leaves were long, medium cocoa brown with golden threads.

My steep time was 3 minutes (JC don’t fall over!). While this may seem long, I used 1TB. tea to 7 oz. water and had no problem.

The flavor was not cocoa or malty like I had expected.
Instead, there was a clean, brisk taste that reminded me of Teavivre’s Bailin Gongfu Black Tea, but better. (As much as I’ve always loved the Teavivre Black tea, it has an aftertaste that’s vegital that I don’t like.)

There’s citrus in the scent and flavor (barely orange) as though this is a lovely Nepalese Black Tea blend. (By this I mean that Black Tea from Nepal often has a fruity flavor, close to Darjeelings which can have a citrus taste).

One of the journey’s I’ve been on (if you can call it that) is trying lots of different Black Tea’s. Strong Irish and Scot’s Black Tea’s, Kenyan and Chinese Black Tea’s from different regions (Yunnan, Taiwan, Laoshan, Etc.), Darjeelings, Assams, Thai Black, Ceylon.
This has been my Winter Project…and works well with drinking
lots of Pu’er punctuated by many sessions with roasty Oolongs.

This Guizhou is one of the best black tea’s I’ve ever tasted!

Next time JC, I’ll try this in a Gaiwan your way and follow your steeping style. This time I was my own wild woman!

I sweetened the tea during the second steeping (many black tea drinkers do this so I had to check it out) Sweet but not diminished. (Same with adding cream.) The flavor stands up to additions. (I hate losing the flavor of tea to milk and sugar!)

Great way to begin tea tasting for the New Year!