Camiah

I’ve prepared a couple of pots of this, and have held off writing a tasting note, since I wasn’t getting what I thought I should be getting. The dry tea smell is heavenly. Cream, strawberries, tea, it is all there and it smells like it should taste wonderful. But my first couple of preparations didn’t. I didn’t really get any of the flavor notes, I’d get vague whiffs of strawberry and cream, but nothing like what the dry mix promised. And bitter. Clearly, my standard black tea preparation of boiling and a four minute steep wasn’t cutting it.

So this morning I set out, Brita pitcher in hand (okay, fridge), and looked over what Steepsteristas had to say about their preparation. According to most tasting notes, I was oversteeping. So step one was to cut the steep time to a mere 2.5 minutes. I admit, I was nervous. It seemed so little. Then I came across AmazonV’s tasting note. That recommended a scant 190-200 for temperature. At this point, I was game for anything. So I set up my Breville, filled my pitcher with filtered water (a first for my tea—normally it gets straight tap), and let the Breville do its thing.

This pot definitely has a much stronger scent than previous pots did. It is also significantly less bitter. It still isn’t there however. On the sip I get….tea. Yes, tea. Good tea, but tea. No fruit, no creaminess, just tea.

Is my palate broken? Is this thing on? This is not funny. Maybe I’m just not cut out for fancy flavored teas. This is very demoralizing. Maybe I should stock up on cheap bagged tea so that I’m not spending money on tea that I don’t really “get”.

Okay, hissy fit over. Onward and upward, right?

Backlogging from last night. This is rapidly becoming my go-to after dinner drink. At least until I run out, at which point I’ll switch over to the CS Chamomile, since I have some of that. After I finish that, I’ll be on the hunt for a good digestif. Any ideas?

No notes yet.

A mild green for a mellow afternoon. Steeped according to Adagio’s instructions.

I must admit, this tea is starting to grow on me, so it is getting a bump in the ratings.

I’m getting a lot of fruit on this brew, definitely pineapple. Lots of pineapple when I sip, plus a bit of fruity sweet aftertaste. I still don’t get figs or chocolate from the brew itself, though I definitely get chocolate from the scent.

Smells yummy. The vanilla scent is very strong in the dry leaves. I quite like it. I don’t taste the vanilla so much in the tea, though I’m not sure. I think I got hints of vanilla, but nothing to sweet or intense. A nice after dinner tea, I think. I don’t know that I’d order it (I got a sample from a friend), however.

I still don’t get the cherry flavor. Which I completely don’t get, because I had pieces of cherry in the dry mix I brewed. Anyway, today I got more of the vanilla flavor that people talk about, after it had cooled off. It seems like a lovely white, I don’t dislike the base. I just don’t get why I miss the flavor boat on this one. I even brewed it for five minutes just to try and get the flavor. Argh.

Light. Sweet. A delicate green that isn’t as vegetal as some I’ve had and liked. Its a refreshing change of pace. Also, the dry leaves are lovely, all curled and twisted in their little sample tin. This would be a good after-dinner drink, when you are winding down in the evening. Less optimal as a morning tea. I need something that beats me over the head with flavor in the morning.

I got it! I got pancake flavor on the drink, not just while sniffing! Yay! Its so exciting to really taste what you’re supposed to taste! That is all. Still delicious, and unfortunately, not really in the mood to enjoy the tea or really, enjoy much of anything. Oh well.

Damn Fine Holiday blend, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee in the morning, when I’m trying to wake up.
I love thee in the afternoon, when I’m trying to stay awake.
I love thee in the evening, even though you keep me up.

Perfect, as always. I’m very glad I’m aesthetically driven and loved the packaging, since I got a fanfreakingtastic tea out of my packaging-driven impulse buy. I surely will miss this when it is gone. But until that time, I’m going to enjoy every cup.

I this as another sample from Caligatia. It supposedly has citrus in it (confirmed by sightings of zest in the dry mix). I don’t taste it though. I taste a basic green tea. Not bad, a good cup, but nothing to rave about. I’ll happily finish out the sample and bid it adieu.

Stashdown #5! I got a sample of this from Caligatia. She’s very generous with her tea. A very good trait in a friend, if I do say so myself. Anyway, back to the tea.

Other people used light and delicate to describe this tea, and yeah, I can see that. For all that I like blends, sometimes a girl just needs a straight up single note tea that is what it is. It isn’t as smooth as the Yunnan Gold I had earlier, but is charming in its own, simple way. A solid tea when all you want is tea. I’m glad I had the opportunity to try it!

Stashdown #4! This tea is wonderful lukewarm. I bet it would be even better hot. I made my to-go mug of tea only to leave it sitting on the counter when I left for work. Its been one of those days. Everything is just sort of off kilter and not-quite-right.

Anyway, back to the tea. Ah, yes, this is a lovely black tea. It has a smooth body, and a somewhat indescribable taste. Not like a typical black tea that I’ve had recently. Less bold, but more sophisticated. It doesn’t need to whack you on your head to make you take notice. I don’t get the peppery notes that the tea description talks about, nor the cocoa notes that Caligatia mentioned today at lunch. I think my lack of descriptability stems from being very full from a very delicious lunch and wanting very badly to take a nap. Or it could be that I’m bummed that I accidentally left a mug of a tea that I very much wanted to enjoy sitting on the counter at home this morning. Tea just isn’t the same reheated.

Sipdown #3! I got Exotic Pear as a sample from Butiki Teas, and I quite enjoy this one. Fruity and floral are two of my buttons, and this tea hits them both in the right way. Neither one to me is overpowering the white tea, I still get a fair “tea” taste. The floral and vegetal notes to me are stronger than the pear note. I wouldn’t call it juicy pear, like others have, I don’t get that strong a pear hit. I’d call it more “hint of pear”.

So far, most of what I’ve tried from Butiki I’ve really, really enjoyed. I think I’m going to be a dedicated customer. I can’t wait to try more of their teas.

Sipdown cup #2! I’m aiming for four sipdowns this morning before I go to work instead of my usual huge pot of tea. Next up is a sample of Blueberry Purple tea, my second go round at a purple tea. I can smell the blueberry as the water hits the leaves—it makes me happy. I do love blueberries, so anything with blueberries is something I’m predisposed to love.

My first go round at purple tea I wasn’t such a fan of. This is better. Much better. It has a less astringent flavor, which makes me suspect I oversteeped my pot of the purple tea I made the first time. The blueberry isn’t as prominent in the brew as it was when I poured the water. Definitely an earthiness and a woodiness to the brew that isn’t bad by the cup. I also suspect that I might like the purple tea on a cup-at-a-time basis, rather than four cups at a time, like I made it when I first got it. That probably is a good lesson in general. Perhaps new teas ought to be made just a cup at a time instead of a four pot cup at a time. Hmm, things to ponder.

I’m doing my own Sipdown today since, despite my best intentions of sipping down yesterday, had a disastrous food and beverage day. First up is Butiki Tea’s Genmaicha, which I got as a sample from a recent order.

This is my first genmaicha, and I’m intrigued. I can smell the toastiness wafting off the mug as I type. It is rather pleasant, and totally unlike what I’ve experienced in a green tea before. The brew delivers on the promised toastiness—it is delicious! I really get the taste of the rice from the drink. The couple little pieces of popped corn I think I get more on the scent end. This is one of the few teas I’ve had where I can say “Yes! I taste what I’m supposed to taste!” This would be a great after dinner drink on one of those days when you’ve eaten just right, and don’t need any digestifs. A pre-prebedtime tea. This feels rather like comfort food for me. Its warm, savory, and delicious.

This is definitely going to go on my shopping list. There will be more in my future.

Post dinner cuppa for my husband and I while we caught up on the Daily Show from last night. After reading all these reviews that talked about how sweetener really makes this tea shine, I bit the bullet and added some sugar to my tea to see if it really brought out the chocolately/desserty flavors. Well, all I got was sweet. Sweet taste, sweet aftertaste. Blergh. Not my thing. I wonder if maybe it doesn’t taste more chocolate-esque for other people when it has been sweetened just because sweet and chocolate rather go together. For most people, chocolate is sweet, and so the chocolate flavor becomes more pronounced by the very fact that when adding sugar, you’ve added an essential component of the “chocolate expectation”. I don’t really get chocolate, even with the addition of sweetener. Mostly coffee. I like coffee. Okay, I’m tired, I’m on the cusp of babbling. Clearly it is time to go to bed.

No notes yet.

Still spicy and cidery. The cardamom really came through on this steep, more assertively than on past preparations. Maybe it needed a slightly longer steep time. I steeped for four minutes, rather than the recommended three. The ginger was also more readily apparent on this steep.I might try doubling the mix next time to see if I get a more full-on nutty and less baked apple taste, which is what I get when following the directions.

I’m ratcheting the rating down a little bit, I feel like I should get more from this tea than I actually do. More strength, more nuttiness, just more in general.

Not as bold as I’d imagined (I think I imagined it more like an English Breakfast), but not bitter, either. And that is the more important of the two, methinks. It is a lovely flavor. My first sip, I was rather “meh”, but the more I’ve sipped it, the more it has wormed its way into my heart palate.

Chose this as an after dinner tea since I wasn’t feeling so hot. The ginger and mint are apparent immediately, an interesting combination that I wasn’t sure I’d like but it seems to work, go figure. I get a vague sense of citrus, like many others, though I’m not sure if I’m getting it because other reviewers have said they got it, or if its because I actually “got it” myself. I think I like it, especially an after-dinner/before-bed tisane. I’m not sure I’d be into it at other times.

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