Ewa

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #22:
Enough about dessert teas, it’s time to get back to work!
This is, as I have noted before, one of the teas that I’ve been dreading. Not as much as the licorice, because I can generally tolerate coconut in pastry, but still, expectations = not too high.

The leaves smell like macaroons. I am reminded that I quite like macaroons. Or at least fresh ones. Once I got the leaves wet, though, I could immediately sense the green tea, although the coconut/pastry scent was still there. I was a little worried about pouring in too much water, and I think I may have overshot the mark a bit. Oh well!

I…really like this! It has just the right amount of personality in the base tea and coconut flavoring. I can definitely see getting rice from it – although I’m more thinking of rice crispies – there’s a certain sense of toastedness about it. It’s VERY drinkable, I think I could just drink it all day. But especially if I had some curry or something. Maybe crab rangoons. Man, I wish I know how to make those.

This would confirm my theory, by the way, that most of my food dislikes have to do with texture more than taste. I hate peanuts but like peanut butter, I hate coconut flakes, but apparently am perfectly fine with coconut flavor. Not that this really allows me to do anything about it, but at least I know! Knowing things, it’s great!

Today’s moral is: I am totally getting more of this.

I woke up five minutes before class, oops! Grabbed some of this on the way out to have later. This was my favorite of the Earl Greys from my first go around, so I thought it would be nice to have on a morning that started out…not optimally.

So I wrote in my first tasting quote that I love Earl Grey But Moar teas, which is why I thought this stuff was great. This time though….I got soap! I blame Tippy Earl Grey. Or perhaps the water wasn’t hot enough? I was using water cooler water, which I assume does not go all the way up to boiling. It’s kind of tempting to say that going through all of those tastings with the Golden Moon sampler has refined my palate or something, but I refuse to accept the idea that in the space of a couple of weeks my tastes have completely changed regarding Earl Grey.

I guess I’ll bring my rating down. Maybe next time it will taste good again!

In other news I have the Robot Unicorn Attack song stuck in my head. This has nothing to do with my Earl Grey tasting like soap, but it’s not making me feel any better about it.

Well, my belly was feeling a little iffy (this may be a common theme in my tea notes, my belly hates me and tries to stage a coup for control of my body at least three times a week) so I was thinking of grabbing the Moroccan Mint from Golden Moon, but then I noticed that this had mint in it and I was like, close enough!

So when I smelled the tea leaves, I was really encouraged, it totally smelled like mint and chocolate – I, in fact, specially went out and got some chocolate covered pretzels today to make sure that I remember what chocolate tastes like (i suspect that is what angered my belly), so I am pretty confident about it this time. Anyway, I was pretty optimistic since this tea actually smelled like what it said it was.

I let it steep for five minutes, poured myself a cup (the bamboo strainer that comes with this set comes very handy for catching stray rooibos!), leaned down to smell it and got…sauerkraut.

Note to self: either move slow cooker away from teapot or move teapot away from slow cooker.

Ok, so when I actually smelled the TEA instead of DINNER, I got…not much actually, a light feeling of chocolate and maybe some mint. This seems, at least from my initial impression, to be the most subdued of the dessert teas, with the rooibos actually noticeable from the beginning. The mint is also obvious, and the chocolate…is there definitely, especially in the light sweetness and the aftertaste. There MIGHT be vanilla there somewhere. I think. Sometimes I sense it underneath the mint, and sometimes in the aftertaste with the chocolate. The rooibos is definitely dominant here followed by mint. To tell the truth, after the caramelized pear its almost a relief. And the predominance of the mint means that my belly is being pacified, so that’s good. And it’s not like the tea is BAD, it just doesn’t seem to have quite the same amazing…totality of flavor that the other teas have. It just tastes like a blended rooibos.

So, I’ve tried all four teas in the sampler, and right now Caramelized Pear is in first place, followed by Chocolate Monkey (even thought it’s weird), followed by the Vanilla Berry Truffle, and then this. I’m sorry Velvet Tea! Please don’t feel bad…you were just up against some really tough competition!

This is the tea that I drank this morning instead of the Irish Breakfast that I had originally brewed. It’s what I had in my trusty “portable loose leaf tea kit.”

Well, besides the fact that it was in a tea bag and a paper cup and neither of those are going to do a tea any favors, it was perfectly serviceable. I think the Irish Breakfast packs more of an early morning punch though. Note: that may just mean that the Irish Breakfast comes out more bitter.

So yeah, I made this this morning to take with me to class when I realized…I had left my travel mug in the car and I was ALREADY late! Yes, fellow steepsterites (do you realize that if you combine steepster with people, you can conceivably argue that you get steeple? I’m gonna call you steeples from now on. or maybe steoples?) I was going out to face the horrible, horrible morning tea-less. Fortunately, I have my trusty tea case, so I bought some hot water from the coffee stand and had my (different) tea after class.

Still, I had MADE this tea, and I’m not gonna make a tea and not drink it. So I am now drinking cold incredibly strong Irish Breakfast. And that’s…pretty much exactly what it tastes like!

Ho-Lee Buckets!
Remember how I said I was looking for a dessert tea that could trick my sweet tooth into thinking I had dessert? I think I have found it. And I think it may be TOO good.

I am FULL. Seriously, this tea has made me feel FULL. It is PACKED with flavor. Supersaturated I would say. It’s like, a smack upside the head of flavor and it is HEAVY. Woah. I don’t know how they did it. (Witchcraft is looking more and more likely!) It’s actually too much for me, I had to add milk to tone it down a bit. Clearly this will require some tweaking of steep time, amount, etc. Glad I have the whole rest of the packet to mess with.

The taste is fascinating. It reminds me of dried pear more than of fresh, but I suppose cooked pear would work too. I definitely get the pear and a caramel taste so strong it’s almost metallic. There’s a hint of honey there too, I think this might be what Honey Pear wishes it was.

Right now this is the forerunner for ordering more of, since it was EXTREMELY effective at silencing my sweet tooth. But I’m gonna have to see if I can get it to a not quite so overwhelming level, because DAYUM.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #21:
Guys, I think there’s something wrong with my tastebuds. I’m getting…chocolate from this?

Let me start at the beginning, as usual, I drew this out randomly. I was pretty pleased because while out grocery shopping I had picked up a thermometer for frying that I am going to attempt to use to measure the temperature of my water. Yes, I am cheap. I’m a graduate student, this should not be surprising.

When I opened up the sample packet, I got melon right away. I marveled at the giant-ass leaves for a while but then got down to business. When I poured in the water, that’s when it began. The smell became pretty vegetal, but I was also catching whiffs of, yes, chocolate.

I did a two minute steep for my first cup and then brought it up to 3.5 minutes for subsequent cups. The first cup was…wow! Despite the smell this doesn’t taste vegetal at all! It’s light and sweet, and totally melony. Honeydew, I’d say. But I could be wrong, I don’t eat melon THAT often.

But there was still a problem. I was still getting chocolate! At the same time as melon. W. T. F.

Second cup, the longer steeping time has allowed the tea itself to come forward a bit more, and I am no longer getting the weird chocolate flashes. There is an undertone of, I guess fermentation that I think other people have likened to liquor, but it makes me think of overripe fruit more. I think the combination of the sweetness of the tea and the hint of fermentation was somehow combining to give me the idea of chocolate, don’t as me why. Maybe I haven’t had chocolate for too long and have forgotten how it’s really supposed to taste. Clearly a trip to the candy store is required.

But enough about me being weird. Let’s talk about the tea! I quite like it, but I’m not sure I like it enough to buy more of it. I am pretty much meh on melon, so I don’t know if this tea will have legs once the novelty wears off. I suspect it will not. Still, I give it a definite “maybe.” ;)

Just HAD to have some earl grey this morning. Do you realize that I haven’t had any earl grey at ALL this week? I am not counting my horrible paper + soap tippy earl grey experience. In fact, I am attempting to block it from my memory altogether. It’s not really working well so far.

It’s interesting coming back to this tea now after having gone through all of my Upton samples, since I think this was only the second Earl Grey I tried. It may just be Earl Grey withdrawal talking, but I am enjoying it a lot more the second time around. I really like the kind of fruity flavor that I suppose the cornflower brings, it accents the bergamot flavor very nicely, and gives it a nice well-rounded taste that’s not just “ohai gaiz we added MOAR bergamot.”

May have to seriously consider getting more of this. But have to try the Extra Bergamot again, first. (Ok, fine, I am totally a fan of the “ohai gaiz we added MOAR bergamot” approach. I feel suitably ashamed of myself)

My second Art of Tea dessert sampler tea. Backlogging from last night. (I got sleepy)
I feel I should say something about my experience ordering the sampler. I have to say I’m very impressed with the turn around time – I ordered it on Monday and received it on Friday. I also got a personalized e-mail telling me that it was processing – which was kind of neat. Painless, easy, and pretty fast. No complaints here!

Except about the tea of course. Due to my whole kisiel experiences, i was kind of worried about a repeat with this tea, especially since it was berry flavored and the specific kisiel taste I was getting was raspberry. At first, I thought that that is exactly what had happened, but I quickly realized that it was a more consistent and straightforward berry flavor. For a while, that is all I was getting out of this tea. Then, as I got deeper into the cup, I started to get vanilla. And my second cup was also much more vanilla-y. Is it possible for vanilla taste to sink to the bottom? I didn’t get any chocolate at all out of it, but then I think white chocolate, since it contains no cocoa solids, has a much milder taste than normal chocolate (I still love it though!) and I could see it easily getting lost within all of the other stuff in here.

In terms of the blend, I am once again impressed by the way the flavors seem to meld with the underlying rooibos. As with the chocolate monkey, the rooibos is present, but only to provide a foundation for the flavors to rest on. Still, the tea doesn’t quite live up to it’s own hype.

Second steeping of this – I decided to add milk and a teensy bit of sugar, because that is what I do when eating kisiel (well, I add cream or yogort mixed with sugar, but same difference) and it works really well!
The weird now kisiel, now chocolate banana flavor switch-off is still there, but this time the kisiel is winning – or at least it’s winning in my head, I freely admit that it may be my own associations coloring the way I receive this tea.

Still tasty though! I’m really glad the sample sizes are generous :D

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #20:
Running out of black teas for the morning, so looks like I’m going to have to settle for a flavored tea. Well, I say settle but I’ve been looking forward to this tea for a while now. I love rose flavored stuff. I realize it’s really overpowering for some, but to me it brings back childhood memories of confectionaries.

On the first steep the rose flavor WAS almost overpowering, I couldn’t really get much of a tea taste from it at all, but it started coming out as the tea cooled. Are you telling me that you wish to be an iced tea, Rose Tea? I am unsure if the world is ready for rose flavored iced tea. Especially without hibiscus. Everyone knows proper flavored iced tea needs to contain hibiscus. This is Fact.

The second steeping was more tea flavored, but it was also a little anemic. Hmm…I am, however, suddenly filled with a craving for shortbread. Mmmm, shortbread.

Well, I have to say, nothing gets through my “need beer nao” haze, quite like the sudden arrival (at 9pm, wtf UPS?) of my Art of Tea dessert tea sampler. So now I am totally like “need tea, go away beer.” Ah, how fickle is woman, etc, etc.

Naturally, for my first pick from the sampler, I randomly drew one of the packets and this is what I got. Now, I have to say. Banana and I have a relationship that is even rockier than mine and Vanilla’s. You see, outside of tea, I am generally fine with vanilla. Whereas A. I have never HAD tea that involved banana and B. I am just not a huge fan of bananas. Unless I am in a banana mood. Which happens like, once every two months. Still, I was willing to give this tea a chance. Also, I am pretty sure someone else mentioned this, but monkey in the title! How can you go wrong?

Even before brewing, I am pretty impressed. This tea smells like a banana split! It has been ages since I had a banana split! I shouldn’t even remember how one smells! Which probably means that this smells like banana split should, not how it necessarily does.

The taste however…hm. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s tasty! So tasty, that I suspect Art of Tea of witchcraft, but it’s also kind of…confusing. Sometimes, I totally get chocolate and banana. But sometimes I also got this tang that puts me more in mind of a Polish dessert called kisiel. Which I am never in a million years going to be able to explain, so Wikipedia to the rescue: “It consists of sweetened juice, thickened with arrowroot, cornstarch or potato starch, and sometimes red wine or dried fruits are added. It is similar to the Danish Rødgrød or German Rote Grütze.” So, there you have it. It is usually tangy, has the consistency of custard (basically) and is super tasty with cream.

Anyway, which of the two things it’s gonna taste like varies basically from sip to sip, although the chocolate banana seems to be gaining the upper hand as it cools. My aim with ordering this sampler is that I want to find a dessert tea that I can use to full my sweet tooth into thinking that I have had dessert when nothing of the sort has actually occurred. I am unsure if this will serve the purpose. Further steepings are required! With milk! and possibly some sort of artificial sweetner! The more calories I can free up by avoiding dessert, the more beer I can consume! Yes, I have a one track mind, leave me alone.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #19:
This was actually my breakfast tea, but I didn’t have time to log it until now. Let me tell you about my day. Taught two discussion sections and was hard-pressed to say who won the “most people who didn’t read” award. Then I got to drive two hours to LA! Then I got to stare at microfiche/film for four hours. Then I got to drive back! In rush hour traffic! GOOD TIMES.
After a day like that, maybe you would say, you need some damn good tea. To which I would reply, after a day like that I need beer. Or possibly something stronger. The day I figure out a way to mix tea and alcohol without getting something absolutely horrific, I will probably give up beer (note: this is a total lie, beer is awesome). But that day is not today.
On a somewhat related note. Although I love beer and I love tea, I am much less willing to try new beers than I am to try new teas. Why is that I wonder?

Getting back on topic, Pu-erh! It was largely a mystery to me until my first Adagio black tea sampler a year ago. Adagio’s Pu-erh Poe, I have recently begun to suspect, however, is not really a good example of it’s breed. Or perhaps Golden Moon just really likes Pu-erh that has the funkyness factor turned up a notch. That said, the smell was actually not that weird, but as soon as I tried some, I was like GAH MUSHROOMS.

Then I took a step back. I said to myself, wait a minute, Ewa, don’t you like mushrooms? To which I replied (yes, I realize that it is only ok to talk to yourself if you don’t answer, but I’m afraid I crossed that line a while ago), well yes, but, you know, on pizza! And in pasta sauce! not in TEA. Well, I answered, why not? Isn’t there tomato flavored tea? There was a tasting note of it earlier this week! AND. There is a sweet Chinese dessert that uses fungus. Well ok, but if you recall, I rebutted, I don’t actually like that dessert…

This continued on for some time, but the end verdict ran. Ok fine, it is only the fact that I am unused to mushroom in my tea that makes me go gah, the taste itself is actually kind of neat. It certainly has more character than it’s Adagio counterpart. But I maintain that Pu-erh chai is just weird.

This moral of this story is: writing tealogs while exhausted and mildly inebriated is just not a good idea.

Backlogging from yesterday. Ok, so I know I said in my Sinharaja post that this wasn’t in the database, but, honestly, how am I supposed to keep up if they keep changing the name?

So I got 5 bags of this and 5 bags of peppermint and eucalyptus from a friend whose friend had given it to HER, but she didn’t like tea. The fact that this is labeled “fresh and fruity” rather than herbal revive makes me think it must have been a souvenir from England or something. Oh well, her loss = my gain.

So, thing is, I love currants. I love eating fresh red currants (not that I get to very often what with most of the US being ignorant of their existence), I love black currant flavored stuff, especially juice, but jam is also up there. My relationship with vanilla, on the other hand, is rocky at best. Still, I was cautiously optimistic. And, at first, it was great! Super fruity, with the creaminess of the vanilla offsetting the blackcurrant tang. But then…everything changed…I was having lunch with a friend outside so there was really no good way to get rid of the teabag, so I just left it in. BIG mistake. The nice light currant flavored changed into this heavy generalized vegetal doom thing, that, when mixed with vanilla was just…not good. Also, it left my mug determined to smell like currant.

Despite my bad experience, this was a super tasty tea, and is, seriously, just asking to be combined with a neutral black tea (see: my Sinharaja post), chilled and served as Super Tasty Currant Tea Juice!

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #18:
I actually grabbed this this morning for my morning cup, but apparently I hadn’t washed out my mug quite thoroughly enough after “enjoying” Twinings Blackcurrant, Vanilla and Ginseng tea (one that I was too lazy to tealog, especially since I’d have to add it to the database first. For the curious, it was actually quite pleasant but I let it steep too long and the nice currant taste turned into a weird vegetal blargness) for lunch yesterday. So what I actually got was mostly black currant with a tinge of “generic black tea” underneath. Now the combination was actually quite tasty and has given me a pretty awesome idea for iced tea, but it was hardly fair to the Sinharaja.

Naturally, I made a second cup this afternoon (taking care to clean out my mug thoroughly this time), and I have to say that I’m glad I took the trouble, because this is some pretty great tea. Now, I’m not always able to differentiate between just straight black teas unless they are pretty aggressively different, but for some reason I don’t have that problem here. This has character but it doesn’t overwhelm, it’s…quietly confident, to anthropomorphize a bit. It has a noticeable but not overpowering malty note as well as a separate underlying sweetness, and a surprisingly rich overriding tea taste.

I may need to get more of this.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #17
Woah, almost halfway! I am making some excellent time here.
I was very pleased that this came out from my random grab this afternoon, since my belly has been complaining about something all day and I’ve often found it responds well to ginger – better than to mint and chamomile, even. I’ve been kind of dreading getting any of the white teas, though, since I am a total white tea noob.

I was somewhat suspicious of the 2-4 minute steeping time on the packet, so I decided to compromise by going with 1m 30s for my initial cup (which is what my timer app recommends) then proceeding to leave the leaves in the pot for an additional one and a half minutes for the rest of the cups. Depending on the results, maybe I’ll put the leaves back in after my second cup. But that is probably a horrible thing to do to a white tea, so I will try to refrain.

The first cup was very light, I agree with Meghann that the taste isn’t vegetal of grassy, but I can’t put my finger on what it actually is. I like that, although the taste is light, it still seems to have suffused the water and doesn’t just taste like tea flavored water, but like it’s own unique beverage. The ginger, in this cup, is only obvious in the aftertaste.

Second cup, the doubled steeping time has left the tea darker and, obviously, stronger. The burn from the ginger is obvious throughout, and the white tea flavor, which I have decided tastes kind of grain-ish, is also much more obvious. There is also a sweetness that seems much more subdued than the sugary taste of a green tea.

Although I quite like ginger, it seems to serve more to add a kick to the tea rather than any sort of flavor. My stomach does feel better though.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #16
So, when I was reading the description on the sample packet, they referred to the “tips” in this tea as “buds” but, for some reason, at first I read it as “suds.” Obviously, I immediately did a double-take and corrected myself, but I think the whole soap idea stayed with me, because that is what I smelled when I opened this tea. Seriously. Soap. What is wrong with me?

The tea brewed up just fine, a darker red. On tasting it, however, I got…paper. Paper, water, and soap. What. As I drank further, I eventually isolated the paper down to the kind of peppery taste of the lavender. I got nothing about the soap though, I think it’s just imprinted on this tea now, which is a shame because…Earl Grey!

All while drinking this, I was unable to convince my brain that I was drinking tea and not papery dishwater. Oh Tippy Earl Grey, I want to love you, as I love most of your kind! But I don’t think it’s meant to be. Lavender is, apparently, just not my thing, and I have no idea what the hell kind of brain fart has made me unable to let go of the soap thing, but I think I’m not gonna be able to rid myself of it.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #15:
Goodness, the packet wasn’t kidding about the whole pale green thing. My initial brewing, which I did exactly as I was told to, (Boiling water, really?) and got a very light, almost tasteless green tea. No floral note that I could discern, and altogether not particularly impressive.

I let my second cup steep longer. It’s now more of a golden color, and has more taste, but on the downside is, of course, also more bitter. By quite a bit. The original steep didn’t have any bitterness, which was probably the point.

On the third cup, the tastes seem to have settled down somewhat and I’m finally getting something floral. It all seems quite muted to me though, and I can’t help but feel decidedly meh about the whole thing. Guys…I think I might just not be that into Oolong.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #14:
Usual morning (messy), usual method of grabbing first black tea I see. I really like the leaves, all curling around each other, there was just something playful about them. I probably didn’t let it steep long enough, but as I grabbed it on my way out the door it had a pleasant enough golden brown color that eased my worries about ending up with lightly tea flavored water.

Hey so, where does the stress go when you say Darjeeling? DARjeeling? DarJEEling? DarjeeLING? I wanna say it’s the first, but a part of my brain urges me toward the second. Damn you ingrained habits from speaking Polish with your insistence that stress should always be on the next to last syllable!

Anyway, on to the actual taste. This seems pretty mellow as Darjeelings go. Very low (pretty much none really) astringency, an overriding, if somewhat diffident, tea-ness, and a vague sense of fruit and nut in the aftertaste. I am willing to agree that the fruit in question is a grape of some kind, but I couldn’t do so with conviction. I think I kind of like this sort of more laid back Darjeeling…but not enough to spend my hard-earned monies on.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #13:
Today’s blind grab got me this, and I decided since it was a green, or at least more green than black, to make use of the Vaguely Asian™ teacup that came with the lid I bought for my teapot. The other option for making use of this cup is to figure out how to make chawan mushi, or Japanese savory egg custard served in teacup-sized portions, but that would A. involve finding fish paste somewhere and B. involve learning how to steam things. Thus, tea it is!

I’m glad that I decided to use the cup because it let me see the lovely golden color of the tea. Regardless of anything else, it is quite pretty. I admit to never having gunpowder before (or at least not consciously) so I have no idea how it’s supposed to taste. I guess the name is kind of a clue? I didn’t really get much (or any) kind of a smokiness from it, maybe the tiniest undertone but it tends to be subsumed by the general grassiness of the tea itself, finishing off on a decidedly sweet green note. The more I drink of it, though, the more of the smokiness I’m noticing, undoubtedly due to the fact that I am growing used to the other aspects of the flavor, but it remains noticeable only in the periphery of the sip.

Having spent the majority of my time drinking this in search of that elusive smokiness, I confess that I am not really sure whether or not I like this. Certainly it’s quite sippable, but is it a thing I want to sip on a daily basis? Is this another one of those teas that’s too subtle for me? And should it, as a gunpowder, even be subtle? Perhaps I should get a sample of the Adagio gunpowder, since some of the other reviews indicate that it is more straightforward.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #12:
This was the first black tea I saw this morning, therefore making it my morning tea, despite the fact that it’s an afternoon tea. I’m glad that I did though, because MAN does this tea pack a punch. For once I was actually paying attention to steeping times, but even then it brewed up really really dark reddish, like a deep maroon. Very attractive. I’m afraid I didn’t really pay much attention to the leaves, but I recall them being lighter in color, so I wasn’t really expecting something quite so dark.

As I said, or at least implied, this tea has a lot of personality. It basically smacks you upside the head and goes I AM TEA DRINK ME NAO (OR ELSE). The taste is mildly astringent compounded by an underlying spiciness, but not as much as I get from your average darjeeling, and there’s definitely something else there. Floral notes perhaps? Definitely not honey. Or perhaps I only THINK it’s not honey because I don’t like honey but I do like this! That’s right, let’s turn this review into a meditation on human psychology.

Or not.

Suffice to say that this tea impressed me quite a bit this morning – a good way to start a Monday, even if I did drink it at the wrong time of day.

Edit: Whooooo tasting note number 50! I celebrate by having some tea!

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #11:
So as you can see, fate totally rewarded my acceptance of the organic green tea, by giving me Vanilla Jasmine to try! Straight out of the packet, it smelled just like vanilla ice cream – which is actually a different scent than what I associate with just straight vanilla, so already it was giving me the idea of creaminess.

Although I paid enough attention to it to give it a normal steeping time, I was promptly distracted until it had cooled to basically a lukewarm temperature, so I have no idea if the temperature actually makes much of a difference. I know that I liked what I tasted. The vanilla flavoring gave it a creamy taste and texture and really complemented the flowery jasmine quite well. Once again, a very smooth, and super tasty blend was created.

I let my second cup steep longer, and this time the jasmine is definitely overshadowing the vanilla, which really only shows up in the aftertaste. It’s still tasty, but I definitely enjoyed the first steeping more.

All in all, I enjoyed it a lot, but I’m not sure if it’s enough to warrant buying more. I mean, I enjoy flavored teas a lot, but when I want to get more of something, it’s gotta be something that I want to drink often, and I’m really not sure how often I’ll really be in the mood for vanilla jasmine. This kind of floweriness is something I can see enjoying once in every great while, especially after the novelty and yaynewtea! excitement wears off.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #10:
So I decided to let fate decide this afternoon’s tea, and this is what I came up with. Now, usually, when I submit myself to fate, I acknowledge that it has the final word on things, but this time, I was all like “what no, I want something NIFTY!” So I decided to pretend that the first random grab hadn’t happened and try again. Whereupon I grabbed it AGAIN. and then AGAIN. Ok fine, fate. Clearly you want me to drink the organic green tea.

I believe I’ve already mentioned that I am not particularly well-versed in green teas so I didn’t expect to have much to say, but this tea actually has more character than I gave it credit for. I mean, it’s quite light, that’s true, but it does have that note of sweetness that, yes, could very well be candied pineapple. It’s not as vegetal/grassy as some green teas that I’ve tried, and I agree with some of the other reviews that it would make an awesome cold drink for hot weather. Very interesting – think I’ll take TeaEqualsBliss’s advice and oversteep the next cup, see what happens.

Tried a second steeping with milk in it. Sadly, the milk has been infected by the vague kimchee smell of everything else in the fridge >.< But I can get the sense of what it would taste like without it – very nice! Such a gentle nostalgic taste. I definitely want to try the stovetop method now!