Ewa

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #9:

Well, went to the thrift store today and spent an enjoyable half hour trying out different lids. I had some initial problems since A. it had to fit, B. I would prefer it look nice or at least amusing. For example, I was mightily tempted by a lid that was shaped like a cat’s head. Sadly, it did not fit. I eventually found a Vaguely Asian™ lid from a teacup set for five bucks that actually fits quite well, so looks like I’m going to have to call off construction on the time machine.

Now let’s talk about chai. The coffee shop at the Borders near where I used to live was, when the store first opened, NOT a Starbucks. I know, right? A chain bookstore with a non-starbucks coffee shop? Inconceivable! But it’s true! Once upon a time, it wasn’t a Starbucks and it had the best chai lattes ever. It was just the right amount of spice to tea, a modicum of milk and well…these days I’d probably find it too sweet, but this was 10 years ago, so I was still sweetening my tea.

Then they got bought by Starbucks and switched over to Tazo and well…their chai is…unsatisfactory. The spices overwhelm everything and give it a really quite unpleasant taste. But we are not talking about that chai today, we are talking about this chai, and this chai, tastes like what I vaguely recall that other chai tasted like. Well balanced, smooth, and not too heavy. I kind of want to try it in all the different ways other people are drinking it. Which I suppose means I need to buy more…

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #8:

A little story before I start. I was at the university book store trying (and failing) to buy my textbooks (they were out), when I noticed that one of the more prominent displays was a big table full of teapots and various kinds of Republic of Tea teas. Is tea in or something? Is it the trendy new hipster thing? Looks like it might be!

Anyway, I decided to check out the teapots, but they were BLAH – boring, mass-produced, and generally not anywhere NEAR Ivan’s league. Here’s hoping today’s trip to the thrift store gets me some results.

Before going OUT THERE (where the nasty evil sun is), I had to bolster myself with some nice sippable tea. I was kind of wary to try this because from the reviews it seems extremely polarizing – you either love it or you hate it, but I decided to take the plunge.

This tea smells exactly like it’s name, the two scents of honey and pear seem to be in a fight for dominance with now one, now the other achieving it. The actual tea came out more pear than anything else, which is good because I am not that huge of a fan of honey. Now the package says that this is a mixture of black tea and bee pollen, which I guess is where the floral undertaste I am getting comes in. The black tea is noticeably present, tempering the pear-ness, and the honey comes in at the end, mostly along with the floral taste.

All in all, the tea itself tastes quite nice, but it leaves a dry taste in my mouth that I don’t find particularly comfortable. I prefer not to need to go drink a glass of water after finishing my tea.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #7:
Grabbed this for my morning tea. Late as usual, steeped for like, a minute because I had no time! Surprisingly, despite the short steeping time it had some taste! I was quite shocked. And kind of impressed. Good job English Breakfast!
It tasted quite good, too. Will have to do a longer steeping later to see how it turns out.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #6:
After running around campus all day handing out conference fliers, I was really in the mood for something refreshing, but I also wanted to try something completely new and interesting. Green and black tea with mint and vanilla? Sounds like a winner to me! Provided it pulls it off, of course.

This tea is wonderful! I’m not sure I can do a description of the taste justice, but it starts with a core of mint that seems surrounded by a layer of vanilla, surrounded by a hint of black tea, finishing off with the taste of green. At least, I think that’s what I got out of it. I finished the cup in the space of about three minutes, so I can’t really be sure. The mixture of black and green makes this tea light and ensures that the two flavors, which are usually quite overpowering enough on their own don’t dominate the tea – I think the green especially serves to smooth everything out.

I still have some left over in the teapot and I am really tempted to chill it and see what it tastes like iced. Unfortunately, we recently had a pretty nasty kimchee (one of my roommates is Korean) spill in the fridge, so that is probably a bad idea. Maybe I’ll just leave it overnight? It does get pretty chilly at night here.

Definitely need more of this.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #5
This was the first black tea I saw this morning, which, of course, means 8 more weeks of winter. Wait no, it just means that I made it my “must…wake…up…” morning tea. It’s a neat looking tea, love the giant long leaves. Reminds me a bit of Golden Monkey, although the taste is in no way similar.

To tell the truth I was going to just dismiss this as decidedly meh after the first (all-important morning) steeping, but after reading all of the glowing reviews, I decided I needed to give it another go, so this is actually my second try, this time in a more relaxed, paying more attention environment. I definitely see the appeal this time around. It’s just such a strongly tea-y tea. It smells like tea, tastes like tea, but more! Like, more tea than tea. Or something. It definitely hits that tea itch that I occasionally get in the back of my throat.

On the other hand, despite it’s name, it appears to be not particularly suited for me as a breakfast tea (or at least not on weekdays, maybe on weekends), since I need something quick brewing (for the many days I sleep through the alarm or hit snooze once too often) yet forgiving (for when I get distracted and let it steep for like 10 minutes). No pressure though! I think in that sense, French Breakfast wins out.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #4:
So I’ve been thinking about my teapot lid issue, and I have come up with several possible plans of action.
Plan A: Befriend a potter.
Plan B: Order a billion different lids off ebay and hope one fits
Plan C: Invent time machine, go back in time and grab lid before it gets broken/stop myself from throwing it away like a noob.
Plan D: Recall the existence of thrift stores and the preponderance of random ceramics in them and see if there’s anything there that fits.

I’m currently leaning towards plan C myself.

Back on topic! The gods of fate have decreed that my afternoon tea be pu erh chai. The leaves look very nice with bits of cinnamon bark and a cardamon pod. I am a big fan of cardamon in chai and am always mildly disappointed when it fails to appear in my chai leaves. So bonus points for that, definitely. I have to agree with the other reviewers that the smell when brewed is decidedly funky. I probably would have been freaked out enough by the pungency to add milk (of the rice/almond vanilla variety) had there actually been any in the house. Sadly, I am currently milk-less, so I’m just going with the straight tea.

For me, this came out a very lightly spiced pu erh. I can definitely distinguish the base tea, unlike in the case of the sugar caramel oolong. Now, if a flavored tea is just standard black tea + flavor of some kind, I am generally more forgiving if it doesn’t distinguish itself. If something is specifically a flavored oolong or pu erh or other kind of distinctive tea, I fail to see the point if the flavors completely eclipse the base tea, if that makes any sense. Thus, I approve of this tea, although I think it could stand to be a bit more spice-y. On the other hand, since pu erh brews up so dark all the time, I may have overestimated how much water was needed. Sigh, always with the caveats.

I think I would like to try this with some sweetened milk, I may have to order more just for that.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #3
Grabbed the first black (because, hello? morning!) tea that came to hand from the sampler box and it happened to be this. As usual, because I am a giant flake, I completely forgot that I was steeping this and ended up leaving it for so long that I find it too embarrassing to specify.
It totally smelled oversteeped so I was definitely expecting the worst, but apparently this tea is super forgiving (yay!) because the taste came out just fine. I agree with the other reviews that it is very smooth, almost neutral in taste, and I DO like my teas to be a little more full of character, but the ability to take a lot of abuse is a huge factor in its favor. I may have to get more of this.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #2
So, given how small the golden moon samples are, I’ve decided to try and use them up in one go. There’s a little too much in each pouch for my ingenuitea though, so I’ve dusted off my teapot specially for this occasion. Of course, upon doing so, I was confronted with the problem of lid. Or rather, lack thereof. I can’t even find the pieces left after it broke during the move! Did I throw them away (like an idiot)? Ah well, for the moment I have used my MacGyver-like ingenuity to come up with a temporary fix. (It’s a pickle jar lid. Not optimal what with being made of metal and getting kinda hot, but needs must!)

I had a hankering for some Jasmine tea, so I decided to go straight for that rather than letting fate decide this time. The pearls themselves are of course lovely, and watching them unfurl is a treat. The taste is everything I expect from a Jasmine tea, floral with a slight undertaste that reminds me of (and this may sound weird) rice. This is quite delicate though, even after using all of it in my pot, it requires no dilution. Drinking this reminded me of how much I like Jasmine tea, but I’ll have to form a larger basis for comparison before I decide whether or not to buy.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #1:
Wewt! Got my Golden Moon sampler today, and just had to start trying stuff. I have to say this caught my eye as I was looking through all of the samples, but not in a good way. In fact I was highly skeptical of this combination, while also being worried that the result would be too sweet.
Naturally, when I closed my eyes and grabbed a sample (the only way to choose when faced with 31 different teas), the gods of fate decreed that this would be it. Really, I should have known. The tea itself looks very nice, giant curled up tea leaves and the smell is quite potent. I brewed it up and it’s not the disaster that I thought it would be. The caramel creates the illusion of sweetness without actually being sweet and the base oolong is noticeable in the undertone, although to me it seemed like the caramel rendered the oolong characterless, causing it to devolve into Standard Green Tea Taste™.

I’m on the second steeping now, and the oolong and caramel appear to have switched places with the oolong taking center stage and the caramel creeping in at the end. I will freely admit that much of my oolong experience comes from drinking it iced while living in Japan, so perhaps it is my own expectations that are skewed with regards to this, but I still find the base tea to be somewhat lacking in character.

Still, it’s pleasant enough to drink, although I doubt I’ll be getting more.

Slept right through my alarm (again), so had to make do with my emergency Assam stash + a teabag. (I have a little tea case that I keep in my purse for exactly this purpose, it has little kitties in little teacups on it – yay craft markets!)　I didn’t quite put in enough tea leaf to suit my early morning taste (or lack thereof, rather), so I find it a little weak, but it has served it’s purpose. I’m quite fond of this Assam, honestly, it’s very forgiving and mild.

The second tasting of this went MUCH better than the lavender Earl Grey debacle. I let this steep for longer this time (especially since it was gonna be my morning cuppa) and I got a lot more out of it. It had an almost creamy texture to it this morning, and it was a lot easier to tell that it was flavored.
Clearly the answer to this tea is to drink it in the morning before you’ve actually tasted anything else.

Needed to cleanse my palate after the whole Earl Grey Lavender thing, and what is better at palate cleansing than mint I ask you? (the answer is nothing. unless you know of something, in which case, tell tell!) It’s weird, because I hate spearmint flavored stuff, but I love this tea! It’s like mint but with a twist! It is mint but as directed by M. Night Shyamalamalamalamalan. But it doesn’t get worse with each subsequent movi-i mean, cup! Anyway, awesome as usual!

Ok, so I thought I’d try this again since I couldn’t taste anything the first time I tried it, and also tried a longer steeping time, just in case that would help.
HO-LEE SHAZBOT. I don’t know if all the lavender fell to the bottom of the pouch, if I really WAS that congested, if I let it steep to long or what, but WOAH – the lavender is overpowering this time. It gives the tea at once a perfumed and peppery taste. Looking at the leaves, there DOES seem to be quite a bit in there, so perhaps it got clumped up. Looks like this is gonna need a third tasting.

Was in the mood for something different this afternoon (mostly because I keep reading people’s notes about these really neat sound dessert-y teas and getting jealous), so I broke out this stuff. I’ve managed to make it last for a REALLY long time (particularly important given that the rooibos toffee has been discontinued) but sadly, after today, there’s only enough left for one last pot. SO SAD.
This stuff is so good! It’s all coffee-y and nutty and all the flavors are balanced and there’s just that hint of toffee in there to make it seem like a treat and I don’t even LIKE nuts, why do I like this teaaaaaaa. Don’t mind me, I’m just mourning the fact that once I run out of this I can never have it agin.

Inspired by Angrboda’s re-affirmation of her love of smoky teas, I decided I was in the mood for some Lapsang Souchong. I basically HAVE to be in the mood for lapsang souchong or the smokiness just overwhelms me.
Honestly, there was once a time when I did not even like Lapsang Souchong, so sit down, pull up a chair and let Grandma Ewa (yeah, I’m 26, work with me here) and I will tell you the story of how I came to like it: One fine day, I received a black tea sampler and tea press as a present from my brother and I realized that Lapsang Souchong in leaf form is quite tasty if I’m ready for it. The End. Now get grandma some bourbon.

Woke up EXTREMELY late today and didn’t even have time to do a irish/scottish breakfast blend quick and dirty ingenuitea steep. Just tossed some of this into a teabag and ran out the door.
Ugh.
This tea was not meant for teabags, or perhaps the brand that I’m using is particularly paper-tasty, because the taste was just not what I have come to expect from Nick II. In fact, it had barely any flavor at all, and that’s with leaving the tea bag in! So sad. Sigh, stupid ingenuitea spoiling me for teabags forever.

Upton Tea Sample Buying Spree Tea #15 (Last One! sob)
So this is the first time I’ve tried a Green Tea Earl Grey. At some point, I read a review on here where the writer (think it was Jim) mentioned that they didn’t really get the point of green Earl Grey, and I think I’m going to have to agree. At least in this incarnation of the tea, the flavoring completely overpowers the green tea and makes it taste over-perfumed. As I get towards the end of the cup, the green tea starts to assert itself a bit more, though that might be because I’ve gotten used to the taste.
Oh, I feel so bad pushing the rating bar towards the “meh” face! But that is exactly the feeling this tea inspires in me!

Well, my last Upton sample is green Earl Grey, which is simply Not Suited for being my morning tea, so I’m going to get started on a new project! The Great Finish Off My Adagio Samples That Have Been Taking Up Space In My Cupboard For Ages To Make Room For More Samples Project! (or TGFOMASTHBTUSIMCFATMRFMS Project for short)

Does anybody else do this thing where you end up not drinking your favorite samples all that often because you don’t want to finish them off and be left with the not so great samples? That is what has happened to Golden Monkey. I love this stuff, but the sample tin tends to sit in the back of the tea cupboard, neglected due to my miserliness. Poor Golden Monkey. This tea has a lot going on; I was thinking “smoky” when I was drinking it earlier, but reading the other notes, malty is definitely the right word.
I let this steep for a stupid long time this morning because I was distracted trying to find all the April Fool’s jokes I could before leaving for class, so the end result is extremely strong and extremely malty. Suitable for mornings, when nothing else gets through the post wake-up fog, but I was definitely wishing for more subtlety by the end of the mug.

Upton Sample Buying Spree Tea #14:
Just the green Earl Grey left!
Before anything else, I have to say that I really liked the color of this tea – it was such a nice reddish brown. Or was it brownish red? I’m sure there’s an official name for that color. Possibly to do with wood. Mahogany? No I think that’s darker. Once again the leaves are pretty finely crumbled (or whatever they do to them) so it brews up fast.
On first trying this, the astringency kind of slapped me in the face, but that faded as I drank. Still, I can definitely see why they recommend drinking this with milk. Tough luck, Upton Tea! Milk is for cereal! and oatmeal, I guess. and for making into cheese. mmmm, cheese. Anyway, I stand by my tea without milk stance! It’s very difficult for the human body to digest you know! In fact, the majority of people are lactose intolerant to a certain extent! I read that in Newsweek! Or possibly Wikipedia!
Ahem. Now that that’s out of the way. Nice black tea, certainly pretty to look at, think I liked the Scottish and Irish blends better, though.

Upton Sample Buying Spree Tea #13:
Oh noeeees, with this I’ll be on my last two teas! Get here soon, Golden Moon Sampler!
Brewed this up this morning for my “on the way to morning Chinese class” pick-me-up. Another very fine tea which, as expected (and as it says on the box) brews up extremely fast. I learned my lesson with yesterday’s Scottish Blend and was a little more careful with my spooning and diligently paid attention to the time. I have to say, the care was well rewarded; this came out as a great strong tea for the morning and didn’t taste oversteeped at all, although now that I come to think about it, I kind of miss the slap to the face I AM TEA HEAR ME ROAR that the oversteeped Scottish Blend gave me. As usual, I fail to show signs of either discernment or sophistication; although, honestly, people expecting that sort of thing in the morning are just insane.

And now, herbal break! Since I tend to be prone to bouts of insomnia, I try not to encourage it by switching to either weaker or just decaf teas after around 5 or so. I haven’t been as good about that as usual lately because I have had so much black tea to try, but now that I am off my drowsiness inducing cough medicine, it is probably time to pick up the habit again.
Foxtrot! What can I say that hasn’t been said already? I met Foxtrot while visiting my brother on vacation, and we hit it off immediately! I knew then that I was going to have to invite Foxtrot over to my place some day. From hearing other people’s descriptions, I had convinced myself that Foxtrot just had too much going on, there was no way that combination could possibly produce anything like a balance. But in fact, Foxtrot is perfectly balanced, everything just fits together to create a whole greater than the some of its parts. Basically, Foxtrot is a great companion for an evening’s drink. Although sometimes the chamomile is a bit strong for my taste. (The writing exercise kind of fell apart there at the end, oh well!)

Upton Sampler Buying Spree Tea #12:
Time for a break from the Earl Grey/Earl Grey-like teas!
This stuff is really fine, it almost seems ground – is it pretending to be coffee? It brewed up quite dark and very strong. I think I may have used a little too much – too used to the more leafy teas. On the other hand, this would be perfect if it’s morning and you’re running late and you forgot to leave enough time to boil water and steep your morning tea and you are in danger of going to Chinese class tea-less and WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO.
As far as taste goes, as expected it’s a strong black tea flavor. Not subtle at all, this stuff. It’s got a sort of undertone that I’ve never really been able to describe well, but appears especially in oversteeped teas – like, super-saturated tea-ness, I don’t know. Anyway, this is definitely a good morning tea, especially if you have trouble waking up. (like me!)

Upton Sampler Buying Spree Tea #11:
Slowly reaching the end of the Upton samplers, although I’m sure I’ll do multiple tasting notes for some of them at least. Good thing that 31 tea sampler from Golden Moon Teas was on sale today, or I might run the risk of having to drink the same tea twice! Sigh. Will…so…weak.
This is super tasty. On my sample packet it says that it is a “scented darjeeling” rather than a flavored one, or a straight Earl Grey, which is an apt description. The scent of the additional flavors is much stronger than their taste, although the taste is still noticeable. The vanilla is definitely more noticeable than the bergamot, but I think they blend together well. And there’s that little kick from the darjeeling underneath it all, acting as an offset. Very effective balancing act.

Upton Sample Buying Spree Tea #10:
This was the bonus sample Upton sent along with the buying spree, and let me tell you, this tea? It is wasted on me. Anything with that many letters telling you its identity in minute detail is. I just do not have the patience or inclination to be that discerning about tea flavored tea. Other people do! But I do not.
Disclaimer out of the way, it brews up very light, but that doesn’t affect its flavor at all. Tastes quite tea flavored, although I am getting a kind of nutty undertone. Interesting.