Cinoi

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It is already a long day after a long holiday weekend (which I will be backlogging tea from throughout the week). this I tried to brew when I got to work. I am extremely disappointed to say that I think I brewed this tea completely wrong. I typically do not use boiling water – I almost always use “hot” water from the water cooler (the things in offices that deliver hot and cold water out of a large 5 gallon jug) which at home is around 180°F. We have one in work also, today the “hot” side was not working, so I quickly brewed up some water in my little coffee pot for tea (I just boil water in it, no coffee ever goes in there), unfortunately, I did not let the water cool enough and I am afraid the water was too hot and I let the tea infuse too long (at five minutes – the end of the brew spectrum for this tea).

The fragrance of the dried leaves was wonderful, even the aroma of the brewed tea is very nice, a sweet note with some woodsy aroma, however my tea is very astringent in flavor. I am getting no woodsy flavor or sweetness that everyone else experienced.

I have another sample of this, I will have to try again. For now, I will hold the rating because I do not think this was a true review.

2010-09-07 07:42:28 -0400

I Like This

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Kryptryx 2010-09-07 08:16:32 -0400

I would suspect the long steep, not so much the brew temperature. This morning, I did also made a Dancong with slightly cooled boiling water and a 2 minute steep, and it is quite delicious.

Cinoi 2010-09-07 10:19:42 -0400

Thanks Kryptryx, I will give it a try with a shorter infusion time as soon as possible.

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Bio

I am a sarcastic perfectionist, a computer nerd, a game geek, an avid reader, a gadget guru, a wine (and tea) enthusiast, and (in my spare time) a chemist.

As I mentioned, I am a chemist, research and development to be exact, so when evaluating tea, it is much like evaluating my products: I will find the flaws and do my very best to fix them because it is what I love to do. Along those lines, nothing is perfect, but can have perfect qualities, I will highlight those also.

I made a preliminary guide to my rating scale:
0-19 – Did not like anything about the tea, feel it cannot be saved without being reformulated.
20-40 – Did not like the tea, it can be saved with extreme amounts of tweaking (i.e., sugar, milk, honey and or blending with another tea)
41-60 – Neutral about the tea, it can be helped or hurt by additives or blends, varied temperatures and steep times
61-70 – Decent tea, needs a little bit of help to get it in the place I like it, but definitely not out of reach
71-80 – Quality tea, liked it, will try again
81-90 – Really enjoyed the tea, high quality, will continue to drink the tea, not looking for something better
91-100 – Loved the tea, will continue to brew and drink and spread the word about the tea to everyone