Assam Tea Company

i know why MissB sent this to me. 1) not a caramel note in sight. 2) the smell!!!!!! wowza! the name is totally accurate too.

when i was a kid my gran would have a tin of cassis sucking candies in her mammoth sized purse…. opening the tin smelled just like this blend! juicy, tangy, robust, intriguing! a hint of astringency from the assam which is the perfect compliment to the black currant. i genuinely do get a sense of juiciness.

nice balance. definitely drinking a tea vs juice…. very nice. this blend makes me happy. i’ve had a number of ‘meh’ experiences lately. this was not one of them!!

thank you MissB!

On giving this tea a second and third try…I have found that it has improved…it is a great black tea to mix with chocolate based black teas…the raspberry and the chocolate go wonderfully together.

Not much going on with this tea, it is dull and lacks a robust taste, raspberry is there, but not outstanding.

This is a creamy vanilla green tea and it is good, tasty and smooth.

Okay, if you drink this tea straight up it is strong and not too appealing, but add a teaspoon of sweetened condensed milk and then this tea shines and is so tasty, full bodied and delightful!

Decided to steep this up as I packaged some up for a swap with Sil. I should try it first before sending it out, right? :)

This smells strongly of mango, and tastes only moderately so when it’s straight. Add some sweetener though, and holy moly mango! By far the most authentic and strongest flavored mango tea I’ve had to date. Got a bit bitter at the end, almost like a black tea, yet this is most definitely a rooibos. Maybe it’s late/early, or maybe I’m just tired. Still, getting some tartness at the end bottom of the cup.

Nothing special, not a distinct Cranberry taste, just slightly fruity tasting.

Great mint taste, a nice light taste for breakfast.

Not bad, nice mild sweet taste…whether or not it tastes like blueberry…it is hard to say…but mild sweet, fruity taste.

Great vanilla taste, creamy and tasty.

I can taste the lemon and just a hint of ginger…would be better with a bit more ginger taste, not a bad tea, but not a favorite.

Tastes like a wonderful mild Black Currant jam…a very nice dessert tea.

Wonderful taste of dark chocolate, so delicious.

First before I forget – who was looking for Sleepytime Vanilla overseas? I found a few boxes today.

After all the talk about Assam today, I thought it fitting that I drink one of their teas this evening as I start to wind down. Rooibos-based chai, and I can tell immediately it’s heavy on the pepper and cardamom. If you like that sort of thing, it’s delicious. I found it pretty dull tasting until I added some Truvia, and then it perked up with strong licorice accents and again, cardamom and pepper. There’s some ginger I think floating around too, and orange comes in very, very faintly. I wish there was more orange. Odd steep time listed on this bag (3 minutes for a rooibos?) however I followed it.

A decent chai, and probably amazing if I added some coconut milk. Alas, I’m too lazy to go find some, as I sit, watch Bones, and get all of the nametags ready for the 20s-themed murder mystery on Tuesday.

I want to love this tea, however there’s just too little apricot flavoring to back up the lovely smell. It’s also a touch astrigent as it cools.

1.5 tsp in 8 oz.

This is Miss Cranky Pants sharing her tea review today, normally known as MissB. You’ve been warned! :)

A good chunk of my day was spent dealing with shipping issues with two separate tea orders. The first is with Butiki; the package was shipped late last month, and USPS shows it was delivered November 1st. What? So I look, and the address is wrong (thanks to PayPal, and my own too fast re-ordering because I’d chosen to take the funds out of my bank account – delay in processing – versus my credit card). It’s my old address, from a landlord who was great while I lived there, however still has yet to return my significant damage deposit. USPS shows that someone actually SIGNED for it at my old house, which concerns me even more.

So I text my old landlord, who replies back within the hour, “Will check with tenant and get back to you! He is an honest guy!” Sigh. If he was honest, he would have told someone fifteen days ago – when they received the package and signed for it – that it was either there, or returned to sender.

The second package frustration came from Assam Tea Company, which sits only a 10 minute walk from my house. I ordered a schwack of their (really inexpensive yet decently sized) sample-sized tea last week, and as per their website, emailed them to say I’d prefer picking up my order, and to arrange a time to do so. Two days later (?) I get a reply, telling me they’re ever so sorry, however it’s already been labelled to ship. Huh? Is it really that big of a warehouse that they couldn’t walk on over to the packer/shipper and say, “Hey, that order over there? The customer wants to pick it up.” Of course it’s small enough, because it’s in a residential area. However, they chose not to, and so I wanted another several days before it was shipped, and then one day for it to go across town to the shipping warehouse, and then delivered to my door today. Thankfully, they have flat-rate shipping of $3.95… but still.

Finally, the packaging of the Assam teas, while cute and professional, only list the amount of tea in ounces. So… is 2 grams a teaspoon or a tablespoon? Do I really need to get a scale to measure this out? I’m frustrated, and just want to make some tea at this point, so I arbitrairly decide it’s a rounded teaspoon. Also, I’ve made up enough for a liter, and there’s still a good portion left. However – you guessed it – their (again, surprisingly large sample size) bags aren’t resealable. Oh yea, and for all of their specificity for steep times and amount of tea, they failed to include water temperature suggestions. Okay sure, I can figure it out.

Miss Cranky Pants Deactivated mostly because she’s getting a bit nasty. :(

Dry, this smells like super sweet apricots still on the tree (read: there’s a slight vegetal smell). Brewed, it smells pineapple-y and apricot-ish, however only faintly. Hot, this tastes like a black tea with ever so slight apricot notes (yes, you read that right – this is a green that tastes like a black to me), and they develop after the sip slightly over time. I really have to search for the apricot, yet it’s there. A 1/2 tsp per cup of Truvia brings the apricot front and centre, with a bit of tanginess to boot, however now the green tea also becomes more prominent and I can taste a very slight astringency mid-way through the sip, almost as if it were a black. Now though, I definitely can tell this is a green tea. Odd.

It’s a nice tea if you like apricot, and one to try if you’re doing a taste-off. There’s little here that’s knock-your-socks off though, just a solid good.

This has an almost roasted apricot scent to it, with a hint of bubblegum. It tastes primarily of good fresh tea, with a pleasant adition of apricot, which is just how I like it. Sweetening brings the fruit out.

Satrupa – Small Whole SFTGFOP 2nd flush
Dry: clean, fruity-mulberry notes, earth, warm spice, hickory
Wet: clean, mellow, sweet, tannic, tin
Appearance: gorgeous leaf cut, mingled umber hued leaves, with silvery and golden threads,
Cup: bright, brassy-orange liquor. Light front flavor, extremely clean, gently sweet, with silk-like finish and faint textural build with repeated sips. Elusive fruity, walnut, and spicy notes mingle and merge with the refreshing and fluid body.

Subtle and extremely drinkable.

notes: I owe Saunam Bhattacharjee a debt of gratitude for his wonderful and generous nature and the transparency that he has shown with regards to his family’s tea company and the knowledge he shared of its production and estate. I contacted him in 2011 and quickly grew to appreciate all that he does and his gifts allowed me to also create a graded example of tea from every sort that I use in my educational classes, demos, and tastings. The samples he shared literally go from PF through the whole range of leaf cuts and this has allowed me to not only learn a great deal, but also to share this with others.
I chose to write about this tea, even though its over a year old, because Saunam recently had a personal tragedy befall his family as his mother and father were brutally murdered. You can read more directly here: http://mkbasia.blogspot.ca/search/label/Konapathar%20Tea%20Estate
and please offer you kind words if you can as this is an example of some of the social and political upheaval that permeates tea regions that are important for all of us to be aware. His loss is horrible and unimaginable and I deeply wish him the best.

On a side note as well…I have begun a tea blog http://705thteadisambiguation.blogspot.com/

and a facebook site “Tea Around Town” https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tea-Around-Town/435275026553658

that I hope will link in to future events and help grow my local tea culture.

That may also explain where some of my notes/posts go :)

So i figured i’d try this again tonight since it’s cold and dreary outside AND i wanted something that was non caffeinated. While this isn’t a terrible blend overall, it’s just not what i want in a chai. Maybe it’s te anise but there’s something in this one that just makes me want to sneeze (or the black pepper?) I tried to add a bit of milk to it to see if that changed how i felt about it and it turns out…not so much.

This is an interesting chai. I’m not sure it’s how i’d prefer to drink my chai and with milk, the balance might be a little better. What i’m enjoying about this one is that it’s caffeine free AND it’s not overly – clove-y. I do like cloves and cinnamon in my chai but i like that this one is different than the other chais that i’ve tasted in that regard. There is a bit of something in it that tickles my nose a bit as a drink it, but over all it’s neat.

Backlog:

The third and final tea from the Amoda Tea Tasting Box for the month of November. I liked this Rooibos Chai, easily one of the best Rooibos Chai blends I’ve had. I liked the way the spices were brought together.

Not surprisingly, it is very fragrant. Dry, I smell the anise and the cardamom. Brewed, I smell the cinnamon and clove with notes of anise and orange in the background.

The organic rooibos can be tasted, but the flavors meld well with the other flavors of the chai … it completes the flavor very nicely, actually. The orange acts to brighten up the cup without playing a strong role in the overall cup, and the spices are warm and spicy without tasting spicy hot … this one warmed me up from the inside out.