Camellia Sinensis

Happy Turkey Day, Canadian Steepsterites!

While I did most of my celebrating yesterday, I’m still at my family’s house for another day so I’m just drinking the teas I was able to quickly pack up to bring with for the weekend. That wound up just being the teas I already had in the kitchen to work on – which was a lot of oolong.

So, just finished up a few rounds of clue with my sister and mom: I won one of them, but my mom cleaned up during the other rounds. We were playing for probably about two hours – and all throughout I was enjoying a really nice, casual Gong Fu session of this tea. I say casual because I wasn’t really closely monitoring the steep times or water temperatures – just letting the infusions sort of go where they took me.

This was really nice! Very smooth throughout all of the infusions I did (though I’m not sure exactly how many that is) without any astringency or bitterness. Mostly this had a strong, roasty quality supported by strong notes of wood and nuts. A few infusions in I started to get really strong, rich cocoa notes alongside that profile with a sweeter finish. Eventually this settled into a lovely profile of roasted barley, nuts, wood, and cocoa top notes which crossed smoothly into the body and a stewed fruit finish that began with the mid sip. I probably could have pushed the session longer, but we got tired of playing Clue and so the session ended…

Definitely look forward to trying this one again in the future.

So I do NOT drink Pu Er tea. I am just not a fan because to me it tastes like dirt. However, I do try to taste everything that people send me which is a fact my tea twin, Roswell Strange knows. So, when I saw pu er in my tea and music package, I was not overly excited. In fact, I am so dumb in the ways of pu er that I managed to burn my hand trying to rinse this. Stupid me decided to hold the filter in one hand and pour the near boiling water with the other and of course there was splashing and missing and essentially just a lot of pain. So yeah, it was not a good start but not only did RS send this to me, she took the time to pair it with a song so I figured I will suck it up and see how it goes.

The song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0STmox8mIc

As far as pu er goes, this isn’t too bad tbh. I wonder if my taste is compromised since I have a bit of a cold and if that is playing a role here though usually when thats the case, I don’t taste anything at all and yet I am tasting stuff here. To me, its leather. So this is going to be a weird description and I have no idea why but this makes me think of a brown/tannish belt. Smooth and refined. The kind men wore in like the 60s. Somehow, the tea combined with the song is just creating that image. I honestly doubt that is why Roswell Strange paired them and I am thinking the cold meds might be messing with my head but that is honestly what I am coming away with. Do with that what you will :P

Thank you Roswell Strange for yet another share and yet another fun song and tea pairing.

Good plain black tea.

Beautiful twisted leaves. Unfortunately, my taste buds are not precise enough. I can’t smell or taste the flowers or caramel that every body else is talking about. To me, it just tastes like … a good wulong.

It has a delicious smell of tropical fruits (pineapple) with a hint of tart strawberry. It’s much more ‘mature’ and less artifical than Davidstea fruit teas and works well either hot or cold.

I bought this as a sample at the tea festival, and I’m quite glad I did!
Very nice. Smooth, pungent, and a great balance. The roasted flavour adds a nice contrast to the mild seaweed vegetal notes. I wouldn’t go for this if you’re looking for a “fresh” tasting sencha, as the roastedness made it less so, but not in a lovely muted sort of way that reminds me of a gentle sea breeze. I’d buy it again, no question

Thanks, unnamed tea trader, for sending me this sample. I found this tea really interesting. It is older than me! Not by much, though. It brews like a cross between shu pu-erh, hei cha, and aged oolong. The broth is thick, with notes of must, tang, and a strong astringency that works well. Big tea buzz. Very unique, and close to a dollar a gram, so not an everyday pleasure for most of us. But well worth trying to experience such an old and unique gem.

Is this even the same Pinglin Bao Zhong tea that others are writing about? I am currently too lazy to get up and reread the tea pouch. Edit—I did get up and check the tea pouch and yes, that’s all the label says. I can only guess that this newer batch, purchased July 2016, is a totally different creature than those previously written about. Completely different flavour profile.

Totally coconut, which is being lost on me today as I just had another but different coconut oolong yesterday and I had forgotten how coconut this one is. Delicious coconut which is not quite was I was in the mood for, so I will postpone proper reviewing for another time.

Yesterday, I had an early doctor’s appointment in the city, which meant that I was perfectly positioned to wander over to Chinatown and treat myself to dim sum. A large group, about seven or eight, older men were there, old as dirt, really, and it was a delight to watch them hang out, joke, read their papers, eat, torment the servers, and carry on. Although they were speaking in Cantonese, it was clear that they had great affection for each other and had known each other for a long long time. I wonder how often they have their morning breakfasts together. I suspect rituals and camaraderie like this have much to do with their longevity.

Apart from this group, was an older gentlemen having breakfast alone. He had brought his own yixing teapot, teacup, and huge thermos of boiling water for the gazillions cups he drank with his meal. I. was. dying to go over there and ask him what kind of tea he was drinking, but I didn’t: too embarrassed and concerned about the possible communication gap. After his meal, he dumped his mountain of leaves out onto an empty plate: curly, fizzly, dark. I asked one of my favourite trolley people if she knew what kind of tea that was and she suspected it was heung pin, which we later got translated as jasmine. Yeah, maybe she just felt she needed to give me some sort of answer. It doesn’t necessarily tell me anything about the leaf.

Anyway…

Sipdown (137)!

Finished this one off yesterday; another hot Western style mug because I came to the realization that I didn’t actually have enough tea leaf left to do a proper Gong Fu session.

This time around, I really picked up on some malt and and cocoa notes throughout the top of and middle of the sip, although the finish was a bit more muscatel and fruity. Very smooth, and easy to mindlessly drink so I do stand by my initial impression of this tea. Thanks again to Camellia Sinensis for including it as a free sample in one of my orders.

One of the teas that Camellia Sinensis has included as a free sample in one of my various orders from them; can’t remember which one or exactly how old the tea itself is though…

I’m drinking this Western because it’s a rainy/dreary day and I just wanted something black to drink on the balcony and rain watch with. Looking at the dry leaf as I was measuring I was a tiny bit surprised just how green the leaf looked through. Akin to a lot of Darjeeling teas, this demonstrates a WIDE range of colour in the leaf appearance. That doesn’t especially surprise me given that it’s an Indian black tea, but I wish that CS’s website offered more information about this varietal. Currently it offers none…

The flavour is pretty nice; it’s definitely a medium bodied tea which personally are the kinds of blacks that I find most perfect for every day drinking or really thoughtless drinking where you just want to experience the warmth of the tea without really putting a lot of energy into dissecting the flavour. Is there a way to say that it’s the perfect “mindless” tea without that sounding condescending? Because it’s not BAD; it’s just kind of… Well, you know.

As far as flavour notes go this had a range, with none of them really being extraordinarily weak or dominant. Just kind of a mix of all the following: floral, smoke, muscatel, malty, honey, and raisins. Given some of the comparisons I’ve already made to Darjeeling teas, this profile doesn’t exactly surprise me. In fact, maybe I appreciate it a little more so because I’m experiencing it without any harsh astringency or bitterness. I like it! I doubt I’d have picked it for myself either, so I’m happy to have received a sample of it.

EDIT: I was curious, so I’ve looked up the region a little more. Sikkim is a tea growing region very near in proximity to Darjeeling and so it is often marketed as “Darjeeling Style” tea given the similarity in terroir. The Temi Tea Garden is actually the only tea garden in Sikkim as well. Very interesting!

I love learning new tea things.

Buttery, smooth, and kind of earthy. There’s also a slight astringency, and it seems closer to a black tea than the other two Taiwanese oolongs I picked up in Quebec. Good, but I think you’d have to be in the right mood.

Cold Brew Sipdown (351)!

Well, winding down for the evening now – still listening to music though. Decided to switch to something cold, so strained this one to sip on while listening to some nice peaceful songs. It’s been a really nice day of tea and music pairings!

This is really enjoyable as a cold brew: a little more body to the flavour overall and a nice mix of malt, hay, cream, and crisp vegetal notes. Kind of like cucumber skins? Yeah no, as I sip on it it’s exactly like cucumber skins. I’m enjoying it a lot; it’s smooth, and mellow. Fitting for the sort of music that the boyfriend and I have transitioned to now with our recommendations. We started the evening with sort of opposite genres, and now we’ve sort of settled. I think my music won out, though.

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/Me85PztkYP0

But yeah – probably wouldn’t order this again, but I think overall I did really enjoy having it around and the different experiences I had with it.

Sloppy Gong Fu.

Darjeeling isn’t something that I’d normally Gong Fu – but I was kind of curious about this one, and I was craving white tea so I thought it might work for something a little more informal before work today.

5 Seconds – 1st Infusion
- Sweet, thick mouthfeel
- Notes of hay, cream, malt, fresh flowers, and hazelnut
- Kind of a “sugar cane” top note

8 Seconds – 2nd Infusion
- Same but with astringency in the finish
- And more of a grassy body flavour

8 Seconds – 3rd Infusion
- A little brisker/more full bodied
- Dry hay, hazelnut, almond skins, grass, malt
- Some floral undertones
- Same astringency in the finish

10 Seconds – 4th Infusion
- Significantly lighter coloured liquor that prior infusions
- The taste was much the same, though
- Honestly? I’m not super into it but that could just be because I feel ill today too…

15 Seconds – 5th Infusion
- Got a little of its initial sweetness (sugarcane and hazelnut) back at the top of the sip
- But the body is very grassy
- And the finish REALLY astringent
- Reminds me of cough syrup; not in flavour, but in the mouthfeel of it after a spoonful

So, on that unpleasant note… I’m actually going to end the session.

To be completely fair to the tea, I feel pretty sick today so I don’t know if my palate is where it normally is and I’m definitely not in the same head space as I generally am, either. So, it probably wasn’t the world’s best day for Gong Fu. I really thought it might make me feel better though.

It just… didn’t.

Very grassy, but definitely more of a dried out kind of grass flavour than fresh grass, with hints of timothy hay in the top notes. Body was sweeter and felt more round/balanced, and it finished with a bit of a sweet nutty finish with a lingering nutty cream note. Kind of almond like, honestly.

This is a queued tasting note.

Drank this one in the morning as a commute to work tea – it probably wont be my last ever commute to work tea, but it certainly was my last commute to Value Village tea.

I think overall this had a really robustly timothy hay/straw taste that over powered pretty much everything else. Normally there are clear hay notes to this tea, but not to this degree so I’m not sure why they were so pronounced now. Other than those notes, there was a hint of malt and some underlying sweetness in the tail.

This is a queued tasting note.

So I had this one as a commute tea a few days ago, and while I’ve definitely enjoyed this one in the past I think this was the first time I really got a flavour profile that actually matched Camellia Sinensis’ description of the tea’s flavours.

It started off sweet with a mix of timothy hay and fruit notes. Not really anything distinct in regard to the fruit; but more than fresh natural sweetness that most fruits have. I guess if I had to say it tasted like anything in particular it’d be apple skins though? Body flavour was more floral; but not perfumey floral – think fresh Spring time flowers in a field instead. More in line with that same soft sweetness present all through the cup.

The finish was a bit more robust; it had a tender malt flavour to it but the best part was the sweet, nutty hazelnut. The aftertaste wasn’t very lingering; but the nutty and sweet hay elements of the tea were both briefly present within it. For a tea with such a softness overall, it’s certainly not lacking in flavour. This tea was sort of on the fence with me, but this cup definitely cemented a positive impression in my mind.

This is a queued tasting note.

Drank this one as a commute tea this week. I haven’t been sleeping well this week because of tooth pain that wakes me up several times a night so I’ve been savoring as many minutes as I can possibly get in my bed each morning – that means out of all six days I worked this week I actually only made my normal morning cup of tea twice because I haven’t had the time to make tea and catch the bus…

This was good though; I’m glad that the morning I made this I convinced myself to get out of bed in time to actually make myself some tea. It was a bit different than the last time I tried it; definitely not as fruity this tea. There were similarities too though; last time I expressed that I tasted hay notes. This time that was almost ALL I could taste. Specifically, it tasted the way that the timothy hay I feed Eilert (my guinea pig) smells. I love the smell of Eilert’s timothy hay (not enough to taste it though) so it was really enjoyable having it transferred into tea form. Other than that, I mostly just picked up on a bit of nuttyness in the top of the sip which faded quickly. It was pleasant as well though.

I wish I’d been more alert while drinking this so I could have registered the flavour a little more properly, just to see how this compared to last time I had it. I was SO tired though – on the bus that morning there were moments where I was holding the mug and nearly dropped it because I was dozing off and, as I did so, my hands were relaxing their grip. Thankfully I DIDN’T drop it though! That would have been a miserable first time experience on the bus.

From my last Camellia Sinensis order…

- Western style infusion
- Smooth, malty/hay top notes
- A light vegetal body with sweeter fruity/peachy notes
- Finish is playfully nutty; hazlenut/marzipan
- Smooth, silky mouthfeel

I imagine Western brewing doesn’t do this one justice, not that it tasted bad. In fact, it was really enjoyable – but I feel like it hadn’t reached its “full potential”. I definitely look forward to trying Gong Fu in the future.

This started out as creamy and kind of buttery with a hint of raspberry but then developed an intense pineapple flavour that was at first very sweet but then very sour. I have to say I’m kind of loving it! I’m a huge fan of sour and this is definitely quite lip puckering. The first time I had this I found it good but nothing special but I can really see myself missing this when it’s gone — uping my rating!

This was nice, but it didn’t really wow me. I could see myself sipping down quite a bit of it if it happened to be in front of me but can’t imagine actually craving it. There’s a slight citrus note with a hint of raspberry that gives it a slight sour vibe, but I’d like something a little more intense. There’s also a light undertone of sweet vegetation. Good, not great.

Side note, this is surprisingly similar to the Cote d’Asur Garden blooming tea I had the other day but a little less raspberry-y.

If you could package up the feeling of summer and camping into a tea, this would be it. There is the smokiness of the campfire, which gradually merges into a smoky bacon note. There’s a hint of sweet corn, which I find so typical of white teas. Finally, and most surprisingly, there’s a strong marshmallow note with a hint of chocolate. S’mores in a cup. The notes are subtle, to be sure, and I don’t think this tea would be for everyone, but I rather enjoyed it.

My first oolong (not counting some of DAVIDs’ crazy blends that hardly count), and I’m happy to say I’m really enjoying it. Wonderfully light with a prominent butter note and complementing floral and grassy notes. I can see the hint of pine nut as well (one of my favourites). All in all, very nice!

Sipdown (134)!

Had a short and very casual Gong Fu session with this one spaced out over two days. All in all only like six steeps; I could probably have gotten more but I’m not big on drawing out green tea sessions since I’m not really big on green tea either. I mostly just wanted to have a taste of the tea since CS was nice enough to send me a free sample of it, and now I’m happy to add the rest of the sample into the GCTTB.

Didn’t pay super close attention to this one if I’m being honest; but I remember that the mouthfeel was thicker and almost more creamy than your typical green tea and the flavour was quite grassy with a bit of nuttiness in the first day’s infusions. Day two I don’t really remember observing that quality so strongly.

The description says it tastes like fiddleheads and I definitely thought that was interesting ‘cause I’ve never tried fiddleheads, but then I wound up not tasting anything different or “out of the ordinary” that I could describe as possibly having the flavour of what I’m told fiddleheads are supposed to taste like. I mean, of course it’s hard trying to identify a flavour you’ve never experienced based on a concept but I still was kind of hoping there’d be something “extra” here.

Cold Brew Sipdown (336)!

Kind of glad to be done with this one, to be honest.

There’s actually nothing wrong with it – this is just one of those cases where I’ve drank so much that I’ve grown tired of the flavour. This last cold brew, I found myself critiquing the little things that normally don’t bother me way more than I should have been. Too floral, too much hibiscus…

It does feel good to sipdown something that wasn’t originally just a sample, though!