Frontier Natural Products Co-op

I made a pot of this, & it’s gone already!
Its a decent little tea, slightly malty, nothing to write home about, but acceptable. It’s more of an English Breakfast really, not particularly bold, stout, or any of the qualities I associate with the Irish version, but all in all, it went fine with my breakfast.

First sample from TerriHarpLady! Brewed it gongfu style in my taiwan, while using Premium Mutzha Tikuanyin to season my new roasted oolong yixing teapot.
This is my first Se Chung oolong, and I can taste the woody astringency, but the peaches are rather in the background. This is an OK oolong, but not something to write home about. It’s not as roasted as other roasted oolongs, which means that there’s a tad more of the perfumy flavour that I don’t enjoy that much, but not enough to make the cup unpleasant. It’s the kind of oolong that I’d hand over to a friend who’s just venturing from the world of black teas into the world of green oolongs, and wants something “not too risky” to start with.
Dry leaves are various shades of brown, but a dark olive green emerges when they are brewed. The brew is a light copper, almost pink colour, and the smell is oh so typically oolong.

Another one from terri! (sipdown) I feel like i’m in the home stretch with those, though i have apparently really neglected the awesome swaps i received from fiddling and shmiracles heh opened up my swap box to pull new ones out and there were a bunch.

This is a nice middle of the road sort of roasty oolong. there’s a woody feel to this one and it leaves me mouth a little dry but over all it’s pretty tasty. I do like that it’s not overly charcoal feeling and the aroma of the leaves is pretty pleasant.

SIPDOWN! (249) Had a lovely cup of this in the morning to accompany my wafer cookies. I enjoyed this one while i had it :) thanks again terri! nearly done all your samples lol

I had this tea a really long time ago today. It appears that the story of my life these days is to make tea, be busy all day and barely have time to formulate my thoughts on the tea until late at night when i just want to go to bed :)

This one was a pretty average every day black tea for the morning. It was pretty mellow and on the milder side but still a relatively nice breakfast tea! Thanks terri!

No notes yet.

Spdown! Brought this one to Toronto with me for my morning cup just in case dad wouldn’t let me have any of his tea. Happy to have this one to kick off the morning.

thank you terri! I also had this one earlier today and remember finding it to be a rather uinremarkable darjeeling. A little astringent but not overly so. Mostly it’s just a tea that i can drink or not. Still glad to cross another one off my list and it won’t be a pain to finish the rest of this up!

This is not from the TTBA, but I realized looking through it that it’s mostly flavored blends, heavy on the rooibos, & although I still plan on sampling them all, I gotta have some black tea that is unflavored first!
This is a pleasant Darjeeling, nothing special, but nice enough.

sipdown! So looking forward to the weekend to really tackle my smaller sizes of tea that can be finished off relatively quickly. Especially since i have some new teas that i received in swaps and from orders that i really want to try but have to wait. go go self imposed restrictions!

Another lovely tea that Terri shared with me that i enjoyed. Confirming my suspicions that i really do enjoy assams. :)

I had this earlier today…seems like so long ago. Another swap from Terriharplady that was quite delicious! While not my favourite assam, it’s certainly one i wouldn’t turn down! I’m just not in love with it like i am with steven…er i mean #49 :)

I’ve been working in my office for the last couple of hours. It’s menial work really, work that I always avoid (which is why my office is such a wreck). I didn’t feel like doing anything today, so this is what I’m doing: all the small office tasks that are way overdue. My desk is clean, I’m making a list as I go along of things I need to do (like update website, actually start writing the blog I set up back on new year’s day…blah blah). All of these creative projects have been hampered by the mess that is my office.

Anyway, my desk is clear, the underneath of my desk is clean & vacuumed & the file box under there (mailing labels, extra file folders, etc) is organized. Would you believe there was a bulk package of cassette labels in there? How long do you think it’s been since I used those?
My city tax are finally filed (I didn’t actually owe anything), all of my tax papers are finally put away. It’s a start.

I enjoyed this Irish Breakfast with my lunch. It’s not as punchy as I’d like, but not pad either.

I got this tea a few weeks back from the bulk bin. I’m not a huge drinker of white teas, I tend to find them a little too subtle for my tastes (little terri wanted me to write “boring”, she may be young, but she has grown up tastes).
I’ll try anything once or twice, so I did.
It’s not bad. The tangerine flavor is very light, over a bed of slightly creamy oatiness. A gentle & pleasant cup, a good contrast to the Qimen, kind of like those light & fruity sorbets they serve a teeny tiny scoop of at super fancy restaurants to cleanse the palate. I never eat at those places, but I have played my harp at a lot of fancy events like that, where they make a big deal over every course. Its fun to watch!

I got this awhile back from the bulk aisle. As far as Assams go, it is robust & malty with a bit of a bite. Not anything like my beloved Tiger or #49, but definitely helped to revive me after an afternoon in the garden.

Speaking of which, it’s starting to look more like the garden I know & love & less like the wildlife grasslands (actually weedlands) that it was turning into. Today my son Drew & I did some terracing, which I’ve been planning on doing for years since my yard is a bit of a slope. We made the first terraced bed, which I promptly planted with lots & lots of carrots & a few other things. In the last couple of days I’ve planted turnips, radishes, lettuces, brussels, more peas, parnips, beets, leeks, more onions, etc. We’re eating asparagus daily, & today I picked some carrots, beets, & collards that over-wintered. I love my life!

sipdown on this one mostly because i accidentally dropped the other cup’s worth that i could have brewed on the floor. the clean floor that my other half cleaned today. oopsy. lol

On the plus side this isn’t my favourite tea so i won’t mourn the loss, i’ll just suck it up and move on. I’m learning that i’m not overly fond of strawberry greens. I like strawberry blacks. Quelle surprise! i know. But there are good strawberry greens and average. This falls into the average category for me. Not bad…just take it or leave it kinda green and strawberry lol Thanks terri!

OK….so I’m also trying to drink a flavored green a day…at least for the next week, in order to get through them & stay on track for my goal, which is to drink a cup of every tea that’s in my cupboard at least once a month. Crazy, I know!
This one’s ok. Mildly vegetal with a hint of strawberry & just a little tart. Really not bad.

This is a tea to drink if you’re in a hurry or focused on something else and just want some organic green tea, because while it’s inoffensive, neither is it lingering/savoring-worthy. If it weren’t organic I’d rate it lower because it really has very little personality but it’s also clean and its production doesn’t contaminate the environment so I enjoy that aspect of it.

Sipdown!

I figured i’d try the last of this one as a cold brew. I’ll save everyone the trouble and just don’t. While as a hot brew this isn’t that bad, though clearly white’s are not my preference, as a cold brew there’s a bitterness there that is completly unappealing. It not longer even sort of tastes like tangerine, it’s just this weird citrus bitter brew. blech. oh well, at least i know now :) Thanks terri!

I’ll have to try this one iced with the remainder of my samples from Terriharplady I don’t typically enjoy white teas as they’re too light for my taste but this one isn’t half bad. The tangerine taste in here is really light but it IS present.

This is not a particularly strong earl, & that’s ok by me. Because it is most likely a ceylon, & the bergamot scent wasn’t too strong, I added extra leaf. Then I added stevia & french vanilla coconut creamer. It was a pleasant cup, which I enjoyed. For awhile I didn’t care much for Earl Greys, & some of them are awful, IMO, but I’ve been trying several, & finding that some are very pleasant. This will not be a favorite, but not bad.

This is nice.
Just a nice mellow gentle tea.
It’s has a nice brightness to it, a little fruity tang in the middle section, although the base, & by that I mean the depth, is not particularly strong.
A pleasant afternoon diversion.

I stopped by the local health food store to get something. I haven’t been in that store in ages, & now they are carrying bulk teas from Frontier, a company I used to order herbs from. I bought small amounts of several different teas to try, including this one.
It’s not as bold & Malty as I expect an Irish Breakfast to be, but it’s also not bad! Next time I’ll use more leaf…

Meanwhile, my Butiki order arrived! YEAH!
Turn the kettle on baby, momma’s gonna steep some tea!

Well, girls…after watching the calendar and drinking this for several consecutive evenings, I believe I can give it a thumbs up for doing what it’s purported to do! Symptoms reduced pretty significantly. Still looks like dryer lint.

With honey. It certainly sweetens, but doesn’t mask the dark-green-leafiness.