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Another sample from TastyBrew. Thanks!
I’m not a big fan of Ceylon teas. They tend to taste like the ice tea of my youth, & like green tea, they tend to make me sick on an empty stomach, probably due to astringency. Their flavor profile also doesn’t appeal to me nearly as much as some other teas. They lack a low end.
Having said all that, this is a decent cup. Nothing memorable about it, very ‘even’, slightly floral, slightly oaky, a hint of citrus, slightly astringent. Not bad, not exciting.
NEXT!
Another tea from TastyBrew! Thanks!
This is an interesting brew. I’m not a fan of Ceylon much, but I enjoyed this with breakfast. It was definitely fruity, in a winey sort of way, and a little tart. I’ve never had a tea that was aged in a wine barrel, & honestly never thought about that sort of thing. It’s actually a pretty cool idea though. Probably not something I’d ever purchase, but worth trying. Thanks Tasty, for the opportunity!
Back from my Pacific Northwest adventure! Had a wonderful time, especially adored Portland (the vibe of the city, all the lively varied neighborhoods, tea shops!, used book stores!, kitchen pantry dream shops like The Meadow!, naked bike night!, first Thursday art walk!, food truck areas full of people having fun late into the night!, so much craft beer!, Ground Kontrol!, Lan Su Chinese Garden, Washington Park’s Rose Garden and Japanese Garden and Hoyt Arboretum, taking the old historic highway through the Columbia River Gorge, Sauvie Island, driving down the Oregon coastline from Astoria to Arcadia Beach to Manzanita, the Tabor Park cinder cone at dusk, Mount Hood, all the yummy well sourced food…), though everything (Olympic National Park, particularly the rainforests and coastline beaches like Rialto and Ruby, the lavender farms in Sequim, Pike Market!, the ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, flying into Seattle right by Mount Rainier, on and on) was great.
Wasn’t expecting so much tea (there’s virtually none anymore in Memphis, alas), so that was a great surprise (husband dug how the bubble tea around town has more choices than tapioca pearls, stuff like coconut bits and fruit/plant jellies). Steven Smith and Stash seem the default in restaurants yay, and we just stumbled upon places like the Tea Zone and Camellia Lounge, multiple Townshend’s locations, and the Tao of Tea as we wandered places. So great.
I have a minor cold now (not too surprising, ugh air travel) so I’ll refrain from rating this while my sinuses and throat are impaired but I must say it’s really hitting the spot. Strong and bold without being harsh, and with a more citrusy bergamot than usual that somehow I dig (normally I prefer my bergamot flowery and complex, not fruity at all). Yum.
Preparation
Sounds like a fun trip! I was there recently myself. :)
Glad you enjoyed Portland! It’s a pretty great place to live :-)
I love Portland. I live just a few minutes from it in Vancouver, WA. And Steven Smith’s Tea Shop is one of my favorite places to go! There’s also a great tea shop called Tea Chai Te – they have a few locations as well.
LiberTEAS- I was just at their sellwood location yesterday! Had their hojicha/matcha chai. I like Steven smith too, but if I want a good tea shop, I love townshends on Alberta. Their tea isn’t the best ever, but i love the atmosphere.
thanks, Amy oh! it was my first time visiting…
had no idea you were a resident, TastyBrew! jealous. a friend of mine who visited last summer and i were bonding over how much we want to move now, ha.
LiberTEAS, i actually thought of you when i finally nabbed some Lord Bergamot—i knew from reviews you liked it, and i think that might also be how i found out in passing you live near portland. jealous! i really wanted to visit the actual shop because of that cool stuff they’re doing with tea cocktail mixer things (?) but it was a little out of the way for us and the hours didn’t work given we’d spend business hours out in nature most of the time. ah well!
all the tea shops around town made me so jealous. we were at a townshend’s on division the night of the naked bike ride, and thankfully a cute local guy a table next to us asked us if we knew when it was starting and explained the whole thing when we said we had no idea and were tourists. it makes me laugh imagining not knowing why hordes of naked cyclists were roaming the roadblocked streets downtown like a parade.
Sipdown # 24, I think. I’ll have to do some calculating, but I’m pretty sure that’s where I’m at! I was gonna send this one off, but I decided to just drink it, LOL. It’s bold, it’s bright, it’s a little brash this morning, but definitely makes a pretty good breakfast companion!
How do you accomplish several sipdowns in one night without drinking a thing? Pack up some tea for family/friends, including those smaller samples that you already tried, so they can try them to!! Nothing old or stale, mind you, just smaller quantities. I haven’t done the math yet, but I have boxes in the works for My sis, Sil, & a few others. It will be fun to see what my collection numbers at by the time I’m done. And I think I’m going to start next week with a Sipdown Extravaganza!
This tea is almost gone. I believe I’m going to include the final cup in one of the above mentioned boxes, so that I can claim a sipdown on it as well. It’s bold, it’s bright, it’s pretty good with a robust breakfast (which is what I usually eat). Any other time it is way too Ceylon for me, & it really leaves a puckery shrill high not on the tip & center of the tongue, long after the cup is drained.
I’m getting down near the end of this one, which is sad, because it is really a great breakfast blend, perfect for the kind of robust breakfast that I like to have. (vegetarians & vegans, you might want to stop reading now).
This morning I’m having venison & asparagus. Tony’s best friend Dan (who I like to call Hunter Dan) gifted me with a backstrap (tenderloin), a roast, & a steak. Talk about Locavore eating! I’ve been slicing off medallions of the tenderloin & searing them in a cast iron skillet for a few days now. My energy level is off the wall, I feel great. I used to be a vegetarian, most of my adult life, with a variety of autoimmune disorders. So glad I eat meat now. The human body really can heal itself if you give it the right materials.
Didn’t you have trouble transistioning back to eating meat? Husband has been a vegetarian for nearly twenty years now, and if he eats something with meat in it his body reacts as if it’s food poisoning. And that was just a soup with chicken stock in it (which I’m sure was an accident, because it wouldn’t be like them at all to sneak it in on purpose thinking he couldn’t tell). Mind you, he’s not even contemplating going back to meat, I’m just wondering.
Personally I can definitely tell that I’m not getting very much meat at all these days. It’s a different way of feeling full. Recently the entire staff at the hospital where I work was given free lunch of Christmas food and I went for all the things I don’t get at home. Sausage, chicken tartlet, roast duck (we pause here for a moment to contemplate the loveliness of roast duck) and fish! And only a little bit of spinach and even less red cabbage. Tasted great, but I felt decidedly blah and ‘meat-y’ for the rest of the day. And I haven’t even given meat up, I just don’t get very much of it.
So I have difficulties imagining going back to it after being so unused to having it.
Angrboda – I think we each react differently. I was vegan and went back to eating meat and diary in one fell swoop and was ok :) I know people who got really sick just eating a little meat or dairy after being vegan. I think there are people who do really well on a vegan or vegetarian diet and others who do better with some meat.
I loved being vegan for ethical reasons but it was hard on friendships and relationships — I hated not being able to share all of the food when I was invited somewhere. Food and what I could not eat became the focus of almost everything. I finally lost it when I went to Italy and was not able to fully participate in my travels. What I could and could not eat became the focus rather than the amazing place and cuisine and people I was with.
I still don’t eat a lot of meat compared with the average carnivore, but I am really enjoying being able to say yes, thank you when I am with others sharing whatever they have been generous enough to serve.
I had roast duck last night at a party as a matter of fact, and I so know what you mean :) I probably won’t have it again for at least a year, but oh!
Hmm, that’s probably true. Mind you, before meeting Husband I wouldn’t have thought it at all possible to survive on vegetarian food either. Now I find I rather enjoy it. I don’t want to give up meat entirely, I want to still be able to eat it when we’re out and that sort of thing, but I have MANY new favourite dishes at home. Husband isn’t vegan though. He says I’d have had a problem if he was because I love cheese. I’ve noticed recipes that use cheese almost always only say half the amount you actually need. :p
Roast duck is the most common for Christmas dinner in this country. Some people have pork roast or goose and in the South of Jutland most people favour turkey, but in my family it’s nearly always duck. Depends on who’s hosting. My grandmother have been known to serve pork in previous years, and my aunt once served goose just because she’d never had one of those before. :)
Roast duck…sigh…it’s been awhile!
Regarding switching from a vegetarian to meat eating…the hardest part of the transition for me was what I ‘thought’ was the ethical issue, the myth that being vegetarian somehow helps the planet to feed more people, which is actually not true. The more I looked at the economics of grain vs locally raised grass eating meat & veggies, the more I realized that being a carnivore was the better choice, not only for my body, but also for the economy. Anyway, couple that with growing food sensitivities, ect, I started my switch a few years ago. I started by adding homemade chicken stock into my diet, & chicken. Then Beef stock. And beef (which I prefer over chicken). The real confirmation came a month or so in, when I began to really notice the difference in how much better I felt, how much better my digestion is, & the amount of weight I’d lost! (a nice perk!). I drink stock often, it’s SO good for you, I eat a lot of veggies, a variety of meats, homemade cultured things, occasional fruit, & occasional gluten free treats (but not too often).
Food for thought: I’m still a royal pain to eat with, as I’m sensitive to chemicals, dairy, grains, etc. Many meats are processed with Nitrates & other chems, so I don’t eat out much. You never know what they are really serving! I’ve made friends with local farmers, so I pretty much get most of my meat & eggs from them, which allows me to support local people who actually raise the animals. I like that.
It’s been soooo long since I had venison. My father in law used to hunt and now he just fishes. So we get lots of crappie but no venison. :( I miss the occasional wild turkey as well. Venison & asparagus for breakfast sounds divine!
for years I lived on 2 elk and 2 deer a year.sometimes other game too like the occasional antelope or bison…good stuff….
ok, it IS my tastebuds. I know for a fact that there is more to this tea than I’m tasting, & basically, all I’m tasting is bitterness.
I’m not gonna waste any more time drinking new teas today, until I can reset my tastebuds somehow.
It’s probably a manifestation of my general grumpiness today.
I added a little sweetening, but I’m not really digging that either, although I’ll go ahead & drink this cup, in hopes that the caffeine will lift my mood. We’re watching ‘interns’, & I have Dr Who set to record (don’t worry, I won’t post any spoilers). I’m just gonna zone out & do Reiki on myself & watch this movie.
Hmmm…for some reason this tea didn’t come out quite as expected…
It seemed like the time went off kind of quickly, so I put the brew basket back in the cup for a few more minutes, and yes, that’s better. That’s more like what I was expecting! Bold, tangy, bright, & a little smoke. Much much better.
It’s the last day of the month! I keep trying to make the last day of the month my day to clean house, complete any loose ends, etc. Today I’d really like to accomplish some things, & I have no students until 2:30, so hopefully I’ll get a move on here shortly. But first breakfast & more tea!
For all my love of full leaf individual teas, I also love a good blend. That’s exactly what this is too! It’s bright, it’s rich, it’s earthy, it’s bassy. It’s also sweet, clean, fruity/winelike. What more can I say? Nothing. So I’ll finish this cup. And my breakfast.
My first cup of the day, enjoyed with breakfast.
Some teas don’t go well with food, especially with a robust breakfast like a bowl of beef, cauliflower, & collards soup (yes, that’s the kind of stuff I eat for breakfast, & my body feels fantastic for doing so).
This is actually everything a breakfast tea should be! The combination of bold Assam, earthy Keemun, & bright & fruity Ceylons gives this a very well rounded out balanced flavor. I’m not usually a fan of Ceylon teas much, especially in the morning as they tend to make my stomach hurt, so I could never drink this on an empty stomach, but with breakfast it is perfect! It really holds its own! I think this just became my favorite ‘breakfast blend’, or at least one of them. :D
This is a serious blend of teas! Very bold, very bright, very earthy. When I think of a ‘Breakfast Blend’, this is the kind of cup I’m thinking of. It’s a little on the astringent end & considerably brighter than what I usually go for, but as far as blends go, this is pretty awesome!
Sil Sample Sipdown Thanks!
I needed something a little bolder before heading out into the garden.
This tea is actually pretty intense! It has a very wine-like character to it, very bright, but also a nice bass note as well. Very tart & tangy, quite bold, but a little more astringent than I usually go for. Definitely packs a punch of caffeine, & Leif & I headed to the garden to work on the terracing project that I’ve been contemplating for a few years & avoiding, lol. Hopefully I’ll have some photos up on my FB later this evening.
Yay! Sil you are awesome!
I just got home from Tony’s. Gotta get ready for a wedding reception this evening, & there was a surprise present from Sil, Yay!
This is not my first cup of the day.
Before I drank this I had some of the 2nd flush Assam from Zen Tea that Cavocorax sent to me, but I didn’t log it because I didn’t see a page for it. Is it the Assam Mangalam Cavo?
I also had a cup of Ahmad’s English Breakfast, because Tony has some there & I figure I should drink a cup once in awhile until it’s gone.
I also drank a cup of Bilbo Brew while I was watching the St. Louis Cardinals kick the San Fran Giants’ butts! YEAH!
Then I came home to find Sil’s parcel & immediately made a cup of the Brahmin, which I wanted to try. It’s quite bold! Very full & flavorful, a little sharp around the edges, somewhat astringent, but good. I feel that it also packs a pretty good punch, as my energy field is quite lit up now. Time to load up & go play some music for the masses!
Sitting at the Steven smith headquarters sipping this with the Bean who stole my cookie! Luckily this teas is so good I don’t need a cookie. I’m very excited as there are several teas I’ve never seen here before. Sil & Terri, you’re in for a treat!
This is another one of those things I have been holding on to forever, but I wanted something robust and tasty to have at midnight so I didn’t fall asleep on my paper. Surprisingly this was REALLY good despite being old and in a zippered plastic bag.
So. Much. Caramel. Very malty too but in that ice cream malt kind of way. I noticed Whole Foods has some Stephen Smith tea, but in sachets, but I think I may have to try more anyway and that’s an easy way!
Sipdown!! 201!
LOL, I also gave her this one!
Sil, I hope you are proud of me, sister!
I came across this recipe for making iced Thai Chai. It calls for a homemade coconut milk creamer, which I had to make a half batch of, just to try it out. While I was making it, I started thinking how nice a hot latte would be, & so this tea became the first latte.
The coconut milk has a pleasant oranginess to it, which goes nicely with the Bergamot, & I added a little more sweetness to the cup. Not something I’ll be drinking regularly, but fun to try. I’ll let you all know how the iced chai comes out once everything cools down.
I have a sample of this one that I haven’t tried yet. Manly tea! :P
Terri, what’s your parameters for this tea? Hope you enjoying the trip!
Boychik, I’ve tried it a couple of different ways:
1 tsp X 3 was ok, but kind of weak, IMO
1TB gongfu…it just wasn’t that interesting that way
1 TB 1/2/5 not much better than the gongfu
1 TB X 3 good, but a little strong
I probably should have gone with 2 t X 3. I think that would have been the sweet spot.
I should try when I get home. It’s still unopened . Thanks for the advice!