Various Artists

I got a TGY w/ my Berylleb order. This one is nice. Not sure how often I’d drink something like this though.

Made this strange blend for my sister yesterday. I put in LPT’s Laoshan Chocolate Genmaicha, WP’s Elder Grove, and a little of YS’s Mojiang Imperial Golden Bud black tea. Last night it was fair, and I had quite a bit left over so I stuck it in the fridge. I’m drinking it cold this morning and it’s actually really good. Tastes like a cinnamony chocolate with a bit of the elderberry coming through. I bet it’s tons of fun being a professional tea blender. I will be content for now as an amateur. :P

Thanks for this one, Andrew! I’m drinking the Birthday Roasted Oolong at the moment. It’s pretty tasty.

It’s like a cup of liquid pecan. Definitely mild, but in a good way.

I’m drinking an 8 gram raw puerh dragon ball from YS that I got with my order. It’s pretty good—not bitter at all, very vegetal, and a little bit of fruit.

Because I thought it was white tea by the look, and the smell wasn’t strong, I did it western. Now I have lots of very concentrated tea. Looks like I’ll be adding extra water. My friend is coming over soon. He’s usually pretty reactive (calm and spacey) to the effects of tea. I’ll be sure to share some of this with him. :) I did tell him to eat before coming over. Ever since I read on someone’s tasting note that their son passed out after some raw, I’m sure to be careful.

I’m drinking the 2016 Monkey Memorial raw puerh tea that Andrew gave me a while back (Thanks, Andrew!). It is pretty tasty. Notes of hay, greens, bitterness, and stonefruits.

Liquid Proust’s magical sampler mystery teas 1 and 2. (“2004 raw” and “something-or-other mystery Chinese name”).

It’s very helpful to get a good selection of sheng pu-erhs as I’ve had very few, and most of them what I’d refer to as liver-stripping death teas. Haha, to be honest, I hadn’t even thought these would be sheng pu, I had simply assumed shu as that is what I think of when I think pu-erh. Here’s to trying something new.

The two samples I had today I had a few steeps of before giving up. Both had the same odd salty savouriness, almost like I’d used veggie stock or diluted sea water to brew them in.

I was given tea so I’ll drink it all even if it kills me.

(the reccomendation is a yes, if you are offered free samplers then why not?!)

Fujian Shou Mei White Tea Ball from What-Cha

I received this as a mystery white tea. The tea comes in individually wrapped balls. I’m not very familiar with white and definitely not ones that come compressed into balls! The instructions recommend 1 ball/cup of 90C water for 1-2min. However, I wanted to try my new tiny 120mL teapot so I dropped used one ball, 90C, 30s, adding 10s each re-steep.

The wet leaves smell quite medicinal – reminds me of chinese medicine! Fortunately, the brew tasted a lot better. It tastes quite mellow and relaxing. There’s a hint of honey, nuts, and a slight astringency. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much fruitiness that was advertised on the package. However, this was quite a yummy tea!

Unidentified Dr. Tea from Gray Line Bus Tours

I’m guessing this little paper pot is rather old, because when I stick my nose in there to smell the dry leaf, I get practically nothing.

Got this in a strange swap, and I was expecting it to be the crap of crap. I was pleasantly surprised. There were some chocolate notes in there, as well as that tangy, leathery shou flavor.

The brew was smooth, with no astringency or bitterness. I might, however, have gotten a slight headache from it.

I started subscribing to Graze for snacks because I’m interested in new ways to stuff my face. A few of the snacks on offer feature a free bag of tea plus cookies or whatnot.

I was really excited about the tea, until I got it, and it was this sort of shady English Breakfast mayhem that I had to dump a bunch of vanilla almond milk into to taste okay.

But, oddly, the tea works well with the cookie. Bite of cookie, sip of tea, ahhh.

Kind of like how Robin’s a tool on his own, but he SOMETIMES helps Batman. If Batman got a better sidekick, the universe would be better. No denying it. However, this is Batman’s sidekick, and it works well enough. WE MAKE DO WITH THE WORLD WE HAVE.

Totally unrelated: the song that came on while I was eating this was “What’s Your Fantasy” by Ludacris. I know every lyric to this song, but it’s not appropriate to sing along at work, unless it’s a Friday.

The rules slide on Fridays.

Kind of like how my standards for tea slide when cookies are in play.

A few weeks ago, I was sent a sample with “Chocolate Hazelnut” written on it. Turns out that the sample was from a company that no longer exists, so I feel okay about posting the review here now. Because, as you will see, it’s not the best.

Let’s start with the handwritten nature of the bag. This lack of a branding scheme was ominous. Was it made in the basement by a maniac? I have no idea what the ingredients are. We’re going to have to walk into this review hoping one of them isn’t arsenic.

I gave the mysterious bag the sniff test. The tea inside smelled really chocolatey and delicious.

This tea appears to contain black tea, nuts, chocolate chips, and chocolate Rice Krispies. (A quick Google reveals that product is called “Cocoa Krispies.”)

I tried it plain, but thought it tasted like dirt-blood. Once the tea was out of my mouth, however, the aftertaste was awesome. My tongue was coated in some kind of chocolate nut delight. Heck yeah.

So it was time to Go Rogue and dump some vanilla almond milk and honey into that puppy. Alas, the taste was still like getting kicked in the face by a kangaroo.

Is this hazelnut? Do I not like hazelnut? Was this tea made really close to Chernobyl and pick up trace amounts of some sort of otherworldly chemical? Why does its dry tea and aftertaste smell so wonderful — but when the tea is actively in my mouth, I don’t like it?

Did you guys know that Bill Nye is getting his own show on Netflix? What I want is for everyone who reads this blog to hook me up with a little 5-minute segment in which he can explain what’s going on with this tea. How does our sense of taste even WORK?

Also, I just want to meet Bill Nye. Is it weird to have a tiny crush on Bill Nye?

Be sure to leave your thoughts on hazelnut and/or Bill Nye in the comments. Also, if you’re a serial killer, please let me know if “dirt-blood” is a real flavor. Or, if you’re Australian, if “getting kicked in the face by a kangaroo” is a real flavor. I strive for accuracy.

Whispering Pines is recalibrating its Black Bear mix. The new mix isn’t in the system.

I got a preview sample from mtchyg, who is a fancy person IN THE KNOW.

Without a listing, I have no idea what is in this.

This is a very dark, strong mix. It’s butch as hell. It smells like tobacco and leather, and tastes like beef jerky and/or bacon. Some kind of meat, probably smoked. Did an animal die to make this?

I feel like I’m going to grow chest hair from this.

If you’ll excuse me, there are log cabins I need to construct, black bears to ride, and wild boars I have to tame.

It’s been beastly hot these last few days.
I had some concentrated hibiscus already brewed and decided to put it with some sparkling club soda, vanilla bean ice cream and a splash of lavender Torani for sweetner.
A float.
Spectacular!
Can’t wait to do it again.

Mystery tea from LP labeled enigmatically only as “2014 Yancha”, thanks for the treat, LP! 100ml ru gaiwan to about ~7g of tea, 205F water. This was really good, already had those deep caramel aged flavors starting to come out of the roast, although the rough roasted edges were only just starting to smooth out. Still a rougher throat feel as a result, but lovely sticking sweetness in the throat, thick body, and the flavor still has the good rock yancha taste with just a hint of fruitiness that ramps up as it opens up. Really enjoyed this, I could definitely see myself getting more—if only I knew where it was from! Alas!

White2Tea 2014 Lao Cha Tou sample from a teafriend. Boiling water, 11g to 100 ml, two rinses. Dark, velvety, vanilla flavored milk chocolate leather sweetness. I’m not a huge fan of ripe, but this is so soothing and that leather like aftertaste really kept me intrigued, especially when the fermentation all clears at around steep 3. I can see what all the hype is about, sad to hear this is gone now.

Tried the yaobao looking packet from LP’s mystery group buy (I know, I know, yes, I still have it, and yes, I’m still working on it). Gently bubbling water, let’s say 195 degrees, 100 ml gaiwan, and the whole packet o’ buds.

The smell of the leaf is sweet, musty, and herbal. The buds are kind of weird looking to me personally, kind of like little worm husks or something, very papery and husk-like looking. The brewed liquor ranges from very light, almost white to a solid gold tint of yellow. The taste is bizarrely sweet, like a combination of vanilla with a good dose of artificial sweetener, as the aftertaste was uncannily like splenda mixed with an herbal background that was borderline medicinal.

I hate splenda personally, so I didn’t like this too much, but my SO was a fan. I feel like there must’ve also been a good dose of caffeine in this sucker because it hit my forehead all at once in like a rush about two steeps in. I probably won’t be coming back for more though unless the SO requests it.

Received a fun little extra from Liquid Proust when I put in my last order in the form of this vaguely labeled “Home Roasted Dragonwell Sencha” packet that I’ve been trying (and failing) to give a proper review by drinking it any way other than via grandpa water bottle method, but this seems to be how it’s doomed to be drank so might as well go ahead.

I’ve been starting off with some level of random hot water in the bottle, say a 1/3, dumping a little under a tablespoon of this guy in there, and then filling the rest up with fridge temp water and then it just kind of steeps away for the next two to six hours until I drink it all. Initially, the roast is a bit in your face, but after you get over that, it harmonizes surprisingly well with the nutty dragonwell flavors and the sencha gives it the nice seaweedy body and aroma I associate with Japanese green tea. This thing is nice as a mega steeper (I had high hopes since this is the unfortunate fate of all my dragonwell once I discovered this magic property of theirs), pretty close to bombproof, although I haven’t tried boiling it yet, but I think it would stand up to it, honestly.

Overall, I thought it was quite nice, especially for a home roasting project if he’s never done it before, haha. It’s been my go to waterbottle tea as I like the extra roasty notes (much like a kyobancha with more green flavor and caffeine) and is pretty balanced and bitter resistant no matter how much you neglect it.

A contender from the mystery group buy, all it says is “A piece of the 200g Iceland sheng ball from Aliexpress.” Hm. Mysterious. Smells like strong sheng, why not give it a whirl?

Wasn’t sure of the age, so let’s go light on the water temp, about intense oolong temp, fast bubbles coming up in the pot (too lazy to take exact temp today). Hm, starts of kind of not doing much, although quite a mouth drying feel to it for not much flavor for the first two steeps. Gaiwan smells very camphorated and unpleasantly medicinal. Hm.

And then things took a steep downturn. WTF, even more astringent and the tea smells kinda… smokey and…. tobacco-y. But not in the good way. The gaiwan smells EXACTLY like an ashtray. EW. As the tea cools, it tastes less like cigarette butts and more like gross medicine with a burnt tobacco aroma and gross smoker’s breath on the aftertaste. Dumped it out after this, couldn’t keep going, need to wash out mouth with bleach, ASDFLKJASDLKFJASL,

Trying a vaguely worded sample thrown in with some other tea today, says “Liu Family Traditional Tieguanyin” on the very nondescript black bag. It’s greener than I was expecting since I thought traditional roast was a little heavier on TGY, but has a roasty smell.

Tea itself brews up fruity with a bit of a musty iron tinge and some after tastes of mineral rockiness that is so strong in yancha. Nice roast taste to finish, and decent number of steeps at four-five, although it does start to get a bit dry towards the end of the leaf life. Overall, I enjoyed this, although it didn’t stick out enough to make me put on my detective hat and hunt down the origins of this mysterious Liu family, haha.

Homemade Advent Day 12

This week is going to be so busy. I needed a nice winter drink to get me going after a mostly sleepless night. It is especially difficult knowing my week has so much going on (a lot of virtual meetings and working from home projects). I chose to make a sparkling rose latte. If you don’t know what this is, it is a drink that Starbucks (used to? still does?) offer which uses ground rooibos powder, frothed milk, and blossoming rose syrup (a rose flavoured sweet syrup with a red fruit note). I made this myself using a store bought ground rooibos and rose syrup. It is one of my favourite drinks because it is sweet and very tasty. I use 3/4 soy milk and 1/4 water (boiling hot and then whisked until frothy), whisk in the rooibos powder and some rose syrup and there you have it!

I am trying to use up my older teas, so I make a chocolate milkshake with 3-4 tbs of matcha. "I will not be sleeping any time soon, but it made a really tasty dessert. Culinary matcha has limited uses, so a milkshake is the perfect way to make a dent in it on a hot day. If I had any other type of ice cream, I would choose vanilla (next time).

I don’t dare put this under any particular tea, since it was more like “use up plain black teas in my cupboard from travelling/hotel” than properly brewing teas. I ended up making a sweetened iced tea with lemon. Unfortunately my Lipton (decaf) teabag + Trader Joe’s Irish breakfast (decaf) teabag was not enough because it was a coldbrew. Next time I’m going to use more tea when making a pitcher. I also made it too sweet. It’s a work in progress, but it was sure nice to have a cold iced tea on a hot day.