987 Tasting Notes
Sipdown!
Finishing off the last of this. I haven’t tried many Darjeelings (only 2 or 3) but I haven’t really been wowed by them. This one is similar. It was ok, but not something I dream of having.
Anyways, since RiverTea is gone, I won’t weep too much over this (unlike their Golden Yunnan, sob)
Sipdown!
Many thanks to VariaTEA sending me a little bit of this to try.
I was really craving something desserty tonight, but since I had DT’s Carrot Cake a few nights ago I had only enough of Birthday Cake for 1 or 2 big mugs, BC would be perfect.
I slightly overleafed, though, just to use it all up.
Smells like maple, a tiny bit! Definitely getting that sweet vanilla cake flavour, though. And of course, I added a little bit of agave nectar to this.
Backlog from a few nights ago.
I think I had this on Tuesday night right before my throat went to hell on Wednesday.
You know what I never noticed about this blend previously? It has little white chocolate chip thingies in it. I don’t think it’s white chocolate, though – I bet you they’re little flavour bombs of cream cheese icing flavour.
Goodness, this tea is nice. I’m really sad that Della Terra doesn’t seem to make this anymore. Thanks so much to Ost for giving me the remainder of your (unwanted) stash!
Blllaaaaarrrggg. I’ve got a cold. Stuffed up nose, sore throat, achy head.
I may not like this tea a whole lot, but I’ve been drinking this almost exclusively for the past few days for a few reasons:
1. It’s got mint, and that’s good for colds.
2. It’s letting me use up the last of my lemon-honey, also good for colds
3. I have a ton of this left and wouldn’t drink it if i weren’t sick.
Blarg.
Blarg, I’ve got a cold. Been mainlining tea for the past few days. This was one of the caffeine-free options I chose a few nights ago.
This tea is pretty much straight-up honeybush, and it tasted weirdly sour/tart. I didn’t like it, but I do need to finish it…
Yuck. I don’t even know if I’ve tried plain HB, and the thought does not appeal to me in the slightest.
Which is probably why I should drink it now when I’m sick, and save the good teas for when I can enjoy them.
When I first tasted this tea, my tasting note said it would be perfect on winter days when the snow was piled in drifts against the door.
Well, Monday was that day! Looots of snow fell on Monday. Hubby was (and still is) sick. I’m sick too, so I’m glad I had this before my nose and throat declared mutiny on me.
Anyways, this was pretty good! I’ve found that JO’s teas taste best if you steep them on the low end of their recommended range (3-5 minutes) and a 3-minute steep of this turned out pretty well. Rich, kinda chocolaty, and definitely a nice treat.
Backlog from a few days ago:
Oh man, this is a very sad sipdown. I drank it to commemorate Butiki’s closing with the last of the swap I got from Ost a few months ago.
This has such rich fruity notes to it for me, like plum and prune. I really can’t wait to find another vendor who stocks this (once I sip down some more stuff in my cupboard).
Bye Bye, Butiki…. (sob)
There are less than a dozen teas that pop up when I search for “taiwan assam” on Steepster. Should some of us give Taiwan Tea Crafts a try, perhaps?
I have a Sun Moon Lake from Teacentre in Courtenay, which is a taiwan assam. It’s ok. Not as good as this one though.
Tried doing a big gongfu session with this tea tonight but the result wasn’t satisfying. The tea was very tightly packed into a mini-tuocha and my attempts to break it up meant the leaf was super broken and dusty. The first steep was quite nice, but the next few steeps were unpleasant and bitter. The leaf was also quite small, so a lot of it made it through the filter in my gaiwan.
That happened to me once! Tao mentioned when I asked, that even though it isn’t common, sometimes you need to make a subsequent infusion shorter than the previous ones. It seemed to have worked, but mine was a different Puerh
i usually rinse and put it on pause. in a few minutes the mini tuo becomes bigger and looser. and 2,3rd steeps are shorter. leaves are already expanded