Dinosara

I am soaking wet since it poured on me on my walk from my car to my office today. No umbrella could stand up to that amount of rain! Which of course makes me all the more eager for a delicious tea.

For some reason my brain wasn’t working this morning and I added a bit too much leaf in my cup. Nevertheless, this is a delicious cup of tea. That little prickliness to the mouthfeel of it is so interesting, a bit smoky and a bit minerally. Then there are those roasted-grains, unsweetened chocolate (maybe even cacao nibs) notes that really fill it out and are what is particularly tasty to me. I still prefer the Laoshan Black mostly because smoky teas (even if they aren’t really that smoky, like this or a Keemun) aren’t really my favorite, though I do enjoy them on occasion.

First off, I got an apartment, woot woot! It is a nice little one bedroom and I am really looking forward to it. Finally!

I had a huge lunch of Indian food today so I wanted something relatively light. I also wanted to try to use up some of my Teavivre samples that have been opened so that they don’t age too badly. I decided to have another go at this one. It is very tasty but it lacks a creaminess to the body that I usually want from my milk teas. It is nicely fresh and green, with a bit of buttery peachiness. It’s particularly delicious as it cools down, making me think this would be a fantastic and refreshing iced tea as well.

I am currently on a slightly earlier schedule for my wakeup and such than I was before I left for the field, partly due to the jetlag and partly due to just having an earlier sleep schedule while I was in the field. It’s kind of nice having a big chunk of time before lunch to do stuff, and it also means I have time for two mugs of tea instead of one. Score! Originally I was going to do what amounts to a little less than 1Tbsp for my 12oz cup, which is becoming kind of a standard for fluffy black teas for me, but then I reread my old tasting note for this that said I had used 1Tbsp per 8oz in my first cup and it seems to have worked out, so I added another perfect teaspoon to the mug (total 1.5Tbsp) and went ahead from there.

Oh my goodness this smells delicious. Like lovely bakey chocolate, like chocolate cookies or chocolate chips after they’ve been baked in chocolate chip cookies. Tastes delicious as well, and the liquor is so thick and rich on the tongue. Chocolatey, grainy, nutty. It’s less caramelly and honeyed than some of my other favorite blacks, but it also has some almost fruity note the others lack. I can’t even really place it, but it’s a great combo, and now that I started tasting it, it’s coming out more and more. Almost like black currant? Yum.

I am sad that the Bergamot Rose Laoshan Black is currently out of stock, but I am heartened that it will be back within 2 weeks, because I have got to try that blend. It will be one of the only teas I allow myself to order this fall, and I can’t wait!

This is one that I should probably drink up pretty fast because it isn’t currently in an airtight container (nor do I really have one to put it in). But that is kind of sad because it is such a delicious, amazing tea, and then it will be gone. Mmm, so caramelly and delicious.

Om nom nom… while looking around Steepster in an attempt to catch up on things I saw mention of some black dragon pearls, and suddenly I had a craving for these before I even finished my (extremely delicious) cup of Bailin Gongfu. I honestly feel a bit tea crazed right now… it’s like, when I got back and still hadn’t had any tea I was just cruising along, not really super craving tea at that point. And then I had the first cup and now I definitely cannot get enough tea. YUM. Why won’t this cup cool down faster to a drinkable temp so I can drink it up??

See what I mean about a bit crazed? LOL. I think these pearls have suffered a bit from sitting in a non-airtight pouch (clipped shut, but not sealed) for 2 months, but they are still pretty tasty. I think I will up the number of pearls and steep time for my next batch to see if I can counter the effects of age, because this was the same as my first trial of these but I remember that batch being much more robust. I think it does go to show you that air tightness really does make a difference because my Bailin Gongfu black was older but still fresher when I steeped it today, and it is in an airtight pouch. Must drink teas faster!

Now watch as I survey some of my favorite teas. Going back to all of these after two whole months away is interesting. On one hand it is a revelation, I can’t believe tea can taste that good (Malagasy tea is really that bad). I also pretty much forgot how all of my teas really taste. But on the other hand they are all so familiar, like an old comfy sweater, and when I sip them its as if I had just been drinking them the other day.

This one is easily one of my favorite blacks, and I am always astounded that it is so affordable and delicious. Lovely cocoa-caramel-grainy notes that I could just drink all the time. I think I have a couple more cups of this before I need to order more, although again I am torn by the want for my staples that are gone, and the need to drink the tea I have before I order any more. My stash is kind of astoundingly big, and I think my new goal is to drink it most of the way down before I move in 4 months (this time moving out of my office, too, which is where all my tea stash is).

tap tap Is this thing on?

Yes, it’s true, Steepsterites, I have returned! After two months in remote Madagascar, I am back in the states and back in tea heaven. Malagasy tea just plain sucks (tastes like nothing no matter how long you steep it), so I have basically been tea-less for over 2 months now. My return was even delayed two days by some mega-craziness at the end of our field season.

Now I have about a million things to take care of plus I am currently homeless and not having a lot of success finding an apartment. Do you know how many problems you run up against in daily life if you don’t have a permanent address? A lot.

But yes, lovely delicious tea is now mine. It is very difficult to chose a first tea after all that time, but I didn’t spend that much time thinking about it really. And fortunately this tea is still flavorful and wonderful despite it’s advancing age. Love that floral marzipan combo, and the tasty black tea peaking out from underneath the flavors. Man it’s good to be back and having a nice cup of tea.

I am kind of confused by the myriad of Earl Greys that Twining’s seems to offer. I am now in Heathrow Airport (London) on my way to Madagascar and I had a bagged EG that wasn’t the typical yellow-pouch one but instead a black with “The Earl Grey” on it. But when I go to Twinings’ site it seems that perhaps it’s just a packaging redesign? I dunno, but I’m sticking it under here anyway.

So yeah, I haven’t had tea in it seem s like forever. I have been running around like crazy trying to get my apartment packed up and get ready to go into the field. Also, the weather decided to give me a big F-you and be exceedingly hot and humid for the last couple of days, so not hot-tea weather even if I did get a little break. But now finally I have time to relax in my layover in London and I finally got a pot of tea. Twining’s isn’t my favorite, but I actually enjoyed my pot of tea way more than I did last time. Maybe they did a slight reblend, or maybe I just appreciate the base tea more this time around, but it was nice and well rounded, and not bitter or astringent at all. Very pleasant and welcome after the plane ride.

I was looking through my stash and realized I haven’t yet tried this one though I requested a sample of it with my last order. I’ve wanted to try this one for a while because I love the idea of Verdant doing a chocolate Alchemy blend, although to be honest I wasn’t totally sure about all the other odds and ends. I mean, I’m not a huge mint tea person, and I never seek out chamomile, but I was intrigued all the same. I figured this morning the black tea could help me wake up and the chamomile and mint can help calm my nerves and stress of moving.

A quick sniff of the dried leaf yields a minty and herby aroma. I started out intending to steep this with different parameters but once I saw the steeping instructions in the description here I was able to pull up and adjust before actual steeping. The steeped tea has a really interesting smell. First I get mint with perhaps a light, hayish, appley chamomile accompaniment. But then some serious chocolatey aromas come out to play. It’s definitely a little chocolate-minty in the aroma.

The combo of flavors in this tea reminds me a bit of an Andean herbal blend I got in Argentina, if it had a chocolately black tea base instead of being an herbal. That’s a good thing because that tea is also one I liked way more than I thought I would. This tea is slightly sweet, chocolately, minty, and a bit fruity (I always think chamomile tastes appley). It all works really well together. And it is having the added benefit of making me feel alert as well as calming my nerves. A good choice for this morning!

I am running around like crazy lately, so I don’t have time to say much more about this one than: every time I have this I am reminded at how freaking delicious it is, and how much it is like a fruity Coquelicot Gourmand (Dammann Freres). The almond is just amazing in this blend, sweet and creamy and almondy and fantastic. Love love love it.

I was thinking about stashbusting again this morning but I don’t think I have any black teas with just the right amount of tea in them for one cup. So I thought about teas I have had for a long time, and this one came to mind. I bought my Dammann teas a little over a year ago in Paris so I feel like I should probably drink them up (gives me an excuse to order more!). This tea is the closest to being finished of all of them.

Mm, it’s more delicious than I remembered (I guess that speaks well to the aging properties of these teas). Hazenutty, chocolatey, with a hint of citrus. A hint sweet, and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel. Really delightful. Dammann uses such great bases to their flavored teas, and it really makes a difference. Love it!

Another sample stash busting! I am on a roll today. I’m not sure how I managed to drink this only once before but my sample was mostly empty today. Maybe I drank it without knowing it?

I probably ended up using a bit much leaf in my cup this time around, but it still is a very tasty cup of tea, and a very nice dian hong. Mmm, sweet potatoes and oranges. With this much leaf I’m missing out on some of the honeyed notes unfortunately, but perhaps on the resteep.

Ah, stashbusting feels good. I got this sample ages ago from JacquelineM and this morning when I was looking for a tea I realized I could kill this sample so I went for it.

I am glad that I held onto this tea for as long as I did because I appreciate it so much more than when I first got it. I liked it ok then, I really like it now. Can’t wait to discover Harney’s other black teas in a whole new way now that I’m a black tea drinker!

Thanks to Fong Mong tea, who provided this free sample for review. It’s been a while since I’ve had a Dong Ding (or any oolong besides a TGY), so I am looking forward to trying this one. I am following the western steeping instructions that they provide, but I can’t bring myself to steep the tea for 6 minutes. I did bump it to 4 minutes rather than my usual 3 because the Blue Jade I tried from them didn’t seem quite full flavored at 3 minutes.

The steeped tea smells roasty, a bit floral, and a bit vegetal. I have to say that I do think this one is oversteeped, unfortunately. There is a bit of astringency and a hint of bitterness that I don’t think would be there if I had stuck to 3 minutes. Otherwise, the flavor is pretty nice… a tad roasty but not too strong, some nice oolong flavors under there. Unfortunately this bitterness is taking over more as it cools. I ended up dumping out the first steep and steeping the leaves a second time for 3 minutes. This time the flavors are nice and pleasant, no bitterness. Lighly roasty, vegetal, not very floral or buttery, but with a very slight sweetness that lingers in the aftertaste. I like this dong ding pretty well, but like I said earlier I don’t love even lightly roasted oolongs. Most dong dings are lightly roasted, as I’ve found, but every once in a while you happen across an unroasted one. I enjoy this tea (now that it’s not bitter), but it’s not something I would seek out.

The other day I had a cup of China Rose Black from ESP Emporium that I’ve had in my collection for forever, it seems, and it was definitely underwhelming. Not nearly as good as I had remembered, and I was wondering if it was a result of changing palates or old tea (since it just didn’t seem as rosey as it once did).

So I thought this morning I would have a cup of this, which I haven’t had in forever, just to see how this has held up. I got this at the same time as I got the rose black, and it’s been in the same kind of containers during it’s life (ESP’s non-airtight folded bags for a while, then some small tins toward the end).

This one has held up better it seems, though it does seem a bit… old. The flavors just aren’t as strong, but this cup isn’t overly weak or anything. I guess I am finally getting to the point where some of my older teas are fading, which is sad. I’ve been doing better about working through my stash and not buying new teas, but I still have a huge amount right now. Guess I better get drinking!

Yet another of my free samples from Teavivre… thanks so much for the opportunity to try all these teas! I really consider Teavivre to have greatly contributed to my tea education with all of their samples.

When I opened the sample pouch and sniffed the tea, I was kind of surprised by how super vegetal the leaves smelled. Like, woah spinach and greens. I sniffed some more and started to get roasty scents, and the faintest hint of butteriness. Definitely not like the super green tieguanyins I’m used to drinking. I steeped it up and smelled a super roasted, toasted grains aroma from the liquor. At first it seems like that is the only note, but after smelling it a while I start to detect the slightest hint of sweet florals hiding out. Intriguing.

I have to say I was pretty prepared not to really be a fan of this tea because I don’t tend to like roasted oolongs. But Teavivre proved me wrong. I’m not head over heels or anything, but this is a tasty cup of tea. The roasting is light and doesn’t take over the flavor. It just kind of nicely hangs out there, adding some nice warm, toasty notes. The other main flavors are the slightly floral sweetness of the tieguanyin, with some light vegetal notes, but nothing like it seemed when I smelled the dry leaf. As I’m drinking it the sweetness is growing in my mouth adding to the tastiness of each successive sip. Definitely a tasty tea, and it surprised me by making even this nonfan of roasted oolongs enjoy it.

Yesterday I only had two cups of tea, down from my usual four. I am way too busy and stressed! I suppose I should forewarn you all that in about a week and a half I will be gone for two months. Not like normal when I’m traveling and don’t post a lot but occasionally pop up and do a post, but really absent because I will be in Madagascar doing fieldwork! I will certainly miss my tea, and I am still trying to decided what tea bags/sachets to schlepp over there for the mornings (because Malagasy tea is not very good!). Two months is a long time.

I am having this tea this morning because it was calling to me. This tea is stupidly good, and by stupidly I mean that I feel stupid for not buying more when I was in Beijing. So sweet, so honeyed, so caramelly. Almost buttery, which ties into the caramel I guess. Love love love this one.

Jasmine tea just doesn’t seem like a morning tea to me, but that’s because it’s usually a green or white base. I haven’t had many jasmine black teas (perhaps just one?) but the idea definitely intrigues me. Luckily I got this sample from SimplyJenW to try!

The dry leaf has lots of jasmine blossoms in it, and smells pleasantly first of a slightly grainy black tea and then of a lovely sweet jasmine. Steeped, that weird blend of jasmine and black tea comes out… yeah, jasmine and black together are just so weird in my mind! They don’t seem to work properly together, I don’t know why. One thing is I feel like the black tea gives the jasmine a more herbaceous rather than a sweet quality.

However the flavor of this one comes off better than the scent to me. There is a surprising sweetness here, which I think is coming from the black tea base, actually… it has that character. There is a honeyed note to the base, a bit malty. But honestly I think I’d rather have this tea without the jasmine! The jasmine is light and pleasant, but it again has that weird herbaceous quality. It’s the same kind of thing I get from jasmine-vanilla blends that I’m not a fan of. I guess in those blends it might also be the jasmine interacting with the black tea (since those are often black/green blends). Then again, I’ve had other jasmine black/green blends that work out for me, so who knows. I do actually enjoy this one, though (because the odd qualities aren’t too odd for me in this tea). Thanks for the opportunity to try it! After a couple of shots I do feel like jasmine and black tea is not something I really need to seek out in the future.

Today is a lot cooler than it was forecasted to be, and a bit rainy, so I am hanging out at home, catching up on all the tasting notes I missed during the time period where I couldn’t “see more” notes. I rarely drink tea on the weekends for some reason, and certianly it is rare in the warm weather because I don’t have air conditioning.

But today I got home from birding this morning and I just really felt like having a pot of tea. I have two tins of this so I keep one at home and one with the rest of my stash. I really haven’t been drinking a lot of flavored tea lately. I had a disappointing cup of rose black tea yesterday that I didn’t even log because I’m not quite sure why it was so disappointing… possibly it was just old, possibly some of my tastes are changing and I just wasn’t as impressed with the base tea anymore.

I am glad to say that this one is still a favorite. I think the base tea on this is very well done, with perfect complimentary chocolate, caramel and almond flavors. Delicious and comforting.

This sample comes thanks to Angel Chen and Teavivre. I haven’t drank a lot of jasmine white teas before. and I wanted to have this one soon after the Jasmine White Yunnan from Verdant yesterday. Of course, this is a Fujian white and that was a Yunnan white, so I’m interested to see the differences.

One thing that’s immediately different is the aroma of the dried leaf. This one is jasminey, but also with almost a savory note to it. Steeped, all the scents kind of mellow a bit, but I still get an almost herbaceous jasmine quality. The flavor on this is bright, crisp. The jasmine is sweet and leaves a slight honeysuckle aftertaste. I get a slight hay-ish note from the white tea, but overall it’s mostly really bright, leaving an almost tingly sensation in my mouth. It’s a light tea, but it doesn’t seem like it’s understeeped as much as just light in character. This is a very tasty tea, but I do think that the white yunnan was more my style. Glad I got the opporunity to try this one, though!

Got a sample of this one in a package from SimplyJenW… yay for continuing my black tea education! I’ve had one other Golden Monkey before, and that was Harney’s. That one I first tried way back when I really wasn’t into unflavored black teas at all, but I liked it pretty well (but not enough to seek out others).

The dry tea for this smells malty and hay-ish. When I smelled this and the Harney version back to back, this one smelled brighter and the Harney one smelled more caramelly. When steeped, this tea has a nice depth to the aroma. It smells honeyed and yes, a bit like dried apples. Also some toasty grains, a bit. Other people have said “tart apples” in tasting notes for this one, and I think I get that… it’s definitely kind of fruity as well as a bit alfalfa-y. There are some light chocolatey notes there, but they’re definitely not the main event. All in all I really enjoy the flavor of this one… except the fact that there is a layer of bitterness over everything. I’m very sensative to bitterness in black teas and this one is oversteeped to my tastes. I definitely need to drop my water temp a smidge next time and see how it goes.

When I made my order for the Golden Fleece I threw in an ounce of this as well since it was labeled as “low stock” and I always wanted to try it. Western brewing as instructed on the Verdant site. Unfortunately I don’t have time to wax poetic about this tea today but safe to say I would if I could! It is a really delicious tea.

The dry leaf smells jasminey in a sweet, fresh, honeysuckle-y way, and the steeped tea smells a little more pungently jasmine. The flavor on this one is so sweet and fresh. It’s almost juicy, which is mind blowing from a jasmine tea. That’s really the most prominent thing I take away from this tea, that lovely juiciness. There is definitely a good amount of natural sweetness to this, which really brings out those honeysuckle notes. It is super smooth and silky in the mouth, and altogether a real pleasure to drink. Yum.

I wanted to come back to this tea since it really was pretty much the tea that sparked my interest in unflavored black teas. I’ve tried a lot lately and this one has always been in the back of my mind when trying them, but the memory of it was starting to get muddled.

I love the honeyed, caramelly notes in this tea. It’s a bit grainy, and a tiny bit chocolatey, and a tiny bit sweet, but not nearly as chocolatey and sweet as the Fengqing Black Dragon Pearls I had yesterday. Still, I need to boost this way up in my ratings because it remains one of my favorites after I’ve tried quite a few varieties. This one really exhibits the honey notes that I like in Fujian black teas.

Backlog from earlier today when Steepster was down. I logged on to find steeping suggestions for this tea and there was no Steepster! So glad it’s back up. I took a few notes with this one, which I am also glad to have gotten a sample of from Fong Mong Tea. Thanks!

It’s been a while since I’ve had a really floral oolong, and I was looking forward to it. I used the entire sample in my 12oz mug because it was close to what I usually use for oolongs. The recommended steep time was 6 minutes which seems really long! I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, and I went with 3 minutes instead. The dry leaf smelled lightly floral and green, and when steeped it smelled really fantastic, very floral, with nice saffron buttery notes. Definitely an aroma I like in an oolong.

The taste was surprisingly light… light enough that I wonder if I should have gone the full 6 minutes! But what was there was very pleasant, nice and floral and a bit green. It was just asking for a hint of sweetness there, but it didn’t come out this time. Or maybe a thicker, butterier background to the florals. I bet you could play around with steeping parameters on this one and make it really sing. Glad I got a chance to try it!