Dinosara

Sipdown, 177. Plus rose buds for this one!

I burned the heck out of my lip tonight while tasting dinner during cooking. A piece of molten hot spinach was stuck to the bottom of my spoon and latched itself onto my lower lip, and now I have a sizeable blister. So I had to wait until this one was fairly cool before tasting. Fortunately I somehow managed not to burn my mouth really.

This was pleasant, and even more so in the second cup after letting it steep for a looooong time, as the rose buds I put in came out more and added a sweetness that was lovely. I definitely need a verbena/lemongrass blend for evenings.

Today has been busy busy with spring cleaning. I need to start making dinner but I am taking a break for a bit with this oolong. As always, I want to say that I’ve never been the biggest fan of Wuyi oolongs, but some of them I do rather enjoy.

This one seems to be one of those examples. The first steep was honeyed, with lightly toasted grain notes. Honestly I drank it up pretty quickly because it was so tasty. Today I am really digging the bready, roasty notes, moreso than usual. The second steep is also sweet and more toasty. Slightly minerally and rocky, as well, like a stream high in the mountains. This one seems particularly well balanced, and no one flavor really overtakes the rest. The minerals come out more and more in later steeps. I have to say that I have not detected any orchid-like florals in this, but I’m not sure that they would fit quite right to me. Anyway I am really enjoying this relaxing session of tea this afternoon.

Sipdown, 178. Thanks to yssah for this sample.

I have been generally tired lately and last night I slept in for as long as I wanted. Now I have that odd feeling of being refreshed but also a kind of bodily exhaustion. I’m planning on some gongfu sessions later today but right now wanted an earl to get me going.

Like many of yssah’s teas, the dry leaf on this one smelled incredibly pungent. Mostly bergamot, but also with a distinctive rose note. The brewed tea mellows a bit thankfully and is a bit more balanced. The flavors are pretty decent. Definitely strong flavors with this one, but they don’t get soapy or perfumey. The black tea base is smooth and malty, without any astringency or bitterness. The rose and bergamot are doing something with each other such that neither quite tastes like itself. The result is somehow kind of sweet and cookie-ish, though, so I don’t mind. A pretty tasty pot of tea that I won’t have a problem finishing at all.

Sipdown, 179. Cold brew.

I’ve been drinking a lot of cold brews at lunch so I took the rest of my sample of this (probably 3/4 ounce) and made a pitcher of iced tea with it. I haven’t logged my previous cups but this is the final cup of it.

This is pretty tasty as a cold brew. The white tea is slightly vegetal but mild and generally nice, and the pomegranate is pretty juicy and not too fakey tasting. Of course it isn’t totally pomegranate, and there are possibly some other things going on. Rose hips add a tartness and slight berry flavor, but it’s thankfully not overdone. All the same I’m not too sad to see it go.

Happy Record Store Day! I am exhausted after a day of buying limited edition records. Mid-morning we stopped at a coffee shop in Columbus and I was surprised to see they had a bunch of Harney teas on offer. All tea bags, and none that I am very much a fan of, actually. I decided to go with this one, even though I don’t like it all that much, because any Earl Grey is better than no Earl Grey.

Oddly, they served me the tea in a heavy glass beer stein. So the paper taste in this was definitely from the tea bag… Blech. Ah well. Anyway, I never liked that this tea was very light on the bergamot and I didn’t like its base blend. Now I don’t mind those flavors (evolving tastebuds), but this still got old fast. Halfway through the cup I decided I wanted to sugar it a bit (there was a hint of bitterness for some reason even though I controlled the steep time), and then I decided I wanted a touch of milk. Of course, the milk pitcher was f-ed up and drip drip drip SPLOOSH! So I had a lightly bergamotty cup of milk after that. Oh well.

I don’t usually drink actual tea this late in the evening but I really wanted to. I decided to go shu puerh because the fermentation actually results in less caffeine in the resulting tea. I haven’t spent a lot of time drinking puerhs of any kind, and I have gotten most of my exposure through the reserve club. That’s the point, of course! I haven’t come across a puerh that I love, but I often do enjoy them and I am glad to get a chance to try them all.

I am having a similar experience with this tea. It’s earthy, it’s piney. Funny, I didn’t expect this puerh to be so similar in feeling to some of the shengs I’ve had recently. The first steep of this tea is at once light in flavor but with a slight bite. In the second steep the bite has increased, moving almost to bitterness. I’m also getting a lot of conifer notes… juniper berries, cedar wood, pine needles. Also a bit of rocky minerals as well. After a few steepings I’m definitely starting to get some tingly mouth going on here. I have to say this is probably my least favorite of the puerhs I’ved tried through the reserve club so far. Maybe it’s the “camphor” notes. But I’m still glad I got to try it.

Sipdown, 180. I thought I would splitting this into two tastings, but then I actually had just the right amount of leaf according to Den’s instructions. So this is steeped with the leaf:water ratio that they recommend, and I don’t know if I did that with the other sample I had (this one comes to me thanks to Ellen!).

I think I prefer this on at a slightly lighter ratio, as this is fairly strong and vegetal. Slightly buttery but not too floral or fruity. It was still a tasty cup of tea, but I think I prefer this a tad “weaker” than Den’s instructions produce.

Sipdown, 182, just kidding, 181. Found a tea in my cupboard that shouldn’t have been there!

Headache, exhaustion, dry eyes, and I have to go to a seminar on morphometrics in a half an hour. Ugh. Decided to sipdown this one in the hopes that it will give me a boost.

Wow, this is suuuuper sweet today. Like liquid honey, or more like liquid honey-soaked sweet potatoes. Steeping it at a slightly hotter temp than I did last time really made a difference. Very nice. Wherever yssah sourced this one from, it is a very good tea.

Sipdown, 183. I never know what to do with all the tea dust at a bottom of a sample. It can be hard to separate from the good leaf. I often try to shake the dry leaf in my infuser, so that it sifts out a bit, and this time I actually rinsed the leaf with cold water, but it clearly wasn’t that effective. Or maybe it was and my cup of tea would be like matcha if I hadn’t done it.

I started off planning to steep this for 2 minutes and after 30 seconds I knew the infuser had to come out. The leaf is so small and broken that the liquor is already a yellowy-amber color. It smells green but also pretty earthy, perhaps a bit like fall leaves. The flavor is nutty and a bit brothy, even. I don’t get the chestnut notes that I identified in my first tasting of this; it actually seems more… walnutty? Maybe? It’s pretty tasty, and a nice post-lunch tea to clear the palate and reset for the afternoon.

My morning has been super busy, and I drank this one without too much thought to it. I will write a better tasting note the next time I have it, but suffice to say that it was sweet, smooth and delicious. Can’t wait to be able to give it more of my attention.

One more sipdown today, 184. :)

I’ve had this one for a while and its gone from unimpressive in my mind to quite tasty. Sometimes is fun to see how tastebuds change! Some teas get better, others get worse, and then there are those that don’t change. Now I appreciate a nice formosa oolong so much more than I used to, and also I appreciate slightly more subtle flavoring. Not that this one is super subtle, but it was subtle in comparsion to what I was drinking exclusively a year ago. It’s funny because I read my first tasting note of this and say (now), well that sounds delicious to me! But at the time it was not the flavor profile I was after. Glad I got to try this one and glad I had enough that I came around to it eventually.

So a few weeks ago I found a pouch of this randomly in a box without any other tea around it. Like I had found it and stuck it in their at the last minute while moving, or it had accidentally fallen in. Regardless, I was surprised and delighted. This is one of my favorite teas ever! I resisted the impulse to hoard it (there is one cup left) and decided to make a cup this afternoon.

Well this is delightful, and everything I expected it to be. Lovely passionfruit flavor, lovely oolong flavor. If you love green oolongs, and flavored oolongs, do yourself a favor and order a sample pack from Naivetea; you won’t regret it.

Sipdown, 185. Last of my rose black samples! I suppose I should also have a cup of Harney’s Rose Scented but it is currently hiding in a box… I had to box up all of my teas because there might be a surprise lab inspection (my current “office” is technically in a lab) and tea apparently counts as a food or something. Note that this is the kind of lab where it doesn’t matter at all if you eat or drink, and people do regularly, but officially you are not supposed to. Anyway, I left some samples and my new teas out of the boxes, tucked away in my desk. Can’t be totally deprived!

Mm, I think this tea is sweeter than the last one. The last time I had this I was disappointed in the base, but today I am very much enjoying it as a whole. Yeah, the base isn’t super present, but it doesn’t mean it’s not a tasty cup of tea. Bumping the rating because it is pretty deliciously like rose candy.

Sipdown, 186. I’ve been saving the rest of this sample until my new rose black got here so I could compare my myriad rose black teas. I feel like at this point I have possibly sampled as many versions of rose black as I have of Earl Grey, and that is certainly saying something (ok, I just checked, and it is not even close, haha).

Unlike the rose tea I just had (In Nature Teas), THIS is a very rosey tea. This is loukoumi (aka Turkish Delight) rosey, rosewater rosey. I love it, of course. I also love that the black tea doesn’t just shrink into the background, but is robust and pleasant at the same time. The only reason I wouldn’t restock this one over others is that it is next to impossible to get in the states, but otherwise it is very nice.

I think its a rose tea kind of morning. I have been interested in this tea for a while, mainly because of the claim thtat the base tea is a high quality Chinese black from a region that I haven’t tried (Zhejiang). I’m assuming it is a Jinqu Hongmei because that seems to be the main black tea produced by this predominantly green tea region (found that out on Teavivre’s site, actually!) This company is British, so shipping was an issue, and they don’t offer samples or sample sizes (they also didn’t include any samples in the shipment). But when they offered a coupon and this tea was already on sale on top of that, I went ahead and bit the bullet.

The tea leaves are long, black, and wiry, which definitely looks promising. There are a surprising amount of rose buds in this blend; I kept thinking that I was going to scoop up some leaves with no rose bud in the scoop, but I kept getting roses. I happened to look at the little pamphlet that came with the tea (I almost didn’t because at least one side of it is filled with “health benefit” information") so I did see that they call for black teas to be brewed at 85°C. I don’t think I’ve ever brewed a black below 195°F/90°C, so that’s what I used this time.

The steeped tea smells rosy and chocolatey. Mmmm. Yeah, this black tea has serious chocolate notes to it. The flavor is quite nice, although I can tell you right now that next time I am trying it a nearly if not actually a full boil. It’s a tad thin, but I think its the cool temp more than anything else. It’s slightly sweet, with cocoa and cereal notes to it. The rose is fairly light and seems to blend in with the whole taste of the sip. It’s noticeable if you look for it, but I also can be convinced that I’m not actually drinking a rose-scented tea. Normally I would want more rose, but somehow this one works so well I am pleased anyway. Quite tasty, and I am excited to play around with the 50g I have of this.

Sipdown, 187. This sample comes to me thanks to Ellen!

I decided a wanted a simple green tea for the late afternoon. I totally winged it with the steeping parameters on this one; since I had slightly more leaf than I would typically use I checked it after 1 minute of steeping, then decided I wanted a little more and added 30 seconds. This was a pleasant green tea. It was slightly nutty by overally pretty green and leafy. Somehow not in quite a cooked greens way, though, more like fresh kale. I didn’t get any sweetness, though I admit I did expect some from the name, but I still definitely enjoyed the cup.

Sipdown, 188. I requested this sample because I have been interested in trying this one for a while. I was almost sure enough that I would like it that I just ordered an ounce, but I decided not to this time. For sure, it combines a lot of my favorites: flowery? check. light, green bao zhong? check. pineapple? well, I could take or leave pineapple, but I do enjoy it.

My other half wandered by and said, without knowing what the tea was, that it smelled like flowers. When I told him it was flowery pineapple, he allowed that he did smell flowery pineapples. This is a great improvement, because probably 3 months ago he would have said it smelled like tea (everything smells like tea).

Anyway, it does smell like flowery pineapples, which is to say it has a nice, sweet, authentic pineapple aroma and also a good dose of florals. Lilac, perhaps, or maybe peony. That does translate over to the flavor, although I’d say its heavier on the pineapple and not so much on the florals. The baozhong base is lovely, and there is a creaminess to the whole thing. It gives it a tropical drink feeling; a hint of coconut and you’d have a piña colada. If I was mad for pineapple this would definitely have a place in my cupboard (kind of like if I were mad for cantaloupe then Cantaloupe & Cream would have a place in my cupboard), and maybe some day it will find its way back into it anyway. It is quite delicious.

Sipdown, 189.

The first time I had this tea, it was with somewhat contaminated water, though I still enjoyed it. What’s odd is that this time the tea seems less flavorful, although I know my water is fine. As it cools, a bright, citrusy hit of bergamot pops out, which is nice, and the violet grows as the cup progresses. I am also realizing that I am less and less interested in flavored greens these days, although it might be more of a base tea thing. I am only interested in some flavored greens, those with a nutty, buttery base. This is a fairly generic grassy green tea, and it just doesn’t do much for me.

Sipdown, 190. This is my other surprise sample from my last Butiki order. I ordered before this was released, so I didn’t even have a chance to request a sample, though I would have! So it was nice to get it.

This is really quite delicious. Very vanilla-y, like soft vanilla caramels when they are still pale; not too much caramelization, so it’s very creamy. Almost like dulce de leche, actually. Plus I always appreciate it when the base tea is very high quality, and having just tried this one in its pure form, I can definitely say that is the case. I could see picking some up in a future order. Also, I’d love to see this base used in more blends.

An early morning calls for an energizing tea for sure. It always takes me a while to get going and I decided that I should dive into my new stock of this tea!

Well I certainly think this helped. Citrusy and creamy, a bit leafy. And I am getting work done, so that’s awesome.

Sipdown, 191, and sad to see this one go. I sometimes have an issue with vanilla and rose together (although I love them both on their own), but not with this one. It is delightful. Each flavor is strong enough to stand out and yet they all meld together and play off each other so well. Hopefully I’ll be in Paris in July, and if so I will definitely be stopping by Fauchon for some tea.

Sipdown, 192. The last of my samples from Stephanie, thanks!

I will go on the record as saying that I am deeply skeptical of this tea. Although I do love cilantro, I only have it in savory applications and it doesn’t sound like something I want in my tea. But when Stephanie offered to send me a sample of it I said ok, because I am willing to give pretty much anything a shot.

The steeped tea smells lightly of pineapple and cilantro. I definitely get the sensation of sniffing a tropical salsa. Hmm interesting flavor. I think the most predominant flavor I get is the cilantro, followed by white tea and then pineapple. It’s a bit vegetal and a bit fruity, but overall the flavor is fairly light (I am sure I didn’t underleaf it, as Stephanie sent the perfect amount). The texture is certainly creamy. This tea definitely turned out better than I might have thought, but its definitely not the tea for me. Cilantro just doesn’t belong in my tea I think. :)

Sipdown, 193. Thanks to Stephanie for this sample!

The first whiff of this brewing is intensely cantaloupe-y. Super ripe, super delicious cantaloupe. While traveling I had a fruit cup that had horrible, underripe cantaloupe in it, and this just reminds me of how delicious a very ripe melon can be. I definitely also smell the creaminess of it.

This is quite a delicious tea. The cantaloupe flavor is amazing, and the creamy texture is great. It’s simply a great tea that delivers exactly what it promises: cantaloupe and cream. While I do like a good cantaloupe, I’m don’t love it enough to need a stock of this tea in my cupboard, but I do have to give props for a very well done blend.

Sipdown, 194. Cold brewed this one. I know, a winter blend is somewhat odd for a cold brew in the spring, but I remembered this one being appley and I have been enjoying appley cold brews.

Unfortunately this didn’t really pan out. There was some off taste to it, slightly chemically or artificial, and not enough apple. It was drinkable but perhaps I should have saved this for another hot brew. Ah well, it’s gone now!