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Rayn and I tried this last night and both gave it the verdict of YUM.

It tastes very much like a tamarind jarritos (mexican soda) with a little hint of vanilla. I’m pretty sensitive to sweetness and thought it was just enough sweet for me sans sugar. Rayn drained his cup in record time. Two thumbs up!

Oh, also it smells WONDERFUL.

I picked up a sample of this awhile back, as I fell in love with the Jun Chiyabari estate tea from David’s. This is a superb black, with robust toasty notes while being reminiscent of a darjeeling. It had just enough slight bite and fruity flavor to it. This actually reminded quite a bit of the Laoshan black, if the laoshan didn’t have as much of a malty base (I still like laoshan black better). Excellent tea.

I am busy Steepsters, oh so very busy! Lots and lots of school work and library work. Mostly I wanted to write to say I haven’t forgotten about Steepster or tea, even if it escapes my memory to write tasting notes lately. Rayn and our roommate and I signed the agreement on a new apartment today and I am very excited about it. It’s in a great part of the city and literally right next to Rayn’s older brother (who we are very close to).

I’ve filled my thermos up with Black Pearl the last couple of days and it remains a favorite black comfort tea for me. I’ve always liked drinking tea when it’s still very hot, and this one feels like it’s warming my chest when I take a sip straight from the thermos.

This is pretty decent, and I really love a good keemun, but this blend does not live up to the pants-kicking the phrase “best with milk” suggested. For breakfast/at school thermos teas, I like a tea that’s supposed to be drank with milk, but without the milk. It has to be STRONG. This is maybe lifting some 20lb barbells. It’s got muscles but it isn’t buff.

I am sitting in the library right now, and there’s a group of girls near me being rather noisy. For a split second I debated throwing a pencil at them, and thought of the line in Moby Dick “it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off”. Apparently I need to go to sea.

There’s been a post office kerfluffle with the Malachi McCormick that Becky sent me (the tea is somewhere in the US – beyond that the post has no idea), so I picked this up at the grocery store to get me through mornings and fill up my thermos on weekdays.
It’s very tasty, and absolutely better than anything I expected from the grocery store. A lot of full leaves in this tin with a generous amount of golden tips. This tea is malty and sweet, and as I discovered one day very difficult to make bitter/astringent even if you forget it for awhile.

I also found out today that I got a 98% on my first linguistics test. :)

It’s been an exhausting week Steepsters! I’m very glad to say my body recovered from the hit-by-a-car fiasco, but then it promptly adopted a cold. Here’s hoping the next two weeks are much better.

This shu makes me so happy. The flavor is rich, woodsy, and sweet. I got 1oz of it in my last Mandala order and definitely need to snag a cake. I wish I could pick up more flavors in this but my review will have to suffice to say this one is a keeper (and a drinker).

Sometimes I realized I’ve almost finished off a tea without posting a tasting note. This is one of those! I think that must mean I like it, but don’t have much to say about it. This pu doesn’t wow me, but it’s not offensive either. It reminds me of the kind of black teas I like to get for my thermos at school – not the really lovely stuff, but still far better than the teabagged crap they have on campus (which is not to say that all tea in teabags is bad, but the ones at my school certainly are).

I’m glad I tried the sample of this, as it’s a nice easy drinker. Probably won’t get a whole cake. That Xiaguan crane I got from Garret on the other hand…I need to post a note for that and I wish there was a lot more so I could horde it.

This is so nice tonight. Really mellow and slightly haylike, but there’s a bit of sweetness here too. This almost smells like honey and wood to me.

I’ve debated posting anything about my day yesterday, but it feels good to air it out. While crossing the street yesterday morning, I got hit by a car. Some crazy lady just plowed into me when I was halfway through the crosswalk; she did not stop at the stop sign. Good news: I am okay. After she initially hit me I put out an arm against her hood, thinking she would see me, and when she continued to push me forward I threw myself backwards out of the way of her car. She drove away, never even looked at me or the various people that were honking at her, and she never stopped. I pulled a number of things in my shoulder and around my scapula, bruised my tailbone falling, and have bruises on my legs. Very thankfully, I am alive and not broken. The whole thing still feels really surreal and kind of like a far away movie.

It feels really wonderful right now to just rest and drink some tea.

Another winner from Butiki!
Today was an earlyish day for me, Doctor’s appointment in the morning, and now I’m having some lunch before work. I’m sipping on this from my thermos.

I really like teas from Nepal, and this is not an exception. It’s Darjeeling-like without being astringent, very woody and tastes slightly like honey to me. It’s a wee bit on the malty side which is quite welcome today.

Stacy very kindly sent me a sample of this with my Butiki order, and it’s delicious! This has some really wonderful flavor for a young raw puerh. I was a bit surprised by the appearance of the leaves – they almost look like the little stickers that get stuck in your socks when you go on a hike. I did a quick rinse with this and started with a 10 second steep in my new (beautiful!) gaiwan. The flavor is slightly smoky, reminiscent of other young shengs but also very sweet. It tastes like oak and apricots at the same time. The soup is a pale yellow color and smells a bit like a nice fire (I mean that in a good way). I wonder how this would age?

Yesterday was Rayn and I’s 2nd annual Aquarium Day (observed). We went to the California Academy of Science on our first date, and later on we decided to go there around the same time every year. :)

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