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Fortnum & Mason Advent Day 16 (sachets)

This is a different darjeeling from the one in their tins advent calendar. If I recall the color of the other one correctly, this one is a little lighter.

Breakfast was toast made from Buttermilk Bread that middle daughter made using flour from wheat she freshly milled. Hearty bread. Toasted, buttered, and smeared with Fortnum Strawberry Preserve. Against this backdrop – the nutty, hearty bread and the sweet strawberry – the first sips were almost smoky. It definitely had the heft to accompany my breakfast and not disappear like a shrinking violet against the strong grain and sweet flavors.

The sachet is crammed full of saturated leaf and the color so good on the second steep still that I decided to go for a third steep. It is lighter now, but still flavorful and brisk. I find all Darjeeling brisk and adjust my steeping time and temp to get it to where I can enjoy it, since I don’t love briskness, although it does make it go better with food sometimes.

I am pretty sure that if I released those leaves from the sachet I could get a pretty nice fourth steep from this, but I think I am ready to move on to a different tea now.

This was an interesting tea. Very glad to try it in the advent.

Additional notes: I’m enjoying this good one from a long ago teabox. I have so many little amounts of teas everywhere! It’s amazing I can keep track of them.

I think I mentioned Jonathan Wilson’s music here before, and he has a new one out. All four of his albums are solid. And here is a lovely calming song I forgot about for a while: Sin Fang – Down:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_2tm6rLihQ&list=OLAK5uy_kGZlzT-mmgXLXYJzk_VWRGbDv4_m-sgoU&index=9
Hope you’re all doing okay out there.

Omggg. Something I probably wouldn’t have purchased on my own but absolutely LOVED from the TTB. I am a total sucker for pretty much all citrus, so it’s a pleasure to experience a new-to-me flavor (yuzu). It’s sweet and creamy, yet also just a bit pithy and zesty? With a lovely gentle grassy kukicha base. I really should’ve taken better notes while sipping this tea yesterday, but it was a ridiculously hectic work + school day. :( Regardless, I’ll be keeping at least some of this from the TTB.

A cup of malty good liquor. I’m drinking the second half of the sample in my Gaiwan, and I must say that it’s pretty good stuff. I noted a few days ago that it released a lot of caffeine through my veins and kept me energized for the 50 students at Summer Camp.

However, this tea is wonderful. I enjoy the nutty-malty-chocolaty undertones to the brew; which fortunately will allow me stay up later tonight on the account that it’s Friday, and that I don’t need to be anywhere tomorrow morning.

On a side note: I had recently experienced a mishap to my electric water kettle, and had to purchase a second one—although much more fancy than the last—which allows me to brew to the precise temperature needed for each tea. Plus, it was a fairly priced pot that I was discounted due to the frequent stops that I make at the local shop. The owner even gave a few samples to try that he thought I’d like; which was thoughtful.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BH2QJICBca3/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

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Candy Corn is a Halloween classic so how could I resist picking up a Candy Corn tea for this October!? Let me tell you a secret though; when it comes to actual candy corn it’s not a flavour that I enjoy…

It’s a testament to the power/influence of it as a Halloween icon though because I see basically any Candy Corn inspired thing other than real Candy Corn and I immediately want to buy it because motherfucking Halloween! Shockingly, there are probably a DOZEN different Candy Corn inspired tea blends on Adagio so I had a lot of range to pick from. I chose then one that had the most appealing to me flavour composition and not the one I thought was most accurate to actual Candy Corn, which is basically just a mix of fondant/icing that tastes like pure sugar. No thanks…

So this is essentially caramel/orange/cream with black tea and honeybush. I guess I have seen cream and caramel flavour candy corn so it’s not totally off base in the interpretation of the flavour – but orange seems more out there and I would guess is only included because of the actual colour of candy corn. I’m okay with that, though!

The taste is straight forward – literally all of the flavours I just mentioned are represented, including a malty backbone from the black tea and that sweet and nutty flavour of honeybush that is so distinct. I would say the strongest flavours are orange, cream, and honeybush. It loosely reminds me of Candy Corn, but whether it’s accurate or not isn’t really the goal that I wanted from this cup – the important thing is that it tastes good, and it does. I find it a little thin, and the caramel could be better but I enjoy the orange and cream combo a lot – and I get the FUN of Candy Corn for Halloween which is exactly what I wanted.

I also drank this while watching Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror episodes which was a massively fun and nostalgic Halloween evening activity that only made the tea that much better!

Sick tea with honey. Can’t taste it anyways so might as well drink the sample I got in my last order.

This is a very basic pu-erh: wood, decay, a bit sour, a bit sweet. No complexity and the flavors do not blend well. I can’t find anything outright bad, but also nothing good or just memorable. Also, I failed to see any signs that it will get better with time. Well, at least it lacks any fishiness.

There are many inexpensive shous that are more interesting and enjoyable. I still have an almost entire cake of it left and it will probably be a slog to finish.

This tea is really quite good. It’s roast profile is really light which in my opinion is good. There was no unpleasant roast flavor. The tea had a nice sweet flavor to it, not sure what to call the note. I ordered the GABA sampler from Taiwan Sourcing and this is the first I’m trying. I can’t say I felt any effect from the GABA though. That is somewhat disappointing. I did steep this gongfu style and ten steeps so I drank enough tea. This order has also left a sour taste in my mouth. A tea that I ordered 75g of was not sent in the proper quantity, a 25g sample was sent in it’s place. We will see if Scott at Yunnan Sourcing does the right thing and ships a replacement. The 25g sample portion was actually marked 75g. Most annoying. This tea however was what I can only call steller. The fact that it tasted so sweet to me and I added no sugar to it is a testament to the processing skills of the tea maker in Taiwan.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.1g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

Yay Monk’s Blend!

When my mom went to BC for her little ‘mini vacation’ over my birthday week, I told her that as my present she had to stop into a tea shop or two an pick some goodies up for me. Of course, she wanted to know what I wanted. I told her I wanted Monk’s Blend and then an assortment of whatever else caught her eye!

I cold brewed my first sampling of this; since Granville Island sources from MTC I have had this incarnation of Monk’s Blend before but it is ‘sort of’ a new experience because, of course, every store stores their teas a little differently and that factors into the flavour a touch. For example, this tastes fresher than the MTC Monk’s Blend that the Vintage Tea Room (in my city) sells. That could be because this may have been purchased more recently or the bag was only recently opened up, but I’ll wager part of that is that from the images of Granville Island that I’ve seen they store their tea in tins while Vintage Tea Room stores theirs in clear, glass jars.

Anyway; it was smooth and tasty! Lovely to be reacquainted with an old friend.

#adventageddon Day Thirteen – 6/6

A little bummed to see that the first tea from 52Teas’ 12 Days sampler this year is a Chai, especially on a day filled with many other spiced teas, but I have to admit that this was pretty nice. It tasted like a pretty standard mix of Chai spices, but a little more ginger heavy while still having a rich and sweet finish. Not really caramel at all in my opinion, but I definitely get the vanilla coming through quite clearly. It’s a nice, pleasant finish to the warming chai spice mix. I like how balanced this one comes across!

I got sucked into a DavidsTea the other day, and since this one is being discontinued, I thought I’d give it a go.

First things first, though. WTF is up with their new shitty steeping directions? 1-2 “PS”? “Hot water”?! Way to be freaking non-specific, DavidsTea. No wonder you have to add stevia and candied fruits to everything to make it taste OK.

Now.. the tea. It smells kind of OK in the bag. A little toasted, fruity, and I can smell rooibos for sure. Steeped, it’s… sugary-sour, rooibosy, and a little toasty. It’s not good. Really, not good.

Now.. the tea. It smells kind of OK in the bag. A little toasted, fruity, and I can smell rooibos for sure. Steeped, it’s… sugary-sour, rooibosy, and a little toasty. It’s not good. Really, not good.Oh gods, that is terrifying.

Now.. the tea. It smells kind of OK in the bag. A little toasted, fruity, and I can smell rooibos for sure. Steeped, it’s… sugary-sour, rooibosy, and a little toasty. It’s not good. Really, not good.Oh gods, that is terrifying.My tongue doesn’t know what to do.

Now.. the tea. It smells kind of OK in the bag. A little toasted, fruity, and I can smell rooibos for sure. Steeped, it’s… sugary-sour, rooibosy, and a little toasty. It’s not good. Really, not good.Oh gods, that is terrifying.My tongue doesn’t know what to do.It tastes burned from the toasty rice and rooibos. There’s some fresh pineapple, but it’s not a nice pineapple flavour. Sweet from all the candied fruit.

Now.. the tea. It smells kind of OK in the bag. A little toasted, fruity, and I can smell rooibos for sure. Steeped, it’s… sugary-sour, rooibosy, and a little toasty. It’s not good. Really, not good.Oh gods, that is terrifying.My tongue doesn’t know what to do.It tastes burned from the toasty rice and rooibos. There’s some fresh pineapple, but it’s not a nice pineapple flavour. Sweet from all the candied fruit.Not nearly as bad as cherry cola, but this is bad.

I love watching these pearls unfurl in my clear glass steeper: like teeny delicate question marks tinting the water as they steep. Beautiful tea, delicate and fragrant. The jasmine scent is just the right balance for the tea itself. My afternoon had been moving along rather nicely and yet this fragrant tea has made it even better.

Thank you, Angel, for the sample.

Drinking this lovely tea throughout the afternoon brought me back in spirit to this lovely lovely town that I stayed in for a time in China and the teahouses that I spent hours contemplating life in. The teahouses I am talking about and the town that I am referring to are pictured here. (To be clear, this is not my blog.) One of my very favourite places in China. http://www.bootsintheoven.com/boots_in_the_oven/2012/03/zigong-sichuan.html

I can’t remember what the context was, but Marika brought this tea up in a conversation recently as just being perfect and cozy and it made me want to pull out my sample of it to revisit. I’ve been hard core channeling the “cozy” feeling with my working from home tea selections lately and she was dead on that this reaaalllyyy fits well with that! Rich black tea with notes of malt, walnut, and honey mixed with silky vanilla and warming cinnamon undertones.

As I sip this tea I can definitely picture myself in the Gryffindor common room over the winter break, all curdled up with a mug of tea in a jumper made by Molly Weasely.

Tried this again just to see and yep, same deal. Sadly there isn’t much left in my sample so this is an almost sipdown, with enough left to fill a teeny cup.
I think the major problem here is that I just don’t care for the base. I find it earthy in a strange fashion. Not quite musty, or dirt like… I dunno, can’t put my finger on it!
A little bit of mushroom going on as well.

This is a very tasty raw puerh that has not completely lost it’s young sheng sweetness. There was a little bit of bitterness initially but not much. It quickly smoothed out. It was clearly dry stored as it has no wet storage taste to it. That in of itself seems unusual for White2Tea. I got this with the club package and am just getting around to trying it. While this would be a good one to buy for some further aging I am not sure if I will buy it or not. It was good though.

I steeped this twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. If I hadn’t reached my caffeine limit for today this would definitely go a few more steeps.

The dry leaf smells just great, but of course steeping the leaves releases all the spice and the flavours pop. Plentiful cardamon and ginger and a bit of cinnamon. To my mind, this is the perfect chai balance, give or take some pepper, black or chili. When I first tasted the tea, I thought hmm, needs caramel. As the tea cools a bit, the flavours mellow with the tea base and it is just lovely as is. The black and honeybush base blend here work rather well with the spices.

That said, it will be a very happy day for me when 52teas does a caramel series. A long caramel series of teas.

Happy Birthday to Professor Tolkien!

This tea seems like something Hobbits might have. Had some with first breakfast (oatmeal and fruit). It has a nice malty scent and flavour. Has a somewhat bold taste too.

I tried this tea hot last night and mentioned it would be nice iced, so after I wrote the review I got my ice tea bottle and prepared some. I left it in the fridge overnight so I can have it in the morning. While it’s not as hot as yesterday it’s still going to be a scorcher.

I feel like I steeped this a little too strong but it’s probably right on. Raspberry notes are more sour and it’s floral with a perfumed after taste. Slightly dry too. It’s refreshing and hydrating in this mornings heat.

Out of the two I think I prefer it iced, so now I know what to do with the rest of my stash. I think I have around 40g of this left so that is a good few batches of iced tea.

……………..

On the cat front, the new stray I have rescued (called Misty) is a little more settled today. It’s still less than 24 hours but she loves her fuss and has finally had something to eat. The litter is another story, I will have to see if she uses it. I haven’t seen her go at all so far but she may have in the night.

I’ve had a feral cat before, Honey became my best friend over time. She took almost all of my patience over the first couple of years but she settled and became happy. She died earlier this year but she was going to be put down without my care, and I feel the same with Misty. She may be younger than Honey was when we got her but no one wanted her and RSPCA refused to take her in. She would either die outside from the dangers (heat, foxes, dogs etc) or someone nasty would find her and hurt her. I still think I am doing the right thing. My other cats are not sure what to make of her but it’s early. And my husband is grumpy…but at least I can sleep knowing I’m trying my best.

Homemade advent calendar day #2

I kept a small sample of this from the latest TTB and brewed it up this morning (just under 1.5 tsp tea with 8oz mug of hot water). I added a touch of unsweetened soy milk because this is such a tasty dessert blend I thought it needed some milk. The tea itself is slightly astringent so the milk rounds this out nicely. The pecan and caramel notes are quite strong – exactly what I like in a dessert flavoured black tea. There is a bit of vanilla (although, I would have liked to add vanilla soy milk to add a bit more vanilla).

If I ever order from plum deluxe, this will be in my cart for sure. One of my favourite snacks is toasted pecans. My local Costco sells big bags for ~$25 and I like to toast ~2 cups of nuts (or about 5 handfuls) on a baking tray at 350 F for 8-10 minutes. It makes such a tasty snack and the toasting brings out the caramelized nutty and sweet notes. They also make killer icecream sundae toppings or tasty additions to baking (shortbread + toasted pecans = heavenly buttery and crisp cookies).

Urgh. This is annoying me so much not being able to do tasting notes, I think i’m just going to review my cold.

This cold is an interesting one: initial steeps were very hot, ending in me sleeping only four hours last night which wasnt great. The body is medium sore, with the headfeel definitely strong enough to be in the ache category but not as strong as, say, a migraine. My nose is also blocked so im frequently having to bump this with sudafed.

The most amazing thing is the mouthy feeels & huiguan, I just cant taste anything! for three days! Oh how fun that has made drinking tea. They are on to a winner with that one.

medium to strong astringency

I steeped this in a 100ml gaiwan with boiling water

Gongfu Sipdown (1546)!

This was from my tea swap with Togo and it’s really hitting the spot this morning. While not necessarily as thick and robust as I generally lean, the notes of syrupy raisins, leather, molasses, and baked quince that I’m getting from the early infusions are very inviting and almost playful. I read a couple reviews that described getting tastes of mead, and I don’t know if I necessarily agree because the sweetness level isn’t that high – but I can see the groundwork for the comparison. Later steeps are a bit more woody and lean harder into the baked/cooked fruit notes. It’s so different from my regular shou pu’erh and, while that obviously makes it really interesting to me, it’s making me really think if this would be the type of tea I would gravitate back towards were this not a single session worth tea sample and sipdown…

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CWgI2xxL0q8/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxRIJOyT4gw&ab_channel=EllenWinter

The aroma of this is wonderful! The color of the loose leaf mixture is gorgeous! I’m so excited to try this! Yup! YUM! This cup is HOT but I’m seeing a ICED one in the near future as well! This is lovely! The dry leaf smell tops the taste but the taste is sure up there too! Taste-wise mostly green tea – a sweet green tea – with lovely grape and cranberry notes. I can barely taste the raspberry tho. Regardless…very nice!

July Sipdown Prompt – an apple tea

I love this tea. It is a fall limited edition tea and I want to be sure to restock it this fall. I have this when I feel like I really need a treat.

The base is hefty enough for breakfast but not so strong as to need milk and sugar. I have never tried with additions because I love it plain. The apple is light and fresh, not too strong and not overshadowing the base.

I’m so excited about the 2016 spring flush its a bit silly. I cant wait to get some decent grade fresh Darjeeling.

I’m still learning about Darjeeling grade, leaf size, and other factors that make a good cup.

This Thurbo, to me, is nice. It has a sour peach fruitiness mixed with a green leaf & lemon freshness. It works really well, once you get the brewing right, as with most FF DJ. I hit it with 70-80c and just under 3 mins, 2.75g western stylee, 12oz glass.

A touch astringency, not any bad amount to shout about. Definitely not going to throw this out of bed, and Thurbo estate is on my radar for this upcoming flush.

I liked this one, nice if you want a bright cup of something citrus-y