Featured & Popular Tasting Notes

Geek Steep S2E29 – Weirld Al

Sipdown (2065)!

The Saga Begins is probably my favourite Weird Al song (though Amish Paradise is a VERY close second), and it’s also the song that was my introduction to Weird Al in general. It’s a masterclass in narrative story telling – and it will always blow my mind how Al managed to summarize a whole movie in a song, make it funny, and rhyme fucking midichlorians.

The tea I picked was honestly mostly an excuse for me to geek out about an element of the Star Wars universe that I love so much – light sabers and the kyber crystals that power them. There’s so much lore behind what the colour of your light saber symbolizes, and I eat that shit up. This tea gem may have been called Pink Tourmaline, but realistically it’s purple. A beautiful, deep purple colour that looks very similar to Mace Windu’s iconic saber. Of course, it was that colour PURELY because Samuel L. Jackson just wanted a purple sabey – but I’ve always loved the lore that Jedi who use purple lightsabers embrace both the light and dark sides of the force.

If I was gonna have a light saber, it would be purple.

The tea itself is fine – it’s a very sweet Earl Grey with notes of lavender. Less floral than you would think, but still present. Not really anything special in term of taste, but like all the tea gems it just has a very cool visual.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEcjgJSqSRU

Sipdown! (18 | 333)

To me, this one doesn’t really taste like pumpkin spice. Mostly I get strong candy cinnamon paired with clove, and the combination reminds me of the way Hobby Lobby stores smell in the fall and winter LOL.

It’s certainly not bad, but I don’t see how there’s anything pumpkin spice about it. It’s more of a hot cinnamon spice sort of tea IMO.

Additional notes: Tasty yet old. With coconut. Not much to say, otherwise, but it’s aging nicely!
TCM is having a Toshiro Mifune 24 hour movie marathon today! It’s his 100th birthday today! I wish he were still around to enjoy it. His movies have certainly been a help to me, I’m a fan, so I’m glad they are featuring his movies.

Thank you, AJRimmer! Man, if I don’t even like this one… I’m about to give up on T2. Fig! Dates! Caramel! In reality, this mainly looks like rooibos and marigold petals. The flavor of this one, I swear, is mostly from the marigold petals. It says marigold petals, but I swear it’s calendula, mainly from the appearance and also because it has a similar flavor to Bird & Blend’s Rhubarb and Custard. Is it possible both these teas have the same flavor from the calendula alone? I almost wish I had some calendula to steep alone to see what it tastes like. Otherwise, the flavor is mostly just sweetness… maybe a bit rum-like. Definitely not like figs or dates. At least I also wasn’t tasting the chicory.

I spent a good part of yesterday at a silent meditation retreat in the city. This is the tea that I picked as the first one of the day to set me in motion. The rest of the day I spent with various oolongs.

My experience with 52Teas berried black teas has been that there hasn’t been enough berry. 52Teas appears to be remedying this issue here with this tea. Hurray for the tea to berry balance! The raspberry flavour is true and real and comes through with good proportion to the lovely black base.

Even though I had given the bag a good shake to distribute all things, I am not really detecting the piquant element here. Even if I squint.

Maybe the next cup or the one after that will be the spicy one.

I have considered that a bit of cream here would not go amiss. And vanilla cream, even better.

That said, a very enjoyable cup, nonetheless. I am starting this day off with another cup with similar results. Lovely.

Now if the neighbour with the tile cutter machinery would come to his senses and realize that it is Sunday and that construction noise is against the law. People, *&^%!

If it’s vegetarian and doesn’t have bananas in it – I’ll try it!

Lately…the strange, the rare, and the down right ODD have been calling at me.

When I received this one from LiberTEAs I was more than stoked to try it.

I was ASS+U+ME-ing that this may taste like a Salt & Vinegar Potato Chip but it doesn’t. It smells of vinegar but doesn’t reeeeek of it. It infuses pretty quickly and fairly dark.

Once my infusion was finished you could barely smell the vinegar scent – it was more of a smokey or roasted aroma instead. This has a semi-sweet yet bold black tea taste.

Vinegar has many health benefits and people drink Apple Cider Vinegar concoctions so why not Vinegar Tea!?

I would still classify this as one of my morning and mid-morning teas. A great pick-me-up. This was a nice surprise, indeed!

Poked about in my stash this weekend and came across this. Just after Ms. Strange had mentioned it, I thought to myself, “ooooh, I have some of that—somewhere.” And then, suddenly, there it was, tucked away securely in a tin.

Still sick with the flu here. Thankfully, yesterday’s migraine has dispersed and the burning in my chest is a bit lighter today. My throat is still scratchy and unhappy. My tastebuds may or may not be functioning all that well.

Age doesn’t appear to have affected this tea much. Such deep cranberry and vanilla deliciousness in this cup. There may be pear, but it is not apparent to me. There are also a few hints of imitation flavour.

This is a blend that I think DTs should bring back and keep as a staple. It’s one of their better ones.

Due to me keeping myself occupied by posting some of the oolong and black tea reviews I have allowed to accumulate over the past several weeks, it would be impossible for anyone who reads my reviews to know that I have actually been spending most of my time drinking white teas and tisanes. This was the final tea I drank during the first week of the month and the one that was responsible for getting me started on my current white tea kick. Though I have had better teas of this type, I found this to be a very enjoyable Bai Mudan.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. My review session was honestly pretty sloppy due to the amount of broken leaf present, but I was still able to get through it. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of leaf and bud material in 4 ounces of 180 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf and bud mix produced aromas of honey, hay, malt, and straw aromas that were underscored by a vague woody quality. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of peanut, cinnamon, and pine. The first infusion introduced scents of white pepper and spruce. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of honey, hay, malt, straw, pine, and cinnamon that were chased by subtler notes of spruce. Scents of lemon zest, lettuce, minerals, and ginger emerged on the subsequent infusions along with stronger peanut and white pepper aromas. New notes of minerals, cream, butter, lettuce, lemon zest, field greens, ginger, cucumber, and honeydew appeared in the mouth along with belatedly emerging white pepper hints. The final few infusions offered impressions of minerals, field greens, ginger, cucumber, and lemon zest that were underscored by hints of malt, honeydew, and butter.

This was an interesting and enjoyable Bai Mudan, but I could not help feeling that it was missing something that would have offered just a little more balance. I could not quite determine what that something was at the time I was conducting my review session, and quite honestly, I still can’t. I also must state that I have had several other teas of this type that were smoother and longer-lived in the mouth. Still, this was a very nice Bai Mudan. I think people who like their white teas a little spicier and/or more vegetal would get quite a bit out of it.

I decided to ice the last of this tea so it would be ready for this morning. While I was sad to see this tea go I thought icing it would be a nice send off.

This morning I served this tea with a slice of lemon. It’s a deep red/orange colour that is cloudy. It looks stronger than it actually tastes but admittedly I did make it a little stronger for a boost this morning. It’s wonderful, slightly sour which is enhanced and sweetened by the lemon. Lightly smoky from the thickness and a date fruit finish.

Why didn’t I ice more of this? If I knew how nice it would be I would have done it more often.

SIPDOWN 4
The number isn’t accurate actually. It’s much higher as I have finished a few teas at work, but I never wrote a note about them, I just removed them from virtual and sadly also real, cupboard.

This tea I have received in 2020 Advent swap from Shae. I feel that the time just flies… we have already January 2022 and it seems ages ago.

It was still very delicious. Very fruity, refreshing and overall mellow cup of tea. I haven’t tried it iced.

It was a good fruit tea. Now it’s gone.

Another tasty sample from Octavia Tea – thanks again! This is one of those lovely oolongs from Taiwan. The description says this is also called “Jade Oolong” or “Four Seasons”. One heaping teaspoon of bright emerald unravels into a full infuser basket of leaves. The flavor was a tiny bit astringent so I don’t think I need to use a full teaspoon for a mug. But the flavor otherwise was sweet, fruity, floral, slightly creamy and buttery and overall a high quality Taiwanese oolong. This seems to combine 99% of the flavor notes that most green oolongs usually have: fruity, floral, sweet, creamy, buttery. It’s almost like an oolong of broad flavor categories rather than specific flavor details. Getting rid of that astringency by using less leaves would make it even better. I will admit this is a tough one to describe other than delicious. (But sometimes it’s okay to just note how good a tea is… or isn’t?)
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for a full mug // 18 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 12 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 min

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
May 2022 → A strawberry tea

Looking back at past notes, it seems I didn’t have much luck with this one using only one teaspoon of tea. I doubled it up this time and finished off the last of my pouch. It’s much more flavorful this time. I do notice the berries, mostly blueberry I think, but no mango. To be fair, I probably haven’t eaten enough mango in my lifetime to be able to pick it out in a mix. It does have a unique flavor, just not tasting it here.

I hope this isn’t a temporary tea. I might have to cry.

I finally joined the covid club, while I didn’t lose taste and smell, my current tea perception is surely affected by it.

In any case, it is fun to check up on this tea’s progression. It seems to have a more rustic character now. The aroma reminds me of forest floor and beeswax, while the taste is a mix of green wood, citrus fruits, honey, root vegetables (beetroot, celery), with some further hints of chickpeas, vanilla, camphor, cumin and apricot in final few infusions.

The tea is somewhat astringent and numbing, but it can be easily pushed to extend the session to about 14 infusions.

Here’s another one of the Spring 2016 teas I have desperately been trying to finish. This was one of my first purchases from Whispering Pines Tea Company and I totally forgot I still had it. At first, I was a little concerned about the tea’s age, but after opening the pouch and catching a whiff of ridiculously herbal, woody tea leaves, my concern melted away. I found this tea to be an exceptionally balanced black tea with enough depth and complexity to keep one coming back for more.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 205 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of malt, wood, roasted nuts, spice, and molasses. After the rinse, I began to catch hints of citrus, camphor, sweet potato, and leather. The first infusion produced an almost identical bouquet. In the mouth, I detected a mix of wood, nuts, leather, and malt underscored by hints of citrus, camphor, sweet potato, molasses, and spice. Subsequent infusions allowed the nut impressions to more clearly define themselves. They reminded me of a combination of roasted almond, roasted chestnut, and beechnut. The sweet potato, camphor, and molasses notes strengthened slightly, joined by notes of caramel, butter, pine, smoke, honey, minerals, and dark chocolate. The indistinct citrus impressions morphed into a clear orange presence, while the melange of spices also came into focus, resembling a mix of anise, black licorice, ginger, cinnamon, and black pepper. The later infusions were clean and smooth on the nose and in the mouth. I detected mild notes of malt, butter, leather, roasted nuts, and minerals underscored by lingering citrus, spice, pine, camphor, and honey tones.

Overall, this was an exceptionally refined Yunnan black tea. I could see what all the fuss was about and only wish that I had gotten to this one a little sooner. I guess that just means I’ll have to pick up a pouch of the 2017 harvest at some point in the near future.

Having this hot today.

Not really a good alternative for a caffeinated beverage, but it does taste divine.

Yum.

I’ve been trying to brew teas in a Teavana glass tumbler lately, and I’ve found that certain varieties don’t do so well. Only one of my green oolongs was tasteable, while the rest have taste like overcooked spinach. My black teas have also been really dry, and my whites have been okay. I thought the problem was the water, but I’ve changed it out several times and cleaned the tumbler itself. I’m thinking that steeping in the glass is changing the flavor. Is this just me, or is there a science to this?

I did however find a few websites that recommend porcelain almost across the board, with glass being specific to the white teas. I might give one of my whites another go.

Santa left some tea treats in my stocking (but he looks an awful lot like my husband): some fancy-pants oolong from The Jade Leaf, a proprietor I had never checked out. They kindly chucked in a couple of additional samples; one of which is this lanky, long-leafed beauty—leaves almost too long to fit horizontally in the little steeping basket I used.

Its flavor personality is distinctly fruity—imagine you crossed a Darjeeling (which this is not) with peaches and plums. A lovely afternoon treat while soaking up some much-needed winter sunshine.

This tea is getting to be on the older side and you can smell it in the dry leaf. The different types of nuts in the blend are ever so slightly taking on that kind of Play Doh aroma. However, it steeped out fine! Smooth and consistent medium bodied black tea base with a non distinct nuttiness that had a low level sweet undertone. It doesn’t taste like caramel popcorn and, truthfully, it really never has. However, when you breathe out/exhale after a big sip there is more of a distinct caramel taste that the palate quickly catches. Sort of like how sometimes you only really taste cotton candy after you’ve just eaten it…

Gongfu.

Most should pu’erh just isn’t really for me. I try, but I can’t get past the fishy, compost smell.

I was hoping to find more of a deep, molasses flavor with this, but it was just the typical wet earth and slight fishiness. Sorry little gingerbread man.

It snowing. I hate snow. Its cold. I hate cold. OK, maybe hate is too strong a word. I confess to being very ready for spring, though our winter hasn’t been that bad. It just feels forever since I was able to sit on my porch, at dawn, with a cup of tea, sipping, while the world wakes up. So here I sit instead, in my den, dreaming of sunshine.

On to tea – I grabbed this one today because… well, because. The box says use boiling water. I didn’t. It said to steep 3 minutes. I was typing and went 4 minutes. My opinion might be stronger if I followed directions.

I like these infusers. They are great for the lazies. I just didn’t feel like messing with the pot today.

The tea is a delicate green color. It is like a white tea in that respect – you look at the cup and wonder if you made it correctly (of course I didn’t – but you know what I mean). Dry it had a light grassy scent. Brewed, I’m not getting much of any scent. The taste is delicate. It is quite grassy, just very light. There is also a citrus like bite that gives it character.

I would never guess this is a Darjeeling green. It reminds me of Tazo green tea (but lighter) which I believe is a sencha. It has a sweet grassy aftertaste.

I did add sweetener halfway through the cup – my recommendation is don’t. It takes sweetening fine but tastes better without it. Take that Splenda monkey.

February 2020 subscription.

The aroma of loose is not amazing. It is strong perfume like, rose, with deep inhale some butter and exotic fruits.
Brewed quite long and heavy (4 grams – 5 minutes); but brew was quite light, yellow-green. Aroma of brew is not very present, reminds me only hay and rose. When sipped I note only some weird notes of sour, I haven’t noticed any peach, rose was quite weak and base was not there at all.

Overall rather letdown. Expected more fruitiness and as I had black tea with rose, I miss the body of tea. It was somehow generic with some weird flavour.

I’m not sure whether to lead with the tea (which was delicious) or the setting (which was equally delicious).

Aw, tea first. Delicate and delicious. It leads with sweet cinnamon, then the maple and cake batter essences catch up with it. Light and sweet and delicious. (I don’t normally associate waffles with cinnamon, but maybe you do.) A very nice pairing with oolong. Reminds me more of breakfast rolls than waffles, but we’re splitting hairs over a lovely cup of pastry goodness.

Setting…sunshine, mid 60’s. Backyard glider; quiet neighborhood; not an AC or lawn mower to be heard; just breeze rumpling the leaves and what’s left of our container garden. Book on my lap untouched. Can I have about a week of this?

This was a gift from Martin! Many thanks!

Today I am decluttering my tea stash. A word to the wise – the more you tea-clutter the more you have to de-clutter.

I am so mad at myself each time I uncover a really nice tea that I have neglected or forgotten. As I dug through my multiple boxes if samples, swaps, and gifts, I found this one.

To be honest, I do not love peppercorns in tea. A little bit is okay, and fortunately it is usually easy enough to pick out, and that’s what I did. I made a small pot of this for afternoon outside sipping and found about six peppercorns in what I scooped out.

The end result is quite pleasant! This is a very pleasant tasting sencha. The aroma is definitely watermelon but the taste is more of a melon mix to me, maybe some honeydew with a touch of pomegranate.

All in all, this is really nice and I will enjoy sipping it down!

Thank you, Martin!