New Tasting Notes

63

Sipdown 28 – 2024

Sad to say I didn’t love this as much as I thought I would. The fruitiness outshines the magnolia/any floral qualities and Bitterleaf wasn’t lying when they said there’s a banana note. It’s interesting, but just wasn’t something I wanted to return to.

Flavors: Banana, Fruity

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75

Coldbrewed this and it was quite tasty! Really mild and refreshing.

Flavors: Green Beans, Hay, Seaweed

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drank Merci Mille Fois by Lupicia
3219 tasting notes

I adore this tea.

Lots of family showed up yesterday to surprise me for my birthday. This is one of the teas Superanna brought me for my birthday. She usually drinks green or white teas, but she and everyone else loved loved loved this black tea. So do I. This is a shelf staple in my opinion. It even resteeps well so you can steep twice in a row and mix the two for a nice big pot of tea that is more economical. Or you can just steep a teaspoon for yourself for brekkie and resteep and combine the two for a good breakfast portion without breaking the bank.

It is so fruity and good! I taste mainly the white peach and strawberry but there is raspberry here, too. Raspberry can sometimes overwhelm other flavors but it doesn’t here. Most of the time I forget there is raspberry in this.

surefire

Happy Birthday! :)

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drank Jasmine Tea by Fujian Tea
2888 tasting notes

Today was one of those “looks like spring but doesn’t feel like it” days - trees abloom, lawn threatening to need mowing, Mr. Bluebird crossing my path as I drove through the neighborhood. But the wind was icy and cut like a chain saw. So I need a warm-up more than anything else. This is adequat-ulent for that purpose. Mild green base with a hint of jasmine to accompany all the hints Spring has been dropping of late.

ashmanra

We had some nice weather but the wind is whooshing tonight and temps are dropping – briefly. We will be back to spring weather in a few days. The pollening has also begun and everything is yellow. The rockers and patio table have to be rinsed daily. I hope you get sunshine and warmth back soon!

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91
drank Ying Hong No. 9 by Spirit Tea
4164 tasting notes

From Daylon R Thomas!  Thanks very much!  The first time I steeped this, I expected it to be light and tame, used two teaspoons and WOWZAs was that too much.  Too astringent. I should have read Daylon’s notes before steeping it up!  (I tend to not do that though, so my flavor notes aren’t influenced by the power of suggestion…) So I vowed to try it again with one teaspoon and here we are. MUCH better.  The leaves are so big, hints of gold, nutty scent almost? Could be the cashews I had.  I didn’t expect it to be so rich, with such huge leaves.  The flavor in the first steep is wonderful and just dark and deep enough:  Plummy, fruity, a combo of sweet strawberry, fig.  But then a spice to it, a kick. Sweet like a pastry, cinnamon roll maybe.  I mean, the flavor notes seem so light and sweet but it’s a STRONG tea at the same time. But then I’m wondering if it’s contaminated from the tea in the infuser before. Very drying to the mouth.  The second steep it’s like impossibly, beyond dark maple syrup which sets my teeth abuzzin.  Syrupy both in flavor and mouthfeel.  Quite astringent even with a tame steep.  It’s quite unique.  Like a stronger Premium Taiwanese Assam.  Note to self: ONE TEASPOON.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

Album: Bettye Lavette – LaVette
Song: Don’t Get Me Started https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n04sbZXctjA

Flavors: Fig, Maple Syrup, Plum, Strawberry

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70

Savory, vegetal, salty, and buttery. Nice flavor but lacks sweetness and nuttiness we want in a Long Jing. Cooked asparagus, buttery mashed peas, club crackers, cinnamon powder. Some lightly sweet floral notes come out in later steeps. Cherryblossom. Light lingering cinnamon cracker. But lacking sweetness.

Flavors: Asparagus, Butter, Peas, Salt, Savory, Vegetal

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 0 min, 15 sec 6 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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65

Nice flavors, but very light and delicate. Vanilla yogurt, dandelion, pear blossom, bee nectar, crab apple, canned peaches, fresh apricot. Just too light.

Flavors: Apple, Apricot, Dandelion, Honeydew, Peach, Pear, Pollen

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec 4 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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90

Powerful, delicious Dianhong. Big bouquet of vanilla poppyseed muffin, roses, mulch, plantfood, and sticky pipe tobacco. Strong flavor of dark, sweet tobacco, dark chocolate and chewy caramel (Reisen candies), and roses. Looong lingering vanilla sweetness, like poundcake. No bitterness or astringency at all. Excellent.

Flavors: Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Rose, Tobacco, Vanilla

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec 7 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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81

Good and the clove strength reminds me a little of chai. Small bursts of orange accompanied the sips, mainly the rind. There’s a very small smidge of bright citrus probably from the pineapple. Spicy, good, robust black tea. I did not find any vanilla despite the advertised, but it didn’t need it.

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drank Momo Oolong Super Grade by Lupicia
3219 tasting notes

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day, although we did have a few spells of clouds. Mostly it was warm and lightly breezy. Ashman and I had a little pre-lunch rest in the backyard beach chairs and lo and behold, we were descended upon by grandkids and kids! They had decided to surprise by coming for my birthday and brought food and all sorts of goodies.

This tea was one of Superanna’s birthday gifts to me and this was my first time trying it. The other two teas that she gave me at the same time (I had received one other tea earlier) were two beloved favorites that I had run out of but this one is new to me.

I have found another Lupicia favorite. The oolong base is pure silky green oolong, not at all roasty or toasty like Dong Ding or Da Hong Pao, but on the green side and so, so smooth. The white peach flavor, which is light rather than KAPOW, blends almost seamlessly with the gentle fruit notes of the tea so that they are perfectly intertwined. I am in love.

Edit to add: my package was fully in Japanese because it was purchased in Tokyo. I could tell the amount and time but not temp and made it at 190F instead of the recommended 212F which I just saw on the Lupicia Hawaii site. Didn’t matter. It was fabulous. It is also on sale right now and I am so tempted….

Thank you, Superanna!

Leafhopper

What a nice surprise! :)

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87

This really tastes something like pancakes with syrup! It’s not as good as the 52teas version of course, but it’s quite pleasant! It tastes a little bready, and the syrup tastes authentic too. I’m loving this sweetened with milk! It was probably my favorite find from the last TTB. It tastes even better cold after it’s sat all day, and the resteep is delicious as well.

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72
drank Raspberry Vanilla by Lovare
1831 tasting notes

Although I have steeped it as recommended, I felt it is a bit too long. When hot, all flavours were a little hidden behind the strong black tea from Ceylon; however as it cools down, at first fruit notes start to appear. A lots of raspberry (afterall, it contains 5 % of those fruits), fresh and genuine flavour. And after a few minutes when lukewarm, a vanilla flavour take its part as a lovely, creamy custard flavour.

Maybe a splash of milk (or alternative) could make it a bit creamier and maybe it would make the raspberry flavour pop. Sadly I have been expecting more (but that’s because the wonderful packaging, I am sure!)

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 10 OZ / 300 ML

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90

The last person to update this tea with a review was over 10 years ago. I find this a bit surprising but also understandable. It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing website but functionally it does what it needs to without being confusing and that is what really counts. I was privileged to be able to meet Eva Mar 3rd, 2024. Granted we paid her for a tour but still privileged nonetheless to be able to go to the Big Island and do what we did. If you are on the Big Island please make sure you do a tour with Tea Hawai’i. It’s an amazing experience. I’ve already had one cup of this. We were at the Hilton Waikoloa and I’m so glad I brought tea with me. My first experience was fantastic but I forgot to write tasting notes. I do however remember malt, chocolate, and cream. Let’s see if this second stea bag is similar.

Dry Leaf aroma: (She only had bags and it’s not really coming through but I will cut and see if I can release the aroma that way)
Dry Appearance: Mix of small and big leaf. Mix of brown hues.
Liquor aroma: creamy, dark caramel.
Wet Leaf infusing: Caramel, dried pinewood, cream, slight leafy compost
Flavor: Mainly woody. Different wood types including pine and redwood. A bit of malt and cream. Funny how each cup can prove to be its own character.
Mouthfeel: Smooth with a touch of astringency. (How I like it best!)

Please note that you will find them on Google but not on Google maps. All of the tea farms allow tours but are run at their places of residence so please contact them for a tour date, don’t just show up. Also as a heads up the road to get to Tea Hawaii is not for sports or low-riding cars. It is quite bumpy.

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90
drank Royal Tea by Farm Fresh Fare
257 tasting notes

My wife and I were at a street festival on Saturday. Besides sampling a lot of great local baked goods, we stumbled upon some interesting loose tea packets at one of the booths.

I decided to purchase a small packet of Royal black tea, packaged and sold by Farm Fresh Fare, a local store based in Fort Mill, South Carolina. I occasionally pick up small samples of tea when visiting street festivals. Some I really like, some not as much.

In this case, the unbrewed black leaves smelled like Ceylon to me. I steeped them for five minutes in boiling water. The final liquid had a slightly honey-sweet aroma. The color was a dark reddish-gold.

I was somewhat surprised by the bold, yet quite smooth taste of this tea. I didn’t detect Ceylon in the flavor. Instead, it was more like Yunnan or another Chinese tea. Whatever the exact tea is, it is quite tasty, flavorful, and goes down effortlessly like water. There was no astringency and the aftertaste was equally pleasant.

I am more than satisfied with this tea and am already planning to purchase a larger packet next time. This was one of those times when taking a chance paid off. Maybe this would be a good time to buy a lottery ticket?

Flavors: Honey, Tea

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 4 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML

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65

There are many teas I wouldn’t try if I don’t have you guys around. So many American (and Canadian of course!) blends, brands and whatever else related to tea… This one is from Kaylee, so thank you!

I wanted something simple and if possible tasty enough. And although morning was -3°C, in the afternoon was warm with typical spring temperatures and above (13°C in shadow).

This tea is fine. Nothing extraordinary, but fine enough to drink. Rerfreshing citrus (leans more towards lemongrass) and jasmine was fine. Similar to Oriental Jasmine tried yesterday. Again, I had better jasmine teas, but considering this is classical tea bag, it’s fine enough. A loose leaf version would be lovely I believe.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 10 OZ / 300 ML

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80

Sipdown

I purchased a cake of the 2006 Dragon Horse from BTT and this was the free sample that was given. I, of course, was excited to have the opportunity to session a 21 y/o tea. The leaf was very obviously dry stored based on the lack of “dankness” upon opening the sample. How I understand the storage through aging, “Grandma’s basement” is wet storage, and “Grandma’s garage” is cleaned storage (I’m literally comparing this to my actual grandma, btw. Her basement was an old musty and haunted place; while the garage was spotless and well kept, with the ever-slight hint of old cut grass smell, which had attached itself to the lawn mower). To put it another way, Tea with Neldon compared wet storage tea to “beets.” I’m assuming wet beets equals to wet storage and dry beets to dry storage.

Alright, so, we’ve settled on my grandparent’s basement/garage and my very simple knowledge of wet/dried storage. Lol. This tea was perhaps the CLEANEST tasting tea. There was a slight mineral bite which meant there’s still plenty of opportunity in aging. Since this cake isn’t available on BTT’s website, I must assume that it’ll be a grander tea in 10+ years. I’d love to find the money and then a cake of this tea to keep around until it’s 30th birthday. However, I shall slowly drink its younger sibling, the 2006 Dragon Horse, and drink the whole thing by its 20th birthday. I’m getting too impatient to let teas age forever. ;)

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75

Sipdown
After a long day at the hospital visiting a precious baby and their parents, having to drive the most chaotic way home – thanks to the highway constantly being shutdown for construction (welcome to Ohio) – and the snow (making a loud and brief return to the land), I needed a big mug of tea. I reached into the sipdown pile blindly and grabbed this tea. I really love the play that DT has with their Earl Grey blends. This was one of the special EG blends remaining from a couple of years ago, when I discovered DT, after had been given a sample of their Coffee Puerh through an online tea swap. I knew of their existence, of course, they are one of the bigger tea distributors, but the Columbus, Ohio location had closed well before the time I had learned of their existence in our state (I always assumed they were solely Canada based).

Anyway, I had 4tsp of this sitting in the bag. I had the intention of making this as an iced cup. I was video gaming while making the cup, thus, in my hurry, made it a hot cup of tea. Let me note that this, in no way will sway my opinion of this blend, since the final dregs of the highly over brewed and overly bitter mug was the error of my multitasking. One must admit the fault of their hand, if there’s the knowing that the tea usually makes a lovely cuppa. However, before I close on this review, if you’re ever curious what this will taste like, with the intention of it being enough leaf to be watered down by ice and not as a hot cuppa, imagine yourself drinking a very, very bitter hot mug of IPA beer.

Flavors: Citrus, Citrus Zest

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75

Sipdown

I had obtained this from the March Club and meant to get a video posted for the YT channel, but the lighting was too bright on my glasses, and my eyes weren’t visible during the entirety of filming. Unfortunately, I decided the best time to start a video was while indulging on the last bits of tea leaf, therefore, I couldn’t scrounge another cup for a second take. Now, my channel will go another week without content. Lol.

I really enjoyed the mug of this yesterday. I had to run to the hospital to meet a friend’s baby. I was assuming this was going to brew strong since I had placed 2 tsb into an 8oz mug and accidentally over brewed (212F, 5 minutes). The instructions suggested full boil, but only a 3-minute steeping (we all know that a couple of minutes could make or break a session). This was the smoothest and most satisfying mug of Assam I’ve had. Typically, I like a strong mug, but will need to add milk or half-and-half to cut the boldness, however, this didn’t need anything to make it perfect. Thankfully, this is an inexpensive tea, so I may require some down the road, once the sipdown pile has been reduced a bit.

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34

I’m not really a fan of anise but I like everything else in the flavor.

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70
drank Snore & Peace by Clipper
31 tasting notes

Finished my box yesterday night and didn’t even realize I hadn’t logged this yet!

This is a pretty standard night tea, I found the taste pretty standard and almost boring.
It’s not offensive at all, but I’ve found other teas that both taste and knock me out better

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec

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