Featured & New Tasting Notes
Harvest July 2022
From TTB that was around in 2023.
Yep, another one I just took to try later and today is the day for this tea.
Prepared gongfu, more or less as vendor suggests
High marks for this jasmine tea! Lovely, fresh and strong jasmine notes with great base tea, that complements the flowers well. The base is, as SkySamurai notices a bit melon like, I could not notice any of the earthiness which is, definitely, a good sign.
Intoxicating (a good used word by vendor) aroma with fruity notes of the base, smooth and velvety in the mouth all 6 steeps long; while the last one was somehow weak in jasmine indeed and more of the green (really?, rather I think white) tea. It was so nice in mouth and so enjoayble… that I think I need more of this tea from Canadian company.
Preparation
The jasmine was too pungent for me. The rooibos base was decent, but the jasmine was too strong. I just wish it were balanced differently. Thanks for sharing, Cameron B!
Hmmm…. This seems like a weird blend to me. Do you think if it was mixed differently or with a better base it would work? My brain can’t wrap around this duo
Yeah, I can’t see those going together at all. Not even holding hands.
Umm…no
I hate bergamot on a rooibos base, despite loving rooibos and bergamot individually. I imagine I’d feel pretty much the same about jasmine on rooibos…
Ha yeah, I love rooibos, so I’ll try any combination, but this was never really going to be a winner for me!
A few days ago I received a handmade card in the mail and a sample of this tea from gmathis! I don’t deserve you, G! Thank you!
I saved it for Valentine’s Day because today is just all about chocolate to me. Yes, I know, love and such but also chocolate. I made myself a special little breakfast to have with this.
It is astonishing how chocolate-y the cup smells. With eyes closed, this could be a cup of super rich hot cocoa. I did not add milk or sugar. It did not need anything at all to dress it up. I would definitely love to purchase this someday.
The color of the steeped tisane is gorgeous, such clarity and a lovely color quite like a cup of black tea that steeps on the lighter side. The aroma, though, is what gets you. Sooooo good. I even saved a little for Ashman to try when he gets home.
<3
I gave Ashman the bit I saved for him without telling him what it was. His eyes were huge after he sniffed the cup. He wouldn’t even sip it at first. He said, “You know how I tell you that chocolate in tea smells like mildew? You know? It does to me. It smells like mildew. But THIS smells like real chocolate!” He enjoyed it very much, so I think once a couple more sipdowns happen, I will splurge on a tin!
Oliver Pluff has turned into one of my favorite purveyors.
There was a shop that carried some of their teas locally. I need to find out if they still do….
Trying hard to enjoy this cup of tea while listening to the loud droning of an industrial sized carpet cleaner being run out of a van in the driveway of the apartment next door. There is no escape from the sound inside my house and it’s been running off and on all day. I hope the memory of irritation doesn’t imprint on this tea!
This is one of the Ette teas that I like the most, but it is predominantly a lapsang. There is a little more nuance to it than a plain lapsang, but not by much. I do get a barbeque flavor from it, likely do to the pepper and spice, but I’m not getting orange peel in there. Either way, totally drinkable.
Preparation
Happy Mardi Gras! It’s snowing where I am, which is decidedly not Mardi Gras weather, but I’m recognizing the holiday with some low-key at-home activities. My partner made vegan jambalaya, I’ve got a king cake-scented candle, got my fleur-de-lis earrings on, etc. Of course I had to find a tea that’s on theme. I finally landed on a coconut oolong in a nod to Zulu coconuts (decorated coconuts are a prized giveaway at the Zulu Social Aide and Pleasure Club float parade on Mardi Gras day). My partner thinks it’s a stretch but I’m sticking by it. Also because the creaminess of this coconut oolong complemented the spiciness of the jambalaya nicely. So thank you to whoever put this in the Strange VariaTea TTB!
I totally forgot about Mardi Gras! Those festivities don’t seem to reach California. We are in the middle of Chinese New Year celebrations right now.
For fun, we’ve been keeping an eye on a Webcam aimed at Bourbon Street in NOLA. So many eccentrically dressed people!
Dustin, it’s such a weird confluence of a week – Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras, and Valentine’s Day all squished together! Mardi Gras definitely isn’t big where I am, but we have a couple of New Orleans bars and restaurants, expats, etc. that celebrate.
gmathis, it hadn’t occurred to me to check until your comment, but a lot of the major parades are livestreamed now. You might find that entertaining to watch next year. They usually start in earnest the week before Mardi Gras. The costumes and floats can get pretty elaborate (my forever favorite is the giant Muses high heel).
That does sound like fun. We are lousy travelers, but love to spectate from afar and in doing so, have discovered some fun feeds and webcams.
Happy Mardi Gras! Sounds like a fun celebration!
Received a small pacakage from derk but saying it’s from Kawaii433 so thank you both and the latter one… I hope you are doing well!
Anyway, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but some sweet candy. And it is! And great tasting banana. I probably never had so real tasting banana tea!
Banana covered with caramel topping, I assume. I don’t get any chocolate, but I definitely don’t miss it. Great tea!
Preparation
February Sipdown Prompt – Mardis Gras: your most colorful tea
This tea is ten months past the best by date and colors of dry leaf have faded. It mostly looks like black tea and mint. There are whole blackcurrants in it, but they are coated with black tea and also look very dark. So while the picture on this page is quite colorful, mine no longer is.
It is, however, still quite glittery! And that had a Mardis Gras vibe to me.
Thanks to butterfly pea flower (groan) this steeps to a murky purple. But the swirls of glitter are fun and fascinating. The flavor is fine despite the age, and tastes as advertised – blackcurrant and mint. I would probably like this a lot more without the mint as I am not a huge mint fan. I love blackcurrant flavor, though, and there are plump, whole berries here.
Additional fun is adding some more tea to “hot up the cup” as my friend says. The glitter rises and swirls like mad, adding a bit of entertainment to breakfast. I think this will be more enjoyable as a sweet iced tea, and there is just enough left for one carafe.
We are involuntary citizens of Chiefs Kingdom. People have gone crazy around here. Therefore, we have taken somewhat perverse pleasure in bucking the trend on this Superbowl Sunday…asked a football-crazy friend, “Oh, is there a game today?”…went to our favorite geek video store after church (not a red Kansas City jersey in the place); got a stack of DVD’s ready for kickoff time… (Apologies to any football fan Steepster friends out there.)
But since “bucking the trend” is today’s theme, Darjeeling it is. Not a variety I often choose, but this sample is in need of a sipdown. This is a nice one. Smooth and silky in the mouth, a tiny bit of fruitiness (not the heavy grape peel I normally associate with Darjeeling), and the prettiest golden-copper color in the cup. Very drinkable without leaving your mouth dry. Good stuff.
I don’t do the sports ball fan thing either. One of those cultural things I just don’t get.
Involuntary citizen of 49ers Kingdom. I’ll be grocery shopping during the big game today.
My way of relating to sports fans at work is by asking, “So how was that sportsball game?” People will gladly go on about it, then, realizing I said sportsball, give me a funny look then laugh. It’s a catch-all for any sports season and lets them know I don’t give a flying fig but also like to see them happy talking about what they enjoy :)
Occasionally, I’ll land the remote on Whatever Big Game is the Big Deal for 60 seconds so I can truthfully tell my boys, “I watched a teeny bit of the game…” Then again sometimes, I’ll ask them, “Now is that the ball with the pointy ends or the one you hit with a stick?”
I went to a graduation party yesterday and everyone there was saying how they had another party to attend after that one. I said “me, too!” (Which is wild because I am a homebody and rarely go anywhere.) They said, “Oh, you are going to a Super Bowl Party, too?” And I had to admit I didn’t know it was Super Bowl Sunday and was simply taking a gift to my best friend for her birthday.
The only shock here is that you still have a dvd rental in your town?! wow. I also don’t care about football… I love derk’s tactic though: “sportsball”. heh
One of the anchor stores at our local mall is called Vintage Stock (aka Geek Nirvana). The size of a small Walmart or Target; books, used books, games and working video equipment reaching back to the 90’s. And yes, believe it or not, rentals. Our thing has been to prowl the 99 cent “just take it away” bin to see who can find the most fun and obscure content. Hubby won on that particular Sunday with a Manhattan Transfer concert DVD.
Awesome — wish I had a place like that around here. Further shock: you still have a MALL around?!
Librarian here: we are the DVD rental in my town, heh.
hah, that is true! There are always the libraries. :D
Mall is about half empty except for pop-ups around Christmas, but it’s still supporting a few standards (Bath & Body Works, JoAnn’s Fabric & Crafts, a Penney’s, and an Old Navy).
OUr city “library” is a bookshelf at city hall :) Since we live in a little village outside our metro area, I don’t qualify for a card at the big one. I could get a card-for-pay…if I ever retire, that may be my present to myself.
I took half of the leaves I have from derk; touched them, had them in my hand… somehow fuzzy, nice looking, interesting leaves. And crushed them. It has been roughly 2-3 grams. Lots of their resinous aroma appeared along with something that resembles me juniper a little bit.
It was a bit heart-breaking as those leaves are really interesting and so nice… but probably crushing them is needed to release the flavour, aroma and good properities.
No, I am not drinking this for medicine reasons (but welcomed, as I am… again sick, I have an appointment tomorrow and we will see if I will return to the work or stay at home).
When I was drinking it, it brought me memories of Yerba Santa that derk sent me a while ago; but weaker. Somehow strong medicinal, sap, resinous, aroma with similar flavour profile. But also very thick tasting liquid, again very resinous in mouth.
Steeped for 5 minutes; and even that was… when cold, somehow bitter of tannins. Those weren’t that much present in warm cup which is interesting as the steeping was already done.
In conclusion, derk again, I have to thank you for this tea — it’s definitely something I wouldn’t try otherwise; and I somehow like to explore blends and herbs not available over here. That’s part of me, as a curious person, and I get rarely disappointed, never been poisoned, so, I am afraid that one day I get something that horrible…
If you are reading this note and want to share with me any blend… just make sure it doesn’t contain any St. John’s wort. Thank you!
Preparation
My body is being extra rebellious today. I do not appreciate this; I indulged the need for rest and recovery yesterday, but I’m still in pain and now I’m just annoyed. There are things I wanted to get done today besides being stuck in bed or on the couch! Ok, thanks for letting me complain, and I promise it’s relevant to this tasting note.
I wasn’t in any condition to make my own tea and I wanted something anti-inflammatory, so I asked my partner to make me some ginger tea. What I meant for him to make was the Harney Ginger Lemon. What he actually made was this, which is kept in a repurposed, relabeled Harney tin directly above the Ginger Lemon. So I take a sip and immediately think “oh no what happened.” He confirmed that he made this and didn’t even know we had the Ginger Lemon! Complete facepalm moment. I’m making the best of this unpleasant (admittedly not the end of the world) situation by at least making a tasting note.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I do not like this tea. Maybe it’s the carrot. Maybe it’s the licorice root. These are ingredients that I have enjoyed just fine in other blends but something just feels off about the specific combination and ratio of ingredients here. I would swear there’s stevia in here if I didn’t know better. Plus this blend has ginger in the name, it’s the second ingredient, but I have never found the ginger to be particularly noticeable – it’s drowned out by that unusual sweetness. But my partner doesn’t mind this blend at all and is always surprised by the vehemence of my reaction, so YMMV.
additional notes: Wanted to try this one with two teaspoons to see if any bacon appeared: Nope. It was a burst of blueberry though, with some sweetness, though not as much as the Maple Pancakes. Hint of smoke, no cinnamon and thankfully also no noticeable hibiscus. I don’t think I would use two teaspoons in the future… 1 or 1 1/2 is enough.
LEt us know if bacon does come through at some point. I have found that bacon-flavored things I can’t stand. I bought some bacon-flavored honey and it’s weird…
Nope, I never noticed any bacon flavor in their teas, even when they were fresh… maybe it’s hiding behind the lapsang and I’m just not ever sensitive to the bacon. Maybe you would notice it more?
TeaTiff TTB. They only have directions for an English teapot. So I will be winging it using the knowledge I’ve gained thus far. And tea is objective. Water at 185F. The dry leaf contains a lot of stems and a mix of leaf and fuzzy buds. Silver hairs and varying tones of greens. Lots of barnyard notes in the initial aroma.
10 seconds: Hay, it’s a bit indescribable this slightly sweet tone I’m getting…
30 seconds: bready and earthy
Overall, I’m tasting a good amount of barnyard notes with some unique tones hitting at different times. Also a bit of an 1880s house.
The wet leaf aroma is quite pleasing. Sticking your nose deeper into the leaf you go from a freshly cleaned barn to fresh leaf notes
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2024 Tea #2 – Your most unusual tea
I suppose this is an unusual tea, or at least one I thought of, for its appearance, its flavors, and its ingredients. I wish I could find some more blends with candied aloe! But also, fennel? Sea buckthorn? turmeric SLICES? chlorella algae powder??? All very unusual. And these are just some of the ingredients. But together, the flavors are tasty enough — I would think they might clash. But a really long steep melds everything together for a really unique cup of flavors.
TTB sample! I definitely taste the hazelnut, though there isn’t much more going on than that. The black tea beneath could be tastier. I just wish it were a bit more nuanced. My partner really liked this one though and called it creamy (ha maybe he means the soy milk).
Hmm, I have been searching anything about Noni and found almost nothing related to fruit; like how it should taste or something. Plum, on the other hand is well-known fruit for me; and this tea is… very ripe plum forward; very fruity and hibiscus is quite tamed when steeped short.
But actually, this blend was a bit of dismal for me. It was somehow plum-like, maybe a bit more of raw flavour would be a bit better than ripe; as it just together with hibiscus it blends into one single “fruit tea” profile.
Preparation
February Sipdown Prompt – a tea that makes you feel cozy
Both Da Hong Pao and Dong Ding teas are very cozy to me. I am surprised that I have not reviewed this one yet! This was a gift from Superanna.
Yesterday afternoon I felt like continuing my celebration. I chose three chocolates and this tea, and used a scent cup to get the full sensory experience of this tea.
Honestly, as I sat there inhaling the aroma from the scent cup, I felt that I could stop there and say I had enjoyed a great tea experience. It smelled so good. As I cast about in my mind for how to describe what I was smelling, I finally settled on cinnamon rolls baking in the oven, nearly done, not too much cinnamon. Or a sweet bread, warm and waiting to be lightly glazed. How lovely that I het to drink it, too!
The tea was clear and of medium body. There is a light cinnamon note, a hint of minerality, and well-rounded flavor.
Second steep got the scent cup as well, and this time the freshly baked sweet bread has stepped back a bit and the minerality has come forward, like a hint of rou gui, just a little rock oolong peeking through. The change in the aroma is reflected in the flavor with mineral notes replacing some of the sweetness. It is by no means less enjoyable.
A third steep was made but I did not use the scent cup for this one. It is much the same as the second steep and I think that a fourth steep would not do this tea justice today. I ended my session. I want to remember you like this, Da Hong Pao.
February Sipdown Prompt – a tea ordered online
Sipdown
This tea was ordered online by me for me. Ashman liked it, which was a bonus because he doesn’t like fig flavor, figs, or fig jam. He loves strawberry tea, though, so I guess the strawberry and vanilla in this complemented the fig nicely enough for him to like it.
I was happy to get a couple of sipdowns today, but noticed that Harney and Sons has a brand new strawberry vanilla black tea and it is testing my resolve sorely. I hope to stay strong and maintain my buying ban for a little while longer.
This is from my order…. already a couple summers ago. sigh. It was when I was away from my stash and thought I needed more no-caff tea options with me, but then totally blanked and bought this even though there is yerba mate in it. But Maya calls it ‘herbal’ in the name! But it does have caffeine. I haven’t seen this blend sold anywhere else — as far as I can tell, the base is only roasted yerba mate — though I wouldn’t be surprised if they snuck some green yerba mate in. The photo LOOKS like roasted. It LOOKS like roasted in my teaspoon when I’m scooping it out. There is also some cocoa nibs, lavender and rose. I would say off the bat it tastes like mostly roasted yerba mate with hints of creamy cocoa. Sadly not much of the floral… I wouldn’t even guess it was in there. I would say it was only yerba mate and cocoa nibs. It’s good! For two steeps! It you just want a cup of roasted yerba mate that tastes like chocolate. But I wouldn’t say it was what I expected. Then others might be scared away by the floral. I mean, this blend isn’t THAT old yet, that actual floral elements shouldn’t have any flavor or scent already…
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4-5 min
Flavors: Chocolate, Milk Chocolate
