477 Tasting Notes
Had this the day I picked up the box, but didn’t bother to write a tasting note.
Sitting down with a cup now, but please be advised that the stitches in my mouth haven’t completely clotted over yet, so everything is tinted with a bit of a coppery blood taste. Delicious. It’s my own damn fault though, the surgeon said no talking, but I thought they were fine and clotted now so I chatted away with my sister (though I clenched jaw, at least), and now they’re bleeding again, it seems. Smart.
It smells deliciously of hot chocolate, with the chocolate vanilla and cinnamon. I get no tea smell, but then, I’m not sure what puerh should smell like. This’ my first, and I suppose not the best choice if I want to really explore the taste of puerh. But I was in the Organics store (the only store in my location that carries any Numi products at all besides Chapters, but that only carries their blooming teas) and saw it, and spent five minutes deciding between this, Emperor’s Puerh and Mint Puerh. Emperor’s seemed like a good choice—unflavoured—but I ultimately decided to spend ten whole dollars on this one.
The taste is dusty-earthy, with a light cocoa taste and texture overlapping it, and then a pleasant aftertaste of hot chocolate (chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon—does this actually contain cinnamon? It tastes/smells like it; possibly nutmeg too, hmm—all the proper Hot Cocoa spices). Mm nice. The earthyness is different, but I’m definitely looking forward to experimenting with more puerhs in the future.
Preparation
I am not allowed dairy products until tomorrow, but it was too late in the evening for caffeine. I was limited to my small collection of caffeine-free tisanes, but I didn’t want anything fruity. I wanted something heavier, like tea. But the chai rooibos just wasn’t that heavy. So I decided to experiment. I made it with hazelnut-flavoured coffee whitener (not mine, but my mother’s), with honey and vanilla extract mixed in. I don’t know, I felt like something heavy, spicy but sweet. …I want spice cake. Hrm.
Coffee whitener is quite odd, but I liked the hazelnut taste, so overall it turned out all right. Warm. Plus, it rids my mouth of the, uh, copper taste. Stupid wisdom teeth.
Made two mugs of this for me and my mother, except that I couldn’t even take a sip of mine. I was reduced mostly to a small amount of gingerale at a time with a drool-cloth held below my chin. So my tea went completely cold. I microwaved it (I hate microwaving tea, it gives it a funny taste), and have been sipping it now. Slowly. Just because I’ve got a little more feeling back and it’s easier to handle now.
See, I just got all four wisdom teeth out. I’ve got a mug of tea and a mug of chicken noodle soup. The soup is still very hot (although I can’t tell when I drink it due to numbness) so I’m letting it sit until it seems cool enough to drink. Until then, mmm Paris tea. It still tastes delicious even through the numbness and the taste of blood and gauze. Isn’t that a pleasant image? I think it is.
My tin of bags is almost out too, aaaah. I need to pop over to Chapters and pick up another tin. If they aren’t sold out. They sell out quickly. If only Chapters sold loose-leaf tea to go with all their loose-leaf tea accessories, but no. They sell loose-leaf tea accessories, and only bagged teas.
Preparation
Glad to hear that your surgery went well! :)
I remember having all mine out at the same time, and all but one of them were impacted. Ugh. I looked like a chipmunk for days with all the swelling. Terrific fun. I sympathize.
All four of mine were impacted. Last I checked I didn’t look like a chipmunk, but my face is quite narrow, so I suppose it takes a lot before it looks “puffy”.
Eerf, the T3 they gave me isn’t doing much, though. I think it’s time for tea and very soft easy-to-swallow-like-jello scrambled eggs for breakfast.
Best to take the T3 and then try to sleep. Since you’re not eating solid food, the T3 can make you woozy and dizzy. I remember it doing that to me.
Well, I quickly upgraded to almost-solid food (small soup noodles that can be swallowed whole without chewing); so far I’ve had no woozy sideeffects.
I realized that I hadn’t put away the used jasmine green leaves (A&D) from yesterday. They’d dried perfectly (no spinagyness), so I threw the teaball into fresh hot water with a bag of this as well in a double-sized mug. The jasmine was STILL pretty strong smelling for the second steep, so I ended up taking it out at three minutes and leaving the Ceylon in for an additional two.
The result reminds me a bit of Murchie’s Library Blend. I think I’m just a sucker for black-green blends. The initial sip is green and jasmine, the black coming in when you swallow and breath out. The jasmine is lending more of a floral sweetness instead of completely taking over the tea.
Preparation
Bumped the steep time down to two minutes, because I didn’t like the kind of strong flavour I was getting before.
Drinking it nice and hot, it’s bearable. I’m getting a very small amount of green, but for the most part, jasmine. Still like drinking jasmine soap, Jesus. At least now I can discern that the strong flavour wasn’t the green tea, but the jasmine added. Very floral. Quite strong. I’m sure I would like it a bit more if it was considerably weaker. If I had any sencha, I would probably had steeped a mixture of sencha with this, to dilute the jasminyness a bit.
The hot vegetableness sort of fills you with warmth, though. And that’s nice.
Preparation
This’ the last teabag of this. I like it enough that I might go and buy a full box. I’d get the full loose leaf, except that it doesn’t seem that anywhere around here sells it. The only Twinings loose leafs I’ve found are for Earl Grey and Gunpowder Green.
Besides, Tealicious seems to have plans for their own version of Lady Grey, so maybe I’ll just hold off on getting more until they come out with their own and try that first.
Preparation
My first sip of this today came with a BURST of vanilla. It was quite nice.
Since the first note, I’ve lowered my steeping temperature to 190, eliminating pretty much all of the bitterness.
So it’s nice, the flavours come through strongly although the tea is still there (just very faintly now), and it goes quite well with my bagel. Mmm bagel and tea breakfast. I made a pot with my mother so she could try some as well. Bumping the rating up a bit.
