takgoti

I jotted down some notes in a Word document about this tea because I knew I wasn’t going to have time to log this when I wanted to [yeah, I’m a nerd, etc. etc.].

Auggy sent me this tea with the caveat that it was a possible “meh” tea, but that it was good for comparison purposes. Really, I’m up for trying something that’s going to give me a better range of comparison, so that means I’m game for pretty much anything.

I was surprised to discover that this had a really full flavor to it. Which I probably wouldn’t have been, had I remembered what Auggy had written about it, but I’ve never made claims as to the strength of my memory. Well, maybe except to say that it can suck sometimes.

Anyhow, this wasn’t weak. And I liked that. What I’m not sure that I liked was that even though it had a fair amount of flavor, it felt kind of…flat. Not quite as dimensional Jackee Muntz. It also had a kind of salty quality to it, which I normally wouldn’t mind, but this was tap dancing just a little too loudly for me. Actually, this one probably had the strongest malt taste to me of all three of the keemuns I’ve had so far [Jackee Muntz, Keemun Rhapsody, this one].

What I did like was that it had a sweetness to it. It reminded me of honey. Not gonna lie, I would have liked caramel [still can’t quite let go of that], but I’ll take honey. You’d think that the saltiness and the honey taste would have combined to make something resembling caramel, but for whatever reason, they didn’t come together for me.

In the end, this didn’t combine quite as nicely for me as the other two. The components read much more as separate entities than anything else, and while I think this makes it easier for me to pick tastes out from it, it makes for an overall experience that isn’t quite as enjoyable. I guess it’s kind of like what they say about a well-composed dish. You should be able to both eat the components on their own and combined into a bite and enjoy it all.

This certainly wasn’t horrible, but it’s not going to make my favorite keemuns list. I’ll finish off the sample though, no problem. Thanks for the experience, Auggy!

Yesterday’s arrival of the sorapot shattered my Keemun Day [not that I’m complaining], so today was it. I am pleased to say that I like it a lot better today. I let it sit for a full five minutes, and I think it really benefitted from that. This is going to end up being a comparison review, so I’m going to state that up front.

It’s not as dark as Jackee Muntz, and it’s also sweeter. The lack of that whiff of smoke makes me read this as perhaps having a little less flavor, but it’s smoother and I like that hint of sweetness that I’m getting.

Really, they’re reading as two completely different teas to me, each with their pluses and minuses. Jackee Muntz can be too sharp, Keemun Rhapsody can be a little too weak. One has depth but can be dissonant, the other is smoother but a little flatter. To me, I think they about even out, so I’m going to give them the same rating as they appeal to me equally.

This isn’t so much about the tea as it is about the teapot.

Wait, let me rephrase that.

This isn’t so much about the tea as it is about The teapot.

Yes, I got my Sorapot in the mail today, and yes, I love it. It is fabulous. It is divine. It is solidly-constructed, and it beautiful, and, for me, worth every single penny I spent on it. I have to give a major, major shout-out to our Steepster Overlords for having the thoughtfulness to include something like this in the Steepster Select cycle and I have to give some major, major props to Joey Roth for designing such a singularly exquisite piece. I have seen teapots that cost much, much more than this [and not just ancient ones – more contemporary ones, too] that I don’t think are nearly as nice, or as well-made. It’s fully functional, I think it’s breath-taking, and it’s made with thought. I can’t ask for much more out of something I’m going to drop a fair amount of money on.

I knew that this would be arriving soon-ish, so I saved my last little bit of Four Seasons for it. One, because I knew that it would look gorgeous as it opened up in the glass chamber, but most of all because I knew that the first tea I drank in this should be special. My BFF dropped by today, and we spent some time catching up, drinking tea, and watching Avatar [the TV show, not the movie – both are excellent, by the way]. She patiently waited while I took pictures, and we sipped on the tea while we chatted about what’s been going on in our respective lives.

It made for a really nice, really calming afternoon. Four Seasons is a versatile tea. It can be enjoyed in solitude, easily taking the center stage of your attentions with its subtle complexity. It’s a lovely companion when you’re sitting down to do some work with its thick yet light richness of flavor. It can swish and ripple softly in the background while you settle in to have a conversation with a friend. And it unfurls majestically in an extraordinarily designed, long-awaited metal and glass teapot.

And now, in a manner completely contrasting to the tone of this review [because I like to shake things up], I present to you: my Sorapot.
http://bit.ly/75ewf1

I was already sending tea packages to Auggy and teaplz, and I knew that all of us wanted to try this tea. So when I was standing in line at Williams Sonoma, and it was staring at me I finally said, “Oh, fine. What the hell,” and grabbed a tin so I could split it three ways.

I honestly don’t know how I held off for this long, because the tin explodes in your face with delicious scent. I mean, if it tasted as strong as it smells it would be undrinkable because it would be like kool-aid on steroids, but scent-wise? Mmmmmmmmmmm.

I’m going to sound mildly repetitive here because Auggy and I had very similar drinking experiences with it, but I’ll try to deviate a bit. We all know I can deviate.

As a liquid, this smells rich. Rich like…thick cream rich. I also get strong whiffs of vanilla. And lying on top of all of that decadence is strawberry. Beautiful, beautiful strawberry, glistening above the warm and heavy aromas. Like Auggy, I was slightly hesitant to sip it right away. Part of me felt like nothing could possibly compare, but part of me also felt like if it truly tasted like this I wouldn’t be able to finish it because it would be so cloying.

Once it had cooled down enough for me to take a confident sip of it, I was pleasantly surprised. The vanilla wasn’t there. The creaminess was kind of present, but not overwhelming. Mainly what I got was berry. Specifically, strawberries – like when they’re not quite ripe. The strawberry taste was definitely strong, to the point that the tea almost felt like it was bleeding strawberries. And yet, it never reached the point of “too much.” It was sweet sometimes, but not obviously sweet, and more so when I sucked air in over everything. There was a distinct tartness that hit the back of my tongue as well, that sang of strawberries.

Most impressive to me was the mouth feel. It was thick, heavy, viscous, silky, and it made me feel like I was eating strawberries and cream. If there had been more creaminess in the taste, I certainly could have fooled myself into it.

And then, all of a sudden, the bomb went off. This tea blew up in a very good way. I’m not sure if it was because it had cooled to a magic point, or because Auggy mentioned that she was doing that silly looking slurping thing that people often do with wine and so I started doing it in earnest, but wow. It was like berry-palooza. It was like I had won the lottery, and they paid me in berries. It was like I was the queen and all of the townspeople were berries and I was drinking them. The only two I could pick out were blackberries [sweet, ripe ones] and strawberries, but there were more. It was more complex than that. The tea grew in sweetness, and the texture was making it all slide around very pleasantly, and I officially fell in love with Marco Polo.

I really, really wish I could give this a 100, but I know that the reason why I loved this so much today was because 1) I drank it out of my Sorapot [more on that in a forthcoming review – I’m logging this first] 2) I was really in the mood for a fruity tea and 3) I think drinking tea with someone else is always more enjoyable, even if you are both basically just typing “OH MY GOD WOW!” back and forth.

If this ends up being something that I find myself craving often, or could see myself drinking on any given day, it may reach that point, though. It’s pretty damn good. Never would have tried it if not for Steepster, too, so thanks Steepsterites!

Hello! Welcome to a tea that Auggy sent me!

Right, so if you take Rishi’s Citron Oolong, and you take away the hint of lime that you get in that, and you replace it with a hint of orange, you would have this tea.

They’re cousins! Identical cousins!

I’m not going to copy the entire review I wrote on Citron Oolong, but to summarize – light, refreshing, citrusy, with a hint of Fruity Pebbles/Froot Loops. The flavor comes through more at the back of my tongue, and if I can suck in air over the liquid. Very similar to Adagio’s Citron Green, but not nearly as mouth drying, so I like it better for it.

I had been thinking about ordering some Citron Oolong, but I held off this time and I’m glad I did, because this tea also runs quite a bit cheaper [$14.75 for 4 oz. of Orange Blossom vs. $19.50]. Any differences between the two are so negligible to me that it can’t justify the near $5 difference. Bumping Citron Oolong down and having this one take its place.

Lena was lovely and sent me an entire sample tin full of this. I was really excited to give it a try, so I steeped some today.

I’m going to preface this by saying a couple of things. One, I am still adjusting to the fact that Jackee Muntz completely morphed on me from tasting like caramel sauce to tasting like what I guess keemun tastes like. Two, I’m not sure that keemun is a type of tea that is ever going to make my favorite black teas list. Three, this rating is completely liable to change.

Right. Now that that’s out of the way, this tea was decent. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great for me either. It tasted weaker to me than Jackee Muntz, which made me think that maybe I didn’t steep it for long enough, because the water was definitely at a rolling boil when I took it off the stove. Adagio recommends 5 minutes, but I was a little scared to let it sit that long, so next time I’ll try it at the full five.

I didn’t get any caramel notes from this, it was mainly lightly smoky with pine notes, maybe with some very subtle notes of cocoa. Reading the description now, I think I definitely need to let this steep longer. I didn’t get rich or sumptuous from it at all, and the supposed biscuit and fruity notes weren’t available to me on this cup.

I’m eager to try this again, because it looks like a relatively high quality tea, so I’ll probably give it another go tomorrow. Fingers are crossed! Good brain waves are being sent! C’mon, keemun!

Brewed it this morning.
Tasted floral and of corn.
Still quite delicious.

Brew it once, then stop.
Does not hold up to re-steep.
Well, for me at least.

I do not know why
This came out in a haiku.
Refrigerator.

Well, being honest, this is in homage to a shirt/hoodie Auggy found.
http://typetees.threadless.com/product/623/Haikus_Are_Easy_But_Sometimes
I wants it.

Anyhow, I ran out of what I had of this, but they had it in Williams Sonoma so I grabbed a tin. I find myself craving it somewhat often, so this is going to be a tea that I replenish for sure. I like it a lot. Giving it a ratings bump.

My mom has made the same tea nearly every day for as long as I can remember – Good Earth’s Original Decaffeinated tea. I rarely see her deviate from it, and I’ve taken the I’m-not-gonna-force-you-guys-to-drink-something-else approach when it comes to my parents and their tea drinking.

Over the holidays, though, my brother came back and I made him a fair amount of tea and my mom got curious. It made me laugh, because it was like…when you offer a kid something and they’re not familiar with it so they say, “No thanks,” but then when they see everyone enjoying it they kind of sidle up and stand there, watching. You ask them again of they want something and they look sideways at you and say, “Yeah…maybe. I guess.” So when my mom told me, “You know…the next time you’re making tea could you make me a cup?” I tried to remain calm and just said, “Yeah, sure.”

After much deliberation, I decided on Ryokucha. I wanted to choose something that was different and full of flavor, and so I decided that this would do nicely, but I gave it to her with a caveat of, “This is going to be a little different, so…take your time with it.”

And “Hey Mikey, he likes it!” – when she was done, she came over and said, “It’s good! Kind of…earthy?” So my mom likes Ryokucha! I’d call that a hell of an endorsement. My opinion of it has not changed. Also, I hadn’t really ever noticed it until Auggy mentioned it in her reviews, but it IS really creamy, and I’ve really been enjoying that aspect of it lately. Actually, you know what? I think I’m going to give it a little ratings bump. I’ve had this…probably 5 out of 7 days for the past couple of months, so it’s earned it. She works hard for the money.

I am really hyper right now. I don’t know if you can’t tell from the ridiculous commentary I just bombed Steepster with, but I went with the family to go to see Young Frankenstein at the Kennedy Center tonight [decent show, some funny moments but not stellar] and I’ve got plans to go shopping tomorrow and I’ve had more tea than usual today [which means a pretty crazy amount] so I’m bouncing off the walls at 2:45 in the morning.

My brother wanted in on a saucepan of this, so I made one earlier today and we fell asleep on the couch watching TV this afternoon while drinking it. This last one was with 2% but I’ve made it with whole milk [decadent] and soy milk [delightful] before, too. He gave it a thumbs up, and our mom kept stealing sips from our cups, so apparently she liked it, too. This last batch also means I’m out of it [I absolutely flew through this tin and it was a large one, too], but luckily it’s in stock so it’s going on the order this week.

It’s so smooth and creamy and it almost takes on this lovely caramel quality on certain sips. It’s spicy and sweet, and just…oh, I can’t even put it into adequate words. From the process of making it to the taste, it’s just comfort and warmth and homey and delicious. It’s watching House reruns and falling asleep on the couch with your brother under a throw blanket in front of the Christmas tree while your mom sneaks off with your cups to finish them off.

This is the last of the teas I took notes on while I was in the throes of academia. It is another one of the teas Carolyn sent me, and though I was afraid I might jinx myself by prematurely drinking a celebration tea before the semester was actually over, it was too pretty to put off trying it any longer.

This cup is pleasant. It’s smooth, and it’s not too strong, which I was a little afraid it might be when I looked at the ingredient list. I was half expecting a fireworks of exploding flavors [much like the tea is a fireworks of exploding colors], that would perhaps result in a great clashing and clanging with much dissonance on my tongue, but I was surprised to discover that this wasn’t the case. It all melded together. I’m still trying to decide whether or not I was disappointed by that, even more than a week later.

I wasn’t really able to pick anything out of the cornucopia of components, except for a black tea flavor with the slightest hint of maltiness to it, and a tangy fruity flavor. The maltiness makes sense because the description says this contains assam. The fruit flavor slightly reminded of the dreaded hibiscus, if I’m being honest, but only slightly. Probably I wasn’t paying full attention, what with trying to watch a physics video and jot down thoughts on the tea at the same time. [In fact, I have a formula written on the page here that I think is for the escape velocity from Earth. Wow. Guess I retained something after all.] It also had a kind of spiciness to it. Nothing overwhelming, but enough to give it a nice kick.

Luckily, Carolyn was very generous with the quantity of tea sent to me [again, I must thank you, Carolyn] so I definitely have enough to be able to sit down and really soak this one in. Maybe play around with temperature and steep time a little bit. I might have had this a little cooler than it should have been. The rating on this tea is very likely to change, but then again, I’m constantly shuffling all my ratings around anyway, so this point is likely unnecessary.

I drank this whilst on Steepster hiatus, and my notes on it are very brief, so I’m not going to have too much to say here. [Pause for shock and awe. Done now?]

It reminded me of sobacha in that it had that kind of puffed wheat taste to it [no surprise here, as it’s barley tea], but it was darker. Darker, almost hoppy [again, no surprise here, as it’s barley tea] and sweeter. A brown sugar kind of sweet.

I know that they serve barley tea at the Korean BBQ place my friends and I like to frequent, but the one they have there is almost more reminiscent of sobacha to me than this. This is a little…earthier. Maybe smokier is a better word? Anyway, I’d be willing to bet that what they have there has seen a fair amount of steepage before it gets to us, so that might account for the discrepancy in flavor. This has more depth to it, which I like.

I’ll probably be adding this to the list of things I want to reorder from maeda-en. The samples for this and sobacha weren’t teeny, but they’re also getting worked through rather quickly. They both make for such awesome post-eating-a-small-plantation-full-of-food ordeals that I want to make sure I have some on hand. Not to mention, I find them pretty awesome otherwise.

Sometimes I feel like I should just log teas every time that I drink them, but I wouldn’t be able to keep it up all the time [hahaha] and it would bother the completionist in me that I had missed some stuff. You should see me game, it’s horrible. If there are achievements, it bothers me to hell if I don’t get all of them. Even if they’re stupid difficult. RPG’s are the worst [and the best]. Usually in these cases, when I can see it coming, it’s better for me to stray from even trying, so that I don’t feel like I’m a big fail ball. When it comes to tea, this means that some of the teas I drink fall by the wayside, even some of the ones I drink fairly often. This is unfortunate, especially when they’re good teas, like Bai Mu Dan.

I haven’t had this from anyone else [though I think I might have a sample of Adagio’s that I haven’t bothered to try yet lying around somewhere] so I don’t have anything to compare it to. I really like it, though. When I was first drinking it, I think it was a little bit…darker, maybe, than I’m used to with white teas. The flavors aren’t bad, it was just different, so there was a small appreciation curve I had to slide up to get the point where I am now with it.

It has a lot of those darker sweet flavors to me. Corn, for one – more like…creamed corn [which I happen to like] than fresh corn, but it has that kind of corn sweetness to it. Sometimes I get notes that remind me lightly of honeydew melon. At times tastes toasted, almost roasty, which mainly happens when it hits the back of my throat. It reminds me of walnuts.

The flavor is light, but it’s not picnic in the park, butterflies flitting about light. It’s more like…end of a summer day, drinking lemonade on the porch as the sun sets through the trees light, if that makes sense. I’m trying to avoid the oxymoron of saying it’s a dark light flavor, but there it is.

It’s a good tea. I don’t drink it nearly as much as I do my other two Samovar favorites – Osmanthus Silver Needle and Downy Sprout, but I probably see it once a week or so. Maybe a little bit less, maybe a little more. It’s pretty easy going, so that’s how we roll.

First things first, Merry Christmas Steepsterverse! I hope you all enjoyed your yesterdays and/or your this mornings and will continue to be full and happy throughout the day. It’s only 2 PM and I’m already stuffed. Must be holiday times!

As it’s a day for merriment, I’ve decided to break away from my current dive into the backlogs of my tea drinking and log something that I drank this morning. I couldn’t tell you why I haven’t logged Paris before, because it’s a very good tea. I steeped it just in time for present opening, and if something can hold my attention during that madness, you know it has to be good.

I’ve never been to Paris. I would love to, and it’s on the list, but it isn’t something I can check off yet. I guess more specifically I want to go to the French countryside because I’ve heard that people are much friendlier once you get away from the city, but I don’t think I could visit France without spending at least a day or two in Paris. That being said, beyond four-odd years of school French, I have not a clue what makes this tea worthy of being dubbed “Paris.” What I can tell you is this.

It is very flavorful. There are many berry flavors floating around in it, laced with just a hint of bergamot, and this keeps the flavor very “up” and refreshing. I think of a breezy, sunny day on a grassy hill, with nothing between you and the sky while the scent of berry bushes waft coyly in your direction. It’s a wonderful image to be conjured up by a tea. But at the same time that this tea wants to float away like a cherry red balloon against an impossible blue, it’s grounded. And it’s grounded by something warm and familiar, that feels like it’s been around much longer than you have. For me, it wavers somewhere between pipe tobacco and vanilla.

All of this blends together wonderfully in my cup. The taste of the tea is there [I’d say Ceylon, but I’m still relatively new at this picking out black teas game and not too good at it] but it’s a backup singer, not a front man. It’s happy, but it’s not a crazy, ecstatic, wild kind of joy. It’s reserved, perhaps refined – curtailed in just a bit to keep your mind mellow enough to truly appreciate what it is that’s going on in the moment instead of having to look back on things once the euphoria wears off.

It’s easily one of my favorite teas from Harney & Sons, but the flavor is strong and specific enough that I can’t drink it every day. I tend to pull it out when I want something cheery and warm, like when opening up packages with my family around the tree.

One more log and then I think I’ll be ready for sleep. Ah, sleep.

So, here’s another tea that Lena sent to me and I can say with great authority that this is easily the best tea I’ve ever had from Adagio. The smell reminded me very much of the other jasmine teas I frequent – Samovar’s Jasmine Pearl and Harney & Son’s Dragon Pearl Jasmine – which makes sense because…they’re all jasmine teas. Anyhow, I took it to be a good sign and was kind of excited to see how this stood up because of the silver needle aspect.

Here is where things began to fall apart. The jasmine felt heavy, not light and singing. It was almost cloying and tasted slightly artificial. It definitely tasted very much of jasmine, but so much so that I was barely able to pick out the silver needle, and that may only be in my head because I was looking for it so hard. As such, it didn’t have any depth to the flavor. It was Just Jasmine! [Sorry, as I type that, I can’t help but think of Jack from Will & Grace’s one-man show. I wish I could emote jazz-hands.]

I’m very excited to try the keemun she sent to me, because Auggy seems to think very highly of it and Jasmine Silver Needle, though the review does sound rather critical, does slip me a bit of optimism. It’s difficult to get super excited about something when you’ve had something much better. It isn’t that the worser thing is bad, it just isn’t nearly as good, you know? Compared to the rest of what I’ve tried of Adagio’s it’s so much better, though, and so this is why I can see something shimmering in the distance. It could be hope.

I just spent a couple of hours wrapping presents in front of a fire and drinking tea, so I’m riding on a post-holiday-activity high right now and need to SIMMA DOWN NAH before I trot off to bed. I figure that cranking out a few more teas from my backlog notes is just a good of a wind down activity as any, so here we go!

Lena and I swapped teas recently [well, she sent me teas in a timely manner; mine just got put in the mail yesterday, sorry Lena!] and this is the first one that I tried because it smelled so good and I thought strawberry shortcake sounded appetizing. Halfway through steeping, I thought to read her log, and I became a little scared that I wasn’t going to like this.

I found myself surprised in a very good way. The strawberries were definitely present in my cup. Distinctly strawberry, too, not unidentified-slightly-tart-fruit-taste which usually indicates the presence of hibiscus. And even more surprisingly, I could taste the little sponge cake, too, specifically the little yellow cups you can buy in a grocery store that come in a cellophane package on a plastic tray. Yes, it’s that specific to me. And even more surprisingly, I got a little hint of cream in the taste.

As a small disclaimer, this did not happen as blatantly as I am making it sound. It is a light, subtle kind of tea, but just strong enough for me to be able to pick out all the flavors. Drinking it quickly would not help with this tea because I mainly was able to get the flavors when I held it in my mouth and swished it around a bit. The strawberries lingered in the aftertaste with that kind of sweet tartness they tend to leave. Also, it is very possible I hit a sweet spot with the water temperature and steep time. I am going to have to try this again to see if I can duplicate the experience.

The tea was also so light that I didn’t go for a second steep. I might experiment later on, but something tells me it wouldn’t hold up well.

Really, this tea was firing on all cylinders. Afterward, I felt like I had just downed a very light, but very good strawberry shortcake. I’m not sure that I’ve ever had a tea that’s supposed to taste like a food item ever replicate it so closely. So thanks, Lena! This made for a very nice cup indeed.

I am learning to like spicy food. I used to hate it. Wouldn’t touch it. My brother, on the other hand, would put tabasco sauce on baklava if given the opportunity. I distinctly remember a dinner with family friends at a pizza place where he and the son of my parents’ friends drank some of the stuff out of the jar. Disgusting, but I digress.

I still consider myself to be towards the bottom of the curve in terms of appreciating spicy food. I still can’t eat most Indian food without spending the rest of the night in an…unfortunate situation. And anything super spicy will upset my stomach. However, I enjoy stuff with a little kick and the Chai Agni that Carolyn had sent me took me to a very happy place, so I was excited to give this a try.

If you took the heat out of kimchi and put it in a chocolate chai, that is what my experience with this was like. It was hot. Now your definition of hot might differ from my definition of hot, but this was hot enough to drown out any hope for me of getting much else out of it. I could barely taste the chocolate aspect of it, and the spices from the chai were completely gone.

It could be that I happened to get a particularly large proportion of pepper in it, and I really hope that’s what happened, but that experience has scared me off of trying this again for a while. I mean, it was so spicy I knew it was going to make my stomach very, very angry if I didn’t stop drinking it so I had to dump the lot. If you want to make yourself sad, spend a good 20 minutes making chai and then make yourself pour most of it down the sink. I’ll give it another try once the scar of the spice has cooled down significantly enough. For now, I can only recommend this to someone who finds the idea of chocolate kimchi appealing.

Right. At this point, Adagio has whipped my pumpkin pie tea expectations into a frenzy, so I am going to put a caveat on this rating in that it is extremely likely to change after I experiment a little bit more with this tea.

When I think pumpkin pie, I think rich, thick, and creamy, with sweet buttery crust. Does this tea live up to that? No, it does not. But it DOES have a discernible pumpkin taste, and given that achieving that seems to be notoriously difficult in the world of tea flavors, I must give it props.

The first time I tried this, I was pretty disappointed because it was kind of bitter, but the water was a teensy bit hotter [like 205] and I had let it sit a little bit longer [4:45 ish] so that could account for it. I also tried adding milk to it that first time, but it drowned out any flavor I was able to get out of it, so I steered clear of it on the second go round. The second time it still had some bitterness to it, but the pumpkin flavor was much more apparent. It reminded me of a pumpkin soup I had at a restaurant one time, though not nearly as creamy.

I might try to fix this up chai style eventually, but let’s be honest, that probably won’t happen for a while because I have too much other tea I want to get at. I also think that before I can truly appreciate a pumpkin flavored tea I need to work at scaling down my expectations. Actually, you know what? I’m going to leave the rating off of it this time and save that for when I’ve spent some quality time with this one. I’m feeling distracted at the moment and not solid enough on my opinion of this to rate it definitively.

Right. I think I’ve been entirely spoiled by the phenomenal nature of Dream About Tea’s Dragonwell Spring, but this tastes like sewage now. I mean, not that pungent, but…sewage light? Essence of sewage?

I’m taking liberties a bit here, but it really is not pleasant. I subsequently had to give the rating a hearty knock down. For whatever reason, maybe because I just wanted to rid the sample from my collection, I spent a good portion of a studying day steeping this at different times and temperatures, to no avail. I became so consumed, actually, that physics had to sit on the back burner whilst I traveled a range of temperatures from 130 to 190. At each new temperature I took fresh batch of leaves and let them sit. Took the leaves out around 3:00 minutes, tried to drink it, then resteeped them once just to be sure. All I got nothing more than a variety of different intensities of the taste of dirty water. Almost soapy. It reminds me of when I was at camp and we jumped in the lake and I accidentally swallowed some water. It’s just less…silty. Actually, it really reminds me of the taste of lukewarm pool water.

If you’re wondering what’s up with the anal methodology here, it’s because I feel like I’m getting to the point where I’m going on autopilot with Adagio in terms of the quality of their tea on my internal scale and I wanted to be sure I was giving them a fair shake. I went to the point of sipping out the cup while the leaves were in the infuser to make sure that I wasn’t missing out on some some magical steep time on the way to 3 minutes. Unfortunately, all the happened was that the salty, soapy taste got stronger.

What’s frustrating is that the smell of the wet leaves, and even the tea itself steaming in the cup, was making me think I could have hit it right at some points, but it was misses all over the place. A good cup of this was the dartboard and I had put several hundred holes in the wall.

I think that this is a suitable place to add that I made a rather horrifying [and yet…comforting?] discovery while I was away from Steepster. Part of my 52 teas order included a Taylor thermometer [about that time, eh chaps?] and upon the first few uses, I discovered that Adagio’s UtiliTEA is wildly inaccurate. I mean, to the tune of 20 degrees variance on the same dial setting. Could be that mine’s defective, but needless to say I won’t be recommending it to anyone anymore. Things that I noticed were that the cooler temperatures occurred when the water level was higher [made sense] but that the temperature inaccuracies occurred more often at the higher temperature settings [didn’t really make sense]. A number of times, when it was set to boil, it would give me water at 180 degrees, and that’s just ridiculous.

This is comforting to me only because it means that my oscillating opinion of black teas is likely directly correlated with the faulty kettle. For reasons I cannot determine, when put into the green range it only seems to vary around 10-15 degrees, and more often than not medians around an acceptable temperature. I don’t get it either, but what I can say is that I only really use the utiliTEA anymore when I need a lower water temperature and I know I can heat it above the desired temperature and cool it if necessary. To be safe, I tested the thermometer on water off the stove and any error in reading it may be experiencing appears to be negligible. It’s definitely the kettle.

So, I guess that’s a partial danger of discovering a new relative high on the spectrum of your awareness of anything. Things that sufficed can be demoted to the status of “only if desperate” and things that were mediocre at best can plummet to the depths of the red yucky face. I am not going to list a steep time or a water temperature because there were so many. And I’m going to leave this at one entry because I don’t want to spam you guys with the nuances of dishwater that I got from the varying trials. Dirty dishwater will suffice enough, I think. After using up almost the entirety of my sample, I had to toss the rest. I couldn’t willingly subject someone else to it, nor justify the cost of shipping to send it anywhere else other than the trash can.

There is really only one other tea that I can claim to vehemently dislike this much, and I hope that this one is the last. In any case, I can say without hesitation that I do not like this tea.

I had plans for tomorrow. I was going to go to the beach for a few days and be ridiculously delirious about finals being over and FINALLY getting to hang out with my friends again, but alas, this has been completely dashed by the fact that we have been graced with no fewer than 14 inches of snow in the past day and a half.
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Another part of the plans involved going to bed at a decent hour so I could wake up to make the drive to aforementioned beach, but since it isn’t going to happen I thought to myself, “Self, why don’t you go get caught up on Steepster?” And since my sleeping schedule is already completely SNAFU’d by finals, I just spend an extraordinary amount of time reading your tea notes and nearly getting back in sync with my beautiful Steepsterites. [I told myself I’d get to “3 days ago” and by the chariot of Hades I have done it!] I might even be completely caught up by the end of tomorrow, which is pretty insane. Sorry for the ATTAK. It had to be done.

Right, so yuzu sencha. This is a newer tea from Samovar, [who coincidently just got a slew of even newer teas in that you can bet I will be ordering because if I don’t a kitten will die] and I’ll admit that at first I was a little dubious when I took the first sip.

I shouldn’t have been worried, though. The dry leaves have a strong, juicy scent to them [it reminds me of this Japanese gum a friend gave me once] but this is simply a subtle tea. The flavors grew on me as my tongue became more accustomed to it. The yuzu flavor is clean and bright, and I thought it paired exceedingly well with the roasty, vegetal, almost creamy notes of the sencha. [For those unfamiliar with yuzu, it is a citrus fruit. Something I’d pin down between a lime and a grapefruit, tastewise.]

Sometimes, the yuzu sings through the sencha clearly, making for a refreshing sensation, but again, this tea is pretty light overall. It could be because of the very short steep time, so I might try playing around with that a bit, but this reads as delicate to me and I fear oversteeping it. If the yuzu were stronger, I also think it could be overpowering. It’s rather precariously balanced, but for me it works very well.

This is not going to be a drink every day tea for me because of the yuzu, but it could very well be an every third day tea. Or an alternate thursdays and dates containing multiples of five tea. It offers a flavor profile that is new to me, yet holds back from being a novelty kind of tea because the sencha grounds it.

I know, I know, you all are thinking, “What’s new? She likes another Samovar tea.” But I tell you, people, when I dislike a Samovar tea, I will log it as such!

Blerg, it is now late enough to be considered early morning and yet I am not tired. The aftermath of finals, it appears, continue to haunt me still. I will laugh at them by continuing to be on Steepster until I become sleepy. What’s the point of celebrating life if you can’t sleep until late afternoon, I ask you?

The scene in Shawshank Redemption where Andy Dufresne comes crawling out of the tunnel into the rain.

That is me today. Crawling through foot after foot, yard after yard, of metaphorical sewage to reach the cleansing downpour of sweet, sweet FREEDOM.

Yes, Steepsterites. I am free. I. Am. FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

At least until mid-January, when the whole process starts anew. But for now, I am going to savor this unadulterated sense of not needing to do…anything. I have big, big plans for winter break, part of which include trying to catch up with what I’ve been missing on this site [I can’t even fathom how long that’s going to take] and inundating you with tea logs [FUN FOR YOU]. Because yes, in true tea dork fashion, I TOOK NOTES when I knew I wasn’t going to be able to write logs on here. If you would have told me a few years ago that I would be jotting down things to remember about a tea in a moleskine so that I could semi-accurately log it later, I would have laughed at you. Just laughed and laughed and laughed. And then apologized, and then probably laughed some more.

So, after being released from my last final of the semester, I turned the kettle on and began an impromptu dance party. Some Ting Tings, a little Modeselektor, a bit of La Roux, a slice of Roisin Murphy and an Under the Influence of Giants track later, I was drinking this tea and laughing madly. Partially because I was so giddy with being finished with school, and partially because of the enormous lack of sleep I have had these past few weeks.

There are very few teas that I would reach for in lieu of this in such a moment of intense celebration. I luckily got my Samovar package in the mail right before studying for finals commenced in earnest, so I replenished my stash of Four Seasons and I drank a fair amount of it while trying to cram every bit of information I could into my already bursting at the seams brain.

It is, far and away, beyond a shadow of a doubt, four monkeys on top of a giraffe, my favorite oolong. It is buttery, and washes into a lightly floral finish as it progresses through the steeps. I will admit that is more expensive than other oolongs I have chanced upon, but considering that I get about 5 cups on the regular [more if I’m feeling patient] from it, it ends up being not that bad.

It is a tea that just makes my inner being sigh and melt into a daze of pleasant complacency. Delicious, intricate, complex, and balanced. Coupled with the unshackling of my SOUL, it made for a singularly fantastic afternoon. [It also motivated me to spend a couple of hours cleaning my car.] I cannot think of anything that would have been more appropriate.

So, brace yourself Steepster. Hide your children and iron your pants, because I’M BACK!

All right, Steepsterites. I tried this at a shorter steep time and it was still noticeably bitter, though not nearly as much as before and a weird part of me [my elbow, maybe] didn’t mind it. Maybe I need to drop the temperature down a bit, or wash the leaves before I let it sit. I don’t know, but what I will tell you is that the second steep of this was absolutely phenomenal. Grape-y in a lovely, lovely way. I can’t get into it much more because I need to study for a test I’ve got tomorrow, which allows me to segue somewhat clumsily into the next paragraph.

I’ve been drinking a lot of tea lately, but I’ve got finals coming up, and that means that I don’t have time to log things like I’d like to. It also means that I’m going to have to go dark on Steepster for a week or two because I need to throw myself into school right now. SO, I will see you guys on the other side of the semester. I fully look forward to my activity feed being so blown that there’s no way I’ll be able to catch up. ENJOY YOUR TEA!

Trust Auggy to send me a conundrum in a tin. [Hahaha, just kidding. Love you, Augs.] But seriously y’all, this tea belongs in a carnival somewhere between the bearded lady and the contortionist. It is bizarre.

The leaves will punch you in the sarcophagus if you aren’t ready for the stench when you open up the tin. And yes, I am going to call it a stench, because I don’t think it’s an extremely appealing smell. It smells like brine, with maybe a hint of cucumber [but just a hint]. There’s a spicy nudge that almost smells like cinnamon, but it has that sweet edge Auggy was talking about so it really reminds me a lot of Red Hots, which I was never a fan of. Sometimes it has this sharpness to it that reminds me of when I got pine sap on my hand one time and it was really hard to get off and smelled kind of nasty. It’s one of those smells that is impossible to ignore and makes your nostrils feel not unlike they’re being poked with a skewer.

With a smell this pungent, you’d think the tea would be inarguably disgusting, but surprisingly, or not surprisingly as I am discovering with Adagio’s smell to taste ratio, I didn’t find this to be true. This was one of the rare cases where I was so glad the taste did not live up to the smell that I let out a huge sigh of relief after the first sip.

It kind of tasted like cucumber, but even more of that cinnamon/Red Hots note came out in the taste. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t hate it. The scent of the liquid is still a liiiittle bit overwhelming, but the taste was surprisingly mellow. Cucumbers, a cross between dill and sweet pickles, and Red Hots. There is nothing in my head that say those flavors should meld together, but for whatever reason worked okay.

As it moved to luke warm, it began to get a little bit sweeter, which I liked. But when it cooled, the any taste I could pick out was pretty much gone. It sort of tasted like cucumber water, which I can make a little more easily by just sticking cucumbers in water. EDIT TO ADD: Somewhere around here, in the lukewarm range, I also was getting the flavor of plain, unbuttered popcorn. That kind of weirded me out. Not sure where it was coming from, but it wasn’t completely unwelcome.

So, for the novelty, I’ll probably finish off this sample tin. I’ll just have to hold my nose a bit because the stink of the leaves is strong enough to actually make my eyes water. [I wish I were kidding.] But this definitely isn’t something I’m going to buy.

The Axis of Teavil does it again! Love the new update, Overlords. The tabs are wonderful, and I love the way that the little number count pops up on the notices button to let me know there’s been activity on there. I also am so incredibly appreciative that you’ve now included comments in the tea log stream! Saved me SO MUCH TABBING OVER in an effort to avoid losing my place! [Especially on this laptop, because while I love the Apple’s multi-touch, sometimes when I right-click it doesn’t register and then I end up losing my place anyway. But I digress.]

EDIT TO ADD: Jack, [I think it’s you that’s mainly responsible for this] I just want to add that I love the way that this site looks. Clean, uncluttered, minimal, pretty. It’s one of the more aesthetically pleasing sites I’ve had the pleasure of using. Not to discount your counterparts; you’re all pretty swell.

So, Formosa Oolong. After glancing at the description on here it’s clear that I’ve got some experimenting to do, because my label says 180 at five minutes but Sir Jason has copied over here that it should be 212 at three. This could be why this tasted somewhat weak to me. I was surprised to see the 180 water temp, but I usually try the companies’ suggestions first before switching things up.

I’m beginning to redefine my thoughts on formosa oolongs. I’ve now had a good number of them and two of them now [this one and the Silk Oolong Formosa that Auggy sent me] taste of tropical fruits and sunnier climates.

There wasn’t as much of that buttery taste that I’ve grown to love in most of the formosa oolongs I’ve had. The flavors also seemed more separate, like it juuuuuust wasn’t quite coming together. And it was also just a tad watery.

Okay, tea. It seems that you were doing your best impression of that awkward first slow dance – where you’re standing arms length apart and just kind of rocking back and forth. I’m hoping that changing up some stuff on you will result in more of a Viennese Waltz. We shall see.

Ah, ceylon. I didn’t grow up drinking black tea, and so this doesn’t really speak of nostalgia or anything to me. I think I might have tried one of Adagio’s ceylon teas at one point near the start of my getting into teas, but I just never bothered trying to get a baseline for this flavor.

So, I got my order from Tavalon in the other day, and I decided to pop this open.

It isn’t complex, but ceylon doesn’t strike me as a tea that is trying to be. It’s simply there. Some days, that’s what I want. I also think that if I EVER get around to playing around with adding things into my tea, this is the one that I am going to want to use.

It’s also nice to know with certainty that this is what I’ve been tasting in all of those flavored black teas I’ve since had, and I now feel like I might be able to pick it out of blends more easily.

This order also marked the arrival of my brand new tea stick, which I used to brew this. YAY. As we currently don’t have the ability to review tea ware, I’m just going to write a couple of thoughts on here.

1. It’s pretty solid. I’ll admit to thinking that the mesh sliding part would be a little flimsier, but I was pleasantly surprised to open the plastic cylinder to discover some pretty solid construction.

2. It recommends just scooping the tea out of the tin, but I’m not really sure on the logistics of this quite yet. It’s a bit unwieldy as a scoop, and if I eventually begin weighing my tea out like I think I will, I won’t be able to do that anyway.

3. The holes in the mesh are rather big, and the chamber is obviously more limited than a pot or a basket infuser, so that limits the kind of tea I’m going to be able to use it for. It’s not big enough to let, say, an oolong expand. And any teas where you notice small bits would not be ideal for this.

4. It’s rather long, so the hook at the end is currently of no use to me as it’s longer than any mugs I use are tall, but it’s not something that gets in the way or anything and it was a thoughtful thing to include.

Anyhow, I really like it. And when using it to brew this tea, it worked splendidly.