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Thank you TeaTiff for sending some of this one! This tea basically inspired a swap. :D Well, the first cup of this was the last tea brewed by my old kettle, the second steep I had to heat the water with the microwave. Ick. Though I don’t have much money right now, I can’t go without my tea and I already knew which kettle I was buying possibly even years before this one broke. I’m getting a Bodum Bistro 34 ounce electric kettle. Hopefully this one works as long as the other one did!

On to the tea… I’m not sure if maybe the kettle died halfway through boiling because the first steep was pretty light. I used a teaspoon and a half and I DID wait eight minutes for the water to cool… maybe it was my fault. Though the flavor that was there is everything that I think a keemun is. Still so so light! With the second steep, I made sure to use boiled (microwave) water and I also added the teaspoon or so left of my sample to the leaves. It seemed like a ton of leaves but after a six minute steep, the flavor is great. It reminds me of an older harvest of Teavivre’s Premium Hao Ya which I thought of as my favorite keemun…. I just worry about the amount of leaves that must be used to get to that flavor. But I was actually surprised that there wasn’t an oversteeped flavor with six minutes. I think it is what the first steep should have been. Again, could have been the last death throes of my kettle. I certainly won’t be drinking my favorite or highest quality teas when I don’t know what I’m doing with this microwaved water! Sipdowns of some not-favorites will be happening! Hurry up and get here tea kettle!
Steep #1 // 8 min after boiling // 4 min steep (1 1/2 tsp of leaves)
Steep #2 // just boiled // 6 min (1 more tsp added)

Whispering Pines Tea Company

Wow! You liked this less than our Golden Sunrise? :O

tea-sipper

Hmm.. I had to reread the tasting note for the Sunrise. Six months ago already! I guess I rated lower on how many teaspoons I needed to use to get the flavor of the second cup (among other factors) but again, my kettle could have very well died before getting to full boiling for the first steep or I waited too long for the water to cool (eight minutes). I don’t have any more leaves to retry!

tea-sipper

Oh and I waited 8 min because the WP site didn’t say what the temp should be.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

Woahh, it doesn’t say? o.O oh no! Will go check that out right now. I usually go 205ºF on this one and 1/2tbsp gives me a nice balance cup. A lot of people have been using a tablespoon though.

boychik

I prefer 1 TBSP

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Whispering Pines Tea Company

Wow! You liked this less than our Golden Sunrise? :O

tea-sipper

Hmm.. I had to reread the tasting note for the Sunrise. Six months ago already! I guess I rated lower on how many teaspoons I needed to use to get the flavor of the second cup (among other factors) but again, my kettle could have very well died before getting to full boiling for the first steep or I waited too long for the water to cool (eight minutes). I don’t have any more leaves to retry!

tea-sipper

Oh and I waited 8 min because the WP site didn’t say what the temp should be.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

Woahh, it doesn’t say? o.O oh no! Will go check that out right now. I usually go 205ºF on this one and 1/2tbsp gives me a nice balance cup. A lot of people have been using a tablespoon though.

boychik

I prefer 1 TBSP

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Bio

Hi! I love tea and trying new ones – it adds a bit of variety to my day! Books, music, TV & movies are my thing… and tea, of course.

Some of my favorite tea shops (still operating):
birdandblendtea.com
teavivre.com
52teas.com
svtea.com
whisperingpinestea.com
justea.com
harney.com
Dammann Freres
fusionteas.com
Javateaco.com
Lupicia
Octaviatea.com
Davidstea
eco-cha.com
what-cha.com
singleoriginteas.com
teasenz.com
tealyra.com
Mandala
verdanttea.com

Favorite tea shops (RIP):
butikiteas.com
steapshoppe.com
steepcityteas.com
aquartertotea.com
dellaterrateas.com
zentealife.com
angrytearoom.com
theteamerchant.net
joysteaspoon.com
tealiciousllc.com
Rivertea
Specialteas

My icon photo is Richard Mayhew from the graphic novel ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey & Glenn Fabry.

Most of the teas listed in my cupboard are actually sample sizes. I don’t really have 2,000 ounces of tea around here! Many of my teas have only one teaspoon left… maybe two. But I like keeping them in my cupboard list for reference to what I could be sipping. Usually, I write tasting notes once for each tea. I’m still drinking them, just not writing tasting notes each time!

I’m always in search of: Hattialli, Qu Hao black, Jin Jun Mei, teas using marshmallow root.

My dislikes: hibiscus, ginger (unless in chai), turmeric, bee pollen, charcoal type flavors

My ratings:
95-100 – Super awesome deliciousness favorites – cupboard essential
80-95 – Also pretty delicious
65-80 – Pretty good
50-65 – Okay
1-50 – Probably won’t want to sip it again

I’m planning on being a Steepsterer as long as there IS a Steepster, so if you’re not hearing from me, that means something happened to my health… if you know what I mean. (Or as evidenced by the great computer hiatus of 2019, something happened to my computer… I have a dumb phone so can’t access internet on that. As of 12/20/21 my wifi might start getting unreliable.)

Happy sipping!

Location

USA

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