Assam Banaspaty (organic)

Happy Easter/Passover, Steepster Comrades!!

Yesterday, Easter brunch was at my house. Mother, brother, sister, Stepfather, they’re all coffee addicts in the morning… Only Mr. Right supports me in my tea drinking.
So as usual, I made a gigantic pot of coffee. But as a true advocate of the tea cause, I also made a large pot of Assam Banaspaty. Can a girl be blamed for trying to convert a few people from time to time?

I ask my Stepfather: «Want to try some Assam Banaspaty ? His reply: «Assam who? They make dictator tea now? » (Thinks he’s being funny) «Not SADAM, ASSAM!!! It’s an excellent black Indian tea. » (Love my stepdad, but he takes pleasure of hiding the fact that he’s an educated man sometimes.)

«Tea is for little girls my darling, real men don’t associate with tea» says he, egg yolk dripping from his chin, now how manly is that??

Don’t I love a challenge!!

«If you try it, I’ll make extra pancakes just for you. » «Bring it on, then!» (Men are weak this way)

I pour the tea in a new cup, don’t want any coffee contamination. «Sooo??? »

« I’ve tasted worst things, but it’s got nothing on coffee! »

Translation: « I’m not saying I would stop drinking coffee for it, but to my surprise, I really enjoy it, way better than expected!) Happy me, he likes it!!!

So the brunch went on, and so did his tea drinking. Not only did he finish his cup, but he poured another one! Said he did it only to honor me and my pancakes…What a gentleman!

This tea is just the perfect homey breakfast tea. It has everything you need to support a good meal. The taste is fantastic, just the right amount of everything you want out of a plain black tea. Very malty, and not bitter unless you steep it too long.

It definitely has a place in my cupboard, oops just ran out!

I bought a few sampler packs from DT’s a couple weeks ago to get a feel for the range of their teas. This was in the manly-packaged “The Tea Aficionado” – a selection of 5 “mannish” teas in cigar-shaped tubes. Yes, I’m a sucker for packaging… and for manly stuff (I’m a man’s woman, or so I’ve been told)…

Anyway, I’m on an unflavored black kick today (oddly), so this is my second tea of the day. Brewed 3 grams in 8 oz of water at the below parameters. The resulting liquor is very dark – it matches the black-brown color of my furniture!

Uh, wow – this is quite a change from the Bailin Gongfu black tea I had this morning. This one slaps you in the face and demands your attention!

Quite bitter upon first sip, I immediately reached for the milk and sugar to calm this cup down. There’s still a bitterness underneath the additions, but it’s much more manageable now. There’s a slight honey undertone that I’m also getting…

This goes nicely lemon squares, by the way! :)

Overall I like it and will probably keep this around on those days that I really need help focusing, which sometimes is a lot!

This is a dark amber brew. This is probably one of my favourite straight blacks at DAVIDsTEA. It is bold and a tad astringent. I am not quite used to drinking such a bold tea. So for me (as much as I don’t like to have additions), with milk, the maltiness really shines. It just isn’t the same without the milk.

This is not my favourite black tea, but it is definitely good and I would possibly keep some around. I would like to try some other assams from some other companies as well.

Made for me at DavidsTea — not sure of the measurement, mayb 1.5 tsp for their hot cup (350mL?)

While picking up a new-to-me herbal and some blends I cannot get at my local indie tea store (what can I say? I steep around), I tried a cup of Assam Banaspaty. The hot water at DavidsTea is too damn hot for oolong, green or white, which baffles me, but it’s just grand for rooibos and black. With their $1 straight tea promo, and the hail and wet snow falling this morning, an Assam sounded good.

This is a compeltely acceptable Assam, with all the good Assam characteristics. It finishes sweet and a bit mineral and tastes pleasantly malty. It lacks, however, a good body and heft. It’s hardly a weak tea, and it seems to pack the caffeine, but Assam from the Gingia and Kopili estates seem to have aheavier body. (Damn Fine’s Captain Assam is in a class, or ship, by itself.) It’s a good Assam, no bitterness after a six-minute steep, no faults, but no real ‘wow’ factor, either.

Rating:78.

It’s a very strong and flavorful tea. I like my tea full flavored so usually full recommended steeping time works for me but 6 minutes makes this tea very malty, almost bitter even though I rinse my tea all the time. Not something that necessarily works in the morning taste-wise, but wakes you up just right. Has a very distinct honey aftertaste. 3 steeps is what I get from this tea and second and third steeps are completely different from the first one, very light and delicious tea, almost sweet. As long as you can play with the first steep just to get it right to your taste it’s a highly recommended tea.

(First off, what is up with Steepster?? Every time I type in the web page initially I get the annoying “Oops. Someone left the kettle on…” page! What is going on? Is it just me or are other people experiencing this too? Okay, rant over.)

Alright, on to this tea.

The moment I open the bag I am hit with memories… memories of tea with my proper Scottish-descent Grandma in her china laden dining room, and of my dad taking me out for tea after my ballet class at the age of five (always loading my tea with far too much sugar + cream) to the local tea house. Strange how smells can elicit such strong emotional responses. To me, this is the tea people drink during “afternoon tea” or in tea houses. This is the kind of tea that an English (or Scottish) person would drink when feeling homesick for the homeland of their ancestors, as my Grandma and her son, my Dad, do.

It’s strong, malty, slightly smoky, and holds up to milk + sugar. The tea of memories…

“I got you a cup of tea!” “Yay! What kind?” “Assam . . . bananagrams.”

My bananagrams was delicious, though. A very nice sweet little black.

awesome in a cup!!! this was SO tasty- like the first one I had at Teaopia only better. They must have a really bad batch, or maybe their tins are just getting stale.
It was toasty and bold, barely astringent… all the things I love in a morning tea. Heavy on the milk, no sugar, just the way I enjoy it most!
My only regret are that a) I couldn’t get to work fast enough to enjoy it at my desk, and b) I haven’t tried this one sooner!

The dry leaves have not much scent at all, but once brewed it smells very nice. I find that there’s something sweet and sugary about the smell, even a bit fruity. It smells somehow familiar. What is that??
The taste is not so sweet, very malty as I believe Assams are known to be. Somehow it seems astringent without being mouth-drying. I liked the Nepal black more, but this is nice. A good tea for a rainy day maybe.

The dry tea leaves smell very bold, malty and almost chocolatey. It is really quite fun nice watching the leaves unfurl and pop to the surface of the water.

The brew smells just like the leaves except much more potent! It’s very difficult to describe the smell, but it does smell quite phenomenal. The liquor is a vibrant red colour, transparent and very pleasing to look at while drinking from a glass teacup!

As for the taste, I’m a huge fan! I come from a background of green tea, so black teas are a recent endeavour of mine. I really like the boldness of this tea. It really packs a punch with it’s maltiness and really wakes you up after only a few sips… quite a powerful tea! This tea is a bit astringent, but if you can get over that, I highly recommend it to black tea lovers!

It’s unapologetically bold, in your face kind of tea. It’s malty and strong. I don’t mind some bitterness in a black tea and I don’t get the milk and sugar thing … Milk and sugar is for wussies!
Retiring to my library to smoke some cigars :)

Wow. Just wow. I think this tea is by far the biggest surprise I’ve had in the tea department to date.

I got this as a Christmas gift (the straight tea collection) and had no hopes for it because:
a) I have my daily breakfast tea
b) The assam I got a couple years back from Un amour des thés was hopelessly disappointing

However, decided to make this to help me focus on the boatloads of work I have to do thanks to UdeS (why am I on Steepster, again?) and am happy I did.

First impressions – Dry leaf smells like black tea. Sorry, I have a very unrefined nose. Black is black is black to me. Brewed, however, and you get a… sweeter? aroma, much smoother than what I’m used to.

Taste – Very smooth and rich. Absolutely no bitterness, even though I oversteeped it a bit. Very, very pleasant.

Loveability – I will definately love it while it lasts. I might even (gasp!) drink it in the morning in lieu of my DOB. But, in all honestly, it would have to be comparable in price to DOB to make it worthwhile for this student to switch over, especially at the rate I go through a tin. And I suspect it isn’t… Overall, a wonderful black tea!

Not sure what I think of this one. It’s leaving a kick of flavour in my mouth after that I’m not fond of, but I’m also drinking it without sugar or milk so it may be that. Will have to try it again in the morning and give it a rating then.

Bought this on a whim, because my husband needed some more black tea for work (their electric kettle only boils). He doesn’t tend to savor the tea at work, so this one worked out alright. For the taste/price ratio I don’t think it’s worth it.

Due to the sharp flavor, it’s not one of my favorites. To me it tastes too much like standard “black tea”. I’d rather be drinking Black Needles or Lapsang Souchong (yes, even in the summer!) I will not refill this one, but I don’t feel any regret for trying it once.

This is going to be my go to breakfast tea for a while, I can already tell. It is yummy. I finally get what people mean when they talk about malty. Its mild and smooth, not astringent at all.

I like this one.

A nice strong black tea. Beware of over-steeping, becomes astringent if steeped over, say, 5 minutes. Either way, a great way to start the day.

Good but not amazing. The taste for me falls between English breakfast and Kenyan Tindret. I think I expected too much from this tea but I’ll see how I feel after I finish the 25g I have.

I actually didn’t love this tea. Could be the malt but I found that it left a funny after taste. I may try it with various milk/sweetener combinations to see if that makes a difference but so far this is not a re-purchase for me and I’m generally a HUGE DT fan.

I decided to try this tea on a whim and I am not regretting my decision. If you enjoy a brisk, strong and flavourful cup of tee, then try this tea. A dash of milk is always a necessity for me when drinking this tea. It’s great for mornings when you need a kick to get ready for the day.