Himalayan Blend

I guess it’s Superbowl? Totally not my thing, although I’m curious about Blackberry’s commercial. Can they be successful again? I have their tablet and I love it. It’s totally worth $150 – I use it around the house mostly but it’s never far. (And that explains why I’m on Steepster so frequently).

Anyway I’m watching BBC’s Pride&Predjudice miniseries, while I sip tea and play GuildWars2! Talk about multi-tasking! But I’ve seen this series several times, so it’s nice to listen to. I just watched the 2005 P&P movie earlier this week and now that I’m watching the miniseries, I sorta feel like the movie is mostly rubbish as it rushes everything! I realize there’s only so much time to express things, but the characters are sorta hard to understand when condensed so. Also, Lizzy in the 2005 movie goes from “I hate you Mr. Darcy” to “OMG Look at his pretty shiny house – what did I do?” in like 10 minutes. Bleah. It had some good points but I better just stick with the full thing.

So! Happy I have the miniseries.

Dry Leaf Nose: A woodsy blend of mountain forest trees, herbs and fresh mushroom. This refreshing blend is reflective of the Himalayan mountains from which it comes – from the rains that pour onto the tea leaves and small branches, to the the air that rushes through the valleys separating Nepal from Darjeeling, the aromas shine through.

Liquor: Golden and Clear.

Flavour: Rich and complex with a definite “mountain air” flavour evoking fine hardwood forests and fresh forest floor growth. The blending of several estates gives this tea its unique and wide ranging character.

I figured I’d try this as DT has their 1$ straight tea sale happening now. I had hoped for a more complex tea but it’s not to be. This kind of reminds me of your classic “red rose” tea. It’s not quite as bland as that, but it’s also not the rich black tea that I’d hoped for. Happy to have tried it and I wouldn’t turn it down but not what i was looking for.

I, uhh, “accidentally” got some of this tea today. My goal is to branch out and try more non-flavoured teas.

This doesn’t steep up dark at all. When they say clear, they really mean clear.

I steeped 4 minutes, and IDK that I’m getting a lot of astringency out of it, even though it’s been sitting on my desk for about 3 hours at this point, and is cold. It’s very light and floral, with that darjeeling backbone. If that makes sense.

I do like this tea, and am happy to drink it completely plain (oh yeah. I didn’t add ANYTHING to this mug!). I wouldn’t drink it much in the morning, it feels more like an afternoon tea.

1.5 tsp @100C, 4 minutes, drunk bare.

Pale liquor. Astringent and mineral — muscat and cold winds and clean, clean water. Leaves are tippy and greenish-brown. Earth notes. Just lovely, if you like a Darjeeling or a Nepal tea.

On the first sip I was surprised by a nice sweetness. I wasn’t expecting it to be such a sweet tea since I had it unsweetened. After the sweetness it melts into a dry, but not too dry flavor which makes the middle of my tongue tingle. The first few sips I actually got a buttery feel in the after-taste. That faded as I kept drinking the tea.

When I smell the liquor is when I detect the earthiness. My Dad grows string beans in his garden and this smelt EXACTLY like freshly steamed green beans pulled from the ground that day. It doesn’t really TASTE like green beans, but the sweetness I was first overpowered by is related to that smell and is definitely vegetal. This was a lovely tea to start the day with and I would have it again!