Dawn

I cleaned up my apartment today so that the cleaning lady could vacuum, and as a reward I made myself a cup of Dawn. It’s a lot richer than I remember, which is a good thing. I think part of the change can be attributed to the fact that I didn’t use boiling water in the past, and this tea thrives on boiling water. For anyone who hasn’t tried Dawn yet, it is truly amazing. It’s like unsweetened hot cocoa…there’s even this almost powdery/thick mouthfeel, like you’re drinking a rich suspension of chocolate and cocoa and tea. The second steep is wonderful as well. Simple Leaf, you rock. Congratulations, you get my first 100.

ETA: A slightly longer steep (closer to 4 or 4:30) really makes this seem like a decadent, rich cup of unsweetened hot cocoa.

I’ve been craving this all day, even after yesterday’s numerous steepings. Why is this so good? Something else I noticed today: I think I can taste apricot in this, along with some sort of apricot-fuzziness-prickly feeling on my tongue when I drink this tea. I actually like it. It reminds me of when I was a kid, sucking down apricot after apricot from the tree in the backyard, and that prickly furry feeling you get when the skin of the apricot hits your tongue. I’m not sure how else to describe it. Anyway, infusions 1 and 2 are apricots and chocolates, and 3 and 4 and 5 are chocolate covered caramels. Not bad. Upping the rating because damn, this is an awesome tea.

I re-steeped yesterday’s leaves, because I am deeply lazy.

Interesting tea when you get chocolate notes and there is no chocolate in the tea. Tea steeps up dark and smells a little earthy. The taste I get is an earthy chocolate with no bitterness or astringency. Very smooth and mellow tea.

This tea smells like chocolate. When steeped I got a dark amber color that smelled a little nutty with chocolate notes in it. This tea reminds me of a dark creamy Oolong.

This is a very nice change of pace tea. It smells like chocolate and the taste is silky and cocoa-like. No bitterness or astringency I could find. Tea gets a little earthy as it cools.

I’ve updated my first log of this with a couple more details, but I just had to post another note.

For some reason, this tea makes me crave it late at night. It’s so smooth, light, and calm. There’s just no bitterness at all. I’m now noticing a hint of starfruit there, in addition to the highly cocoa-centric flavor.

I’m not sure if this applies to other tea drinkers, but it seems to me that different teas give slightly different highs – Chinese green teas often make me feel thin and twitchy and mentally hyperactive, Assams are more physically energizing. Dawn is sort of like a runner’s high. If I’m not already too full of vigor, I can sleep after having it even though it has caffeine. The milk I use might be affecting this too; milk seems to soften all aspects of a tea, including the stimulant effect. I use about half of what I would use for a more robust black. It looks a bit light in color after the milk is added but the flavor is very nice.

Dawn is also still good even if oversteeped. It’s the first black tea that I’ve actually considered steeping twice; often, the smell of used black tea leaves is somewhat repulsive to me, but Dawn’s large leaves still smell and look nice.

The other thing I had to say is that this is now my girlfriend’s favorite tea. She also likes it blended with Keemun.

I’m going to have to bump up my rating again.

Having another cup of this late at night, and it is excellent as always. Prepared with sweetened condensed milk, this is giving me a Fruit Stripe gum vibe on top of the usual cocoa and chicory notes. Not what I expected, but I’ll take it. In the months since first trying it, I still have not had any other tea like Dawn. It is truly an accomplishment.

Mmm…Dawn. I’ve missed you. I know you won’t be with me for much longer but I will enjoy each minute we have together.

If you’re curious, I have a longer review up on It’s All About the Leaf: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/799/tea-review-the-simple-leaf-dawn-2/

I was just sitting here trying to decide what tea to have next when I became inspired by JacquelineM and her enjoyment of Dawn. I was a bit hesitant to try this tea again because it seems that one day I like it, the next I could pass on it. I think I’ve figured out a strange pattern however. On days that I drink Dawn as my first tea of the day, I don’t like it too much. But on days that I drink Dawn after a heartier breakfast tea, I absolutely love it. My conclusion: Both me and my tastebuds need caffeine in order to appreciate the nuances of this tea.

So today, after drinking Vanilla Black by Harney & Sons, I am able to appreciate and enjoy Dawn. This tea is both light and full-bodied which almost seems like an impossible contradiction. I think that once my sample bag is gone, I will have to order more of this. So far I have had it every day and now that I know what it takes for me to enjoy it, I will continue to have it. This deserves a bump in ratings just because it is so interesting, calming, and makes me feel quite poetic and philosophical for some reason.

Okay, enough procrastination, on to my 8 page essay!!

Second and final infusion of my pouch of Dawn. I added a touch of honey, which is something I don’t usually do with Dawn, due to the last cup being a tad on the bitter side. The honey did work to smooth things out, but the result still isn’t awesome as I remember Dawn being.

It is official, I think I’m in love with Dawn….
I almost didn’t make any Dawn today because I’ve had a nasty headache all morning and I was afraid that Dawn just wouldn’t taste good. I went ahead and gave in and I have received a warm, chocolatey hug in a cup. I just love this tea. It is one of the most complex teas I’ve ever had and I’m still amazed that the leaves aren’t flavored. The more I drink it, the more I like it. Wow, I’m bumping the rating a little bit. It is consistently good each day, which you don’t always get when dealing with flavored teas that may be unevenly mixed. Just great.

Maybe this tea is growing on me. I think I like it more today than I did previously. In fact, I was drinking another tea but stopped halfway through the infusions because Dawn sounded SO good. I think this tea is much better with boiling water which I did not use before. I brewed for 4 minutes again, but am drinking it plain today. Very nice, light, and smooth but is also a pretty full-bodied tea. I will make my final decision after finishing my sample bag, but so far I think this may have to go on my shopping list along with other interesting teas from The Simple Leaf like Honeybee and Mountain Malt. This tea is just so complex, which is strange for an unflavored tea.

I’m finishing up the last of Dawn tonight as I work on completing my new goal of finishing up all my teas before acquiring more. I don’t know if my sample is just old or something, but Dawn didn’t taste as great as I remember. Still really good and impressive for an unflavored tea, just not like I remember.

Just when I thought that this would be the last serving, I have enough left over for another pot, another day! I think I’m going to miss this tea, but not immediately. There are too many other teas I want to get my hands on right now.

I’ve been working on this tea throughout the evening and am currently on the 2nd and final infusion. This tea just works. It is one of the best unflavored teas I’ve ever had and I can’t wait to try others from the Simple Leaf.

I’ve been continually playing with this tea in an attempt to either persuade myself that I don’t need to order more or to convince myself that it is worth the money. I tried for a 3rd infusion today…on a black tea. I let the tea steep for around 10 minutes which resulted in a very light tea and cocoa flavor. It definitely had some flavor and is impressive that it tasted okay and not bitter at the 3rd infusion, but it isn’t an infusion that I will probably do again.

Its strange, I had this tea yesterday and I swear it was like the best thing I had ever tasted. I had it again today and it was good, but not amazing. Maybe it is because I started yesterday with a hardier black tea before moving to Dawn. I think that perhaps it is hard for me to taste all the nuances of this tea without being properly caffeinated and awake. I will be having this again tomorrow (I’ve limited myself to one infusion series per day of this tea) and will try it after my breakfast tea to see if the amazing feeling from drinking this returns. If it does, I promise that I will have to keep this tea around.

I had this one again last night. I haven’t been craving this tea as much as I once was…perhaps I don’t love it as much as I thought. Still a very interesting and delicious tea though.

As a side note, I left part of my cup from last night in the fridge…this one is not so special cold (perhaps if I had added sweetener or something).

It has been several days since I’ve enjoyed this tea and it sounded really good tonight. It is nice to have a black tea that doesn’t need additions in order for it to be drinkable. I’m not even sure how long I steeped this for (I’m guessing closer to 10 minutes than 5) but it is still great.

Dawn…where have you been all my life? Seriously, how am I deserving of such an interesting cup of delicious complexity? Okay, I love this tea. Very smooth, chocolate, and dark oolong-esque. I only wish you could take an many infusions as a real oolong.

Yes, I’m breaking my own rule and drinking Dawn twice in one day. Why? Because the online tea randomizer told me to…3 times in a row. Haha!

Rather enjoying this this morning. Warm and cocoay-earthy. Good for book-reading, I think. Even though I never quite know whether or not I TRULY like this tea, I think I’ll be rather sad when I run out. Especially since the Simple Leaf shut down. There were so many other teas from them I wanted to try! I should have bought an ounce of each one the first time around, instead of just planning to do it in batches of three. If only I’d known.

I don’t think there will ever be a Single Estate tea company as wonderful as them. It’s all the awesome companies that go under, sadly. I’m almost out of the ti guan yin I got from the Jade Teapot too.

Sipping this, I’m really missing Simple Leaf. There were so many other teas from them I wanted to try. Mountain Malt, Black Frost… I think I repeat myself every time I drink this tea. But they shut down so suddenly; you would think they would need to sell off some of their stock first. Where did all of that tea go, I wonder?

Sipping this very hot and savouring it. I have a calculus test to take in a little under two hours. I can never bring myself to worry over these things, and sipping tea only calms me more. I hope I pass.

Dirty, dry malt, raw cocoa, this is such a wonderfully confusing tea. I’m no chocolate fan, but I can understand what people mean by ‘raw cocoa’. That dusty, astringent, dirt taste, with hints of very bitter chocolate. I’m so glad I still have a few good scoops left. This is not a tea I want to finish off. We’re still getting acquainted.

Drinking this tea makes me so happy and so sad at the same time. I don’t ever want to run out of it, but I’ve only a few teaspoons left. Every time I drink it while in front of the computer, I have to run a search on google for sites that sell black tea grown in Arunachai Pradesh, India.

I never have any luck.

Dawn, don’t ever leave me again. Even though I know the hard water of Up North would have reeked havoc on you. And I’ve only a few teaspoons of your deliciousness left.

I’m drinking the very last of this, and trying to make it count.

This is still my favourite black to date. Made it slightly strong (using up the last of the tea leaves/fannings at the bottom of the bag), but still delicious.

Needed something to wake up today. I like this tea a lot, but there is something that smells like manure in the background. That’ll would probably keep me from ordering more. What is that smell?

No amount of coffee was doing the job this morning so I decided I would get a cup of tea with caffeine in it. I went back to the Dawn. It is so smooth and chocolaty. Perfect mid-morning cup.

Added a smidge of sugar and a tiny amount of soy creamer.

I added a touch of soy creamer to this and it really brought out the chocolaty tones. Nom!

I made this iced because I’d accidentally bought way more than I meant to and the description says it’s good iced. I figured I’d give it a try. It’s just ok for me iced. I haven’t quite decided if I like iced or not but I am leaning towards not. It doesn’t have a ton of flavor iced and then it ends with that peaty/earthy taste at the end of the sip. And it seems to have become fairly astringent when cold brewed.

It’s possible that I didn’t use enough tea leaves (I went by a blog post made by SimpleTeas on iced tea ratio). I made 2 quarts and used almost 1/2 cup tea leaves. Next time, trial iced tea should be made in smaller quantities. Cold brewed for 24 hours.

I’m not changing my rating because it is excellent hot!

I am wondering how I could possibly be good enough to deserve this tea and my mind is humming over trying to give examples (I cleaned out all the kitchen cupboards yesterday, I finished a significant task at work last week, etc.). But the truth is that no one is good enough to deserve this tea. It is a work of grace that this tea exists and we mortals can enjoy its warm cocoa taste with complex notes of tea and caramel. So now I’m blissing out on grace.

This is my favorite breakfast tea. I’ve had it most mornings. The taste has a lovely chocolate note that wakes as it soothes. It is also difficult to oversteep it. I don’t think I’ve had a single bitter morning when Dawn was in my cup.

The tea has improbably large, twisted black leaves that smell of chocolate. It brews up into a brandy-colored brew that smells like chocolate. The taste is true to the fragrance, it is like a cocoa tea with no bitterness and the merest hint of astringency. This is so good! I really need to order more of this when I run out of my small package. I’ve upped the rating a bit.

It’s a brand new day, which is a great excuse to drink Dawn, my favorite tea.

Brewed two cups with the same leaves. Great both times. Gotta keep this one in stock.

Delicious. This a great, standard tea. Smooth and flavorful.