I’m currently experimenting a bit with this since I need to empty the tin since it’s rather old(the tea, not the tin).
12 Tasting Notes
Had this with breakfast today. The steep could have been shorter, maybe I’ll try 3 minutes next time. The taste was strong and vegetal, could have been a bit less strong, but not much. Oh, and I still think the Tesspeicher has strange instructions – two teaspoons for 1.5 litres? So I used two teaspoons for half a litre, not just a fraction of one.
Following the general gongfu instructions, I first poured boiling water onto the leaves and simply poured it away. Then I used 80 degree water and let them steep for 15 seconds, all I got from that steep was a general fruitiness, which made me wonder if maybe I shouldn’t have done the rinse/wash. With the next steep(20 seconds), the fruitiness got much stronger, and I probably could have figured out some individual fruits if i had walked over to the fruitbowl and taken a sniff for comparison, but that didn’t occur to me until much later. Obviously, I should eat fruit salad much more often. The third/fourth steep(depending on wether or not you count the rinse/wash as a steep) basically gave me more of the same. After the next one I got interrupted and had to take a break.
The fifth/sixth one had a sweetness. On the sixth/seventh steep, there was more sweetness, but also some woody notes. The sweetness retreated on the seventh/eighth steep, while the wooden notes got stronger and were accompanied by a slight smokyness.
In the eigth/ninth steep, the sweetness changed, becoming simultaneously more subtle and more intense, more purely sweet – I think it may be that it originally developed out of the fruitiness, and this is its true peak. The wooden part disappered, completely replaced by smokyness.
Umm, at some point I lost count of the steeps, but eventually it got weak, so I put the leaves away and cleaned the tiny pot and cups.
Backlogging from way back on Sunday: Had this with sunday dinner, didn’t really analyze it since I was also eating, so I can’t really say much except mentioning the modified parameters and saying that it was good, but could have been bit stronger.
Forgot to log this immediately after drinking it this morning, again, but I think I remember more this time. I think I actually got the chocolatey aspect this time, although it was pretty subtle for the most part. With the first few cups, there was something that oddly reminded me of (the scent of) coffee, yet was quite different from coffee(obviously, since I don’t like coffee, but this wasn’t negative). Then, there was something that tasted sort of like Assam does when it’s been brewed Indian style, in milk on the stove. Near the end, I tried using much less/almost no (soy)milk, and realized why it specifically said bitter choclate, as it had apparently after-brewed quite a bit and was now bitter without the milk. And with the last cup, the “coffee-like” element came back, and I realized what it was: the “roasted notes”, which are very different from those I get with some teas.
No notes yet.
No notes yet.
Yummy.
2 steeps, then the teabag went missing …
so, I missed out on the other 10 or so.
No notes yet.
No notes yet.
No notes yet.
Much better than green Mate. Sort of smoky, oddly I could smell the chocolate but not taste it. Adding soy milk was a good idea, with real milk it tasted kind of odd. No rating yet, I’ll add that later(when I’ve had it again, since there were a few hours between drinking it and writing this)
