And the oddness continues. Seriously there are strange things afoot in this tin!
I shall tell you why.
If you go check my other two posts about this one you will find the first one in january where I said that it was surprisingly fruity and sweet for a black tea, that it had a raisin-y note, and that if I hadn’t known otherwise I would have believed it to be a flavoured black.
The second post was the other day where most likely due to a slight over-steep it had turned totally smoky, and I couldn’t understand how that had happened, but I liked the tea better for it and gave it a few more points, from 76 to 80 if memory serves me right.
Then this morning I made a little pot for my travel mug. I wanted some of that smoke. And what did I get? Well, certainly not anything remotely smoky! Instead there was that distinct cardboard-y note that you’ll find in Assams. It was still a strong cup and I drank it with unusual haste, but it was still the third of three completely different cups.
And it is the same tin. I’ve checked.
I can’t for the life of me understand what’s going on here. Can tea-leaves have multiple personality disorder?
No matter what though, I can’t ignore the impulse give it some more points again.
I wonder what it will taste like tomorrow?
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perhaps it’s a magical tin that changes the flavor every time you take some out….
Or someone is sneaking in and messing with the labels behind my back! Perhaps I’ve got a poltergeist…
hmmm well as long as this tea poltergeist doesn’t start putting in fannings I’d leave it be and not bother with banishing ;)
Okay, I am curious.
Cardboard-y note confuses me as I love assams and I’m not sure what cardboard tastes like. Is there any other way to describe it?
@dan – not sure if you’ve had them but but those religious body/host disks ? as if you toasted that
well, that or go lick the inside of a box j/k !
I think I have some cardboard here somewhere. lol
I’ve been reading this one super uber serious tea blog and the guy not only talks about how what you store the tea in radically effecting the final cup, but what you brew it in, as well. I mean, this guy gets into gas fired versus wood fired glazes on clay kind of serious.
So if your three different steeps used radically different tools, your odd results here aren’t too surprising.
But so exciting – never knowing what your tea/tin is up to in the middle of the night! Stay tuned, only the next infusion can tell ….! I think we are all waiting for tomorrow (or your next adventure with this tea) with baited breath!
It’s like the The Toy Story but with Tea leaves instead of toys THE Tea Story.
I can help with “cardboard” scent/taste, having spent a semester of college working part-time in a box-making factory office. Cardboard smells & can taste like recycled paper, recycled horse/goat/pig glue & inks, and depending on how fresh each part of it is, that part comes through.
It’s usually not a good note. LOL
I actually like most cardboard-y notes in my tea. It gives them a little substantial feel/taste to them though I will admit, some of the cardboard taste is like licking a very used and dirty shipping box! :)
That’s the weird thing about the Assam cardboard! It’s most definitely unmistakably (to me anwyay) cardboard. But it’s not bad cardboard.
perhaps it’s a magical tin that changes the flavor every time you take some out….
Or someone is sneaking in and messing with the labels behind my back! Perhaps I’ve got a poltergeist…
hmmm well as long as this tea poltergeist doesn’t start putting in fannings I’d leave it be and not bother with banishing ;)
Okay, I am curious.
Cardboard-y note confuses me as I love assams and I’m not sure what cardboard tastes like. Is there any other way to describe it?
@dan – not sure if you’ve had them but but those religious body/host disks ? as if you toasted that
well, that or go lick the inside of a box j/k !
I think I have some cardboard here somewhere. lol
I’ve been reading this one super uber serious tea blog and the guy not only talks about how what you store the tea in radically effecting the final cup, but what you brew it in, as well. I mean, this guy gets into gas fired versus wood fired glazes on clay kind of serious.
So if your three different steeps used radically different tools, your odd results here aren’t too surprising.
But so exciting – never knowing what your tea/tin is up to in the middle of the night! Stay tuned, only the next infusion can tell ….! I think we are all waiting for tomorrow (or your next adventure with this tea) with baited breath!
It’s like the The Toy Story but with Tea leaves instead of toys THE Tea Story.
I can help with “cardboard” scent/taste, having spent a semester of college working part-time in a box-making factory office. Cardboard smells & can taste like recycled paper, recycled horse/goat/pig glue & inks, and depending on how fresh each part of it is, that part comes through.
It’s usually not a good note. LOL
I actually like most cardboard-y notes in my tea. It gives them a little substantial feel/taste to them though I will admit, some of the cardboard taste is like licking a very used and dirty shipping box! :)
That’s the weird thing about the Assam cardboard! It’s most definitely unmistakably (to me anwyay) cardboard. But it’s not bad cardboard.