1847 Tasting Notes
SIPDOWN
A tea I have ordered and haven’t received from their subscription. I have hoped that it will be better than some typical Earl Grey but actuallly, it is it.
It is nothing exclusive, rather quite generic — but tasty Earl Grey.
The black tea base was tasty itself, as I wrote in previous note: malty, grapes. Nothing close to smoky. The bergamot itself is nicely present, leaves are well coated with oils probably. In the brew the level of citrus notes is right, the base is nice so… it’s nice earl grey.
Good tea, but I don’t really think I will re-order it. I will rather try something new.
Flavors: Bergamot, Citrus Zest, Grapes, Malt
Preparation
A tea bag from ashmanra. Thank you!
I am quite surprised it is so underrated. Actually people really hate it. I don’t see it that bad! Maybe I am much more used to drink those hibi blends.
It was actually quite tasty for me. It was mostly hibiscus, that’s right, but I noticed quite lots of raspberries, fresh and ripe. It was bit tart, as I have expected, but rasperries were genuine for me. Haven’t noticed any artificial flavours.
I look into ingredients list now and there should be spearmint and peppermint but haven’t noticed them at all.
Overall decent tea. Certainly not one of the best, but I can imagine it offering it to others :), at least it got actual fruit notes.
Flavors: Raspberry, Tart
Preparation
SIPDOWN
This tea it is needed to drink fresh. First brews I was amazed but now and recently it was kind of clove + green tea. No hot notes, as chilli or ginger. I haven’t used cinnamon as they suggest for autumn “kick”, but I can imagine being it nice.
Sad to see it go? Kinda yes. But autumn is coming and new blends with spices will come. Happy that I have finished it just before another upcoming teas.
Preparation
Had it in the afternoon, approx. 3 hours ago. I will try to recall at least something.
The dry leaf aroma was quite interesting and not that appealing for me. Noticed some sweet stonefruits as cherries, maybe tiny hints of apricots but mostly tobacco.
But I decided to brew 4 grams per 300 ml, freshly boiled water and… that’s different story.
That story is about strong malt and dried plums. Today I learned it is called prune in English. So okay, malt and prune.
The story starts with wonderful copper colour of the brew. It is dark copper with lots of shine and clear colour. I steeped it for 4 minutes and… it was just right.
First sips were somehow normal, typical malty Assam profile. But then the explosion of taste did the bang! Malt, prunes, some woody notes (eastkyteaguy noticed cedar, while I think more about sandalwood, sweet notes as molasses (another stuff I never had chance to try, but I imagine being it like that), dates and figs (as he noticed and I have to agree).
One of the most complex Assams I had. The aftertaste was long and it was very energizing! Would like more than 25 grams, but paying my one and half shift money for whole box (which looks amazing though) is way too much. But it’s worth every penny.
Thank you a lot Alistair and White Antlers. Truly exceptional tea!
Flavors: Apricot, Cherry, Dates, Fig, Malt, Molasses, Plum, Tobacco, Wood
Preparation
Sounds delicious!
Doesn’t ‘dried plum’ sound so much more…I don’t know…appealing and tastier than PROON?!
Wow, you make this one sound like the best tea!
It is close to I suppose :)
I don’t want to write whole new tasting note while only result would be: I feel in love with this tea or I need more before it is gone and so on. It’s one of the most delicous teas I had, for sure!
I made it strong today (5 grams) and it indeed lost its subtle flavours. It is nicely malty and floral, but somehow generic floral — maybe hints of muscatel there, but that’s it.
This stronger brew have different mouthfeel though. It is well coating the tongue, like honey + even some honey taste. Slight astringency lingers for quite long.
Needs light brew indeed. Rating may change.
Flavors: Floral, Honey, Malt, Muscatel
Preparation
Received two tea bags from postcrossing week ago. It should be rooibos with plum flavour.
Honestly, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I do like plums, they are somewhere between sweet and savoury and I rather tend to enjoy savoury ones.
It should be brewed for 5 minutes as I found out while looking for this tea. I did bit longer, I guess it was around 8; but I don’t really think it will change the flavour profile too much, because…
well, it wasn’t much flavourful. Yes, rooibos was there. But not anyhow woody as expected, it was just plain base without anything. It was just plain. And the flavour? Well, it was bit of sweet side, but I would not recognize it is plum if you asked me without my knowledge.
Preparation
Tried to gong-fu it today and it was bit better.
4 grams — 85 ml.
It was still quite malty, but noticed more — some hints of sweet cherries, raisins, pear, cinnamon. The last one was prounced as well in something like aftertaste, but it wasn’t much strong. I had much stronger aftertaste in other teas.
72 → 80
Flavors: Cherry, Cinnamon, Pear, Raisins
Preparation
Drink in the afternoon. Received from postcrossing, from Germany, half an month ago. Postcard was nice though. See here: https://www.postcrossing.com/postcards/DE-9522879
After few hours spent with programming, I wasn’t able to do anything what would working as expected. And I need to learn it good enough till Tuesday. Worse is, that even my brother, who is programmer have no idea how to do it. Or he managed it, but it’s confusing for me.
The tea is unfortuantely dismal as well. Aroma was full of blueberry, but after brewing, all blueberry is gone. Elderflower wasn’t present at all, both aroma and taste.
Tastes actually like an another white tea, classical bagged stuff when it is rather light hay taste and nothing much more. Blueberry… maybe there was something behind all the hay, but… expected it being much more present. Expected floral notes of Elderflower. Nada.
At least new tea bag to collection.
Tasting note NUMBER 700, too bad it is so…boring tea
Flavors: Hay
Preparation
I am so old (creak, groan, squeak) that in college, training was not yet available for simple computer apps like word processing or spreadsheets. If you wanted to take a computer class, you had to take programming because that was all that was offered. So I tried. My brain is not laid out that logically! Oh, yeah, and I have actually used 5 1/4" floppy discs. Hope you can get the glitches worked out!
They still had manual typewriters when I was in school….
I learned to type on computers in elementary school gifted class. When I got to 8th grade maybe ’96?, my public middle school was still using manual typewriters for the keyboarding class.
Martin: you’ve been here a year less than me and have surpassed me by a handful of tasting notes! Congrats. That’s a lot of tea-drinking, my friend. I hope one day one of your notes will be about a tea we shared in person :)
Wow, derk! What a cool thought! That would be awesome. Should we meet Martin in Prague or should he take a train across America and come see us all? :)
Martin always has a place to bunk here on the East coast.
I just donated my IBM Selectric to a non-profit a few years ago. Used it for decades and it was still in good working order when I passed it on. My cell phone? Still have a 25 year old Motorola flip phone. No GPS. No camera. No monthly plan. No internet on it. A young friend told me I had a burner phone…
White Antlers – you have a phone that has actually not broke in 25 years?!? Put that in the record books! I guess they don’t make them like they used to.
gmathis: I managed. With a help of my brother. Then we found it is incredlibly easy (I have solutions, but want to find my way). I did nothing about that today though. I need to make my brain rest a bit as well. But Tuesday is so close!
derk: Writing with all 10 is necessary today. Many of my classamates aren’t able. I am not able to follow the course, because I have learned otherwise. On my own! Thanks. Indeed I would love to write a note that we share in person. And honestly I write about every single tea I drink . No matter if it is bagged stuff or loose leaf. And usually it is every tea session as well. I have to save money to travel to US (getting ESTA would be another tricky stuff)!
ashmanra: Indeed cool thought! You are always welcomed (all of you) in my country. Prague? How about Pardubice, or my hometown? Haha. But I can be in Prague in two hours anytime. Just say you have landed, I will jump into train and we will met at main train station while I will travel 164 km and you from airport to train station. No. It’s not that bad from the airport. But you would not wait much for me.
I want to take the train across America. But North Carolina and East Coast (you White Antlers) and then to Cali? Whoawhoawhoa… it is getting bit pricey. But certainly unforgetable. Drinking lots of tea along the way, I guess two suitcases will be necessary. One for tea, second for everything else. And I will have to bring some beers to my friend.
White Antlers: If I ever happen to be over there, I will let you know! Thank you for that wonderful offer. It is amazing ot own that “old stuff” but honestly I can’t imagine it. But I am different generation and that’s why I guess.
All: How much I need for flight tickets? Probably New York would be safe bet to arrive? Or should I travel to CA first and then travel on ground back to East, then from East back to Europe? Right now cheapest tickets are for 366 USD to San Francisco and back. Well. I don’t have that now. And trains there are expensive as well, as well “the life”. But I am sure I won’t be able to eat whole BigMac menu on my own. The portions for US kids would be enough. Haha.
Martin, look for deals on flights. They crop up all the time. Traveling cross country in the U.S. by bus, like Greyhound, might be cheaper than train travel. My city has lots of craft beer and I would feed you. No Big Macs, either. Hoagies, pizza, cheese steak, TastyCakes, soft pretzels, food in Chinatown, barbecue, Mexican, Thai and Indian food. Seriously. Start saving your Czech crowns. : )
tea sipper, I grew up poor and thus learned how to take care of things because I had to. It’s a good phone. I have only had to replace the battery once in 20 some years. I have to do triple tap texting on it, which is a pain, but that encourages me to interact more in face to face time and waste less time tapping with my face in a screen.
White Antler: But I am railway buff, that’s why I want travel through with trains :) On East coast it shouldn’t be hard apparently, but crossing the US is actually for same price as a flight. I will start saving :)
Ah! A railway buff! I love trains as well, Martin. Maybe we should start a GoFundMe here on Steepster for this big trip. : )
Haha White Antlers. I would prefer to save on it on my own. Mybe some tiny little help would be nice, but not funding it completely by the awesome community. It would be lovely to see everyone who follows me, but well it means jumps to Canada as well (maybe next visit across the pond?). We weill see. Need to finish University first!
It’s my fervent hope that by the time you finish University, COVID will no longer be a pandemic; just a very bad memory. Travel should be easy again or at least easier than it is now. BTW, Canada is a beautiful place and the people are so polite (or at least the ones I met there) it’s wonderful. Of course, you’d need to visit both central Canada as well as the west coast of it, specifically British Columbia. Oh, to be so very rich with infinite time to travel…
Congratulations on 700 reviews by the way!!!!
Well, it seems I have aged this tea a bit. Maybe a bit more than I should…
Prepared gong-fu, 3 grams, 85 ml water.
Vegetal, stonefruits, kind of sweet, peas, no or almost none astringency. Haven’t noticed the floral notes I wrote in previous notes.
Leaves after all the steeps I made (that should be around 8-9, as I have ran out of my thermos) are wonderful, some are bit bug bitten, but almost all of them are whole. If I had bigger gaiwan, they will expand fully.
Considering it was that exclusive, I am glad that it has aged pretty well, mellowed the taste and astringency is gone as well. It reminds me another tea I had (Mandalay Spring by Nous Tea but it is from Burma). Maybe the varietal is same or very similar? Keeping the 78 as it isn’t that great, even it is bit better than fresh.
Flavors: Peas, Stonefruit, Vegetal
Preparation
SIPDOWN
Well, kinda sad one.
It is delicious blend, though today prepared somehow too strong. Used 3 heaped teaspoons and even I have used bigger mug (400 ml) it was just overwhelmed with black tea. It was quite astringent and tannic, not much of peaches, but there were sweet notes for sure. And creamy. Not that much smooth as my morning tea, but this thick black tea with sweet notes and hints of peaches was good in the early afternoon.
Need to try the dessert with same name. Another thing in my TODO list which I try to keep in my mind, but I think I will start an Excel file with it. The idea / group (baking) / priority / notes. Sounds good.
