First cup of this! Order came 2 days ago and I’m getting around to tasting it now. Funny how it came before the order I had placed previous to this that is just getting around to being shipped. I guess they really wanted this one to get out to the people! Not complaining in the least.
So I made a 2-mug pot out of this. Western style, about 3.5 teaspoons to 750 ml of filtered water, 175F and 2 minutes. I wish that the packaging had western style brewing instructions instead of just gaiwan ones because I don’t have a gaiwan. Oh well, guessing it is.
I don’t think I guessed too badly, though I think I’ll add a minute to the second steep later. First mug added milk and about a teaspoon of sugar. It didn’t taste too sweet, though the sugar definitely brightened it up a bit. The black tea was sort of subdued in the face of the RICE RICE RICE that landed on my tongue. I’ve had (one) chocolate genmaicha before, from 52teas, and I couldn’t taste the chocolate then, as I can’t taste any chocolate now. I read Terri’s review though, after I had made it, so possibly I just didn’t shake up the package enough for the cacao to be in the spoonfuls that I scooped up for this batch. I’ll be sure to do some shaking next time.
Second mug, filled up way to the top so, without sweetener or milk, I sucked down a couple of ounces. I generally can’t pick up much for tasting notes with plain teas, for some reason they all mainly just taste like bitter. Although there really was no bitter in this, no squish face for me, and it was drinkable, but I still haven’t reached a point in my tea journey yet where I can drink black tea without sweetener. I’m down to a quarter of my original sweetener additions from the start of my journey, but can’t quite make that last jump.
Added a bit less sugar to the last of the second mug and it suddenly tastes a little too sweet. Perhaps the toffee I had for breakfast finally wearing out? Tastes less like RICE and more like rice and black tea. I haven’t had Laoshan Black separately, though it is in my order that is coming in the mail soon, so I can’t really compare, but it’s a really nice black tea. Still no chocolate, but that’s to be expected since it’s the same pot. Looking forward to steep #2.
