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Had some of this at Whole Foods where we stopped to get lunch today. I have a soft spot for anything having to do with Berke Breathed because he used to do the comic for my college newspaper before he did Bloom County, and the label gets a lot of mileage out of his being among the company’s first customers. There’s a picture of Opus the penguin on the front.

It’s decent for a bottled tea. I don’t taste a lot of oolong flavor, but I do taste the peach. It has some sugar in it making a bottle 60 calories, which I could do without. One of the reasons I drink tea is because it has no calories.

It’s raining here after months of drought, and it makes me want to curl up with a book and do nothing but drink tea all day. We’ll see how that plan goes.

This is another of the 52 Teas flavors I bought a while back and am just now getting around to trying.

There are big honking chocolate and peanut butter chips in the blend which is exciting. The dry leaf has a rich, cocoa smell.

The steeped tea has an aroma that has hints of chocolate and nuttiness, and also a slightly woodsy note. It’s a pretty, cherry wood hue in the cup. With a splash of milk added, the peanut butter nature of the nutty flavor becomes more focused.

The flavor really is peanut butter and chocolate, but it’s subtler than some of the other 52 Teas blends I’ve tried. This could have something to do with the age of the tea, or maybe not (it was sealed in the original packaging before I opened it this morning).

I don’t usually add milk to tea, but I tried it with this one and it brought out more of the peanut butter, whereas without milk I tasted primarily chocolate. I suspect how much of each one tastes in each cup might depend on whether you got a chip or two in your cup, and what the balance of the peanut butter to the chocolate ones is.

52 Teas blends are really good guinea pigs for the new “flavors” feature on Steepster. I went to add flavors just now and guess what? No peanut, no peanut butter. Just nuts (and peanuts, as we know, are really legumes-no legumes either). I’ve suggested they add them.

Anyway, not a favorite with me, though I’ll happily drink the rest.

Sipdown no. 54 for the year 2014. It wasn’t an intentional sipdown. I’d intended to have a couple more tastings of this, but the BF really wanted tea because his throat is bothering him so I made a big pot. This time, I shook up the sample packet (not that it probably matters since this is the end of it). I also tried steeping at my usual 4 minutes for black tea today, but determined that this really does require five minutes to bring out full flavor, so after taking a sip I put it back in to steep for another minute.

Pretty much everything I said yesterday held true for my tasting of this today. There’s definitely a sweet, milky caramel-y flavor. The tea base doesn’t come through much for me underneath the sweetness. It’s a good tea and pleasant enough to drink, it’s just not among my favorites either as a black caramel blend or as an American Tea Room flavored tea.

Sipdown no. 53 for the year 2014. Dismissing the lesser nobility from the cupboard this morning.

In sum: prefer it to the triple, like the single slightly better, it’s a solid Earl Grey and a good alternative in case one in the pantheon becomes unavailable or otherwise falls from grace.

I have to confess: I am logging this mostly to play with the new interface. Wow. More granularity, just what I need to feed my OCD tendencies. ;-) I really have nothing to say about this tea that I haven’t already said other than that I drank it as I introduced No. 2 to Star Trek via the initial Star Trek movie on Netflix while No. 1 was on a play date. Then he wanted to watch the series, starting with the pilot.

This is how geeks are born.

I am probably going make myself something decaffeinated and head to bed to read or watch TV. It was a rough work week and we just got back from dinner to celebrate the BF’s birthday. I had a glass of wine that made me sleepy.

Night all. Sleep tight.

Sipdown no. 52 of the year 2014. A sample; another of the Golden Moon teas that I couldn’t quite make up my mind about after the initial taste-through of the 31 tea sampler. I notice that Adham rated this very highly so I’m using his time and temp to steep instead of my original. 195 for 3:30.

I am probably very over-caffeinated at this point because I’ve been drinking black tea all morning, so I’m using this as a transition out of blacks (it has both black and green tea in it) for the day, but I wonder whether I’m so wired that something has gone wack-o with my smeller.

Sniffing the packet, my first thought was “lime sherbet?” My second was “bubblegum?” Which made me stop to think whether one of the flavors I taste in the flavor known as bubblegum is vanilla, because it certainly isn’t jasmine. But I think vanilla is part of that flavor? This wasn’t what I described smelling the first time around. The longer I sniff, the more I can differentiate the jasmine and the vanilla, of course. But a lot of other associations come along as well. Grape soda?

After steeping I get much more jasmine in the aroma than vanilla this time, though the associations continue. I mentioned crème soda last time, and I can see that, though I also get an impression of flavored fruit soda smell.

I am getting both vanilla and jasmine in the taste, more jasmine than vanilla like last time. The flavor is…. interesting. I like jasmine and I like vanilla, but together they don’t work together as well for me as they do separately. The aftertaste also leaves me with something of a Pepto Bismal association this time. Between that and the back of the throat grab from this mix that I mentioned the first time and that is happening on the second try as well, this is a pass for me. I’m bumping it down because I enjoyed it rather less than most things I’ve tasted in the past couple of weeks. Which is unfortunate because Golden Moon has so many other teas that I love to pieces.

Sipdown no. 51 of the year 2014. Ahhh, this is making me miss Rabs, the person who kindly sent me some of this.

I don’t have a lot to add to my previous note, except to say that there is some nuttiness in the flavor, particularly in the aftertaste, and that it reminds me a little of water chestnuts more than of true nuts.

Sipdown no. 50 for the year 2014. I wanted something special for the 50-mark, and I don’t believe I’ve written any notes on Red Blossom teas before.

I should mention that I can’t be absolutely certain that this note is about this tea. The sample is in a silver packet, and it says “Gold Thread” on it, with some characters on the next line, and then the words “Black Tea.” But there is no company name. I did order from Red Blossom, though, and theirs are the only teas named Gold Thread in the Steepster database. A cursory Google search brings up only the Red Blossom products in the first couple of pages. So I’m 99% sure this is theirs.

When I poured the leaves from the sample packet, I could already tell I was likely to enjoy this. The twisty, golden leaves are lovely and the smell of the dry leaf is that malty Yunnan smell I love so much.

I checked the Red Blossom web site and used their steeping suggestions for time and temp, albeit for the Gold Thread Reserve. This was a bit of a challenge because the sample is only enough for 1.5 cups and the Breville makes a minimum of 2. I used less water than the minimum but the measurement wasn’t overly precise.

This yielded a peachy yellow liquor, very light in color. The aroma is tantalizingly malty. I am wondering whether I should have steeped this longer just because I’m used to longer steeping for black teas. I’m getting an interesting, sort of salty marine note with an undercurrent of malt. I am not tasting the orange or yam notes in the description, but there’s a really pleasant mouth feel-soft and silky, and the brown sugar comes out some as the tea cools.

I steeped it again at a full four minutes just for contrast. And yes, this is more like what I expected. A darker liquor, reddish-orange, and a deeper flavor. Here is where I start to get something like yam, a hint of starchy vegetable. And if I cross my eyes and squint, I can almost get to orange. In any case, I taste what I think is what they mean by orange. A medium note on the front end the ends as a high note on the back end.

The wet leaves have a fascinating, spicy aroma-I’m reminded of caraway seeds and pepper. Mine don’t look as blond as the picture, they’re more of a light olive green (no. 2 says “brown”), but long and pretty.

I wish I’d gone with a longer steep the first time as now I’ll never know what that would have been like. Red Blossom does not have this listed on their web site at present, though they have the reserve version. I’ll stick it on the shopping list just in case it ever comes back. I’d love to experiment with this one some more.

ETA: No. 2 says, “I love it. I think it’s better than the flavored ones.” (He tried the American Tea Room Caramel this morning, too.)

Also, after comparing the sample packaging of other samples to the database here, I’m now sure this is from Red Blossom.

Against my better judgment, I am steeping according to the directions on the sample packet. Five minutes. I suspect in subsequent tastings I’ll back down to four.

I like the addition of the little caramel bits to the mix. Gives it some visual interest. As I’m reading about this tea in the description here on Steepster, I realize I’ve already had a preparation fail. I did not shake the packet to assure consistent flavor across infusions. I suppose that may mean I’ll be writing an entirely different note in the days to come…

There’s definitely a caramel aroma coming from the dry leaves in the packet. Not so much after steeping, though. I mostly smell a sweet “tea” smell. The liquor does have a bit of cloud to it. I didn’t quite get garnet in color, more like a chestnut.

I’ve had other caramel teas and I tend to like caramel flavored teas as a category in general-even in teas such as oolong. I haven’t had another recently to compare this to, but it has an interesting quality that I’m not sure I’ve experienced in other caramels. There’s sort of a milky flavor to the caramel, like milk chocolate, only milk caramel if that makes sense. I get little pops of caramel flavor from time to time which must be from the little caramel bits saturating their immediate vicinity in the tea with their flavor.

I agree with others that this is a rather gentle caramel as they go. It doesn’t have that roasty carmelized sugar flavor that I expect in a caramel flavored tea; it’s more of a plain white sugar sweetness with flashes of caramel intensity from the caramel bits. It has a nice, sweet aftertaste with a hint of caramel to it.

I have to try it after shaking the packet though, before I reach any firm conclusions. Not rating for now.

Sipdown no. 49 for the year 2014. A sample. Pear!

I must say that this sipdown business is quite enjoyable. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment. Okay, a small one. But I can use all the feelings of accomplishment I can get. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem to be making a huge dent in my collection yet, but that’s just because for every sample I sip down I find another one I add to the pile. LOL.

In looking back at my first note about this, I see that I said I was confused about this one enough that I wanted to buy another sample when I placed my order. Indeed, that is what came to pass. I placed a mega-order with Golden Moon after doing my initial sample taste-through. Of the 31 samples, I think I bought close to 20 of them in a full size. There were only a couple of GM teas I completely scratched off the list. I can’t remember what those were but think the licorice was one. The rest were in this category-not sure, try again.

So here I go, trying again. Last time around I steeped this in boiling water for 3 minutes. This time I’m going to try it at a slightly lower temperature and a little longer. Teabird quite liked this one judging from her note and she steeped at 205 for 3:15 (she also suggested steeping more than once, which I will try). ifjuly also liked this and used boiling water but went to 4 minutes. The sample packet suggests boiling at 4-5 minutes, but I generally find going more than 4 minutes for black teas is suboptimal. I’m going to try 205 for 4 minutes.

This time around, I am getting much more fruit aroma from the dry leaves. It’s pear-like, in an apply sense. There’s also a fair amount of honey-pollen to the fragrance. I’m getting less floral and more fruit/honey this time around.

The steeped tea’s aroma definitely has a pear scent. I also smell honey, and I note that the first time, I thought the honey dominated. Not so here. The liquor color is, again, a honey color.

The flavor is again, very interesting. Yes, it’s definitely honey pear. But not consistently. Sometimes it’s a little more like apple, sometimes it’s a little more like pollen, and in some sips it is none of the above. I’m getting a little bit of bite in my throat from the tea base, too, which isn’t my favorite sensation.

Second steep: In general, mellower. The flavors do seem to blend together somewhat better this time. I’m getting that waxy mouthfeel I got during my original tasting.

I think what I’m looking for in a pear tea is more an essence of fresh, ripe pears, unmitigated by any other flavors, such as honey.

After giving this a good second run, I’m ready to conclude it isn’t for me. If someone served it to me, I’d drink it and enjoy it, but I don’t see it being something I’d reach for if I kept it in the house. Bumping the rating down a tad to remind me it’s not a reorder for me.