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Back to project taste-and-write-notes-about-all-teas-in-the-cupboard.

As I mentioned, I had been feeling pressured by my own tea-related goals in a way that didn’t feel very good. So I gave myself permission to slow down this part of the project (the other being project sipdown). The good news is that the current count after this one is:

14 oolongs to go
8 pu erhs to go
A few random tea bag samples
A number of pu erh samples

Of course, I just got my Lupicia order and I haven’t added those teas to my cupboard. That’s going to skew the above numbers but only in the sense that it will add a few untasted greens and blacks. I don’t think I ordered any oolong or pu erh in that order.

But anyway. Gaiwan. 195F. Rinse. 15 seconds first steep, +5, cumulatively for each subsequent steep.

The dry leaves are very green, very balled, very typical looking and have a savory smell on the surface that gives way to a floral/green smell with a touch of butter.

On the first steep, the tea is pale yellow with a green tinge, clear, and has a mild, floral-lilac fragrance with a hint of butter/milk. Its flavor is also mild; delicate, very slightly milky, and green-floral.

All of these qualities are more intense in the second steep. It’s interesting to me that the company describes this as less buttery than another tea, because in the second steep I get a pronounced note of butter. It’s true, though, that the floral predominates.

Maybe I’m just in the mood for a green oolong today, but this is really making me happy. I could easily sip on this for the rest of the day. I think on other days, the savory aspect might make me rate this a bit lower, but today it is, strangely, a plus.

So many teas, so little time.

Sipdown no. 12 of 2019 (no. 500 total). A sample teabag.

I tried to order some of this in my last big Lupicia order, but they were out. Ah well.

I have pretty much the same impression of it that I had in my last note about it. That was also a sipdown of a single teabag sample, back in 2014.

I love the personal history aspect of recording tasting notes.

Tonight, more history. Going to Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour stop in San Jose. His was my first rock concert back when I was about 13, and I’ve seen him perform a total of 3 times since then. Is it really the last tour? Who knows. He’s in his 70s, so maybe so. But if it is, I’ll get to be there.

Yesterday I tried an aged Tung Ting from Red Blossom and the difference between the two is remarkable. In look and smell, the dried leaves are much greener than those of yesterday.

I steeped in the gaiwan after rinse at 195F starting at 15 seconds and increasing by 5.

The tea is a pale yellow color and has a floral note as well as a diary one. It’s much more like some other green oolongs I’ve had than the Tung Ting of yesterday.

The flavor is somewhere between that of a milk oolong and a green ali shan to my taste buds. Not as milky as the milk oolong, not as floral as the ali shan.

A very pleasant tea that I could sit with for a long time. It hadn’t faded by steep four, but I needed to move on to other things today.

Sipdown no. 11 of 2019 (no. 499 total). A sample.

I needed some green oolong so I’d have enough to make a pitcher of cold brew. I added this to the last of the Premium Steap Milk Oolong and the last of the ATR Milk Oolong.

I thought this might balance out the super buttery aspect of the ATR Milk Oolong, but it really didn’t . My initial note indicated I didn’t find it particularly flavorful so I guess that isn’t surprising.

Sipdown no. 10 of 2019 (no. 498 total). A sample.

I made two big pitchers of cold tea at the same time. One was the Premium Steap Milk Oolong only, the other was about half Premium Steap Milk Oolong and the rest a couple of samples including this one.

There were only two spoons full of this left in the sample packet, but its influence is very, very apparent in the flavor of the cold tea. The batch made with this is much more buttery, and in a sort of bothersome way that makes me wonder if it had its flavor enhanced (I can’t remember who the helpful person was who commented on one of my notes about this).

In any case, though it was a small amount, its impact on the overall flavor of the cold brew was mighty. And not in a particularly positive way.

Sipdown no. 9 of 2019 (no. 497 total).

My experience has been that sometimes teas that are just sort of average-good really come to life when I cold brew them. This tea falls into that category. It makes a silky smooth, naturally sweet, green oolong cold tea. The milky aspects are somewhat subdued, too.

Basically, the aspects of this I liked are enhanced and the aspects that I didn’t like as much are muted in the cold brew process. I still think the rating is about right — it might have been a stretch to give this a 78 based on my hot experience of it, especially since I gave the Lupicia of yesterday lower and I think they were pretty similar.

Apparently, I’m the first to write a note about this. And I do so with a bit of trepidation.

With the exception of the The O Dor, I haven’t had the best luck with oolongs that have some variant of the word “milk” in their name. But I’m hoping I’ll get along with this one.

If the smell of the dry leaf is any indication, I may. There isn’t any of that overpowering smell that someone mentioned is essentially sprayed on buttermilk flavoring.

I steeped as usual for an initial tasting: gaiwan, rinse, 195F for 15 seconds +five for each subsequent steep.

The tea is a light yellow color with a green tint. It has a pleasanty milky aroma.

The initial steep has a mild milky flavor. It is not at all offensive, but doesn’t seem to me to be loaded with character either.

The tea is darker on the second and third steeps, and has more flavor as well. It’s still milky with some faint floral and green notes. There is also a slight bitterness.

It’s not that we don’t get along. That would be too harsh. It’s just not a favorite.

Sipdown no. 8 of 2019 (no. 496 total). A sample teabag.

I screwed up so I actually have no idea how long I steeped this. Perhaps not long enough as the color is a bit lighter than I expected. Sort of a medium amber headed toward dark. It smells pretty wonderful, though. I actually get a sort of a cocoa note from this, as well as cinnamon, orange, and almonds.

Not too long ago, I drank some of a sample of something called Christmas Tea from Upton.

Let’s compare:

The more inclusively named one from Harney (Holiday Tea): citrus, almond, clove, cinnamon

The one from Upton (Christmas Tea): cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, cardamom, orange peel, rose petals, almond.

So the delta is in the vanilla, cardamom, and rose. I tasted no cardamom in the Christmas Tea according to my note. So really the difference is vanilla and rose.

Did I mention the cocoa note? It could also read as vanilla — it’s that vanilla-chocolate continuum thing where sometimes the flavors overlap.

In any case, this explains why I was reminded of something I drank recently. The flavor of these two is extremely similar. They are both mild teas with a good balance of flavor. Sometimes stronger flavors like clove can be overpowering. It isn’t here, which is good.

I have to extrapolate a bit and imagine what this would have been like had I steeped it properly. It’s basically the Constant Comment flavor profile again, done with a bit more attention and depth.

I rate it the same as the Upton.

I didn’t expect this to be as dark as it is. The leaves have a green oolong roll going, but they’re more of a brown color and they smell pretty roasty.

Gaiwan. 195F. Rinse. 15 seconds +5 each time for subsequent steeps.

The liquor is an amber color and the tea smells mildy roasty. Interestingly, the wet leaves gave off a whiff of something very honeydew like.

The tea tastes very mild. It’s not a strong flavor, but it does have something interesting about it. There is a cocoa note of sorts, mocha maybe. But it’s a suggestion more than a flavor and it’s mixed with something fruity. The cocoa note is quite pronounced in the cup after the tea is gone.

I’m not sure I’ve had a candied plum, but if the fruity flavor I’m tasting is what they taste like, they’re delicious! This is a really special tea. It has a lot of complexity to it, just when I think I have a flavor pinned down it morphs into something else. I see that some other folks got dates — not really getting that but I’m on the look out for it. It is, though, a really wonderful combination of confectionery chocolate family flavors and fruity flavors.

What a lovely way to start the day!

Sipdown no. 7 of 2019 (no. 495 total). A sample.

I drank the rest of this at work yesterday. I’ve had a cough since New Year’s Day, and this was pretty soothing — though it doesn’t have magical cough suppressant qualities.

I’ve decided that I’m going to slow down a bit on the “write a first note about everything in the cupboard project.” I’m stressing over getting all the notes in and I don’t see the point in stressing myself over something that is supposed to be enjoyable. So I’ll taste as many teas and write notes about them as feels right until the project is done, but I’m not going to try to adhere to a particular cadence anymore.

Wow. That was liberating!