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Sipdown no. 93 of 2018 (no. 449 total).

On reflection, I am not sure why I rated this as low as I did. I must have been going through a black tea phase where I was making very fine distinctions among teas I considered good/great.

This is a very tasty tea. I found myself looking forward to the last little bit. It has a rich, malty flavor, natural sweetness, and mocha notes as well as honey. I’m bumping the rating.

Moving right along through the white tea stash…

Andao is no more, but I still have a number of teas left from my one and only order back in the day, including a couple of white teas.

Because the company is kaput, I couldn’t find a picture of this. The dry leaves are prettier than most — I love the variegated colors, sizes, and shapes of white peony leaves and these are particularly attractive ranging from silver to dark brown and from long, thin, rolled leaves to short, flat, irregularly shaped ones. They smell earthy/planty with a sort of a darjeeling-like sharpness.

The tea is golden yellow and clear. If I poured it into a wine glass, I’d think it was chardonnay.

Flavor is tricky for me, as always with whites. Just when I think I’m finally starting to get them, I get stumped again. It probably doesn’t help that I had a cup of the Todd & Holland Champagne Raspberry right before this.

I’m getting as sweet smell from the cup, kind of like warm, spun sugar. Oddly, there’s a bit of undefined fruitiness as well. Flavor-wise, I get neither of those. But fortunately, I also don’t get the dead plant flavor that I sometimes get with white peony. There’s definitely and earthy/leafy flavor that screams “tea” — that flavor that makes me understand why people compare white tea to back tea even though they don’t really taste anything like each other.

Tomorrow I’ll try it first thing, even before food, and see if that makes a difference.

My highest rated white peony appears to be Adagio’s with a 72. I think this deserves higher. In reading my note on the Adagio, I think I was still in my “noob trying to understand stuff and really searching for what I think should be there” phase rather than the more experienced and blunt place in which I now find myself.

The combination of a long weekend and a respite from the summer heat (it may be turning to fall, not that we really have fall — but we do have a cooler wind) made me excited to do some serious tea drinking this weekend. I could have waited until tomorrow to start, but I figured there was no time like the present.

When I started exercising regularly again, I initially tried to spice up my Peloton workouts with runs because that’s really my favorite form of exercise. But alas, my knees, and even my hips, have not weathered the aging process well, and I was pretty regularly finding myself too much in pain to run. Given that, I started taking a few supplements that are supposed to be good for reducing inflammation in the joints. One of those is turmeric.

Initially, I thought I saw a pretty significant improvement, though I’m not sure whether that’s attributable to the turmeric, the SAM-E, the fish oil, or a combination of all of them. I started taking a brand with peperine in it to help with absorption, but then I decided to try another preparation. Honestly, I think the peperine worked better so I’m probably going to go back to that.

But in any case, since I had turmeric on the brain when I did my last mega order of herbals, I decided to try this. The dry mix looks a little like a spice medley meant to use for cooking. I can see the lemongrass and orange peel. It’s all a rather orange/yellow/beige/khaki color scheme that’s attractive in its own right.

It steeps to a pretty intense golden yellow/orange color (just like the picture) that’s opaque. It smells a little like orange flavored dirt.

Fortunately, it doesn’t taste like dirt. But it’s not what I expected. I expected it to taste a little like Indian food spices, but that is not what I am getting. The licorice is fairly prominent, as is the citrus, with ginger in there somewhere. It’s an interesting flavor but not really something I’d drink for non-medicinal purposes. However, I would drink it for medicinal purposes without complaint.

And it could be so much worse in the hands of a lesser tea blender. I give it a solid 70.

I made this by the book except for the water temperature. I used 206F water because that’s what I had handy in the Zojirushi.

Sipdown no. 92 of 2018 (no. 448 total).

Drank the rest of this cold and it continued to be a nice cold spiced tea.

Project chai sipdown is at a close for now.

When I first opened the tin, I wasn’t sure whether I’d like this. The scent is a creamy vanilla, and that somehow doesn’t seem to fit with the grassy character of sencha.

After steeping, I’m not far from my initial impression. It’s more the flavor combo than how Mariage Freres has done it, but I’m not bowled over.

The tea is a really beautiful color after steeping, though. Medium-dark gold. The aroma is vanilla ice cream-like.

I think my reaction comes from the same place that can’t imagine putting milk in green tea. There’s a milky/vanilla ice cream quality to the flavor that doesn’t feel right to me. Which is funny, because I actually like green tea ice cream.

That said, it isn’t horrible. Just not a favorite.

Sipdown no. 91 of 2018 ( no. 447 total).

I tried this two different ways today, which basically took me to the end of the 1 oz I had. So there will be no iced experiment with this, unfortunately.

First, I steeped it as I would any other black tea (212 for 3 mins in the Breville). One note about that: I had already set aside a couple of tbspns for the stove top so I was short some. I made up the difference with Golden Moon French Breakfast on the theory that since I’m using that for the extra black tea on the stovetop, it would provide a direct comparison — the next best thing to not having to make up the difference with some other tea.

That cup was a decent spiced black tea. Not much in the way of white chocolate flavor, which may be partly explained by the French Breakfast, but otherwise a sort of middle of the road spiced black tea.

Then I tried it again on the stove top, wondering whether I’d end up with a spicy mess since I didn’t shake the packet yesterday. The answer is: not really. Yes, it’s spicier, a definite pepper on the tip of the tongue sort of spicy. And this time, I didn’t get much of a chocolate flavor, white or otherwise.

But otherwise, an enjoyable chai. Just not quite as enjoyable on balance, as, I think, some other chocolate chais I have had. Bumping it down a tad.

And with that, project chai sipdown is almost over. That was quick! Once the The O Dor Bollywood is gone, I’ll have two chais in my stash — my two favorites. So while I won’t need to do a sipdown project, I’ll still be able to enjoy chai — especially when the weather gets colder.

When going through my cupboard to see if I had any other chais, I also noticed that I have a couple of teas that, while they aren’t lapsangs, have lapsang in them. Kusmi Samovar and Harney Russian Country. Not that project lapsang sipdown would or should have caught these, as they aren’t in the same category.

Thinking about my next projects now. I plan to continue working my way through my white tea stash, trying to improve my palate for those. That should take a while. I noticed when I was going through the cupboard that I have quite a few full sized white tea packets or tins, and I’m not through with my samples yet, either.

But that project was already underway. So now I have to pick another new one.

I see three ways this could go: project matcha sipdown, project oolong sipdown, or project pu-erh sipdown.

Right now I’m leaning toward oolongs because I think I have the most of those. Though I’m also thinking that a matcha here and there would be an interesting change of pace on weekends.

In typing this, I’ve just talked myself into oolongs, with the occasional foray into matcha and pu-erh.

Another unopened ATR sample packet. I steeped according to package directions (hotter and longer than usual for white tea).

I adore the way this tea looks and smells in the packet. Honking pink rosebuds and a divine rose smell that is neither soapy nor lotiony, but has both depth and roundness on an earthy backdrop.

It doesn’t happen often in my experience that the aroma after steeping is identical to that of the dry leaves — but it really is here. The tea is a butter yellow and clear.

I love the way this tastes, which makes it all the more sad that ATR is kaput. I would love to order a pound of this! I love rose teas done well, and this is the closest to a perfect rose tea I’ve had. The base is a perfect delivery mechanism, adding some balance with its earthiness, and the rose tastes naturally sweet and dewy, like fresh rose petals smell.

Bravo. Come back ATR!

Sipdown no. 90 of 2018 (no. 446 total). A sample.

Nothing to add to my original note, really. A totally pleasant, though not off the charts tea.

Moving on with project chai sipdown, who knew there were so many “Night of the Iguana” chocolate chais? Steepster’s database has (count ’em) 8!

Can anyone explain that to me? Are they all the same blends, but marketed by different companies? Or is there some deep, literary connection at work? I don’t think I ever read the play (or saw it) so I remain baffled.

Also, I noticed this one’s chocolate is actually white chocolate. Which is debatably un-chocolate and actually butter.

I made this on the stovetop using the Samovar method with Golden Moon French Breakfast as the extra black tea. I messed up, though, because I didn’t read the part in the description that said to shake the packet to get the spices to distribute until after it was steeping away in some lowfat milk and splenda.

Next time I’ll shake it up, because although I am finding this very (and somewhat mysteriously, given that I am in the white-chocolate-isn’t-really-chocolate camp) chocolaty, the rest of the spice mix isn’t coming across very strongly to me. Not even the black pepper.

The strongest flavor other than chocolate that I taste is ginger, which gives this a confectionery aspect that’s enjoyable.

Rating it high for the chocolate aspect. I’ll adjust as necessary once I get the spice mix right.

Every time I open an ATR sample, I am saddened to realize I won’t be able to get more of it if I want to. My sample collection has outlived the American Tea Room. Sigh.

I am also somewhat surprised that there’s not an entry for this tea already, given the number of ATR fans around here. But I tried a number of different searches and couldn’t come up with this. Sometimes the search algorithm and I don’t see eye to eye, so I apologize if I’ve just added to the duplication problem.

I steeped according to the directions on the packet. This was a never-before-opened packet, and the jasmine scent that comes out of it upon opening is remarkable.

If you read my notes at all, you know I am a huge jasmine fan. I have not met a jasmine green, white, or oolong tea that I didn’t like at least somewhat. With black tea, jasmine can get a bit dicier for me. But then, I don’t encounter that many black jasmine teas.

Moving along. The aroma of the steeped tea is wonderfully, naturally, jasmine. Light, but not too much so. Juicy, but not pasted on. It has depth, but isn’t artificial. It’s really lovely. The tea is golden yellow verging on amber, with a pinkish tint, and clear.

The flavor is the smell made taste-able. To the adjectives above, I’d add that there’s a subtle earthiness to the flavor that comes from the tea base and that gives it even more depth. And also, refreshing — there’s a clean, aromatic, freshening effect in the mouth. The aftertaste is first sweet, then has a slightly bitter downturn, but only slightly.

It’s one of the best jasmine white teas I’ve had. I’m so sad that it is no longer available.