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alaudacorax drank Smokey Souchong by Nothing But Tea

81 tasting notes

So I made a pot of this with two heaped teaspoons brewed for four and a half minutes. It doesn’t strike me as noticeably stronger, yet it strikes me as a slightly better mug of tea (I suppost I’m going to struggle to explain that).

There’s nothing new to the aroma – pizza base and ‘pine-fresh’ disinfectant.

I’m getting a strong impression of the flavour as very well-balanced: there is butter, conifer sawdust, wood-smoke (and the proper ‘tea’ taste, of course) – but none of them prominent and to the fore, but each in balance with the others – and tiny hints of cut grass and mixed, dried fruit. The tiny hint I mentioned of white pepper or root ginger is more felt than tasted – it’s just the tiniest ‘bite’, and is just right at that, giving that ‘invigorating’ thing to the tea.

I don’t know why I gave this such a (comparatively) low rating as I really love it – so I’m upping it to 95.

Preparation

Boiling 4 min, 30 sec

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Bio

Happily retired male.

Started exploring ‘proper’ tea in March, 2010 after decades of PG Tips teabags. I was initially looking for ‘the perfect tea’; now I don’t want to find one – I’m so much more enjoying exploring the variety.

A confession: I take my tea with four sweeteners to a half-pint mug.
28/05/2012 – I’ve decided to wean myself off the sweeteners, starting this morning, so, three per mug instead of four (I’m getting a growing feeling that I’m failing to get the best out of some of the oolongs and greens I try and I intend getting a gaiwan and the appropriate little cups, and sweeteners don’t seem to be appropriate, there). 16/02/2013 – since New Year’s Day I’ve only been using two sweeteners. I’m struggling to get used to it, to be honest – some teas are more difficult than others.

How I make tea: either in a traditional teapot which holds enough for three half-pint mugs and has a removable infuser (London Teapot Company); or in a half-pint mug with an Agatha’s Bester filter. Sometimes I vaguely think about getting some nice, genteel cups and saucers …

Important: I measure the tea with plastic kitchen measuring spoons – teaspoon and half-teaspoon sizes – so when I say a ‘heaped teaspoon’, as the correct measure is a levelled one, I should probably be calling it ‘two teaspoons’!

Location

Derbyshire/Staffordshire, UK.

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