ashmanra Send Message

Second trip through the May prompts and drinking the same strawberry tea because I think this and the decaf version are all the strawberry I have. And it wasn’t listed in my cupboard? How?

Delicious strawberry flavor, resteeps well, awesome with an everything bagel this morning. Yum!

Although I love many teas, I tend to gravitate toward black teas for western and oolong for gong fu.

But this darjeeling….a gift from Superanna, of course.

This contains salted cherry leaf, thus Sakura in the moniker. It does not taste like cherries, FYI. When I first had their Sakura Vert I fully expected a fruity green tea and it certainly was not.

From the moment the water hit the leaves, I was patting myself on the back for choosing this for breakfast. (Ashman is away at the Woodwright’s School so breakfast is simpler today. I really am not sure how he would react to this one.)

This smells rich and briny or brothy, and how does a tea actually smell thick? But it does.

The golden tea has the characteristic darjeeling astringency but at the same time, a rich and almost oily mouthfeel. Those muscatel darjeeling notes hang in there with the salted cherry leaf and linger linger linger. Breathe deep as you take a slow sip, then swish a moment. And keep enjoying the tea for ten minutes after it is gone.

I am drinking Capri again on my second journey through the May prompts, but this time to fulfill the lemon tea prompt.

I ordered this for the fig, but I find none. Not hot, not cold, not sweetened, not unsweetened.

It is, however, a brisk and assertive tea with lemon and vanilla. The dry leaf aroma is very enticing and I thought I was getting a silky cup of lemon and vanilla tea, but the actual beverage is less dessert-y and more “goes with dessert”. It went well with blueberry waffle breakfast.

I do like it, it just isn’t figgy.

I bought Cookie for Ashman’s stocking because he is the cookie monster. He love sweets and has a weakness for pink frosting. He proposed within thirty minutes of me giving him a pound cake.

This will be round #2 of May prompts – tea with the flavor of a favorite baked good.

Since yesterday’s tea was too sweet with our breakfast, I tried this one today. Although it is called Cookie, I knew it was the year round version of one of their Christmas teas that isn’t especially sweet. It went well enough with breakfast plain.

It is cloudy and we have a cool breeze and the drizzle is making it feel like comfort food weather. For lunch I made soup and sandwiches and we would often have chocolate milk with this particular lunch, but today I suggested following Lupicia’s suggestion to add milk and following other reviewer’s suggestion to add sugar. We would be getting less sugar in the long run compared to chocolate milk.

I made a big pot and added the milk and sugar before bringing it to the table so we could just pour and not have to adjust every cup.

Ashman LOVED it that way. He said he felt like he was having a really good hot chocolate. There was no chocolate flavor, it was just the vibe. I felt like a spice flavor – hint of cinnamon? – was present this way that I did not detect before. This is probably how I will serve this tea from now on.

An herbal tea – second time through the May prompts!

I love this so much. I made a lot – a LOT – last night. I sneaked a hot cup, made a large glass unsweetened just for me, and a carafe sweetened for both me and the Ashman. Often, if I love an herbal iced and sweet, I don’t love it hot, but this is an exception.

I was a little worried about whether the coconut would be going off but it isn’t. It is perfectly good. I was tempted to save the last of this for high summer, but I am afraid the coconut will eventually get rancid and then I would be very unhappy to have missed out on one of my favorite herbals blends in history ever. So even though we are swinging between horrifically hot and muggy to cloudy with a slight chill (this morning) I am going to start working on a sipdown of this one and will enjoy every coconutty, fruity sip.

It is so rich, refreshing, and full bodied. Who could ask for anything more?

Lunchtime leftovers of a falafel gyro from yesterday! Prompt number three is for a tea with muscatel notes and I can’t find any darjeeling so I will repeat this one, but iced!

I actually sweetened it and flash chilled it, even though no tea has ever tasted awesome that way to me. Mother was right, iced tea tastes best made a day ahead, and even better two days. At first sip I thought I was going to be heavily disappointed even though I love it so much hot, but as I drank it, it seemed to improve.

It was good flash chilled, it would be much better and would pretty awesome made a day ahead, but would also probably be good flash chilled and unsweetened, because to me it is always the sweetness that makes a flash chill tea not seem balanced. And it is awesome hot and unsweetened in my book!

May Prompt 2nd time through! A geeky tea…

I forgot this doesn’t pair well with sweet things because it is so very sweet on its own, and I served it with our breakfast of blueberry waffles with blueberry syrup and whipped cream.
(Ashman is off the rest of the week to do some painting and repairs so I will be cooking more and drinking more tea.)

It is so maple-y and sweet and would have been good with a savory breakfast or on its own, but with what we had, it was not a good pairing and that is all on me. My bad. The tea is light because of the oolong base and really sweet from the cinnamon chips and such.

A better choice would have been Golden Molkabari or Bailin Gongfu Black, but thise wouldn’t fulfilled my prompt! Ha ha!

Round 2 through the May prompts!

I hope to do three rounds through the May prompts this month. On round 2 I get to note my real cupboard absolute must have – the Queen.

I was up half the night worried about Sam the King of Dogs who seems to be having some gastric distress, and I really needed something to both encourage and comfort this morning. A blend of three Chinese black teas, this is just the ticket with its wisp of smoke and bready flavor.

This was part of my Mother’s Day gift from Superanna! Many thanks!

I am using this as my final May prompt for a tea with surprising (or was it unusual?) ingredients, because Japanese black is rare to me as is a tea being smoked over maple!

This tea is one of Dammann Freres’ Grand Cru line. I found only one other Japanese smoked black on Steepster and that was from tealyra, and it is smoked over cherry or sakura chips instead of maple.

I have had Dammann Freres’ L.S. Crocodile which is much smokier than this one, but this is still smokey enough for those who like that. I do!

Superanna and Ashman typically do not like smoke and I don’t even recall them getting past the smell to try it, but Superanna wanted to try this one. She liked it! (Ashman was taking a woodworking class from Roy Underhill and made me a Roubo bookstand which I have been VERY EXCITED about, so he wasn’t here to try it,)

I am thrilled that she liked it! I don’t know that I would have guessed right away that it was a Japanese black instead of a Chinese black tea as I have only had one or two other Japanese black teas and they were not smokey. You can definitely tell it is unique, though. This smoke was more campfire than smoked meat in aroma, and the tea was a little more drying than a Chinese base to me, which makes it go that much better with food. Yesterday we had it with Godiva chocolates that were part of my gift, and this morning I had it again with breakfast.

This came right on time, because I was nearly out of smoked lapsang!

May prompt – a tea flavored like a favorite baked good.

This is the penultimate serving of the final pouch. Sigh. And I forgot to set the timer because I was distracted and I just knew the tea was going to bitter and utterly ruined, but it was not in the least ill-affected. It was delicious as always, rich black tea with burnt caramel taste for a nice, deeply darkly satisfying cup.