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Sipped this down with a friend to celebrate my birthday a day early (yup, joining the field of spring sprouts around here). Sat listening to the ting of rain on the patio roof, filling and refilling, catching up on feels and life and gratitude. Here’s to another zoom around the sun, my hungry little soul. You’re doing a good job.

I’ve been really trying to avoid adding more flavored teas to my cupboard lately, but after seeing some of the 52Teas reviews, I buckled. (Thanks, y’all… hehe!) This is a fun blend, with sweet and bright lemon that reminds me of a round, cellophane wrapped hard candy. I didn’t pick up on a lot of marshmallow in my first session, which I brewed gong fu. I’ll probably try this Western next — I anticipate the layering that western affords will showcase this blend a little better. The white tea is a nice delicate offset for the high lemon notes, while the houjicha brings up the bottom and gives it something to sit on (a characteristic lacking in, say, Tazo’s Lemon Loaf). The coupling creates a lovely profile on which to set some flavor.

Toted this along when I got sent out from my usual assignment at work and didn’t have the luxury of my little cabinet to choose from all day. Brewed grandpa style several times throughout the day… and night, much to my chagrin. Sadly, I can’t recommend repeating my technique. Every first steep was astringent and nothing else, and subsequent fills were somewhere between boring and tasteless. I’ll limit this one to proper western steeps from now on, I think.

I like this tea, but I’ve had it twice now and for some reason I’m not clicking into a full note-taking session. Letting that be what it is. There are definite notes of brandy and plum pudding. I don’t get a lot of the florals and wood perfumes that I have come to expect and love in high mountain teas, but I recognize the cultivar is somewhat more vegetal and grounded. Not a terribly long-lasted tea; I think I got 5 or 6 satisfying steeps. This is probably not a reorder for me personally, but it’s good and I’d have no issue serving it to a friend.

I think I need to relearn how to make matcha. Yikes.

Woke up from a long nap after a long night at work, and thought this would be a perfect preface to a smoothie and a gongfu session. I think I maybe went too heavy on my ratio at 6g:9oz. I also was sad to find I’d chucked my matcha whisk at some point, after not having used it for several years. I used an electric frother, which maybe contributed to bitterness?

Anyway, I didn’t get the lovely spinach and edamame and hay that I was expecting. It was kinda sour, kinda bitter. I finished it because I felt like I should, but I didn’t enjoy it. I’ll come back and try to use less powder and less aggressive frothing.

No rating, I’m sure this was user error.