Liquid Proust Teas

Sipdown (592)!

Another one that I had sort of forgotten than I still had in my cupboard. Finished it off yesterday in a large teapot though…

I can’t really remember what I’ve thought of this one in the past; it’s been a long time since I last had any of this. This time around, though? I mean, I didn’t dislike the flavour or anything but I really couldn’t taste much else other than the Honeybush in the blend. It was REALLY distinctly honeybush flavour; woody and peppery, and just a little bit earthy. I might as well have been drinking a miraculously caffeinated pot of straight honeybush. I like the flavour of honeybush, so that isn’t a bad thing or anything – but I was expecting a little more pu.

This is a queued tasting note.

Drank this one hot a while back; I remember enjoying the mellow chocolate notes and slight woody rooibos flavour that crept in but I have the distinct recollection of also feeling like the cup was rather “sludgy” and I can’t remember why I got that impression for the life of me. The heck?

My commute tea for the day;

I’ll admit; I’m not the biggest fan of this blend. It’s far from bad or unpleasant, but I’m really disinterested by it in general. Even this latest hot mug was just… there? I picked out notes of earth and chocolate with a thicker, brothy mouthfeel but the flavours were all quite muddled and bland and it was a really forgettable cup overall. Basically, it was just something to drink on the way to work for the hydration/caffeine and the routine.

In my personal opinion, I think that LP certainly has better blends out there.

Thank you Liquid Proust for the generous sample!

I’m trying this one first as a cold brew. I remember when LP was in the process of blending this one I made a note to myself that while it didn’t quite sound appealing enough for me to buy it (no offence) it WAS something that I wanted to eventually get a chance to sample, so seeing it included in my most recent package from LP was definitely exciting!

It’s funny, he wrote something along the lines of “I know it sucks” on the sample but I actually quite enjoyed it! I found that it had the sweetness/richness I’d want out of a tea named for a candy bar but that it wasn’t cloying/artificial tasting and the the primarily Pu’erh base really grounded the flavours in a positive way! I loved the mellow chocolate notes paired with the earthier, almost game-y Pu’erh. Though, I did just finish reading Daylon’s review and I agree that because it’s a pu’erh blend it falls in a weird “in between” zone where it’s not gonna be fully appreciated by hard core Pu’erh drinkers or novices. It’ll take someone with a sort of ‘medium’ familiarity…

You know, like me.

This tea is a bit strange. It’s got a good jasmine flavour to it but I’m getting all kinds of other flavours as well. I can’t really pick out the white tea from the green but it still blends nicely together. I think I can pick out the honeysuckle but there are 3 ingredients that are foreign to me. I don’t know what these taste like:
Bee pollen
blue pea flower
dried star fruit

It might be the bee pollen I am picking up. Just wondering what those above things taste like. It’s a strange mix to add to the tea but it does work. LP, you are very creative. Can you give a little insight into this tea? I’ve read your tasting note on it and saw your Facebook video but still wonder… why star fruit? Why bee pollen? What is blue pea flower?

Holidays TTB #1: This may be a weird one to start with, but it just stood out so much. I really love lapsang souchong, and the thought of these other flavors mixed with it was really interesting.

The smokiness seemed to be covered up by the other flavors. The hibiscus was also mellowed out and not really tart at all. Maybe the marshmallow root just calmed everything else down? I wasn’t super into the flavor of this, but I’m happy I tried it.

Thank you Andrew! This was quite lovely. And I got it right after I ranted about how particular I am with Dark Roast Tie Guan Yins. Lemon pie is what I smell. Like a fairly cooked and crispy lemon pie.

That’s also how I can approximately describe it. Lemon really takes a balanced control of the taste being simultaneously tart and sweet. The body is on the lighter side, but the mouth feel was a little bit thick. At least for me. I get bits of roast and char in the background. Again, the more cooked aspects of this tea reminded me of a pie a little bit. In some ways it reminded me of a fattier lemon tort or cookie. It really has a more savory quality that I can’t quite accurately describe, so I’m just calling it savory for now until I can think of a more precise adjective. I over-describe with sensualist language anyway.

I definitely think it is worth a try and it certainly made me like dark roast Tie Guan Yins a little more. But like Andrew writes in the description, it really is for more experienced drinkers. At the same time, the lemony quality might convert a curious few.

I hope that this review is somewhat helpful. That said, I brewed it at 190 F, steeped it five times, and started off at 50 seconds in three ounces.

One morning I gong fu’d this with the seed and it was excellent. I’ve concluded that I really like this tea with this seed gong fu’d in the morning.

Oddly enough, it’s become my morning green tea. I’ve also found that I get a lot more energy from green tea than I do some black teas. As in black teas wake me up groggily with some jitters on the side, oolongs usually soothe me and allow me to focus, and most green teas give me clarity and energy. As for whites and pu-erhs, it depends on the type of white and pu-erh. That’s all for now.

Oversteeped at two minutes. Slightly astringent Gyokuro with a vanilla accent and bare fruitiness that disappears in the tea. I almost thought I was drinking a matcha.

Steep 2 at 90 sec, and I thought I was drinking the 7 Oolong Blend. There was a weird floral that popped up like osmanthus, though I know that’s the jackfruit seed and the vanilla. Liquid hot sprite. I’m just rambling anyway. A morning of high blood sugars and a breakfast of almonds, coffee, creamer, and tea encourages cogent delirium. However, the weather is heavenly in Michigan. I’ll have a few cups outside before I workout today. I might even decide to dress up and show off.

I will write about this again, but I had two pleasant cups from a light teaspoon of this.

I was looking for a solid green tea that I can drink daily-not too sweet, not too grassy. This was a happy medium…though the umami and spinach notes are normally strong with Gyokuros. The vanilla, though, made it a creamy grassier. Vanilla was more dominant. It almost reminded me of vanilla frosting in how whispy it was-but it was not nearly that sugary or thick. More like the type of vanilla flavoring. Wispy vanilla is what I’ll stick to.

I did not have a seed in this cup, but I tasted on occasional fruitiness that reminded me of a Japanese candy I tried when I was growing up in Hawaii. Not quite sure how to describe it. Maybe nectar might be close, but my cup was way too light and vanilla like to make that official. I still tasted some umami and classic green tea grassiness from the Gyokuro. That profile was the back ground and body though.

Like I said, I’ll write on this tea again. I can officially say it made my morning easier before I had latte. I will drink this pretty often.

Holidays TTB: I think the main flavor I get out of this is peony? followed by jasmine. It does have a mild astringency that dries the back of my throat a bit. This has a pleasant, very light, fruity flavor. Looking at the ingredients it is likely that it is currant that I am registering. This is different than anything I can remember having. It’s tasty and worth a look into purchasing.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #49
This was the last one in the teabox! I’m not sure how Liquid Proust was able to get the butteriness, sweetness of syrup and starchiness of french toast in this tea. Whoa! The flavor is so accurate! We’ve got Butiki level flavoring going on here. And Liquid Proust Teas is so new! This was also the perfect base for these flavors. The Dian Hong is so light, barely an amber colored brew, that it can really showcase the french toast flavors. But I usually like my black teas darker, which might explain the lower rating.
Steep #1 // few minutes after boiling // 4 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 minute steep

GCTTB5 backlog:

This one is a very very twiggy oolong with some fruit flavouring added. I’m having a hard time isolating the flavours on this one, but I’m getting a similar sort of blackberry/blackcurrant note as I found in the Blackberry Sage Keemun above. I can also taste the base tea underneath, which I think is a lightly roasted Tie Guan Yin. As the tea cools, the fruit flavour fades and the base comes out more.

GCTTB5 backlog:

This one is definitely a more successful blend of flavours than Fauchon’s Peche et Thyme, as I could taste the fruit plus a savoury undertone, but the former was stronger than the latter. There was a really jammy, rich quality to the fruit flavouring that reminded me more of blackcurrant rather than blackberry. I saw a chunk of dried fruit in the dry leaf, but unfortunately I didn’t get a closer look at it.

I had taken a sample of this out of the GCTTB5 to try later since I didn’t want to have the box for too long.
This was an ok tea for me. There was slight notes of malt and honey. I read through the other notes, and now I feel like there was a hint of beeswax as well like Lala and Sil mentioned. To be honest, I find that kind of weird. Oh well, I’m glad I got to try it. I guess I can’t like every tea!

GCTTB5

I tried some this morning before heading to work. Since it’s a tea similar to Darjeeling, I used lower temperature water (85C) to baby it. I didn’t get much flavour beyond black tea, though. It had that sweet/sour haylike quality I’ve seen in some Nepalese teas.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #31
I’m not sure if Liquid Proust presses these himself, but this is an interesting tea! I haven’t seen a black tea that looks like a mini-tuocha before. It looks like it consists more of gold leaves than black. But the brew is strong! It tastes like a Dian Hong should — a little like keemun with smoky notes. Malty and bready and sweet too. A bunch of great black tea characteristics. One left in the teabox!
Steep #1 // few min after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min steep

GCTTB
Trying to drink drink drink. lol Hot, this one is slightly astringent and sort of…boring? As this cools however, it becomes a different sort of tea. There’s a honey like smell that comes forward and the tea starts to take on a more beeswax like taste. An interesting tea for sure.

GCTTB

this is dangerous territory for me. Lavender and oolong. Let’s not mention the fact that it has the word SPA in the name. Couple things here..the vanilla really offsets the lavender. It helps make this a smoother, more subtle tea. the taste though, isn’t one that i love…it reminds me of the way that a number of spas smell….if that makes sense. this is a pretty decent blend if floral teas are up your alley. :) thanks LP!

GCTTB

I have no idea what jackseed’s taste like. As many know, i’m also not a huge fan of green teas. However, the point of travelling tea boxes is to try new things! Plus i need to make some actual room so that i can add things! I happened across an article this morning about cold brewing tea japanese style? (http://www.teaspoonsandpetals.com/teaspoons-petals/2016/02/shinobi-cha-ice-brewed-tea.html) I tried it out with this one and it was an interesting experience. It was neat to watch the ice melt and the tea gradually take on a darker colour. The flavour was a little intense, so i suspect this would be better done with a straight tea but it was fun to try! I think people who enjoy greens teas should give this one a shot. :)

GCTTB
this one is kinda fun. It’s sweet but also has a strength to it from the puerh. there’s honeybush in here certainly…but it’s just a delicious cup. I might prefer this as just a straight up puerh, but as a blend this is pretty tasty. I can see puerh noobs finding this one pretty tasty if sweet is up their alley :)

GCTTB Another one that LP provided. I’ve been excited to try this one because i do enjoy black berry teas. The addition to sage in the blend made me even more curious. When this is hot, it’s mostly blackberry and delicious…as it cools, the sage gradually takes over. this is quite nice and i’m super glad to get to try it. thanks LP!