Liquid Proust Teas

Sipdown (134)!

Thank you Liquid Proust for the sample.

I’m a big fan of tangerines (currently there are about seven in my fridge), so I’m definitely excited to try this blend especially given how much juicy tangerine I’m smelling just from the dry leaf. I decided to cold brew my sample because for jasmine teas with a green base I prefer drinking them cold over hot.

I definitely think this comes off as a pretty traditional green jasmine pearl tea; a good balance of both floral and vegetal flavours. It’s definitely one of the better green jasmine blends I’ve had as well given how natural and unobtrusive the floral notes are. However the tangerine, which is the twist here, is pretty light handed. The sweet citrusy tangerine note really only pops up at the end of the sip when the jasmine is dying out, leaving for a tasty finish but slight feeling that this tea is uncompleted. I know that Liquid Proust was aiming to be subtle with the tangerine but it is more gentle than I’d anticipated it being and I do find myself wanting more.

However, overall I really appreciate the unconventional take on a traditional tea. I also have to point out that as someone who isn’t a fan of green/jasmine pairings (which I recently mentioned in my Moment of Zen review as well) I’m obviously not the target audience and I was probably looking for that additional tangerine flavor more than someone who likes green jasmine teas on their own would have so that should also be taken into account.

Sipdown (130)!

Had a really nice Gong Fu session with the one early in the morning today while I was making breakfast for myself and Trey’s dad, who’s in town today finishing up Cathryn’s room. Cathryn’s the new roommate; and she moves in this evening so pressure’s on!

I got nine infusions from the bloom today before it was spent. The first two were softer, before it had really opened up and the cups were a bit more one dimensional with a mostly light cocoa flavour. The third, fourth and fifth were the sweet spot today: natural cocoa notes from the tea, and a lovely trio of vanilla, custard and nutmeg presumably in combination with the base tea and the added flavours. The rest of the sips slowly had less vanilla/custard flavour as the flavourings deteriorated, and they became a little more malty and a bit more floral until the eight and ninth infusions were the leaf was clearly giving the last of what it could give and beginning to taste a lot more watered down.

This is arguably still my favourite Liquid Proust offering, only rivaled by Peach vs. Bergamot. I’m happy it’s as popular as it is, because that means I can restock it and hopefully not have to worry as strongly about doing so quickly because as much as I really want to place another LP order I don’t know when I’ll get to it – so many companies to order from, and have to prioritize a little bit by what I’m going to sipdown the soonest/what’s the most “seasonally appropriate” teas/blend and finally how badly I want to try new things…

For anyone considering an LP order, though, this is one that I HIGHLY recommend adding to your order!

I’m revisiting the cold brewed version of this despite not being overly impressed the first time I tried it that way. The main reason for this is Daylon R Thomas’ comment on my last tasting note saying he cold brews this as a way to draw out vanilla flavour.

Personally, my last cold brew was all chocolate so I’m hoping that by altering the steep time (to make it shorter) I’ll taste some other flavours. And you know what? While this still was very much a predominantly chocolatey cold brew I got some other layers of flavour too. Some vanilla, a little malt. So, trying the cold brew again was worthwhile! However I do only have one more bloom left so I know I’ll be finishing this one hot because that’s the way that I enjoy it the most.

It was only a matter of time before I cold brewed this one…

I liked the cold brew, but it wasn’t as good as steeping this up in a large pot Grandpa style or using it to brew multiple Western style mugs. The main reason for that was simply just that cold brewing it kind of eliminated any nuances or layers of flavour that the tea had and instead just left a very strong one-note brew. Sure, that note may have been chocolate, and a really, really pleasant chocolate note at that, but it was just a little flat/one dimensional overall.

Guess who’s finished all of their Christmas shopping!? ME!!!

I finished everything last night when I got my Step Mom’s gift, which was definitely the hardest one to secure since she’s a nightmare to shop for. And so, of course, what do you do when you’ve got all the gifts? Well, wrap them of course. Actually, I still need to buy my Secret Santa gift for work but we haven’t been assigned people so I can’t do it yet.

I chose this tea to drink while wrapping because it can easily be drunk ‘Grandpa style’ and I wasn’t sure how long everything would take. The tea was delicious; it delivered the wonderful vanilla, custard, cocoa, malt, and nutmeg notes I love about it. I was surprised I’d gone through a full kettle of tea when I was done wrapping because it felt like I’d only been doing it for like forty minutes or so. Turns it, it was much closer to three hours!

So, my Christmas presents are as follows. I feel very accomplished, and need to share them with someone because I’m a bad secret keeper and if I don’t share with someone then the secrets could spill out to the actual people…

Mom: Fancy Viktor & Rolf Perfume for my mom.
It’s a $128 bottle so me and my two siblings split the cost.

Mom’s Birthday (Because it’s Christmas Eve): Hedley Shirt.
Her favourite band.

Liam (My Brother): A Game Cube, controllers, and a game. Yay retro gaming!

Brenna (My Half Sister): A rainbow tin of Birthday Cake from DAVIDsTEA & Infused Mug.
Her Dad had the same idea and bought her the exact same present though…

Dad: Fishing themed Mini Calendar for his office & retro ‘trout shaped’ cuff links.

Step Mom: An array of Burt’s Bees make up and beauty products.

Aunt Jill: A retro “Coke Bottle” lamp.
She’s obsessed with Coke products to the point where she got the logo tattooed on her.

Grandma: I made a ‘12 Days of Tea’ Green Tea sampler for her & matcha infused baking.
She wanted to see/learn more about what I’m studying.

Dominic (Older Step Nephew): Goosebumps Merchandise and Candy.
I showed the books to him one summer and he’s never gotten over it.

Gabriel (Younger Step Nephew): A few different Play-doh kits!

This is a queued tasting note.

I had this one well over a week ago at work; I’m really enjoying bringing bloom teas to work because I don’t have to use tea filters and I can just keep rebrewing the same time over and over throughout the eight hour work day.

This was a wonderful bloom to have during the day: the first few steeps were filled with wonderful chocolate/vanilla custard flavours and the latter ones showcased more malt notes and a slight floral and fruity flavour. Basically, more of the natural flavours of the tea. Repurchasing this was a great idea!

I need to pick up more bloom teas for work.

Sipdown (135)!

Recently, I did a swap with Liquid Proust and he generously included a few of his own blends. Personally, I thought this seemed the most interesting of what he sent me. A few other companies such as 52Teas, both under new and old management, have attempted French Toast teas but I’ve yet to be wowed by one and I think his approach here is quite a bit different than the ones they’ve taken so I’m definitely excited!

I brewed this ‘Grandpa Style’ because that’s my typical approach with blooming/flowering teas. I knew that there was a possibility that it would get bitter because that’s a risk you always take when brewing Grandpa Style but this was unwaveringly smooth and silky. The entire time I spent drinking this (a few hours in total) there wasn’t even the slightest hint of bitterness OR astringency. I’m incredibly impressed by that.

The flavour was very fluffy and sweet, but reserved enough to not be cloying or make me feel like I was drinking syrup straight from the bottle. The rich notes of custard, cream, vanilla, cocoa, and, yes, egg hardly waned at all throughout the session. There were also lighter notes of cinnamon that I thought did fade towards the end of my session, and some pretty pronounced malt notes from the tea itself along with more muted floral notes. I likely could have continued to drink this for another hour or possibly longer with very little flavour deterioration. More than that, if it had not have been midnight I would have continued to drink this which is certainly high praise from me given that I dislike resteeping in general (drink as many teas as possible in one day is my philosophy).

My only criticism would be that the “toast” part of “French toast” was lacking; I’d have liked stronger bread notes contributed from the base tea to complete the illusion; but that’s just me getting hyper critical of one of the better flavoured teas I’ve had all month. If Andrew’s other teas are as tasty as this one I’m in for a real treat!

So, so, so yummy. I wasn’t sure I would love the popcorn/blueberry flavor combo, but thankfully I was very wrong. I have never been able to taste the blueberry in a blueberry tea quite this intensely, and it is very sweet all on its own. I had it hot and let it cool and both were delicious. It held up really well to resteeping – the blueberry flavor was still strong, which I find rare. It was more balanced in the second steep, making it remind me of blueberry oatmeal. A must for anyone who loves blueberry.

I enjoyed this a lot – I am a HUGE honeysuckle lover, both flavor and scent. In fact, I think it is my love of it that made me a little disappointed when the tea didn’t smell like someone shoved some honeysuckle in my face. Unrealistic expectations, I know. But, I wasn’t disappointed by the flavor. It is naturally sweet, the tea doesn’t overwhelm or get drowned out by the floral notes, and it resteeped pretty well for me.

I will say I preferred it when I added a drop of honey to bring out the sweetness more reminiscent of tasting honeysuckle flowers, and I let it cool. But I prefer teas that are memory triggers, and noshing on honeysuckle after swimming in the pool in the summer at our house when we lived in West Chester when I was 8 is a tough one to evoke.

With a little maple the second steep is straight French toast. Lots to play with in this tea.

This is lovely. :)
It tastes like Amanda’s comment on another post— lingering French toast taste in a smooth dianhong— smooth and sweet, and forgiving since I oversteeped by a minute and no astringency at all. Rich amber color and smells amazing, like vanilla/chocolate with a hint of spice—I think this is what made the mailer package smell so good. It’s not floral but reminds me somehow of a luscious perfume, maybe because I used to wear vanilla. The egg taste is definitely there but subtle like custard— adds a lot of dimension. I am guessing the sweetness is from the tea itself and not a flavoring.

The first two steps taste very similar, probably because I oversteeped some. The third was more pure dianhong with the warmth of a little spice on the back end, almost like a very mild chai made but with really high quality tea. This tea makes me excited to try more from Liquid Proust!

I was probably the most apprehensive of this one out of the three, see I have a lifetime hate of watermelon…until about a year ago I ate some and surprisingly loved it, next thing I knew I was devouring slices of watermelon like it was going out of style. The aroma of this tea is pretty peculiar, mixing heady flowers with fresh vegetation, a bit of umami kelp, and delicate watermelon. Like someone is sitting next to you eating watermelon while you are sitting sipping your tea, it does not overwhelm at all, also props for it smelling like the melon and not candy.

I brewed this one in my gaiwan, got several steeps out of it too! The mouthfeel was delightfully creamy and smooth, and the taste was something else. It took the familiar sweet and floral notes of a green TGY and mix it with bright green notes of celery and lettuce, with a hint of buttery and green seaweed note. But where is the watermelon you might ask? Oh it is there, it blooms in the midtaste as a delicate, juicy, watermelon with an accompaniment of the green rind. It does not evolve much over steeps except the buttery Gyokuro notes became stronger, which I loved.

Wow, it has been forever since I had either a blackberry tea or a Keemun, sad, Keemun used to be one of my favorite black teas before being ousted by the fuzzy golden Yunnans, I kinda miss it. Oh man, the aroma of this one is intensely blackberry, very sweet and creamy with a bit of a crust aroma, like a blackberry cobbler. There is also a gentle hint of sage at the very end, which is kinda fun, it tickles the nose a bit.

This one was so tasty! Boo that it isn’t in the store! The Keemun is mellow and sweet, adding an underlying chocolate and slight floral edge to the intense blackberry notes. It tastes like cobbler and this makes me immensely happy. The sage is pretty mellow, just sneaking in at the finish to add a bit of an herbal depth to the tea.

I did a bit of a hmmm when deciding how to brew this one, so I defaulted to gaiwan because of course I did. The aroma is delightfully roasty, you know me and my love of char and toasted notes, the added mellow notes of orange peel and the really odd note of mate blend well. Mate is a strange thing, it smells vaguely of sage and burnt pinto beans, herbaceous and strange, but not in an unpleasant way.

I went for a couple steeps with this one too, it was wonderful experiencing the growth of the roasted notes, starting out as toasted sesame and roasted oranges and building to intense notes of char and wood. There was of course the mate, it did not necessarily clash with the oolong, but it is so strange tasting that it takes me out of the moment, the roasty toasty moment. As the steeps progressed the mate taste mellowed out and the orange notes increased, blending really well with the char, overall I had mixed feelings on this peculiar tea.

I used the last of the tea that I bought in Tokorozawa when I was there just a few months ago. Somewhat sad that I can’t just walk to Tokyo from my house… but, I will get my hand on Japanese teas to play with!

I know someone’s going to read this as peach earl grey and not realize that it’s a formosa oolong base tea and not a black tea…

Anyways, this is one battle that required a referee!

Guess who got a decent amount of Dong Ding to play with?
I wanted to make a tea taste like peach rings, but then I found out there are peach blossoms so I scratched that idea for the time being and lightly flavored this nice leaf and measured out some peach blossoms to add to it :)
Don’t tell anyone, but there is hope for floral flavors and my taste buds after all.

This is one of those teas that only a few people will have the ability to purchase because I stocked up on other base teas and got others to play with (like this one)

This is also my first attempt at putting some cream in a tea :)

So happy to be able to say that I blended with a yellow tea :)

Also, my best friend and I nailed down the steeping advice on this one (which, 30seconds changes A LOT with this tea)

https://liquidproust.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/20150623_2010021.jpg?w=660

Limited release to see if it would be worth making a full batch of.
Please don’t ask why I added a cream flavor to an osmanthus oolong… I just did