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Orange Cinnamon Turmeric + other stuff like hibiscus, ginger, rosehips and apple

Tart, juicy orange flavor with just enough orange peel taste and blackberry leaf sweetness to make this feel damn near fresh orange juice. Fresh, not Tropicana. Fresh. Warm, sweet, gentle cinnamon. Turmeric — notsomuch, maybe an earthy base tone. This would be better had on a winter Saturday morning to brighten the soul but here we are on a late summer evening. Very drinkable, chuggable even.

Thank you, Martin!

Side note: tea plants have rebounded quickly from the aphid infestation.

From Liquid Proust group buy almost 4 years ago. 22 years old at this point. It’s very mild and with very little taste until the aftertaste begins to bloom with subtle notes of sweet and sour stewed fruits, spice, wood, flowers and menthol. Smooth and very lightly salty-tannic mouthfeel. As it steeps out, it becomes very perfumey. Much too mild to drink any time besides the evening.

A note to only say goodbye.

Kiki had this 12oz!! box of full leaf tea when I moved in and it was very fresh and strong, caffeinating, smooth, complex citrus, perhaps the best Earl Grey I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, I never made a note for it. Also unfortunate is that it sat at the top of a shelving unit in the kitchen that is directly below a heating vent in the ceiling, so every winter the tea got blasted by hot air. This summer I realized much of the bergamot had evaporated. Instead of tossing the tea, I made pitchers of cold-brew for Kiki. Made this way, she said it tasted like a light, refreshing Earl Grey.

I wish I had made an actual note because this was a great Earl Grey.

Ginger is warming, never straight up spicy and it’s most prominent in the steam and in the sip. The licorice root is very good here, not thickly, sickly sweet despite being steeped for 10 minutes. It’s soft and carries the warmth of ginger and sweet cinnamon through the swallow. I notice the elderflower most on my breath. It’s definitely there and a nice addition. As an ingredient, it’s rarely seen in American tisanes. Overall fragrant warming, softly sweet-spicy, floral in that elderflower way.

Martin has given me so many good herbal blends from Europe that I think as a generalization they got the art of tisane on lockdown. It’s more likely, though, that he sends the good stuff my way :P

Bought a bag after Kawaii433 gave me a sample. My bag says 2020 harvest but it doesn’t taste like it to me, I think it’s last year’s.

Anyway, the one from Kawaii was very soothing. I’m sipping from a bowl what I bought earlier this year and it’s a great palate cleanser had with a light lunch. The tea has a restrained yet deep orchid florality that, despite drinking in between bites of food, reveals itself fully on the breath after each sip. And the lingering mouthfeel is very active, tingly but not in a pure astringent or tannic way.

:)

Martin’s shipment of Georgian teas arrived earlier this week and yet the first cup I made from the box is this herbal teabag! I guess it’s what I needed tonight.

This is a great turmeric blend, not too strong in any dimension. There’s an earthy, spicy base of turmeric and a step up from that is a non-dominating ginger zing. I really like the level of spice — it’s not biting but presents as a playful, prickly presence. A welcome touch of acidity might be from the lemon flavor? which blends into the greener lemongrass top note, connecting with a bit of savory basil that in turn reaches down, complementing turmeric’s slightly savory character. I’d say this lives up to its name. It sure tastes and feels good.

I now regret brewing the other bag for Kiki, haha. Thank you, Martin :)

Having some western cups before heading out for the evening. Really nice mix of sandalwood, nuttiness, passionfruit, pomelo, honey and plumeria. Second steep expresses a lot of pear rather than passionfruit. Best Gui Fei style oolong I’ve had and it comes from my favorite high mountain, Shan Lin Xi. The Gui Fei oolong I’ve had before have been too much for me, whether it be nutty-roasty, honeysweet, citrusy or tannic. This one is simply delicious. It is very fragrant and has a lingering aftertaste.

Perfect for late summer late afternoon.

I think this is the right tea…

All the reviews for this tea since my experience with it 4 years ago are lukewarm at best. How does it fair now that I’ve had 4 years to appreciate so many more teas?

There is a multitude of tastes however they are a bit watery-soft at first and almost overshadowed by aging oolong sourness, though at this point in time, pleasant to me like tieguanyin. Steeping for longer to concentrate the flavors only brings out an overwhelming barky tannic texture. Difficult to brew well. Overall, the mix of flavors is typical of a summer bug-bitten oolong with woody and citrusy character, honey sweetness, autumn fruits and baking spices. I did not find the roast distracting. This is gongfu. Western steeping had a more syrupy texture and a tinge of vegetal taste. Nowhere near as complex.

Good to revisit a tea had in my early days of Steepster (thanks to Leafhopper!) but not one I’d purchase again nor one I would recommend. Sorry if I led people astray :P

I’d give this harvest a 60; the first one was 90. Average 75

2022 harvest of Taiwanese white tea made from Qing Xin cultivar grown with permaculture methods, along with the other two teas from this Snow Mist Farm series, an oolong and a black tea.

I prefer brewing this in a large gaiwan with less leaf than usual. For one, it is huge and unruly! It refuses to be crammed into my small porcelain teapot and will fit only in the the largest of steeper baskets for western brewing. I haven’t tried bowl.

Why I really prefer it brewed in my large glass gaiwan, though, is because there is an initial spicy, fresh-leafy, astringent edge to the leaf that is best mitigated in this manner. Once that fades, it takes long, hot absent-minded steeps beautifully and lasts forever. Smooth and deep herbal hay and dried leaf spice, peonies and floral sweetness, creamy-juicy swallow.

Maybe I’ll pay more attention to its character with the remaining leaf but I probably won’t because I’m enjoying it without diving into analysis. Fun find: a long strand of moss, lime green, stood out amongst the leaf.

Side note: my tea plants have developed an aphid infestation. The assamica variety has been hit the hardest; the Black Sea sininsis variety less so (these 2 represent the bulk of the plantings, I think around 100 plants). The lone surving sinensis from Fairhope Tea Plantation is untouched, as well as the Large Leaf sinsensis. A few have been spotted on the 2 unknown variety plants I found at a local nursery. I washed the plants with soap, let them dry, split a container of ladybugs between the two large raised beds, then zipped up some enclosures to keep the lady bugs mostly in to work their magic. Fingers crossed. Damage has been done but hopefully the plants bounce back.

It’s been miserably hot lately. This is the closest I can get to a proper cool-down on the nights the fog doesn’t roll in from the Pacific.

My preference definitely lies with peppermint. Spearmint rubs me wrong but I do find this simple blend balanced and refreshing , even as my warm nighttime cup. The sweetness from the spearmint tempers the bracing cool bite of the peppermint. I steep it for howeverlong – 15 minutes? – and it doesn’t taste like a stewed wet rag in the slightest. That means it’s good mint.