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Sipdown, 100!! Made my Black Friday goal! Cold steep of this one.

I think a cold brew is actually my favorite way to drink dancong. It is SO tasty! Fruity, refreshing, all around delicious. Next summer I might have to get some cheap dancong to keep around for cold brews… It would be so nice on a hot day.

Sipdown, 101. After having this one regularly for the past two weeks I have definitely come to the conclusion that it is not for me. Although it is clearly a lovely tea, it’s just not the kind of black tea that I tend to enjoy; too fruity, too much of whatever that note is that I don’t like. I am definitely glad that I got to try it, though. Also apparently my like/dislike line for Taiwanese black teas is hard to judge, meaning future orders for Taiwanese black teas will be tricky. Ah well, that’s what samples and small amounts are for!

I am logging this as a sipdown (102) because even though there is a little left, that is going into a blend of iced teas, so this will be the last unadultered session that I have with this tea.

I had a ton of this tea. An entire 100g pouch (which is a ton for me!), and I didn’t even like it that much. I’ve also had it for probably 4 or 5 years. But I did find that I enjoyed it well enough cold brewed, so that’s what I’ve been doing for the last couple of months… regular cold brews, nearly every other day, and now it’s gone. It was kind of one of those teas I never thought would be gone, haha.

Sipdown, 103. When I made the last of this tea this morning, I was afraid it would be a little over strong, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It was super delicious this morning! Smooth, sweet, no hint of bitterness or astringency. I wasn’t as impressed with the other black teas from this company, but this tea I would actually reorder. Yum!

Sipdown, 104. Another tea I am sad to see go. I don’t know whether I would want to restock just PTA, or also this one. I like this one a lot, but is it exactly what I want when I want a caramelly tea? I think I have others that are more favorite, and I think that I prefer the unflavored PTA of the two of them. That’s not to say this one won’t “accidentally” make it into my cart someday! :)

This was an unexpected sipdown (105). There were two servings of this left, but I had a somewhat catastrophic first session (long story) that ended up wasting the leaves, but I still wanted this tea so I had a gongfu session with the rest. This tea is so easy to overbrew and get bitter, but when you hit the sweet spot it is amazing. So buttery, nutty, lightly spiced almost? I think it reminds me almost of those cinnamon candy almonds. Amazing. The reserve version of this is probably slightly wasted on me as I am not a connoisseur of dragonwells but it is still very enjoyable.

Sipdown, 106. Cold brew… yes, I did it again (cold brewing a reserve tea, that is).

I knew I should have only given this an overnight-length steep (~8hrs) instead of the 24hr steeps that I give black teas. But it didn’t look very dark, so I left it. It was a tad bitter at first, but I diluted it with some more cold water and now it is pretty delicious. First off, it smells like apples. Really! It came out very fruity and honeyed. A bit of roasting added some depth. Very nice, and I would do it again!

Sipdown, 107. Sad sipdown! This has become one of my favorite white teas, and one I really enjoy drinking.

The first few steeps of this today were super sweet and marshmallowy, even though they were so pale I could hardly tell there would be any flavor. Ye of little faith! They were delicious. Later steeps yielded a bit of squash and and honey. I have a few more detailed notes on this one, so I will just end by saying that this is delicious, I am sad that it has finally been moved to the out of stock section, but am intrigued that it hasn’t been “archived.” Maybe there will be another picking next spring? I can hold out hope!

You know what is suboptimal for getting sipdowns done? Eating something bad last night and having a still-not-happy stomach this morning. Ugh. So even though this isn’t on my sipdown list, I broke it open because it has mint in it, and will hopefully help my stomach settle.

For a minty-herby tea, it’s not bad. No really my thing unless I happen to have a stomach ache, but decently tasty. At first I though the puerh in this would turn me off of it especially since when it was fresh brewed and very hot it smelled a lot like earthy shu, but that has calmed down quite a bit. Very herby, a bit medicinal. Basically what I was looking for this morning… at least I had it around.

I tried to use the new timer feature on the Steepster app and it froze with a minute to go… I realized this when I thought this must have been going for longer than 3 minutes, haha. Luckily I had been planning to have this with milk and sugar anyway.

Also Sipdown, 108. A bit sad to see this one go as it is delicious with milk and sugar. Maybe someday I’ll restock it.

I am trying out the app’s attach photo feature! Interested to see how it comes through. ETA: woah, it changes the photo for the tea! That’s not really optimal. I will change it back in a bit.