592 Tasting Notes
For dinner, I ate at a BBQ place and had sweet tea (made in house!) with my meal. While that was lovely, the combo of delicious but greasy food and sugary tea made me crave a palate cleanser when I got home. This green tea is very clean tasting with no bitterness. It does seem a little weak though, so I’ll add more leaf than usual the next time around.
I’ve been automatically grabbing Laoshan Black a lot these days, so I thought I’d switch it up just a little and drink some of this instead. I haven’t had this since I first bought it a couple months ago, so it was almost like having a new tea, which was exciting. I think I prefer this one over straight Laoshan Black for non-morning tea. I say this because it has the maltiness and dark chocolate flavor like LB, but it is rounded out by the toastiness from the rice. I’m glad that I impulsively bought more than a sample size of this!
I didn’t notice when I was ordering, but this green tea also has rooibos, which I am not a big fan of. I only double checked when I was smelling the dry leaf because it smelled strongly of caramel with a whiff of rooibos. After brewing, it smelled more strongly of rooibos to me. I really liked the level of sweetness from the caramel in this tea (not too overwhelmingly sweet), but it leaves a very typical medicinal rooibos aftertaste that I just can’t get over. It’s a real shame that I somehow don’t like rooibos, because this is a nice tea otherwise. The Persimmon Tree had a lot of really nicely flavored teas, but this is not the one for me.
As soon as I got back to chilly Boston, all I wanted was a nice cup of oolong. I remember trying this one right before I left, so I thought it would be the perfect way to bookend my little vacation. It is pretty much exactly how I remembered it, so I won’t repeat myself. I’ll just say that I’m going to be very sad when I run out of this!
Edit: I’ve been resteeping multiple times and the flavor is still going strong! I almost think it’s getting smokier each time.
Today, I am officially late for a class that I am TA-ing for due to the weather not letting me fly back to Boston, sigh. With that stress accumulating, I decided to sip down the rest of my Laoshan Black sample that I have with me. Because I just used up the rest of what I had, this cup came out a bit stronger than usual, but that is fine by me! I didn’t like this tea at first, but it really grew on me while I worked my way through the sample packet. Good thing that Verdant sent me two of these samples, so I have more to enjoy when I get back!
After standing in line for hours at the airport and having a flight cancelled on me, I came home exhausted and quite frustrated. I thought I ought to make a cup of tea to calm me down, so I reached for my reliable hojicha. Unfortunately, I only had a little of this left that I brought with me, so it was a bit weak this time around. Now let’s just hope that my rebooked flights aren’t cancelled, too.
Thanks to JoonSusanna for generously sending me this tea! I finally got a chance to try this one out this morning. I’ve been trying a lot of straight oolongs these days, and just when I feel like I’ve tasted the range of them, I find a new one! This oolong has a roasted taste, and it also tasted peppery? I thought I was going crazy, so I scanned through some other tasting notes and no one else seems to have mentioned it, so I’m not entirely sure what’s going on there with my taste buds. Anyway, a lovely oolong for the day!
I’m obsessed with my new cast iron teapot, and seeing how it may not fit in my luggage back to Boston, I brewed up a nice strong pot of this English Breakfast this morning. The day was a bit draining, so I resteeped when I got back. Unfortunately, I only have enough tea left for one more cuppa :(
Yesterday, I impulse bought a cast iron set of a teapot, two teacups, and a wooden trivet at World Market. I went there to pick up some tea tins, saw this set, fell in love, couldn’t believe the price, and somehow found myself at the cash register buying it, haha. Anyway, I wanted to break it in with a less picky tea, so I went for this hojicha. Delicious as always!
