761 Tasting Notes

85

Decided to pull this out for this evening’s tea. It is darned cold here so I’m wearing a pair of handknit wool socks, a flannel granny nightie and my heavy robe. I’ve spent most of the evening sipping tea and knitting while I watched the Packers/Cardinals game. I was born in Milwaukee, so you can imagine how tragic I think the Packer loss is. Sigh. It was a heck of a game even if we did lose.

I have enough of this tea left to make one more cup. maybe tomorrow night. I’m not sure I can force myself to drive to church tomorrow. The wind chill is -38 F now, and is expected to be between -45 and -50 tomorrow morning. There’s not enough tea in the world to keep me warm outside tomorrow.

OMGsrsly

Your weather = a big NOPE from me! :)

Maddy Barone

It never got that cold! When I drove to church it was -26, but the wind was only 3 mph, so the wind chill was only -27.

Yeah, I guess “only” -26 is pretty silly to say. But it IS better than -40 wind chill!

OMGsrsly

Nope! :) It’s hovering around 5C here. A fridge is 4C. That’s cold enough for me!

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77

My last bag of this! We are entering our deep freeze weekend, so I will be drinking LOTS of tea in the next three or four days. Right now it’s -4F (-20C) and that’s the warmest it will be until Tuesday. It’s possible that I will skip church on Sunday as it is expected to be -23 with a wind chill of -40. It will get up to -12F during the afternoon, but Monday will be even colder. See? Excellent tea drinking weather! The perfect weekend to snuggle at home with a book and tea.

I am not tremendously fond of rooibos, but it’s not bad here. I’ve been impressed with the Mariage Freres teas I’ve tried. Although I won’t stock this one in my 20 Teas tea chest I’m glad to have tried it.

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88

Wow, what an awesome tea experience! I chose to drink this one on my morning break. So nice! Smooth, creamy, almost sweet on its own. When I finally work myself down to my 20 teas, this one will have a spot in the tea drawer. So glad I ordered a sample of this.

The not so nice news today is the passing of Alan Rickman. I was sad when I heard about David Bowie, but the news about Alan Rickman is even more devastating. Since the Potter books came out on Audible I’ve been getting one every few weeks and listening. Whenever the narrator speaks Snape’s dialogue I picture Alan Rickman. Sadness.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 45 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Evol Ving Ness

Alan Rickman. Oh no. How very very sad.

And this tea, yes. I am beginning to understand what the buzz is all about.

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80

Woo-hoo! Tried this one on my late morning break. And we have a winner! I bet this one smells awesome. I can almost taste different flavors. There is some spice to it, but something almost creamy too. Definitely my fave so far of my samples that I ordered before Christmas.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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79

I’m out of her peppermint tea. I really like DAVID’s Peppermint Amore, but as I said, I’m out of peppermint tea. I was at the store today and this was the only peppermint I saw there. Not too surprising. The grocery store here in West Fargo North Dakota USA doesn’t carry a wide variety of tea, and we have no tea store.

Anyway, I like to keep peppermint tea on hand, so I picked this one up. (Hush! I know, I’m on a tea diet and trying to get down to only twenty teas in my drawer, but peppermint tea is a requirement) A bagged tea isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s actually quite convenient. This tea isn’t bad at all. When I first opened the wrapper around the bag I got a tiny hint of menthol. You know, that cool sensation of mint or eucalyptus. I get it again, just a hint, when I drink it. After this box is gone, it may find its way back into the tea stash.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 30 sec
gmathis

Peppermint isn’t tea. It’s medicinal :)

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60

I’ve had only one other coconut tea and I didn’t really care for that one, but I want to like coconut tea. I know a lot of people don’t like coconut at all. I love coconut. My mom used to make a coconut macaroon cookie that I would inhale every Christmas season. Oh, man, my mouth waters thinking about those cookies! I was thinking about those cookies while I was making an order at The American Tea Room, I added a sample to my order.

Maybe it’s not fair to compare this tea to those cookies. This one just didn’t really work for me. The leaf is interesting. Quite a lot of small pieces of coconut in the dark tea leaves. It brews into a warm dark amber color in the cup. I can’t smell it, or taste it, but at the end of the sip is an odd after taste, I don’t know what it is, but I don’t enjoy it. So, glad to try this one, but I’m glad I didn’t buy more.

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78
drank White Nectarine by DAVIDsTEA
761 tasting notes

This was my evening tea. Quite good, but as it cooled, it tasted almost overly sweet to me. A fake sweet. But I seem to remember that I enjoyed it iced. Hm. Not sure about this one.

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81
drank Eggnog Chai by 52teas
761 tasting notes

Ack!! I forgot to write my note about this tea!

My brother came up from Minneapolis to stay with me Christmas Eve. We spent the afternoon strolling around downtown Fargo and visiting various little shops . It was a wonderful time, and it was fairly warm until the last half hour. Once the sun went behind clouds it turned darned cold. When we got home I brewed a pot of this tea to warm us up. I come from a large family, and my brother Ross is the only other tea drinker. So you get not only my impressions of this tea, but my brother’s as well.

Ross isn’t a very adventurous tea drinker. He goes for traditional blacks, mostly bagged, with Earl Gray being a fave of his. I have him some Yorkshire Gold one year for Christmas and he liked that. He looked rather doubtful about this tea, as he doesn’t generally care of spice teas, but he politely tried it. And loved it. I couldn’t really taste it of course, but I could feel the spice. After he drank half his cup he got up and pulled the sample bag out of the drawer to look at the tea. He said, with amusing amazement, “There are actual spices in here! I can SEE the spices.” Then he spent the next two cups inhaling deeply and letting the tea rest in his mouth so he could get all the flavor. He told me he could taste vanilla, and caramel, and of course the spices.

So Eggnog Chai was a hit and enjoyment was had by all. :)

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec
Evol Ving Ness

How wonderful it is to witness someone with a conservative approach to things going wild!

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95

This morning was one of those mornings when I just could NOT seem to keep my eyes open. I started with coffee. Two cups didn’t do the trick. I pulled this one out of the drawer and made a large, strong pot. It didn’t do the trick either, actually, but it was tasty. This remains one of my very favorite breakfast teas. It’s smooth but robust. When I get my tea drawer pared down to my 20 teas, this will probably be one that I’ll want to keep on hand.

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80

That was the last of this. I normally don’t drink black tea in the evening to avoid caffeine, but then I realized that in the summer I often drink coke in the evening. And I sort of wanted this tea tonight, so there you go. Hopefully I’ll sleep soundly tonight. Tomorrow it’s back to work after 4 lovely days off.

It’s a fine tea. The leaf is quite long and light in color. The tea is also a bit light in color, with a very smooth mild taste. I’m sorry to see this one go.

I’m not placing an order anytime soon. My New Years Resolution is to get my tea cabinet down to less than 20 teas. I know. I can almost hear you all laugh. But I have about 70 teas now (yes, again I can hear you all laugh) that I need to drink up. Because really, how many teas does a single gal need on hand at a time? I figure 3 or 4 good breakfast teas, 3 or 4 mild afternoon teas, 5 or 6 dessert teas, 3 or 4 caffeine-free teas for evening, and a peppermint tea and a ginger tea for health purposes. It sounds very reasonable, doesn’t it? What are my chances do you think?

OMGsrsly

Sounds totally reasonable. :) I’m doing an inventory right now and it’s scary…

Fjellrev

Reasonable, yet incomprehensible. I can’t imagine waking up to only twenty options. :)

tigress_al

Reasonable yes but how would you narrow it down? :)

Maddy Barone

The trick would be to get down to the (ridiculous) goal, and then when I finish one tea, order another, either the same tea or something new. But yes, I have a number of favorites, and that number is higher than 20. Sigh.

Evol Ving Ness

“I can’t imagine waking up to only twenty options.” Yes. That.

I am not going to do inventory exactly as in counting and itemizing because I think it may have adverse effects on my health. However, I am going to go though everything and arrange my smallest bits of tea and oldest or least loved teas into grab baskets or boxes—one for mornings, afternoons, and evenings—and move through them every second cup: one cup free choice, one cup from my grab bags.

Maddy Barone

That’s a great idea, Evol Ving Ness!

OMGsrsly

That is sort of what I’m doing, Evol. :) I have 2 sample bins, and a “must drink” bin… Definitely need to drink out of those at least every other tea!

Inkling

“Because really, how many teas does a single gal need on hand at a time?” So with you here! Steepster can make having crazy amounts of tea seem reasonable, but really (especially if you’re not a pu’erh drinker!), it makes more sense to keep your collection in check so you can enjoy everything before it loses its flavor. With you in working on that one in 2016!

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Bio

I love cats. I love alone time. I love sitting indoors on a cold winter night with a book or my knitting while drinking tea. I don’t have a sense of smell, so many of the more subtle flavors of tea escape me. Two of the things I CAN taste are bitter and sour, so any tea that has even a slightly bitter taste is nasty for me. And what others might perceive as pleasant tartness may be horribly sour for me.

I’m also a writer. I love writing, and a mug of hot tea helps me get through the hours sitting in front of the computer. Although I’m a comparatively new tea drinker, I’m jumping in feet first. Feel free to recommend any teas you think I might enjoy.

100-91 – Wowza! I want to keep this tea in the cupboard all the time.
75-90 – Very nice. It would be good to have this tea on hand from time to time.
60-74 – OK. Wouldn’t keep it in the cupboard, but I would drink it again.
45-59 – If a friend served this I would drink it to be polite, but it’s not really my cuppa.
Lower than 45 – Blech. It was too sour or bitter for my taste. Would not drink it again.

Location

Fargo, ND

Website

www.MaddyBarone.com

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