New Tasting Notes

A sipdown! (M: 4, Y: 44) — woo, two sipdowns in one day!
Actually, I have prepared this tea yesterday. But today I am drinking it, because I have prepared it as a my first coldbrew.

And it went delicious. Lemongrass probably most forward, in taste there is cistrus zests afterwards and it is so highly refreshing and addictive… that I regret not preparing it before. Also lime is more prominent in this method than using classic western hot method.

Happy for sipdown, unhappy that it’s gone.

For future reference: 6 grams / 1000 ml, 20 hours in fridge

A sipdown! (M: 3, Y: 43)
A minty tea – June Monthly Sipdown Challenge — a little late :D

I hardly get through this challenge. It was great in first months, then I went busy with my finals and work and now I hardly reach any sipdowns too.

Anyway, it’s another sipdown from Tielka and I brewed it today at work because my upset tummy. I have been surprised how fresh and strong in menthol this tea (from Egypt) is. Not only it made my tummy calm, but also refreshed my mind and whole body.
A great peppermint in sachet. Rare thing!

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – August 2023 Tea #5 – A tea with orange flavor

I tried my hardest to find an orange tea that I could actually sipdown. But I guess I went with the oldest one. And possibly favorite. This tea is still a delight. I would definitely buy it again. Full sweet and orange on the perfect base.

This tea that I received for free to sample rather surprised me. I was expecting strong and intense smoky flavours, similar to other Lapsang Souchong teas that I have had, but instead, the tea tasted really mellow, in an enjoyable way. It is a rich tasting, though light, black tea. I tasted sweet, floral notes, reminiscent of roses.

https://iteaworld.com/products/souchong-black-tea

This was a great tea. I love Chai Tea but this had a little different spice and a level of smoothness that was different. I was sad to see it was limited, I would love to see this again.

Possibly my current favorite TGY. I should really buy more. Recommended.

Needed to order some bulk ingredients and they sent a good amount of samples. For whatever reason I decided this sounded the best. The dry aroma has that slight alcohol burn and bourbony smell. The wet leaf is a mix of sweet campfire, a sweet I can’t remember the name of, and artificialness. The flavor is sweet and woody with an artificial tang at the end. It leaves a slight chocolate aftertaste and the mouth feel is somewhat drying.

Sipdown! (42 | 294)

This was pretty good. Base tea isn’t great of course, very dry grassy. But the subtle cranberry notes paired with the buttery pecan (which tasted more like walnut to me) did remind me of muffins or perhaps scones. But I did find the walnut to be the strongest flavor here, and I would’ve liked more of the cranberry and apple.

So fun to try, but not one I would order.

I absolutely love this tea. It’s the first gyokuro I’ve ever tried and I’m not lying when I say when I took my first sip – sparks flew. I never knew tea could taste like this! Almost like a soup broth! It was fascinating! Japanese greens have very quickly become my favourite type of tea and I’ve been experimenting with them for the last few weeks. This one is definitely a winner in my book.

The only variety in the weather forecast for several days has been the adverb: treacherously hot, dangerously hot, miserably hot, torturously hot, painfully hot….which means I start with an iced version of whatever I yank out of the “old bags” basket and continue to add scraps of whatever else is on hand, watering it down during the day until there’s nothing left.

However, this little specialty tea from Basilur held up pretty nicely under abuse today—started with a quart that had been fridge-steeped overnight; sweet, but not in that curl-your-tongue stevia way. Once it was half gone, I threw in a bag of Murphy’s Irish Breakfast, and ended up with a very pleasant iced blend with just a teeny bit of cherry finish.

Y’all enjoy a hot cuppa for me. I’ll catch up with you in a few days. September’s coming.

Another one I very much wanted to try.  Thanks so much, Cameron B!  Huge green tea leaves from Thailand, with an occasional bit of fruit (mango, coconut).   I love sticky rice teas, so this should be a good one.  And it is!  The green tea seems to me more like a Wen Shan Bao Zhong oolong, and that’s what I would guess in a taste test. The coconut is at the forefront and tastes more like toasted coconut.  Really only hints of the mango and sticky rice.  But the base is very buttery, so pairs really well with these flavors.   Even the third steep doesn’t seem overdone at such hot temp, meaning I really do think this is an oolong, not a green tea… unless Thailand green tea is very forgiving with hot brewing.  But it’s a great base for these subtle flavors!  So it’s another tea that found another great new home. Where Cameron B was tasting suntan lotion coconut, I didn’t notice that at all— I noticed toasty coconut. And note to self: do a third steep.  And also, next time, try the third steep at boiling. 
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 35 min after boiling // 2 min steep
Steep #2 // 24 min after boiling // 2 min steep

Random tea of the day!

Really need to get back into drinking my Obubu teas daily, otherwise I end up buried in a pile of subscription teas ha ha! Plus I just love having a bit of sencha in the afternoon, I guess I just forget about it… :P

Not really tasting a lot of specific flavor notes today, maybe my tongue is just feeling as burnt out as I am. But this is a smooth and silky cup of brothy goodness, and it’s giving me life. A bit of spinach but also plenty of cruciferous vegetables, maybe kale and cauliflower and some other deep green, subtly bitter veggie like chard. A touch of dry grassiness sprinkled over the top. Not super umami-forward, but still has a savoriness to it that makes it feel like a light meal.

Also, the name is super pretty. I will say this doesn’t remind me of a gushing brook though. :P

I’ve had some of the herbal with honey, and served it to my dad. It really helped his throat, and I’ve had some myself with and without honey as the rooibos herbal blend. It’s grown a little more on me. If it weren’t for the price, I’d easily reorder more of this one. The lavender white chocolate and mint profile would have me keep coming.

Cheap gorgeous lapsang. Andrew had a feeling the basic people would like this one, and I did it mug fu style with 30-50 second rinses. I varied it depending on aroma. The dryleaf smell is a weird combo of pine needle, smoke, and caramel. It’s like a bougie log cabin in Oregon or Washington state. That’s what it makes me think of. The flavor definitely has lapsang smoke, yet like Andrew described, is laced with a caramelized sugar taste. Sometimes, I thought I was drinking sap filled caramel coffee. Also heavy in a maple direction too, and the later steeps had more of the lapsang notes I’m used to, but sweeter. Soooo much sweeter. I contemplated getting more of it because $8 for 50 grams is cheap. But again, I have too many black teas.

Definitely recommend it to my basic tea lovers and nerds.

This one sold out really fast on Andrew’s birthday. I decided to snag some with Smoke and Mirrors. I’ve only had a slopfu session with it in this backlog, and it’s what I hoped it would be, which is a fruit forward green oolong. Very, very heavy on pineapple notes and nectarine notes, with some sourness like apricot. I can see some people describing peach, but it’s more on the sweet side of yellow and orange fruit in general. Rinse, 25, 35, OH CRAP, 55, 45, 1 min 30, 3 minutes, western for a unknown amount of time. It’s good. I don’t regret the splurge.

Sipdown! (41 | 293)

Yay, the last one of the Twinings infusions I impulse purchased at the grocery store.

I drank this one in lemonade, because the flavoring here is tasty but incredibly potent, and infused in water it just tasted like chemicals to me. Tasty tropical chemicals mind you, but chemicals nonetheless LOL.

But steeped in lemonade, it makes a deliciously juicy and sweet mango-passion fruit lemonade. Very yummy. I won’t repurchase this though, because I don’t need to be drinking that much lemonade… XD

I ordered the Shanlinxi originally, so this was a mistake and a happy accident. It’s actually more fruity than the Dayuling, which I did not expect. That one has a richer floral smell, but this one has more flavor gong fu AND western. I’m looking forward to enjoying this one while I finish the Dayuling off.

BOGO backlog. A bit dissappointed with this one. It’s only worked gong fu so far. Otherwise, it’s too grassy. I know, I’m an ungrateful snob. Florals and slight fruitiness gong fu, but western and grandpa, it’s grassy and tastes like underripe banana or a green Maofeng. Hopefully, I can figure it out again. I know I got a deal on it, though I kinda wish I saved for other teas. I actually liked the Lishan I accidentally got a little bit more.

I got 50 grams of this with the doubling sale for Crafted Tea Leaf, so I got 25 grams in price, but got twice the amount, and I’m pretty happy about it. I’ve only had it once western mug style using 3 minutes, and it’s really close to it’s mainland counterpart. Heavy red fruit notes in the light malt of the tea, and brews several times with slight astringency, but no harshness except some slightly bitter notes. Very heavy on the nutty qualities and sweetness. Soooo good, but hits me a little bit with the caffeine. I’m not ready to rate it until I gong fu it. I’m otherwise pretty pleased.

The Wanderlust Teas have been hits for me so far again and again. This one is an easy like for me because it combines all the flavors I like such as Melon, Ginger, and Coconut, and it was done really well. I fully expected it to be a black tea since it was initially written as Bali Breakfast and a black in the adds, but Zhena went with a white tea. All of the white teas have been really exceptionally flavored, so I’m not complaining. I’ve contemplated on getting more Ravello, so there’s that. I know, I’m basic.

But I like this one a lot because one flavor doesn’t dominate the other. The coconut and ginger marry each other, and the melon flavors the tail end of each sip followed by some texture and fruity qualities from the apple. I’ve only had it once hot, but I really like it. I wonder if I’ll write more on it, but it meets the marks of things I like. It’s very similar to the Cancer tea, whereas that one has a very creamy candied ginger mango taste, this one is straight up fruity. Now, onto the next teas.

Another blue tea. I should have gone with one of the more interesting ones, I know, like the meringue pie or the limtied editions Currant one or Pineapple Champagne Lavender French one, but I like coconut.

This one was one I was hyped for, but kinda felt underserved. It brews better iced than the cheesecake one, but it’s a little bit more subtle on the flavor. Pina Colada vibes for sure, but the banana overtakes the coconut sometimes. Unfortunately, it almost requires coconut milk to really sing and show off the blue color of the butterfly pea flower. I do like it and think it’s good, but I need to try it hot to have a fully formed opinion. I still really like the idea of the tea and think it does serve its purpose as a nonboozy pina colada alternative, but the banana pulls away from the coconut. That could be good if you’re not a coconut fan, but I am.

Iced version of Pisces, but with a more simple flavor profile. I oddly liked it better hot over iced. It takes about 3 hrs to get it right in the fridge with the sachet, and using a whopping 10 grams of tea in a pitcher to get it right. You can rebrew it, albeit weaker. The color is a vibrant blue color that can turn purple, and the taste is really close to blueberry cheesecake. The cooler temperature dilutes the cheesecake flavor and ups the vanilla and blueberry, whereas it’s more forward hot and creamy sweet hot. Granted, I like cheesecake warmed by hot fruit, but that’s my preference.

Otherwise, it’s a pretty good tea. I came back to it a few times. I do think it’s a little overpriced and not quite as good as Pisces, but it’s still impressive and rebrews up to four times hot without losing too much of its flavor.

A pure unflavored tea! I wonder how long it’s been limited edition for, because I know it’s been on the site for a year. Reading that it was just a Laoshan Black, and I’ve been craving Laoshan black, I picked some up a few orders ago with the iced tea blends to give it a chance for $33 and 6 oz of loose leaf. A gamble, I know, but it turned out to be a solid one.

It’s really good and heavy on raw cocoa and toasted chestnut in profile, with some smoke and bitterness that’s actually pleasant. It’s got a creamy viscousness that contrasts with the nutty and bitter elements hitting me with some tannin in he right places. Mug style western is malted with a little bit of honey/cherry, but gong fu draws it out. It works a little better gong fu, though the malt is better western. It works in my Eclipse tumbler, sitting there semi grandpa, so it’s a good quality tea. I sometimes wonder if it’s an older tea because it’s not as oily as a fresh Laoshan black and a little bit drying in some areas despite having a lovely profile.

So far, I’ve mixed it quite a bit with my other magic hour teas and it beefs up softer blends with cocoa, smoke, and toastiness in the bodies. It blends really well with Bohemian Breakfast and Aquarius, as well as my Michigan Yunnan Style black.

I’ve come back to this one quite a bit. I like it more than some of the blacks I have on hand, but I go back to my blends instead every once in a while. The occasional dryness is the only thing that keeps me from going back to it more.