New Tasting Notes

I ordered a gift box of this to try this one and their other two, with some cookies, as it was the cheapest and more fun way — also, I have been spending too much money lately in general last week.

I am not rating this first time as I messed up the brew. I did my 2 2/2 Sherlock Holmes tea pot and put in two bags for some reason at 5 minutes, instead of the usual 1 I do when filling own bag from loose. This made too strong with bitterness so I can’t fairly tell.

I did like well enough besides overdoing it, so will try again. But I do have a whole box to go through, so….

I will say it’s annoying I couldn’t open the box and have these individually sealed to store easier. Also it hurts freshness to me. If any of these become favorites, may find a tin and move the box as a label over it, but who knows. Lack of room and such.

I was not a fan of the cookies in the gift box unless dipped in tea – too hard for my tea. My mixer has been delayed, cannot wait to start baking with it coming. Supposed to be here today – again.

This tea has a nice bold flavor with hints of blackberry. It has a great aroma, and with a bit of sweetener, like Demerara sugar, it is divine. I drink this tea in the afternoon for a bit of a boost to get through the rest of the day.
This tea is a bit reminiscent of Blackberry Sage from the Republic of Tea but has the fuller flavor of black tea and no sage. The only thing it is missing is full blackberries.

2023 Ode To Tea – Part II – K

Not a sipdown but I forgot all about this tea, so I thought I’d include it for ‘K’ that isn’t a letter with any actual close sipdowns at the moment.  The flavors have faded but this tea is now 5 years old.  I was happy to see this chutney tea originally!   Would love to see more chutney teas!

I’ve found this one to be best cold. It tastes like an even mix of fruity and herbaceous flavors. I don’t love it, but I’ve almost finished my 2 oz bag, so it must be decent enough! There’s nothing fake or too tart in there.

Yingde Black Tea from iteaworld.com is amazing. Please note: I was offered this tea for free in exchange for my honest review, and I do have to say that I’m very much enjoying this tea! It comes from modern high mountain tea gardens and the rich, sweet taste is wonderful. The tea has a beautiful, roasted smell. It tastes rich in flavour and reminds me of caramel and cocoa flavours. I also love how each infusion alters the taste just a little bit, and the amount of infusions it lasts for demonstrates the high quality black tea that it is.

Buttery, floral, and sweet. Has some apple and vegetable notes, and a thick body.

Website: https://iteaworld.com/

From my aunt’s trip to Istanbul in 2022.

Another herbal mélange with ambiguous script. Kinda looks like “WiYhtee”. I figure it’s a riff on this “Winter Tea” https://www.grandturkishbazaar.com/product/turkish-winter-tea-mix/

Contains 1 cinnamon stick, 1 long finger each of hard-as-a-rock ginger root and turmeric, a few hibiscus flowers, lots of rosehips and pink rosebuds, chamomile, sage and I think these other tiny buds are jasmine.

I don’t like it one bit. Sour, some earthiness, some cinnamon and buckets of soapy perfume. Ugh. Hibiscus and chamomile do not play well together in my mouth, and that rose is like an overbearing yet stiff-upper-lipped grandmother. I’m refrigerating the rest. Hopefully it proves a refreshing and sense-awakening brew in the morning.

2023 Ode To Tea – Part II – J

I was hesitant to sip this one down already, but Jun Chiyabari usually wins the award for ‘Complex flavors, that change/age the fastest’.  So I finished this one today!  Why wait?  Even the second steep tended to lose a ton of flavor, but again, no fault of this tea.  Only my hoarding.
2023 sipdowns: 65

2023 Ode To Tea – Part II – I

Not too many teas representing ‘I’, so this is yet another tea that is not quite a sipdown.  What a quality puerh this is — it would be a great candidate for adding coffee beans to.  Very agreeable flavors here — coffee, cocoa, nice lingering aftertaste. It’s interesting my previous note (another note from nine years ago!) mentioned butternut squash.  I wish I were still tasting that.   The only difference in steeping parameters would be using 2 teaspoons instead of 1 1/2 teaspoons that I previously used and using cooler water this time around.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 //   10 min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #3 //  5 min after boiling // 4 min

Going back in the time machine. Lately, even 1 week feels like an eternity though not in a bad way. I’ve had so much going on between preparing for my trip and getting food poisoning this week that my brain has been Swiss-cheesed.

Subtle, delicate and fluid aromas and flavors. Something like white grape, lychee and mango, hay and cucumber. Viscous and sweet spring water, salty; hint of cream in aftertaste.

When prepared in a steeper basket, the most lovely aroma of cocoa butter wafts from the cup.

Excellent silver needle! Easy to drink and appreciate. Probably best for fans of subtlety.

Thank you again, beerandbeancurd.

Another tea form beerandbeancurd that commanded my appreciation of the moment. Taking notes for this one proved very difficult.

I’m not too much a fan of roasted Taiwanese oolong but this one was something special. Very flavorful with some fun redwood rasp; not obnoxiously roasted or sweet or nutty. As the florals, roast, dried fruits, blooming apricot aftertaste and throat cooing of the first third of the session transitioned into the second, I recall a prominent and quirky eucaluptus-citronella note coming to the fore. Last third of the session smoothed out into a really classic roasted oolong peachy and forest floor profile with some creaminess.

Thank you, tea friend, for my first taste of Global Tea Hut’s offerings.

From beerandbeancurd, thank you!

Wonderful zijuan sheng pu’er with all those right red-wine-barrel-storage notes right off the bat to complement the personality of purple leaf.

Notes be damned. I would need another session or two to bury my nose deep in that pot and adequately wrap my tongue around these tastes.

Incredible energy — after peeling myself off the floor (seems to be a common theme) from the first 2 pots, I repotted all my outdoor and indoor root-bound plants. That’s where it’s at with me and tea. Does it make me feel good? Oh baby you, you got what I need.

Song pairing as I steep out the last bits of flavor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etviGf1uWlg

Pungent pearls!
Abundant acid!
Spicy, salty spheres!
Bitter balls!
Numbing nuggets!
Generous juniper!

TCM associations for sure. There is some semblance to Sichuan peppercorns.

Refreshing, sour and light when brewed hot then refrigerated .

Feeling: cleansing, fat digestive, tonic, invigorating

July Sipdown Prompt – International Friendship Day: tea with a friend

I bought this tea for my friend of 37 years though it is kept at my house. It is very difficult for us to get together except during summer break as she is an EC teacher with an adult special needs child living at home and she is starting an online consulting site for parents of EC children so she is very busy. I figured that if we could manage one tea time together per week we would finish this by summer’s end, and we are on schedule for that!

This is white tea with apricot, lavender, vanilla, lemon, and honey flavor if I remember correctly, but all I taste is mild apricot. I don’t resteep this one. But we do like it a lot and I would consider repurchasing if they made it available as loose leaf.

It has been a lovely tea to look forward to this summer and I will probably always associate it with this summer’s visits. Next time I drink this I will be logging a sipdown!

ashmanra’s Sipdown Challenge – “Your most unusual tea”

I went back and forth a bit on which tea to sip for this prompt. I thought about having a tea with interesting foraged ingredients in it, but I feel like the concept of “wildcrafted” tea is not that unusual nowadays, even if the ingredients can be. So then I settled on this tisane from Obubu, because roasted sakura is just not something I’ve ever seen anywhere else. I also have a roasted sakura sencha from them, but I felt the combination with wild mint leaves was a bit more unique. Amusingly enough, I saw when I went to write this note that I also chose this tisane for the “a weird tea” prompt last year… :P

This wasn’t my favorite at first, but I grew to love it as I sipped through the first package, and by the end I was happy to have a second one. The roasted sakura has such an interesting toasty-savory flavor to it that’s somehow light and cozy at the same time. I can still taste the ethereal fruity-floral notes of the sakura, but the roasting gives it more presence and body. The mint is actually quite mellow in this, a nice accompaniment to the sakura that also gives the tisane a sweet and refreshing finish.

Such a lovely one, and I guess it sort of is “wildcrafted” since both the cherry trees and mint are apparently wild. :P