New Tasting Notes
I recently bought a pound of this tea, flavor untasted. I’m becoming brave (or reckless) in my old age. What intrigued me about this one was that it was advertised as an English breakfast tea blend of four black teas from three countries: India, Sri Lanka, China. That all sounded good to me and worth checking out.
I opened up the pouch and the aroma that shot out was a pleasant combination of, yes, more than one tea type. Black China teas are my favorite and my sniffer could definitely detect their presence in this tea. I also perceived the existence of Darjeeling and possibly Assam, all coming together nicely in the unbrewed whiff.
I steeped the brown leaves for five minutes in boiling water. This resulted in a golden amber colored liquid with a pleasant aroma containing tea and sweet undertones.
The taste of this tea was very smooth and full of flavor. The four teas melded exquisitely into a total merger of sweet and malty deliciousness. No bitterness was discovered anywhere.
I should also add that I drink all of my teas straight up. I never add milk or sweeteners. I prefer to experience the teas on their own merits.
If a tea plantation can figure out how to create this richly combined flavor from just one tree, they will have a huge winner on their hands. But, until then, I will just appreciate this exceptional blend as it is.
Flavors: Honey, Malty, Tea
Preparation
Sipdown prompt: March 8 – International Women’s Day – drink a tea from a woman-owned company or named for a woman — working on it again! Having roughly 2 sessions left.
Rensina, owner of this shop, is (or was, not sure) a “colleague” of mine in tea bag wrapping collecting. Her blends are lovely too; as you could read in my notes. This note is just to write down that I am trying to fulfill the prompt. I will do my best doing that in March.
March Sipdown Prompt – your tea with the shortest name
Not a Sipdown but how can it be that I am opening the last pouch of many already? This is one of our favorite strawberry black teas. When it is gone, I may try Harney’s new strawberry black if it is back in stock.
Sipdown prompt: Your tea with the shortest name, but I have plenty (roughly 35 grams of 50 grams of the packaging) of this tea remaining. But the name must be one of the shortest definitely.
First time I had it it was quite sweet, malty and rye bread; somehow like cane sugar as vendor suggests; however today it was like a light morning breakfast tea with again malty notes, but definitely less sweet than the previous session. It was, stil very delicate and lovely. Of course it is like that because I have a soft spot for Georgian teas, maybe just because they are definitely less harsh than Indian teas for example.
I will try to recreate first impressions of this tea. I assume that colder water is the key; as amount of leaf was the same, as well as the volume of my vessel.
Preparation
A bit let down by this. I’m getting a lot of milk aroma (it smells like added milk flavoring, though that isn’t listed anywhere), but I don’t get it in the flavor. I’m definitely not getting any honey. Mostly butter and lilac. It’s quite average, and the price just doesn’t align with the quality ($15.50/30g….which is a perfectly acceptable price for a decent Jin Xuan but not this Jin Xuan).
Flavors: Artichoke, Butter, Clover, Green, Lilac
Sipdown 25- 2024
This was a sample given to me in my last Verdant order, so barely a sipdown but I’m still counting it!
Really pleasantly surprised by this. I don’t know what I was expecting- I love floral scented teas, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a yellow tea before. This is absolutely fantastic. I brought a mini gongfu set to work and enjoyed it that way at my desk. I’m pretty sure I audibly ‘wowed’ when I first smelled this brewed. It’ s a field of fresh orchids. Incredibly fragrant and it translates really well into the flavor. While I got mostly the flavor of the orchids, the yellow tea provided a really gentle base- somewhere between a white tea and a mild green tea? It also held up to 7-8 steepings with little impact on the flavor.
Just an overall fantastic tea. I’ve already added more to my Verdant cart.
Flavors: Gardenias, Hay, Honey, Jasmine, Lily, Magnolia, Orchid
Back on the 3min steep time, and I think this may actually be better than the 4 minutes.
Although the black tea itself is pretty disguised, the ingredient that apparently leaves a film on my tongue is gone as well.
My philosophy for this tea is basically: considering how the shop advertised the different bases of this tea as basically interchangeable, I don’t think I’m actually SUPPOSED to be tasting the black tea and all its subtleties
Preparation
It’s like a warm, chocolate nutty hug. I was originally iffy on this one as when it comes to hazelnut chocolate most of them are too sweet. It’s one of the few more savory teas i enjoy. It tastes great no matter how i drink it. Love it alone hot or cold and love it as a hot or cold latte
Tin – Yes
When I ordered Brigadoon Breakfast, Adagio sent me a one week sample box from their Communi-tea subscription. You also get a one week membership in their Communitea group that drinks the same tea each day. Subscription boxes have thirty teas each. I was pretty excited to get this one week sample!
I was less excited with the first tea because of the type. I just don’t like red rooibos but I decided to give it a go anyway.
My sample had a couple of pieces of dried apple in it. The peach aroma was pretty subdued by the rooibos aroma. I have more success with flavored rooibos as a sweet iced tea so that is how I prepared this.
It resteeped well for a combination of the two steeps giving me a quart jar to which I added sugar and put in the fridge to chill.
Aroma and taste of the tea is heavy on the rooibos but the peach flavor is nice. Anyone who likes red rooibos would probably love this tea. I can get past the rooibos enough this way to drink it over the next couple of days.
Fine. I am marking my calendar for February 29, 2028 NOW. This is a marketing gimmick and a half (only available on leap days), but it’s also a really smooth and sophisticated breakfast tea. Assam is my love language, and the addition of cornflower/silver needle lightened it up a little—I kept getting hints of Lucky Charms marshmallows in the cup this morning.
Thanks, ashmanra … I laid your little sample packet out last night because I knew I was going to need something special to get me up and moving on Daylight Savings Sunday!
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – March 2024 Tea #4 – A breakfast tea
Never could tell why this was a “breakfast tea”. But now in my scoop, I’m seeing tiny pieces of something… I wonder if whatever that is contains caffeine? Maybe the Ashwagandha or Gurana? And maybe I didn’t get these tiny particles in a scoop previously and just had the bigger pieces in the infuser? I think it’s hilarious they changed the name of the blend to LIGHT breakfast boost. Still ain’t a breakfast blend IMO! Helpful tasting note, I know.
Album: Tiny Ruins – Ceremony
Song: In Light of Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAvaiIoMnXE
Guarana is often considered a stimulant, and is one of the main ingredients in energy drinks like Redbull.
Yup, guarana extract is a major ingredient in Bawls soda, which we drank an unhealthy amount of in high school (I mean, it also has a lot of sugar and added caffeine, so it’s honestly a marvel any of us are still here).
This is a lovely creamy dessert tea. Although a bit cloying, I like how thick and fullbodied it is and I like the vanilla and cream flavours. It is less citrus/bergamot than some other EGs but I actually like that better. Stronger bergamot can make tea bitter or medicinal. This is good with a touch of maple syrup or brown sugar + a dash of vanilla soy milk. I’ve also tried Silk brand coffee creamer and it was very sweet and delicious.
Flavors: Creamy, Nutty, Sweet, Tannin, Thick, Vanilla
Preparation
Having a collapsible travel kettle has been incredibly helpful. Wish I had discovered these sooner. The dry leaf is a nice mineral and floral. The infusing leaf has notes of wet rocks, The wet leaf leaves an interesting sweet note in your mouth. The leaf has unwound nicely. But still has a bit of way to go. On the third or fourth infusion now the flavor has remained fairly constant. Mineral and floral.
