New Tasting Notes

Sipdown (2583)!

I was reorganizing my desk a few days ago and I can across a mug with a couple of these different Adagio “portions” stuffed in that, I’m gonna honest, I had totally forgotten I still had. So I figured I’d brew this one up and put the others somewhere a little more visable where I will hopefully not forget about them…

I’m not at all familiar with the fandom this tea is inspired by, so I’m drinking it and judging it on flavour alone. It steeps up bold and brisk with strong nutty notes of roasted almond. I like that there’s an almost chicory root kind of dark, “burnt” edge to it. Not enough to be, like, bitter – but it’s just so clearly not a sweet amaretto or marzipan style of almond. The finish is a little creamy and vanilla-like in a way that makes me think of coffee creamer. It’s nice, though there’s something about the almond and vanilla combination that feels eerily familiar. I’m confident that I must have had it in more than a handful of other Adagio fandom blends.

Gongfu!

It’s been pretty rainy the last couple of days and, like clockwork, I’m finding my cravings have shifted to darker and more cozy teas like this session of chenpi shou pu’erh!! It’s incredibly smooth with a dense, heavy woody and earthy flavour and a clean, medicinal aged citrus note. However, most striking is the very brothy and savory taste that runs like a current throughout the sip and lingers in the back of the mouth and throat after each swallow. It made for a really calm and grounding session with all the forest-y and petrichor aromas in the surrounding area.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5yjY9gOsyZ/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzeoOUGvVgU

Gongfu!

Today I’m enjoying some raw pu’erh from a new to me tea company!! This beauty is 2017 Honey Water, a Lincang sheng that settlingtea was kind enough to gift me to try along with several other tea samples that I’ll be tasting throughout the next week. The dry leaf was sweet smelling with notes of honey and ripe fruit. Those notes only intensified after the rinse, really show casing exactly where the name of this tea comes from. In addition to bright, sugary notes of golden honey this tea also has playful red berry notes, floral undertones and a finish that tastes of beeswax candles in the best sort of way. Very, very soft and smooth liquor without lacking in flavour department one bit. As a first showing from this company, it’s very impressive. Cannot wait to keep sampling!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5vsqHWu0xq/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtjuAStxd2o

oday seemed like a perfect day to enjoy some kōridashi (aka “ice brewing”), so I’ve got some tea all set up and steeping!! The wait is the hardest part, but when I’m finally able to enjoy my first sips of that silky smooth green tea with the pop of bright and citrusy yuzu top notes it will be well worth it!!

For my tea friends who more frequently brew kōridashi style tea, have you ever tried it with tea types other that green teas? I’ll be the first to admit this is a method of brewing I’m less well versed in, and I’ve really only ever seen it done with Japanese green teas. However, as most of y’all know, I don’t exactly drink a lot of those – so I’m just wondering before I go and get too experimental if anyone has had success trying a something else!!

EDIT: And, once all the ice had melted, it sure enough was a ultra refreshing and velvety smooth brew with that perfect sunny and complex yuzu citrus flavour. So good!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5tNkN1Oe5X/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUw3LPM7OBU

Sipdown (2584)!

Polished the last of this off over the weekend and it was one of those cups of tea that kind of tasted really ethereal in its strange makeup of flavours? A little nutty and toasty from the rice, but also tropical with a more generic “yellow/orange” leaning fruit flavour and a soft, hard to pin point spice note. Sometimes I find teas that hit so many flavour points without really leaning heavily into any of them kind of “middling” in taste and a little generic, but this one was just soul soothing. Exactly the kind of tea I needed for a drizzly, low energy sort of Sunday.

Sipdown (2585)!

A bit of a bittersweet sipdown since this is such a pleasant and deeply unique tasting blend. It’s got one of the nicest and most accurate orange blossom notes I’ve come across in a tea with that perfect balance of floral and citrus elements that riff off the natural honeysuckle and creamy cucumber pulp notes of the white tea. It’s also got a wickedly smooth and nutty note of almond that’s jussssttt sweet enough. Makes me think of whipped or otherwise more creamy marzipan? Not as rich though. But similar idea. I love the way the almond and orange blossom interact – so sophisticated and complimentary!!

Sipdown (2586)!

Not something I’d probably seek out since I have many similar things in my stash already, but I found this to be a pretty in offensive blend of peppermint and other herbs. In particular I like the sweetness and kind of licorice-y depth that the fennel inclusion adds to the cup, and the nettle was very inoffensive. Not spinachy like it could have been. Made for a smooth and soothing cup with a light medicinal sort of feel to it. Medicinal, in this case, in a good way where it felt like it was doing something positive for me.

Sipdown (2587)!

I like the inclusion of spearmint in this blend because it adds more dimension and natural sweetness to what is otherwise a very basic and straightforward peppermint. However, I think leaving this tea sachet to steep in the mug while I drank may have been a mistake because near the end of the mug it ended up getting very potent and savory with a herbaceous element that almost felt like tulsi or even dill??

In my head I was remembering this tea as a bit more medicinal tasting, so I was surprised when I took my first sips of this mug and was met with more of a creamy yogurt sort of note. Strawberry, too. Fresh with a hint of a tart snap to it. Very “strawberries and cream” as an overall profile with a nice mix of bright top notes and silky vanilla/cream in the finish. Rooibos forward to be sure, but just not quite as medicinal as I think I experienced my first go round.

Weekend cuppa! Very strong, aromatic and sweet notes of roses. Not light and delicate, but the kind of rose that makes me think of giant bouquets of deeply pink roses that fill the whole room with that potent but pleasant perfume-y sorta smell. The caramel note was present (especially in the finish), but something about it almost read more as a thick golden honey. Very delicious, regardless.

I’ve been putting off trying this one because I’m a little fickle about ginger, but it was actually kind of perfect!? Just ginger-y enough with undertones of cinnamon and a smooth but full bodied black tea base. Most importantly, though, it really nailed that more golden and kind of malty biscuit flavour. From sip one I really felt like it was quite accurately conveying the namesake inspiration, and I ended up enjoying the profile a lot. Made me want to dunk actual biscuits in it!

Cold Brew!

Brisk, tannic black tea with notes of pithy fresh squeezed lemon and a hint of stonefruit all with a very distinct, boozier tequila flavour. As I’ve said before in a past tasting note, I don’t particularly love tequila and I’m not a HUGE fan of this tea (though I think it’s very well executed). However, I ended up drinking the last half of this brew with my supper and I have to say that something about pairing it with food actually made it much more enjoyable. It was just flavourful enough with that sort of “sweet tea” vibe from the bold black tea and citrus to feel… I don’t know… correct?

Iced!

I pretty much always drink these SuperBelly powders in a rotation of three to make sure I’m going through the packets evenly, but this is always the one I reach for first when I start a new rotation of three. My opinion hasn’t changed: the darker juicy berry and pomegranate notes in this make it the best of the three.

Iced!

The more I drink this flavour the more frustrated I get with Blume’s comparison of it to a Pink Lemonade. I guess visually the two drinks are both pink, but it just doesn’t taste like a lemonade one bit. It’s very clearly a sweet, tart strawberry note. More like a Kool-Aid mix than anything else. And it stands on its own two legs flavour wise – no need to compare to something it isn’t in order to make it appealing. Especially when Blume does have a lemon tea in their SuperBelly line…

Iced!

I’ve been trying to pace myself a little better with these single serves – not because I’m getting sick of them (far from it) but because I’m sipping through them at such a fast pace that I’m going to be out soon, and Blume is very back ordered on them so I won’t be able to repurchase for a while…

This “brew” was very, very interesting though. In general I’ve really enjoyed the almost lemonade-like sweet and tangy citrus notes, but I’ve found the ginger notes somewhat lacking. In this case, I actually tasted the subtle earthy heat of the ginger more than any other time I’ve whisked this up. It tasted fine, though it through me for a loop because I’ve just become so used to the flavour being lemon forward without much ginger at all.

Sipdown of the reblend. I made a big mug of cold brew for today, which is perfect because it was a genuinely warm day for a change. Unfortunately, I can’t make a particularly good tasting note because a) I have a migraine which is making it hard to focus and b) the cold brew was so cold that I think the temperature actually muted some of the flavor notes. It did seem much more flavorful after it warmed up. Tart raspberry, a sweetness that evokes crisp watermelon, and a somewhat dry base that keeps the blend from being too sweet. Mostly I just wish that I had allowed it to warm up a bit before drinking so much of it!

Though I didn’t love this tea at first, I think paying better attention to my steeping parameters has really helped me appreciate it. I do sort of get a Biscoff vibe from this! I guess it’s not named Biscoff anymore, but my bag from May of 2023 still says that. It tastes cookie-ish and nicely desserty with milk and sugar. Not bad at all!

Spring 2023: A good amount of smoke, some grassiness, strong chestnut notes, and a broth-like feel to this tea. Savory and thick. Quite a bit different from most of the other Yunnan green teas I have sampled on my recent order from Yunnan Sourcing due to the smoke, but it isn’t overbearing or offensive in any way. In fact, the smoke is a contributor to the savory qualities of the tea and can give the impression of bacon or similar flavors. Not my favorite of the bunch, but definitely another nice and worthwhile Yunnan green tea.

Bought this back in September of 2022, tried it once, really did not like it, and moved on because I had so many other teas to try and drink.

I didn’t bother rating or reviewing it at the time because it was so busy after the office move and training a new person. And, because I hadn’t liked it, I wasn’t really motivated to try it again.

But I am getting motivated to sip down/clean out teas I am not enjoying. In the office move, I ended up with new drawers which were significantly smaller, which shrunk my tea drawer. Added to this, the company I work for gave me a generous gift certificate to thank me for my work in the move and so I ended up which a whole bunch of extra tea I wouldn’t have normally purchased on my own. So tea drawer has some serious overflow onto the top of my desk and I really want to recover some of that space.

I also decided to go for cold brew as our weather has been kind of warming up (Seattle doesn’t have spring, winter and summer just battle for dominance) and I decided to try this again.

Its nothing like the description. There’s almost a lemon zest vibe to it. Not unpleasant for cold brew. I have no memory of it hot, so I can’t make any comments about it there. I’m not sure if I can honestly say I am enjoying it, but its not bad.

I do plan on revisiting this hot again at some point and will update my rating then.

Finished off a 15g bag over the last few mornings. It’s lovely and bright, and has been a really nice tea to wake up with. It’s very forgiving for the first 5 steeps or so, but starts to get bitter quickly after that.

Spring 2023: Keemun black tea is a touchstone for me, as it is the first style of tea that I really fell in love with. Over the years I have tried various grades, and I really haven’t found any Keemuns that I don’t like. I’m always looking forward to a cup of this old standby.

In this offering from Yunnan Sourcing, I find that rose is the most prominent note, with some oakiness to back it up, and some hints of dark chocolate. Not super complex, but rather the tea seems more refined, clear, and clean – probably reflective of its higher grade. There is also an oily texture to the tea, which coats the mouth and lingers.

Really pleasant! Maybe I’ll try a 4min steep tomorrow, as this seems a bit.. weak? I played it safe today because last time I tried it for 3 and it tasted entirely too bitter, almost like an English Breakfast; then again, I think that last time I poured boiling water directly into the leaves, instead of using 90ºC :)
(I’d try 95, as that seems to be the best temperature for most black teas, however, my kettle only works with 10º increments, meaning I’ have to guess what temperature the water is at, and I’d rather not burn the leaves)

This is much closer to what I was expecting it to be, as it has the citrus and softer black tea base

Tangy redberry shou. Lingonberry jam on walnut bread. Raspberry dark chocolate ganache. Cranberry sauce with chocolate-chip pancakes. Surprisingly light, clean, and tangy, with an aftertaste like faint cranberry juice. Somehow Christmassy. I bet this would age beautifully… I should get a cake…

A thoughtful birthday treat from a friend, and a welcome one—it’s unseasonably warm today and a little stuffy in the house, so chilled tea is the order of the day. (Way too early in the year to kick on the AC. We’ll rough it.)

Normally I avoid bottled teas because of the nasty citric acid that hits you first. This one uses ascorbic acid instead, which doesn’t curl my tongue quite so much. Along with preserving the drink, it bombs you with some nice healthy Vitamin C. A healthy shot of anything is appropriate when one … is no longer 21. As to the flavor, it’s a solid workhorse green base that reminded me a little of barley tea—somewhat toasty instead of vegetal.

Gotta text the friend and find out where she got it locally…this is worth a repeat.