15695 Tasting Notes
A little while back I weighed out the leaf I would typically use in making a 16 oz Western style mug of Dancong to help out Tiffanydrinkstea – I just pulled the first tin of Dancong that I found in my stash, and that was this one. Since it was out I decided to follow through and actually make the mug of tea after I’d weighed the leaf – plus, I’ve been drinking a fair bit of Western style Dancong lately and enjoying it.
I didn’t immediately fall in love with this cup, but it was enjoyable and cozy feeling. Made Western there’s really no astringency at all – and the flavour, while less nuanced than brewing Gongfu, still has some interesting layers to it. Medium bodied and full feeling liquor – with woody minerality and heady florals comprising the body of the cup. The undertones remind me a bit of citrus with a light pithy edge to it – not really any specific citrus though so I don’t know that on this cup alone I feel the “Pomelo” part of the name really stands out to me as overly accurate. Clean finish.
I feel like this might be the kind of oolong that grows on you the more cups you have, as you learn its quirks and intricacies – but based on just this one cup it was fine.
Currently sipping on a mug of this! I’m getting a ton of lavender in this cup and, in all honestly, it feels a bit weird to be drinking lavender so early in the day – it’s one of those “wind down” flavours I often reserve for the evening. Conversely, Earl Grey is something I like to have in the mornings – so my brain is so confused right now! I like the lavender though – it compliments the floral and fragrant notes of the bergamot. Plus, this whole bold and soothing mug is finished with a fluffly, light vanilla on the tail of the sip – it’s a perfect farewell flavour note!
Ultimately this is not a favourite just because EG is rarely a favourite and lavender is more of an ingredient I feel neutral about – but it’s really well balanced and a beautiful take on what it a little bit more of a classic twist on Earl Grey. Plus, it’s really easy to drink.
I’m adding it to my kettle station to try and focus on sipping it down during February…
Cold Brew!
…it’s a sipdown, but not one that’ll decrease my cupboard total since I’m just polishing off the little bag from the advent calendar and not the larger 50g one that I already owned.
I wasn’t sure how this would taste cold brew, but I’m enjoying it currently as I work on these tasting notes and treating me well. I think the rhubarb comes off as more vibrant and flavourful when steeped hot, but I like that with this style of prep I’m getting this very smooth and consistent fresh rhubarb, minus the tart bite, with a muted ginger. It’s still very flavourful and has a pleasant natural sweetness but it’s just more grounded and rounded – less “high fruit” and “low tingly ginger” – so a different experience.
Pulled this one out for work yesterday – greens aren’t my thing, but I was sort of feeling one and I’d like to sipdown some of my non-Hojicha samples that are just taking up space right now…
In all honesty, the flavour of this cup didn’t leave an impression on me – I drank it during a morning that seemed to slip away faster than I could blink and it was sort of just background noise to that. It probably does, at least, say something positive that it didn’t snap me out of that focus because it tasted bad though! I did drink the last sixth of so of the mug a bit more thoughtfully, after it had cooled, and I noted a slightly smoked vegetal note to it that reminded me a bit of, maybe, Bok Choy? That mineral greenishness? As I’ve said in the past, though, I’m shit at describing green tea flavour notes…
Sipdown (1319)!
I was wary of this fruit infusion because the other one from Kuda that I’ve tried with these whole rose buds, Infinity Rose, was so floral and unpleasant that the taste reminded me of baby wipes and old lady perfume. However, this was a SHOCKINGLY delicious cup!
The rose was ultimately very subtle, and the majority of the flavour was super fresh tasting and juicy pineapple – it was hands down the most fresh and flavourful of any of the Kuda blends I’ve tried to date. Usually they just taste like stale fruit flavoured water, but this one!? Yeah, there’s something to it. I know I have a few other blends I’ve not tried yet with the same pineapple “wheels” in them – so I’m excited now!
I even ate the pineapple afterwards, and it was delicious.
Still working on this sipdown, but getting quite close now.
This was the nicest infusion thus far and I think that’s because the flavour was almost all orange with a softer intensity of flavouring – still an orange glaze/marmalade feel, but just not as perfumed or accumulative on the palate over the cup. I steeped for a shorter amount of time, so perhaps that’s my solution for this one.
Cold Brew!
Ok… woah! It’s been quite some time since I last had this tea, and I have to say that I definitely drastically forgot just how sweet it is – and because of that I think I very significantly overleafed my brew. I say that because I could feel the “bones” or, rather, “the foundation” of the flavour profile in this brew and it was nice – candied melon, apple, and kiwi notes. However because I just went so aggressive with the leaf ratio it was so saturated and cloying that it made drinking through this infusion more of a chore.
BIG note for future infusions – scale it back a lot, and let the fruit notes bask in the mellow sweetness they’re intended to.
Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Geek Steep S1E18 – The Runaways
This what I drank during my reread – though in complete transparency I didn’t reread the first Volume in its entirety – just the first couple issues, some of my favourite bits in the middle, and the last few issues. That’s just because I’ve read this volume several times before though, and I know it quite well.
Like Homestuck I struggled with how to pair this because it’s one of those things that I know so well that I feel like I’m trying to take too much into consideration with my pairing. So what I ultimately ended up doing was focusing on one character (Gertrude Yorkes) and trying to find a good tea to represent her. Because Gertrude has iconic violet hair I chose this grape tea that steeps a beautiful purple colour. Simple thought process, but I was struggling with my other idea – which was a tea themed around Ritual Sacrifice. Still not sure what tea says “ritual sacrifice” appropriately…
I liked the sweet grape notes of the tea, but in terms of flavour I actually think this was better suited to one of the other characters in the comic – Karolina Dean.
I highly recommend checking out this episode because it’s just a really cool and underrated comic, but on top of that this pairing exercise inspired by the characters actually inspired us to play a game this episode and create our own “fandom blends” based around each of the main characters which was just a blast!
Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geeksteep/
My Geek Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKRltxXAkpV/
Listen to us on Buzzsprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1286036/podcast/website
DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast
Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Geek Steep S1E18 – The Runaways
This is the tea I drank during our episode recording. Sometimes the tea that I choose for the recording ties in with the fandom in some way – perhaps something I considered pairing with it, or something I realized would have paired well after I “did the geek”. Not always, though – and this was one of those weeks when I just wanted to have something classic and unrelated during recording…
If you don’t know the “origin story” for Genmaicha, Marika does a stellar job describing the myth of where the name for the tea comes from at the start of the episode – I highly recommend listening to it. Of course, I always recommend listening to our podcast. I am biased in that way.
Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geeksteep/
My Geek Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKRltxXAkpV/
Listen to us on Buzzsprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1286036/podcast/website
DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast
Flavors: Freshly Cut Grass, Grass, Seaweed, Toasted Rice, Toasty
I’m not really big on sprinkles in tea, but I can appreciate that they make a lot of sense for a Birthday Cake inspired blend such as this one – and I do like the clean and simple visual of the tea as well; it really makes the multi coloured decorettes pop quite nicely.
This is advertised as a chocolate cake slathered in vanilla icing – and while I struggle to get the “chocolate” part of that description I do think that fondant/doughy sort of vanilla note appropriate for this concept comes through quite clearly. It’s not my favourite – I don’t like that doughy vanilla taste in most teas just in general – but I get the appeal and, again, appreciate the simplicity of it. The base is a bit rough for me, and leaned more astringent than I would have preferred – but I think with more care you could steep this better to minimize that quality.
Overall, this isn’t an exciting tea for me. I think the Birthday Cake concept has been done so much now that it’s nearly impossible to bring anything new to the table with it. I also think nicer vanilla black teas exist – however there’s nothing off about this one either, and it would make for a very approachable “sweet” profile that doesn’t push too hard into the sweet realm to the point where you get sick of it quite quickly.
Perfectly average and fine.
Thanks for the help with that Ros! :D I actually have this in my white2tea stash because I love pomelo (haven’t gotten to it yet), I hope it comes out in my steepings! :)