90

I haven’t found it. Yet.

You know what I mean. The caramel. That’s the buzz with this tea, isn’t it? The caramel flavor as the cup cools?

I haven’t gotten the caramel chew.

Yet.

The exasperating part of this is that I can sense how the flavors in the tea would become the caramel. All of the right qualities are there, right up to the salty-sour tickle at the sides of my tongue that seems sweet by turns. It’s there. But it’s hiding, resistant, clinging to the edge of the precipice that allows it to tout itself more as a smoky keemun than a caramel chew.

The good news, of course, is that the tea it continues to insist upon being is excellent. I think I prefer it over either of Adagio’s offerings sheerly by dint of the extremely smooth, silky, substantial mouthfeel that it gives as you sip. Adagio’s lacks the sweet-sour-salty feeling this one gives me, but it seems far more one-dimensional, too…and a little bit more brisk. Good, but not quite the fullness of flavor I get here.

The other good news is that a) I’ve discovered the leaf holds up well to a single second steeping and b) getting close to, but not quite to, the caramel flavor so often touted, means that I’ve got plenty of reason to drink cup after delicious cup of this tea. I can hardly complain. Experiments…they will continue.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 0 sec
LENA

Don’t worry, I haven’t found the caramel chew yet either. I wanted to sooo bad. I tried so hard to find it…but now I’m out of my sample that takgoti sent me. No more experiments. :(

takgoti

He eluded me today, too, that wanker. I am going to need to be much more precise in further endeavors. Drat.

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LENA

Don’t worry, I haven’t found the caramel chew yet either. I wanted to sooo bad. I tried so hard to find it…but now I’m out of my sample that takgoti sent me. No more experiments. :(

takgoti

He eluded me today, too, that wanker. I am going to need to be much more precise in further endeavors. Drat.

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Ohhh, I dunno. I like tea but I’m kind of a tea newbie. At this point I can say with authority that I may never be anything else, no matter how many teas I try…there is always something new out there.

I write a lot.

I also play way too many video games.

Ratings! (Bout time, wot?) This is a new arrangement, so…subject to change!

1-10: Not potable. First-sip disasters.

11-30: Intensely unpleasant…won’t catch me finishing the cup.

31-50: I really don’t like it…but maybe somebody else out there would.

51-70: Drinkable, but probably not the first thing I’m going to reach for.

71-90: Pretty good tea, and stuff that there’s a good chance I’ll have on-hand. Will do in a pinch at the low end, all the way up to regular visitors to my infuser on the high end.

91-100: Teas I really do not want to be without.

Location

Boston/Cambridge

Website

http://sophistre.tumblr.com/

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