Red-Tailed Hawk

I started the month of April with 95 black teas on my shelves.
26 of those are in various boxes from various friends. The other 69 are actually teas in my collection. (These numbers don’t include flavored blacks, BTW). My goal every month is to drink every tea in my collection at least once. It never happens, of course, because I have way too much tea to ever be able to pull that off! However, so far this month I feel pretty good about my progress! Of the black teas in my personal collection, I’ve drank all but 21 of them, & of the tea trades I’ve drank all but 16, for a total of 58 out of 95, which I think is about 55% (if I remember the math formula correctly). Maybe I can get it to 75% by the end of wednesday….

This is nice black blend, probably my least favorite of the damn fine teas, but still very tasty & worthy of being enjoyed.

Well this was a surprise. I don’t drink many teas from India. They are often bitter, harsh, and burn in my stomach like crazy. This one though… the wet leaf smells incredible. The orange-red brew is very smooth, and not in the least bitter. Yes it is somewhat drying but not harsh. I steeped it for 3 1/2 minutes – I imagine had I gone 2-2 1/2 a lot of that dryness could be reduced. I found myself really enjoying this bold malty cup and a single cup did not cause stomach burn.

It’s here, it’s here, it’s here, IT’S HERE. It’s finally here!

I was so excited for this blend. It was a great Christmas gift (to myself, ha ha), it was waiting in my mailbox when I got home from Christmas.

I have been away for a few days. Drank a lot more coffee than I should have. There was no real good way to drink tea where I was, microwaved or keurig warmed water. So I had a bit of Keurig earl grey, but mostly coffee. So to come home to this tea was a blessing.

The dry tea smells deliciously strong, malty, sweet.

The brewed tea is just unbelievable. These guys have to be magic or something. The tea is thick and bold but not astringent or bitter. It is smooth, super smooth, like liquid silk. It is malty, but there are also hints of cocoa. When people writer about wanting a tea that is like hot chocolate, this is the tea you need. It is sweet and a little but earthy. The flavours are bright and distinctive. It is creamy. I generally don’t add milk and sweetener to my black teas, but I don’t think this one would need it anyway.

So happy to have this one in my hoard.

Ah, pretty much exactly what I was expecting. This is quite bright and relatively astringent, tastes very much like an Indian blend but there’s no bitterness, that aspect is very smooth, and at the end of the sip there’s a (surprising given the upfront brightness) rich depth of flavor, that mysterious quality all my favorite A&D blends manage to possess. A decent morning choice. Curious how it’d go blended with something else…maybe something spicy, hm.

I always used to drink all my tea without embellishment. Black, green, herbal, straight up. Then I had surgery and all I wanted during my recovery was tea with lots and lots of honey in it.

Now I’m drinking some teas plain again. This one definitely makes a good start for that. When Erik and Charles say that the Red-Tailed Hawk is “bright” I take this to mean that the flavors can stand on their own, without the aid of sweet or milky things. That’s refreshingly true in this case.

This arrived at work the same time as my Kickstarter KLiP, so of course I had to steep a batch right away.

Only problem is that I am sick and my taste buds are completely shot.

Will try again later.

Oh, no. I found an almost untouched tin of this faaaar back in the cabinet, along with some other giant untouched brisk black teas. OMG, no. I’m pretty sure I bought this back in 2013.

I know what I’m going to be drinking every day for the next long while. Consider this Day 1. I’m going to start reading War & Peace today as well and see which one I finish first.

More A&D to try and write first notes about today. Yowza.

In between, I’ll be binge watching season 4 of The Wire. I need to find another show for after this one is done. Suggestions?

It’s not stated what’s in this blend, but I’m going to go with assam and ceylon. The color is that reddish burnt-orange that I associate with Ceylons (and which may be the reason for the red-tailed reference). Whenever I see it, I wish for a sweater in the same color. And the dry leaf is a mix of leaf that looks similar to the Tiger Assam of yesterday mixed with some very dark bird-nesty twists of leaf. The dry leaf smells a little bready, and a little winey-pungent.

The steeped tea has a sweet potato and baked bread smell. I steeped for three minutes and I don’t get any bitterness, but do get some maltiness. There’s something that even heads toward chocolate. The tea is somewhat astringent, but it’s very satisfying.

I find this smooth and flavorful. No throat grab, not harsh on an empty stomach. I may prefer it to the Tiger Assam because of the chocolate note, which gives it more depth.

ahh, it always feels victorious finishing one of these tins. I’ve had this one forever and will miss it. it is everything I enjoy in black teas: malty, bready, stone-fruit-y, bright & brisk.

does anyone know what’s going on with Andrews & Dunham? both last year & this year they didn’t release their Oktoberfest blend :( I don’t even think they released their Christmas blend last year either (could be wrong).

I reached for this as tea of the morning after a hectic day of running. Thankfully, my health has been accommodating the past few days for which I am so grateful. Hectic days are not usually within my capacity, so truly truly truly yay!

The first sip of this tea hits you with a kapow, followed up with the bready smoothness. Nice malty scent rises from my cup as I inhale the deliciousness. Delightful.

Thank you for the sample, Sil.