No. 18 British Brunch

How do you accomplish several sipdowns in one night without drinking a thing? Pack up some tea for family/friends, including those smaller samples that you already tried, so they can try them to!! Nothing old or stale, mind you, just smaller quantities. I haven’t done the math yet, but I have boxes in the works for My sis, Sil, & a few others. It will be fun to see what my collection numbers at by the time I’m done. And I think I’m going to start next week with a Sipdown Extravaganza!

This tea is almost gone. I believe I’m going to include the final cup in one of the above mentioned boxes, so that I can claim a sipdown on it as well. It’s bold, it’s bright, it’s pretty good with a robust breakfast (which is what I usually eat). Any other time it is way too Ceylon for me, & it really leaves a puckery shrill high not on the tip & center of the tongue, long after the cup is drained.

mmmm had this waaaay earlier today since today is another gloomy day and i wanted some comforting teas. Still trying to manage my sipdowns and get through some of my larger packages of tea but i needed comfy teas today. This is still a pretty tasty tea, though not as wonderful as 49. But i’ll never turn this one down.

Good morning Steepster.
This is a sipdown for me. Although it’s a nice morning cuppa, it isn’t my favorite from Steven Smith and probably won’t be a repurchase for me. Also their shipping costs are pretty outrageous unless you buy $75 of tea, in which case it ships free. Other companies have a much lower cost for free shipping.

I have been seeing more of their teas in the Bay area so maybe I’ll just stick to buying the ones I can get locally.

I needed a good tea for wake up this morning. The tea bag is huge and I steeped about 16 oz of tea. The tea is robust, brisk, and malty. I get more of the ceylon taste than the assam from it but its still very good.

Random adjectives: suede, burgundy, fruit, mahogany wood, smooth, rich.
Watched the sun rise as I sipped, that just took extra words away.

(thanks to Terri HarpLady)

We had some errands to run today before I had a chance to brew some tea and enjoy it, so we stopped at Brewed Awakenings to pick up some tea. I figured I was to be choosing from a selection of Tazo or Stash teas which are generally this area’s choices for bagged tea (since both companies are based in Portland) but was thrilled to find that they carry teas from Steven Smith! Now, if only they’d start carrying loose leaf tea I’d be one happy tea drinker. (although, it might be a good thing that they DON’T carry loose leaf because I could see it as a problem where I want to go there all the time. As it is, it’s nice to know where to go when I NEED tea but can’t go home for some)

This is really good. So good that I will have to get some the next time I’m at the Smith Teamaker shop in Portland, or if I end up resorting to placing an order. Delicious and rich. I like this one a lot.

I did notice though that tea tastes WEIRD when steeped and cupped in a paper cup. I can taste the paper. It’s not an overwhelming flavor, but it is bothersome enough that I may have to find myself a good “to go” cup to have in the car for times when I need tea.

Since this was a bagged tea and it was steeped and served in a paper cup, I am going to reserve a rating for it until I’m able to have it prepared properly.

I am currently sitting in a fancy hotel room in the Oregon wine country alternating sips between this tea and a Bloody Mary. Yesterday was my husband and my 5th wedding anniversary so we decided travel 15 miles out of town and go wine tasting and stay at a fancy shmancy hotel. Of course they offer Steven Smith teas as anywhere fancy in the Portland area does. And I like this one as a breakfast tea with cream and honey. It’s nice and strong with caffeine, which I need desperately today. And the Bloody Mary, also necessary!

Yesterday we went to one of favorite vineyards and the winemaker walked us through the whole winemaking process from the vine on up. I couldn’t help myself from thinking of the comparisons with tea growing/processing. It really is such a science experiment and art form all at the same time. And this is coming from an avid beer chick.

Anyway… Fun way to spend our anniversary, without having to travel much. Heading back to reality in about an hour. But also back to my tea stash :-)

Steven Smith teas really intrigue me but I have no great way of getting them due to shipping restrictions, so I am very happy that TerriHarpLady shared some of this with me in our recent swap.

This one reminds me so much of an iced tea, except I am drinking it hot right now, ha ha. It is a beautiful blend of assam and Ceylon. The Ceylon is sweet but the assam is bold, they mix well together. There is just the slightest dry astringency in the aftersip but it works well with the taste of the tea.

Definitely want to try this one iced. I hope to have a chance to try more Steven Smith in the future. Impressed so far.

Still feeling sluggish at almost 4 in the afternoon on a Sunday off, so sipping this while putting away laundry and watching Slayers.

Once again, I get the feeling I accidentally underleafed this. I keep pouring 2 cups of water into the kettle, then taking out one cup’s worth of tea. Oh well. Item descrip says combination of Assam, Ceylon, and some other types of tea. I’m definitely getting a combination of mushroom malty and bright floral-y vegetal-y, although it’s hard to pin down flavors since I think I underleafed. A little on the astringent side, but enjoyable.

Thank you to Nicole for the sample!

For a short time, this brand was popping up in my grocery store. I picked up their EG, which was quite tasty (though I forgot to rate it!) and that led me delve into some of their other offerings. Unfortunately, it seems the grocery store has stopped carrying this brand. Boo. I don’t know if the company makes my short “must order from now!” list but I’m tempted to put them on my long “could see myself ordering from them” list so I could try some of their other black tea blends as the two teas I’ve now had from them have been quite nice.

The smell of this hits me as full on Assam – sweet, honeyed, thick and malty. The taste is less Assam and more… Ceylon, I think. Sort of a higher, smoother taste almost like a mild or very lightly muscat-ed Darjeeling. Which I think is Ceylon (the “big” black tea I am least familiar with). The Assam is in full on back up mode, adding just a little fuzzy texture and thickness. The Keemun…? I don’t really get a lot of Keemun taste but it seems to kind of fill in the holes the Ceylon and Assam leave, making this much smoother than I would anticipate from something Ceylon and not really expensive.

The Ceylon makes this a fairly bright tea but the Keemun, I think, keeps the astringency to the “rather mild” category. Still a bit bright for me this morning as I think I really need some tea cuddles (sore throat) but quite a nice little tea. I originally picked this up to be a travel mug tea for the husband (read: taken with lots of sugar and milk), but I think a handful of bags are going to have to go to me and my unadulterated cups.