Happy National Freedom Day/Black History Month!
Well, January is gone and I am pleased with how my sipdowns turned out. My main goal was to clear out my 2017 tea stash, and other than still working my way through the 25g package of Yunnan Lily Black, I managed to finish off all the rest! With 2017 out of the way (won’t take me much longer now to finish off the Yunnan Lily Black!), my 2018 stash is rather large and daunting, as the bulk of my bad buying habits were during those two years. Onward ho?
Didn’t buy any tea in January either, aside from picking up a box of bagged tea I had a coupon for at the groceries (I definitely need to clear some space from the “bagged tea boxes” cupboard, and only managed to finish two of those last month, so I should probably try to focus some efforts there this month!) and some THE O DOR samplers from Dustin (thank you, Dustin!) I have never had French tea before, and have been curious reading all the tasting notes about it, but all the French companies sell in huge bags that I am just unwilling to buy anymore.
Looking for a black tea to drink for today (I do have a tea from Aesthete, a black-owned business, but it’s an herbal so that won’t be posted until this evening after I’ve switched to herbal brews for the night), I noticed I had this sampler in my stash, from AJRimmer! Oh, a French tea! Hey, I should try that! Thanks, AJ!
The dry leaf has a soft, gentle perfumy sort of fruity note, but it isn’t overbearing in any way. My head is killing me today and I just CBA to weigh leaf so I dumped a perfect teaspoon, steeped for 3 minutes, and hoped for the best. I’m picking out a brassy/malty quality from the aroma of the brewed cup, but mostly a soft, candy-like strawberry note.
This is a little more bitey than I personally prefer my black teas, which is an indicator that I did have more leaf than I need for my personal preferences in that scoop, so I’m finding the base a bit astringent/drying after the sip. And it does have a sort of brassy/mineral quality to the malty base. It’s coming off as the sort of black that I’d need to add milk to in order to smooth it out some. The perfumy strawberry note comes in later in sip and feels a bit waxy and coating on my tongue, perhaps from how strong the astringency of this tea is. It’s not a bad flavor, just a bad sensation. Other than the caffeine providing some mild relief to my pounding migraine, this cup just wasn’t working for me. Time to be un-lazy and try again.
So, measured 2.5g for 350ml, my preference for blacks, though based on the astrigency I got before and how small/broken the leaf appeared, I dropped my normal 3 minute steep time to 2 minutes (which I reserve for CTC blacks). This did result in a much more pleasant cup for me, with less coating/drying/overall bitterness. There was still some astringency/drying present, but gentle enough to enjoy without milking the cup. Still not sure how I feel about the flavoring; I like the floral-strawberry flavor (almost a lavender/lilac mixed with a sweet candied strawberry note) but still don’t really like the mouthfeel of it, which is still coming off as sort of waxy/oily. Do I still not have the prep narrowed in precisely enough? Is it the age of the sample, perhaps? Or maybe I just am not jiving with this one…
Very much looking forward to continuing to explore French teas!
Flavors: Astringent, Candy, Drying, Floral, Lavender, Malt, Perfume, Strawberry, Thick
Preparation
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Oh I forgot about that! Yeah I didn’t love this one either, but so many people like it that I always felt like I must be wrong!
Once your tea arrives you will have to do a comparison for us of this one next to Theodor’s Coincidence Noir, which sounds like is their attempt at a go on Marco Polo!
Oh I forgot about that! Yeah I didn’t love this one either, but so many people like it that I always felt like I must be wrong!
Once your tea arrives you will have to do a comparison for us of this one next to Theodor’s Coincidence Noir, which sounds like is their attempt at a go on Marco Polo!