1040 Tasting Notes

I bought myself a little “I survived holiday shopping at the mall” present last year – it was a slab of Septarian (dragon stone). It’s beautiful, I just love it. Soooooo I’ve been looking around for an equally amazing stone to buy for myself this year and hadn’t really found anything. Lots of beautiful pieces out there, but nothing that I just had to have. And then I found it….. and brought it home. So gorgeous……

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc3XKb7hB5I/?taken-by=dex3657

I of course had to pull out the most beautiful tea to go with my beautiful stone, and they don’t get much prettier than this one. I’ve been breaking the chunks off the back of the cake because I don’t want to spoil it.
I absolutely adore moonlight tea, and while this may not be my favorite, it’s pretty good. Much better than some I’ve tried. It actually seems better tonight than it has on other occasions. Sweet, apricoty, a little hay. Just a nice light tea to drink – and it’s even an awesome dark gold color. I’m pretty happy with this tonight.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc3cuIOhUal/?taken-by=dex3657
(that photo doesn’t look as good on my computer as it does on my phone…. sad face)

Evol Ving Ness

Oooooh, that petrified wood is fab! Can you show us last year’s dragon stone too, please?

Evol Ving Ness

Beautiful!

Dexter, I am so delighted that you are back. :)

Evol Ving Ness

Seriously beautiful. Totally wow. Thanks for the links.

Evol Ving Ness

And great—now I will be stalking and lusting after stone.

Dexter

And then mountains of random stones that I polished…. like this… https://www.instagram.com/p/BORMBD6DA_8/?hl=en&taken-by=dex3657

Evol Ving Ness

So beautiful this red jasper!

And the camouflage stone is pretty cool too though not my favourite. How do you polish your stones?

And stone garden! How lovely they all are!

I love your world, Dexter.

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I don’t drink nearly enough pu’erh – especially considering how much of it I have in my cupboard. So I dug out my cute little yellow gaiwan – I love it – so tiny yet well shaped that you don’t really burn your fingers. It works really well for small samples and I only had a little of this one left.
I don’t have much to say – really dark, not much fermentation, a little chocolate, a lot of earthiness, some woodiness. I like it – it’s what I want in a nice shou.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc0yLobhqPT/?taken-by=dex3657

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Not sure what’s wrong with me. Either my taste buds are on strike or I’ve forgotten everything I knew about tea.
This was another sample that I received with my teabento order. This is two in a row that wasn’t at all what I was expecting.
Plum and brassy – that’s how I feel. Pale liquor with a thin mouthfeel. This is way more like an Indian than a Chinese black. I don’t really like this one either….
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc0X5JJhf5a/?taken-by=dex3657

Sil

i didn’t love this one, but it wasn’t bad. I DID like the spiny one, but it’s not very typical keemun like.

Dexter

LOL so at least I’m not crazy :)

Sil

well…i didn’t say THAT kidding

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drank Super Spiny by teabento
1040 tasting notes

I received my teabento order today. Not happy with the outer packaging – my box was ripped and squashed. All the tea is here but I think some of it might have been a bit crushed.
Super Spiny was one of the free samples included with my order.
This one confuses me, it’s not really what I expect from a Keemun. The liquor is a beautiful deep dark red. It looks like a big bold black tea, but feels really light and thin in the mouth. The first couple of steeps sweet, fruity, with just a touch of smoke. The next few steeps were really fruity – light grape, sweet, maybe a hint of honey.
This isn’t for me, it’s way too light – I really prefer bolder black teas.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcyouKfB9tA/?taken-by=dex3657

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drank Random Steepings by Various Artists
1040 tasting notes

When I went into work yesterday and this was sitting on my desk:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcvzs1sBY4w/?taken-by=dex3657

I love my work experience trainee. She is just an amazing young woman – insanely intelligent – learns quick – nice, friendly – works hard. She is studying at the university here on a student visa from China. Her mother sent her some tea, she would rather drink coffee – so I ended up with a care package. We won’t be able to keep her as an employee – she will continue her studies, improve her English and probably go on to cure cancer, or CEO a fortune 500 company. I just think she’s awesome.

But I digress…..

Tonight I’m drinking the tea labelled “black”. I thought this was just going to be some generic Chinese black until I opened the package. This looks beautiful, it has some really nice golden tips to it. Hmmmm maybe I should treat this with a little more respect. I put away my mug and pulled out a proper tea pot and steeped it as modified gong fu. About 30 seconds first steep. That wasn’t quite enough, it was a little flat. I added another package to the pot and did about a minute. This is awesome. It’s not starchy/yamish like I would expect from a Yunnan black or a Dian Hong. This is more like a Bailin – it deep and dark, with just a little bit of chocolate notes, there are some fruity notes but really is just a great black tea. I’m really happy with this – her mom has great taste in tea.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcv2vRkB7u9/?taken-by=dex3657

Evol Ving Ness

This makes me happy. This is totally a Chinese mom thing: pack your child up to a foreign land with tea to drink and tea to give as tea gifts. I have been blessed to have been given such tea gifts and it is just lovely, especially when you know enough to appreciate what you are getting.

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98
drank Coffee Pu'erh by DAVIDsTEA
1040 tasting notes

VariaTEA has inspired me to try cold steeping tea in milk. This is my number one choice for that experiment – there is some in the fridge right now.

Because I pulled it out to cold steep, I made a cup hot as well. I love this tea, I’ve loved this tea for years. It’s one of those that I always have in my cupboard, and I enjoy it every time I drink it. It’s coffee, it’s pu’erh, it’s dark, it’s smooth, it’s amazing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BciZI2SBVFU/?taken-by=dex3657

Nattie

I’m gonna have to try this too!

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drank Yogi Berry by DAVIDsTEA
1040 tasting notes

Whoa!!!!! GINGER!!! No thank you – I don’t need spicy in my fruit oolong. Moving on…

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drank Strawberry Blush Rosé by Teavana
1040 tasting notes

This is the kind of tea I was talking about in my previous note. This is fine, it’s ok – there was only a little left so I’m going to finish it off tonight. I probably bought this because I was lacking fruity oolong in my cupboard. I need to stop buying ok teas, and only get the stuff I really love. I have an amazing fruit oolong now so all these other ones can go.

This is mostly fruit, not much oolong. It’s a little champagne, it’s a little fruity (I would say berry rather than strawberry), and not much floral. This would be better if it had more oolong.

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drank Kotobuki by Lupicia
1040 tasting notes

The problem with not buying tea in forever is that all the tea I have is getting old. I am in the process of going through all my flavored stuff and deciding if it’s worth drinking or if it can be purged. All my tea is well stored and for the most part should still be ok, but I have so much that I really just want to get down to the stuff I really love. The other problem is I horde stuff I love and then never drink it. I want to be drinking my horded stuff and get rid of anything I don’t care about. (I’m only talking about my flavored tea – all my straight tea is fine.)

So in that spirit I pulled this one out today. This is one of my all time favorite fruity oolongs. It’s still really good – maybe not quite as plum as it used to be, but it’s still really good. Maybe a touch more floral than I really want, but that can be fixed with water temp. Will steep a little lower next time. Yep this is good and I’m happy drinking it today.

Sil

yes! to this! That was what helped me get down in my numbers…if i don’t love it..why is it in my cupboard?

Evol Ving Ness

You guys inspire me. Drink all the things you love! Drink them now! (Well, now-ish.)

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drank Slim and Slender by CitizenTea
1040 tasting notes

Even though I had Thai curry chicken for dinner, I’m still have some nasty dead mushroom aftertaste thing happening from that icky tea…. I feel that this is the only tea in my cupboard that has any chance to stand up to that.

I’m disappointed in this one tonight. I think this is different than the last time I had it. There is more green powder something (if it’s the green mate then it’s really small leaf) than I’ve seen before. This green powder has move through my strainer into the cup. That’s weird – this tea doesn’t usually do that. It also have a really sharp bite to it. Dunno. I normally love this one, but it’s just not working for me tonight. sigh….

Sil

your tea is being mean to you :(

Indigobloom

maybe aloe? :(

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Profile

Bio

C.S. Lewis – “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

I needed to update my profile. I joined Steepster 03Mar13. I am just amazed at how much my tastes have changed since then.
When I discovered loose leaf tea about a year and half ago, I didn’t know anything other than my local Davids and Teavana/Teaopia. Stumbling onto Steepster CHANGED EVERYTHING.
Hello, my name is Dex I’m a tea addict.
I’ve been through the “I need to try every single tea out there” phase. I really hope the worst of that has passed. I’ve learned enough to know that I only need to try HALF of all the teas out there. LOL
When I started this journey, I was all about the flavored rooibos and fruity tisanes. Don’t get me wrong there is still room for dessert (chocolate/caramel/nutty) Rooibos teas in my cupboard and I still do enjoy them, BUT I am quickly learning to appreciate the some of the straight teas of the world.
Big bold (but not icky)pu’erh is suddenly my favorite, followed by woody/roasted oolongs. I’m just starting to explore straight black teas, and have found some that I really like.
Generally speaking I’m not into greens at all, only like the occasional green oolong, and white teas are just too mild for my tastes (unless they are fruit flavored). I still enjoy really good fruit tisanes, but am now cold steeping them.
I don’t like floral/herbal blends, and mint anything is not on my preferred list.
I am still exploring new teas, adapting to my changing tastes, understanding more every day how little I really know about tea. Ultimately I would love to find approximately 50 teas that I just “can’t live without” and always have them in my cupboard. That might not be practical, but that what I’m searching for. It’s going to be a fun journey.

All in all, I love this site. I’ve met some wonderful people, and have gotten to try some amazing teas because of them. It really restores your faith in humanity when you get a note saying “oh by the way I sent you some tea”. Wonderful, generous, people here.

Location

Manitoba Canada

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