184 Tasting Notes

As this tea (a 2013) is an aged tea, truly, I should have passed it by in my cupboard, but as I’ve only had one other tea from Verdant (their celebrated Laoshan Black), I decided to give it a whirl this morning. The dry leaves are still lovely twisty seal brown with tips of gold. There are some Yunnan’s, especially those that come from older trees, that I find to have flavor profiles that are more “manly” that typical Yunnan teas. Along with the apricot and chocolate notes, there is a wood note….sometimes an old wood note. This Wild Picked Yunnan tea has that wood note, but it is one that is more refined. It is not the bottom of a boat that a former sailor takes out each weekend to fish the local lake….it is closer to an old wine cask of oak that was never used for it’s purpose. The wood note is clear but not smoky or earthy. It is purely “of the tree”. I kinda like the organicness of that.

Being that this tea is old, it’s a very nice, well-balanced Yunnan Black. I’d like to try one of their more recent pickings to see how the wood note has morphed….if it has at all….. but in general, this is a nice Yunnan Black.

(I acquired this tea in a swap and for the life of me I cannot remember who sent it as an extra added bonus….so whoever you are, THANK YOU for your generosity.)

Flavors: Apricot, Chocolate, Oak

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
E Alexander Gerster

This is a wonderful tea that makes you sit up straight and pay attention! Love your tasting note. :)

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86

I received this as a sample with an order in the fall, and since I’m not a big flavored tea drinker, have left it unmolested in my tea cabinet until this morning. Why this morning? Who knows. Perhaps just because it’s not Friday, and I needed a bit of extra sunshine because, hey, Tuesday. :)

The dry dark twisty leaves are gently scented with an almost orange blossom fragrance. After steeping for the recommended 3 minutes, The fragrance of bergamot was almost unnoticeable to me…but the first sip brought the bergamot again. The base of this tea is very smooth and delicate…a perfect dance partner for the light bergamot that floats in the profile notes of light malt. This is a medium bodied Earl Grey that has little astringency and a lovely mouthfeel. A genteel and refined tea for a leisure afternoon with a great book, a cat and a packet of butter cookies. (A grand compliment, to be sure!)

Flavors: Bergamot, Malt, Orange Blossom

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Haveteawilltravel

“unmolested” hahahah xD

Sandra Vdplaats

ah: a book, a cat, buttercookies and an EG. Stairway to Heaven!!

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Here’s the full review from yesterday that I couldn’t get Steepster to publish for some reason….
Spider legs! These are big fat spider legs that “poing” out of the spoon when I try to measure the correct amount of tea… I love Butiki’s PTA (Premium Taiwanese Assam). I will miss it. I have used Butiki’s demise as an excuse to order all the assams (and a few other teas) from Taiwanese Tea Crafts, and this is one.

According to their website, this tea is a lighter version of Indian assams and they are right. Although my mouth tastes malt and raisin at the same time for the primary notes, they are a mid cup note, that added with a touch of deep cooked cherry and prune, makes for a flavorful assam without the weight of heavy malt. Malt takes the back seat to the fruity notes and delivers an obviously Taiwanese assam profile.

How does it compare to Butiki’s? It’s a lighter flavor profile, but still very much identifiable as a relative to PTA…a cousin perhaps? Not sure yet. I’ll have to try to not be such an impatient and greedy tea drinker and measure out the huge twisty gorgeous smelling leaves a little better next time. Holding out on a rating until next steeping….. but enjoying every sip!

Flavors: Cherry, Malt, Raisins, Stonefruit

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Spider legs! These are big fat spider legs that “poing”

Flavors: Cherry, Malt, Raisins

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
donkeyteaarrrraugh

Hey! that’s not my whole tasting note!!!! where did the rest go????

KittyLovesTea

The spiders must have taken it, though not sure they can without their legs!

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85

The time change. The time change. The time change. Spring forward. Seriously? Ask me a week into it and I’m not “springing” anywhere…lucky if you can get me to crawl out of bed, let along spring. Because of this, it has been a heavily Assamed week. And all I have to say is thank GOURD for assam.

Mangalam Gold from Teabox is a sweet malty smelling tea with lots of golden tips. In the cup this translates into a well balanced assam with a medium heavy malt note that is complimented by a touch of stonefruit and nut. There is a slight astringency that carries the after taste of burnt sugar after the tea is gone. The flavor profile of Mangalam gold doesn’t sit at the bottom of the cup like some assam teas. It’s notes harmonize mid-cup and make for a rousing but not boisterous cup of assam tea. Very welcomed on this spring morning where the thought of crawling back into bed is ALMOST winning. :)

Flavors: Burnt Sugar, Malt, Nuts, Stonefruit

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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86

Harney was the second tea purveyor that I explored during the beginnings of my journey with the cup of brown joy. I thought I’d managed to taste my way through most that I was interested in, but after reading a few reviews recently, I realized that I’d never flirted with the Queen. Thanks to a swap with TeaTiff, this is now in my cup and I’m quite pleased it is!

My go-to cup from Harney is Malachi McCormick. I love the way the earthy deep blend conjures up visions of Dublin in late winter for me. Queen Catherine is quite different. There is still a light earthy keemun flavor here that creates the base note for the tea, but it is lighter than my beloved Malachi. The flavor profile is more mid-palate…a bit dusty hay, a touch of raisin and a lighter malt than you find in assam. Lurking at the finish is a slight touch of gentle smoke. The description of this tea states that it’s all Chinese tea, but it certainly has the lighter profile of a ceylon, without the drying astringency that comes with most ceylons for me. If Malachi reminds me of Dublin in late winter, Queen Catherine reminds me of London in late spring. The light smooth profile is an invitation to a cup of tea that would even be welcome on a warm day. She is not cloying, this Queen. She is gentle and graceful….and lovely.

Flavors: Earth, Hay, Malt, Raisins, Smoke

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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85
Regarding “winter”, we have had the most pathetic attempt at a winter that mother nature has ever given us. Today it rains, so I rejoice by putting something proclaimed as “hearty” in my cup…and it was a good choice.

Hugo’s Full Steam leaves are dark chocolate brown, large and twisty….when steeped at 3 minutes 30 seconds, they release a deep lacquered fragrance of cannabis/rye (I mix those 2 notes up sometimes) and cocoa maltiness. The cup delivers the same. It is a stout Yunnan… almost Fujian in flavor profile, but because there is also a touch of molasses and toasted oat, it reminds me of Guinness in how it feels it can fill and warm my belly….something the people of Kansas City probably appreciate during their luxuriously long winter.

So here I celebrating my 3 day winter (I wish I was joking) by sitting in front of an open window with tea, book, blanket and whichever cat decides I look comfortable enough to join. I wait all year for these days….. and thanks to Teatiff I have a well-suited cup of tea to accompany me. Cheers!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Maddy Barone

Here in North Dakota we’ve had a VERY mild winter. Our first real snowfall didn’t come until Mid February!(probably the winter gods sent all the snow to the East Coast) and I don’t think we got below zero at all in January. I personally love winter, so I was disappointed. But now that it’s March I want spring, and we’re getting winter. Sigh.

donkeyteaarrrraugh

….the weather is sooooo weird these days…..

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93

So It’s 6:30am and by reaching deep into my tea cupboard I realized I’ve made a big mistake…..

I’ve been on Steepster for a little over a year. It was this website that helped me find the teas I’ve used to expand my tastes “beyond the teabag”. I ordered PTA from Butiki fairly on in my tea explorations. Being that my tastebuds were used to Indian assams, this threw my palate for a loop. I remember thinking that the leaves were like SPIDER LEGS and how in blazes could you measure 2 teaspoons of this when every time you pushed the leaves into the spoon to get a measurement, some would POIIIIIING out of the spoon…. I think it was just all a bit too much for me. So the tea was relegated to the back of the cupboard. Until today….

There’s a depth to the dry leaf fragrance that is similar to a Fujian black, but once water goes into the cup, the malty assam note comes forward to meet my nose. Unlike most assams, the malt note doesn’t take center stage in this cup….this one is a true chorus of notes: It is fruity, with notes of deep plum, raisin and fig. There is cocoa and yam skin, which bring an earthiness to this tea that assams don’t usually present. Then there is a toasted malt note. This is lovely. I have to say that this is probably my favorite cup of tea for where my palate is these days. At a 3 minute steep there is a touch of astringency, which is the only reason I can say I’m not sitting here crying in my mug over not drinking this before Butiki closed it’s doors. Astringency, you just might be my friend today for that reason alone…..

I try to live life with no regrets…it’s a mantra of mine. SO, I will look at the small tea tin as being a quarter full of bouncy spider leggy leaves as opposed to being 3/4 empty. And in the meantime, I’ll ask anyone if they’ve found anything close to this tea anywhere else besides Butiki….because dang, it’s goooooooood.

Flavors: Cocoa, Fig, Grain, Malt, Plum, Raisins, Yams

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Mike

It’s so good, and unlike any other Assam, just like you said! Count me in, if you hear of anything like it, let me know! :)

adagio breeze

There are other sites that sell Taiwanese assam, like Taiwan Tea Crafts, Beautiful Taiwan, and Eco-cha.

Mike

Awesome, I’ll check them out! Thanks!

donkeyteaarrrraugh

adagio breeze, thanks! I’m perusing their sites as I type this!

donkeyteaarrrraugh

Mike, I made my first purchase from Taiwan Tea Crafts…all 3 of their assams and a High Mountain….they probably won’t be here for ages, but all the same, I can’t wait! Did you order?

Mike

Nice! I haven’t yet, I’m trying to work through my current tea collection a bit first, but a Taiwanese Assam is high on the list for the next purchase! I hope you love them, I’m sure they’ll be great! :)

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90

Anyone who suffers (truly the right word) from allergies knows what kind of morning I’m having. My head woke me up with it’s pounding. For some reason my cats take my sneezing as some sort of BIG insult, and apparently I’m insulting them a lot. I need a big tea with big flavor this morning. I’m heading for the Crimson Horizon.

I’ve reviewed this tea before. It’s ctc holds the best baked bread note I’ve encountered. Add milk. NOM. When savored with toast and jam, it is as much of a comfort tea as I’ve had. Steeped at 1 minutes 30 seconds (yes, that fast folks or you’ll grow hair on your chest from the astringency!) it is a strong smooth cup of contentment to ease your complaints of the morning, whatever those might be. I pack ratted 8 oz of this in Butiki’s last days. I’m dang glad I did.

Flavors: Bread, Malt, Nutty

Preparation
1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
TeaNecromancer

allergies are awful, just awful!!

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Profile

Bio

Spot or pot, I love a cup!

I learned to drink tea while living in Dublin in the early 80’s, so as you can imagine, I am a hearty brew lover, and take tea with milk and honey. I am trying to expand my horizons with tea….that is why I’m now on Steepster! Joined in January 2014.

Currently loving strong black teas that hold up to milk and honey well. I have a curiosity about keemuns and yunnans, but smoky ones are out. Green and white teas are off my radar, but making little forays into oolong and darjeeling tea. Herbal? So far only cacao tea has gone into regular rotation in my tea routine.

I do like some naturally flavoured teas…almond, vanilla, cardamom, ginger. This seems to be mostly in the cooler months…but mostly I’m an unflavoured tea drinker.

Life is too short for bad tea and bad bread.

Location

San diego

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