391 Tasting Notes
Sip Down/Backlog
I thought that this was going to be much stronger than the mug offered. The dry material was quite spice heavy; unfortunately, the flavor fell short. I left my tea bag in the cup the second time around and it still didn’t give out much flavor…Light spices and no hint of the honeybush.
Sip Down/Backlog
Another tea that was nearly to the bottom of the bag and a friend helped sip it down! I found an unopened bag of this about two weeks ago (August 19ish). With the weather changing and Fall slowly making its entrance, I decided it was best to make this my daily drink. I knew that this was sitting in the cupboard with enough for two iced matcha’s, so I topped it off during Labor Day!
Flavors: Cream, Sweet, Vanilla
Sip Down/Backlog
I sipped the remainder of this with a friend who stopped over on Labor Day.* Thankfully, they are prone to drink any tea I offer, and I was two cups away from sipping this down. This was a great cup of tea to have with a meal and helped ease us into dessert (Strawberry Pretzel Salad). I enjoyed that the tea and flavors blended well enough that they worked together and neither overpowered the cup.
*Yeah, I’m very backlogged.
Backlog
I received a sample of this with my Tiesta Tea order almost a month ago. I’m usually on the fence with peach teas since they typically taste fake (like cherry teas). I had enough to make this into a batch of iced tea and sit in the fridge to cool. I didn’t add any sugar to the tea. The only thing I noted on its flavor was, “This reminds me of peach ring candy without the heavy sugary candy sweetness. It’s subtle and refreshing.”
Backlog
Gongfu’d
Dry Leaf: Trichomes flung out of the bag into my face. If you’re prone to sneeze, this is the tea for you! While I was able to get close to the tea leaves, despite the dust, they had a delightful vegetal aroma (garden greens/soil).
1st Steep: Broccoli, buttery, & viscous mouthfeel.
2nd Steep: Bitter, collard greens, Brussel sprouts, & butter mixed vegetables.
3rd steep: The same as the second infusion, but a little more bitterness.
4th steep: Progressively more bitter.
The notes end there, but I added, “Stopped at the 8th steep. Not much change to the leaf, with the exception of losing most of the bitterness at the 7th infusion, and all flavor at 8th infusion.”
This was amongst another club month (August?). I’ve had a few puerh stuffed oranges before, which had been extremely flavorful and intense. Unfortunately, this tea wasn’t as intense as I was hoping it to be. The orange peel was quite nice, but the tea flavor was subtle and lacking. I broke the material up after 4 infusions, but I wasn’t able to draw much flavor from the tea/orange peel after 6 infusions.
We are having some work done today on our ceiling (in short, I set my foot through it last month), so my typical spot for tea is occupied. I’ve been spending my morning in the “Retro Room” in the basement, watching VHS, reading, and playing through Lagoon on the SNES. I’ve decided to take pause and catch up on my tea sip downs, reviews, and catch up reading everyone’s recent logs. :)
This is the current tea I’m topping off from one of the club months. While my feelings on these clubs seem to be that the teas are random and lack any direction as to why they were selected, there are some bits of tea that fall into the mix that are a pleasant experience. This isn’t the absolute best sheng I’ve experienced, however, there are subtle notes of vanilla, sticky rice/rice cakes, and coconut.
Ha, I also have a room in my house that I call the “Retro Room” (spare bedroom in a condo where I live alone, so it has an old CRT TV hooked up to a VCR and SNES, a bookcase of all my geeky anime/manga stuff, and a giant net of anime/video game plushies on the wall).
