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Tea from postcrossing THANK YOU envelope 6/6. after 2 months and week

Perfectly Balanced Yup, that is right.
Brewing Instructions: Steep 2 minutes or to desired strength That’s good, I did 2 minutes and it was alright.

But how about not trying it again? It was smooth, hay, and totally forgettable. Mild and hay. Nothing more, nothing less. There are better teas in same price range.

I wonder why it has got so bad reviews. Thank you derk (White Antlers?) for this pleasant experience of tea bag.

Well, it is pure linden tea. I woke up feeling having little common cold and linden should help. Won’t rate the medical purposes, maybe I just warmed up and it’s better, maybe it’s Linden, maybe it’s hot drink, maybe it is just wamer enviroment.

Ehhm, okay the tea… it’s quite flavourful, honey and herbal; decently floral and sweet.

I DO like it! It’s better than chamomile. By the way, it’s Czech national tree :)

The dry aroma of this tea is so strong, fresh and moslty of cashnew and chesnuts. I would not expect it is tea from April 2015; but it is and it’s Best Before date is April 2018. Though old… thank you White Antlers!

I was preparing it grandpa, but well… 5 grams were too much and while pouring (I thought it is for liquids only) it a big chunk just released and my cup of thermos I used instead of bowl, was full with tea. It was hard to spill it back to the pouch. So I think that about another 5 grams were dumped.

Anyway, back to the tea… 5 grams and 82°C water (I measured this time!), volume was 300 ml and well it was too strong, especially brewing grandpa. It turned out quite bitter with vegetal notes. Certainly past its prime time, moreover my preparation method wasn’t the most clever one. I have still lots of to try so won’t rate this time. I noticed as well the minerality, but hey so strong as those previous notes.

Need to re-try and with less leaf

I found out I put into my virtual cupboard wrong Phatty Cake, athough it was clearly labeled with II.
I am as well not fan of ripe pu-erhs; but I like drinking them during cold days as those hit my country and yes, we had the snow already. 90 km (56 mi) from my home: https://twitter.com/CT24zive/status/1315566575152500737

A tea, received in box from derk and again my assumption it’s from her. So thank you If it is from you, White Antlers, sorry and thank you for it :) — but it is hard to recognize, though there is WA mark on some.

Anyway I was drinking this tea during the lecture of “Statistics and Probability” and there is one task:
There are 5 white balls, 6 black ones, 2 blue ones.
If I take three of them, what is probability I took
A) all blacks
B) every one is different
C) two are blue and one is white?

Ah, tea, right?
As I said before, I never been fan of shu. They were quite all same for me, somehow dark, peat, fishy, smoky… But this one seems different. Although it was certainly peaty when dry, even in first steeps, it was as well quite pleasant. Leather notes, woody, forest floors, mushroomy (but in a good way), I enjoyed the thickness of this tea. There are some notes reminding me chocolate and petrichor (that could be outside though).

I am glad it wasn’t one of those teas which are full of that less favorite smells and flavors and rather those nice ones.

A sample from derk again and thank you (again).

As a novice in pu-erh drinking, I never much cared about the origin of those teas. I just was thinking — I like it, or I don’t like it. So, I don’t have any idea how different are teas from Lao Wu Shan and Jinggu for example. Or This and from Jingmai. Storage is another big difference and I just can’t tell you what is different. I should start making notes somewhere down about pu-erh, as it is like wine… different regions have different tastes. And yest that’s something I notice, but that’s all and I can’t remember it myself.

But to the tea, I have used 5 grams of loose I had in the pouch from California. I had add a little from the chunk, but 4 grams seemed too little for my 85 gaiwan.

I did quick rinse, but as a morning tea I haven’t wrote this tasting note while drinking, so no single steep notes.

It is nice, smooth tea, with just little astringency, mostly coming with bitterness in last steeps. Overall taste is grassy, bit vegetal, green beans, but as well sweet and little creamy (the smooth factor). The steeps were nice and there wasn’t single steep which told me it’s bad in some way.

The brew was light green with yellow notes, if clear or not I am not able to recognize as I don’t own glass tea cup for pu-erh brewing or at least I need to get cha hai.

Two tea bags I received from derk. Thank you!

In aroma it indeed reminds me maple syrup, at least that one I was lucky enough to try in Finland (cheap stuff, it was said it is from Canada, supermarket brand). It was my first and last experience with it, and it is actually 4 years old one. But when I smelled it, it was exactly that. Ah well Vaahterasiirappi .

Anyway back to Czech Republic. It’s quite cold, around 10°C only, cloudy and I need some tea which reminds me this! And this looks most promising.

The aroma, as I said, reminds me maple syrup. Little bit of ginger, but luckily not that much.

Taste is more watery than I thought. But it is maple-y for sure, little heat of ginger is there as well. Quite sweet, but somehow expected. Warming inside, smooth and coating the throat which is welcomed in this chilly weather. I feel quite chilly as well though we are heating up.

It is pleasant tea to these days.

Sad to say it’s SIPDOWN but certainly thanks a lot ashmanra!

Drinking while watching 130th Velká Pardubická steeplechase held in city I study, but this time it was without public speacators. It is as well only horse run I actually watch. It is really difficult course and unfortunately many horses don’t make it to the finish.

To the tea. Well, it is very nice. The base is wonderful and well present. It’s smooth, and the vanilla flavour is nice and as well, well present. It even tastes nice and not artificial, though I have expected more creamy taste (I should try it with cream next time), but it was certainly nice exprience and good caffeine-free tea.

Prepared western (4 grams) from same pouch as derk. So, Harvest in September 2015, best before September 2018 (only two years behind!)

Ehhm, although I had it in the morning, it seems it is forgettable. My thoughts about this tea are like in the mountain mist.

It was quite thick, velvety mouthfeel as derk said already, but taste… I don’t remember much. It was nice, bit like hay or yellow melons (again borrowing her words), bit drying.

But expected maybe more, maybe I wasn’t just paying much attention, as I was thinking just about the lunch I was about to prepare (Lasagne bolognese), which turned out great! Need to retry this tea.

Ordered in my local Dobrá Čajovna (Dobra Tea tearoom) while I was waiting for last inventory check (part-time job).

I wished for caffeine boost, but it didn’t really come.

Don’t have much details but: In aroma very roasty, nutty… Hints of almonds, little floral.
and:
In taste it is much more mellow and way more floral with hints of nuts and one more message:
It was nice and pleasant tea. Not really energy boosting, but it was really nice. Quite complex in flavour. Haven’t expected floral and roasty in same time

I wrote those points to my friend who was curious about the tea.

When I smelled the wet leaf in gaiwan, I thought it will be very roasty, as aroma said so. But actually it was quite mellow and rather floral than roasty. I was thinking buying it home to use it possibly in the Advent Swap (see below!) but 320 CZK for 50 grams was quite steep for me.

I won’t return there for some time again unfortunately, situation here is worse and worse and as we have distance learning nowdays, we stay in our rooms trying to study. And I decided to stop the part time job as well now, because of Covid situation; as well I need to focus on studies a little bit more.

Check out Tea Advent Swap we are going to do: https://steepster.com/discuss/42125-2020-tea-advent-swap Shae organises it and I would love to see more people taking part!

As last, one funny story overheard there:
I don’t mind you smoke weed, you can arrive here stoned, I really don’t mind. But please, don’t use the crusher for shisha tobbaco for your weed. Please, don’t! said a manager to one of his employees (they serve hookahs there)

What?!

Thank you derk for this tea, but sorry, it’s awful. But nice tea bag wrapping to my collection. That’s only positive I think.

I took the bag out and I coughed. Coughed several times of the foul smell of ginger and citrusy (it should be) but it rather reminds me paint. Wall paint. Then some coriander and rosemary stuff, but somehow weird as well.

Flavour. Well it is paint again. Citruses? Nope. Matcha? Nope. Herbals, ginger? Nope. Iti s weird. Completely off. Maybe something like lemongrass, but rather grass. No notes of green tea!

What was this? Would I try to drink another teas from Rishi, or even worse… would I try to use second tea bag I received?

On the other news from Central Europe: Mother have her colleague tested positive. They won’t test others since they don’t have symptoms. She works in social care though. 4500 positive yesterday.

On positive side, I got accpeted my bachelor thesis topic: Analysis of material handling machinery in selected company. That’s great!