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Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US!

I have started my morning in a depressing fashion. The BF is being a particular pain today. He doesn’t work, so he had all week to take the kids (who were out of school) shopping for food for us to make for Thanksgiving. But he refused to buy the Turkey without me. So now he wants me to spend one of my few mornings off on his timetable which isn’t setting well with me.

Here I am writing tea notes, so guess who is winning?

Chicago Tea Garden is, I believe, defunct. I have a few tins of tea from them that I’ve never opened, this being one. I love the way the tea looks. Little golden ampersands. Snails, whatever curly thing you want to call them. They have a mild, bready smell in the tin.

The tin, BTW, was only half full when I removed the seal. It looks like it would contain 4 oz tea, but it only had half of that. Strange.

Anyway, this has the standard malty, brown sugary, slightly peppery aroma. A little sweet potato, a little molasses, maybe even a bit of cocoa/mocha. And that’s what I get in the flavor, too. The tea is medium brown orange and clear.

It’s not the best Yunnan ever, but it is Yunnan. And Yunnan is my favorite.

Flavors: Brown Sugar, Cocoa, Malt, Mocha, Molasses, Pepper

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 500 OZ / 14786 ML
tea-sipper

Hmm… a half filled NEW tin just sounds sad. Nothing like a good yunnan though! Hope your Thanksgiving got better.

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tea-sipper

Hmm… a half filled NEW tin just sounds sad. Nothing like a good yunnan though! Hope your Thanksgiving got better.

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Bio

I got obsessed with tea in 2010 for a while, then other things intruded, then I cycled back to it. I seem to be continuing that in for a while, out for a while cycle. I have a short attention span, but no shortage of tea.

I’m a mom, writer, gamer, lawyer, reader, runner, traveler, and enjoyer of life, literature, art, music, thought and kindness, in no particular order. I write fantasy and science fiction under the name J. J. Roth.

Personal biases: I drink tea without additives. If a tea needs milk or sugar to improve its flavor, its unlikely I’ll rate it high. The exception is chai, which I drink with milk/sugar or substitute. Rooibos and honeybush were my gateway drugs, but as my tastes developed they became less appealing — I still enjoy nicely done blends. I do not mix well with tulsi or yerba mate, and savory teas are more often a miss than a hit with me. I used to hate hibiscus, but I’ve turned that corner. Licorice, not so much.

Since I find others’ rating legends helpful, I added my own. But I don’t really find myself hating most things I try.

I try to rate teas in relation to others of the same type, for example, Earl Greys against other Earl Greys. But if a tea rates very high with me, it’s a stand out against all other teas I’ve tried.

95-100 A once in a lifetime experience; the best there is

90-94 Excellent; first rate; top notch; really terrific; will definitely buy more

80-89 Very good; will likely buy more

70-79 Good; would enjoy again, might buy again

60-69 Okay; wouldn’t pass up if offered, but likely won’t buy again

Below 60 Meh, so-so, iffy, or ick. The lower the number, the closer to ick.

I don’t swap. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that I have way more tea than any one person needs and am not lacking for new things to try. Also, I have way too much going on already in daily life and the additional commitment to get packages to people adds to my already high stress level. (Maybe it shouldn’t, but it does.)

That said, I enjoy reading folks’ notes, talking about what I drink, and getting to “know” people virtually here on Steepster so I can get ideas of other things I might want to try if I can ever again justify buying more tea. I also like keeping track of what I drink and what I thought about it.

My current process for tea note generation is described in my note on this tea: https://steepster.com/teas/mariage-freres/6990-the-des-impressionnistes

Location

Bay Area, California

Website

http://www.jjroth.net

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