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April Sipdown Prompt – Earth Day: drink an earthy tea

This tin is nearly empty, and I did not choose it for this prompt. I was going to have puerh for lunch because puerh is certainly earthy. I hadn’t had this tea in a while and when I drank it for breakfast I was sure the strainer had lingering flavor from a previous tea. It was so very earthy!

I decided to steep it again at lunch using a different pot and strainer but I get exactly the same taste. Looking back at my only other note on it, I see that I described the rose as dusky and the tea as having mostly low notes. I will now amend that to say that the base has mostly low, earthy notes. I can believe believe this is Sri Lankan tea, known to most tea drinkers as Ceylon. It certainly must be a low grown tea because it has none of the high, minty, lemon, or menthol flavors that I associate with high grown. Low grown Ceylon tea is my favorite sort from Sri Lanka. Perhaps that is because it reminds me more of the Fujian and Yunnan teas I love.

The rose is noticeable but I wouldn’t call it strong. Harney and Son’s Rose Scented is strong. It will arm wrestle you and win. (But I do like it and will be an agreeable loser in that wrestling match.) This truly is a low, dusky, darker rose scent that you catch in the aroma and that softly remains with you as you drink. If you want a black tea with some rose and nothing else going on, this is great. If you like to have “rose and” I highly recommend Yume.

I did not expect to like this tea this much.

I saw it when I was stocking up on Vanilla Comoro which serves as the base for my summer “soda” syrup. Superanna loves horchata so I was mainly getting it for her, planning to try one sachet and pass it on to her. This I will do, but I think this will be on a future order of my order.

The main thing I have to say about it is that the cinnamon is perfection for me. This is just the right level, and is pretty much the type and amount I remember being in Heirloom Bartlett Pear. It gives the same warm and cozy feeling.

The toasted rice doesn’t come off as burned popcorn. The oolong is so light it is almost like a white tea base. The vanilla and milk flavors are sooo creamy.

I love this just as it is, but if you really wanted to add milk and sugar (I am usually disappointed when I add anything to tea) I bet it would be good. In fact, I may try it that way ice cold.

April Sipdown Challenge Prompt – your tea with the longest name

At present I don’t have much tea with long names as I am mostly out of Teavivre Tea which reliably had really long ones, and now I don’t want to order more for fear of somehow ending up paying tariffs and duties above the price. The teas I want are not in the US warehouse at present.

Back to this tea – in Chinese, “Scary Fragrance” is Xia Sha Ren Xiang, referring to Bi Luo Chun, so I assume one would add Hong to that to represent this tea. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Scary is not the word for this. This is a Golden Snail tea, so powerful aroma is more apt. My goodness, I swooned. First, this is a beautiful tea to look at in dry form. Little gold and brown snails, tightly curled. Slightly fuzzy. Already fragrant.

Steeped, it is a beautiful medium amber to orange that doesn’t reveal just how much flavor there is in the cup. The mouthfeel is thick and rich. I made two Western steeps yesterday and saved the leaves in the fridge for breakfast today.

The first two steeps had honey notes and were a little reminiscent of Golden Monkey. There was some chocolate in the aroma as well. They describe it as having squash notes, but as someone who grew up on yellow crookneck squash only and had other squash only after reaching adulthood, I would say it is more like zucchini that I note here.

Today’s steep was very good but much milder. One thing that really persisted was the creaminess of the mouthfeel.

A delightful tea experience.

From the name, I thought this was a jasmine green tea and chose it to fulfill the soothing tea prompt for the Sipdown Challenge, but I have to replace it with another because it is definitely not a jasmine green, although something this delicious is also soothing.

This is a mix of lychee black tea, oolong tea, and jasmine flowers with jasmine green tea. The taste is predominantly lychee in my opinion, it resteeps well and is certainly a selightful tea that I would put on a repurchase list.

Sipdown

This is a really good gingerbread tea and every time I had it, I thought what a great latte it would be. I don’t do many lattes because I want to avoid the sugar, which I do a bad job of avoiding in desserts already.

The last time we drank it, Ashman mentioned finding it a bit spicy but he didn’t mind, so I assumed a lot of the cloves had sunk to the bottom of the bag. I picked five or six out before steeping today and found it just about perfect. This is definitely one I would look forward to drinking again when cool weather comes back around.

April Sipdown Prompt – enjoy a Rat Lunch! Grilled cheese and black tea

Today was the day for rat lunch, enjoyed outside before doing a bit of seed planting and gardening. Sandwich was a combination of Tillamook Extra Sharp Cheddar and plain old orange grocery store cheddar for stretchiness. Bread – Dave’s Good Seed.

This tea is so good. There are so many flavors listed, but as usual the French are great at combining many elements and getting a final product that isn’t muddy. This is fresh and elegant, so when the cheese sandwich was all gone, I finished the pot with Fortnum & Mason Florentines that were a birthday gift last month. The tea goes equally well with meals, sweets, or as a stand alone cup.

April Sipdown Prompt – a tea that is close to a sipdown

This morning I had a sipdown but I wanted to do a true “close to” for this prompt. After having this at lunch there is enough left for one more pot.

This is one of my favorite gingerbread flavored teas. It does have clove but the level is nice. Every time I make it I think about what an awesome and decadent sweet latte this would be, but I continue to restrain myself and drink it plain because I already get as much sugar as is reasonable.

Would repurchase in fall as cool weather hits.

Sipdown

Da Hong Pao is a favorite oolong. I have had one that was sent by some family members to the owner of a local Chinese buffet. All writing on it was in Chinese so I don’t know what kind it was, but it was rich and chocolate-y. It smelled like a cup of cocoa. That was the exception to most DHP I have had.

This one is more like what I expect. A little woody, baked bread or grain, a hint of a ghost of soft cinnamon, minerality…rich flavors mostly on the bass side but not heavy. The mouthfeel is thin to medium.

Absolutely delicious, a favorite of Ashman, and it will be missed. Fortunately I picked up some Ting Ting at Tin Roof Teas yesterday to occupy this tin until more DHP is acquired. They have similar profiles and suit similar pairings to me.

Ashman and I had a date day in Raleigh today. Our favorite harden center moved but it is in a very busy location now instead of the charming historic one from before, and some of the items I really wanted to look at are either discontinued or not yet moved to the new location. A couple of our other favorite stores have closed. Whyyyyyyyy?

After lunch I decided that even though I have way too much tea I should support local business, especially one that has been so good to me. We went to Tin Roof Teas and I wanted to buy so many different teas but restrained myself and got three.

I bought this because hot weather is almost upon and indeed we have already had highs in the 80’s and this tea is so good in hot weather. We visited Superanna and her husband after that and she is a mint lover as well as a big green and white tea drinker. Not only did she like it but her husband liked it a lot, and he doesn’t usually care for green tea!

Naturally I left it with them to enjoy so I don’t have to add three teas to cupboard tonight! The spearmint and Egyptian mint really make this for me as I prefer it over peppermint in Moroccan Mint, and the gunpowder green base has good body and doesn’t come off super smoky as some do.

Maybe in a few months IF I manage a good number of sipdowns, I will repurchase this for the real summer heat. I wonder if it would make a good tea pop?

April Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea that was gifted to you

I knew this would be a favorite of the Basilur fruit teas sent to me by Martin for my birthday! Thank you, Martin!

Blackcurrant wasn’t a thing in the South when I was growing up. Since the plant was banished long ago it just isn’t that commercially available. I mainly was exposed to it when we were in Ireland and I loved it.

The berry flavors are distinct and tart in this, which made it just right for making a pitcher of cold sweet tea for our hottest days so far. (I drank this one a few days ago. We have cooled a little for now.) These fruit infusions are working out marvelously for our evening sweet tea!