3478 Tasting Notes
February Sipdown Prompt – your most post-date tea
Sipdown!
Thanks to a really good year of sipdowns two years ago, I don’t have much that is past date. This one managed to go a little past and is possibly my only past date tea, and it only lasted this long because I was given so much tea last year as gifts that I couldn’t keep up with drinking everything even though I gave away lots of tea! Good problem to have.
This is one of Ashman’s favorites so I might get it again one day, but right now I am concentrating on cupboard control. It was somewhat overleafed because there was an awkward amount left, but we got four marvelous and flavorful Western steeps out of it for its last hurrah.
Ashman came home sick. It seems to be a cold so far, so I gave him our old standby Alka Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine and then made a cup of this tea. I decided I would drink some in hopes it will strengthen my immune against whatever he has.
It is surprisingly tasty for a medicinal blend! It smells minty but as I sip I get a lot of ginger. I have never had mullein that I can recall so I don’t know what that is contributing. I was almost sure there had to be licorice root or something because it tastes a bit sweet, but nope, nothing like that in here.
I have chronically swollen sinuses because of multiple allergies and I think I am breathing better than I have in weeks. Hopefully it will do us both some good, especially since I need to be in tip top shape for surgery in 20 days.
This was a gift from our delightful derk, along with a jar of home made plum and cinnamon jam which I have already devoured! Thank you, derk!
I saved this to serve when my bestie next came to visit, and it has been almost two months since we have seen each other. First there was the busy pace of Christmas and then her family kept getting hit with viruses passing around from person to person so it has been a while. Today was our day!
Bestie only drinks green, white, oolong, and puerh tea. My cupboard is overwhelmingly black tea, so I make an effort to have something new for us to try when we get together instead of the same five greens or whites over and over.
My friend loves “food as medicine” and is a fan of manuka honey, so I was very happy to see that this has manuka leaf! I did not read the company description first, so I missed out on the tea turning blue first while steeping and then yellow. Darn.
She really liked the tea! The rose is light and sweet and if you didn’t tell someone it had rose in it, they might not guess. The rose petals were gorgeous and in the steeping basket the petals rose to top and were so pretty amongst the brilliant greens.
The tea is described as vibrant, and I would applies to the appearance and the flavor both. This is a zingy green with lots of high notes. It has a lot of energy. Bestie gives it a thimbs up, and said to make sure derk gets a thank you from her, too!
February Sipdown Prompt – a breakfast tea
This is a breakfast tea that is not at all like you expect a breakfast tea to be. The temperature is low, the steep is short, the color of the steeped tea is light. It does not need milk and sugar and it would almost be a crime to anything to this, but that’s just me.
These delicate buds from China yield a rich and creamy tea that resembles a Darjeeling or Ruby 18 with all briskness completely eliminated. Delicious. Three steeps easily.
No combat boots, here, gmathis. But you might get an afternoon neck rub out of it.
Sipdown
This is a decent rock oolong, but I wouldn’t consider it to be complex and award winning. That could be my fault – maybe I didn’t pay enough attention to it or something but it just hasn’t had a wow factor for me. Deep roasty notes, which I enjoy, are the main attribute of this tea. Most of it was taken to work by Ashman, but I finished the last teaspoon today.
I was inspired to open this by amandastory516’s tasting notes! I got it for Christmas but hadn’t tried it yet, as Ashman doesn’t enjoy bergamot and I have been tea with him quite a lot. Today I have breakfast and lunch both on my own, so it is a great time to have it, and I had it at both meals.
I am picky about my Earl Grey type teas. I don’t like fake bergamot or bergamot ln a lemony or thin base, like a high grown Ceylon. My preference is Keemun or another hearty black tea base that can be tasted and isn’t obliterated by the flavorings.
This one, happily, is what I hoped it would be! The aroma is unmistakeable bergamot, but not sharp enough to burn your nose hairs out. The creme brulee part is soooo smooth.
Drinking it, I think the cream part comes first. It is rich and full and feels quite luxurious. The creamy feel and taste are followed by bergamot, not at all weak but not overpowering, either. Having made it twice, I will say that even with my disinclination to overly strong bergamot, I liked the pot I leafed more heavily best. I did try it as separate steeps and also with a first and second steep combined. Both were very good.
If you like Earl Grey, London Fogs, and such, you will be doing yourself a favor to try this.
February Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Groundhog Day – drink the same tea twice!
I chose something else last night, but this morning I remembered that this blend has lots of almond slices in it and I decided that we had better work on it before the nuts start to turn rancid. I haven’t seen many people complaining of that with this tea but just in case.
We had it for breakfast and lunch. I think Ashman likes this one more than the other chocolatey Simpson and Vail teas. I still haven’t had it as a latte. Maybe that should be next.
Chocolate, nuts, and maple make for a pretty decadent pot of tea. Will probably get it again next year.
February Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a spiced tea
My daughter gave me this and I chose it to be the tea for Ashman to have for breakfast and take to work this week, but I hadn’t tried it myself until today.
When I was measuring the leaves into the pot I saw a large whole clove and thought, “OH NO.” I am not a fan of clove except in teeny amounts. Same goes for ginger.
Surprise, surprise! This was delightful! The cinnamon is smooth and easy and the clove and ginger are at a perfect level for me, not too hot. This really tastes like the kind of gingerbread that I like. I drank it plain with lunch and wondered if I would feel differently about it once the sandwich was down the hatch and it was all tea and no food. But no! Even by itself the spices are just right.
If there is any change at all that I would want in this tea, it would be a wish for a slightly stronger base. But I am happy with it as it is, and it certainly isn’t anemic like the base of Harney’s Salted Caramel which was just a cruel blow for me, smelling so good and then tasting so weak.
This is one that would be nice to have around again next winter. I bet if I leaf it on the heavy side it would make a great latte, too.
January Sipdown Prompt – a tea that makes you feel better when you are sick
Sipdown
This was a gift from whiteantlers long ago and it was a big enough sample that I have had it a few times now. Many thanks, friend! We miss you!
I am not sick, but I am drinking this tea with lunch as a preemptive strike because I am having red meat and I rarely eat red meat. My sensitive might rebel so I am going in early with the digestion help of puerh tea.
Does it work? It does for me. Years ago I had two pieces of pizza and then was daft enough to give in and eat the crusts dipped in garlic butter at the end. The food felt like an immovable insult sitting stubbornly in my belly and refusing to budge. At that time, I had only had puerh a few times and it was mediocre shu, but after sipping a cup of it the sun rose and the birds sang and all was right with the world.
This is really lovely. I think it has matured nicely into a very well-behaved sheng. I get a little smoke, some leather, no bite, no astringency, a little creamy/oil mouthfeel, and thirst slaking wetness. A hint of sweet soil follows. Really nice.
Edit to add: burger is finished and tea is going strong still. New note I notice without food obscuring it – minty minty minty! Some dry fall leaf crispness and aroma.
I used to think all camellia senisis teas were the same until I did a deep dive on the internet and found that ripe puerh has inulin, and your gut microbes feed on that. So not surprising that it aids digestion :)
I didn’t know about inulin in it , Michelle! That’s awesome! Inulin is in Teeccino roasted chicory drinks, too. According to webmd, puerh bacteria produce lovastatin, and the older it is and the larger the population of bacteria, the more lovastatin is produced. The lovastatin supposedly causes the system to “ignore” some of the fats by basically binding with them, and allow them to pass on through without being digested, speeding up the movement of the food and eliminating the heavy feeling. This is an explanation I saw, could be wrong. But it seems to work! Inulin is a pre-biotic, so win-win!
I seemed to have confused chicory for ripe puerh, but I thought I read somewhere that ripe produced inulin. Probably on some wiki page that is now rescinded. I think all three, ripe, raw and chicory are good for gut health!
I always wonder whether they are testing ripe or raw when we see the health claims. Often it isn’t specified. I plan to drink it anyway, and if it is good for me then that is even better!
@ashmanra, that is a good question indeed! Since (I believe) the orthodox process involves a heat-kill to dry and stop oxidation, we can assume that it has the effect of pasteurizing the leaves, which become maocha as a green tea, possibly with a further intermediate heating steps before being portioned out and compressed. Of course we don’t expect the work environment to be sterile. So, much like Belgian-process beers, further microbial activity in Sheng Pu-erhs is the result of uncontrolled environmental introduction of fungi and bacteria. I suspect some spore-forming bacteria may survive the cooking process unless it is very long — over an hour at >100°C (think of the canning process). Shou, on the other hand, is piled a meter or more deep, moistened and inoculated with a culture of (known or unknown) microbes, much like a sourdough starter. Those microbes would rapidly dominate the tea leaf microflora, outcompeting any environmental or integral species. Thus it is possible that the two processes (raw vs. ripe) could differ considerably in their probiotic content. It is also possible that the inoculum used in Shou is derived from isolates found in one or more Shengs, and thus having similar probiotic content. I do not know how the inoculum for Shou Pu-erh is prepared and/or maintained, and I suspect it is a trade secret among the various tea companies, as they are among brewers of beers. I do not know the scientific literature of tea fermenting well enough to say anything beyond this.
