3690 Tasting Notes
A sipdown!
Just a couple of months beyond the “best by” date. Still tastes fantastic. It got a bit neglected because I have too much tea and I had three really special (to me) Teavivre black teas that I love. For a long time, Bailin Gong Fu Black was the only Chinese black tea Ashman liked, so I was drinking this alone, but he drinks them now!
This is one I definitely hope to repurchase once I get my cupboard down to the levels I want.
I love smoky Lapsang, but this unsmoked is dear to my heart also. All of Teavivre’s “Wild” and “Ancient Tree” teas have been complex and enjoyable.
August Sipdown Prompt – Lazy Day: make an easy peasy tea
What could be more easy peasy than plopping a couple of sachets into a pot? And forgetting to set a timer?
I guesstimated time remaining and the tea turned out fine. I still have a lot of sachets in the tin, and I like this tea but I doubt I will repurchase. Ashman does not like rose in tea so this only gets attention when I am having tea alone.
Since I do like rose in tea, I have a lot of teas with rose and it gets overwhelming looking at needing to sip down that many by yourself. I have Harney Rose Scented, Czar Nikolas St. Valentine, Lupicia Yume, and probably more. I have finished two tins not long ago by making rose black tea ice cream, which Ashman and my neighbor love, so I will use up some of it that way probably.
This one is rose and caramel, and the rose is pretty forward. I don’t sweeten my tea much, but I bet sugar would bring out the caramel notes more.
August Sipdown Prompt – tea from a family member
A sipdown! We had this last night with Earl Grey ice cream and tonight with strawberry and chocolate Milano cookies. There wasn’t enough for a whole pot so this was mixed half and half with Dammann Freres Fujishan Souchong, which is a pretty mild Lapsang, especially compared to the Dammann Crocodil.
Ashman doesn’t like smoky tea, declaring even unsmoked Queen Catherine too smoky for him, but he agreed to try it again and said he thinks he is getting used to it. He might even start craving it before long!
One good thing about Lapsang Souchong is that it is made from the larger, older leaves and thus has less caffeine, so sometimes I can get away with drinking it at night as long as I don’t have too much of it.
Saved the nice stacking tin and put the Dammann in it since it is the same type and its bag was starting to fall apart at the sides.
August Sipdown Prompt – an impulse buy tea
I threw this in the cart a couple of years ago when I was buying Stash White Christmas for some friends and family who love it.
This tastes like those banana flavored Circus Peanut candies. Not bad, and certainly a fun tea to have explored, but I just don’t reach for it and I find it a little difficult to pair with anything, plus Ashman wouldn’t like it so I end up drinking it by myself.
Probably not a repurchase unless it is on impulse again!
Guilty secret…I love those awful candies. Along with their bunny-shaped Easter counterparts of indeterminate flavor.
My mother loved them, too, and I like them fine although they are a bit sweet for me!
Those are my most hated candies… but I also cannot tolerate anything banana or even banana-adjacent.
August Sipdown Prompt – a CTC tea
I needed a tea to go with pie this afternoon and also wanted to knock out a prompt. I looked at a couple of teas that were nearing sipdown level and thought I would do “tea from a family member”, but when I took out this one I realized it is a CTC tea. I was convinced earlier this week that I didn’t have a single one on shelf that I could use for that prompt, so here we go!
We are almost at sipdown level on this one but not quite. I bought my first pouch of this for Ashman who is a cookie monster, and at first I didn’t like it or White Christmas much. They are very similar. There is an almost burnt flavor here that reminds me of coffee, and I have never been a coffee drinker. That is also why genmaicha tends to hang around, but once in a while it hits the spot.
This was perfect with the pie today. That burnt, coffee-like edge was a super contrast with the sweet and creamy buttermilk pie with nutmeg. It reminds me of really dark crispy brown edges on baked goods. It is great for pairing with sweets, and hot tea with cold pie is a nice duo.
August Sipdown Prompt – Campfire Day: drink a smoky tea.
This is a bit lighter than the Dammann Freres tea of the same name. The base for this Theodor offering is from Taiwan and the smoke is not quite as strong and meaty, but I love both.
I had intended to have this earlier in the day but Ashman is home and doesn’t love smoky tea so I made an unsmoked Lapsang for breakfast. Then I was going to have it after breakfast but we ended up going out of town a little unexpectedly, first to The Woodwright’s School (where Roy Underhill HIMSELF gave me an unfinished candlebox that he made on his tv show long ago so that we can finish it and it even has a SECRET CHAMBER!!) and then we went to do a little kitty sitting out of town which also involved setting off Superanna’s burglar alarm.
I love lapsang with ice cream and I was determined to do this prompt on time so I had it after supper with some homemade vanilla ice cream. I dearly hope that the caffeine does not keep me up all night. I usually don’t have caffeine after 3 pm so we shall see.
Whaaaaat, a gift from Roy Underhill?! That’s amazing, ashmanra!
I was so stoked! But ashman has advised me that there is only the wood for finishing the body of the box and that he will have to build the top, the drawer, and add the bottom. The top compartment is for holding spills, and ashman gave me a spill plane from the 1800’s for Mother’s Day a couple of years ago! Ha ha! Pretty much the only woodworking I can do is make spills!
Roy and the school are so awesome, by the way! We are so sad at the closing of the school and the antique tool shop above it. Ashman purchased about 18 planes, mostly from the mid to late 1800’s. There is a tool chest I would so totally buy – only from about 1910 but still really nice – but it is huge and we don’t have room for it.
I just learned what spills are! There’s something about planes, isn’t there? They are such a beautiful and iconic representation of classic woodworking. Happy for your acquisitions — what a gift that you were able to get over there. Sad, too — I did not know all of that was closing down. :(
Roy is working on a new book, and indictated he will be teaching again after that but we don’t know when or where. I really, really hope Ashman can take some more classes with him!
August Sipdown Prompt – a tea with orange flavor
I am going to drink two teas with orange flavor because the other one really just needs to be sipped down already.
This one is not a sipdown, but it is one I don’t serve when Ashman is home because he is not a big bergamot fan, though he will tolerate it if there are other flavors. That really makes tea hang around when I am the only one drinking it! It is not one I would consider a shelf staple but it is one I am happy to drink. In this flavor category, I think I would get Magic from Gurman’s as a replacement.
This tea has a lot of bad reviews, but I like it. Mostly I love the aroma of the dry leaves and the liquor. Lots of people get “soap” from it, but I don’t. I feel like the orange and mandarine aromas are strong in mine and I like that. I really enjoy it with breakfast. I am considering mixing this with Fortmason from Fortnum and Mason, which is okay but lacks dimension. I think the addition of this tea to it would make Fortmason more interesting.
The base is lightly brisk which always makes it nice with food to me.
One thing I dislike is Kusmi’s new tin design. The lids are too loose and I foresee lots of tea spillage accidents in their future. The old tins were very similar but somehow the lids were much more secure.
July Sipdown Prompt – your most unusual tea
I almost chose to break up one of the Verdant Tea incense sticks that are supposed to be safe to steep as tea, but decided I wasn’t quite brave enough and also didn’t want to waste my most expensive incense.
So I chose this one instead! It is unusual for a few reasons. First, it is a Japanese black tea, which is not super common. I had one from Postcard Teas in London but that is it. Second, it really does look and taste a lot like Darjeeling. The pouch I received (from White Antlers – many thanks, my friend!) is labeled Japanese Darjeeling, although it technically is not a Darjeeling, rather like dark tea is not shu puerh..
I had put off trying this because my first experiences with Darjeeling were not good. I was not preparing them properly and they were not the best quality. I found a few that I liked – a Margaret’s Hope second flush comes to mind.
Then I tried Sakura Premium from Lupicia, which is Darjeeling with salted cherry leaf, and while the salted cherry leaf put me off sometimes there were other times I would really crave it.
This tastes a lot like the Lupicia tea but without the salted cherry leaf, so I think I would prefer this one. It is actually really enjoyable, and I am eager to share it with Ashman and get his opinion. He is more open to Darjeeling than I am!
And that’s the July prompts all finished.
Many thanks, White Antlers! We miss you!
July Sipdown Prompt – International Friendship Day: tea with a friend
I bought this tea for my friend of 37 years though it is kept at my house. It is very difficult for us to get together except during summer break as she is an EC teacher with an adult special needs child living at home and she is starting an online consulting site for parents of EC children so she is very busy. I figured that if we could manage one tea time together per week we would finish this by summer’s end, and we are on schedule for that!
This is white tea with apricot, lavender, vanilla, lemon, and honey flavor if I remember correctly, but all I taste is mild apricot. I don’t resteep this one. But we do like it a lot and I would consider repurchasing if they made it available as loose leaf.
It has been a lovely tea to look forward to this summer and I will probably always associate it with this summer’s visits. Next time I drink this I will be logging a sipdown!
The last of the last of my Wymm Tea. This is a lovely sheng with classic camphor aroma. It is disgusting hot and humid outside so I am sipping this slowly and letting it cool a bit. I do like to cool my puerh a little, especially shu though this is sheng, because I feel like I pick up more of the flavors.
A friend texted me a pie recipe and it happened to be a pie that I just made recently but I am a very suggestible creature sometimes and immediately wanted more, so fifteen minutes after receiving the text the pie was in the oven. There were also towels to hang on the line to dry and Ashman’s shirts to hang in readiness for work next week, Now it is break time!
I gave this a rinse as the remaining bits seemed pretty well compressed and then I let it sit for a few minutes to absorb the water and steam in the gong fu pot.
The liquor is a clear pale yellow. This is not at all harsh, but sweetly flavored like green bean juice. As I swish and swirl it, I pick up a little seaweed, or maybe just the green saltiness of seaweed.
It does not have thick body, but the cool tea has a light creamy texture taste/texture. I am having trouble distinguishing which it is.
A very well behaved sheng, and if I didn’t have a pie in the oven I would lie down for a quick nap. It has been a lovely break-time tea. I am feeling peaceful rather than stimulated. Nice.
