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March Sipdown Challenge Prompt – your oldest green tea

Mastress Alita mentioned going out for Japanese food for lunch today and that started a hankering for something Asian that wouldn’t quit. I have some frozen springs rolls and made do with those and a nice green tea!

I can not believe I let this get past its “best by” date. I held off ordering green tea for a long time because they do need to be really fresh and we don’t drink them as much as oolong and black tea. When I finally ordered this one and Huang Shan Mao Feng, two of our favorites, I thought we would finish them in record time. Not so.

I love this tea. It is smooth and nutty, and goes great with food as well standing on its own very well. This is not a sipdown. There is a lot left, so I am going to have to focus on these two out of date greens for a while. That will be an easy task.

March Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea that taught you something

The prompt is being fulfilled by puerh in general rather than this specific puerh. My first shu was purchased at A Southern Season and reeked of old shrimp. I steeped it with Sandy with some trepidation, and although the smell was bad the taste was good.

This is so different from that first experience. I love the scent of most shu. Barn, mushrooms, hay, yes manure but in a good clean farm sort of way, fall leaves underfoot, and so on.

I haven’t scratched the surface of all there is to learn about shu and sheng. I read about the Tea/Horse Road, tea with yak butter and salt, fermentation in caves and factories, the seven tea mountains, health benefits (which is why we are drinking it today as we had a fatty lunch and want to reduce the impact on our tummies), the presence of lovastatin naturally occurring due to the bacteria, and more. I watched videos of cakes being pressed and cakes being wrapped so skillfully and beautifully. I use puerh as my go-to tea when guests say they don’t like tea (they have never had the good stuff) and love coffee. They usually love it and request it in the future.

My daughter woke me up this morning to tell me that she had made birthday biscuits for breakfast! In the kitchen, the pink sparkly bag was waiting with this tea and a Snoopy plushie, so soft and wearing his little aviator cap. Cap? Helmet? Leather hat?

She told me that she bought this tea mostly because she knows I like “tea for a cause” and since reading Alexander McCall Smith’s books set in Botswana I have been ordering tea for education in Malawi from Rare Tea Company. This tea benefits the women and children of Kenya. It came in a foil bag, that was inside of a plastic bag, in a cardboard box that has a front cut out as a window for a little piece of handmade artwork as decoration. I will keep that piece after the tea is gone and display it somewhere. It is textured paper that I initially thought had a traditional scene painted on but realized on close inspection is actually little pieces of paper cut out and glued on to depict a scene in Africa of women in bright red dresses in front of a hut, one chopping wood and the other resting on the fence.

Happy Lucky said in their description “above all, strong” and they were right to emphasize. GMathis, you should have been here. Combat boot tea. Sam Vimes would love this.

The instructions say 3-5 minutes. I put one teaspoon in my infuser that holds seven ounces of water and after one minute I saw bu the color that I dared not let it go longer. I did a second steep for thirty seconds and added it to the first steep in the small pot. The tea, when poured into my cup, is almost as black as coffee.

As richly dark as it is, it is drinkable without additions even though HL recommends them. This has that bold, cherry/fruity flavor and body I associate with Assamica teas. I drank most of it plain, but I decided to try it with cream and sugar as well. It is really lovely that way and still very strong.

It occurs to me that this profile is probably brilliant iced and sweetened, so I think that will be my next adventure with this tea!

March Sipdown Challenge Prompt – an herbal tisane

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For a tea that contains no sweeteners real or artifical, this is one of the sweetest tasting tisanes I have ever had.

Using my normal amount of leaf, the first pot of this was shared with Ashman and we did two steeps which we combined. Even that way, the flavor was incredibly strong. It was good flavor, mind you, but wow, was it strong. I agree that this gives the vibe of Carrot Cake Cupcake from the same company, with a sense of confectioner’s sugar and cream cheese frosting. How? I think it would be safe to back off a little on how much leaf we use when drinking it hot.

The second time I made it was when I needed a quick tea for Ashman. I put two teaspoons of leaf in a gravity steeper that holds seven ounces, steeped only once, and decanted it into a tea shaker full of ice. (Like a cocktail shaker but made especially for tea.) It got so frothy when shaken! does green rooibos have more naturally occurring saponins than tea? I poured it into a tall glass and added a couple of teaspoons of simple syrup. I tested a small spoonful of it to make sure it was sweet enough for Ashman, and it was light and fruity. He pronounced it very, VERY good and really enjoyed it. The crumble idea took a back seat slightly and this tasted more like jammy blueberry tisane to me. Nice.

We needed an evening tea for suppers so I made a half gallon with the remainder of the pack. This might need to be a repurchase for fruity summertime tea. It is chilling in the fridge now, but I will update when we drink it made that way, five teaspoons double steeped and combined going into a half gallon pitcher with a half cup of sugar. Hopefully it will be as good as the flash chilled tea.

March Sipdown Prompt – your freshest green tea

This qualifies as freshest because I just got it this morning! There is a tiny, sparkly pink gift bag that appears every few days with a gift from my daughter inside ever since my second surgery of recent months and this was today’s gift. I am glad I saw it as I was making breakfast because sometimes I don’t see it until later in the day.

The peach aroma is soooo nice in this. Even though I do like many peach teas, I confess that some punch you in the nose and sometimes have a sharp boozy aroma. This was more a nice, strong, natural peach aroma. There was a swirl of other scents as well and a really deep inhale told me there was some ginger here. I can tell it will be just right and not spciy hot.

As I pour the tea in my breakfast cup it is almost clear but builds up in the cup to a soft yellow. The taste is smooth, sweet, divine, and didn’t get overpowered by my breakfast food.

I am really torn as to whether I want to try it cold steeped or iced because I really love it hot.

Edited to add: had it again at lunch with Ashman and the ginger is more noticeable in this pot, but still well within my range of ginger preference.

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Sweet and creamy banana pudding flavor well done!

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March 8 Sipdown Challenge Prompt – International Women’s Day: drink tea from a woman- owned company

This is another post-surgery gift tea from my daughter!

I have tried this three ways and I am kicking myself that it is all gone because I thought of a fourth way that I wish I had made it!

We had it hot with breakfast and Ashman said the cola part was NAILED. I agree! It is uncanny how much it smells like a cola, which led to a conversation about what the smell of cola actually is. I have made herbal “cola” syrups in the past and will probably do so again this summer. I didn’t get a lot of cherry or almond, and as a breakfast tea the base could have been stronger.

Next up was cold steeped. Now it really, really smells like cola! So much so that I decided to add simple syrup. This amped up the cola vibe quite a bit. I still mostly just taste and smell cola, and I am not really getting the cherry almond part.

Now I am wishing I had thought to make a tea simple syrup with it to add to sparkling water. It would have been indistinguishable from an actual soda, but much better for us!

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I am shocked this is a sipdown. I think I had two or three packs but I guess I have been drinking it more than I realized.

Maple maple maple. I almost changed my mind and had waffles for breakfast this morning after smelling it because it smelled that yummy, but I am trying not to go with a sugary breakfast much and remembered how even yesterday the contrast pairing of another tea was better than the similar flavors pairing. So I had my more savory breakfast and let the tea satisfy that sweet craving, which was certainly healthier.

This tea lives up to its name. It is lovely, Anne!

Tasting Note 3,500!

I think it is really fun that a benchmark note is landing on a special tea – in this case, my birthday present from my bestie, Melissa, a little early.

We are big strawberry tea fans over here, with black and green versions usually on shelf. I don’t know that I have ever had a strawberry oolong, though.

This is a great tin for gifting because it is so festive looking. The front of the pink tin is rather fancy and ornate, posh if you will. The back is very cute, featuring a simple strawberry milkshake topped with whipped cream, blushing and smiling with eyes closed. Would this be called kawaii?

The aroma is almost confusing because you don’t expect the authentic smell of scented milk oolong mixed with strawberries and cream. Well, I didn’t.

I had this with breakfast and decided to do several tests. How is it as a true resteeper, not combining steeps? How does it best pair? I usually pair with contrast rather than similarity. I had Good Seed bread by Dave’s Killer Bread, toasted and buttered. A small bit was plain, and bit was smeared with Fortnum & Mason Strawberry Jam, and a big portion was smeared with Bonne Maman Chocolate Hazelnut Spread.

First the tea – unmistakeable that this is oolong, you are not going to be fooled that it is a green tea with strawberry. The ingredients list milk flavor so I am assuming this is a scented or flavored milk oolong. First steep was 190F for three minutes and the strawberry is fairly light. Taste is unchanged when having plain buttered toast. Strawberry jam just sort of carried that berry sense across without enhancing it. Hazelnut chocolate spread was the winner by far. The chocolate contrasts sharply with the tea and added flavors making the strawberry AND the vanilla pop much more. At this point, I feel like there is surely a bowl of strawberries and cream somewhere on the table because that is what my brain is interpreting this as now.

For the second steep, which was without food, I kept the same steeping parameters. The tea is definitely strong enough to resteep even if you are not combining and the milk oolong personality comes out even more. There is still a hint of strawberry and the vanilla may be showing up a little more now because of the fading of the strawberry.

Don’t expect a KAPOW thick and sweet strawberry shake. I don’t think this would make a good dessert-replacement latte. If you add sugar it might enhance the strawberry shake vibe but we generally don’t add sugar and I liked it as it is – a subtle strawberries and cream milk oolong is my best description. Marvelous with chocolate.

March Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a good resteeper

I was awakened this morning by Sam the King of Dogs (and my heart) who needed to go out. It was warm and misting rain. I sat under the covered back porch in the rocker and the scent of petrichor was so powerful near Sam’s special designated dig spot that I knew this needed to be my tea with breakfast.

This is one of the many morning surprise teas post surgery from my daughter who lives with us!

Chocolate. Wow. WOW. This has a powerful chocolate aroma and it is from real cacao hulls, not some oily flavoring born in a laboratory. The chocolate and puerh aromas were pretty well tied in strength and if I had not read about the roasted chicory in this I think I would gave missed it. It makes for an inky dark cuppa.

This resteeps very well indeed. If you have been disappointed in the past by chocolate in tea that wasn’t rich or natural enough, this might heal your wound.