3254 Tasting Notes
Youngest gave me the set of four teas from Thinkgeek for Christmas.
I steeped for about 2 1/2 minutes at 175 degrees. The liquor is pretty dark for a green, a nice, light orange. The jasmine is very subtle. The green base is pretty smooth with grassy/hay notes. It is only the slightest bit drying, though that may change as it cools. An enjoyable tea!
I am so glad that I have this on order and it is on its way. I still have enough of my sample to make it one or two more times, but I do NOT want to run out!
I made this in glass for the first time because I wanted to watch the pretty pearls open up. The container was very large, though, and I think I underestimated how much water I was pouring in. The tea looked very pale, but it was still delicious. I resteeped right away with a lot less water and combined the two steeps. I am getting the glass teapot from purepuer.com especially for this tea and Teavivre’s flowering teas.
This has been a perfect tea for today. It is sunny and about seventy degrees outside, the windows are open, and the girls and I have a tea tray in the middle of the bed on my big fluffy down comforter so we can sit in the cross breeze to do our afternoon reading and have tea and cookies. Feeling very blessed.This is a sample from AmyOh! Thank you, Amy!
I don’t recall if I have ever had a flavored oolong. This one has a lot of fruity aroma in the dry leaf. The silken bag is big, giving the leaves a lot of room to expand, but I knew I was going to want to drink a lot of this, so I snipped a corner of the bag and poured the leaves into my tiny teapot. Steeped 3 1/2 minutes in 195 degree water. The leaves have expanded but not to the degree some oolongs do. This is just as well if you are using the bag.
The tea is fragrant, but I don’t feel like I am drinking a mainstream flavored beverage. The character of the oolong is strong and the flavors are dancing with the tea. (Thank you, GGMathis for first putting that image in my mind.) The tea base is lightly drying and the coconut really adds a creamy, sweet character to this.
I have resteeped with the same temp water and added 30 seconds. Color is still light orange. Flavor is still good. I knew this little bag was going to resteep for me!
Thank you, Amy!
This is another lovely sample from Teavivre. I have reviewed it before, so I will keep this short and just say that it is a mild white tea. Later steeps becoming a tiny bit drying, cleansing the palate. The wet leaves smell like the first freshly cut grass of springtime.
Do you ever fantasize about drinking tea and then have trouble finding something that makes you feel the way you wanted to feel? I do. But tonight I wanted some tea and this one has far exceeded my tea fantasies.
I decided to do a ittle gong fu brewing with hubby joining in. Oh my! The leaves smelled amazingly good when I opened the pouch. I did rinse the leaves quickly, maybe ten seconds. I don’t think that is really necessary with this one. The first steep was light yellow and lightly buttery with vegetal tones. I resteeped, and resteeped, and resteeped. The third steep was darker than the first two.
Now on the sixth some amazing things are happening in this tea. There is a mineral quality coming out, and a lingering cool finish rather like the feeling I get when I drink something with licorice root in. It caresses and coats the throat. There is that same quality that made me fall for Wild Forest Oolong, though this is lighter.I am so glad I ordered their Tie Guan Yin with organic honey. If it is anything like this one, I am in for some highly satisfying tea times.
We had this with lunch today. With our food, it was rich and chocolate-y, but after the meal the remaining tea seemed to get a tad bitter. I was drinking it plain and youngest added milk and sugar. It could have been my imagination, or just being really sensitive to the change in taste once it was no longer paired with food. I have a hard time with this tea. Sometimes I really like it, sometimes I find it weak, sometimes it is too strong. It is one of the few teas that have that chameleon effect for me.
Since I made Shepherd’s Pie I thought some Shepherd’s Tea would be a fitting pairing!
This is really good! The white tea steeps to a nice light orange color, which always amazes because in my head white tea=almost clear tea. The peach flavor is natural tasting and the bit of licorice root is really, really nice.
Thank you, GMATHIS, for this surprise tea that came to my house day before yesterday! :)
There was a great temptation to crawl back into bed this morning, but I had bought some lamb and needed to get Shepherd’s Pie made. Once the puppies had finished ravaging my kitchen, I decided to get it going before I could change my mind. I thought this tea from GMATHIS might help me stay on track and not slip away to the soft, soft down comforter and all those pillows…oh, wait, this is called Focus, right?
So I took a sip. Nice! I taste the tea, and there is the chocolate-y orange-y flavor nicely present but not masking the base. I don’t know if I have ever had chicory, so I am not sure if I am picking it up, but I do taste a touch of the mate. I would swear I taste a hint of something Ike cardamom. Is that the chicory?
Thank you, GMathis, for a lovely new tea to start my day with today!
Om nom nom shepherd’s pie! When do we eat?
Wish you could join us! We would finish the pie and have tea and cookies! :)
Is mashed potatoes an essential ingredient in shepherd’s pie? This is weird, I know, but I will eat potatoes any way except mashed (I always use “it’s a texture thing” excuse).
Hmmm, I have never heard of shepherd’s pie without mashed potatoes, but I don’t see why you couldn’t do a variation. Why ot top it with the hash brown sort? Or even very thin rounds of potato like in Potatoes Anna?
Yes, shepherd’s pie is layered. You’ve got your meaty saucy bit at the bottom and then mashed potatoes as a pie ‘lid’ with some shredded cheese on and then bake the lot. If you left the mashed potatoes out, you’d only have half the dish. You could make the bottom layer and use it as a meat sauce on regular potatoes instead I suppose. Or better yet, bake it into a real pie shell. :) It just wouldn’t be shepherd’s pie anymore.
I vaguely remember my mom doing something similar with canned biscuits on top. (Off to research recipes. My starting-all-over recipe notebook has exactly three in it.)
