3242 Tasting Notes
I am finishing my sample from Teavivre. I think either this one or the Dragon Pearls will be going on my order, probably the DP.
I couldn’t sleep because I am achey so I got out of bed to make a cuppa. Four ounces into this tea I am nodding. Good stuff. Good night, all!
I haven’t had this one in about a year, but I am on a bit of a green and white tea kick so I gave it a go today. The leaves are large and straight so I compensated by adding a bit extra. Steeped in 175 degree water for 2 1/2 minutes.
This is so very different from Snow Dragon. Where it was light and sweet, very subtle, this green is more forward. The pomegranate lends a delicious fruity/juicy aroma but doesn’t cover up the taste of the tea by any means. Glad I made a whole pot!
Resteep: much better! I used less water for the resteep because I think there really wasn’t enough leaf first time around. Nutty, with the taste of warm sun on drying hay. Every so slightly astringent now, but not bitter. I gave it about 2 1/2 minutes again. The high melted frost note is still present.
This is so light, I could easily mistake it for a white! The leaves are so long and light that I may have misjudged my leaf amount. It isn’t unpleasant, but I will say it is an extraordinarily subtle cup.
I steeped this for 2 1/2 minutes in 175 degree water. It is very smooth, not grassy or buttery, but perhaps lightly nutty. Like most of my friends! I think of golden fall fields and crisp leaves as I drink it. There is also the taste of melted frost, fresh and clean.
I don’t know – I think I am a bit buttery myself! At least I ate enough butter since Thanksgiving through…now to be composed of at least 66% butter.
LOL! Well, I meant for only the “slightly nutty” part to apply to my friends! We aren’t grassy at all, but I hope we are pretty smoo-oo- th!
A jasmine tea, probably this one, will be going on my order to Teavivre. This is so soothing.
I looked back at my last tasting note and it was a stolen, peaceful moment in the midst of the chaos of a house full of teens, which I love but really, one must rest sometime! Tonight, I needed some soothing “me time” as I couldn’t sleep after the frustration of having to enforce chore time like a drill sergeant. Sigh.
I read once that people think lavender is the most relaxing herb, but that testing showed jasmine to be best for inducing sleep. Oh, I reached for this one, and one sniff of the pouch made my troubled brow uncrease! What a heavenly scent! I am so glad my first experience with bad jasmine black so strong and artificial that it gave me a headache didn’t keep me from trying other jasmine teas, because they are delightful when done well. This one is done well.
All is quiet, the wind is blowing in a cold front making the Buck Stove rattle softly, everyone else is in bed, and I am sprawled on the living room floor with a candle, Chinese flute radio on Pandora, and a whole pot of liquid tranquility.
The green tea is light. I steeped for less than two minutes and I think it could go longer. There is a slight drying of the tongue but absolutely no bitterness. This is smooth and comforting.
Thank you, Angel and Teavivre. Tonight you are my sanity. :)
I have no idea what happened to this tea today. Youngest was doing all the tea making, as usual, and the one other time we had this, she and our guest both loved it, as did I.
Today, it was bitter, bitter, BITTER! my guest has never ever poured out a tea before, not even puerh, which she doesn’t like and we have served twice before, but this one went down the drain.
Perhaps the puppies distracted the barista?
WOW….poured it out…this is one of their top shelf teas too!
I am sure it was our fault! My last tasting note on it said everyone loved it! I feel certain it was badly oversteeped, which is unusual because my youngest daughter typically makes all the tea party tea and she has never made a bad pot before. The little family of three week old puppies may have been too cute to ignore. I will blame them for ruining the tea!
You can salvage bitter teas with citrus juices and honey.
Good to know! I knew milk would help reduce bitterness. I had some Meyer lemons and we have tons of honey. If only I had known then, we could have given it a try. I am sure there will be another time!
I would say that dairy is a good way to soften astringency but not so good at correcting bitterness from an over-steep.
Thanks! :)
That’s pretty amazing! O.o Normally Chinese blacks can take an awful lot of abuse before they turn out undrinkable. I wonder what went wrong for her… A combination of factors, perhaps.
We did it. Well, mostly, youngest did it. After I bought two tins in rapid succession, I caved and bought her the one pound bag. It is now officially gone!
The last pot saved the day for us today, because something went badly wrong with the steeping of the tea I was really looking forward to and it was horrible! But this one stepped in with its lovely, smooth profile and rich vanilla taste. The final tea of tea party today, and the final pot until I order from Harney and Sons again. I bought youngest a tin of Rishi Vanilla a few weeks ago, but it wasn’t up to snuff in her opinion, so Harney it is.
Thank goodness I have some Vanilla Comoro to tide her over.
Okay, I was tired of seeing all the comments of people who grew up on this tea and had fond memories of it while I had yet to try it. I finally remembered to toss it in the basket tonight while shopping.
When I opened the pouch that the teabag comes in, the aroma was arresting. It reminded me of the instant Russian tea people used to mix as Christmas gifts when I was a kid.
I am so glad I read the package instructions. They say to steep for one to two minutes. Had I not read that, I would have gone five for sure. Since it was my first time drinking it, I compromised and steeped it for about one and a half minutes. Two would have been fine, thoug it was good where I stopped it.
I can see how this tea evokes nostalgia. It is very smooth. The orange flavor is very nice, and though it smelled strongly of clove, which is sometimes too strong a spice for me, it actually has just the right amount. Thank you to all the Steepsterites who kept mentioning this bagged variety. I am very glad to own it! Do I get some sort of initiation into a Constant Comment Club? Or at least the Cheapster Steepsters? LOL!
Hahaha! Bigelow had a tea I drank years ago called Plantation Mint. Really liked it and probably still would
I have not had this one in years….. It used to be my fancy tea! LOL!
You can join… but the T-shirts are on back order. I drank this for years and apparently never read the directions. I always steeped it for 5 minutes… IF I even bothered taking the bag out. ha.
Ha ha we called that friendship tea growing up. Isn’t made with instant ice tea tang clove and nutmeg. My wife was given a bag at church at Christmas…i might have to try this instead
Oh, I remember the Tang stuff. It was nasty!
Yes,DJBooth, that is the recipe I remember! My mother hated it because way way back she went to the home of someone who had a baby and they had a pail full of dirty, smelly diapers soaking in the house,, and they were made her some of that tea. She could never separate the smell of that tea from dirty diapers again!
We are honoured that you have joined us. :)
I ordered a sample of this long ago and saved it for someday, when I would have a Yixing pot. Someday has come! We made this for tea party today, probably six or seven steeps, and it was very good. I have yet to find a oolong as arresting as Wild Forest from Southern Season, but this was very enjoyable and my guest really liked it. That says a lot, as she didn’t used to drink anything at all but black tea.
The girls and I had tea lunch today, not to be confused with rat lunch which is grilled cheese sandwich and tea! Tea lunch is when we have a fancy lunch together at the tea table!
Since we always did Ceylons with such a meal because that was the one tea that everyone in the family liked, I revisited this one. Unfortunately, I lost track of the steep time amidst all the cooking, but it still came out fairly well. The dry leaves are much smaller than the leaves of Ceylon Extra Fancy from the same company.
The aroma is lemony, very lemony. The cup has all the roundness of a Ceylon but this is also very malty. With food when it was piping hot, it was perfect, but as it cooled and I was sipping it by itself the maltiness took on a bitter edge. I added milk to combat that effect.
This pot of tea was less than stellar, but next time I will not only set a timer but perhaps cut back on the steep time a little, due to the small size of the broken leaves. It can be a very good tea when made properly!
I’ve had Vithanakande that had long slender leaves with a white stripe along the sides of most of the leaves…….very tippy, round, smooth, somewhat creamy, and delicious-with no bitterness. It did require a 4 to 5 minute steep as I recall. It was probably a different grade:
This was around 3 or 4 years ago from another vendor, and it was at least 1/2 the price! I think that price, linked above, is too much.
This is more like it:
http://www.harney.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=3741&category=0&secondary=871
I only paid about $3.75 an ounce for this. The leaves are super skinny and average 1/2 inch long, though some are smaller and some are as long as 3/4 inch.
