Deckan Coffee Co.

Oooh…I’m starting to be able to taste jasmine again. That has been one of the flavors that I haven’t been able to taste for the last few days. It’s just barely there, but I can really smell it. I’m overleafing so maybe I can taste something. So it’s just barely there, but it’s good. I have gotten all this new tea lately and I’m not drinking any of it because it just seems like a waste. I’ve still got some of these local teas that I might as well drink up now, right?

I wish I had something stronger here at work, though, higher in the caffeine. I went to robotics after work, and we didn’t get home until almost midnight. And then the coughing started back up for me, after not much coughing during the day for the first time in a while. Yeah, so not much sleep. I don’t have much hope for the day here at work being an easy one, either, because we’re down half of our team, and we just released a new version of our software.

But I came into work early so I could leave early. I’m headed back out to robotics because it’s the FIRST Robotics Michigan State Championships. I’ve been a key volunteer at four events this season, so I took this one off. I just was asked to come as early as I can today because they need me. I guess it’s good to be wanted, but I was kind of looking forward to not being responsible for anything. Ah well.

But I can taste jasmine!

Being all stuffed up and drinking this one out of a travel mug with lid on it just doesn’t work. I took the sip top off and it really helps a lot. I still can’t quite smell it right, but it’s getting there. This tastes fine, but one needs to be able to breathe in the scent to really get the full effect of the jasmine.

I now have a bunch of new teas in my cupboard, and here I am with an old, familiar friend. I now have an absolutely horrid cough going on; I’m worried it’s pertussis. I just wanted something I know, something warm and comfortable. This tea is it.

It’s nice having an old stand by to get me through the day. I think I’m on my fifth infusion of this one for today. I just need enough something – caffeine, comfort, something – to get me through the day. Another conference call, and then I’m off to robots for the weekend.

You should see how much the leaves have grown and expanded in my infusion basket. A small layer of pearls at the bottom of the basket now takes up the whole thing. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy pearls.

I’m drinking this one again. Those other teas better show up soon so I have something different for my tasting notes. My Teavivre order was lost at the post office and when I contacted them, they’re reshipping it. My Yunomi order isn’t here yet. My Tea Company samples aren’t here yet. I keep ordering from Red Leaf Tea because I can get a new matcha delivered in a couple of days. (Seriously, I ordered on Sunday night after resisting the on sale Belgium chocolate all weekend, and it will be delivered today. Yay!)

I drank an iced matcha on my way to work – not the wisest choice with my allergies causing all kinds of throat irritation. When I got here, I immediately made myself a mug of this, and then joined my conference call. It ran over by a lot. 2 mugs of tea and a 16oz iced matcha. Yes, I needed the call to end because I was doing the dance in my desk chair.

This tea did calm my throat nicely, and I love how floral it is. It resteeps very nicely as well, so once I was finished in the ladies’ room, I immediately started on my second mugful.

And this tea is one that I find relaxing. I don’t know why. It definitely is helping me calmly deal with the stress of a major work issue that we identified this morning in our just release product. Oops.

Nice and jasminey. I enjoyed a couple of infusions, but my tummy is not playing nice. Acid reflux is kicking up again so I stopped drinking this and moved onto something I thought might be a little more soothing….

I really need the teas I’ve ordered to show up already! I’m drinking the same few over and over and over.

But I really like this one. This is a cold steep again, that I left overnight last night. I meant to pour it into a class this morning and completely spaced on it, so it’s been in the fridge for about 24 hours now. Surprisingly still really good. The jasmine still comes through, not bitter or astringent.

I did another cold steep of this one in my new ForLife Mist tea pitcher. The pitcher works really well. (I’m very excited to have this.)

The pearls didn’t open as much this time as they have previously when I did a cold steep. I may try another infusion with them to see what happens. The tea itself has a delicious jasmine taste that I’m just loving right now.

I’m drinking this one hot today. I love the jasmine in it, that I feel becomes more pronounced with each steeping. 1:15 to start, increased by 15-30 seconds each additional steeping. I only did 5 total today because I’ve got too much to do.

I did a cold steep with this, about 4 hours. It turned out beautifully. Very pale green in color.

This was the end of the tea I had. Just a little more than what I needed for a mugful, so I added it in. Plus, it was dusty being the end of the packet. I will leave it in my cupboard because I love genmaicha in general, so I’ll probably go get some more of this next time I’m at the grocery.

I love the way genmaicha smells while steeping.

I slept like crud last night, and had an early conference call this morning. Fortunately, I could be on said call in my jammies at home. With a mug of genmaicha. The timer went off while the call was connecting, so I had a mug for the whole conversation. It made that so much easier to deal with.

Toasty rice, grassy green, delicious. Comforting. Warm. Happy thoughts.

There was more sediment in this mug than normal, but it was totally expected being as it was the last of the packet and I was not awake enough to avoid the dust. In fact, I was having trouble getting the rest of the rice, so I just dumped. Yes, I know, I shouldn’t do that, but I needed tea for this call, so dump I did.

I had no time for breakfast as I’m working on a critical client issue (They eff’d up by not following the directions, said issue was a medium, neglected to mention client deliverable, never upped it from a medium, and now the sky is falling and it’s my fault for not jumping on this right away.)

Anyway, this felt like I was getting more than just tea, even though I’m not. Now I think we’ve got things figured out and I might have time for lunch.

I love the toastiness of this one. Yummy.

I enjoy this tea. Today it’s tasting better to me than last time I had it. I’m not sure why. It’s comforting. Feeling nice and toasty this morning.

It has a nice, nutty flavor that I enjoy. Today I have steeped it several times from 1:15 for a first steep to 2:45, upping by about 15 seconds on the first few and 30 on the last one. There’s more rice in this one than in the picture, although I think that has varied from purchase to purchase of this one. Deckan is a local company that sells to my local, family owned grocery store in bulk, and then I buy it there to support two local companies.

Thank you LiberTEAS for sharing a sample of this with me.
Its a solid english breakfast that is helping me shake the fog brain this morning.

WOOO!!! It’s the weekend! Sorry for any of you who work weekends, but surely you get some form of weekend or time off or you atleast make alot of money because you work so much and your happy about your days off or all the money you make and I will be happy for you, but right now it’s my weekend…. A HOLIDAY WEEKEND, and so I’m elated, not to mention that I can finally do some tasting notes (deep breath of air), which I’ve been too busy to do all week.
Now that that’s out of the way…

I want to thank LiberTEAS for this sample that I was very glad made it into my sample box. The dry leaf smelled like something I would eat for breakfast-sweet and syrupy. The color of this tea was a deep redish brown. I can’t seem to make out in my hand written note what the wet leaf smelled like though.

The first few sips I got a strong woody/walnut impression that leaned toward, but not quite, malty. Within a few sips I started to detect the buttery sweet notes that would end up being present throughout. I was second geussing myself as to whether it was a floral sweetness or not, so I won’t commit either way.Then came the malty! I’m not overly excited about malty tea, but this one has a great balance of malt/wood/sweet worth noting. There’s enough malt to give it more depth, yet still allow it to be a sweet gulper once it’s cool enough. It’s got a little dryness, but not bitter at all, and there’s a woody aftertaste with just a little sweetness mixed in.

All in all, a fine cuppa and a wonderful suggestion by LiberTEAS.

Thank you LiberTEAS for this sample!

This tea has plenty of great qualities. Its thick, savory and sweetly smoky. The aroma rising up from the wet leaves, is that of delicious collard greens (of which I LOVE). The liquid is thick and has only a slight dry astringent aftertaste.

The only other discovery after the leaves unfurl – several of the leaves are broken in half. This doesn’t seem to distract or diminish the quality of taste.

Very lovely tea!

Wow! Loving this breakfast blend… although I don’t think it’s actually a blend … I think it’s pure Nigiri. It is rich and flavorful, smooth, malty and absolutely delicious. A lovely tea that manages to find the balance between invigorating-get-up-and-go-ness and slow-down-and-enjoy-the-deliciousness.

An outstanding breakfast tea.

Oh yeah! My Lemon NuStevia Test worked! Check this out
http://blissfulyogajourney.blogspot.com/
The last two entries! AND the contest is up!!!! I will try to include this link with each post today for those who might see my occasional tasting note or two :)

I hope you’ll enter!

This is really good! Like…REALLY good! I’m going to have several cups today!

It’s a bit smoky without being ‘gunpowder-esque’ I suppose but it’s incredibly smooth and pretty sweet even.

I’m going to try this one again with a little Lemon but with a twist! I’m actually going to blog about this lemon product HERE
http://blissfulyogajourney.blogspot.com/
Be sure to check it out because I’ll be running a contest, too!!!!

Wow! This is remarkable. This is truly a unique green tea, quite unlike any other that I’ve tasted. It is perhaps the smokiest green tea that I’ve tried, and the smoke element gives this a pleasing savory quality. The union of rich green tea flavors together with the smoke is quite delicious, lightly sweet and very savory … Definitely a must try, in my opinion!

One last cup before sending the rest off to friends…tea friends ROCK :)

Started my day with 3 cups of this! Very nice! See previous notes :)