Luka Te m.m.

Grinnyguy posted about Earl Grey. I got a fit of inspiration even though Earl Grey is normally not my first choice. Most days I find it kind of dull and every day-ish. Maybe a little overrated as a type. Classics don’t seem to hold much appeal to me.

It’s got a strong bergamot smell. That slightly bitter citrus-y smell that I’m learning to recognise. Kind of sweet, but not the way oranges are, and it’s not a bitterness like the kind you find in grapefruits. It’s sort of prickly and when you know what you’re looking for, probably fairly easily recognisable.

Apart from when I’m at Lexitus’, the last time I had Earl Grey was a few weeks ago when I was at the cafe and they gave me the wrong tea. I remember finding that one rather too bitter and smelling strongly of citrus as soon as I poured. This one is very much more controlled when it comes to citrus scent. It’s there, clearly, when you smell it, but it doesn’t invade your nostrils when your nose is an arm’s length away.

Citrusy, but not sour and without making you feel like it might as well have been a lemon tea. It’s got just a touch of bitterness on the swallow, but not nearly as much as the presumed Kusmi had. Of course I haven’t brewed this as strongly as they did that day in the cafe.

As for the cornflowers, I can’t pick them out in the flavour, so I don’t know if they actually have any effect on it at all, or if they’re just there for show. I like to think that they smooth it out some, but even if they are just there for show though, I’d still get this version. Just because they’re pretty.

My local shop beats Kusmi by several horse lenghts.

Weird, that I’ve never logged this! I really thought the entire supply had been logged at least once. This has caused the boyfriend to call me a slacker, so in return I’ll inform you that he’s conducted his first experiment with rooibos in non-bagged form. I got rid of all my rooibos’ by inflicting them on him. Apparently it’s something that will require some further experimentation.

Anyway, back to the tea at hand. The dry leaves smell sweet and flowery, and I’m not for a moment in doubt that it’s a tea with additives. It’s a darkish brew and it smells like Earl Grey with a floral note on top. No surprises there.

Supposedly this is like a normal Earl Grey but with a creamy aftertaste, and on that count I’ll have to say Earl Grey yes. Aftertaste no. Not really. Not very much anyway. I’ve never been very good with Earl Greys. I’ve never really been able to truly pick up the citrus, unless it’s really bad and synthetic like some I could mention. Therefore I can’t really say how well this blend is in Earl Grey standards, but after some careful tasting, I can find a small note of citrus.

On the basis that I can form an opinion of it, I’ll say a nice, solid black with a floral tone to it and a discreet citrus-y note, and on THAT form, it’s a nice tea. Compared with other Earl Greys I don’t know if it would live up to the rating.

Ah dessert!

Once upon a time it had little caramel bits in it too, making it even sweeter and caramel-ier than it is now. Those bits aren’t there anymore, because… I may possibly have accidentally kind of a little bit eaten them, but totally not on purpose. Or something.

Only one more serving of this left too, I think. Problem with that is that every time I think there’s just the one pot left and I make that, there always seem to be leaves enough left for one more pot…

I’m pretty likely to get another caramel tea when this one is out. But I think I’ll try to find one somewhere else and broaden my horizon a bit. It’s not one of those that I must replace urgently.

(“Sporadic presence,” she said… Ha!
You are thinking it, Steepsterites. You know you are.)

I’m apparently all about the caramel these days. Luckily it’s in my to be rid of pile, but clearly I had more of it than I thought.

It makes me wonder if I might not miss it after all when it runs out.

Hey, my supermarket have new do-it-yourself check outs! I scanned all my stuff myself and paid and everything. Great fun! It takes remarkably little to entertain me, but that’s probably just because I’m not doing it 7½ hours every day five days a week.

I thought that called for some small amount of celebration, but since I’m on a strict mission to get through the pile of Teas To Be Finished Off, the dearly beloved pai mu tan is currently off limits. Luckily I had this caramel tea which I put in the pile not because it was almost out but more because I had completely forgotten I had it.

A rediscovery. It should do just fine. Using the steep.it site I’ve given it 4½ minutes. The label says 5-6 minutes but I thought 5 last night was a bit rough, so we’re going for a slightly weaker route today. It’s not as rich on the caramel and a little watery, so I’m not sure I like this weaker version better than the slightly rough five minutes steep.

Still though, based on how much I found I enjoyed it last night, although I didn’t post about it, I gave it a small nudge upwards on the rating.

Yeah, I know I just said ‘Pai Mu Tan for the rest of the evening’ a little while ago. But then Mike went and logged that caramel tea of his, and whenever he does that, I want a cup of mine. It NEVER fails, it’s totally contagious right out through the internet and the monitor and everything.

And the weird thing is, mine really just kind of mediocre… Yeah, I don’t get it either but there you are.

I think I’ve managed to make it a wee bit better today than usual though. I just made a little cup, but there is some more caramelly flavour than usual on top of the tea flavour, so I gave the rating a notch upwards.

Good morning, Steeperites. Or… just… morning.

It’s one of THOSE mornings, shaping up to be one of THOSE days due to it already having been one of THOSE nights. Woke up no less than three times and couldn’t remember what day it was, so I had to get up and check. My eyes have been runny all night and now feel full of grit. I don’t know why that happens, it doesn’t appear to have any particular trigger, it just happens every now and then. So I get up this morning and troll about the internet for a bit. Twice, I’ve closed the browser instead of closing a tab. Clearly tea is, at this point badly needed, so I go and put some water on to boil and fill the pot with hot tap water. The hot water here gets ridiculously hot after having run for a bit, making washing up a chore reminiscent of punishment, so I don’t even have to boil twice. I then forgot I had filled the pot with that water and added two spoonfuls of tea leaves to it. I even had a few seconds of trying to remember how come they weren’t falling to the bottom of the pot.

And it’s only 9 o’clock… cue ominous music

I thought black and sweet would be the way to go here, so I made me a pot of this caramelly stuff. I have resisted the temptation (nearly) to eat (too many of) the little caramel squares in the tea, so it shouldn’t be (too badly) out of balance.

Ah, not to sweet and ever so slightly astringent. Possibly dreadfully oversteeped, but it doesn’t seem to be completely ruined. I can feel the day improving already.

Huh. It would appear that I’m currently following 70 Steepster accounts. 70! Looking at my dashboard page I think we can reach the conclusion that some of those must be inactive and I probably ought to clean it up a bit.

Anyway, I chose this tea during my little ‘accident’ yesterday because ever since last sunday when my boyfriend was here and we had this awesome caramel ice cream that totally tasted like childhood, I’ve been slightly obsessed with all things caramel.

The dry leaves smell heavily of caramel and it has tiny cubes of actual caramel in it. There is a very big risk that I’m going to offset the entire balance of this by uhm eating them. (I tasted one, they’re yummy!)

Strangely enough, where I found the two other black teas I bought lighter in colour than I had expected, this is just the opposite. It’s darker than I expected. A little darker than maple syrup. Granted it’s slightly oversteeped, but still.

The smell is not as sickly sweet as you might have expected. Or at least I did. It smells like caramel and not so much of tea, but still not completely overwhemingly sweet.

Strangely enough, this tastes more like tea than it does of caramel. I was expecting something sweet and smooth and instead I got something lightly astringent and with a rough sort of flavour that makes me wonder what it’s based on. It just say chinese and ceylon tea, so it could be anything. The caramel is there, but it’s like it’s caramel without sugar. It’s good enough, but it’s not really what I was expecting. I’m thinking a bit of sugar might bring out the caramel more but even as I’m missing the sweetness, I’m strangely reluctant to test it.

As mentioned, though, it was a bit oversteeped, so not doing that might make a difference. I’ll try that the next time and possibly adjust my rating accordingly

Slightly backlogged. I had a pot of this while wrapping the last christmas gifts, getting tangled up in the stupid ribbon, hopefully not mislabeling anything and packing and re-packing my suitcase because it didn’t fit. Why did I buy such heavy and large gifts???

Great for an up-and-at-’em tea, though. I probably should have made it earlier, I might have got something done of my todo list…

Ah Chun Mee, the green tea I really wanted yesterday. Remembered that today and made me a small pot.

I like the leaves in this one and how they’re twisted. They’re cute!

I’m currently waiting for the second infusion to steep. It’s very light in colour compared to the first one, but it’s nice all the same. I’m not sure how many steeps I think it’s possible get out of this one though. I think maybe one or two others, but the first time around was definitely the best.

(Additionally, is one of you trying to add me as a chatbuddy on Gmail? I’ve posted my email address freely here a few times, but I can’t think of anywhere else someone might have come across it as I use a different address for other things.
Anyway, if it’s one of you, could you drop me a comment, please? Otherwise I’ll just say no. I’d rather not have random strangers on my chat list….)

ARGH! All these posts about the funky Adagio flavours that no sane person could have thought up are so jealousy-inducing. I went back and checked when I made my one and only Adagio order and that was in June. And it’s only the Tie Kuan Yin that I don’t have any more of. (That stuff never lasts long around these parts) I want so desperately to try those new flavours. If I shop really really really seldomly, like twice a year tops, I can defend placing the odd Adagio order, right?

And yes, I know they have a European store too, but they have a very small selection, so that’s a good place for stocking up on well-known favourites. But not really much else.

Second steep of this now. And I’m going with literature on this one, and giving it a four minutes steep. I’m a bit worried that I’ve ruined the leaves with the long steep this morning, but there’s only one way to find out.

Nice and golden colour this time around, but the aroma seems a bit sour. A bit stewed, you know? The flavour doesn’t seem to have taken any damage, though. Bit weak but I suppose that’s only to be expected considering the way I’ve treated these leaves.

Supplier suggests a steeping time of 8-10 minutes on this. Up to TEN MINUTES on a green tea? One that literature tells me will get crazy bitter if oversteeped? And one that same literature suggests 3-4 minutes on? Now what am I supposed to think here?

In the interest of proving the shop wrong once and for all, I gave it nine minutes. It’s a dark yellowy brown in a highly suspicious sort of way, but there’s nothing wrong with the aroma. Lots of kick in that.

Still, I’m a bit scared to try this out.

Okay, it’s not undrinkable, but it’s clear that it’s so not been brewed optimally either. I’m picking up a note of salt here and a lot of nuttyness. There’s a touch of bitterness at the back of the tongue in swallowing which tells me that just 30 seconds more would have turned this undrinkable.

I would definitely trust the literature on this one and steep for no more than four minutes for an optimal brew.

It will be interesting to see if I can resteep this successfully or if I’ve just managed to ruin the leaves.

Second steep is very similar to the longer one of the first round. Bit more spicy though. And it goes quite nicely with this pear I’m having for breakfast.

Okay, first of all, WTF? I could have sworn that Chun Mee was a chinese tea. This prompted me to look through my books on the subject and it would appear that Chun Mee originally came from the Jiangxi province and has since spread to the rest of China. It’s produced in Yunnan now, for example. So why shouldn’t it have spread to Taiwan as well, just like Gunpowder? But it just still feels weird to me that it’s not chinese.

The name means ‘precious eyebrow’, and apparently refers to the way the leaves are twisted. I don’t know, they don’t look very eyebrowish to me, but there you are. They have a nice dusty green colour and the aroma is sweet but not very strong.

In the cup it gets a nice yellow colour. The shop recommended an 8-10 minutes steeping time which I just couldn’t make myself do, especially since my literature warned me that if oversteeped this is a tea that can get devilishly bitter, so I took the first cup after about the usual 4-5 minutes and let the rest continue to stew. It had the same sweet but vague smell that was kind of difficult to find, like the harder you breathed in the more it just sort of slipped around your nose. This did not change significantly with increased steeping time.

I have to say that the first cup did have a relatively weak feel to it, but it was still a full bodies sort of flavour. It was a bit astringent and it had that prickly sort of taste that I personally think of as what they mean with ‘spicyness’ in tea. With increased steeping time it turned a bit more astringent and developed a more sour sort of after taste which went on forever and ever. Not sour like in a lemon, more like sour like in a cup of coffee that has gone cold.

The Gunpowder Blend that I had yesterday had that same sort of aftertaste to it, and I’m nearly certain that they must have used Chun Mee for that blend. And seriously proud of my self for having figured this out too.

I think I definitely preferred the slightly weaker one of the two cups I had, and I think it must also have a couple more steeps left in it.

Look what I found!

Let’s revisit the story of this tea, shall we? I used to get this from Luka, the local shop where I live, but as I was pretty much the only person interested in smokies they took it off the shelf. When I was told this, they let me buy the lot of what they had left which turned out to be some 600g or so. I was then promised that when that ran out, if I wanted some more, I could just let them know and they would make sure to get something for me then next time they ordered from their supplier.

You know, I’m thinking when I’ve had this again (and when I’ve actually got some spending money again, can we has pay day soon?) maybe I will stop in at that shop and see if the offer still stands. It might be nice to have some of it back again.

It’s been so long since I’ve had it I’d pretty much forgotten all the details of it, but then the first sip was of something so extremely familiar (well it would have to be, wouldn’t it, having got through a whole pound!) that I just fell right back into it.

I’ve made it a bit strong this morning, but I’m probably steeping considerably shorter than I used to do when I had it last, so there should be more steeps in it than I remember. Plan is to keep going at this one for the better part of the day.

It’s turned into something oddly dual layered. There’s the pang of prickly lapsang smoke and underneath that the heartier blend of green and english breakfast with the sweeter notes of LS. The bottom layer is all thick and viscous and it feels like there might actually be milk in it, even though there isn’t.

I have to say I recall it being more evenly blended, but then again, who knows how long those leaves have been hiding at the back of that cupboard and I’m not brewing the exact same way anymore either.

Whoa! I’ve ‘unfollowed’ a LOT of Steepsterites today. Many of them people who have gone inactive or who had seemingly decided not to follow me. In many many cases both. But also some others. I just want to make it quite clear that there is nothing at all personal involved in the people I’m dropping. It’s merely a case of trying to re-invent the way I use the site.

It’s a lengthy and honestly rather tedious process (that I have, I admit, brought on myself by initially trying to follow literally everybody with one or two exceptions), but I’m down to 814 now. Not nearly done, but I’ve got two whole pages now of people I’ve decided to keep. And at this point I’m realising that instead of clicking and unfollowing people one by one, it might have been easier to just unfollow everybody and re-add the ones I wanted to keep instead. Bit late for that now, though, so we’re plodding onwards.

For this purpose I of course need a good strong tea, preferably a smoky and one I know so well that I don’t have to put a lot of thought into drinking it. Enter Black Powder. I have this at work every day. It’s my work tea, which is also why I rarely have it at home anymore. It’s perfect for work really and because it’s smoky most people make this face o.O and I get to keep it for myself. (I do at the moment have one curious colleague though, but she’s not yet finished gathering courage for it. I’ve told her she’s welcome to dive into the tin/pot whenever she feels ready for it. I hope she’ll like it. )

I’m actually on second steep now. The smoother, slightly sweeter, but still very smoky one. I can’t remember if I’ve ever tried a third steep of it or what the result was if I did, but it would appear that today might very well be the day.

Seems I’ve generally had pretty good tea luck recently. Lots of yummy stuff.

I have learned something crucial about this tea today. It can handle a magnificent oversteep relatively well.

My colleague made tea for me, but when she does, she just pours the water on and expects me to remove the filter bag myself after an appropriate steeping time. This is very easy when she makes it without telling me until half an hour later when she comments on the fact that I hadn’t taken any yet. Well no, I didn’t have time yet. And it took some two hours more before I had.

As is my habit, I always taste it before tossing it away, and while it is definitely strong and definitely astringent, it’s not bitter and it’s not at all undrinkable. It’s far from optimal, but it’s tolerable. It gained a coffeeish side-flavour which I’m not all that fond of, but it wasn’t completely ruined.

That’s good to know in other similar emergencies.

Yes, it’s just the good ol’ Gunpowder Blend that I recently bought serious amounts of. I edited the name of it because ‘Gunpowder Blend’ was a direct translation from the danish name ‘Krudtblanding’. ‘Krudt’ = ‘Gunpowder’ as in the stuff you use to shoot a firearm. Although the blend contains a green tea I don’t think the green tea in question is actually Gunpowder as in the green tea, but the name of the blend as I had first translated it led to a number of very understandable misunderstandings. So after consulting a number of internet sites I found this alternative name for gunpowder as in the explosive stuff. Therefore I changed the name.

I know I added some to the TTB so if someone could correct it there too it would be awesome. Please?

Anyway, my flat is Procrastination Central today. I’m working on something that requires brain activity SHOCK! HORROR! and I’m still feeling like I could hibernate for the entire day like I did yesterday.

Pick-me-up is needed, so I made me a big cup of this, and on a whim, added some milk. I can’t remember if I’ve tried it with milk before, but I think I have and I seem to remember it having drowned out some of the green tea in it.

I’m not really getting that this time. First part of the sip was all green, and then immediately after that came the smokeyness. Underneath it all the English Breakfast component is going all ‘YAY MILK!’ which is rather weird for me because I hardly ever drink anything with milk except the pumpkin pie blend from 52teas.com or the pot of Assam my colleague and I share at the cafe we like. I don’t think that I would want to take this with milk always though. It seems kind of like a luxury that should be spared for just occasional events, especially considering that I think it’s also awesome without the milk.

It does really bring out the sweetness from the green tea. I would never otherwise EVER add milk to any tea that wasn’t black, but I think the effect that I’m getting here has something to do with previously mentioned EB component.

It’s a bit like the three components start vying for my attention. The green tea is all suave going “I’m sweeeeeeeeeeeet and buttery!” and the EB is going “I’m smooth and milky and sensible!” and the Lapsang Souchong is getting all bouncy and eager and going “I’m here too! Smokey! Me! Me-me-me-me-me!!!”

It’s kinda cute, actually.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! After the sadness of using the last of this yesterday, I have today been fortunate enough to leave work some 3½ hours early due to extreme boredom. By around noon we had received the grand total of ONE sample, so we drew lots on who got to leave early.

On the way home, I stopped in at my local shop in the intention of stocking up on this one. I have stocked up. BOY, have I stocked up!!! O.o Turns out I’m pretty much the only person who buys it, so they took it off the shelf to be discontinued. They had some half of a sales tin left of it in the back, and the guy made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He let me buy the lot and when that runs out, all I have to do is stop in and say, and he’ll order another lb for me the next time they order stuff home AND he promised he would try to get a little discount for me. Everybody say awesomesauce!!

Yeah, I just bought 1½ lbs of tea. Of just one blend. Tin has been filled, Great Big Bag of Tea has been safely stowed away in a suitable place.

And I am celebrating with a cup. Right now.

Rating is already in top, but if it hadn’t been, I’d have given it a notch upwards for awesome customer service.

I have armed myself with my laptop, my atlas and a large cup of this tea (using the very last of my leaves, sadness!).

Guess what I’m doing now.

Christmas shopping is all finished and done (except one thing, Lexitus!) and now I’m in bad need of a cup of this to warm me up again.

I was shocked at how little I had left! Someone must have been nicking it behind my back, it’s just not okay! I should have stocked up on it while I was out anyway. Maybe one small pot’s worth left.

I’ve grown quite addicted to this. A little while ago I had a cup of plain Lapsang Souchong, which I have otherwise loved, and suddenly it just seemed… less. Something was missing. There was just the smokyness and nothing else. I kept catching myself searching for the smoother, stronger base of the green tea and the English Breakfast and it just wasn’t there. Plain Lapsang Souchong just doesn’t cut it anymore, and here I am with nearly 100 g of the stuff.

This, though. This is the stuff. The smoke, the black base, and the green freshness. Yum. It’s great for a cold winter’s day. (And frankly, any other sort of day too)

So I wasn’t around all day yesterday. And when I came home I just tried to check the dashboard, and quickly gave up. I left a comment or two at the boards, but that was it. I’d rather go to bed, so I did. This morning I just took the first page of the dashboard.
If anybody replied to comments I may have left, or if anybody wrote a review that I should totally see, or if you just think you wrote a cool review, or if you reviewed an awesome tea, or if someone else wrote something cool, could you link me, please? Yeah, it’s lazy but… Please?

This morning, uh, okay it’s nearly noon, I’m having a lazy resteep of this from yesterday. It’s the third infusion actually, so it’s gone a bit dull. It’s drinkable, but compared to the first two steeps, it’s just not really holding its own. I’m not giving it a fourth go, but I might just make me a fresh pot of this. I can’t get over how yummy this blend is. It’s just perfect in every way and I wish I could share it with you.

It was after the sweetness on the train ride home, I think. I just needed something now that went KAPOW! at me. (Oh look, punny! I honestly honestly hadn’t even realised until after I wrote it. Honest!) This is the first that came to mind and ARGH! at new Cupboard feature that caused me to put all tins back in the Real Life cupboard instead and organising them so they all fit in the small cupboard. This is not something that involves considerations as to which tins are used more often. It’s a bit of a jigsaw puzzle project. Consequently I just spend some five minutes searching for this particular tin in a rather small cupboard.

Ah yes. This is more like it. The sweet note and the smoky note in perfect balance. When I’m done with the tin I’ve got at work, I’m getting me some more of this to drink there. (I wonder how shocked colleagues will be at the smell of this? Hey, I wonder if I can get any of them to taste it! That could be loads of fun. I think only one of them will like it.)

Kapow indeed. :9

Oh, for crying out loud…! cleans up Lake Tea from the coffee table and living room floor
FYI, if a leaf has settled itself in the spout of the pot and is disrupting the flow of tea through same, don’t just tip the pot a little more in an attempt to compensate. It doesn’t work. And teapot lids are not a tight fit.

This is a resteep of the previous pot, and it’s definitely different. The lapsang souchong is much less pronounced and that elusive sweetness that you find in english breakfast comes out. I’ve always thought that english breakfast had a note of honey, and I’m getting it loud and clear here the second time around. Very insteresting.

I haven’t usually had much success with resteeping of black teas, so I’m thinking that maybe the lapsang souchong carried the blend in the first steep and the green tea in it is taking over here.

I feel so sorry for you that you don’t have my little local shop and especially that you can’t have this particular blend.