Tea Runners

it’s back! I was able to pick up my tea order from Variatea the other day and i’m so happy. Plus i got to drop off a bunch of samples with her to inundate her cupboard haha. Still as delicious as i wanted it to be!

ugh. Sipdown on this one and that makes me sad. They’re sold out of this tea and a number of others i’d like to pick up so i guess i’ll just have to wait…and wait…and wait. Will miss having this one in my cupboard. it was ALMOST like the 213 version from ys i fell in love with.

getting down to the last of this and that makes me sad. I quite enjoy this one!

bumping the rating up on this one as a 4 min steep western makes this even tastier!

Mine. So glad to have a version of this in my cupboard after picking up my order from VariaTEA. This is exactly what i wanted it to be. Is it as wonderful as the 2013 harvest from YS that i feel in love with? No. But it’s got flavour and makes me happy. I officially have too much tea now.

Sipped on mid last week, as a Western style cup. It was so rich and chocolate forward that it was hard to think of anything else besides that slightly bitter (but still very pleasant) fudge quality, though some sips had slight hints of malt and bread and a couple reminded me slightly of roasted peanuts.

Gongfu!

I was super excited to receive a fresh tea sample as part of my gifted August subscription. This is definitely my favourite black tea carried by Tea Runners – the intensely rich full body and absolutely ridiculous amount of natural dark chocolate flavour just blows me away every time I brew it! Aside from the stellar fudge like flavours that dominate the session, I also tend to taste peppered in notes of malt and roasted peanuts – a perfect compliment to such a decadent brew!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CharH5dumqK/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z93KdVfpyMM

From yesterday afternoon!

I forgot I was steeping this, which resulted in a tea that steeped for nearly fifteen minutes. It was still surprisingly drinkable – I think me from seven years ago would absolutely lose their shit watching “current me” polish back a mug of straight, oversteeped black tea as if it was water. I think you really get used to astringency/bitterness over time and actually in many ways I’ve come to crave it in a straight black because otherwise I find that black teas often taste too simple or flat to me. Craaazzzyyy how palates change with time. I used to be so sensitive to bitterness.

This was good – like peppery dark chocolate with bits of malt, dark brown bread with the crusts, and leather. Thanks for the share VariaTEA!

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #14

As I expressed in another tasting note today, I had a stressful/bad day today. So, I wanted to pick something Grandpa style that I could have throughout the afternoon with no fuss. This was what I settled on, but it definitely didn’t make the day any better. The buttery floral orchid and elderflower type notes were welcome but it quickly got very bitter and very astringent quite fast and once that happened I just wasn’t able to recover the cup…

I am not a big fan of Assam teas. They tend to be a little strong and bitter for me. When this one came in my Tearunners package I put it away.

With the weather turning hot I have been doing iced tea. My brother came by and left some lemonade for me. (I was positive for COVID several weeks ago, so couldn’t leave my apartment. My brother drove from Minnesota to North Dakota a couple of times a week to deliver some groceries for me) Being diabetic, I tend to not drink a lot of juice. but a light bulb went off in my head: Arnie Palmer! The tea I had been drinking was a little light, and the flavor didn’t come through. I decided to brew this one up next and use it for the Arnie Palmer. It was perfect at 3 parts tea and 1 part lemonade. Very refreshing!

No worries about Covid. I was certainly sick, but my temp never went over 102. I felt worse in February when I had pneumonia. I was re-tested on Thursday and today got word that I am negative. So, yay!!! I can buy my own groceries again!

I’ve only ever tried flavored puerh before, so I figured I’d try this pure one that was in the tea box. The smell was just so muddy that I had to see what it tasted like. Surprisingly I did kind of like it at first. It matched its scent and was sort of muddy in a pleasing way. I only had two sips the first day, and the second day it tasted more murky and weird. I wish I’d had more the first day since it evolved into something not so pleasant. Anyway, still not for me, but it was interesting, and much better than I had anticipated.