987 Tasting Notes
Backlog – sipdown from earlier this week.
I still can’t get over how this smells like lucky charms marshmallows. However, I’m happy I was able to finish this off since I’m running low on tins. If Anne ever decides to reblend this I may restock it, but I’ll probably only get a taster size, rather than the full 2 ounces.
I got an email from Zen Tea saying they’re having a sale right now, which made it the perfect excuse to start drinking this.
And so far, my hopes have proven correct: this is pretty similar to the Coconut Pouchong offered by Golden Moon Tea! I’m so glad to have found a domestic version.
Now, the big question is: do I really need more of this in my cupboard, considering I have a ridiculous amount of tea already and I’ve got a fairly sizeable Teavivre order coming my way? Hmmmm….
Sipdown!
I really really love this tea – the coconut flavour is so true-to-life without being thick or cloying. I was very happy to have an ounce of this in my cupboard.
However, Golden Moon tea’s shipping options to Canada aren’t the greatest, so I’m going to have to bid this tea farewell. I’m hoping that Zen Tea’s Coconut oolong turns out to be just as good, so I can have a domestic option for such tea deliciousness.
Sil sent me 2 sachets of this in a swap and I drank them both this past weekend. I think they had started to lose their flavour, though, because the spiciness of the dry leaf (sweet, vanilla, kind of custardy) didn’t really translate into the brew.
Anyways, at least it’s a sipdown.
The dry leaf of this is long, spindly, and a dark matte brown. The leaves are relatively straight, rather than being all twisted and curled up, and there isn’t much evidence of silver, white, or gold leaf tips. Dry, they smelled kind of fruity and woody, like prunes or bark.
I brewed this tea twice, and in so doing used up the entire sample. First, I did a traditional western steep with a giant mug — 2.8 grams of leaf in 2 cups of 95°C water for 2-3 minutes. After steeping, I had a sip that tasted of rose and citrus, like a Ceylon tea. However, it was much too hot to drink so I let it sit for a bit; while the fresh tea was a warm amber colour, it darkened considerably once it cooled. The cooler tea also tasted quite different, because the flavour turned from citrus to something more resinous, like camphor or pine.
The remainder of the leaf was brewed up gong-fu style in a gaiwan. I used 5.3 grams of leaf in 95°C water, started with a 20-second steep, and increased each subsequent steep by 5 seconds, ultimately getting about 6-7 steeps before letting things rest. Each steep of tea produced a cup of beautiful amber-coloured liquid.
And here is where words fail me, because this tea was so good. Every single steep I had smelled like cinnamon. And not just your bog-standard chai cinnamon sort of smell. No, this stuff smelled like whole cinnamon sticks, like cinnamon and sugar. Sweet, spicy, tingly, vibrant.
The taste was quite different, though, and that camphor/resin note I experienced when steeping it western style showed up again here. It felt very herbal and healing, like I was drinking some sort of tincture meant to restore my health. I could feel the dry woodiness of it all the way into my sinuses and nasal cavity.
As the steeps continued, the cinnamon note of the aroma started to give way to something fruitier, like plums or prunes. For one magical steep (steep 5? steep 6?), the cinnamon and fruit notes were balanced perfectly so it smelled like apple cider! If I could have every cup of tea smell like that, it would be a happy world indeed.
After 7 or so steeps, I called it a night, and gave the gaiwan a last loving inhale: the aroma of the spent leaves was plummy, malty, and rich. The leaves were also easy on the eyes, too, a beautiful rich brown:
Assuming the day ever comes where I manage to get my tea collection under control, I would seriously consider giving Zen Tea’s Taiwan Ruby Black Tea a permanent spot on the shelf.
Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/05/taiwan-ruby-black-tea/
Sipdown! Well, sorta.
I’ve had this tea for nearly a year and a half, and while it’s good, I also have some buckwheat from Yunnan Sourcing that I need to drink too. So I took the last little bit of this (a few tablespoons worth) and instead of drinking it down, I baked with it!
I blitzed the sobacha in a small food processor until most of the groats had broken down into flour. Then I added some white flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to create a crumble topping, and made an apple crumble with it!
The crumble has a nice, warm, bready, nutty note to it that’s really interesting. A fitting way to let this tea bow out.
Oh, and plus: I saw Civil War last night, and it was awesome. AND I JUST BOUGHT THE NEW RADIOHEAD ALBUM AND I WILL LISTEN TO IT NOW AND EVERYTHING IS AWESOME.
Wow, I didn’t even know they were still coming out with albums.
It dropped earlier today. There had been teasers going out for the past week or so.
I liked Civil War but still didn’t think it was as good as Winter Soldier. I feel like it was doing a lot of set up for future movies.
Also this sounds like an awesome way to use up a sobacha
The dry leaf is long and twiggy, but somewhat broader across. Some of the dry leaf is so brightly green and wide that it makes me think of a white tea, actually. This is some pretty aesthetically pleasing leaf!
When I first opened the packet of tea, I was greeted by an intensely vegetal aroma that reminded me of Chinese tea. It was buttery and beany, but underneath there was a surprising undertone of sweetness.
I brewed it for 80°C for 2 minutes, as recommended on the package, and that resulted in a tea that was a pale straw green colour. The smell of the brewed tea was pretty similar to the taste of the dry leaf: vegetal, nutty, and buttery, like a dragonwell tea.
This held up upon the first sip, too, but that sweet undertone made comeback — underneath the vegetables and the butter, I sensed an intensely sweet note that, rather than being fruity, reminded me of the neutral, inert sort of sweetness that you get from syrup or icing sugar. Weird!
Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/05/russia-host-tea-estate-what-cha/
The dry leaf looks long, dark brown, and twiggy, and smells richly of citrus and raisins.
I took about 2 grams (enough for larger mug) and steeped it for 4 minutes at 90°C, as per the instructions on the package.
The resulting tea was a cool umber colour and smelled malty, robust, citrusy, and raisiny. It reminded me of a Ceylon tea, but it wasn’t quite as sharp. The first sip was a surprise, though: it was somewhat thin-tasting, but also floral — it made me think of lychees.
I brewed the remaining leaf in the packet a few weeks later and it was similarly thin, fruity and floral; it reminded me then of cherries.
Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/05/russia-host-tea-estate-what-cha/
