2201 Tasting Notes

Equusfell brought a jasmine mini tuocha that seems like it’s this one; the “tea company” in this case is kind of irrelevant as the puerh factory is Lao Cang.

This was pretty good; I enjoyed this one more than most puerhs. It wasn’t very puerh-y, which is probably why. Nice jasmine flavor, and sweet in the first steep. The jasmine faded after a while and then it was mostly greenish, but with some minerally puerh notes. Overall fairly good although not something I would drink regularly. The combined steep (the “leftovers” from all steeps thrown together in one cup) was maybe better than the individual steeps, and anyway had a lot more jasmine flavor.

Stephanie

I was impressed with this one too!

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87
drank Mélange Ladurée by Ladurée
2201 tasting notes

This tea comes to me from MissB, thanks! I snuck some samples into Equusfell’s mystery box, and she sent me quite the package. I shouldn’t be surprised. :)

Anyway, I really wanted to try some Laduree blends because hello, I love French teas, and I somehow have never tried their teas. Also I believe someone (Ysaurella?) told me that DF blends Laduree’s blends, and I am of course a huge DF fan.

This was nice. I don’t know that I would need to restock this one, but I definitely enjoyed it quite a bit. It actually reminded me a bit of MF’s Pleine Lune (hopefully there wasn’t any cross contamination). It had spice notes like a hint of cinnamon, a bit of almond, and some nice creaminess. I didn’t get much in the way of citrus or florals. Would definitely drink this one again.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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91
drank Black Currant by Harney & Sons
2201 tasting notes

I drank this tea down (and the Lychee) recently as cold brews. Rose Scented has a partial left, but it’s almost gone as well. Not that I didn’t like them as hot brews, but I just didn’t crave them, and they didn’t hold my interest as much; single flavor teas rarely do these days. They are older, and I figured it would be good to use them up. At first I didn’t think I would ever hit the bottom of the tins, but there they were! This has also reinforced to me that I do really prefer cold brew green teas at this point, although I am going to be drinking a lot more cold brew black teas in an effort to drink up older teas in my cupboard.

Speaking of my cupboard, I was celebrating a little that it was currently below 100 (97 in fact), but then Equusfell just delivered a big pouch full of samples from MissB, so now it shall skyrocket again.

Terri HarpLady

I actually have black currants ripening in my garden as we speak, along with pink currants. The pink ones are kind of bland, and the black ones are terrible, LOL, kind of musky & tart. Of course, this is the first year I’ve had them, so maybe they still aren’t quite ripe yet. Anyway, a few weeks ago the bush smelled strongly like cat piss, and I thought maybe every cat in the neighborhood was peeing on it, but after looking around online, I discovered that it really was the bush. As the fruit has ripened, the bush has taken on a sweeter kind of lemony fragrance (thank god). There aren’t a ton of berries this year, and I was thinking of dehydrating them to add to tea, or maybe just mashing them up fresh and making a pot of tea with some vanilla bean added. Or maybe a very small batch of fresh jelly to spread on the awesome paleo dutch baby recipe I’ve been enjoying…yeah…maybe that!

Dinosara

Mmm, I love black currants. So awesome that you have a bush of them! They are so hard to find in the states.

Terri HarpLady

I added the black & pink currant bushes (1 of each) last year, and 2 red currant bushes (along with several elderberry bushes) this year. It will probably take a few years for them to really get productive, and hopefully by them I’ll know what I want to do with them! I’ve also got red and black raspberries, blackberries, & blueberries. We’ve been enjoying the berries immensely for about a week now!

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88
drank Earl Grey Tea Time by Fauchon
2201 tasting notes

I am exhausted because I couldn’t fall asleep last night (I think because of stress?), so this morning I needed a nice EG to perk me up. To me, EG will always be a “WAKE UP” tea, there’s something brisk and invigorating about it, I think. I’m still tired, but I am enjoying this cup. At first I was let down by this tea because I was expecting Shortbread to be very prominent. But it is indeed quite subtle, probably because the bergamot is super strong. Which I like. So anyway, I enjoy this one quite a bit now, since I have adjusted my expectations.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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74

Our third and final gongfu of the afternoon. It definitely reminded me of a more delicate Taiwanese black tea. It started out with some honey-ish grain and malt notes, and by the second steep that weird fruity-floral note in Taiwanese blacks that I can never properly describe showed up. That note isn’t my favorite, so in the end this wasn’t really the tea for me. The note ebbed and flowed a bit in the steeps, being stronger in some than others, but overall it was just too similar to Taiwanese black teas.

love

nice one..

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95

Equusfell had a free sample of this one from a recent Verdant order and I was happy to share it with her. This tea had blown me out of the water when I got a sample last year, and I am happy to report a similarly amazing experience. Homemade marshmallows, and almond-pistachio torrone (nougat). Definitely delicious, and making me consider an order for some before it’s out of stock.

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80
drank Tie Kwan Yin Oolong by Tea Ave
2201 tasting notes

Another gongfu session with Equusfell today, this time with my new bamboo draining tea tray. My tea pets can get some love now, yay!

I felt pretty much the same abou tthis as the first time I had it. Roasty to the point of almost bitter charcoal, vegetal, a bit nutty. The first steep had some elements of sweetness to it, but it faded pretty quickly. Got a bit boring in the later steeps.

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96

My thought process this afternoon can be summed up as such: 1) I should really drink an oolong. 2) But I feel like something rich, not just fruity or floral. 3) Ahhhh, this is the oolong I want.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Sil

yes. agree. 100%.

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97

I drank this one a couple of times in the last week, including once today, so I figured I should log it. I’ve kind of been meh on hot green teas of any kind lately, but this one is different. The base is nice, the rose is nice, they work well together. I should remember to drink this one more often.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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99
drank Amore by Dammann Frères
2201 tasting notes

I was having my typical indecision of what to drink this morning. Do I try to drink up some old teas? Try to clear out some low-volume teas that are near-ish to sipdowns (although I don’t really have hardly any that are truly near to sipdowns)? But I didn’t really feel like doing either of those. Finally I said screw it, I am drinking a tea I love that I haven’t gotten to drink regularly since I was doing the chronological sip-through of my cupboard. This tea should be logged way more times than it is, mostly because I drink it and don’t really have much else to say about it. I love it, it’s awesome, I want to drink it all the time. I’m already almost halfway through the 100g I bought of it last fall, and that never happens in my tea cupboard. This morning it was delicious as always.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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Profile

Bio

I am tea obsessed, with the stash to match. I tend to really enjoy green oolongs, Chinese blacks, and flavored teas with high quality bases, especially florals, bergamot-based teas, and chocolate teas.

In my free time I am a birder, baker, and music/movie/tv addict.

Here are my rating categories, FYI:
100-90: Mind-blowingly good, just right for my palate, and teas that just take me to a happy place.
89-86: I really really like these teas and will keep most of them in the permanent collection, but they’re not quite as spectacular as the top category
85-80: Pretty tasty teas that I enjoy well enough, but definitely won’t rebuy when I run out.
79-70: Teas that I would probably drink again, but only if there were no preferrable options.
69-50: Teas that I don’t really enjoy all that much and wouldn’t drink another cup of.
49 and below: Mega yuck. This tea is just disgusting to me.
Unrated: Usually I feel unqualified to rate these teas because they are types of teas that I tend to not like in general. Sometimes user error or tea brewed under poor conditions.

Location

Ohio, US

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