1403 Tasting Notes

90

I am not a great fan of cinnamon generally. At first sip, this is all about the cinnamon. And then, something marvellous happens and then it slips into a sugar cookie, with cinnamon. So ok, if I need to have a large dose of cinnamon, then please give it to me wrapped in a buttery sugar cookie. The balance of all the bits, including the cinnamon, is super. The particular type of cinnamon flavour is nice too. Good job, 52Teas. Don’t change a thing.

Oh, also bears mentioning here that I do not recall ever having eaten a snickerdoodle, so I am not the one to be able to comment on how the tea compares.

Flavors: Butter, Cinnamon, Cookie

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Evol Ving Ness

^ Very handy, Sil. Thank you! They look de-li-cious!

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90

I love watching these pearls unfurl in my clear glass steeper: like teeny delicate question marks tinting the water as they steep. Beautiful tea, delicate and fragrant. The jasmine scent is just the right balance for the tea itself. My afternoon had been moving along rather nicely and yet this fragrant tea has made it even better.

Thank you, Angel, for the sample.

Drinking this lovely tea throughout the afternoon brought me back in spirit to this lovely lovely town that I stayed in for a time in China and the teahouses that I spent hours contemplating life in. The teahouses I am talking about and the town that I am referring to are pictured here. (To be clear, this is not my blog.) One of my very favourite places in China. http://www.bootsintheoven.com/boots_in_the_oven/2012/03/zigong-sichuan.html

Flavors: Green, Jasmine

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Inkling

Your description of how these steep is so poetic! I can see it. :)

Evol Ving Ness

Thank you, Inkling. :)

TeaVivre

I do love the Zi Gong Leng Chi Tu Rabbit Meat, so delicious!

Indigobloom

I second that. Always enjoy reading your posts, regardless of the tea (I’m not a Jasmine fan). And rabbit meat… I’ve never had that before!

Evol Ving Ness

Thank you, Indigobloom. Very kind.

TeaVivre, I loved ZiGong, the street bbqs, the hotpots, the tea rooms, street noodles on the shopping street, and yes, the rabbit too. I liked everything about it really. Actually, I loved Chengdu as well although they are very different, Chengdu being a big city. But there is something very special about Sichuan and its people and its food and culture. It left a deep impression.

TeaVivre

Yes, Sichuan is a very special province with lots of extremely delicious and great food, people in here are very nice and if you love spicy foods, then you’ll get used to Sichuan food!

Evol Ving Ness

I love spicy food. When I ordered Szechuan hot pot while I was there in a small restaurant in Zigong, ALL the restaurant AND kitchen staff came and stood around my table and watched me eat.

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100

This tea is really growing on me. Perhaps it takes my tastebuds a bit of time to transit from my daily black teas to the subtleties of oolong and the gentle taste arrangements and rearrangements of one steep to the next. This tea is a bit of a kaleidoscope of milk, butter, coconut, honey, with the slightest bit of green. A masterpiece.

This cup is disappearing in greedy gulps after my initial slow luxurious sips once it had cooled enough for drinking.

Even when it begins to wane after five or six steeps, it is still lovely.

Flavors: Butter, Coconut, Cream, Floral, Honey

Indigobloom

Sounds lovely! I wish I’d brought my MO with me to the boyfriend’s place now :P

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100

Yep, very delicious. Nothing new to add besides that it travels well. And that the fact that it contains rooibos comes as a surprise.

Today, I find myself wondering what a normal person spends on tea in a month. Nevermind.

mrmopar

Just what you can afford…..LOL!

eastkyteaguy

I wonder that all the time. Then I wonder about what exactly constitutes normality.

Daylon R Thomas

You know half the answer to that question for me lol. “Oh, once I have my staple white, oolong, and black, I’ll be set-Oooh! Shang Tea has a scented white tea that ISNT JASMINE-GOING INTO CART NOW!”

Evol Ving Ness

hahhaha, enablers, all of yas. :)

Evol Ving Ness

eastkyteaguy, I kissed normal goodbye a long long time ago. Don’t seem to miss it at all.

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90
drank Walnut Truffle by Tea Desire
1403 tasting notes

Oh, and 300 notes—whooop!

Goodness gracious. I’ve been hanging out listening to the blues this morning and sipping on this loveliness. Such complexity that I wasn’t expecting. There’s walnut and then there’s chocolate and then there’s caramel. And that’s just straight up and unsweetened. Delicious.

Flavors: Caramel, Chocolate, Walnut

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 45 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Inkling

Ooo, sounds amazing!

Fjellrev

Yay, happy 300th tasting note! I miss having this one in my cupboard. So delicious!

Evol Ving Ness

Thanks. And yes, this could well be a newfound favourite.

VariaTEA

I love this tea. So yum! Also congrats on 300!

Evol Ving Ness

Thanks, VariaTEA. I think my purchase when I was out west was the result of you effervescing about it. And yes, it is delicious, so thank you!

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90
drank White Angel by Tea Desire
1403 tasting notes

A friend and I went out for Korean bbq at lunch today and then we ended up sitting in a park sipping bitter delicious Americanos. That, in addition to my morning tea was enough of the hardcore boom caffeine for me.

This tea is the perfect antidote to the strong flavours of the day. So gentle. The predominant flavour here is coconut with the slightest bit of vanilla mellowing out the pineapple apricot gently floating over the white and sencha base.

Flavors: Coconut, Fruity, Pineapple, Vanilla

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Fjellrev

That sounds like an awesome time!

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90
drank White Angel by Tea Desire
1403 tasting notes

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75

I have been moving through the last of this as a refreshing cold steep in between things of my day. The gentle soft flavours of cotton candy, a bit of marshmallow, and the beautiful buttery white tea base come out far more as a cold steep. The added flavours truly complement and highlight the base, so the base is the superstar here. To me, the citrus bits are unnecessary as they don’t add much beyond cutting the sweetness—perhaps that is their purpose. Though the blueberry is present in dry leaf, I am not detecting it as a flavour, nor did I when the tea was fresher.

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80

Sil was kind enough to include a sample of this in our tea festival swap. Yum, it’s got that bready-chocolatey Laoshan black-like thing going on, but I may have steeped it too briefly to experience the full flavour components.

Thanks for this, Sil. Enjoyable on this lovely slow morning.

Flavors: Bread, Chocolate

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 2 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Indigobloom

Can it be resteeped? sounds yummy

Evol Ving Ness

Yes, the second steep was really good, but I was in motion, so my attention wasn’t all there. Tried a third steep, but nope not happening. Thankfully, I have enough for another cup or so. More later.

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75
drank Hibiscus Punch by DAVIDsTEA
1403 tasting notes

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Profile

Bio

A monk sips morning tea

A monk sips morning tea,
it’s quiet,
the chrysanthemum’s flowering.

- Basho

(1644-1694)

Note to self—-you do not actually need any more tea.

My real tea obsession began in February 2015.

Not, sadly, when I had been living and working in China, though I very much enjoyed sampling a variety of teas during my travels there as well. No, no, that would have been far too sensible.

I am a reformed coffee drinker. I still enjoy a long double espresso with a good quantity or milk or cream from time to time, but for now, tea is my thing. All day.

*note—this is way out of date, so if we are doing a swap and you are checking to see what I like and dislike, mostly never mind what you find below. One of these days, I will update this. In the meantime, check what I’ve been drinking and use your own judgement. I like all the teas. Well, I am open to trying all the teas.

I tend to drink black, green, or oolong tea in the morning to early afternoon. Rooibos or
Honeybush or herbal in the evening. And perhaps some sort of sleepy-type tea in the wee hours.

This year, I’ve been discovering flavoured teas, so it may look like that is all I drink although that would provide a false impression.

Not a big fan of chocolate or mint in teas, but I will try them and, from time to time, have been pleasantly surprised. Also, usually I dislike a prominent cinnamon flavour, if untempered with other things, in teas. Again, I say usually, because there are exceptions.

Also, please note that haven’t quite gotten into the habit of updating my tea cupboard on Steepster, and it is unlikely that I will do this on any kind of regular basis.

I drink my tea black and unsweetened. If there comes a rare moment that I add something to it, I will mention it.

Finally, while I thank large and successful tea companies for tantalizing and beckoning me to the world of tea, I prefer to support independent ventures with real people, real enthusiasm and commitment, and real dreams.

Currently, I am researching monthly tea subscriptions. Perhaps it will keep me out of tea shops.

And here is Shae’s rating scale— which I am using with permission, of course— which more or less describes the way I have been rating teas. I am going to make more of an effort to stay very close to these parameters now.

Rating Scale

1-20: By far, one of the worst teas I’ve tasted. I most certainly will not finish my cup and will likely “gift” the rest to my sweet husband who almost always enjoys the teas I dislike (and vice versa).

21-40: This tea is not good but if I mix it with another tea or find another steeping method I might be able to finish it.

41-60: This one is just okay. I might drink it again if someone were to give it to me, but I probably won’t be buying more for myself.

61-75: This is a consistently good tea. It’s reliable but not necessarily special.

76-90: This one is a notch above the rest and I would gladly enjoy a cup of it any day of the week. I’ll likely be keeping this in my cupboard, but it isn’t one of my all-time favorites.

91-95: One small change and this tea would be perfect. I’ll definitely have a stash of this in my kitchen if you come over for tea.

96-100: No words can describe this tea. It’s an experience, an aha moment. Closed eyes, wide smile, encompassing warmth. Absolutely incredible. Perfect.

Location

Mostly, but not always, Toronto, Canada.

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