592 Tasting Notes
I received some of this tea for free as part of a promo for spending over a certain amount on a Butiki order. Sorry about the vagueness, I just can’t remember the specific details at the moment. Anyway, I’m not usually a fan of green teas that aren’t Japanese, but of course I am gonna give this one a shot. I steeped it as recommended (180 F, 2 min), which resulted in a lovely pale yellow-green color. It both smelled and tasted very vegetal, though I couldn’t tell you exactly which veggies. The vegetal flavor was a bit mild, though, and it was a bit bitter from some extra leaves that weren’t caught by my strainer.
Overall, it was just a bit ho hum to me. It was a fine tea, but I didn’t think that there was anything particularly special about it. Again, it may also be because I don’t generally enjoy these types of teas.
I have been a little cranky these past couple of days because I have relatives visiting, so I’ve been reaching for my reliably delicious teas rather than branching out and trying new ones. This particular tea was very comforting after an hour long excursion around Safeway for random American food goods. The tea seemed to sense my pain as it was a little extra roasty and a bit smoky today. It may also be because I think I measured the leaf with a heavy hand. Anyway, very comforting, very rainy season appropriate kind of tea. Love it.
Sipdown (97)! This is also a backlog because Steepster was acting up yesterday when I tried to log this. Coincidentally, the trackpad on my mouse is also not functioning and one of my light bulbs just blew out, so all in all not a great day for technology/electricity? This tea was very comforting mostly due to how thick it is. I’m sure I mentioned this in previous tasting notes, but I am a little irritated at how fine the leaves are because the bunch of leaf particles at the bottom of the cup make for a bitter cup toward the bottom. Despite this, I find this tea very comforting and will consider repurchasing in the future when I have a smaller stash.
So, this turned out to be a bit of a funny mistake. I pulled this one from the T&C TTB because it was labeled “Yunnan Peru.” I thought, hmm, a Peruvian tea? Sounds interesting. So I steep it up without consulting Steepster first, and it smells like wet dirt. It also tastes like wet forest dirt. Then, I thought, wow this tastes a lot like the one other puer that I have tasted. When I finally look it up on Steepster, it of course is a puer. I should have known right away. If I had known it was a puer, I probably would not have tried it because I don’t have that appreciation for puers that other people have.
So long story short, I accidentally drank a puer, won’t rate it because I’m not a fan of puers.
Backlog. I did feel a bit guilty about taking this one from the T&C TTB because I have had this tea before. However, when I had a sample of this tea, it was a really old sample that I had found in the back of my mom’s pantry. Even as an old sample, I really enjoyed it, so I wanted to see how a fresher batch of this would taste. I’m glad to confirm that I really enjoyed the juiciness of the honey dew without tasting any rooibos. I’m definitely a fan, especially since I have been really wanting a nice, non-caffeinated cup of hot tea in the evenings after dinner. I will eventually have to seriously stock up on this tea when my stash is a bit smaller.
Backlog. Sadly, my streak of lovely teas from the T&C TTB had to end sometime. For me, this tea was just far too perfume-y from the very first sniff and the very first sip. I’m not even sure if I detected anything else in there because I was so distracted by feeling like I was drinking perfume. So I will just leave it at that and move on.
Sipdown (97)! And a backlog. I just noticed in my previous tasting note that I didn’t think that this breakfast blend was all that special. I still agree that it is a pretty straightforward breakfast tea, but this time around, I got some subtle smokiness in there that I didn’t taste before. That smidgen of smoke actually intrigued me a bit and is the reason I’m gonna bump up the rating a bit on this tea. Like I said in my previous tasting note, I do have quite a selection of breakfast blends, so I probably will not be reordering this one any time soon. I did very much enjoy it while it lasted, though!
Another backlog. I had a really intense on site interview the other day that I had to get up earlier than usual for. Basically, I met ten people in the span of 5-6 hours, one at a time. Yikes. Anyway, I woke up that morning really feeling like I needed a solid black tea to drink. I probably should have reached for one that I had tasted before, but I decided to take a risk and steep this one. I’m actually so glad that I did, though, because this tea was delicious.
Most of my favorite black teas are actually Verdant’s straight blacks, but this one is definitely a contender for a top spot. It was nice and malty, perfect for mornings. Yet it was also sweet and potato-y. Overall, a pretty complex variety of flavors all deliciously blending together into this one cup of amazing tea. I’m definitely glad that I made that second Butiki order or else I would have missed out on this!
Okay, so I have a bunch of teas, old favorites and new discoveries alike, that I didn’t log in the past five days or so, but I’ll just add tasting notes for the new teas that I tried. I pulled this new tea from the T&C TTB with no expectations really. It just sounded like something I wanted to try out. As it was steeping, I started smelling the smokiness of the tea, which excited and worried me at the same time.
As it turns out, I was right to be excited. The smokiness was well matched by the boldness of the black tea. Plus, it was not the tobacco type of smoky that I don’t care for. It kind of reminded me of when I was up in a cabin in Tahoe with the pine trees, fresh snow, and general foresty nature smells all around me. For that reason, I think this was the perfect winter tea for me. Unfortunately, there was only one serving since it was from a Steepster Select box originally. I did save the leaves and resteep the next day, though, and it was still wonderful. A big thumbs up for this one in my book!
Today’s first pick from the T&C TTB. People on Steepster seem to really love this one, so I gave it a go for myself. Something must have gone terribly wrong because for some reason, I got a whiff of something that smelled like egg? And then after that, I just couldn’t get the thought of egg out of my head while I was drinking the tea. I did definitely taste the malty flavor everyone talked about, though. That was nice, but the whole time I was too distracted by the weird egg smell that I don’t think I appreciated this tea much. I won’t leave a rating since no one else seems to have had this problem, but I think I’m a little too scared to give it a round 2.
