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Happy National Eat Your Vegetables Day! Today the prompt is to drink a tea with vegetal flavor notes!

This is an old (likely 2017 harvest) sampler pack from Path of Cha, which sources several Chinese teas from TeaVivre (with very reasonable size options, too!) I had a little left in this sampler (I don’t remember when I opened it, but it was opened) and since I love cold brew green tea, I dumped what was left of the sampler into a mason jar and let it brew in the fridge overnight.

It’s very refreshing! The beany flavor I tend to taste first and foremost in Bi Luo Chun isn’t as strong here (not sure if that’s due to the old age of the sample or the cold preparation) but I do still taste it. I think the strongest note I’m tasting is garden peas, followed by green beans and fresh grass, with a very mild florality that pops toward the end of the sip. It isn’t as nuanced as other Bi Luo Chuns I’ve tried, and looking through my past notes, it seems I felt the same of this one previously, logged under Dazzle Deer, who also sources from TeaVivre. The Yunnan Sourcing Bi Luo Chuns I’ve sampled were a bit more complex in flavor.

That said, this is still so smooth and easy to down the whole liter so quickly, as this makes for a very quinching cold brew.

Flavors: Beany, Floral, Grass, Green Beans, Peas, Vegetal

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 5 g 32 OZ / 946 ML
teepland

I had no idea this was even a day and then saw it referenced in a newsletter I received this morning, and now again with your review! I will have to find one of the teas on my shelf that I know has a vegetal note to it and brew it up this morning. Thanks for the prompt! :)

Mastress Alita

I have a few prompts available in the forums on the “Sipdown 2021 Progress Thread,” to help aid people who are working on clearing tea out of their collections. :-)

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teepland

I had no idea this was even a day and then saw it referenced in a newsletter I received this morning, and now again with your review! I will have to find one of the teas on my shelf that I know has a vegetal note to it and brew it up this morning. Thanks for the prompt! :)

Mastress Alita

I have a few prompts available in the forums on the “Sipdown 2021 Progress Thread,” to help aid people who are working on clearing tea out of their collections. :-)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

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Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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