70

Had a doctor’s appointment this morning and could only have straight black tea due to a blood draw. I’ve been trying to work through this MASSIVE package of Welsh black tea bags I won from the International Online Tea Festival last year.

This is a very brisk, dark tea. Malty and bready, with a sort of metallic/mineral quality toward the end of the sip. Has a slight citrus note when it cools down. I only brewed one bag of this CTC for 2 minutes in 350ml of hot water, and that was probably my limit before this would’ve been too astringent for me to drink plain. Easy tea to brew strong and dark for English-style milk-and-honey treatment. I’ve mainly been drinking it as iced tea, using four teabags left overnight in one liter of cold water in the fridge, and 2g of Amacha herb as sweetener.

Not my favorite for a breakfast blend, but totally servicable. Works really well for the sweet iced tea cold brew.

Flavors: Astringent, Bread, Citrus, Malt, Mineral

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 350 ML
gmathis

Simply based on historical novels and mysteries alone, I would expect Welsh teas to pack a punch. (Have you sampled any of the Barker & Llewellyn mysteries by Will Thomas?)

Mastress Alita

This stuff definitely packs a punch! I have not read those, but my interests have been swinging towards mystery genre lately, so I’ll have to see what we have at the library where I work. :-)

ashmanra

Youngest and I read the Barker and Llewellyn books aloud years ago. Love reading aloud! Ashman and I are currently working our way through the Flavia DeLuce series, which I have read before but he has not.

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Comments

gmathis

Simply based on historical novels and mysteries alone, I would expect Welsh teas to pack a punch. (Have you sampled any of the Barker & Llewellyn mysteries by Will Thomas?)

Mastress Alita

This stuff definitely packs a punch! I have not read those, but my interests have been swinging towards mystery genre lately, so I’ll have to see what we have at the library where I work. :-)

ashmanra

Youngest and I read the Barker and Llewellyn books aloud years ago. Love reading aloud! Ashman and I are currently working our way through the Flavia DeLuce series, which I have read before but he has not.

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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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