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Sampler Sipdown September! I had to get my grocery shopping done this morning, and as a treat to myself, I picked up a box of pumpkin donuts (yes, I am and always will be #CampPumpkinEverything). I’m not sure what is wrong with me, as I’ve never been a fan of plain black “breakfast” blend teas, but maybe my palate is starting to adapt to them, as that is exactly what I was craving to go with my doughy pumpkin-glazed goodness for… I guess it is lunchtime now? Whatever. So I grabbed the Steven Smith Teamaker Brahmin sachet sample I got from Ost’s cupboard sale (thank you Ost!) I have really enjoyed everything I’ve tried by this company so far (I even liked their chamomile tea, and I hate chamomile!) This tea has recently been renamed “British Brunch”, but they have not changed the blend in any way: it is still Indian Assams, Dimbulla and Uva estate Ceylons, and a bit of Chinese Keemun in the blend.

This is a full leaf breakfast blend in a sachet. Perhaps I should’ve let it steep a bit longer given that it wasn’t CTC, but I also don’t like my blacks to get too biting, and I think I hit my sweet spot regardless, because this was a surprisingly smooth tea! The steeped tea is a proper coppery color, and smells very malty, with notes of baked bread and molasses. The flavor was malty, tasting of warm bread, with some subtle hints of wood and smoke in the finish. There was no bitterness to the cup and mild astringency on the tongue after the sip. It was a very pleasant black tea blend, and accompanied my sweet and spicy donut really nicely.

Sampler Sipdown September! This was a sampler I got ages ago (like, a year ago now?) from California Tea & Herbal as an order freebie (I’ll admit, I ordered from them only because I wanted 2 oz. of Rishi’s West Cape Chai, and Rishi only sells it themselves in a ridiculous 1 lb. size… like I have the space for that in my tiny apartment! CalTeas happened to source that tea from Rishi in the size I wanted, soooooo…)

California Tea & Herbal lists this tea as “Citrus Mint Rooibos,” and it took me a long time to Nancy Drew out the source of the blend, which as it turns out is wholesale company East Indies Coffee & Tea’s “Lemon Souffle”.

Steeped this sampler up in my small Japanese teapot, which holds 16 oz. (I am really enjoying making a small herbal pot of tea before bed in this teapot!) The steeped tea has a creamy aroma reminescent of vanilla, which I really was not expecting from the “Citrus Mint” name on the sampler package. The tea has a very sweet base, with some caramel/toffee notes, and I’m really impressed with the particular blend of red rooibos, green rooibos, and honeybush that has achieved this flavor; it doesn’t come off as woody or medicinal at all. The main flavor note I’m getting in the tea is lemon, and it’s a creamy sort of lemon zest flavor, like would be in a dessert; the exact opposite of the strong, overbearing, furniture polish sort of lemon flavor I was getting from the last cup of tea I tried. This is sweet, succulent, tasty lemon. Toward the end of the sip is a note of mint, and again, it isn’t a strong or overbearing minty taste, as mint can be, but a bit more subtle, leaving a slight cool and refreshing sensation on the tongue. It comes off a bit more like sweet sarsaparilla than menthol. I don’t know what I was expecting with this, but I certainly wasn’t expecting something that is so desserty! This tastes like sweet melted toffee with subtle citrus and mint that compliments it perfectly, and makes me wish I had a plate of buttery scones topped with lemon curd. Why don’t I have any scones with lemon curd?!

This is really good. I would not balk at getting more of this, though admittedly probably would not place a special order for it; likely I’ll pick it up next time I need to restock my West Cape Chai again.

Sampler Sipdown September! Yet another of my T2 sampler stash, which I’m happy to say is getting pretty small now. I think I only have a few packets from each of the black, flavored black, green, fruit, and herbal sampler sets left now. This particular one was from the herbal set, and I hot brewed the entire two-serving sampler packet, but then put it in the fridge to chill overnight so I could drink it as an iced tea.

It steeped up a bright pink from the hibi, but smells incredibly citrusy. The iced tea has a very sharp lemon taste. Honestly, this hits just a bit too hard on the lemongrass, and the additional lemon citrus in the blend is just a little too cleaner-like for my tastes. The orange and hibiscus that lingers in the background beneath all the lemon is probably the best part of the tea for me, and what made it suitable enough to drink a single tall glass. But it didn’t strike a good enough balance for me overall to ever care to revisit this. It’s just one of those teas where the lemon came off too strong and thus made my brain immediately feel like I was drinking bathroom cleaners or furniture polish. I love lemon, but it just has to be done right.

Sampler Sipdown September! So my best friend sent me a package that arrived from San Jose yesterday… at first I was quite scared, “No Todd, no tea, I’m trying to get rid of some tea right now!” but he assured me it was “tea-related, but not tea.” I thought it must be teaware, then, but he said it wasn’t teaware, either. That just left me stumped. If you know anything about me, I’m a huge otaku (excessive fan) not only of tea, but things related to Japan/Japanese culture, and he found me a doujinshi (indie comic) of cute manga-style girls personifying tea. There is an Earl Grey, Keemun, Orange Pekoe, etc. If you are curious, I’ve found a review with some scans of it located here: https://plastic-pleasures.com/2013/06/27/doujinshi-review-ruellia-tea-garden-by-phanky-berry-beats/

I’ve actually tried all the teas featured in it except a straight Orange Pekoe, so that’s what I’m drinking today! My T2 sampler stash had one, so that is what I put in my work thermos. The leaves were long and full, and I think most of the other Ceylon teas I’ve tried in the past were always CRC and in blends.

This is actually pretty nice. It has a nice malty flavor, but the finish reminds me slightly of autumn leaves and citrus, which goes nicely with the season. It has a nice medium body, and is smoother than I was expecting; there is some slight astringency on the back of the tongue after the sip, but no bitterness while drinking. It’s hitting the spot as a simple black tea after-lunch pick-me-up; I have no complaints.

Sampler Sipdown September! Felt in a green tea mood, and I won’t have time to gong fu until the weekend, so I’m just going to western brew this Dazzle Deer sampler of Bi Luo Chun in a big ol’ mug because I want some Bi Luo Chun now.

I’m still getting that beany flavor I get from Bi Luo Chuns, though this one is a bit lighter than some of the other ones I’ve tried, having a bit more of a grassier clean green taste in the background. I’m also not getting any spice notes like I’ve found in other Bi Luo Chuns, and without that anise/pepper flavor, the somewhat meaty taste my palate sometimes reads from that beany/spice flavor as bacon is instead reading more like seafood, shrimp or scallop. It’s lightly vegetal, with a slight sweet pea flavor toward the end of the sip. This is probably one of the least impressive Bi Luo Chun of the ones I’ve tried. It’s also from a different harvest year, as I believe the other two I tried were 2018, and this one was a 2017, so maybe the lack of spice notes has to do with either age or harvest date. I definitely preferred the ones with the hints of anise or pepper, though. This was still a relaxing green tea and a nice accompaniment to my vegetable soup for dinner, just lackluster in comparison with similar teas I’ve had fairly recently.

Sampler Sipdown September! I’ve been trying to sipdown all my EG samplers, and sure enough, there was an EG in the T2 sampler horde. I believe there was also one for their French Earl Grey, but since I already had that tea, I believe I simply dumped that one into my larger stash of that tea. T2’s French Earl Grey was actually the first Earl Grey tea I ever tried, and was my “stepping stone” into acclimating my palate to bergamot, since I had read on a tea blog that it’s fruity notes made it a “good Earl Grey for people that don’t like Earl Grey” (and at the time, I loathed Earl Grey). I have a review of that one already on Steepster, and continue to dip into it from time to time. Come to think of it, I’m probably not that far off of sipping down the original 100g of that tea now, too…

Took a thermos of this to work. I actually found this one to taste very similar to Lupicia’s Rooibos Earl Grey, just in terms of the flavor and intensity of the bergamot — that is, the bergamot was a very nice taste and not sour or overwhelming. It had that sort of slight grapefruit/lemony taste and I found it more pleasant than I’ve found bergamot in other Earl Grey blends. Of course, I enjoyed this more than the Rooibos Earl Grey just because being on a black base gave the bergamot a stronger foundation, and the black tea was nice, not bitter or astringent like many Earl Grey blends tend to be. This was actually an Earl Grey I found myself easily able to drink without having to add milk, because it didn’t have that bitter/sour/astringent quality many have. It still isn’t my favorite plain EG I’ve ever had (that would still be Steven Smith Teamaker’s because I loved the black currant notes I found in that blend) but I would rank this one my second favorite as far as plain EG’s I’ve tried. But I do still prefer EG blends more than plain EGs, so I’d take T2’s French Earl Grey, that has that slight lychee note paired with the bergamot and that subtle floral flavor to this one between their EG offerings.

I finished off another tea I had marked for sipdown last night, so Sipdown September is making some progress (hoping to get the collection count down to 500 by the end of the month!) I’ve taken to making herbals in the evening in my Japanese teapot, since it’s easy to bag these (they don’t need ample expansion to still taste great and that makes cleanup in the teapot super easy) and I can just leave them in the pot without them turning bitter and astringent, and then I just keep refilling my cup as I watch YouTube videos before bed. This switch has also been discouraging me from grabbing caffeinated teas around bedtime, which really aren’t very helpful for my sleep schedule…

Now that it’s morning I can pull out the caffeine. I am so in the mood for a Chinese black. I have two different Golden Monkey teas, one from TeaVivre and one from Dazzle Deer (for all I know maybe they use the same source, how would I know?) but in any event, I decided to try the TeaVivre one first. I believe this one came from Ost’s cupboard sale not long ago, so thank you very much Ost!

First up, Baby Gaiwan session. I’m loving that the new kettle isn’t nearly as heavy as the old one and the water is easier to control when pouring into Baby Gaiwan. I’m already quite smitten with the Lady. (Somehow that’s the name that stuck on day one… don’t ask me why I name my teaware, because I don’t have a proper answer.)

2g / 50ml / 194F / Rinse|5s|10s|15s|20s|25s|45s|60s

The dry leaf doesn’t smell very notable to me, other than a bit peppery. After rinsing the tea, the leaf smells like malt, baked bread, raisins, honey, and stonefruit. The steeped liquor is a deep, golden orange color. The aroma from the first steep was very malty, with notes of apricot and orange, some honey sweetness, and slightly smokey. The flavor was very malty, tasting of baked bread and sweet apricots, with some smokiness on the finish. The next steeps brought out some notes of raisins, peach, orange rind, and yams, with the smoky finish becoming weaker, and a chocolately aftertaste appearing on the tongue. There was a very mild dryness left on the tongue, but not so much as to be unpleasant. By the fourth steep the smokiness in the finish had disappeared, but the flavor had also already become very mild. The aroma from the cup was wonderful, smelling like melted caramel, honey, and cinnamon, but the flavor was a much weaker malt, orange, and apricot taste. With the smoky finish gone, a spice note now appeared on the finish. I wrapped it up by the seventh infusion since it was obvious the tea just wasn’t giving much anymore at that point.

Since the flavors started to weaken so early into the session, it is my guess that perhaps age may have something to do with it. With cupboard sales there is no way of knowing which harvest the leaf is from, so there is a chance this may be some much older Golden Monkey. There was quite nice, defined flavors during the first three steeps, but after that it seemed pretty exhausted already.

Next up, a western brewed cuppa with my breakfast. Which I’m eating at noon. Because it’s Sunday and I’m lazy. (Breakfast was the gong fu session, lunch is now breakfast. Don’t judge.)

2.5g / 350ml / 194F / 3m

The aroma of the tea smells like mandarin oranges, chocolate, and cinnamon. I’m surprised how different this tea has come out in a western brew. It’s a much richer flavor, that has a more mild malty note, and instead of tasting stonefruit and honey, I’m getting a thick chocolate flavor, with hints of orange and spices on the finish. It’s still a very nice tea brewed this way, I just wish some of the apricot/peach and malted honey notes had shown up… it’s quite a vast contrast. The very mild astringency I was getting from the gong fu brew was also not present from the western brew, so there is also that. Despite the less complex flavor of the western brew, the chocolate/spice flavor alone would make me happy to brew this up before work and use this black as a morning daily drinker.

I prefer the variety of flavor on this more in the gong fu, but not how quickly it gave out on infusions, which makes me more inclined to use this for western steeping… hmm. I think I’ll play with this one more. Next time I gong fu it I think I’ll use my shiboridashi, which holds more leaf and water, and do fewer infusions at slightly longer steep times. My next western cup I think I’ll knock down the steep time to two minutes, and see if it doesn’t bring out some of the sweeter notes a bit. I also want to compare to the Dazzle Deer Golden Monkey I have, since I know the exact harvest date on that tea (it’s an April 2017), and that may make quite a difference compared to the flavors in this one, since there is a chance this may be an older tea.

Sampler Sipdown September! I had a different Earl Grey Rooibos sampler earlier this month, from Citizen Tea, that came as a free sampler with an order. I had one more in my sampler stash, a single serve teabag that was from a sampler set from that Lupicia Mottainai sale, and since I’ve been in an Earl Grey mood today and it is now past my caffeine cut-off, I figured I’d finish it off. I really didn’t care much for the Citizen Tea one, since I found it too heavy on the bergamot flavor when paired with a rooibos base. Honestly, I’m expecting the same here, unless Lupicia’s blend just happens to be lighter with it’s bergamot. I did end up using up that other sampler making London Fogs out of it, which was quite nice, and I restocked my vanilla almond milk, so if all else fails…

The dry leaf certainly does smell quite strongly of bergamot, but I will reserve opinions until the taste. The steeped cup is deeply red and the aroma isn’t much different; very bergamot citrusy, reminding me almost of a mixture of grapefruit and lemon juice, and the rooibos itself does impart a bit of those honeyed/woodsy notes. The flavor tastes a bit nicer than the last Earl Grey rooibos I tried, but I think mostly it’s because it just tastes a bit fresher and the rooibos itself seems a bit more quality and is coming through just a bit more, but I still find I feel about the same of the blend over all; I don’t find myself that much of a fan of bergamot on a rooibos base, because the bergamot just tastes too strong. The bergamot doesn’t taste unpleasant, it has a very clean citrus flavor, and really does have hints of grapefruit and lemon to the flavor, and is one of the nicer flavors I’ve encountered, really… it just still feels a touch strong to me without any other flavors as an offset or a stronger base. Which is why adding just a bit of vanilla almond milk really does just make this one work for me, it gives it that offset that smooths all the edges out in the right ways.

I think this is just a tea that will only ever work for me as a latte, or perhaps with a bit of lavender. For what it is, it’s not a bad blend, just not one that suits my tastes. And compared to the last Rooibos Earl Grey I tried, I do think this one is of the better quality.

Sampler Sipdown September! I work this Saturday, and with no kettle at work anymore (at least, not until I can ask our building manager to inspect the power sockets, I swear something is overheating my kettles…) I just grabbed one of the single-serve sampler teabags I’ve received as order freebies to put in a thermos and take with me as I headed out. This one came from a past Bird & Blend order, sometime back in their Bluebird Tea Co. days. I was feeling in an Earl Grey mood today.

This was very nice. Earl Grey is a tea that took me some getting used to (bergamot was not a flavor I took to instantly) so I don’t like Earl Greys that have really overbearing bergamot, nor do I like Earl Greys with a really strong, biting, astringent black tea base. I find I’m not having either problem with this blend. The base is hardy but not bitter, and any astringency left from the Ceylon after the sip is fairly mild. The bergamot seems to be pleasant for my tastes, leaving a noticable touch but not so strong that it is overbearing on the tea or downright sour. The touch of vanilla creaminess likely helps, as it adds that touch of counter-balancing sweetness to the citrus that ties it together nicely. I do wish I had milk here at work to create more of a creamy mouthfeel and amp up the creaminess/sweetness a bit (I do love me a nice London Fog!) but even plain, this is a nice cuppa. And hey, I found a leftover chocolate donut in the breakroom! Score! The chocolate goes nicely, I must say.

Sampler Sipdown September! I sipped down another older tea today at work… and my perfectly fine kettle from home had that same weird “burnt rubber/metallic” water taste when I took it to work! I’m beside myself now. I’m convinced the power outlet at work has done something to the heating element in my kettles, and now I’ve just given up on making tea at work at all. I’ll have to brew at home and take it in a thermos (and iced tea in water bottles like I’ve been doing over the summer) because I just can’t take it. I really hope the element isn’t fried. Now I have two kettles packed into storage, and my new Bonavita has just arrived…

I don’t particularly feel bad about the upgrade though. Nice to finally have a kettle at home that I can precision input temperatures into when the need arises. Plus, I can get really low temperatures on it, which is handy for gyokuro.

Anyway, this is a single-serve teabag from a sampler pack I bought from Lupicia during a Mottainai sale. I’m really shocked that green tea that was technically from a Christmas sampler, which I purchased last April, tastes really fresh. The tea has a very savory aroma that reminds me a bit of baked beans and roasted nuts. The base of the tea has a very clean, fresh green taste, and it has a nice, nutty, genmaicha flavor, but there is something unique about this version of genmaicha that is a bit hard for me to describe. Something about the overall flavor reminds me a bit of Chinese green teas, as there is this “savory bean/green bean” sort of flavor that mixes pleasantly with crisp, roasty nuttiness from the rice. Personally, I really am enjoying this variation on genmaicha! Genmaicha is one of my favorite teas, and the black beans seem to create this fusion of Chinese and Japanese flavor profiles for me… and since I love both Japanese and Chinese greens, I’m all for that. This is certainly a tea I wouldn’t mind restocking sometime!