New Tasting Notes

Matcha is as green as you can get for St. Patrick’s day so does it surprise anyone that I made some since I do every day anyway? And I love flavoring matcha so does it surprise anyone I made a matcha Irish Creme cappuccino? It shouldn’t… well, maybe just because I’m not the least bit Irish:)

6oz water, 3 level TB instant Irish Creme cappuccino mix, 2 scoops matcha.

The Irish Creme is definitely stronger than the matcha, but it’s still there. I would have put more matcha in, but I didn’t want to overload myself on caffeine lol. A perfect morning wake up for St. Patrick’s Day!

Just had three (small) cups of this delightful tea. Aaaaah. The dry leaves smell like caramel, vanilla, and maple syrup. And by caramel, I mean the very best soft vanilla caramel you can get, like Godiva’s soft caramel centers. The sediment in the bottom of your last cup? The first time I made this tea I rinsed that out, thinking it was some fine tea dust. No. EAT IT! Stick your finger in there and get it because it is sweet, light, vanilla goodness.

How good is it? The friend who was trying it with me just ordered a whole pound!

Had my first cup this morning. This is a good Keemun tea, but I think I like Winey Keemun by Grace Rare Teas a little better. I detect a woodsy, slightly bitter scent, but I wasn’t getting dark chocolate. I think I would like this tea a LOT more if I lowered the water temperature just a hair and shaved about 30 seconds off the steeping time. Will add a new note when I try that. That being said, I think this tea is supposed to be a bit bracing. After all, it is supposedly on the breakfast table of the Queen of England, and we know how the British usually take their tea – strong, with lots of milk and sugar! I added no milk and only a little sugar to mine. It could grow on me….

Today I am saying GOODBYE to another LOVE…this one is juicy yet GREEN and semi veggie but semi sweet…love it. Will miss it. I’m thinking about drinking GREEN TEA for the rest of the day because it’s St. Patty’s Day…but I am not sure if I will be successful! :P

Okay, so this wasn’t really great with milk. It tastes more of cherry or torani almond syrup that warm roasted almond, which wasn’t bad when straight but meh with milk.

YUM YUM YUM to my TUM TUM TUM…This is my favorite Currant Flavored Tea…YAY!

1st infusion:
After a 5 minute steep time the liquor was nowhere near the “intense purple” touted in the description, more like a dingy peach-gold. I did try drinking it without sugar but my taste buds are too trained towards the sweetness for me to be able to taste anything complimentary without it. So, after adding sugar I had another go. It was not at all what I had been hoping for. The only term I could think of to describe it is “dishwater”. Perhaps it was just my disappointment speaking.

2nd infusion:
I used cooler water this time and steeped for 8 minutes. The liquor was a dull gold color, a bit brighter than the previous infusion. The flavor had definitely improved. Fuller, sweeter, and smooth.

3rd infusion:
The water was about the same temperature as the previous infusion, steeping time was 10 minutes. The liquor was more of an antique gold this time, a bit lighter and brighter than the last. The flavor also was lighter, slightly vegetal. I think I could also taste a bit of the amber note this time.

The leaves could probably stand up to a fourth infusion but I didn’t have the time.

Next time I try this tea I’m going to try using a bit more leaf, cooler water, and a longer initial steep time. I really want to like this tea, the description of it was so lovely, so I’ll hold off my rating until the next time.

I really enjoyed this cup this morning…figures…I’m all out now…

Thanks to Auggy, I can have my Samovar debut! This post is actually part backlog and part recent because I’ve got two different sessions and two different preparation methods in it.

Western Style
This is the backlogged bit. I started out making this one western style, primarily because at the time I had forgotten that this was the one to try with jam and milk in it. I didn’t realise that until afterwards.

The dry leaves smell strongly of ashes. Being a smoky tea lover, this is to me a good thing. (Ironically though, I abhor cigarette smoke…). Once brewed up, it still smelled smoky but also with a creamy sweet note to it.

The taste, however, was not as smoky as I had expected. It did have smoke, but it was still quite smooth. There was a sweet note too, which originally I thought of as ‘the absence of honey’. Once I tasted a bit more thoroughly, concentrating on it, I decided that at first it was a reminder of fruit, but then developed in the mouth and turned sort of darker. Samovar’s description mentioned apricots, but I couldn’t really find any properly apricot-y apricots, but I could agree that the initial fruityness of the sweet note could very well be apricots. It added a slight tartness to the smoke sort of.

When it cooled off a bit, I was surprised to find it turning almost flowery. I don’t really understand how you can have flowers and smoke at the same time, but evidently you can. It defies logic, but it works.

I decided that based on this session I would give it about 85-90 points, and the next time I would do it the russian way. Jam and all.

Russian Style
This is actually quite similar to the turkish brewing method that I have posted about before, in that you first brew a concentrate and then dilute and sweeten it to taste. The difference here is just the additives used. In Turkey they use only sugar. In Russia apparently jam and milk is popular.

There wasn’t any description on how exactly to make the concentrate (or ‘zavarka’) so I decided to just use my normal amount of leaves and half the amount of water with a long, about 13 minutes steep. Of course, I’m curious about such things, so I had to taste the zavarka by itself before continuing. It was indeed very smoky, but not really as super-strong and astringent as Samovar’s instructions said it should be. So it probably should have been stronger. That’s just a shame, though, because I was given this sample as a gift and therefore have limited amounts of leaves available. I didn’t want to use them all up for the sake of this one cup.

I diluted it half zavarka/half water, added a splash of milk and a large teaspoon of raspberry marmalade. Samovar said to use strawberry jam, but I didn’t have any and when I asked Auggy, she thought that raspberry marmalade should work just as well.

I can taste three things here. Milk, smoke and raspberries. It’s a bit like eating a raspberry cream cake in a smoke-filled room, actually. I can definitely see why they would call this a meal in itself because it almost is. It’s more smoky this way than when brewed western style, I assume because of the zavarka. The raspberries give a funny tart sort of flavour too that reminds me of hibiscus. I understand now why hibiscus is so often used to imitate berries. The difference here is, though, that his actually tastes nice. Whereas hibiscus is quite simply, in a word, undrinkable.

I would be hard pressed indeed to say which of these two styles I preferered. The western style gives a very good cup and it’s more than good enough for everyday use. The russian style seems more luxurious. To be reserved for special occasions, like when you want to be a little extra good to yourself or when you need a little extra comfort.

Or a celebration. It kind of tastes a little bit of birthday.

Having had both the western and the russian style, I’m ending up at a solid 90 points.

Traveling Tea Box Tea!!!!

This is a pyramid bag and the leaves look very broken. Pleasant bergamot scent :) I used 8 oz of water since Ricky’s note said the recommended 3.7 oz produced a bitter brew. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting much.

The minute the water hit this, it instantly became dark!! I was preparing myself for a STRONG BREW and I got out my half and half and sugar. I steeped for 4 minutes and after adding my milk and sugar it looked more like coffee than tea! Yikes!

Once I took a sip I was so very pleasantly surprised! No bitterness, very nice tea flavor and the bergamot is soft (I wouldn’t want it any other way in the morning – I save the super bergamot ones for afternoon). I am really enjoying it! if you want to have some tea bags around for portability and convenience, this one from Lupicia is excellent!! This company is definitely going on my radar for future orders – they have some EXTREMELY unique teas! ORZO CIOCCOLATA anyone!?!? (ancient barley from Italy which tastes like hazelnut and chocolate – gotta try it!) and being the froofy lady I am, I squealed over the sugar charms – how nice to have for company!!

I decided this may be a good one for resteeping, so I gave it a shot (another 8 oz water and 5 minutes steeping time). It is weaker tea wise but a little more fruity – still very tasty and enjoyable.

I love when my preconceptions are completely and totally wrong :)

Backlogging. Drank this last night while I was on call. With this new schedule 4am-6/7pm, I hope I won’t switch to coffee.

This tea seems to be regarded by some as one of the most chocolaty teas out there. So, being the chocoholic that I am, I had to try it. :P

The tea itself smells chocolaty, with a hint of maltiness and a touch of roasty.

I originally steeped it for about 6 mins, but it was still pretty light, so I left it in for an extra couple of minutes while I let the water cool down to not-burning temperature.

The tea tastes chocolaty, as one would expect. Not as chocolaty as a chocolate bar, but still chocolaty. :) There’s a hint of malt in there too, which adds to the tastiness.

It’s nice and smooth, which I like, but it doesn’t really have a strong flavor. I think next time I’ll add more leaf and see how it goes. What’s there is yummy, but I would like it to be a bit more flavorful. (Could be that I used the not-boiling water at work instead of actually boiling water, as is suggested.) But I definitely like it, and I can see myself having this in the morning (when caffeine is needed) quite often. :)

Last night I didn’t really fall asleep until around 12:30. This was as much because I was reading something interesting than anything else. And it really wouldn’t have been a big deal. But then, The Pregnancy woke me around 4:15, and it kept me up for the rest of the morning. I finally threw in the towel a little before six, and went to read until it was a reasonable time to get ready to go into work.

So, I felt totally justified in making a big cup of ryokucha to take into work this morning. That, and Spoon’s The Underdog, has made this morning less overwhelming.

So the tasting note? It’s really good tea. My favorite genmaicha at this point, is Den’s, and though this is really, Really good, I’m not sure it beats out Den’s. I think I prefer the extra roastiness of Den’s, though now I really want to make a small cup of each and try them side by side.

However, if I were in the mood for a genmaicha, but wanted something on more of the tea side of the spectrum than the toasty side, I’d definitely go with this. And I’m super pleased to have gotten a tin of this to keep coming back to it over the next few weeks/months. Good stuff!

Sorry Irish Breakfast, I wish I had you for St. Patty’s, but alas the English are just too tasty. Also the only Breakfast tea I had in my cupboard this morning.

Here, have some Joyce to feel better!

“When I makes tea I makes tea, as old mother Grogan said. And when I makes water I makes water … Begob, ma’am, says Mrs. Cahill, God send you don’t make them in the one pot.”

Happy St. Patrick’s everyone!

Finally found the optimal time and temp for this tea. A delicious cup to start my day.

I made a pot of this to drink while I started reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I had maybe one or two sips and thought, ‘mmmmmm…. tea!’ before I forgot about it and only remembered it four chapters later when it had of course gone ice cold.

Waste of tea, but awesome book!

I can’t remember who it was that I saw mentioning having liked it (JacquelineM, was it you?) or on whose recommendation they had read it, but whoever you both are, THANK YOU!

Ran out of Second Cup Holiday Tea (but then, it IS March…) so I’ve moved on to Twinings Lady Grey. Good stuff, but it’s way too delicate for the milk and sugar I put in it. Next time, lemon juice. (Note to self: acquire lemon.) Ordinarily I prefer stronger teas, but this is a lovely tea with a beautiful scent.

Still working my way through The Jade Teapot samples.

This tea has a nice citrus smell to it that isn’t too overpowering. But I do wish I could smell the earthy/grassy scent of the green tea a little more though.

With the name Liquid Jade, you’d think this tea would have a nice green tint to it, but it has a much more yellow color to the brew. The bergamot gives this tea a nice citrus flavor with a touch of honey, and I can taste a slight bit of grassy flavor from the green tea.

The resteeps on this tea are crazy, I’m on cup 5 and I’m just now noticing the tea being lighter in color and flavor, the green is almost non-existent and I can only taste the citrus now. I could definitely get a few more steeps out of this.

I don’t think I would drink this on a daily basis just because I like the grassy/earthy flavor from green teas. But this is definitely a nice tea and is a good change of pace. Plus, this is a great tea if you are wanting to find a nice tasting tea that will last you many many steepings.

I can only agree with the above. I like to heat my milk separately, whizz it up and then add a little boiling water and then the tea bag. It tastes really luxurious and not at all artificial.

Dao Ren Mao Feng, raccolto Aprile 2009, generoso regalo di Claudio Rubcich (http://www.biblioteq.it), 2 grammi in Zhong 7oz (~210ml), acqua Sant’Anna sorgente Rebruant 60°C.

- Prima infusione 2’:
Il colore si presenta di un giallo paglierino appena accennato con riflessi verdolini.
Mentre si versa nel bicchiere emergono sentori salmastri, che subito si confermano alla prima olfazione: mineralità marina, scoglio, sassi bagnati fanno da substrato a ricordi più dolci floreali.
All’assaggio è una esplosione di sapidità, quasi salato, che ci conferma quanto già avvertito al naso. In bocca il liquore si espande dolcemente facendo bella mostra della sua sapidità che subito lascia il posto ad una morbidezza estrema per tornare sul finale sostenuta in un lunghissimo retro olfatto. L’impressione è come di avere in bocca onde di un mare dolce e fiorito che lambiscono le papille gustative alternando sapidità e dolcezza.

- Seconda Infusione: 2’
Il colore è di un bel giallo/verde di buona concentrazione.
Al naso è meno intenso e pungente, meno minerale rispetto alla precedente infusione; emergono nettissimi ricordi di fiori di campo e una soffusa mineralità, meno marina e più terragna, in sottofondo.
In bocca questa seconda infusione è espressione fedele di quanto visto e sentito al naso: troviamo un liquore più pacato e più equilibrato; si espande in bocca più lentamente, senza picchi, senza esagerazioni, ma con piacevole lentezza porta nel cavo orale il suo equilibrio tra sapidità e dolcezza floreale. Il finale ancora molto lungo inizia a far sentire una dolce trama tannica che tra le maglie porta un lieve ricordo finale di caffè verde.