New Tasting Notes

More Dryad. This one is pleasant but overall a bit too light on flavor. I do enjoy the hazelnut and cream together, it reminds me a bit of chestnut cream in a fluffy French pastry. The cinnamon is nice enough. I just feel like it needs more of everything.

Sipdown (2992)!

Currently sitting in a hotel room (travelling for work), and in this moment I am deeply thankful for the fact I brought a kettle and a bunch of tea with me. After a long, cramped flight I am feeling really stiff and this first sip of properly brewed tea is doing SO MUCH good. With that said, the sips after the first one are… fine.

It’s certainly not a bad tasting tea, but I’ve tried this one in the past and something about the fruit flavour combined with the rather pine-y and herbaceous notes of the rosemary just doesn’t totally mesh for me. It introduces a savory quality that almost makes the cherry notes come off more like really sweet tomatoes. Now, I don’t really mind tomato in tea generally speaking, but in this case it’s just a little uncanny. Especially when the aftertaste lingers so long after each sip.

But tea is tea and in this moment I’m still thankful for the cup of something warm!

One of the teas @Ashmanra has picked up in the quest to find me a replacement for London Cuppa (thanks!). I would describe it as aggressively okay. It’s fine, I’ll have no problem drinking the whole box, but a new regular it is not. I might have liked it better if I didn’t already have the much nicer Yorkshire Gold (also a gift from Ashmanra. If you think there’s a pattern there, you are correct). The main good thing about Yorkshire Red is how available it is – our regular grocery stores have it, no hunting, no paying for shipping, just grab it at the same time as I buy everything else. But I find it’s worth my while to make a special trip to get the Yorkshire Gold from the one store in town that carries it, if I’m getting a bagged tea.

Had an Amazon gift card. I realized some of the Amazon tea vendors I’ve relied on in the past are kind of sketchy – Goarteastore, Fullchea, and the like. I will attest, however, that I have had pretty good luck with Goarteastore. Only a couple of bad buys out of quite a few over the years. Which Amazon vendor to buy from, then?

I decided to go with Tian Hu Shan, as they seem to be pretty reputable. Know more for gigantic tins of low-priced jasmine tea, maybe, but an established brand with some street cred.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this Bai Mu Dan to be more than decent. Of course, at $19.99 for 4 ounces it is not exactly a budget buy and I would expect it to be pretty good.

A little minty, a little fruity (mostly grapes, I think), some grassy notes giving a slightly bitter edge, and finally, a surprising amount of toastiness. Every Bai Mu Dan I’ve had previously is of the fairly light and more delicate sort, and I’ve never noticed any toastiness in the mix – but I like the addition. Makes it a bit more substantial. Maybe a slightly lower grade of leaf than others? I don’t think so, as the leaves look pretty comparable to the fragrant, intact, and lovely leaves I’ve sipped in the past. Maybe a slight variation in processing technique, or just a garden with more toasty flavor notes? I don’t know, but I like it! I lucked out and scored some good tea on Amazon.

So old it’s practically vintage – this bag must be from at least ten years ago. I think I never finished it because the black tea in this tends to hurt my stomach. I wanted something very fall-themed today; I am not ready for summer to be over so I’m trying to make easing into fall pleasant. This has held its flavor pretty well! Made as an oat milk latte with honey. I’m getting clove, cinnamon, a malty base, and sweet pumpkin. Leaving my rating the same, as it seems unfair to change it when the blend is so old.

Gongfu!

I’m not sure whether I went too light on the tea leaf, the water temp, or some combo of both, but I found this session really mild tasting. Smooth but very gentle and delicate, with notes of linden flowers, elderflower, and apple skins and a sort of cleanly earthy and crisp, mineral finish. What I’m enjoying most is the lingering aftertaste, which is a touch fruitier with a bit of a honeycomb taste. It’s not bad at all, but I just find myself wanting more from it.

I do feel like it’s ultimately my steeping that needs tweaking, though. Sometimes I get a bit scared with dancong oolongs because when they’re bad, they can be REALLY bad. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here, so I played it a bit too conservative…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOEfQGAicC6/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FljXaQZLgDk&ab_channel=DAISYWORLDVEVO

This tea should be called “Red Fruits Punch”—to be served sweetened and chilled!
If one adds a bunch of sugar (or whatever one’s preferred sweetener is) and CHILLS this for a few hours, it is a delightful cold beverage. The flavor profile is completely different than when it’s merely cooled to room temp, UNsweetened.
It’s still hard to tell exactly what it IS—perhaps that’s why they kept it as Mango Melange—but it’s cold and tasty. I’ve revised my opinion to Recommended.

Decaf & Herbal TTB, tea #10

Well, maybe my preparation wasn’t good choice — I left the bag all time in.

And it was like a plain hibiscus to me. Slightly tart, very fruity, but no particular fruit to point out. Do I need to steep it shorter to detect any fruits?

The taste is bitter and citrusy, a bit like an IPA. In its strong and pleasant aroma, it brings notes of bubblegum, meat broth, bog, forest floor, and candy.

I really like the smooth and thick texture here. The taste is also very satisfying, blending vegetal, citrusy, and grainy notes with a cooling finish.

This tea now has more of the standard aged white tea character and as a result may be a bit less distinctive. Nevertheless, it is still very aromatic and sweet. It reminds me of mince pie, autumn leaf pile, wood, citrus fruits and dried fruits.

[Spring 2023 harvest]

I really like the complex aromatics of this tea as well as its bubbly mouthfeel. The cha qi is awakening as it brings a quality of presence.

Dry leaves smell perfumy with notes of spices, brownies, butter, bread crust, cherry, and flowers. After the rinse, I get hints of raspberry, wood, and petrichor, but it’s very flowery overall.

The tea is thick, warming, and mineral. Its taste is sweet, woody, and herbaceous with a peach flavour at times. There is a pungent sweet aftertaste that also bring a nectar-like flavour.

Shopping at TWG was slightly annoying because I picked four teas off their tea menu, but the bill rang up like £10 higher than it should have been. I pointed it out to the employee, and they said, “Oh those menus are three years old.” So their teas ended up being pretty pricey, especially considering they were rooibos blends. Anyway, this tea reminds me of Harney’s herbal holiday tea, which is one I don’t enjoy. It has a strange murkiness that’s I guess from the spice combination.

Green grapes, with a hint of fermented fruit strength/alcohol, and maybe some osmanthus florals as well. Reminiscent of the Schedule White minis I recently tried, but much much much weaker. I really needed to search for these flavors. This is some weak and not very memorable tea.

I was sad to remember that I had a second mini to sample after I tried the first one, but I figured maybe the tea would redeem itself as they often do – My first impressions of a tea don’t always last. But now I think I can proclaim this tea as a real dud.

The potential is there, maybe, as like I said it shares characteristics with the wonderful Schedule White tea (which costs like seven or eight times as much but seems at least 20 times stronger). Maybe this is just a weak undesirable picking/flush or a bad growing season or something.

Beautiful fall sneak-preview day at Shabby House, rain cleaning the dust off my red bell pepper plant, temps in the upper 60’s. It feels so good to swap out to less summery tea flavors! (Not quite ready for pumpkin and gingerbread, but it won’t be long.)

I brought a macaron tea bag out of seasonal retirement today and remembered why it doesn’t get a lot of airplay around here: this flavor is touchy. Vanilla and cinnamon, perfect for the weather; the mate gets bitter if you oversteep, which I did. Milk covers a multitude of mistakes. I’ll just have a spoonful at the ready next time.