350 Tasting Notes
I was inspired by Brenden’s “Art of Darkness” blend to try mixing this with Tisano cacao shells. So, I started with 1.5tsp of this shou in a brewing basket and gave it a quick rinse with boiling water. Then I added 1.5tsp of the cacao shells, put it in my 10oz tea mug, steeped western-style with boiling water. I did… 4 steeps: 3min, 5min, a long time (I walked away and forgot about it), and 10min. It was really delicious – chocolately and creamy and a bit earthy. I’ve steeped cacao shells with chocolatey black teas like Laoshan Black, and it’s pretty good, but I think this is my favourite combination so far. Highly recommended!
I’m finally breaking into the Wymm Tea samples I got a while back. :) I have to agree with everyone who has complimented the packaging – it’s just lovely. 6g in the gaiwan, one rinse with boiling water, and I think the first steep was boiling too, then 90 degrees after that. A whole bunch of roughly 10 second steeps, and now I’m up to about 20-25 seconds.
This is a lovely clean and fresh-tasting sheng. It causes a bit of tingling on my tongue, maybe a slight bitterness that’s more of a refreshing feeling than anything unpleasant, and then gradually a sweet aftertaste has been building up in the back of my throat. I’m having trouble identifying any specific flavour notes besides “delicious sheng” but I’d say there are definitely some grassy and maybe some fruity notes in there. I’m pretty sure I’m at least 8 steeps in and this is still definitely going strong. Yummmm.
This is a very nice chai blend. I tried it straight at first, at it was quite good – robust, malty assam CTC base, good blend of spices (lots of cinnamon, cardamom, a bit of heat from the ginger and pepper). Then I added some sweetener and milk, which made it even better. Tasty tasty. :)
Preparation
Off topic: You guys, I am SO obsessed with the Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording right now. Ugh, go listen to it so I’ll have someone to geek out with. :)
Instead of buying more Whispering Pines tea I thought I’d drink some of the stuff I already own. This is an interesting and delicious blend – I love the roasted cedar and vanilla.
Another sample from Nicole! I had this earlier today, and it was a good mid-day pick-me-up. It’s a very rich, dark, flavourful tea (I also steeped the whole 3.3g sample at once in my 10oz mug, so that might have contributed to the intensity). To me it tasted malty, earthy, spicy, a little fruity… quite complex and interesting. This one might be an eventual order. :)
Preparation
YUMMMM. Oh, I really like this one. :) The dry leaf smells intensely of vanilla, sugar, marshmallow. Once the hot water hits, that continues but the roasty toasty notes of the genmaicha are added in. The aroma translates well into the flavour, and the tea is quite sweet (I actually pulled up the website to see if there was some kind of sweetener in this) and creamy and delicious. The green tea base is subtle and in the background – no bitterness or astringency.
Flavors: Creamy, Marshmallow, Sweet, Toasted Rice, Vanilla
Preparation
This is a pretty good cold steep, tastes (unsurprisingly) like ginger and pear, with some apple and cinnamon in the background. It tastes like a fruit tisane though – there’s enough going on flavour-wise that I think the white tea is just drowned out. So, I’m not sure I’d buy it again, since there seems little point in paying extra for white tea in a blend if you can’t even taste it.
I cold steeped this overnight and it was quite smoky. Like, not quite lapsang levels of smokiness, but definitely maybe-this-got-contaminated-with-some-lapsang kind of smokiness. It was ok, I had it with some sausages and veggies for lunch which kinda worked out, but… meh. So then I took the steeped leaves (probably 4-5g) and decided to try resteeping them with boiling water (10oz mug steeping) and after 3min I had quite dark, malty, smoky, slightly piney brew. Not bad. Then steeped them again for 4min, and it was very similar but lighter. I don’t know, it’s ok but… I’ve had other keemuns I like better.
I guess it doesn’t matter too much since Teayama seems to have gone quite decisively out of business. They might have actually been sued out of existence by Teavana for trademark infringement! (http://www.cba.org/CBA/sections_IP/IP_CLS_2014Sept/Default_Judgment.aspx) Fascinating.
My goodness, what corners of the earth has teavana not reached? also, I’ve never thought of cold-steeping a smokey tea! interesting.
When I picked it out to cold steep I was thinking, “there’s a black tea I haven’t had in a while”. So I was a bit surprised by the smoke, though I definitely noticed it last time I had this tea as well. :) I like blending smoky teas with chai or spicy teas, which might be what I try next with this one.