Eight at the Fort, you win.
I dropped the temperature like it was hot [hahaha, I crack myself up] down to 180 and the difference was exponentially better. There’s still some bitterness to it that rides on the swallow, but it’s much weaker in this cup, and therefore more manageable for me. I get some astringency from it, but not as much as I have from some other teas.
There’s some maltiness at parts, but it’s very light and it comes and goes. On the whole, I’d almost call it yeasty. In fact, it kind of reminds me of bread. It’s got a savory quality to it, but also a fleeting sweetness. Kind of like challah.
Eight at the Fort is a nice, solid tea. It’s not plain, but in the way that it doesn’t rely on any additional flavoring or frills like other teas do, it stands firm. It’s your favorite cable-knit sweater. The kind of tea that you drink when you aren’t necessarily seeking anything specific, but want something you like.
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I suspect I might really like this one. Shame international shipping is always so damn expensive. Even in non-stingy mode it’s always more than I’m willing to pay.
Sigh. Yes, unfortunately shipping fees are quite the non-silent killer. Makes it difficult to justify too many good things.
Sadly, I use shipping costs the other way – to justify buying many things at once. Need 2 teas from a place? Well, gotta pay shipping anyway so I’ll get 8.
And we won’t even talk about when they offer free shipping after a certain amount.
As soon as it has to cross the Atlantic, shipping costs sky rocket. Teaspring is really the only american based site I can justify shopping at. Their shipping rates are significantly lower than most in spite of them shipping directly from China. Or possibly because of it, Idk. I tend to… ahem go over the free shipping limit there too though. :)
Just been turned off shopping there the last time when I received a package with one of those customs slips on it where you list the content and such and they had put ‘card – $10’ and checked the ‘gift’ box on a package containing $70+ worth of tea. I wonder what would have happened if the customs people had decided to check! O.o
@Auggy Oh, believe me. I have no problems justifying buying 5x the tea for domestic shipping. [The free shipping after $x gets me nearly every time, too. It is extremely detrimental.] It’s paying $20 to ship, like, a DVD, where I start to pull out the oh HELL no.
@Angrboda Whoa! I’m sure it would have been tied up for much longer than necessary. I used to work at a store where we got a lot of tile and whatnot shipped in from Italy and customs are a BITCH.
I’ve only ordered a few things from other countries and thankfully haven’t had a problem (well, not with customs) but when I travel with tea in my carry on, I’m always worried I’ll get questioned. I think that means I’m a dork (if the whole “traveling with tea thing” didn’t push me over that mark for non-tea people anyway).
I can’t wait until November starts. New budget month. I’m so buying teas. It’s going to be dangerous.
Ah yes. My credit card’s already doing some stretches. Getting ready for the big game and all.
Sweet, I’m so glad this worked, I’ll have to give it a shot myself asap.
I agree with the whole shipping costs thing, it’s the main reason I’ve been unable to try teas from otherwise good places like Rishi or Samovar. I mean forget crossing the Atlantic, at Samovar crossing the frickin’ border automatically jacks the price up to $40 minimum for shipping alone (I still can’t get over that).
I suspect I might really like this one. Shame international shipping is always so damn expensive. Even in non-stingy mode it’s always more than I’m willing to pay.
Sigh. Yes, unfortunately shipping fees are quite the non-silent killer. Makes it difficult to justify too many good things.
Sadly, I use shipping costs the other way – to justify buying many things at once. Need 2 teas from a place? Well, gotta pay shipping anyway so I’ll get 8.
And we won’t even talk about when they offer free shipping after a certain amount.
As soon as it has to cross the Atlantic, shipping costs sky rocket. Teaspring is really the only american based site I can justify shopping at. Their shipping rates are significantly lower than most in spite of them shipping directly from China. Or possibly because of it, Idk. I tend to… ahem go over the free shipping limit there too though. :)
Just been turned off shopping there the last time when I received a package with one of those customs slips on it where you list the content and such and they had put ‘card – $10’ and checked the ‘gift’ box on a package containing $70+ worth of tea. I wonder what would have happened if the customs people had decided to check! O.o
@Auggy Oh, believe me. I have no problems justifying buying 5x the tea for domestic shipping. [The free shipping after $x gets me nearly every time, too. It is extremely detrimental.] It’s paying $20 to ship, like, a DVD, where I start to pull out the oh HELL no.
@Angrboda Whoa! I’m sure it would have been tied up for much longer than necessary. I used to work at a store where we got a lot of tile and whatnot shipped in from Italy and customs are a BITCH.
I’ve only ordered a few things from other countries and thankfully haven’t had a problem (well, not with customs) but when I travel with tea in my carry on, I’m always worried I’ll get questioned. I think that means I’m a dork (if the whole “traveling with tea thing” didn’t push me over that mark for non-tea people anyway).
I can’t wait until November starts. New budget month. I’m so buying teas. It’s going to be dangerous.
Ah yes. My credit card’s already doing some stretches. Getting ready for the big game and all.
Sweet, I’m so glad this worked, I’ll have to give it a shot myself asap.
I agree with the whole shipping costs thing, it’s the main reason I’ve been unable to try teas from otherwise good places like Rishi or Samovar. I mean forget crossing the Atlantic, at Samovar crossing the frickin’ border automatically jacks the price up to $40 minimum for shipping alone (I still can’t get over that).