Random Steepings

I found the best way to sip down on the teas that I have been avoiding for that reason or another – I take them to our cabin where my husband and I spend most of the year’s weekends when the weather allows.

The weather KIND OF allowed us this weekend to venture staying for one night, so I grabbed a few tins of tea that needs finishing off badly.

I managed to finish Della Terra’s Christmas Tradition ;) I am close to downing Adagio’s Chorange Pu Erh and Earl Grey Lavender. I also made a little dent in Yunomi’s Sencha of the Summer Sun and Della Terra’s Cinnamon Bun.

So, yeah, that’s how sipping down gets done – by giving myself very limited choices ;D

Time for the side-by-side comparison of the vanilla black teas I currently have in my possession.

Up for the challenge are Bayswater Vanilla Cream, Nina’s Paris Je t’aime, and Tea Desire Velvety Vanilla.

I thought the first two would be the most similar, but smelling the dry leaf back-to-back, I’ve discovered that Bayswater’s has a smoky undertone that I never noticed before. Must be the base. But both have a vanilla caramel vibe. Je t’aime is heavier on the caramel. Velvety Vanilla, on the other hand, is like a watered down vanilla.

Of the three, Je t’aime is the smoothest. I can even detect fruity undertones whereas the other two have none of that whatsoever. Je t’aime’s base is the smoothest. Velvety Vanilla is astringent, to be expected from the Ceylon and Darjeeling, and Vanilla Cream is heavier, smokier, and thicker.

It’s amazing how you view teas in a different light when you compare them to others. Now that I’ve compared them side-by-side, I can definitely see that Nina’s reigns supreme. It’s softer, like a caramel cloud, and the base doesn’t wreak havoc on the whole flavour profile. I’m not even sure which one would get the silver medal. From memory, Vanilla Cream takes cream better, probably due to its heavier base.

So, now that I’ve cleared up that, in my opinion, Je t’aime gets the gold medal here, I guess in this case, the price really does reflect quality. But of course, remember, that isn’t always the case due to premium pricing/price-quality signaling! Still not sure I’d repurchase any of the three, as I’m still looking for a vanilla tea that is heavier on the vanilla, and closer to vanilla bean.

And as a side note, thanks again to VariaTEA for the sample of Je t’aime! It was sipped down during this experiment, and I’m so happy I was able to try it.

1 tsp Lapsang Souchong (Silk Road)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
hearty splash of homemade strawberry syrup

I’m not sure what to think of this. It’s not horrible, but it’s not exactly tasty either? The spice of the pepper flakes goes great with the smoky lapsang, and the strawberry both heightens the fire and dulls the burn (how is that even possible?!), but strawberry with smoke? It’s like bacon dipped in strawberry jam at breakfast, only not, because bacon dipped in jam is amazeballs, but lapsang with strawberry? not so much. The strawberry’s sweetness makes the smoke stick too much, which is weird because I mix lapsang and maple syrup allll the time and it doesn’t do that? Hmm.

I can easily finish this cup, but I’m not sure I’d do the combo again. red pepper + lapsang + maple? totally! strawberry’s just….odd..

I have a tin that holds various amounts of various Earl Greys. It’s currently the only EG in my cupboard, so I’m finally drinking it. It’s actually nicer than I thought it would be. I was thinking it would have too much bergamot, but at least this cup is decently balanced between the base tea and citrus flavors.

I’ve been MIA for a long time, and to be honest I don’t know whether that’s (quite) over. I’ve had a lot on in the last year, I guess. I’ve moved into my own flat (and I’m very much enjoying living with absolutely no-one, let me tell you), but getting to that point was a 9-month thriller with more ups and downs than the average rollercoaster. I came out of it feeling pretty rough. Then there’s my job, which I dislike intensely, but still haven’t managed to change. All that kind of took a backseat while I was moving, because I felt like I had enough on right at that moment. Maybe next year I’ll be able to focus on improving things there. Other, mostly random, shit has happened along the way. I’m not going to bore you with it.

What it all adds up to is that I haven’t even opened my tea cupboard since I took ownership of my flat back in…May? I put the tea in there, closed the door, and haven’t even looked at it again since. For a while, I didn’t even feel the loss. I’ve still been drinking tea, but mostly just bagged black (Twinings English Breakfast or Everyday) that I keep in a different cupboard (because it shouldn’t be in with the proper stuff, am I right?) I’ve also been drinking those few that I have left at work, although generally I’ve stuck to one until it’s gone (since the beginning of the year, I think I’ve only drank Pekoe Orange Blossom Oolong, Pekoe Japanese Cherry, Bluebird Rhubarb and Custard, and a few Teavivre samples?) It got to the point where I would actually feel anxious about finishing a tin or bag, because then I’d have to find something else to drink, and that’s a very, very odd thing to feel anxious about. Particularly when you love tea like I do. I think it’s somehow all tied up with how I feel about work, like maybe I’m projecting my anxiety about/dislike of my job, onto the tea. Don’t know. Don’t really want to know.

Today was one of those days, except that, for the first time in ages, it didn’t feel so bad. I picked out a tea with no great enthusiasm, but by the end of the cup I was feeling enthusiastic again. Maybe because I liked it when I didn’t expect to? But it’s not like that’s never happened before. Then I came back on here, and I read some of your notes, and in some ways it felt like emerging from a dense fog.

I think I’m almost back.

I think I might look in the tea cupboard this evening. I might even actually buy some tea this weekend.

This is fucking fantastic.

Unless it’s just an illusion. Then it’s not.

Laoshan Black /Verdant & Herbal Infusions Orange Cream Lapacho

I heard LB was great wit HI’s Cacao but I was out so I thought I’d try lapacho. The TL:DR is that it SMELT amazing but tasted barky. I just don’t like lapacho I guess. If you did, you might like this mix?

Tea 102: Regions of The Tea World – Lump Post…

I don’t have the energy to write out a post for each of the three weeks of class that I’ve had, and I’m kind of dying on the inside right now because of the events that took place during class tonight (the third week of class) so instead here’s a lumped together jumble of notes from each week…

Tea 102: Week One (CHINA)
- Teas: Pai Mu Tan, Silver Needle, Dragonwell, Light Oolong, Keemun, LS, and Pu’erh
- Great class for this week! Got to talk in depth about yixing and gaiwans!
- Sadly, the teas came late (the day before Week Two’s class)…
- So, the cuppings weren’t done on time…
- Overall, pretty tasty! I liked pretty well everything except the Dragonwell
- LS tasted a little weak, not sure why…

Tea 102: Week Two (JAPAN)
- Teas: Sencha, Gyokuro, Matcha, Hojicha, Genmaicha
- Sencha was the most disappointing of the five teas, but none were bad
- In particular, I quite liked the Genmaicha and Gyokuro! Very fresh!
- Matcha was very lumpy/chalky, but not a bad flavour
- Going through the Japanese tea history makes me want a new tattoo
- An “Ichigo Ichei” tattoo!

Tea 102: Week Three (INDIA/SRI LANKA)
- Sri Lankan Teas (that I had): Kandy, Dimbula, Nuwara Eliya, Rahuna, Uva
- Indian Teas (that I had): 1st Flush Darjeeling, 2nd Flush Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiri
- This week was a MESS
- 1/3 the Sri Lankan teas were not included in my package
- And one of the Indian teas was missing as well
- So couldn’t do cuppings for those teas
- Because of freezing rain, there were frequent outtages ALL day as well
- I literally finished the cuppings ten minutes BEFORE class started
- From Sri Lanka, my favourites were Kandy and Uva; a sweeter, less harsh profile = yum!
- I loved getting to try the different regions
- Odds are I’ve had ‘em before but not known the specific regions I was drinking
- As a lot of Ceylonese teas are JUST called “Ceylon”
- Indian cuppings were nothing new: obvs the Assam wasn’t my favourite
- Did probably the MOST unproffesional thing I’ve ever done in class though
- I ACCIDENTALLY sent a link to a tumblr post to the whole class
- The link said “I need to know how many donuts you can fit on your erect penis”
- And then my connection immediately cut out…
- So… fuck!
- How do you recover from that!?
- Anyway; I missed class almost all of class, and fuck my life.
- So that’s how this week went…

Here’s the infamous post that’s caused the headache…

http://stability.tumblr.com/post/138064167226/i-need-to-know

I may be done drinking tea tonight; switching to alcohol to numb the pain…