3294 Tasting Notes
Why don’t I drink more green tea?
I always love it when I drink it, and I used to drink green tea every day, but I don’t love it the way I love Black/Red Tea. I guess that’s the reason.
Plus I can’t drink green tea on an empty stomach…there’s always that…
But anyway, this is a lovely one, more delicate in appearance than Dragonwell, with a clean vegetal taste, a buttery aroma, and a thickness that builds on the tongue, sip by sip.
Much gratitude to Angel and Teavivre for the sample.
Speaking of Teavivre, I finally got my sipdown extravaganza down to below 200 teas in my cupboard (190, actually), so now I’m allowed to order from one company per month, with wild abandon. This month it was Teavivre, as their black teas have been missing from my cupboard for quite some time, and I’m getting low on black teas anyway!
sipdown – 189
I enjoy Hei cha. I don’t drink it every day, but generally speaking, when I order from YS, I like add some Heicha samples to my order. They are nice to have around for variety, and not expensive.
This one has a bit of a sour rye bread flavor, which I find typical of this type of tea. It’s not sour in a bad way, and this quality is part of what makes it interesting, palette cleansing, and different from both Black and Red teas. Lightly smokey pine, tobacco, & a sweet tart aftertaste with a lingering juiciness complete the picture & make this a pleasant end to my tea drinking day.
I love it, my latest tea obsession… I like how the right amount you can get a good amount of fruitiness against the sour notes & with just a tad of fermentation taste so it’s interesting. And good quality experience for cheap relatively to puerh. In my limited experience ofc
Looks like Scott added a bunch since my last visit (it has been awhile). This one has probably been my favorite so far
http://yunnansourcing.com/en/liu-an-liu-bao-tian-jian-and-other-hei-cha/1880-2010-bai-sha-xi-tian-jian-hunan-hand-roasted-hei-cha-50-grams.html
I’m currently chomping on chawangshops affairs & will have some reviews up soon(ish) but that looks so nice. Heicha is great
Thanks again to Angel & Teavivre for this sample.
This is such a beautiful and delicate looking tea, with a flavor that is vegetal, mineral, even floral, and a little nutty as well. I shared steepings of it this afternoon with 2 of my college harp students who came over to work on a duet, and we all enjoy several rounds.
Thank you Angel & Teavivre for sharing samples of this year’s green teas. It is always a special treat to receive these teas, and they are always generous with the quantities. Since I had 2 of each tea, I shared the 2nd set with some friends from China that had not heard of this company. Needless to say, they were extremely impressed with the quality of the teas, and commented on how long it has been since they have had truly excellent Chinese green teas. I have bragged to them about Teavivre before, and now that they have sampled their teas, I’m sure they will be placing an order (if they haven’t already).
I thoroughly enjoyed my sample! So beautiful to behold, so tasty and fresh tasting. I don’t drink green teas as often as I used to, but this tea had me asking, “why not?”
I came across a sample of this from Sil, and since I’m still working on clearing out all my samples and smaller quantities, it was a good day for this one, going with short steepings.
The early steeps were wood, with a matte finish (don’t ask me what that means)
Then wood and earth melded, and the color was a rich mahogany.
I didn’t take extensive notes, but I can say that this tea developed a satisfying depth, mildly bitter & almost coffee like in depth, though not in taste.
That’s all I got! Sipdown!
no..just haven’t had time to actually sit and focus on it. Hoping that maybe i can start setting aside time every sunday or something… now that our life is starting to settle down….been a bit of a crazy time with the wedding, the dog, work etc… starting to slow down heh
I hear what you’re saying. it’s so hard to find time to JUST drink tea, and some teas really require that, at least in my life.
Roasted Chicory Root tea – deep, dark, rich, bitter, earthy… the ultimate coffee substitute, although I don’t actually drink coffee, but still…
I brewed it strong.
I basically made caffeine free ‘iced coffee’ with it, and added coconut milk & maple syrup.
If I’d thought about it, I could have put it in the blender with a frozen banana, and made a latte…
Tasty
Sipdown!
Ooo, I just had a chicory root tea that I reviewed for Sororitea Sisters. Not sure when it will post, but I am not a coffee drinker and I liked it. It has the coffee aroma,mbut not the bitterness. I may have to order some for my coffee lovers.
chicory used to grow all over my garden, but I never dug up any of the roots. Now they don’t grow in my yard anymore (it figures).
I have, however, dug up dandelion roots & roasted them for tea. It’s a lot of work, with all the scrubbing & chopping & roasting, but I end up with a year’s supply, and I enjoy a cup in the late afternoon/evening when I’m trying to not imbibe anymore caffeine :)
I’m not a huge Dancong fan. When it comes to oolongs, I tend to prefer the more caramelly roasty Wuyi oolong-types. Also, with most dancongs, I tend to prefer the aroma of the tea more than the actual tea.
I know, that’s terrible, right? This one is the same. It’s probably my fault, because although I try to keep the steepings short, sometimes I forget to count, or whatever, and then I end up with bitter swill, and it only takes a few seconds for that to happen.
So, the aroma of this one is sweet & peachy, actually quite lovely. The first cup was also very nice, with a light fruit liquor. The 2nd cup still smelled wonderful, but I accidentally gave it 15 seconds, instead of 10, and there was a sharp bitterness at the end of each sip. For the 3rd steep I tried to back the time up to 10 seconds again, but unfortunately the damage was done and the bitterness remained.
Oh well…
Traveling Tea is a teashop less than a mile from my house, and my favorite teas from that shop are custom blends that the owner, Kateri, creates. Both Sil & I have sung the praises of the Pumpkin Ginger Spice blend that Kateri makes every fall, from locally raised, roasted, and dehydrated pumpkins! That tea is pure awesomeness!
So here is another of Kateri’s blends, a new one! I I should mention up front that I’m not a huge fan of guayusa or rooibos, and my first sip, in fact my first inhale, told me I wasn’t really going to enjoy this tea much.
However, it actully is very enjoyable. The texture is creamy, although I didn’t add any type of ‘milk’ to it, and the blend of flavors is nicely done, so that no one flavor stands out over all. It kind of reminds me of ovaltine, with it’s mix of cacao hulls & vanilla, and there is a nuttiness to it as well. It’s not a bold cup of tea, but the dandelion and chicory add a bass note, so it’s not wimpy either. I dlidn’t add any sweetener, however there’s a little sarsparilla & maple in there, and really it was sweet enough.
If you’re interested in checking out the teas Kateri offers, here’s a link to her website:
https://squareup.com/market/natures-notion-llc-d-slash-b-slash-a-traveling-tea/
Thank you to my sister Sil for sending this sample my way.
I’m usually not a fan of Ceylon teas, but contrary to most, this one didn’t have that typical iced tea flavor to it, and was enjoyable to drink with a certain richness that made me think of dry roasted nuts. It is rather on the astringent side, however, which I don’t mind so much, except that it tends to hit my tummy in a rough way, and in this case, in spite of a full breakfast, I could still feel it’s effects, but not so much as to lose my breakfasts or anything like that, LOL.
Wild abandon. :)
And yay you for getting those numbers down. It can be a challenge.
I love Wild Abandon!!
and yeah, getting the numbers down has been a long process. I think I started my Sipdown Extravaganza a few years ago…originally I was up to some ridiculous number, like 850 or something, thanks to various tea clubs, tea trades, etc.
It feels good to be at a more manageable number! :)
Omigoodness! I hesitate to even count what-all is going here. Perhaps that’s what it takes to bring some sanity into this adventure.
that’s what it took for me. I was up to over 900…. shudder that was my breaking point lol