Simple Loose Leaf

From the Round 3 Here’s Hoping TTB

Meh. The base tea is good, but the plum flavoring taste fake. It actually taste more like a grape flavored Dum Dum lollipop than plum. While this isn’t a winner for me I do think I’m warming up to white teas a bit more.

Backlog:

I can’t say that this is my favorite tisane because it isn’t. I’m not all that wild about Hibiscus. But I did enjoy the citrus-y aspect of the blend as well as the flavor that the spices add. As long as I don’t steep it too long (I steeped it for 6 minutes) the hibiscus doesn’t get all out of whack and become syrupy.

My daughter, on the other hand, really enjoyed this.

Not bad but not my favorite. I didn’t expect it to be my favorite because Hibiscus is right there in the name of it. But I’m happy I tried it and it gave my daughter and I a moment or two together to drink tea – these are few and far between because she just turned teenager.

Iced tea sipdown

It’s been so lovely for the past few days that I finally got my iced tea pitcher out of the curio cabinet, rinsed it out, and got some coldbrew going. I ended up using the last half of this package of tea along with the full sample of Shou Mei White that Simple Loose Leaf sent me a while back.

However, I think that I didn’t use enough water in the steep, because the mix tastes quite dusty and somewhat bitter.

Although I will enjoy certain blends, I’ve never been a huge fan of white teas in general. I’m just glad I’ve got two fewer types in my cupboard.

Kinda-sorta-backlog from a few days ago.

I made a big batch of this in my iced tea pitcher a few days ago, and have slowly been sipping it since. While the dry tea leaf and the brewed tea certainly smell of blueberry, I find it hard to discern in the tea itself without a little hit of sweetener.

As it goes, though, this isn’t bad. There’s a light floralness on the back of the tongue, and the body of the sip is nice, fresh, and clear. This is definitely a tea made for coldbrewing.

Also, in my last note, I complained that I didn’t have much to write about, but I just thought of something: where on earth are my incoming tea boxes?! I’m still waiting to hear about my Just Organic kickstarter tea package being sent out, and apparently my Teavivre teas had been sent out back in July but are still not here – they’re not even showing up as arrived in Canada yet. On top of that, I’m also waiting for a set of sampler teas from Teasenz. That one is more recent, so I know I shouldn’t expect it yet… but… I want my tea NAO! =^.^=

I’ll admit that I’m partial to blueberry teas, but like all fruit flavored teas they can be really hit or miss. More often than not they taste nothing like the fruit they claim to be, but the Blueberry White from the August box is one of the few exceptions, it really tastes like blueberry. The blueberry flavor manages to capture the sweet and tart flavors of blueberry without drowning out the strong flavor of the Shou Mei White Tea that is used for the base. With most flavored white teas you’ll taste the flavor first and the base second (or not at all,) but with this tea the strong earthy flavors from the Shou Mei really shine. It’s a refreshing change from the norm, but I would have preferred just a bit more blueberry flavor.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2014/8/19/tuesday-tea-august-selection-club-simple-loose-leaf.html

Once steeped this tea has a flavor much like I remember from my previous encounter with it. It has a buttery texture, which is partially due to the milk flavoring that has been added. Underneath this is a slightly floral flavor that edges towards peaches and cream once you steep it a second time. Later steeps take on a slightly vegetal flavor that increases with each subsequent steeping. I don’t typically enjoy this tea once the sweetness disappears so I only steep it three times. You certainly could continue to resteep it if you still enjoy the flavors, this tea resteeps very well. Overall this is a really nice milk oolong, one that I would certainly order again if Simple Loose Leaf had a convenient way for me to reorder the teas I’ve enjoyed from the Selection Club.

You can read the complete review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2014/8/19/tuesday-tea-august-selection-club-simple-loose-leaf.html

Drinking this cold steeped tonight. It’s ok, it’s good. The peach flavor is nice, not fake and candy – I just wish there was a little more of it. The white base is fine, present but not in the way. This is a decent peach white tea. I have a LOT of peach teas in my house and this one is good but not my favorite.

On that note, drinking the last of this puts my cupboard officially at 299. Goodbye 300s, nice to know you, but don’t ever want this much tea in my house again. Operation cupboard reduction continues…..

This was a nice green, not a personal favorite of mine, but definitely nice. The leaves are a bit unconventional for a green, taking on an “eyebrow” shape and being such a dark color it almost resembles a mild black tea. It brews a nice golden color and delivers a rich flavor. Refreshing as it hits the tongue with a fruity foretaste and then smoothly transitioning into a mildly bitter and astringent aftertaste that is a telltale sign of any green worth its salt. I enjoyed this green and it would make a wonderful base for a blend.

**Note: i drank this iced because I live in California and it’s summer.

Backlog from last week.

And it’s a sipdown!

I’m glad I finally finished this off. Now I can move my good jasmine pearls from Capital Teas into the empty tin for this.

Backlog note 6 of 13.

I’m backtracking a bit here – I forgot that I drank this on Saturday, not Sunday.

I had a Mary Kay lady over at my house to try on different types of makeup. I thought it would be fun, but I ended up feeling really uncomfortable because I just wanted make up, and she wanted to show me all of these other products involving skin care. I just wanted makeup! And I just wanted her to tell me what colours looked good on me! I’m an idiot when it comes to make up – just tell me what I need to do, and I’ll be fine.

Anyways, I had some of this when she was over. I really want to sip this down – I might as well do it with someone who doesn’t know I’ve got better stuff hiding in the cupboard.

Does that make me a bad person? Ah well. Consider me cheap.

I’ve got a lot of other teas I like much more in my cupboard, but I need to finish this off so I can empty the tin and then put my good jasmine pearls in the same tin (this means that I won’t have to wash the tin since it already smells like jasmine).

I still used a 2-minute steep time.

Happy Friday, y’all. Lots of stuff I need to do before the day is done.

I think I’m finally getting caught up!

I brewed a pot of this tea this morning, and knowing how jasmine-heavy it tastes, I tried steeping at a lower temperature (72C) for 2 minutes.

The result was still very heavily fragranced with jasmine, but it was much more tolerable this time. So note to self and others: try steeping this at around 70C. Also, keep the steeping short to keep the jasmine flavour under control.

The hubby and I had a garage sale this weekend, so now I’m pooped. Catching up on my tea logs for the week is one of the last things I do before I lie down to relax.

Another backlog from when I drank during Steepster’s Day of Server Doom:

The jasmine in this is really strong, even at a 2.5 minute steep. There’s at least 3/4 of an ounce left. I put the leaf into an empty tin to save space, but it is a bad idea that I already know what tea I’ll store in this tin once I finish this particular tea? Gonna have to mainline this over the next few weeks to sip it down.

Happy Sunday, everyone! It’s time for another Sunday Tea and Books review.

The Tea

Jasmine Special Grade Green was part of Simple Loose Leaf’s August subscription box. I ended up getting a sample of this in the July box, and then unexpectedly got the August box for free. When I told Simple Loose Leaf this, they said that they hadn’t meant to send it out, but that they’ve enjoyed my ST&B reviews so much that I should just consider it to be a thank-you box. Awesome!

When I first opened up the package, the smell of jasmine was unmistakable, but the smell of the green base underneath was unusual. It smelled sort of smoky and leathery, but I really couldn’t put my finger on it.

The resulting tea is similar. The jasmine is very strong, but still somewhat sweet. I was initially worried that I had overleafed it somewhat. I think that because of the strength of the jasmine flavour, this tea would benefit more from a 2-minute steep than a 3-minute steep, because at 3 minutes the resulting liquor was dark and intense.

All throughout, I wished that I could get a better sense of what the base tea was. Neither Simple Loose Leaf nor Maya Tea Company (which I’m assuming is the source supplier for this tea because the photo and the description of this tea is the same on both sites) mention the base cultivar/variety for this tea, which means that I feel I’m lacking some context in order to fully appreciate it.

Despite this, it is still a decent jasmine tea. It edges towards the Wall of Overwhelming Jasmine flavour that I worry I will sometimes experience with jasmine teas, but it stops just short of that unpalatable threshold.

I drank most of this while sitting at the little patio table on the front porch of the house. The weather dallied back and forth between being sunny and cloudy. I just sipped, read a book, and watched my cats wander around the front yard. All in all, it was a nice, contemplative tea session.

The Book

So what fictional character does this tea remind me of? This is a tea with a distinctive flavour, but with origins that are somewhat murky. Despite this lack of context, it has a lot of potential for future enjoyment, as I find there’s always something soothing about drinking jasmine tea.

Hm…a character whose origins are unknown, but who has the power to do great things. A character, in fact, whose destiny hinges on the fact that they don’t know their origins, their history, their parents.

This tea makes me think of Taran from Alexander Lloyd’s Chronicles of Prydain series. Although I haven’t read the books myself, thanks to Wikipedia I am an unrepentant devourer of spoilers, and I know that by the end of the series, Taran, despite being an orphan, becomes the High King of Prydain. In fact, his ascension is ordained by prophecy, as it’s stated that only one with “no station in life” would be able to succeed the current dynasty to rule after their passing.

He seems like the perfect character to match to a tea with similarly unknown provenance that is memorable in spite of that lack of info.

EDIT: I did a second steep for 2 minutes, and the result was still very strongly jasmine flavoured. I have to admit that by the end of the second pot of tea, I felt that I had reached my Jasmine Quota for the day.

Backlog:

Let me start by apologizing for the photo. It looks terribly distorted. If you check out my full-length review of this tea, you’ll see a slightly better version of the photo of the tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/05/17/darjeeling-second-flush-black-tea-from-simple-loose-leaf/ (Even though the photo is kind of small)

Anyway … on to the tea!

My preference for Darjeeling tends to be the second flush so I was happy to see that this was a second flush Darjeeling in Simple Loose Leaf’s May Selection Club box. I prefer the second flush because it usually has more muscatel-ish notes and they make me happy. That said, I would like to say that I’ve tried some amazing first flush Darjeeling teas from this year’s harvests that have made me happy also.

But, I’m not talking about those right now, right now, I’m talking about this Second Flush Darjeeling from Simple Loose Leaf, and this tea made me quite happy. A lovely, well-rounded taste with lots of fruity notes. Lovely muscatel. Woodsy, earthy layers of flavor.

Smooth, uplifting, grape-y notes that transform into a black currant flavor toward the finish. Sweet! A slightly tangy finish but far less astringent than some Darjeelings that I’ve encountered. This is more smooth … with what I’d call a moderate dry astringency.

A fine Darjeeling.

Backlog:

for a white tea, this tea really took me by surprise at just how flavorful it was! Wow! This packs the peach flavor! But even though it’s a strong peach flavor, the white tea is still there. I can taste the sweet, earthy notes of the Shou Mei.

It’s not a fake tasting peach flavor. When consumed warm, the flavor reminds me of the peach filling of a peach cobbler (without the spice!) When iced (you’ve got to try this one iced!) it tastes so much like a fresh, tree-ripened peach that I could almost feel the juice running down my arm.

A WINNER!

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/05/12/sweet-peach-white-tea-blend-simple-loose-leaf/

Backlog:

This was in my May Selection Club box from Simple Loose Leaf. The aroma is vegetal, sweet and flowery. The fragrance was certainly familiar as I’ve had quite a few Sencha teas, but the gentle floral fragrance was unexpected and nice to discover.

Sweet green tea notes. The vegetal notes are sweet – not savory, not bitter, not even bittersweet. Just beautifully sweet with a soft, smooth texture. Like liquefied silk.

It has a strong vegetal flavor, like something between grass and kelp, but without the savory notes that often accompany those two descriptive flavors. There is also a layer of fruit note, similar to apple with a creaminess that I’d describe as a vanilla-ish note. Nice!

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/05/06/japanese-sencha-saga-green-tea-simple-loose-leaf/

Sipdown (123/130)!

Thank you Cameron B. for the sample! I’ve only had one other Ginseng Oolong prior to this one, so I was definitely excited about the opportunity to try another one and compare. Additionally, I believe this is my first Simple Loose Leaf blend, so that’s kinda exciting too.

This was prepped in my timolino and steeped very carefully; I did not want to burn the leaves. At work, I shared some of this with Bobbi and she made a face; not her cup of tea I suppose (awful pun somewhat intended). Personally, I didn’t think it was awful. Certainly it was drinkable; however somewhat to my surprise I think I liked the DT version better – that one just seems like it was more flavourful overall.

And additionally, I think this one took advantage of a green base oolong, and I’m not so heavily a green tea or green oolong person, so I suppose that contributed to not enjoying this as much. I mean, the ginseng was sweet, natural and relatively woody and that was good – but the base just wasn’t as agreeable to me.

Oh well. I’m still glad for the comparison, and like I said this was not bad; just not as good.

Backlog from yesterday.

Sunday Sipdown!

Since I ordered some more Kenilworth ceylon from Capital Teas, I’ve been in a rush to finish off this pack, and I got it done yesterday. A nice smooth, “regular” tea flavour, though I think that the packaging could have been better for this product.

Backlog from yesterday morning!

I’ve been hoarding this tea since I only received one ounce of it and quite like it. However, now that I’ve made my Black Friday order with Capital Teas, which includes 100g of Kenilworth Ceylon AND a 20g sample of Lumbini Ceylon, I feel okay with dipping into this more.

So, yes, this is a great morning tea for when you want something robust, but not too attention-grabbing. I’m really happy that I’ll be getting a ton of this (albeit from a different supplier) on the way, so I’ll try and sip this down.