4284 Tasting Notes
Soooo… I ended up breaking my buy ban to order some S&V favorites. They are a small business, so I didn’t mind as much. ALSO, I held restraint and didn’t stock up on ALL of my missing favorites… I wanted to order a ton more, probably at least double the amount that I ordered, not including their National Parks sampler I have been wanting to try. Maybe one day! Safe to say I think any tea fan can easily find tons of good stuff from S&V.
I couldn’t wait to try S&V’s pear green, as I loved their pear black tea blend. The black blend has a pearfect (ha) flavor, even after many years. Unfortunately, it seems they added ginger to the newer blends of Pear black, and it just wouldn’t be quite the same to me. The pear flavor was perfect and the ginger would just distract from that, IMO. THIS blend is simply green tea and flavor. I know that it might taste a bit better after some resting, but right now, the flavor is quite good. Possibly not AS good as the pear black, but I have had worse pear flavors. And this one even has that quality of that pear skin starchiness… or possibly that’s the green tea itself. The second steep, more of the green tea peaks through. This one is OKAY so far, but I’m really going to miss the original pear black when I run out. Maybe this green blend will age just as well.
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon //32 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 28 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
2024 Holiday tea #1
Why NOT do some notes for whatever holiday teas I happen to have around at the moment? There won’t be as many as usual… It turns out I never wrote a note for this one..it was from the Here’s Hoping teabox eight or nine years ago. Yes, it still has the “don’t sniff too deeply” note that Inkling mentions in their note. haha! I think I originally thought it was too strong, but it has certainly mellowed with age. Leaving a lovely balance of spice and fruit flavor on a medium strength black tea base. Oh and there are sugar bits in the blend too.. and rose petals that seem to bridge these flavors well. It is certainly an acceptable blend at this point in time. The time for the note on this tea was now, I guess!
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2024 Tea #1 – December 2 – World Pollution Prevention Day: drink an organic tea
I did not expect this to actually be a sipdown today. I also did not expect a green tea from 2015 to be this dang delicious! Wow. It tastes amazing, seeing as how it is almost a decade old. So light, bright, refreshing, sweet. I liked the reminder in this prompt today that “organic” isn’t just about what kinds of things are put into the human body, but also about what is put out into the world. I appreciated that today. I also might have a no-caff organic tea later today from Nil Organic Tea — their Spiced Apple blend. And I also might add some cider to the mug. Kind of like gmathis mixing chai with hot cocoa lately. :D
2024 sipdowns: 82
additional notes: I was enjoying this one yesterday, but a little sad about it, as I noticed Harney took down the Vieux Paris option from their site. I never had a chance to buy it, and I kept looking and looking. Now it seems like it won’t be an option again. :/
What was the difference with that option?
Vieux Paris was the “less natural” flavoring that they once used before they switched to the new flavored Paris. I preferred the less natural, original flavoring. :D
Oh! I didn’t realize they had changed anything. When did that change happen? I wonder if my last tin of decaf Paris was the old or new.
Dustin – the old Paris formula was from many years ago, but some people preferred it so they made Vieux Paris for a little while, and I suspect the big vanilla shortage/price hike may have contributed to their decision to offer it. Unless your tin of decaf Paris was many years old, it is the new formula with more natural ingredients. I actually called them when VP came out to ask. LOL
I might just do a pause on the backlog of tasting notes that I am trying to catch up on reading from everyone and just follow along with the new tasting notes for the month of December. I don’t want to miss the advent avalanche as it is happening! Personally, I don’t have any advents this year, and am away from most of my tea collection anyway… so there will be few holiday tea postings from me this year.
Leaving a sipdown note of this one, to say there was more maple flavor than I remembered last time. The description says it should be caramel and brioche, but to me I thought it was maple both times I tried it.
2024 sipdowns: 80
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – November 2024 Tea #4 -A tea that means autumn to you
In no way close to an actual sipdown, but this one is definitely one of my most autumn teas. Caramel and apple and smoke on a black tea base that I wouldn’t call perfect for an autumn tea, as it’s a bit weak, but I have had weaker black teas… I think even the smoke flavor is fading a bit here. The age of this? I’d have to check back to when I was complaining there were no longer caramel cubes in the blend…
edited to add: after checking, this batch is now almost 4 years old. sigh.
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – November 2024 Tea #3 – A tea for which you are especially thankful
I hope all that celebrate are having a great day today. Always thankful for the Steepster crew! As usual, I am about two months behind on reading tasting notes, so I hope you are all doing well. May have just sampled a little too much of the stuffing I just made. oops. This is always one of the teas I am most thankful for, as it is one of my favorites, always a perfect brew and also one of the rarest teas to find, not only because it is usually limited on the time it is sold, but also now due to the international shipping. Also, it’s a perfect tea for this particular holiday. So good.
additional notes: enjoying this one today. This doesn’t pertain to this ripe pu-erh in particular, but I have noticed that Teavivre’s website seems to be taking a couple of my reviews from older ripe pu-erhs and sticking them on matching pu-erhs, but for different years/harvests of the pu-erhs that I have never actually tried. I have noticed this twice. For example: My note for the Fengqing Ripened Pu-erh Cake 2018 moving over to the 2022 year. I’m not sure how I feel about this, as not only is it confusing to me, since I never actually drank the 2022 (and if I believe I already tried it and it wasn’t a Must Buy then there would be no reason for me to buy it again, when really I never tried it to begin with)… but essentially Teavivre is saying it is the same puerh? Are they just replacing wrappers? Why would they do that if older puerh is more valuable than new? To me, all harvests/cakes should be thought of as different if it’s labeled as a different year….
Also, it looks like they still have THIS cake in stock, labeled the same year 2007, but it is definitely a different wrapper than the original.
additional notes: Oh this is the perfect tea for a day that says it will be 100% rain. This might become one of my go-to rainy day teas. It’s so bright on a great base, with just a tiny hint of sweet. An awesome balance of grapefruit and bergamot. I have probably already said I am not a grapefruit fan…
