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Equusfell drank L'Abricot by Fauchon

122 tasting notes

I was in the mood for a sunny tea, and thought apricot would help me dream of summer on this bitter cold but sunny day. This is a sample that I’ve had for nearly a year. The first half of which I tried because I passed on a tin of this from TJ Maxx and wondered if I should go back. I vaguely remember thinking it was smokey, but that’s about it. I do know that I never went back.
I get the apricot in the smell of the dry leaves, which bodes well even though I’m a bigger fan of peach (something about fruit needing to be juicy!). Brewing I definitely am getting a little of the smokey.
I’m not sure I used enough leaf, so I’m letting it brew a little longer to get a stronger amber color out of the water. What I can taste is a vague fruitiness over a pleasant, gentle smoke. I think a touch of sugar would bring out the fruit.
The sugar helped. But I do think this is a little weaker than it should be. Damn my bathtub of a tea mug! Lol, I will just have to do better next time. This tea showed potential, but it wasn’t a must-have.
To its credit, it never got bitter or astringent and still has the nice caramelized flavor of a good black tea. I could drink this regularly if I had procured a supply last year.

Flavors: Apricot, Earth, Malt, Smoke

Preparation

205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

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Bio

I started drinking something other than Sleepytime in my first year of grad school, 2011. Enabled by a few decent local tea shops in a big city, I amassed a small cupboard of teas that I now find harsh and bad (haha, I’m getting in too deep!). With my move back to the US and subsequent geographic isolation from tea shops, I recently discovered the world of online tea vendors.
My cupboard is slowly growing but still small. Regardless I am interested in swaps, if you find something in my collection that you would like to try, ask away! I just can’t guarantee yet that I have a lot of it!
I’m very into Jade oolongs and anything that has a floral character (especially jasmine, rose, violet, and lychee scented things!). Most green teas, excepting the extremely bitter, are good in my book, and again I seek sweeter, fresher, greener types, though nutty/savory teas have their place (as long as they don’t tip over into salty!). I then to shy away from smokey or overly roasted teas and for this reason and the fact that I am not a fan of chocolate, everyone’s favorite blacks and wuyi oolongs tend to fall flat for me. White teas are alright but I don’t tend to reach for them unless they are floral scented. I rarely drink herbals, chamomile and I do not get along, but a basic vanilla rooibos, or some flavored green rooibos’ can be interesting.
In general, it could be said that I tend toward floral and sweet oolong, sheng (as well as moonlight whites and yabaos), matcha, and green teas.

As of now my rating system follows the school grading scale in terms of how well the tea performs and how well I like it (100-90 A, 89-80 B, etc.). Anything above 90 will eventually end up in my cupboard, though it’s fine to keep a B student around for daily drinkers!

Location

Athens, Ohio

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