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Sipdown that probably should have happened long ago. Quite light by now, but still a pleasant homage to what the tea was at its peak!

Black tea is not necessarily a regular in my tea consumption schedule, but I’ve been trying to explore more lately and I am really glad that this is one of the ones that I decided to try out, because it is fantastic.

The leaves of this tea have the sweet aroma of maple syrup and blueberries, which grows even more welcoming once steeped. And the taste itself does not betray the aroma. It’s sweet, smooth and fruity, with a hint of malt in the finish.

I liked this one so much that I made it a point to stock up on more while I could, and it is now my main go-to when I’m in the mood for a black tea.

Haven’t really been able to browse Steepster for a while due to storm recovery, so it’s nice to be back! Didn’t get to tea much during that time, either, but I do have a few things from the past few days that I have taken notes on.

I opened this up this one up this weekend to test out a new pot. Opening it up, the aroma was a little tropical fruity, a little sweaty, a little nutty and a little creamy. rhinkle commented that it smelled like an island.

I found the taste to follow the aroma more or less. That nice, baked creamy nuttiness with that distinct, sweaty tropical fruit note on the nose.

Got some of this from the Here’s Hoping TTB and drank it the other night. Very warming, soothing and easy to drink. It had a subtle, robust, nutty sweetness and sort of reminded me of houjicha. I could definitely see myself drinking more of this from time to time.

Tried this from the Here’s Hoping TTB this weekend in the evening when I wanted something caffeine-free. It smelled like caramel while I sipped on it and did have some sweetness, but didn’t taste like much overall.

Got some of this from the Here’s Hoping TTB.

Tossed a bag into a small mug with 90C water yesterday, I believe. It had a bit of an aroma, but for the most part…just tasted like water until I got to the bottom of the mug where the bag was, which just ended up being a mouthful of oversteeped green tea.

Not sure how old these bags were, so I couldn’t really say if I would or would not recommend this when fresh, but I certainly didn’t like the flavor of the tea itself.

Got this from the Here’s Hoping TTB.

Tried as much pu from the box as I could if it wasn’t already obvious! This one was clean, sweet and smooth from the very first steep. I’ve usually been skipping washes lately, so the first steep was a deep red in color that darkened significantly in the next since the leaves were pretty broken up once the compression loosened, and they soaked up a lot of water. I did get some fermentation flavor, but nothing that overshadowed the distinct sweetness I picked up on.

7572 from the Here’s Hoping TTB. Don’t know what year.

This is probably one of the most boring tasting notes I’ll ever have, but all I wrote down for this tea is that it tastes like shou. This being the classic, defining recipe that it is, however, I suppose that isn’t too surprising. Kept a very consistent and predictable flavor profile throughout the entire session.

Got a 5g sample of this from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Tea Box and drank it last week, I believe. This shou had a strong aroma when wet and steeped up a deep red to start. The flavor was a blend of coffee, petrichor and almost alcoholic fermentation. I did get some fishy notes, and earthy, woody notes emerged throughout the session. The aftertaste was fairly sweet and I did get some decent viscosity with longer steeps.

This is not a shou that I would ever care to own, as the fishy notes—though subtle in comparison to really low quality puerh—were noticeable enough to put me off. It is not undrinkable, but I have plenty of better options in my stash that I’d grab instead.