NofarS Send Message

A friend went on a trip to Seychelles, and as a kind gesture brought me this tea as a gift. It did not look promising, being a very fine grained CTC black tea packed in a plastic bag, stuffed in a rather nice white cloth bag with no description on it other than “Sey Te, Chemical Free Bio-Tea”. I’m assuming that this tea is organic, but there’s no indication of any form of official certification, so caveat emptor.
My best guess is that this tea is a blend of mostly Kenyan teas, possibly with some assam thrown in. It’s almost dust level finely cut, so it is super super strong. Be careful when brewing. Surprisingly, it doesn’t re-brew well beyond the fourth cup, and at the sixth cup its all tired out. I expected such a strong tea to show more stamina ;)
In any case, it’s not totally undrinkable, but it’s pretty bad. I don’t see myself ever picking it up, particularly not on an empty stomach, it’s so powerful. Even after a large meal it made me feel queasy about 30 minutes after drinking. Not surprisingly I did not finish my cup.
If you’re stuck with a choice of this tea or a run of the mill teabag, choose teabag.

Had this last nights with some roast chestnuts. For some reason it didn’t go well with the chestnuts – I needed something less sweet, I guess. Oh well.

Wonderful wonderful tea from Terri! This is a good and smooth Assam, of just the right strength to my liking. It’s not an “in your face” CTC strength, it’s a quiet, power, “I am here” strength. Like a huge oak that’s grown in one spot for centuries and exudes power and permanence.
It’s a very smooth tea, that loves milk, but can be taken plain, if you don’t have an aversion to astringency.
I rushed to Butikis to buy some, only to see that it’s out of stock! Alas, alas, when will my troubles end…
Put this on my shopping list and keeping a hawk’s eye on Butikis site, waiting for a restock.

New caddy of this at work. One teaspoon of leaves in a brew basket made for four cups of tea of regular strength, and two lighter ones. I wouldn’t push it further, but it just shows that good tea can be economical, if you rebrew it.

First one to review this tea! Woot!
I’ve just had two cups back to back of this tea, it’s that good. It is, however, misleadingly named. This is not a bold, breakfast tea. It’s a quiet afternoon friend. I forgot it for over ten minutes to brew during my second brew, and it was still on the lighter side of black teas (not Darj light, but Ceylon light). No caffeine kick here – go for one of Postcard Teas Japanese blacks for that. This is a sweet, rich wonderful afternoon tea, with some astringency, so sugar can help with that.
A great little tea, and a relative newcomer to Postcard Teas’s lineup.

Putting some serious work into getting through the wonderful samples that Terri sent me a while back.
This is a good, solid Assam, on the more aggressive side of Assam – so milk-and-sugar it, or lemon it, or mint it, or whatever – it can take what you throw at it with ease.
I wouldn’t drink it on an empty stomach or in the afternoon, but as a morning tea with breakfast, it would probably do the trick of getting you up and running out the door, all charged up.
I personally prefer more gentle, tame Assams, so I will probably won’t purchase a batch of this. If you like strong teas, do give this a try.
Also, I completely broke down and placed another purchase with Norbu – this time of a she pu’er that I’ve been eyeing for a while, as well as of an interesting Taiwan black, and the Taiwan white tea that I’ve been wanting to try for a while, after seeing a raving review of it on teaviews. I will now be an evil enabler and let you know that there’s still 25% on your entire basket at norbutea.com until the 31st.
running away, rubbing my hands with glee

Delicious and beautiful Dian Hong, but not much different from Golden Fleece. Will try to have a comparison sip down of it, Golden Fleece and the Chinese Tea Company Dian Hong. Did not get any chocolate taste, but did get a beautiful sugary delicious delicious tea.
Points taken off for price and availability (none).

Tried this again this morning, this time with a bit of milk. Either this batch is bad, or I’ve kept this sample from Terri for too long in my tea cupboard. This just isn’t good at all – it somehow manages to fluctuate between bitter and tasteless. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

A good, solid Assam, at a very good price. This isn’t a “knock your socks off” Assam, but it’s a good tea nonetheless. Had it plain, and it stood to the test.

Tired tired tired tired.
Nice night sip before going to sleep.
Need I say more?
Coo-kies!