423 Tasting Notes
This is one of the free samples that I got from Teabox with my “All the Darjeelings” sample boxes. This Assam has a lot of golden tips, but the ‘“broken” in the FTGBOP clonal grade is justified. The dry leaves smell fruity, but also dusky – hinting at their strength.
It is a highly caffinated tea, as Assam tend to be, but it lacks the trully deep, bass-y aroma of an excellent Assam. It reminds me of a strengthened fruity Ceylon, coupled with Ceylon’s astringncy and flavor profile. Not much malt in this tea, plenty of stone fruit.
Tasty, but not mind blowing.
Had a lovely cup of this, this afternoon. This is a wonderful Dian Hong, silky sweet, rich, with no astringency and notes of chocolate, sugar and honey. I love the little shop it came from in Portobello and I can’t recommend it enough.
After a few days of quiet, I was woken at 6AM on a Saturday by the rocket warning sirens. They were loud and went on for a good five minutes. Dogs started barking like crazy as people left their apartments in their pyjamas and huddled for shelter in the stairwell. Not the best way to start the weekend.
Out of curiosity, decided to have this with some maple syrup. I’ve never sweetened tea with maple syrup before, but as I’ve read a few reviews here where people used maple syrup for that purpose, I decided to give it a try.
It is very, very good. Not as sweet as sugar (a plus), and adds a distinct hint of maple syrup (which I love, so also a plus).
So this tea made me happy, which is good, because the situation here is only getting worse and worse. A soldier was kidnapped during the latest ceasefire. That is every Israeli parent’s worst nightmare. It also means that any chance for a ceasefire anytime soon have just been blown to smithereens. And I can’t even imagine what is going over the kidnapped soldier.
At times like these even great tea isn’t enough :(
For the first time in months I’ve had a chance to brew a tea gongfu. This tea looks like melted honey, and is a very deep, chocolatey malt black tea. The dry leaves are among the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and are sure to impress even non-tea drinking friends. There is a very slight hint of astringency to it, which is unusual for Yunnans. But I only got the astringency when brewing gongfu.
It is really worth brewing this tea gongfu, as it brings out a depth of flavour that Western style brewing simply doesn’t.
Sirens sounded a few minutes ago, with really loud BOOMs. Cat is terrified, and I was pretty startled, even though I’m supposed to be used to it by now. :/
Tea. Just tea.
Had a feisty cup of this this morning. I haven’t had this tea in a while, and it made me fall in love with Kenyan tea in the first place. I love its bass-y, slightly smokey flavor, especially in the morning.
Things seem to be taking a turn for the worse here, which is very very bad. :(
Praying for peace.
We are working our way through Teabox’s All the Darjeelings sample box, slowly but surely. Today’s selection was Arya Ruby, which I can’t seem to find anymore on Teabox’s site. It is a very fragrant tea, on the verge of being perfumy. There is a very slight astringency to it, so you may want to sweeten it up a bit. A nice Darjeeling.
A powerful Assam blend to kickstart the day with :)
Had this with milk and sugar, and it was very tasty. The Tea House Covent Garden is one of the tea stores that I always visit in London, and I don’t intend to skip them this year too.
I wish there was a store like that here – decent tea and decent prices. Not the highest echelon of tea, but not garbage either. Just nice everyday companions that don’t break the bank and don’t taste like mud.
Backlog from yesterday. Sorry for not posting yesterday, but I was super, super tired.
A siren went off at 2 AM, and after that I had a hard time falling asleep. Since I went to sleep late as it is (working on university end of term papers), I had about 3 hours of sleep to sustain me through the day. Rough times.
Brewed this extra strong, since I needed the Caffeine boost. A good breakfast tea, unique enough to merit the buy.
On the bright side I went running in the park yesterday, and there were no sirens or rockets. Yay! :/
Where there is tea there is hope.
