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Quick Backlog/Sipdown Review

Green, vegatal, sweet, floral, & refreshing goodness. I had to order more while YS has their sale on teaware…because with teaware, you’ll need more tea to go with it. :P

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Backlog

I’ve been bad at reviewing everything anymore via Steepster. I found some notes from several sessions that I had with my friend who has taken the tea world very seriously recently. He’d have tea sometimes when he would come over (prior to my turning the spare room into a tea room/study). However, I’ve molded him into a “tea person” as my wife tells me…

Anyway, we sat down for a cup of Rummy Pu. He has wanted to try this ever since we went to LP’s months ago, but I wasn’t sure if I had any leftover. As we were going through the sample section of my tea cabinet, we came upon a whole (unopened) bag of this! We brewed and sipped…and quite frankly, the notes were different than I had remembered them to be….All thanks to my friend who I’ve discovered has a fine palate when mine is lacking (he’s more detailed in describing flavors).

Notes (very short): Purple grapes/grape skins. Tastes more like a sweet grape-y wine than it does rum.

That was all we had written. I had noted, too, that we ought to let it sit a bit longer to see where it’ll go from here.

I had received a generous sample of this from The TeaGuy last night (thank you again).

I had a dull night at work last night since there wasn’t a whole lot to be done due to the holiday. So, coming home and finding tea mail on the kitchen table was a great way to end the night. I had opened the box and each sample within, just to give them a quick smell; however, the Blood Orange sample had stuck out much more than the others (which they too had smelled wonderful). Therefore, I boiled water, threw some of this into an infuser, steeped for 5 minutes, and sipped.

Notes: Aroma: smells like a sweet freshly picked orange, vanilla, and rooibos (uh oh). Taste: The citrus hides the rooibos well (thank goodness) and there is a touch of vanilla (?) in the aftertaste; reminds me of a type of citrus dessert.

I noted that this would make a refreshing iced tea, so I’ll make sure to try it this weekend via cold brew.

I’m drinking this before work today while the rain comes and goes. I haven’t been feeling well lately, so I’ve been mostly drinking various ripe puerh teas; however, I was in the mood to try something a little different this morning.

I must say that this isn’t the best tea, but it is definitely a treat to be had from the usual tea. I rarely drink flavored teas anymore, but there are moments where that’s all I need/want.

Notes: Slightly bitter, mildly fruity/floral on its own. You can slightly taste the grenadine. I added 1/2 tsp of raw sugar to the cup to hopefully cut a little bit of the bitterness from the tea; which worked well, I think. There are rare occasions that I’ll add a bit of sugar to the tea, but this is one of those teas that does much better with some…..

Sipdown

I’m currently grandpa styling this as I get ready for work today. I’m going to work my way through it as long as I can……It’s a very fine tea with so many layers to it. However, in the moment, I’ve been wanting to eat my weight in chocolate, but had decided to drink this instead. I’ll definitely miss this tea, but am happy that I’ve had the chance to enjoy it.

Notes: Chocolate, nutty (pecan), syrup, creamy, rich, & malty.

“Margaret’s 2014 Kunming Shou”

Quick Note

Honestly, I found this to be a solid tea for a ripe tea newbie. Although I’ve been drinking puerh for over a year now, I find that I’ve discovered that I like a complex/unique ripe. Although this one is very much the type of tea that’d’ve peaked my interest at the beginning of my puerh ride, I find it to be “too basic” for my palate now.

Notes: Chocolaty , sweet, creamy, nutty, & smooth.

Quick Review

I was trying to brew this gongfu style, but i feel that I messed it up. It could be that the water was too hot (170 F) or that it’d be much better off Western styled. I’ll have to play around with this while I still have some. Perhaps I’ll brew it Western style at work and add a second review…

Notes: Bitter & astringent

Rating for the session: 60/100

Sipdown

I had received this sample a while ago from CWarren and have finally finished it off yesterday. I noted that this was a complex tea—it started out woody, but moved onto a nectar/fruity/sugary flavor—however, it was never consistent with any one flavor. I found this to be enjoyable.

Smell: Old wet hay + mildewed basement.

Taste: The earthworm flavored Jellybelly bean from Bott’s Every Flavor Beans + wet hay.

Just skip this one and save yourself the trouble of trying it.

Sipdown

Thank you eastkyteaguy for this sample!

I’ve finally been drinking down more samples in the past month than I’ve had in the past year. I had a note on the bag to let this one sit for a while since it had a strong charcoal flavor to it. I realized after having this tea that it’s the type of tea that needs to sit around for a few years, not months, to lose some of those strong flavors. Although the mineral notes were fine, I had to quick rinse after the first initial steep to help rid the tea of those stronger charcoal notes, but even then it was brewing strong.

Overall, I think this tea would smooth out nicely over time, but it’s a bit much in its current stage.