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alaudacorax drank Black Dragon (OT02) by Nothing But Tea

81 tasting notes

I made my first mug of this with a moderately-heaped teaspoon but I may have left the water a little too long to cool (they recommend 80°). I brewed for three minutes. I was slightly surprised that the tea was still floating at the end. I could detect absolutely no aroma. To taste it had a touch of the basic tea flavour and a touch of butter and I didn’t really get anything else.
I made a second mug with the same tea and with the water a little hotter, again for three minutes. Again the tea was still floating at the end. I thought I detected a hint of roast beef in the aroma, but it wasn’t noticeably different to taste.
I made a third mug with the water perhaps a little hotter again. This time the tea sank to the bottom of the infuser immediately but I didn’t detect anything different about the flavour.

I made a second brew of this with rather more tea – a well-heaped teaspoon rather than moderately-heaped, but I couldn’t detect any differences.

I found this pleasant enough to drink, but with nothing memorable or impressive about it.

Preparation

180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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Happily retired male.

Started exploring ‘proper’ tea in March, 2010 after decades of PG Tips teabags. I was initially looking for ‘the perfect tea’; now I don’t want to find one – I’m so much more enjoying exploring the variety.

A confession: I take my tea with four sweeteners to a half-pint mug.
28/05/2012 – I’ve decided to wean myself off the sweeteners, starting this morning, so, three per mug instead of four (I’m getting a growing feeling that I’m failing to get the best out of some of the oolongs and greens I try and I intend getting a gaiwan and the appropriate little cups, and sweeteners don’t seem to be appropriate, there). 16/02/2013 – since New Year’s Day I’ve only been using two sweeteners. I’m struggling to get used to it, to be honest – some teas are more difficult than others.

How I make tea: either in a traditional teapot which holds enough for three half-pint mugs and has a removable infuser (London Teapot Company); or in a half-pint mug with an Agatha’s Bester filter. Sometimes I vaguely think about getting some nice, genteel cups and saucers …

Important: I measure the tea with plastic kitchen measuring spoons – teaspoon and half-teaspoon sizes – so when I say a ‘heaped teaspoon’, as the correct measure is a levelled one, I should probably be calling it ‘two teaspoons’!

Location

Derbyshire/Staffordshire, UK.

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