June Sipdown Prompt – World Environment Day: drink an organic tea
Sipdown edited to add – enjoyed it cold and sweet so I steeped it hot, added sugar, drank one cup and put the rest to chill for tomorrow lunch.
This tea was in my huge haul sent by Nicole! Many thanks!
I tried this tea three ways – hot and unsweetened, hot and sweetened very lightly, and cold steeped and sweetened.
Hot and unsweetened – I mostly tasted green tea, with the gunpowder flavor dominating, and chun mee being the second strongest layer. It was a well done green tea blend for the base. I was hardly tasting any flavoring but I think the grapefruit was so similar to the flavor of the greens in the base that it wasn’t coming through as a separate note. I added the tiniest hint of sugar and picked up a little of the vanilla. As the cup cooled, both the grapefruit and vanilla became more noticeable. I mainly felt it was a very enjoyable green tea and the flavoring was a whisper.
Then I cold steeped a carafe to use as sweet tea for lunch. I added a little hot water and sugar, swirled it until the sugar dissolved, and topped up the carafe with cool water from the filter. Then I added the tea leaves. I left it in the fridge for about five hours.
I don’t cold steep much. Usually I just make tea in advance and chill it for a few hours to a day. I was worried that it might really not extract much flavor since I am somewhat inexperienced at cold steeping with the exception of puerh, which I have cold steeped a lot.
The flavors are more prominent this way than prepared hot to me, and I taste both the bitter (normal) flavor of the grapefruit and the desserty vanilla, but they are still somewhat light. Good enough to have two glasses at lunch!
Next time I drink this, it will be a sipdown. I think it is a very good tea for anyone who enjoys gunpowder green tea or grapefruit flavor.
