392 Tasting Notes
The first full cake of my very own that I’ve ever hacked away at! Twuwy a bwessed day.
From the leaves: scotch custard, bourbon vanilla, cedar. Pour smells of minerals, spring water, generic alcohol vapors, cucumber, wood essence… pretty light. Tastes watery, scotchy… vanilla extract and wood notes.
Cherry liqueur and wood perfume now on the leaves. Still smells and tastes surprisingly watery… alcohol and wood essence, yes, but dulled… it’s a little more rounded as it cools, but feel like i’m missing the “tea” component here.
Okay, the third steep is showing up more… more barrel, more astringency, more cooling. ACH, FIRST I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND QI AND NOW I CAN’T STOP IT, BLERRRRRRRGH.
No, but seriously. Feeling a little overwhelmed. I may need to limit myself to one sheng a day going forward. Also eating. I’ll come back to this one later. Later later.
Flavors: Alcohol, Astringent, Bourbon, Cedar, Cherry, Cucumber, Custard, Mineral, Scotch, Spring Water, Vanilla, Whiskey, Wood
Hauled this along with our picnic to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve last week. The little orangeys are a sight, my lard. Not as focused a session as my first visit to Purple Barrel Narnia, but I traded for a beautiful setting and my dear one alongside. We agreed a post-poppy session may have been a wiser choice as we hoofed up the first slope, dragging our own heavy legs behind us…
Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve looks beautiful!
Free and easy flower, that California poppy. A symbol of the radiant, unflagging spirit of this land. Poppy is the nickname I whisper in my baby niece’s ear. May you bloom strong and bright, baby girl.
It’s much further than Antelope Valley, but if you’re ever over by Joshua Tree or the Salton Sea, check out the North Algodones Dunes.
I’m trying to remember if I’ve been there. I have a distinct memory of running up and flying down dunes with my environmental ed students back in the day, but I can’t for the life of me place where we were. I’ll put it on the list for the next JT adventure.
“Wild” in the name, but the description on the little packet mentioned “cultivated.” A conundrum.
There was just a baby pinch of leaves in this bag and I was thus not expecting much, but I was pretty well impressed. The wet leaves — holy mushroom soup, batman. Smelled like dried porcinis and shiitakes rehydrating in boiling water.
I steeped easy to start, then pushed the second steep pretty hard due to the amount of leaf. Delicious. Taste remained true to the scents — still mostly porcinis, some nice astringency, very pleasant. Would be interesting to taste this with some age on it, but it’s unfussy and delightful right now.
Thank you, ashmanra, for the sample!
Flavors: Astringent, Mushrooms
I have tried this tea up, down, and sideways: gong fu, western, grandpa. Little steeps, big steeps, stew steeps. One steep, two steep, red steep, blue steep.
Everyone’s notes are so lovely and romantic and all I taste is paper bag.
