382 Tasting Notes
Yeah, so I didn’t set my alarm and slept right through class. Whoops! I’m pretty sure it’s my subconscious’s way of telling me not to go to bed so late, so it’s early bedtime for me tonight!
On the plus side this meant that I had time to properly brew something, so I picked this. The leaves smell fascinating a mixture of fruity and creamy – such a weird contrast to the not even there smell of Sally’s Secret. I’m not really getting anything in the way of cough syrup Stephanie but then those cough syrups tend to smell overridingly of chemicals to me.
What I AM getting is this weird chalky quality in the actual drink. Not a huge fan of chalk – especially in my drinks. I mean, it’s useful for writing on a blackboard, but I don’t want to be ingesting it. I wonder if that’s the creamyness? I can’t really sense the bergamot either, besides a general fruityness, but I guess it’s just blending in with all the other flavors so I am not really that bummed. The quality of the smell also changed when I infused it – now I DO get more cherry out of it – or at least a strong sour fruity smell.
This is quite tasty other than the chalky thing, and I’ll probably get more if subsequent attempts prove it to be an aberration.
Edit: Oh yeah, forgot to mention the weird underlying spicy note – considering that I also had this with Sally’s Secret, I’m going to assume that is part of the Bergamot-ness?
Preparation
I am not gonna lie, I was full to the brim with admiration for the tastiness and awesomeness of this tea. It smells DIVINE, it tastes amazing and it is lovely and awesome, although I’m gonna have to find some Toppo and eat it before I can confirm the resemblance. It is a sacrifice, but one I am willing to make.
Anyway, I was gonna wax poetic about every aspect of this tea and how its subtlety was a lovely change form other dessert teas I have tried and how I have to buy a whole thing of it right NAO. But…I got into a particularly bad pug and not even the amazingness of Florence can counter the frustration and general put-upon-ness I am feeling right now. AND the worst part is that I am blowing it way out of proportion because a stupid offhand remark from one of the worst offenders happened to evoke an…unpleasant memory.
I sulk now. But Florence is delicious!
(Note: you will never see me give out a 100 because I will always be all like “but what if some even MORE awesome tea comes up later? what will I give THAT?” Yeah, it’ll probably never happen, but WHAT IF IT DOES?)
Preparation
Lol. You never fail to crack me up. I stopped playing WoW because I’m west coast on a west coast realm and yet, every damn guild I was in was made up of mostly central or east coast time players who started raiding while I was still at work. So I was relegated to pugs or filling in when people had to drop out and ugh, what a disappointment. Finally I realized I was stressing over my supposed escapism and I just stopped showing up. The moral of the story is: you should NOT let these bozos spoil Florence for you!
Yah, my guild starts raiding pretty early too (6pm) but that’s the only time we could get the majority of our members to agree on. I tried really hard to rise above! But…ugh, it was just an unfortunate turn of phrase. At least I’ll be ready if it happens again.
Oh yeah, I forgot to add this to the note: If you did not understand paragraph 2 because you did not know what a pug is OR think I am talking about a small dog, congratulations! you probably have a life :D
LOL! I shouldn’t be congratulated: at the beginning of the paragraph I was like “is that a drug term?” Then I figured out that it’s not and felt extra unhip. Then I read __Morgana__’s note and it all clicked into place. ;)
As for your last paragraph: it put me in mind of the scene from This is Spinal Tap where there’s the discussion about amps going to 11. My personal theory is that if that particular tea rating paradox occurs, then Steepster will implode. foop!
Haha, that you mentioned the amp going to 11. My BF uses that example all the time for when you can’t get someone to see the logic of a situation. But isn’t is just a 10 crossed out with an 11 painted in? No, its 11. Lol.
oh and Rabs, pug = pick up group. Defined as an inherently unreliable and disorganized group of players in a MMORPG supposedly trying to make it through a dungeon, usually unsuccesfully and with a lot of annoying behavior and name calling ensuing.
It’s been several years since I played Dark Age of Camelot (yes, you WoWers feel free to roll your eyes), so I was rusty on some of the terms. I was part of a dying guild, so I’d only been a part of 2 pugs which were pretty meh. I preferred solo or duo quests and enjoyed being a blacksmith and taking armor/weapon requests.
Yay! Harney and Sons samples came in today! I think at this point I have hyped Florence up so much in my head that there is no way that it can ever live up to it, so I’m putting off trying it for now. (maybe later on today, although I have to admit, ever since figuring out how to properly make 52 teas’ coconut cream pie, I’ve been kind of craving it)
The idea of adding rosebuds to Earl Gray appeals to me a great deal, it seems that, like with Earl Grey Blue Flower, it would add another dimension to the Earl Gray that would allow me to indulge in my favorite tea but with some variation. Now I associate rose with a pretty strong scent and flavor, but this tea seems to be lacking both. Perhaps it’s just that I’m eating curry and this tea is too delicate for it, but I am not really getting ANYTHING out of it except an odd spiciness.
As it cools, I start to get both aroma and flavor, so perhaps I was just being too impatient. At the moment, it is being a pretty standard earl grey – although the spiciness is making me suspicious that there is secretly lavender inside. There IS something else there, but I can’t quite pin it down. Is it fruity? Is it floral? Is it both? Is it neither? Dunno!
The tea grows on me as I drink it, but the flavor continues to be a coy little bugger. My mum wanted to know if it was any good since she’s also been looking for some variations on the theme of Earl Gray, but right now I don’t know what to tell her. I’m glad the sample has enough for several cups!
Next time hopefully I’ll remember to try and make this stronger.
Preparation
Ahh, I think with all the flavored tea that I’ve drunk recently, I have lost sight of the attractiveness of black tea and Assam Melody is a great tea to remind me of it. Smooth and sweet, this is tea unornamented. And sometimes, that’s really what you want.
Also, it’s very forgiving – I think I left the teabag in for, like, 20 minutes.
Preparation
So Tuesdays are pretty much the worst day of the week for me. I start class at 9 and basically have it in some form until 6 (with an hour long break here and there) and the last class is the one where we talk about Foucault ad infinitum. So, rather than go for a strong pick me up tea today, I wanted something tasty and flavored to give me a bit of comfort as I thought about the rest of the day. As an added bonus I was able to finish off my sample of this in anticipation of the arrival of my Harney and Son order!
The more I drink it the more I like this Earl Grey. It seems to have just the right ratio of aroma to tea, and it the floral addition gives it a nice twist on the Earl Grey theme. Think it needs to go on my shopping list!
Oh dear…talking about Foucault ad infinitum sounds like, uh, not so much fun. I’ve been calling him F*ckault throughout finals period…
OMG, I am so calling him that from now on! Although only in my head, since my thesis adviser recently told me that if I complained about him again she would smack me one.
Also, today shouldn’t actually be that bad. We’re talking about religion and nationalism – and that’s just fun!
$&^%$&%$^ Mondays.
I was honestly in such a haze this morning that I have no idea if I actually grabbed this or if it was some other tea. I think it was this. Clearly the tea itself didn’t make an impression on me, I just downed it and hoped that it would keep me conscious through class. Unfortunately, it did too good of a job and I was unable to indulge in a post class nap ;_;
Anyone who says…and I quote…“$&^%$&%$^ Mondays” – gets a “like” from me! :)
Let’s get this day over with,eh!?
LOL
“Must be a case of the Mondays!!” lol ;) I’m having a tough Monday too!
@ Stephanie: LOL! You get that TPS report?
As I get older I find myself less able to take refreshing naps. Mondays and lack of nappage suck. I want to get that Onion mug that says “I hate whatever day this is.” At least you got yourself a nice Matcha blend this morning :)
I don’t even know what I meant to be theoretically “hidden” by those symbols. It’s probably incoherent cartoon swearing: “rassa frassa, rackin frackin Mondays”
And doesn’t it suck when you DO manage to take a nap but then you wake up and you feel WORSE? It almost puts me off naps altogether.
Also, that mug sounds awesome.
Warmed up the latte mixture for this this morning and increased the amount of Matcha that I used. At first I thought I’d STILL gotten the proportions wrong because the flavors just weren’t blending properly, but then, I set it aside for a while (so I could concentrate on other people’s tea notes) and now it’s perfect! The tea and the latte mix have blended together really well and created this absolutely amazing undertone of I don’t even know what but I like it.
It’s lovely and warming, too (having one of those chilly, foggy Santa Barbara days).
Risked this in the evening. Decided to try less leaf (I usually do a heaping teaspoon, but went with a flat one) and to be more exact about the 8 oz water recommended per teaspoon on the sachet. I then added about 2 oz (this I eyeballed at about 1/4 of what was currently in the cup) of the latte mixture.
Success! Once again, actually paying attention to things produces results! It’s amazing how often that works.
I am also somewhat weirded out because this is basically a tea that I don’t want to drink without milk or milk like thing (fear my double negative!), where usually I am against milk in my tea at all!
Preparation
Had this this morning with chocolate chip pancakes and bacon in order to scientifically test the following question:
Will delicious breakfast tea detract/distract from delicious breakfast (or vice versa)?
Answer: No. Everything is just delicious together and it is awesome.
