A.C. Perch's Thehandel

Angrboda is awesome!!!!
Another Angrboda Tea!
YAY!

This smells like Oolong and Raspberry – simple…
The taste is great! It’s a true flavored oolong and a flavorful-flavored oolong! It’s very good! Very good indeed! I’m infusing this again for a 2nd steep right now…had a little mishap with the last one…ended up on my keyboard after 3 sips! Oops!

I am totally digging this Oolong! Thanks Angrboda!
Will be reporting back shortly with the 2nd infusion results…

So… confession time.

I don’t normally drink loose tea. Or rather, I didn’t until now. Back when I lived in the UK, I would drink bagged exclusively, and this carried over when I moved to Denmark, in the form of several large boxes.

However, as time has gone on, my stocks have dwindled, and Angrboda has introduced me to the varied delights of loose tea. So, this is me taking the plunge, having run out of bagged tea entirely, and bought a stack of loose to keep me going. Will I be able to operate loose tea brewing at 7am? Only time will tell…

So, this is my first attempt at brewing Lapsang Souchong in some sort of basket contraption what goes in the teapot. First impressions – these leaves look funny; smell great; I wonder how much…?

Maybe this is a slight understeep – the smokiness is only barely detectable in the aroma. There’s a note of it in the taste, along with some mild astringency. Overall, a nice refreshing cup, and a non-disaster to start out my loose tea experiment with! :-)

Far Too Good For Ordinary People.

I’d nearly forgotten this one. I was shaking tins to see if there were any that I might be able to finish off all quick-like. Preferably today, to be honest. My Lockdown criteria are very nearly met. One more tin to empty and then I’m allowed to buy some tea again. That means stocking up on two Kusmis and looking to see if I can get a third easily around these parts. After that, I expect I’ll do another Lockdown round because this first one doesn’t seem to have made much of a dent, especially not in the samples. I want to get the supplies good and low before I do anything else than simple re-stocking.

Anyway, I found this one and made me a good strong cup with a generous helping of honey. On its own I tends to have a fairly prominent honey note, I think, and adding real honey to it seems to bring it out more. It’s one of the few teas where I’ll automatically add stuff to the cup without thinking too much about it.

Apart from that, it wasn’t a very successful cup today. I used more leaf than usually (I’m trying to empty the tin, remember!) but it still seems a bit watery and weak in flavour today. Odd. It actually tastes a bit as if I used less leaf than normal which just doesn’t make any sense at all.

I did turn the steep time down somewhat due to the extra leaf, but not that much.

Maybe it’s a good thing this tin is nearly done. I don’t think this is one I’d be stocking up on. It’s not my perfect Assam.

Goodmorning Steepsterites.

sigh

I have NOTHING to DRINK!!!

I briefly considered trying one of the remaining Auggy-teas, but eventually came to the conclusion that early morning boredom wasn’t really the right circumstance for that. Considering how quickly the cardboard-y note incarnation of the Tan Yang Te Ji vanished yesterday morning, I eventually decided to let myself be inspired by that and make some real Assam.

Ouch, hot!

Yes, it’s definitely reminding me of yesterday morning. A bit stronger perhaps but very similar.

I checked that I took the right tin yesterday.

But can we ever really be completely certain?

Unrelatedly, my TTB participants can look here (http://iarnvidia.livejournal.com/) for the first part of a couple of posts about the box. The second part should be up soonishly, I hope. (Yes, I know it was posted ages ago, but I thought it would be used for someone else so I didn’t tell)

Stomach is fine now. Head, not so much. A good strong black is needed, to-be-finished pile be damned. Nothing is working properly inside my skull today. I tried checking my dashboard, and JacquelineM’s post about the (by now) infamous and tres yummy raspberry oolong was on top. After that one though, I suddenly found myself realising that I was just scrolling and forgetting to pay attention.

This has a strong wood-y sort of aroma which promises a kick in the rear and a clearing of the mind. After brewing the aroma turns towards the sweeter and more honey-y, but still as strong, and still definitely the same smell as the dry leaves. Just altered a little bit.

I’m suddenly beginning to understand what Auggy means when she says Assam has a cardboard like flavour. There is a strong unmistakeble cardboard flavour here. It’s not unpleasant, it’s just… odd. This is uncomplicated. It’s an Assam that tastes of Assam and that’s really all there is to it. If I had been more in favour of Indian teas over Chinese, I’d probably have rated this better.

Not sure if it really helped my mental state much though. It might be just placebo.

Really messy post, this. I’ll just stop it here and go away and go back to being a sporadic presence for another few days. I’m sure you won’t mind.

I’m falling asleep at my keyboard here, and I need a pick-me-up. So, a strong black tea, yes please. So I picked this one.

It wasn’t until afterwards that I realised that this was the tea that I had yet to manage to brew successfully. This time I was careful not to oversteep though.

This tea has two very distinctive primary notes, and they are entirely, it seems, independent of one another. There’s a very sweet, honeylike smoothness and then there’s a somewhat astringent malty kick. It kind of feels a little disjointed. As it develops, the malty note starts to take over, but with the promise that the sweet will be back with the addition of a little milk to smooth the astringency.

(Given how sleepy I am as I’m writing this, there’s NO WAY I’m adding milk to this. That would knock me out for sure.)

I met a friendly kitty on my way home from work today. That saved the otherwise seriously boring day.

It put me in the right frame of mind to do a proper first-time review of a tea and I remembered this one that I got from Lexitus for Christmas and didn’t have the energy to review properly the last time I had it.

I did today. But then I got distracted and it oversteeped, resulting in a rather bitter bite.

So, still no rating, still no review. Just steeping fail.

Goodmorning Steepsterites.
The last of the three Lexitus-teas.

Somewhat oversteeped and gone a bit cold due to me being distracted, so I’ll have to try again for a proper post and rating later.

The initial impression is promising though, and it may indeed live up to the ‘Deluxe’ and the *F*ar *T*oo *G*ood *F*or *O*rdinary *P*eople.

I decided to experiment a bit with this tea and steeped it for less time. I can taste quite a bit more raspberry flavour this way, although the oolong base seems a touch bland. Still it seems like a 5-5.5 min steep is the way to go.

On an un-related note, I got a mysterious, yellow package in the mail from Ricky today….maybe I should call the Bomb Squad. ;P

2nd Steeping.
The tea is lighter but I can actually taste the raspberry a bit more clearly, oddly enough. I’m also definitely noticing more of a vegetale flavour.

My second shot at this tea. I think I might have ‘over-cooked’ the leaves a bit because they’re a bit bitter-tasting, though it’s not too bad. Angrboda, how long/at what temp do you normally steep this tea?

I’ve noticed that, unlike many of the oolongs I’ve tried, this has some similar notes to a green tea, so maybe the steeping temperature should be lower accordingly. I wish I had more experience with oolong teas.

This is the 3rd tea I got from Angrboda and I think this might be my favorite of the three. The steeping instructions recommended 8 minutes in boiling water, but I’m a bit leery of using boiling water for oolongs (I’ve wrecked a few that way) so I dialed down the temp to 90 celcius.

The smell is wonderful, I kept hovering over the mug while it was steeping so I could inhale the scent of sweet rasperries. By the way, this tea gets major point for NO HIBISCUS – I like you already AC Perch, even if the shipping you charge is insane for anyone this side of the Atlantic. ;D

The tea itself tastes quite light, a little surprising for me who was expecting something a bit more full-flavoured like the Tung Ting and the Ti Kuan Yin I’ve been drinking. I wonder if I just didn’t added enough leaf or maybe I should have steeped it in boiling water. Hm. At least Angrboda gave me a generous amount of this tea, so I’ve got room to experiment. :)

The raspberry is faint but it’s also quite distinct to my senses and it leaves a nice, lingering sort of aftertaste in the back of my mouth. It gives the tea a slightly astringent quality, but nothing powerful or unpleasent.

I’m rating this tea at 75 for now, but it’ll probably be subject to change once I get a chance to muck around with some of the variables.

A tea with orange/brown color.
Sweet round taste. It smells of cake, of a warm summer night and cream.
I like this tea very much. You could say that this is my “usual” tea, one that I drink more than any other tea. It’s a humble tea, it dosn’t overflow you senses. I like it humble <3

Glad to be back on Steepster.
Looking forward to the year full of tea ;)

A sample from the lovely Angrboda. I agree with her assessment. This is not overwhelmingly bad, but it doesn’t really stand out from the pack. It’s your typical kind of floral, kind of grassy oolong.

Still trying to get through this at work. Our work-selection are still “stuff we would never get around to drinking otherwise.” When first I had this one I thought it was quite pleasant. Now, each time I have it, I like it a little less, and have as a consequence adjusted the points heavily downwards. I’m not sure what is causing this phenomenon, but I know that not all of it is due to the fact that it’s just not a very work-friendly tea, because I had the same experience when we had some of it at home still. But it definitely isn’t work-friendly. We have found that anything that is not black and flavoured doesn’t seem to be going well at work. I believe it has to do with the way we drink it there and the way circumstances dictate that we brew. In a 1 liter thermos, using a paper bag, unable to control water temperature and frequently oversteeping as we just don’t always have time to do something about it when it’s finished. Only flavoured black really seems to be showing up right in those circumstances, borderline abusive as they are. I think it’s because the flavouring of the tea hides the taste of the paper, and non-flavoured leaf is just wasted there. We have found few that didn’t just turn boring this way.

Anyway, what I was saying was that we are still trying to get rid of this one among others. Today I learned that it does not take kindly to being steeped for two hours and ten minutes. It was fine in the beginning. A bit strong, yes, but still okay. Once it started cooling down however… WHEW! Hello, Mr Astringency!

On the upside, though, but the time I got around to remembering to remove the bag of leaves from the thermos, it had turned a most lovely bright orange, which would have amused me greatly in most other sorts of tea. In this one it was merely slightly disturbing if I am to be completely honest. So two hours plus worth of steeping? Don’t do it again, self. Ever.

I was in the mood for green, I decided, because green is good for your eyes. I found this one in the back of the cupboard and it seemed fitting for the mood this evening.

Very nice. Very sencha-y. Me likes.

The real reason, however, for this post is to inform you that the trip report from my holiday is up. Beware it’s image heavy. http://iarnvidia.livejournal.com/2960.html

Finally working out how to pour from the gaiwan into a cup without spilling all over the place has totally revolutionised the way I drink greens! I like greens, but they do require a certain mood to be taken in larger quantities. Even my small pot is a bit on the big side there. This way is so much easier!

Leaf-saving too, because I can get way more steeps out of a smaller amount of leaves. In a pot I rarely do more than two steeps of a green, three if I’m doing a lot, because after that I’ve just become bored and want something else.

So I’ve dived into my stash of semi-forgotten greens and found this one. Very nice. I’m reminded a bit of the Long Jing I had the other day and not just because I’m brewing this the same way, but also on the flavour. Hint of asparagus there but not nearly as bright and bouncy as in dragonwell.

Of course, just like the Long Jing, I have no clue about which number steep I’m on at the moment.

And to think I was on the verge of putting the gaiwan on the shelf as a nice little tea-related decorative item. Now I think I need some more of them. :D

ETA: Without spilling… Ahem. wipes up

This is a Lexitus-tea that I got for Christmas. It’s one that I saw on AC Perch’s site and wanted to try and he remembered that, so yay him.

It’s a very interesting tea for me, this one. My first ever tea from the South American continent so I have little clue as to what to expect taste- and quality-wise. AC Perch’s say it’s similar in flavour to Japanese greens, but I have little experience with them, so it doesn’t help me much.

The leaves are large and very dark, so at first glance it looks like an average non-jade oolong. A fair amount of twigs in there too. The aroma of the dry leaves is fairly typical green. Not overwhelming in strength and sort of leafy sweet, a hint of nuttyness. Due to the leaf size it’s a bit difficult to scoop so I’ve fallen back on the same way I scoop my Pai Mu Tan. For one small pot with farm animals on it: Plenty.

AC Perch’s recommend a steeping time of six minutes, which I thought was rather a lot for a first go, so I’ve given it a little less, and since I can’t empty the whole pot into this cup in one go, I’ll get a second cup with a longer steeping time so I can compare there.

The colour is very light, and it’s one of those funky coloured once that makes you wonder if it might actually be mildly radioactive. A pale yellow greenish sort of glow-in-the-dark colour. You know those white stars? It’s nearly that colour. It has a very special smell too. There is an extremely sweet note to it that if I didn’t know any better, I’d think there was a lot of sugar in it. It’s kind of vanillaish, and maybe just a touch, the slightest little bit of something salty or seaweedish. It’s very very very little though, and the primary aroma note is the vanillaish sweetness.

It tastes nothing like it smells. There’s a typical green sort of nuttyness and not really any vanillaish sweetness. It’s got a good kick to the flavour, a bit more woody than grassy. It’s actually rather nice, but it’s not a tea that you can keep on discovering. What you see is what you get.

The second cup, which had a longer steeping time (longer, probably, than the recommended six minutes) is darker and much more yellow in colour. The aroma is pretty much the same, but strangely enough it’s not even remotely as strong as the aroma in the shorter steeped cup. The flavour has lost much of the nuttyness and gained quite a bit of astringency instead, and a sourish note too. I definitely liked the shorter steep better, but I feel that this bodes well for another couple of steeps.

ETA: Interesting. Second steep, although nearly forgotten and therefore severely oversteeped is actually still quite nice. It’s got a bit of a bite, but nothing like the second round of the first steep. Mostly it’s pretty smooth, I think.