Camellia Sinensis

This sample is very old so it’s definitely much more flat and mellow tasting than it used to be, but I enjoyed the calmness that came to me as I sipped this very light muscatel and somewhat maltier profile, and the finishing notes were floral in a unique sort of way that reminded me a little of white flowers. What kind of white flowers? I don’t really know because, truthfully, there are a million white flowers with all different tastes and smells. White flowers could mean a million different things. It’s just what came to mind as I drank it, though…

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgz_vIQueYz/ (The 1st Photo)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w24snUDhPA

Freebie sample from one of the Camellia Sinensis orders I’ve placed this year; I think the most recent but honestly I’ve lost track a bit…

- Western; hot/straight
- Very noticeably/clearly astringent
- Not that it’s unpleasant/necessarily TOO much; just very ‘there’ throughout whole sip
- Kind of floral, but in a perfumey and relatively ‘forced’ way
- Rather than a fresh, delicate way like described
- Body is a little more mixed in flavour notes: malt, dry cinnamon chips, stale herbs?
- I know I’m not describing it in a super lovely way…
- But it’s actually not BAD; more so just really mediocre?
- It does hit pretty well all the aspects described by the company though…
- …just not in as positive a light!?

I don’t know… it’s meh.

I guess next time I’ll steep it for less time and see if that softens it in a positive way.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiuKNfw46HU&index=4&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

You can get many better teas for the same price. The flavours are atypical of an Assam 2nd flush tea — I don’t even think this was a “real” Assam.

It was part of our tea tasting at Tea Drunk with my friend Tynan and the guys from Budapest. It was our least favorite tea.

Gongfu!

Starting the weekend off with this session. To be honest, I had forgotten that I still had some of this white tea left. I saw the tin while looking for something else to make, and then immediately did a 180 on my selection. It’s a pretty interesting tasting tea; the mouthfeel is very thick and creamy in texture but I’m not finding it translating as directly to the taste. Instead, it’s more like a gently charred and roasted nectarine or peach. Definitely lots of stone fruit, but dark and heavy – not so much floral or bright and juicy. This works well with some of the other notes present; crunchy autumnal leaves, dark honey, brown sugar (just a hint), and burnt toast. Plus, it’s just ever so slightly woody and mineral!

I fully meant to pair this with the bunch of grapes pictured, and I still ended up snacking on a couple in between infusions. However, I mostly just drank the tea without my fruit pairing. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that a decade old tea had such a commanding presence!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqgLD6gO22B/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egQgoI6FBrA

Gongfu!

This is a really lovely aged white tea; the dry leaf is stunning and the steeped tea is a golden yellow colour that verges on amber that makes me swoon. Tonight’s session has a really unique and tasty mix of brown sugar, molasses, golden raisins, tangy nectarine, and crunchy autumnal leaf notes!! I’m so thrilled it’s held up well since I purchased it.

Not sure if this is still carried by CS, but I would be mighty tempted to restock my tin if it still is. The only downside is that this is so incredibly light and fluffy that it takes up A LOT of space to store; space I’m not sure I have…

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBB9eYfgVjt/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndlb4fic-eQ

Cold Brew, with some added in lemon slices/wedges.

This was really good – cooling and crisp with a mild hay/straw note and a hint of apricot and then, as the lemon slices gradually infused overtime, it became a lot more like a white tea lemonade which was especially refreshing.

You’ll likely notice, as I make my way through this queue of tasting notes, that I really favored cold brews during my week long staycation: it’s HOT in my apartment, so they definitely became a necessity.

First tea of the day!

I’m finding that this is tasting more like a black tea this morning than a white; a malty, full bodied black tea with top and body notes of stonefruits – peach and nectarine. Wicked smooth apart from the tiniest bit of astringency on the top of the sip. Hits me right on the tip of the tongue, but then quickly goes away.

Large Western mug.

This one was at its best when it was just above room temperature. It was just super smooth, with strong sweet malt notes, hints of fresh timothy hay, and a fruity nectarine/peach like undertone that gave it just a bit of brightness. After it had cooled down more than this, though, it just lacked shine. More of a flat hay note.

A reminder to myself not to neglect my mugs of tea.

So, I tried this one with the pumpkin agave too a few nights ago.

I had the idea that a while tea might be a nice compliment to the agave because it would be light enough to showcase the pumpkin notes in a prominent way and what straw/hay notes were present would only sort of add to that overall autumnal feel. I chose this white tea specifically purely because I just have so much of it on hand.

It didn’t really work though, and it came out very muddled and borderline cloying tasting. It’s almost like the taste of the agave was too present and it just ruined the base tea completely. I also forgot that this white tea has some pretty strong stonefruit notes and to be honest they just tasted weird with pumpkin. Pumpkin and peach? Not a strong match up…

It was drinkable, so I finished the cup but it’s not something I’ll be revisiting.

Hot, and Western again…

Even though I’ve only had this tea one time prior to this cup, when I brewed this up it had such a strong familiarity to it – the kind of familiarity that definitely extends past trying it one prior time.

The taste was nice; very smooth with a surprisingly thick and viscous mouthfeel. The taste was a mix of hay, delicate malt, stonefruits (peach/nectarine/apricot), and autumnal leaves. If I had to pick a more abstract way to summarize the flavour I’d say it tasted the way that jumping into a pile of freshly raked, crisp orange autumn leaves feels…

I liked it a lot.

Nabbed this one with my last order because I’ve been curious for a while; and why not try it now? I can’t think of a reason not to…

I suppose what I expected from this one was pretty much your typical Shou Mei flavour but just with a lot more body? In a way, I suppose it is that. It’s got a very thick mouthfeel/liquor, and the overall flavour is relatively full bodied (for a white tea) with a lot of natural sweetness. The top notes and body are both pretty tangy, with some supporting hot hay notes. The finish is much smoother, and has a bit of a wood chip/dried wood sort of taste to it.

For a Western cup, this was interesting with a slightly above average sort of complexity to it. I imagine this would be quite nice and smooth Gong Fu, though my gut feeling is that it probably wouldn’t be a very long lasting session. Something worth trying, though.

Dry stuff is Good ol’ apple-caramel crisp, extra butter.

Infuses in floral Oolong at first, lighter than expected, i’m getting a chalky/powdery vibe and some type of boiled pork or beef from the wet leaves, although, thats probably fancy renaissance bouquet for the educated noses out there, it really smells like the foamy stuff coming on top of a meaty broth.
It eventually releases full roundness and sweetness. Mainly Buttery florals but there is a milkshake thing coming in and out, great stuff.

Thanks Mr. Chang

My first tea from this morning, steeped strong and Western style. I’m actually much closed to a sipdown of this tea than I thought I was and now I kind of feel like I need to decide whether I want to restock or not…

It’s such a brisk tea though with this almost grizzly full bodied and tannic character about it. Really malty but with spice notes like cumin and a distinct note of baked bread which is honestly probably the “sweetest” element of the flavour. It’s just strong in a way that not a lot of other black teas I have are when steeped Western style. Breakfast blends are nice and do have a strength to them but they lack the spicy bite I get from this tea.

Geek Steep S1E3 – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

This week on the podcast I got to take a look at a new to me fandom through Marika’s eyes, and it was really cool having this very tailored/curated intro to DS9 to get to form an impression around.

This was the tea that I chose to drink while we recorded this episode, and while sometimes the tea we drink over conversation has significance to the episode we’re recording this was not one of those times. It was just very early in the morning, and I was feeling a straight black tea with a lot of backbone and robustness to it. This came to mind as something loosely in the vein of a breakfast tea – but better. More umami with spice notes like cumin and a woody quality I liked. It was a nice tea to drink over our conversation because it made me feel very grounded and focused, which was important for the topics that were covered in the week’s episodes – a lot were more political or just a bit heavier in tone.

Our Website: https://www.geeksteep.com/
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Listen to us on Buzzsprout:
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DB topic:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast

Gongfu!

Enjoyed this black tea with some spiced gouda & cherry tomatoes, in the late morning!! I’ve always thought that this Columbian black tea had such a beautiful and interesting cumin note, so I really like the idea of emphasizing those spicier notes in the tea with complimenting spices in this cheese, especially the caraway seeds that are mixed throughout it!! The gouda is also very creamy and buttery, which helps to mute much of the astringency present in this black tea. What’s left is a rich, full bodied profile composed of spice, wood, malt, and bitter cacao notes!!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B9cVc5uABBk/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQfitmjL6U0

One of the very, very few teas I drank while sick.

I found out a few days ago that I didn’t get have a cold like I thought I did, but in fact I’ve got laryngitis – I may not have normal speaking ability for another week, possibly two. However, apart from still sounding like I’ve swallowed Patty & Selma I feel pretty good. So, I’m excited to get back to drinking tea and writing about it!

Sadly this cup wasn’t very enjoyable – now, to be perfectly fair I was high as fuck on pain medication/antibiotics. In fact, I was so high that I managed to take a photo and post it to instagram with a full caption/list of tags without remembering taking it whatsoever. I just remember that even with a generous amount of added honey I found the steeped tea quite bitter tasting, and unpleasant.

Meh. That’s what I get for trying to be ambitious and make something somewhat nice, in terms of tea…

From last night, with DT’s new Peppermint Agave that we’re doing for the winter.

I was so excited about the peppermint agave when I saw it, but I’m realizing now that it’s going to be a challenge finding teas to use it with that aren’t already minty blends. I thought I’d try it out with this one, a straight black tea, and maybe with a black base that hint of mint would work really well. I wasn’t a huge fan though. It’s just such a powerful flavour; and sure it really brought out the cocoa and malt notes in this black tea but it also really competed against them/drowned them out. I didn’t really love it…

And so, I think the challenge of finding a way to use this agave continues.

This one is actually setting in very nicely as a daily drinking black tea for me!

Normally my favourite straight blacks are Dian Hongs because they’re quite sweet and chocolate heavy – but this years as the seasons change I’ve found myself craving spiced teas a lot more than I normally do. Not Chai though, or straight up spiced teas. This is a really good compromise though, because it’s got lots of spice notes to it naturally: cinnamon and cumin primarily. Also notes of malt and rye.

It’s not an exceptional black tea, but it’s a consistent enough one that it works for a no frills casual daily drinker…

Oddly spicy!

Notes of cumin, cinnamon, and bark and then the more typical notes of malt, and cocoa. If I hadn’t have known better, I almost would have said that the spicier elements of this tea reminded me of a Keemun (without the underlying fruity/jammy qualities) or August Uncommon’s Port of Shadows tea…

Very different compared to the last two cups I had, for sure.

Take #2

I used the same amount of tea leaf this time, but with a shorter steep time. It was an improvement because this was a lot smoother mouthfeel wise, however there was also a faint watery quality to the flavour profile too. I mean, yes it was sweet and malty with honey and cocoa notes but it lacked body/presence.

More tweaking is probably needed still; maybe the same steep time as my first try but with less leaf?

So, I had a Camellia Sinensis order show up today! I actually placed the order not really for any tea in particular but because they were carrying an absolutely STUNNING jellyfish teacup that I just 100% needed to own. You guys don’t even understand; jellyfish have been my spirit animals as of late. They’re these gentle, floating water blobs that zap you when you get up in their personal space – how perfect is that!? Plus, all my good friends refer to me as an “asexual jellyfish”. I don’t know where that even originated, but it’s just a term now. So now I have this equally bad ass jellyfish teacup!

Anyway; while I was ordering I DID pick up some tea too – because you just gotta. That’s how addiction works. I chose this one because I have tried a Columbian Bitaco tea before and I thought it would be interesting to compare the two mentally, especially since this one was a pretty reasonable price.

The dry leaf for this one is really sweet smelling with distinct notes of honey, cocoa, and graham crackers that definitely piqued my interest/curiosity. Steeped up, it’s kind of similar to the dry aroma? I mean, it’s got hints of malt and honey but it’s also pretty brisk and full bodied with a thicker mouthfeel and a somewhat astringent and tannic finish. Also, a bit of a burnt sugar sort of flavour, too.

I mean so far my initial impression is that I like the other black Bitaco tea better it was smoother, and it had this very fascinating anise flavour to it. However, I think some tweaking could produce a very interesting infusion. Either less leaf, or less steeping time would probably fix the astringency and I bet milk and sugar or honey would make for a really nice breakfast tea with some of those honey notes getting exaggerated nicely.

Definitely excited to see where this tea will go.

Current rating is a conservative 69, with the belief that appropriate tweaking will result in a brew deserving of a better score.

this oolong from crowkettle is sort of middle of the road oolong. it’s not really roasted or super green…it’s just kinda…an oolong lol. Appreciate the share crowkettle as i for sure wouldn’t be picking these out myself but i DO like to try them :)