Capital Tea Ltd.

Finished this one off today. Figured i might as well try and focus on it today vs yesterday. Today i actually like the cup a little less than yesterday. Maybe it’s because i’m paying attention but today it’s got some floral notes in it that i’m not a fan of. there’s also a hint of something in the background that i could do without. Suspect this may be more of a darjeeling vs black tea given the notes i’m getting.

Another sample from VariaTEA from earlier in the morning. I can’t remember much from this one other than the fact that i drank it all up, rather quickly. Not a tea that knocked my socks off but something i think could be a decent every day drinking tea. Luckily there’s more for me to try so i can make a better descriptive tasting note next cup :)

Sipdown (248)

This is not an actual sipdown, however I am not a lover of darjeelings and though this is a nice one I just dont think I appreciate it like a darjeeling lover would. I happen to be having dinner with a friend who is a fan of darjeelings so I will be passing the rest of the sample on to him.

As far as darjeelings go, this one is nice. Muscatel and raisiny per usual but not overly floral as darjeelings can sometimes be. A little bready even. A good darjeeling for those new to exploring darjeelings. Thank you for sharing, Evol Ving Ness!

Another single serving from the Discovery tea box. I really wanted to go light on steeping this one, in my experiment to eek out more flavor by using cooler water and shorter steep times for initial steeps. This seems to be a black tea with flavoring and it’s delicious. Nice cocoa flavor with hint of cherry in the first steep. Considering the cool temp and short steep, there was quite a bite to the black tea when it cooled. In the second steep, the cherry disappears but there is quite a starchy quality. The description says Ceylon… I usually find Ceylon boring but this one is delicious with these flavors. Otherwise, the base might be boring by itself, but not as boring as Ceylon CAN be. This was quite the lovely tea to try.
Steep #1 // 1 1/4 teaspoons for a full mug// 20 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // few minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

Discovery TTB #2

There was only a teaspoon left of this one, so I finished it off. It was a very light black tea with a mild, fairly natural mango flavor and an unfortunately sharp aftertaste. Not a huge fan of this one.

To be honest, I had this a few days ago and don’t really remember it. It is pretty light tasting, which isn’t usually a black tea I can remember anyway. The leaves were larger, making the flavor even less strong than I’d want in a black tea. I CAN say the tea was probably better than this tasting note!

Malty and honey-sweet accents, not really a full-fledged full-bodied tea, but its smooth and creamy toffee-like flavour coats the inside of the mouth in a wonderful way.There is a faint hay/straw note lurking somewhere in the aftertaste.I’ve tried with different quantities,brewing and temperature ratio, but 100 g later,it’s still there.
Nevertheless ,this should not deter anyone from enjoying this tea.

Moderately astringent and smooth on the palate, this tea has a nice mouthfeel with rich earthy/woody notes .The finish is sweet with a pleasant hint of lingering tartness.Overall a good satisfying ceylon tea.

Discovery tea box – Tea #5
I feel like I might have had this tea under a different name before? Or some mango teas have the same not-quite-mango flavor. It seems more like a generic fruit flavor to me. It’s not bad, but a bit disappointing. If a tea was just called ‘generic fruit’ flavor or something, I would probably be less disappointed in what to expect. I would love an authentic mango tea that really has that particular flavor of a mango… kind of like Lupicia can nail that melon flavor. Or maybe NO TEA can compete with eating actual fresh fruit!! I think I just found the answer to my fruity tea problems.

Another TTB tea. This is a sipdown because I gave the rest of this to a friend who gave me a bunch of teas to add to the teabox.

This is a really solid black tea with deliciously creamy vanilla notes. The base itself has flavours of raisin and malt, maybe even cocoa. I’m impressed. Normally vanilla teas just aren’t quite what I’m hoping for, but this one is very good, and made even better with a splash of vanilla soy milk.

Another TTB tea

I honestly expected a lot more from this tea. I wanted chocolate and caramel. I only got a hint of cocoa and some malty black tea. I thought it was a straight tea until I looked up the description.

A tea from the TTB

The dry leaf has a weird scent, but the tea itself was pretty tasty. I drank it hot, but I think it would do well iced. The mango flavour is quite natural, similar to dried mango. It was a nice cup, but not something I need in my cupboard.

Another tea from the TTB 2018

This is a really nice black tea with some darker fruity flavour. It reminds me a bit of raisins or dried date (but not sweet).

This is a really flavourful bold black that is not overly bitter. The fruity flavour is nice, but more of an afterthought that a prominent note. It is fairly smooth but I don’t taste any malt. I don’t have experience with Nilgiri teas, but I think the wiki description of “dark, intensely aromatic, fragrant and flavoured” is very accurate.

Exceptional

Smooth, so smooth.

I always enjoy chatting with Joel about tea and life at his booth at our local tea festival.

Last year, I mentioned that I was making more of an effort to focus on varieties of tea at a time to learn a bit more about them and explore their range. So he said, just pop me a note about which ones you are focusing on currently and I’ll throw something in your next order that I think you might like to try.

And that is how I wound up with this tea. And omgwow! The leaves are long, thin, wiry and speckled with gold strands of leaf. The flavour of the steeped tea is honeyed stone fruit and malt, more like a Darjeeling, in my understanding, than a Ceylon.

Just a beautiful tea, one which I will be adding to my next order.

Thanks, Joel! Sorry that I missed you this year.

Sipdown (255)

Thank you for the share Evol Ving Ness for the share. This is a really nice vanilla black tea. Smooth. Sweet. Creamy. Vanilla. No muss. No fuss. Just a nice vanilla black. Nothing too Earth-shattering but still enjoyable.

I think I screwed up because despite the nice vanilla flavor here, there was a lingering astringency that was hard to get past. I brewed this for 2.5 min in 200F water. Perhaps this Ceylon prefers a low and slow method.

Finished this one off today. Making slow progress in terms of numbers on my cupboard but doing a great job in getting my weight down, which is vastly more important. If i can keep it up, maybe i’ll let myself place a small order this month :) I’ve enjoyed having this one in my cupboard but it’s not exceptional. A good sort of every day drinking tea imo.

Back from work travel and trying to relax….still a little sick but much less so than before. I suspect that this is going to be alot of a cough hanging around. Ian took the doggo out for an adventure to give me a chance to unwind after my parents met up with us for breakfast. Always nice to see them even if it’s for a short time. Happy to be back with my cupboard :)