Coffee & Tea Exchange

Sipdown

Mostly logging the Sipdown. I made the final iced pitcher of this today for us to enjoy for lunch the next few days. The melon flavor is very refreshing and the green tea taste comes through.

This was a gift in the big box o’ tea from Youngest – many thanks!

It has been raining since last night, Superanna’s creek is flooded, they are under a tornado watch, the farm my son’s family lives on has a tree down and wind damage, and Ashman has to work late because of all the havoc. Schools are closed and non-essential personnel were given a two hour delay which didn’t make sense because that was really when the bad weather was supposed to begin…all from a hurricane several states away. We already had flooding that had just started to subside when this hurricane came. It is so muggy from all this rain and saturated soil! The garden has standing water in it now. It will soak in pretty quickly, though. But in this nasty heat and wet weather, we do need some refreshing tea!

Cucumber and melon get paired a lot, and we used to love the scent from Bath and Body Works, so I was pretty excited about this one. It hasn’t let me down. It is in a glass carafe so it is extra cold. I find the melon to be the strongest flavor and that’s good because Ashman does NOT like cucumber. It is just the thing for a streak of nasty weather like this!

This morning I was truly feeling the effects of being at the center of a nightmare drum circle of depression, insomnia, the calamitous state of my current work environment, and the exhausting reality that they are not nearly as inclusive as they think they are. A mental health intermission called for a new tea.

This oolong is an interesting mix of floral and vegetal. The perfumey collard liquor aroma gives way to a palate somewhere in between. Warm and faintly wilted-tasting without being too brothy or peppery, this is a mellow and soothing mix with a remote impression of something I want to call pine nuts but can’t swear to it.

This is what you get when you extract all the evil spirits from a honeydew and make a tea with what remains.

The tea that I purchased was a little past its prime, but that is a review of the tea shop review not if the tea. In short, do not buy expensive tea at The Chicago Tea and Coffee Exchange, or really any place that you do not already have a good relationship with. Lesson learned.

The wonderful scent of cooked squash on the brewed coniferous looking leaves does not translate well into the cup, instead being replaced by muted floral and vegetal notes. A very slight brine surprises and awakens the pallet followed by a medium-full bodied sweet cup with muted notes of cucumber, fruitiness with slight hints at jasmine and vegetation. The finish is sweet as the initial brine is melted away into a surprisingly creamy finish with medium-dry astringency which lingers for long enough to know that in its prime, this was world class tea. My pallet keeps wanted to taste old cupboard, but I think that’s in my mind and not really there… or is it?

My rating of this tea does not reflect the leaves as much as how they were treated by the people who sold them to me so I gave extra points for still getting enjoyment from the experience, albeit a bit boring, if I ignore what it could have been. I am now on the hunt for the same tea, well kept.

Prep: gaiwan
I’ve read a few things suggesting this tea has cinnamon notes, however, I did not detect any cinnamon aroma or flavor. The liquor grows deeper in color throughout steeping and holds a nice honey brown color. The flavor was quite nice. I found it similar to my Oriental Beauty in the sweet cereal flavor but my tongue was left with a pleasant banana 回甘。 The aroma I picked up was that of roasted nuts and vanilla.

Prep: (gongfu; yixing pot)
My preference to oolongs tends to lean towards lighter oolongs, although Da Hong Pao is one my favorite teas.

Liquor has a nice honey/brown color. Aroma is reminiscent of hot wort (toasted malts, cereal) and the flavor for that matter is very similar. The malty notes carried through each sip nicely and left my palate with a enjoyable sweet “hui gan”