Joseph Wesley Black Tea

It’s my final Sipdowwwnnn! Bless this teeny leaf tea for keeping me wired at work <3

RIP Joseph Wesley Black tea!

I’m almost done with this tea and I just realized this isn’t in my cupboard and I have yet to submit a review for it, whoops! This has been my current daily black tea at work. It’s a notch more intense than the unsmoked lapsang from JW that I was drinking daily before this.

Now that I think about it… I think steepster ate my note??!!?!? I remember specifically writing about the absolute tea drunkenness I got from overleafing this at work the first time I had it… I have been fooled! Maybe I’m lil teadrunk right now….

Accidentally overleafed tf outta this tea yesterday… Oops! Little did I know how much of an oops it was. I drank perhaps 1000mL without really thinking about it – the brew was much stronger than I normally like it, but the subsiquent steeps weren’t too astringent or unbearable. In fact, despite the extra strength, those teeny little leaves were quite tasty. It was a robust dark molasses sweet cup of hongcha yummm. After drinking a bunch of it while just chilling and tapping away, I look up from my computer and whoosh… I realize that I am tea drunk at my desk with two and a half hours left of work. Perception out of whack, I was practically buzzing. I was so confused for a moment before I took one more sip of this tea and realized why I was feeling a little strange. OOPS lol. Thankfully it was a relaxed day and I didn’t have to panic, even if my thumping pulse was trying to convince me otherwise. Today, out of an abundance of caution I think I underleafed it a lil too much. The thick, astringent qualities were far too watered down. I will have to be more diligent with my measurements instead of my usual “eyeball it until you are satisfied” method of madness.

I guess that answers my question if tea can still have cha qi in it after a long time of just sitting in your cabinets. The answer is heck yeah, don’t under estimate a powerful tea, even if it’s around 8 years old XD

Sipdown! every pot I made at work was deliciously complex and satisfying. While i’m supremely bummed to say goodbye to this tea, i know that i can find some good quality non-smoked LS elsewhere. In all honesty, I would lean towards different types of Chinese black tea like Jin Jun Mei or keemun. Coincidentally, my last tin of tea from Joseph Wesley is a Keemun congfu. Very excited to be starting on that tea tomorrow :)

This is my black tea go to at work. It’s very forgiving if i happen to forget about it steeping for an extra couple minutes, bless it. When properly brewed I am warmed from the inside with a rich, chocolatey goodness. The smoke flavor is so subtle as to be non-existent unless compared to a regular degular black tea. Even through persistent brewing i get the malty, croissanty goodness until about steep #5 in my 120ml teapot. I’ve always had good cups from a JW tea, and can’t wait to finish this one. I never let it get cold.

From the Samurai TTB
This Assam is surprisingly woodsy, not particularly malty or astringent. It’s not really smoky either, or bitter. I’m having a hard time describing as it’s not very assam tasting to me. The second steep is very smooth, a bit coppery, with a sweet finish. Not sure if it’s the leaf per water ratio, but I’m underwhelmed by this tea. Not a bad cup, but not great either.

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #36

This was my first tea of the day today – I had it during a quick instagram live with Arthur from Arthur Dove Tea where I was the “featured guest” this morning for his Sunday live show Biscuits and Brew.

I picked it out because I remembered reading a post of his once about his Banana Fudge tea and how he didn’t want to name is “Banoffee Pie” because he didn’t like the sound of the word. That stuck with me a lot – I remember as a kid I had what I thought was a pretty irrational hatred of words/names with lots of ‘P’ or ‘T’ sounds (good thing I got over that, because that would make drinking tea pretty challenging). Something about those two letters said out loud made my skin crawl – the word “poppy” was the worst.

I’ve never heard/seen someone else express a similar sentiment, so that stuck with me.

So why does this tea relate to that? It’s the reverse experience – something about the sound of that stretched out ‘ee’ noise makes my ears sing, and I’ve always especially loved the sound of vowels (any vowel) transitioning into the letter m. I can’t explain it; it just sounds nicer in my head.

The tea was nice too; I described it on the live as quite woody/savory with subtle pine/smoky notes to it (but not smoky like a Lapsang) and that welcome and familiar hint of jammy fruit undertone – in this case a subtle black currant. It probablys ranks somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, in terms of keemun I’ve tried. The mouthfeel was really nice though – hint of astringency at the top of the sip but short lived.

Yum! So good.

Fruity, malty, delicious.

Of course I’m having it with milk. And hot, even though it’s fairly warm out today.

So warm, in fact, I’m planning to take myself out on a picnic dinner! I made a couple things on my lunch break, and will need to mix up my limeade and fry up my marinating chicken before I head out. I’d do iced tea, but I don’t really have much in the way of fruity teas. I can no longer have apple, so my go-to selections are not good options.

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 20

Ooo, more Joseph Wesley! And a Chinese black tea too, which tends to be one of my favorite types. This one ranks up there with some of the best I’ve tried. The dry leaf is full of beautiful, unbroken twisted dark brown leaves with a heavenly scent of malt. It brews up to a rich, reddish brown liquid with a robust flavor of baked bread and malt and just a hint of fruitiness in there somewhere. It’s smooth and sweet and easy to drink…my first cup was gone before I knew it, but the second steep was just as good!

Tea Advent Calendar – Day 18

I’ve recently discovered that I like smokey black tea and I’ve never tried anything from Joseph Wesley, so I was excited to see this one in today’s Advent calendar pouch. And I wasn’t disappointed! This is a lovely Lapsang Souchong. The base tea is rich and nuanced with notes of mineral, malt, and dark chocolate and the smokiness level is just right – present, but not overpowering. I did notice a slight dryness at the end of the sip that kept me going back for more but left me a bit unsatisfied when my cup was finished. Thankfully, this re-steeps beautifully, getting smoother over time but not losing its flavor. I may have to add this to my collection at some point in the future!

I put off trying this tea for a few years because I though it was smoked. I hate the heavily smoked versions of this tea.
This one though is very good and I taste no smoke at all.

205F, 2-4 min, at work
Very fruit forward – cherry, berry, bright; little bit of malt, caramel, and smooth. I’m torn between savoring and drinking it quickly. Berry aftertaste lingers on after each sip. This was a great tea!

Made a cup using this recipe from oh, how civilized. A luscious cup with the extra cream. I did add more brown sugar than she recommends. I love my tea sweet. :)

https://www.ohhowcivilized.com/milk-tea/

I’m struggling to stay away today after yesterday’s Thanksgiving festivities. Everyone had left by 6 pm and I was in bed before 9:00, but I’m still fighting to keep my eyes open. Caffeine it is. Enter this Assam by Joseph Wesley. I added just a bit too much honey, but this is really a very flavorful cup. Rich and chocolaty.

Sipdown.
I love me some Keemum. This tea was delicious. The leaves were cut and small. Taste was solid – caramel with some chocolate and bread as it was steeped longer. Kind of sad to sip this down.

Fruity, slightly astringent, solid but nothing spectacular. Leaves are chopped in fairly small pieces. Daily drinker tea.

Sipdown. May 2016
2min, 200F
Still as good as ever – malt, honey chocolate
Very good Chinese black, did not want it to end. Steeped at least one more time before I said goodbye.

A limited edition tea from Aug 2016. Sipdown.
It had been unopened until just before Christmas, so it was still relatively fresh. Dry leaf smells of fresh linen and hay.
Western: 12oz, 2min, 212F
Honey, linen, clover flowers, pollen. Like a fresh open field during summer? Quite good.

I can’t believe I’ve never reviewed this tea as I’ve had a tin of it for a while and have drank it a few times here and there. It is a nice Saturday morning around our crazy house. My wife and I were able to sleep in a bit. The 12 year old is gone at her dads. The 7 year old is up in his room playing with Legos and the 1 year old is contentedly (for now) crawling around and playing. So, it is a rare moment where I am not having to cater to anyones immediate needs. My wife is getting ready to go to work though so I’m sure this moment will be up soon haha.

This tea’s dried leaf didn’t have a big smell to me. Actually, a bit of a fairly common black tea smell which, for me, usually smells like a mix of malt and cardboard. Doesn’t sound appealing, I know, but I’ve learned that the cardboard smell doesn’t necessarily equal cardboard taste. The dried leaves are small and thin but with a high quality look to them.

Upon a flash rinse (done to my blacks to try to knock down a bit of the caffeine), the smell rising up was a malty baked bread with a hint of sweetness.

A quick 10 second steep…The flavor of the tea is mostly the same as the smell with a slight hint of something… savory? I do mean slight though. Almost undetectable but just enough to give pause and try to discern what it is. There is certainly a warm brightness as well. The tea color is a wonderful burnt orange. It also pairs very well with a Great Harvest cinnamon bread ;)

There goes the wife to work, there goes the baby letting me know his displeasure, and there goes this review :) Overall, a wonderful tea that I will continue to enjoy.

this is honestly the most perfect black tea, fight me.

I have been keeping this for ‘special occasions’ which is something that is very arbitrary, like I made some this morning to take to work because I just felt like…NO. let’s not go to work and instead send the boss an email to say that we* are simply Not Able to come. Not Able. what we ARE able to do is go right back to bed and sleep for one hundred years. those were my feelings this morning, but I went to work anyway. my fingers turned gray because of the books I’m working on, it wasn’t worth it even though this tea is perfect in every way.

anyway, this tea is malty-dark chocolatey-figgy-goodness. marshmallow-y smelling and beautiful. I hope that one day it will be restocked, but I don’t think much has been restocked from Joseph Wesley, which is a shame bc those were some of my favourite teas.

*the royal we. but here it just means me & my cat. hhhhahahahaa.

sometimes I find surprising things in my tea cabinet. I don’t remember ordering this, but there it was, unopened (but for how long? how long have you been in there, lil assam?). I’ve been drinking this on and off for the last month and I really love the malty richness. this is going with me to work (iced) tomorrow.

OK – second attempt. Gongfu this time, and overleafed it. Much stronger this way, more flavorful, but a bit too tannic for the first couple of steeps. I guess I went too far. Still, I ended up going thru about a liter of hot water, about 5 or 6 infusions, before it got weak. So, there’s definitely a balance I need to strike here. I’m thinking next time I’ll stick with gongfu method, pull back just a bit on the leaf, and go with extremely short infusions at first. Wondering if I’ll ever find the sweet spot on this one, but it’s fun to try!

Another one of those “finally opened this one up” teas. I am incorrigible.

The flavor was a bit light, despite following the vendors instructions, so I may need to overleaf a bit, or maybe brew it longer, or maybe at a higher temp. I guess I’ll need to play around with it. The bread-y, malty, honey, earthiness was very much there as expected, and if it was just a bit deeper I would deem this almost perfect. Thought about gongfu-ing it but went western with it. Second infusion was markedly weaker, but still very enjoyable. Looking forward to future experimenting with this.

I really enjoy this tea, which is surprising. My first experience with Lapsang Souchong actually led me to create one of my most popular dishes on my menu at my restaurant, Lapsang Souchong Braised Shortribs. After purchasing some to try, I realized that it was far too smoky in flavor to be enjoyable. I didn’t want to throw it away so I decided to cook with it. However, this Lapsang Souchong was very pleasant to drink. It had a very light smokiness which not only allowed me to enjoy the other earthy flavor components but rather complimented them.

Slightly fruity today, but overall a light cup that’s starting to lose it’s flavor.