Steven Smith Teamaker

Got this as a free sample with my Steven Smith order that arrived today. It was good. I’m glad I got it as a sample. I almost ordered it but didn’t, knowing that Ceylons are not my most favorite thing. Surprisingly, it was pretty good. Lighter than I like and if I get the astringency then I want a Darjeeling instead. :) But it wasn’t super astringent or bitter, decently smooth and very… tea like. Nothing I’ll order but I’m glad to have tried it.

(Hey, at least I had a sipdown on the Kusmi Golden Yunnan today – and that makes an empty slot plus an empty tin to store the Steven Smith Yunnan in…)

Sipdown!

This is a tea I will miss having in my cupboard. It is a wonderful blend of black tea with douglas fir needles. Would definitely get this again if they offer it next holiday season. On the other hand, it is nice to actually be purging myself of some stuff.

Tea of the morning here. I love this unique and savory blend from Steven Smith. the Douglas Fir and Rosemary are so just so warming and satisfying, especially on a really rainy day like today. this is good plain or even with soymilk. I kind of wish this was a regularly stocked item by Steven Smith (it was only out for the holidays) but maybe they will have it again next year.

Tea of the morning here. I’ve reviewed this one before and it’s so unique and lovely. I am digging the fir scent/flavor of this one a lot. Good tea cheers me up quite a bit, I just wish I could do more stuff right now. Seriously considering hiring a home health aide…

Order from Steven Smith arrived yesterday – yay!

This was part of the holiday two pack I got. I love the tins but I wish this came in loose leaf form instead of the sachets.

I steeped it up at 5 minutes per Steven Smith recommendations and am sipping on it plain. This is a hefty blend that combines an assam, a darjeeling and a ceylon along with douglas fir needles. The overall effect is really delightful and interesting. I feel like there is some smokiness and also a lot of comforting warmth. The herby taste of the fir tree is making me want to go out and buy a bunch of douglas fir tea.

As far as the tea blend itself, the assam and ceylon seem to predominate. I’m not getting a lot of darjeeling in the mix. It has a slight tinge of bitternes in the finish, I think from the assam. Overall it is very unique and enjoyable, especially for the holidays. I wish they had this available year around!

I tried adding two other Smith teas to the database last night but they haven’t “shown up” yet. Hopefully they will in a few days.

Tea #4 from Traveling Tea Box C

I wasn’t able to get my hands on any of this for the Battle of the Earl Greys, so I took the opportunity the box presented to give it a try. It is a tasty one, but the low bergamot makes it taste a little more like an English Breakfast to me than an Earl Grey. I’m still going to enjoy the rest of the cup, though!

Additional notes: Sipdown! If I were blindfolded, I would have guessed this was tomato soup today! Tasted exactly like tomato soup… though I don’t think it did the last time. Another victim of my tastebud change? This would be good mixed with some tulsi/basil! I don’t love tomatoes, so I’m lowering the rating from a 97.

Steepster seems slow today, so here is a tasting note! You’re welcome! :D Another I was dying to try that I’m so thankful that Terri Harplady sent some of. Turns out, this is exactly the tea I wanted this morning!

Steep #1 // boiled // probably 3 1/2 minutes
I added a teaspoon and 1/3, mainly so the next steep session is a sipdown. The leaves are dark with just occasional hints of gold. Steeped, the cup color is very red! I love the flavor: brisk, malty, bready. If I hadn’t added an extra 1/3 teaspoon of leaves, I probably would have gotten more of the caramel that others have noticed. This one actually compares to the Ovation black teas I have that I have a ton of, that no one really wrote tasting notes for. They may have rated as high as this one if others had tried it. So I’m glad I have large amounts of the Ovation.. I don’t really have too much quantity of plain blacks and those are my favorite. (Most of my teas are sample sized – not usually any over two ounces!)

Steep #2 // boiled // 4 minutes
This cup was still delicious, yet oaky. I’m trying to figure out why second steeps often have this flavor. It’s either too many leaves or too long of a steep time, BUT I’m beginning to think that it’s since the leaves are already unraveled from the first steep, they might be over steeping. Like I said though, still delicious! A tough tea: wake-up, it’s flavor!

While this is a delicious assam, especially with a wee bit of maple syrup, I think there are others I prefer.

This is a delightful kick in the pants. Nice and strong, loads of assam flavours (ha), smooth with a bit of a bite.

Thanks, Sil, for sharing this with me. :D No, I didn’t share this one with my brother. He’s been loving puerhs and toasted oolongs more than the black teas lately.

Thanks again, Sil. :)

This one is really tasty. It’s a little strong right now, but I did steep it for 3 minutes. I think I might prefer it Silk Road style (1 tsp per 16 oz, not 6-8!). It’s really good though. Such nice assam flavours.

I’ll be resteeping this one after I have a nap!

(I’ve been going through all my paperwork from school, getting rid of EVERYTHING but the course outlines. So freeing, wow. A lot of work, though. And a lot of realizing that most of the stuff I learned is kind of useless for the kind of career I want. Oh wells. I enjoyed learning, even though I hated being tested.)

So… I gave in and picked up a box of the sachets on sale at Green Acres on Saturday. I immediately gave away 3 of them to my mother so my stash didn’t expand as much as it could have. :)

It smells more strongly of bergamot than it tastes. This is one that would probably better meet my desires with 2 bags instead of one per cup. It’s a nice, tame Earl Grey. Smooth and mild base, it gets more perfumey as it cools. Nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either.

Another SST share from Terri Harplady! Yay!

I forgot to smell the dry leaf. It is early. I wasn’t thinking. But the smell as I poured it out of the pot was amazing. Like, wake me up amazing. Rich and sweet like a thin, fragrant syrup with just a tickle of black pepper. That’s a lovely morning greeting.

The taste is really flavorful and pretty. Earthy – a hint of leather, a bit musty; floral – in a way that reminds me of a much milder version of germanium oil (in a way that doesn’t make me gag); spicy – just a lovely tickle of black pepper during the sip, a bit of mentholated tang (camphor maybe?) in the very late aftertaste; sweet – with malt and a faint note of something between caramel sauce and one of those cheap butterscotch hard candy.

So yeah, lots of stuff going on in this tea but it’s allover so soft and pretty that it doesn’t feel overwhelming. It’s really kind of wonderful. I think I definitely need to get more of this. This is seriously one of the best Yunnans I’ve had in a while.

A lovely share from Terri HarpLady! Thank you so much for letting me try more Steven Smith Teamaker teas!

The smell of the tea is sweet – light and a bit honeyed. The taste is soft and honeyed with a bit of light cardboard… more cereal box cardboard than shipping box cardboard. (I’m guessing that’s a light malt note?) There is a slight woodsy note that is not twiggy, but still there, like it has been stored in a wooden cask so it has a bit of the flavor of wood but doesn’t actually contain wood. That’s the level of woodsy this has. (And now I have the mental picture of large oak casks storing cereal boxes. Remove the cereal box, drizzle lightly with honey and bam, this tea.)

It’s not an overwhelmingly distinct cup – it’s a little bit this, a little bit that – but it’s not as bad as cereal-boxes-stored-in-casks-and-drizzled-with-honey may sound. It’s actually nice. It has a bit of a dry/astringent prickle on the end of each sip that I could do without, but that is mellowing and rounding out as it cools (though as I get to the bottom of the cup, that note is taking a tarter turn). All in all, a nice (but not spectacular) way to start the day!

Weirdly, I picked up raisin—or something like it—in this cup. It doesn’t appear that others have had that sensation, but it was really noticeable to me. Also, much better piping hot than after sitting out for a little while.

I am currently sitting in a fancy hotel room in the Oregon wine country alternating sips between this tea and a Bloody Mary. Yesterday was my husband and my 5th wedding anniversary so we decided travel 15 miles out of town and go wine tasting and stay at a fancy shmancy hotel. Of course they offer Steven Smith teas as anywhere fancy in the Portland area does. And I like this one as a breakfast tea with cream and honey. It’s nice and strong with caffeine, which I need desperately today. And the Bloody Mary, also necessary!

Yesterday we went to one of favorite vineyards and the winemaker walked us through the whole winemaking process from the vine on up. I couldn’t help myself from thinking of the comparisons with tea growing/processing. It really is such a science experiment and art form all at the same time. And this is coming from an avid beer chick.

Anyway… Fun way to spend our anniversary, without having to travel much. Heading back to reality in about an hour. But also back to my tea stash :-)

Excellent cup of green tea! I had this yesterday, so at this point I can’t even pinpoint why I liked it so much, but it’s a green I’d be happy to return to.

I’m wondering if this blend has changed over the past few years based on reviews. For me: it was an unusually nice cup of camomile. I don’t normally love that herbal, but the other herbs in this balanced it well. It was also really pretty steeping: several flowers that expanded to fill the teabag.

Stronger than I expected, and a robust breakfast tea. After this one, I’m going to need something green or decaf.

If you’re into peppermint, this is a really good cup of tea. The peppermint is some of the better I’ve tasted, and was something I could imagine drinking late into the evening.

I expected more of a green tea and less of a spearmint one, but even so it was a good cup.

Backlog. Did this one on a whim yesterday for work.

Whatever I did the first time, I goofed it up, because this time around it was completely different and much closer to what I’d been lead to expect. It was malty, and a little mushroomy. I don’t really know how else to describe it, and to be honest I drank it 24 hours ago in a travel mug that still smelled like dishwasher detergent, but I enjoyed it.

Thanks again to Nicole for the sample!

Still feeling sluggish at almost 4 in the afternoon on a Sunday off, so sipping this while putting away laundry and watching Slayers.

Once again, I get the feeling I accidentally underleafed this. I keep pouring 2 cups of water into the kettle, then taking out one cup’s worth of tea. Oh well. Item descrip says combination of Assam, Ceylon, and some other types of tea. I’m definitely getting a combination of mushroom malty and bright floral-y vegetal-y, although it’s hard to pin down flavors since I think I underleafed. A little on the astringent side, but enjoyable.

Thank you to Nicole for the sample!

Excellent cup. I don’t always like white teas, but this one is just the right mix of floral, and somehow fruity, that it’s the perfect afternoon cup.

Sipdown #2 is this Jasmine Silver tip, sent to me from TastyBrew. It’s a delicate green with an overlay of natural jasmine, & made for a pleasant & relaxing cup while I was teaching. Thanks TB!