Tea Centre

I forgot about this tea, so it’s now out where I will see it and drink it.

Still not my favourite, but it gave a good caffeine hit this morning. I’m weaning off coffee, you see.

(It’s not going so great.)

(I might be heading out to buy coffee shortly.)

Not my favourite assam. This morning(-ish) it’s quite cardboardy, which isn’t really something I love, although it’s something common to assams. Some are more cardboardy than others, though. I should let my mom know, because she is my large-quantity tea dealer and I have 100g of this to get through!

I’m having it with milk. There’s a bright, pleasant hint of bitterness, even though I did add quite a bit of milk. And there’s quite a bit of caffeine in this one, which is good, as I really need to wake up and get moving.

I had the hardest time getting to sleep last night, and then slept through my alarm and friends texting me. Whoops! So instead of a last minute walk, we’re going to have a late brunch and then I’m going to do some required shopping on my way home.

Yes, another assam.

It’s assam-like. I need to steep 2 min instead of 3, or use a lower temp. Plain, it’s too bitter. With milk, it’s great, but I don’t want to use milk in my travel mugs because it makes them get grosser faster.

Today, with a little honey.

It was really good hot, but as it cooled it got more and more bitter.

I might have to rethink how I drink this one.

I finally found the lid to my tin and transferred this tea. It takes up a WHOLE Mariage Freres tin. O.o That is a lot of tea, Mom. Geez.

So I’ve decided that at some point, maybe the end of the week when I’m finished with the eggnog (ha!) and am not having coffee every morning, I should focus on one tea per week. This should be the first. Partially to sipdown some of my larger quantities (Mostly from Mom…) and partially to get to know my teas better. (Interestingly, when I think about doing this with some of my flavoured teas, shy away from the idea. What does that say about those flavoured teas? That I don’t like them? Or that I’m scared I’ll get sick of them?)

So this tea. It’s a little harsher than my favourite that Mom gets me. She usually gets me a Hattiali, which tends to have more golden tips and be smoother. This one has more of a bite. A little bitter (which actually I like) and a little more astringent (which makes my teeth feel funny). Lots of malt. Takes coconut milk creamer well, which is good, because milky things tend to mellow out the astringency. I’d say this is a smooth tea, with less malt than what I was expecting, and a finishing bite.

And now that my cup is done, I’m going to go have something else. :)

This year’s Tea-mas present from Mom!

Sweet and malty, a touch astringent because I steeped 4 minutes.

Quite nice. :)

Sipdown! Yum!

Super gentle tonight due to low and slow brew. 5 minutes at 160F. Still grapefruit candy, but so delicate and lovely.

Oh this is really nice! So glad I grabbed some from the bag I got for Bear with Me. :)

Really gentle, almost candy-like grapefruit. Nice white tea that didn’t go bitter. I added a couple tiny pieces of rock sugar to my mug, so that might have something to do with the “candy”, but IDK. This is a really nice white tea.

Tempted to cold steep the used leaves, but overnight is too long I think. I’ll keep them and see if I manage to cold steep tomorrow. The leaves still smell fantastic, so I think I’d get another cup. :)

(2 heaping tsp, 14 oz water, 160F, 3 minutes, 2 pieces rock sugar.)

Umm, ok. So there’s no notes for this tea? That’s weird, since I’m almost done my 100g of it (thanks mom… ;) )

Unfortunately, this tea is nothing to write home about. It’s an Assam blend, that seems to pull those cardboardy flavours instead of delicious malty and fruity and somewhat astringent flavours. I think I prefer Grandpa’s Anytime Blend, or their Rungagora for an early morning kick in the pants. They are both CTC, but somehow the maltiness overpowers any cardboard.

I know. Talking about a tea tasting like cardboard. At least it’s not chicken soup?

12/28 sipdowns i’ve got a few backlogs but as i’m still working it’s hard to be logging tea while i’m drinking it :) I am a tired girl and i’m pretty sure i’m goign to fall on my face at some point today but for now i’m doing ok with the tea and comfy clothes lol thanks again for sharing this one omgsrsly i think this one ranks pretty high in terms of assam for me. i can see this one just being a good all around sort of tea :)

another from omgsrsly while not a sipdown, i’m having this today so that when i have it again, it WILL be a sipdown haha. Need to make sure i keep working on getting things down as well as finishing them off :) i am really enjoying this one today. it’s not a BOLD tea, but it is smooth and i drank it all before i realised it. There’s a ittle astringecy in it but that just makes it enjoyable for me. thanks a ton omgsrsly!

thanks for this one omgsrsly I finished the last of this today while trying not to fell asleep at work in the afternoon lol. This one’s not too shabby. it’s got a bit of a bitter/bolder than i like it hit at the end of it, so i likely won’t restock unless i can share it with others! haha but i did enjoy this :)

backlog from yesterday…going to be a long weekend. I’m up “early” and i’ll basically be up now until whenever i go to bed on sunday night since i’m not sure if i’ll get a nap in there. Gotta love migration weekends + catching up on work. at least i might get the chance to get some tea drinking in tonight! i remember pausing at some point yesterday to really focus on this tea and i can’t recall if i thought there was a note in here that i really liked or what. that’s how busy my days have been. but i did enjoy it, and thankfully i have more from omgsrsly to play with heh

had this one again this morning before we headed out for a bike ride. My other half is home all weekend so we’re going to try and settle down and do some wedding planning, cleaning, board game playing and some general relaxing. It’s supposed to rain all weekend in the afternoons so that should make it more doable…though it’d be nice to get two rides in this weekend.

While this is a tasty cup through a few steepings, it’s not my favourite. It was nice to try another variation on the sun moon lake theme but i do prefer the TTC ones. as always though, love trying new teas and appreciate all the teas that folks send my way!

omgsrsly sent this my way and though i only took the first steep with me to work i was going to have more when i got home..but my other half cleaned up :( at least i’ve got another serving of this to play with and write a better note on lol

Hahaha. All reviews of this tea are from me.

Had it today, steeped strong, with some maple syrup. I’m out of milk, you see, and can’t get to the store until tomorrow. And I needed caffeine.

Today is the second day of class for me. It’s gonna be A Lot. A good Lot, but A Lot.

Is it naptime yet? (No, I’m still on a zoom meeting. It’s been 5 hours.)

Mmmmmmmmalty.

So delicious. A bit of bitterness, but I did steep for about 3:30 instead of my usual 3:00. I added milk, and it was sweet malty goodness.

And now I’m baking snickerdoodles http://www.budgetbytes.com/2015/01/snickerdoodles-two/ and need to decide what to have with my cookie(s).

Malty deliciousness.

Mmm….

SUCH a great morning tea, OMG. I understand why they sell out of this one SO fast. I love a rich CTC if it manages to not go super bitter, and this is one of the best ones I’ve had.

Definitely need my mom to pick more of this up for me. :) She does, after all, live closer than I do.

Oh wow. This tea.

I had it yesterday morning as well. I’m really pleasantly surprised, as this is a CTC Assam, and those tend to be “knock your socks off” strong.

While this tea is strong, the curled leaves are actually pretty decently sized, and they don’t unfurl in the first steep. Even a 4 minute steep. The tea does not go over the top bitter or astringent, although it definitely leans that way at 4 minutes – I added milk this morning. Yesterday I steeped 3 minutes and it was delicious and malty, and a little fruity. I had it plain.

So. A kick-in-the-butt morning CTC that is actually pretty hardy. I have a feeling it would steep well a second or third time as well. Fairly different from Grandpa’s Anytime Tea, in that the flavours are… more bold. More Assam-y (which is a terrible description, but), more like they’d hold up to added flavours of a masala chai with lots of milk and sugar. I definitely have to try that at some point soon.

Now I don’t regret getting the Tiger Assam during the free shipping sale, BUT I also have this tea and Grandpa’s Anytime Tea for the mornings now. Oops? :)

Yum yum yum. Great kick in the pants “morning” tea (yes, at 2:30pm).

So delicious with some cream. Nice and malty and rich and so so strong.

1.5tsp in 14 oz water.

So strong. So good. If you like kick-in-the-pants teas, or have a fondness for CTCs, then find this and try it. This version is barely bitter, with a touch of that cardboardy assam-isness. Takes milk SO well. I would call this a comforting, easy tea… although you do have to be aware of the short steep time. Steeping in paper would add a papery taste reminiscent of bagged tea, although the tea flavour is so much nicer.

http://instagram.com/p/py-dsER5OR/

There are a few places that stock this tea, and I have a feeling it’s all from the same Grandpa. :)

So good. Rich and malty. Possibly astringent or bitter, but this is totally a tea for cream. So that’s how I’m having it. And it’s delicious. I could see this tea being a morning staple.

Just a note: I’m consuming this tea while eating some seriously sub-par bacon flavoured potato chips. Mackie’s of Scotland also has Haggis flavour, and I’m sooooo glad I didn’t get that one. The chip texture is also kinda meh. They’re not properly crunchy, rather they’re hard. Would I try another variety? Yes, but not the Haggis.

Ooo. Lots of honey. LOTS of honey. Some fruitiness, stone fruits mostly I think. Apricots and golden plums. Very rich, as well. Hints of pie crust. :)

I haven’t steeped this tea quite this way before, and I think I like it more now that I’ve used more leaf.

And yes, ANOTHER assam. I’ll probably pack up a resteep of this and some Tiger Assam to bring with me for this afternoon. Now to go finish getting ready!