Tea Runners

I liked this more than I thought I was going to! Very smooth and silky taste and mouthfeel with a flavour that made me think of really good milk chocolate with just a hint of cinnamon on the finish. Gentle, and appropriate feeling for its namesake.

Strange VariaTEA TTB #5

Oh, YUM! In my first 24 hours of sipping through this box, this tea is my standout by far. This is my very favorite flavor profile for a Chinese black tea: a rich, hearty mouthfeel with lots of malt and sweet potato flavor and a nice smooth finish. I’m slightly devastated that there was one pot’s worth of tea in this sample, but you better believe I’ll be re-steeping these leaves and placing an order with Tea Runners sometime soon!

Sampled from the Strange VariaTea Traveling Tea Box

Sweet potato, a bit of malt, and a hint of charcoal as it cools, but nothing that really punches you in the face. Which is maybe a good thing! Sometimes you want muted flavors without a ton of oomph behind them. I am sipping this alongside some avocado toast (#millennial) and it’s a very pleasant pairing.

Tannic and crisp. Unremarkable but not off-putting.

One of the better blacks from the Tea Runners stash I traded for. Some creamy cocoa and malt notes, decent brekky tea. I wouldn’t buy it again, but it didn’t ping my regret module like some of these TRs have.

Cocoa and malt, some tannins as we progress. No surprises, but a nice golden bud.

Small, choppy leaf pieces; an edge of sweet funk from the warming leaf, like a packaged caramel custard. Dark amber brew gives up something vaguely floral; florals on the wet leaf, too; I don’t get any of the cinnamon TR describes. Mostly tannic, crisp, biting, drying. I wouldn’t drink this by itself again, but I can see it complimenting a fatty, salty meal.

I am so glad I warmed my pot — dried leaves smelled like almond milk, but steamed they transformed into toasted raisin bread. The liquor here is pretty straightforward — beautiful dark amber, malt and light tannins with a drying prickliness as it approaches the back of the mouth/top of the throat. Here is that note that people describe as “tomato plant” — the broken green vine scent you get while picking in the garden. Wet leaf smells deep green like a grape leaf in a dolma.

This isn’t a tea I feel compelled to keep around, but I’m so glad to have tried it. I traded some of my heicha stash for a bunch of black teas, some from less-well-known regions, and I’m super psyched to try them all. Mozambique… check.

I really like Fujian teas in general and Golden Monkey in particular. I cold brewed a big pitcher of this one, and I may have goofed on the amount of leaf. It was just a tad bit bitter. But blending it 3 parts tea to 1 part lemonade makes a refreshing glass of iced tea. The weather has turned quite hot up here in North Dakota recently. Some of you would laugh to think that 80-85F is hot, but it is for me. I sure don’t want winter again but some nice days around 65-70 and cool nights would be nice. I don’t get to order the weather according to my likes, so I guess I’ll just concentrate on drinking cold tea.

Cold Brew Sipdown (2516)!

Another older sample that feels nice to polish off since I have many comparable teas in my stash. I recall not loving this the first time I had it, but as a cold tea I think it was a step up. It’s definitely still really tart in a sharp way and despite having such an intense red berry flavour (cranberry or raspberry??) it’s really devoid of natural sweetness. Not inherently bad because I definitely don’t always want a sugary berry blend, but it does make it feel unbalanced to me and also really makes you pucker! In some ways, it’s closer to drinking a straight hibiscus infusion. Time and place, though. Time and place.

Iced!

This was alright, but so extremely hibiscus forward herbal blends aren’t typically my favourite – especially when they aren’t balanced out by another flavour. In addition to that very tart hibiscus note there were several other red fruits notes like cranberry, cherry, and raspberry – but none could outweigh the hibiscus and I felt overall that the infusion was lacking sweetness or, alternatively, something more dense and grounding. All very shrill, sharp top notes.

The anise here is super strong both in scent and flavor. It’s almost savory instead of sweet it’s so strong. There are other herbaceous flavors in the background, but it’s difficult to overpower that anise. I’ve been keeping the steep time short, and that helps me enjoy this one more. Not sad to have finished my ounce of this!