Various Artists

sooo i’m lazy and can’t seem to find a tea sent to me by VariaTEA (indirectly from Roswell Strange) soooo here it goes.

Joie de Vivre from Camelia S. I dind’t think i would like this one much given that it is a green and appeared to be floral in nature. Most people who have ever swapped with me know though, that i’ll try nearly anything…as evidenced by the alarming number of teas with bergamot in them that i’ve tried. BLECH. :) This one, was as i expected…a little too floral in nature for me in addition to the green base. I can handle small amounts of floral with black bases, but otherwise they generally make me cringe. However, as always…love trying new teas so thank you VariaTEA (and Roswell Strange)

pssst….i had a bit of tea today. but it was family time with extended family in town for a day and my parents up for the weekend. more to come tomorrow afternoon once everyone is gone. Miss you all and hope everyone is having a kick ass sort of weekend.

So some random comments because I’m drinking teas not in the database…I can’t believe it’s only 10:30…it serious feels like 4pm.

I’ve been sipping on a sheng from Verdant’s reserve rewards – Xuejiao Longlai 2010 Sheng. I have been enjoying the steeps of this one this morning, since i haven’t had much chance to do much else with tea. it’s…well i could see myself drinking this all day without getting tired of it, as i often do after drinking some puerhs all day. It’s light, but still has body to it. There’s a bit of a woodsy feel to it but not like an earthy woodsy. Yep. that’s as descriptive as i can be. I like this. Would buy it again if i had the chance, but i don’t so enjoy it i will!

guys…i drank a bit of tea. and stuff and at the same time it’s like 1/10th of what i usually drink and i just don’t want to write any sort of note and my teacups are being half drunk…

Soooo i’m still here, still drinking but quiet… i’m hoping it’s just the whole being back from vacation and i haven’t gotten back into my groove! ‘cause i need to! I’m still 32 teas away from my black friday goal. ugh.

Tea tastings @tao leaf tea today

Jin Jun Mei – not worth the price (80$/50g) for my taste buds. I nice tea, but um..yeah no.

Ancient Tree Pu-er – not a bad little puerh but i prefer the ones from mandala that i’ve had. There was a lingering earthy taste to this one. That being said, i would drink this again for sure!

Loose Whitemoon 2010 – Reasonably nice white puerh, though nothing that made me sit up and need it in my cupboard NAO!

En shi yu lu – green tea, slightly astringent but also sweet with a flavour that reminded me of spinach.

Aijiao – oolong and not with the usual roasty type flavour that i find hard to swallow HA! This is an oolong similar to a wuyi without actually being one..so terri you might like this one!

Some backlogging to do throughout the day now that steepster is back up. Yesterday i finished off a tea that Terri sent my way that i couldn’t find in steespter so i never logged it. Nan Jian “Golden buds of joy” Shu 2009 from Mandala. Sadly i didn’t realise at the time steepster was down so i don’t have much to say on the subject besides the fact that his tea made me feel calm. it was woody but not earthy…my other half said it tasted like it smells when you walk in to a woodshed after wood’s just been cut for winter. I think he’s likely a “pu-erh” drinker since that’s the first time he’s ever enjoyed a tea that he’s tried. :) So this was a winner!

sipdown! (229) this is one of my unlogged teas – terri sent my way from nosfar i believe. Chinese tea company – dian hong golden bud according to the label.
I’m totally distracted tonight but i’m drinking this and enjoying the resteeps of this while i catch up on a few shows :)

working from home today which hopefully will allow me to try some of the last few unlogged teas in my cupboard. Why am i doing this? so that i can send the other half of my samples off to terri! Not to mention getting a few steps closer to 150. Drinking this one puts me at 198. What am i drinking? Another tea from the verdant reserve samples from rewards – this one is a haixin tang 2007 stone-pressed sheng. Since i have no clue what i’m doing with this – lack of directions is my only annoyance with verdant’s teas, i’m trying to do a few steeps of this at random intervals. heh. I’m sure terri will do a much better job of this for me. This smells earth and delicious, though that may just be a factor of the tea mixing with the rain that we have happening here in toronto :)

this has got an earthy, slightly smoky? taste to it. It will be interesting to see how the steepings change this morning in between some other teas i want to try heh.

Subsequent resteeps of this = pretty decent puerh and not so bad for what i think? is my first sheng? maybe? lol what can i say? i’m at the start of my puerh journey :)

Inspired by my modicum of success with the puerh that grace sent me, i opted to also try one of the teas that i picked up from the verdant rewards. This was the 2007 Henan Heichan. I wish there was a way to get more information on the teas in the rewards package but sadly the only thing that accompanied them was a note from verdant :)

Sadly i was distracted (or is that focused) and didn’t take notes on my mini session. I do remember finding the tea enjoyable but in comparison to the tea from grace, it wasn’t quite as satisfying.

Had the last of my smokey black tea from china…sad to see it go since it was a REALLY nice smooth black with hints of smoke rather than a full on lapsang souchong. Pleasant to drink any time rather than specific times when you’re feeling a smokey tea.

tried my random black from china, which as it turns out is actually a puerh…and a VERY strong earthy kind of puerh. That i couldn’t drink, likely because i wasn’t paying attention this morning and brewed it western as in my usual black tea kinda way. oopsy. oh well! live and learn!

Terri inspired me to try some of the teas i brought with me back from china, funnily enough, most of which i’ve swapped away for others to try and enjoy.

This one is “smokey black from china” lol It’s not as smokey as an outright lasang souchong. Instead this is a smokey, sweet bold black tea that is pretty damn good. I’m having mine this morning in a wet dark and dreary toronto morning. You’d think it was a monday morning. ugh. I am totally digging this! The only thing that would make this perfect would be one of my other halfs creamy butter caramels to sit in my mouth while i sipped this down..smokey sweet caramel goodness…

Edit: I wish there was a way to remove ratings. and NM i figured it out. WOOT! haha

SIPDOWN! of the secret tea that Stacy’s been working on lately. I actually did a cold brew of this one a few days ago and it was delicious. Tonight’s steeping is hot with the last of it. I’m looking forward to this one eventually being up on her website. It’s a fruity lighter tea that i quite enjoy,

STACY!!! the tea that shall not be named and or described very well, needs to be available for purchase… like now. I’ve been saving it for a very good no bad kinda of day and today is that day. I am digging this tea a whole lot. Even if my eyes are closing and getting sleepy.

Just saying.

My boss had to go to China for business and brought back a lovely ceramic jar full of tea. Sadly we have no idea what it is. It’s similar to Laoshan Black, in that it has a malty chocolatey taste. There’s another taste there as well though, that I can’t put my finger on. I wish i knew what this was but it’s tasty. And since almost no one at work drinks tea like i do, it may end up in my home :)