1403 Tasting Notes
This is delicious. I find that the balance between genmaicha and the peeps marshmallowness to be a good one.
As someone had mentioned, there is a close similarity to 52Teas’ Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha. I cannot say which is better as I’d have to have them side by side. They are both excellent and most welcome in my cups.That distinctive QTT flavour is here, but not so much of the flavouring as to border on overwhelm, which has been a bit of an issue for me in other QTT blends previously. I imagine that the balance between a good amount of flavour and too much flavouring is a difficult one for our master blenders. In this one, it is perfect.
I predict I will be getting through this one lickety- split.Flavors: Green, Marshmallow, Roasted, Vanilla
Preparation
It’s really a shame once you discover that your relatively new neighbours have little interest in whether they disturb you or not by exercising at the crack of dawn on wooden floors in a newly converted open concept space in an old house. When as a neighbour you are already tolerating 24/7 of their infant and their other child. Yeah. Well then.
Sorry. Needed to get that out.
Selected this one from the bag that Dexter gave me when she was in town. I haven’t made up my mind beyond the fact that I like it and am enjoying it. It confuses my tastebuds a bit because it is much like a coffee-caramel favourite of mine except that after the very similar hit of coffee, instead of switching to caramel, it moves towards the slightest green of the mate.
Did I add my coffee-caramel favourite to your bag, Dex?
Thank you for this, Dexter. It is pleasurable, but currently not enough to take me away from this newfound understanding of my neighbours.
Brutal! I wonder if they’re really that ignorant that they’re making that much noise or if they figure so but just don’t care because they think the world revolves around them?
The latter. And because they are a “family” this should be ok. And because they have various issues that would make it impossible to work out in a gym or in any other way that would not disturb the person who lives beside them.
Oh yes, Entitled Family Syndrome. I don’t have to watch where I’m walking with my stroller, because I have a family. I don’t have to watch where my snivelling little kids are walking because it’s your duty as an adult to be everyone else’s eyes. I don’t have to teach my kids to refrain from shrieking for no reason at all because kids can’t help it. And so on and so forth.
Yes, thank you.
And yet they keep saying that they would like to have a harmonious relationship with their neighbours. Yeah, wouldn’t we all.
But gee, Evol, clearly you’re the problem if your neighbourly relationship isn’t harmonious.
That’s being clear. And yet in our harmonious communications, they are the ones who are annoyed at me bringing these things to their attention. Yes, things.
I don’t understand people like this. I guess they don’t understand the concept of empathy. How would they like it is someone else was doing all the same asinine things, plural, day and night? I doubt they’d be ok with it.
Today is another chilly and damp day here. The perfect type of day for a nicely done chai blend.
I love this one, but I find it tends to be a bit fickle depending on what ingredients land in my spoon of dry leaf. Today, though I added half and half, it was more spice, so there is more of a masala kick to my sips. Not sure that anything can be done about that. I certainly prefer the wholeness and chunkiness of spice, as in this one, to something more finely ground, and possibly more consistent.
So I am mulling over my experience here with this blend which continues to be lovely, if variable. Don’t change a thing though. Except perhaps more marshmallow and more chocolate in all its variations.
This tea is just lovely. It tastes like a bready chocolate Yunnan with the slightest catch in the back of the throat at the tail end of the sip.
But also, it reminds me that I did not take the opportunity to go to Guilin in Guangxi province when I was working in China. Of course, I wasn’t into tea at that time, so I likely wouldn’t have sought this tea out or possibly even found it memorable if I had come across it. Still, it would have been nice to visit with the misty peaks in Guilin. Apparently, it is quite a magical place to be in person. I did enjoy them through the train window as I made my way across the south of the country to Yunnan though: exactly like a Chinese ink scene come to life. In the sense of—wow, this place really exists. I feel quite fortunate to have seen them despite having been in motion.http://www.guilinholiday.com/images/Photo/6-day-guilin-zhangjiajie-tour/p574_d20130502153010.jpg
Thank you for the sample, Sil. Very enjoyable cups and memories.
Flavors: Bread, Chocolate
Preparation
You know, this vanilla deliciousness just continues to be a favourite. I took this with me to a therapy appointment today—acupuncture this time— in the rain. It makes all the things better.
Aww, sounds kind of lovely, even with the rain thrown in there. I have a feeling it’s a bad, drizzly kind of rain like we’re experiencing here though, right?
I like rain, all the varieties of it. Yes, drizzly and glum too.
That tea sounds wonderful, especially on a rainy day!
I look upon rainy days as mini holidays.
Don’t ever be afraid to toss half a vanilla bean (split and cut into inch chunks) into about 50g of your favorite black tea – let sit a couple of weeks and you will have awesome vanilla black…..just saying….
Thank you, Dexter. I am going to try to keep that in mind and start a project. Hell, maybe even a collection of projects.
In my humble opinion, Anne of 52teas has it all going on with her chai blends, at least those with black tea bases. The spice mixes and the freshness of the spice flavours are ideal. I tend to prefer the ones which are heavier on the ginger.
This one, despite all kinds of chocolate additions, does not taste all that chocolatey. It does taste somewhat chocolatey, but I was hoping for more— boom—chocolate. Instead, the spice is right there with chocolate in the background, so the effect is like a rich gingerbread in the way that can be profoundly chocolatey.
Today is a rare day of having added half and half to my cup. It’s raining and a bit foggy with a very hopeful sun peeking through from time to time. A damn fine cup for a day like this. Very dessert-like. The half and half addition is a welcome change from the briskness of the straight tea. I hope that this cup or two or three will fortify me enough to help me get through my errands, all of which require a considerable amount of walking outdoors.
