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Lewis and Clarke TTB

Ok, so after the last surprisingly weak tea, I decided to try another green oolong from Green Terrace Teas to see if it was just a fluke. This time I also increased the steepings.

I did 2 10 second rinses, and 15,15,30,30,60,60 4g 4oz

The first two steeps were stronger than the last tea. Nice butter aroma, but not much in the front and mid sip, and then some floral and astringency at the end of the sip.

I caved and added sweetener. I don’t usually sweeten straight greens or oolongs. It does enhance the flavors a bit. I’m getting some cream and butter and some floral and mineral notes. I didn’t really notice any astringency, but I’m not sure if that was masked by the sweetener or what.

I did something silly. I wasn’t paying attention and added water to the cup holding the fifth and sixth steeps, maybe about 4oz. I was spacing and poured it into the cup instead of the pot. As such I’m not getting much from this. Some very subtle butter and floral notes.

This seems to suit me better than the last one did. I’m getting a lot of buttery notes from it, which I prefer over floral, which is a plus.

Lewis and Clarke TTB

Decided to try this, even though I’m not usually into floral notes in a tea.

I did a 10 second rinse, and then 5,10,15,20,35,50 3g ~4oz water.

The first two steeping are sort of weak. A touch of floral and a touch of butter.

Third and forth steepings are also on the weak side. I’m also noticing a slight astringency.

Fifth through seventh steeping are a little stroger but still really light. A but more buttery floral. But also more astringency. Borderline unpleasant.

I’m really surprised by the lack of flavor I’m getting here. Strange.

Lewis and Clarke

So I went to my dad’s today. I ended up having day old pizza for lunch, and Italian takeout for dinner. I think all the heavy food after eating pretty much nothing but oatmeal isn’t sitting well, and my tummy isn’t feeling good. I saw this and thought, hey it’s got ginger, maybe it’ll settle my tumtum.

This isn’t bad. Lemony and gingery. Not my favorite, but it’s still nice and it seems to be helping my stomach.

Lewis and Clarke

This tea is so pretty. Lazy curls of golden fuzzy buds.
First steep (60s) this a sweet potato drizzled with honey. So much honey sweet potato it’s crazy.
Second and third steeps are sweet potato and honey and raisins and malt.
Forth steep I forgot about while it was steeping, but I didn’t notice any bitterness and only a very mild astringency at the back of my throat. But not in an unpleasant one.

This can probably keep going, I’ll try some more with it later.
Product page:
http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/2875-jinggu-golden-strand-pure-bud-yunnan-black-tea-spring-2014.html

Lewis and Clarke TTB

So excited to finally get to try this.
First steep is light and sweet, honey, nectar, bread, and caramel, silky smooth mouth feel.

The second steep starts to get a bit darker. Honey, bread, caramel, but now there’s also raisins and a touch of cocoa hiding at the edges. I accidentally forgot this one and left it steeping for 10 minutes with no bitterness or astringency.

Wow honey. The third steep is like pure honey and nectar. I’m at my dad’s and using his microwave to heat the water so it’s probably only ~185F. But it’s still delicious.

Lewis and Clarke TTB

When I placed my order with Tea at Sea, this was on of the only teas I didn’t get, so I figured I’d give it a shot when I saw it in the box since I love black teas now.

The first steep is sweet, with notes of honey, molasses, raisins, and something a little manly, cedar?
For the second steep I added a minute to the time. This time there’s some malt, and a slight smokiness in the background.
Added another minute for the third steep. This one is a little less sweet than the first and second, with more malt, cedar and smoke notes than before.

So, I guess I was just tired from how busy I’ve been lately (I’ve barely been home the last few days, which is why I haven’t been posting much), because I passed out on the couch at around 8:30, right after posting my last tasting note. I usually am up until about 3-4 in the morning.

Lewis and Clarke TTB

Ok so I know I just said I’m staying away from greens for the time being, but I wanted to know what the Laoshan Green would taste like hot, and since this is made with the Laoshan Green I decided to give it try. This mostly savory, but there’s a hint of sweetness there, and I keep thinking for a second that I had sweetened this, and then remembering I didn’t. There’s the green beans, smooth an buttery in a way I didn’t notice in the cold brew, and also some roasty nutty, mise with the toasty notes. This is pretty good, and once I get out of my green tea funk I can see myself ordering this.

Lewis and Clarke TTB

We had some friends in town, and they wanted to go to the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter today. So, that meant I had about 10 seconds to choose a tea to cold brew and drink grandpa style while at the parks. I was trying to take a break from greens, as I’m growing tired of them, but this was on top, ad seemed like a good candidate for what I needed.

This is sort of roasty, nutty, and on the dark end of the vegetal spectrum with notes of green beans and lima beans. There’s also a bit of water chestnut. Not bad, but if I had more time to pick, I would have chosen something on the lighter end of the vegetal spect I because I prefer them cold and the darker ones hot.

Lewis and Clarke TTB

When I saw this in the box, I squealed in excitement (which caused my bf to call me tea crazy). I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile. The dry leaf smells so much like cocoa powder, it’s insane. There’s also a touch of that roasted peanut smell.

I used ~5g for 8oz 200F for 5,20,30,45 seconds. The first cup tasted like honey, with a touch of caramel. Second cup is similar, but with a strong cocoa note hitting the back of your tongue at the end of the sip.

Third steep, a nice dark bread like note appears. It’s dark bread slathered in honey and a heavy dusting of cocoa powder. Sinfully delicious. The forth loses some of the honey and gets some grainy (barley?) notes at the front of the sip.

It’s not often that I finish my cup of tea while it’s still piping hot, but I just couldn’t wait for the cup to cool. I need to get this!

I didnt drink so much as eat this tonight. I’m currently on the broke girl diet, aka the “I don’t have any food in my house and cant afford to go grocery shopping so it looks like I’l be eating old fashion oatmeal for every meal” diet. Since I’ll be eating at least 2/3 of my meals, I’m trying to proactively keep myself from getting sick of it. Which is what caused me to use this tea in place of water for my oatmeal. I also had cocoa powder in it so it masked some of the flavor, but it did seem to taste more creamy vanilla-y. I’ll definitely have to experiment some more though (: