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I’m probably gonna be logging a bunch of these sans any real notes, and while normally that could seem suspect (like “this tea was totally unremarkable but I’ll note to myself I tried it for posterity so I don’t try it again sometime”) given current busy-ness it doesn’t mean that at all. I haven’t had a darjeeling from this kit yet I don’t like, phew.

I’m probably going to refrain from putting steeping parameters in my notes ‘til I perfect my Breville adjustments on a scale (ho hum, more nerdy archival neatnik tendency) and post them at some point, from then on putting the recommended steep times I’d use traditionally (for helpfulness’ sake) knowing I’ve adjusted for the Breville if I mention it or as a given.

Yummy yummy. A little more green tea-like veggie flavor than other FF darjeelings I’ve had. Made in the shiny new Breville (!)—I’ve quickly learned what some have hinted at about needing to adjust by easing down a bit on temp and brew time to compensate for the fact the tea steeps at a constant high temperature and the leaves, while not steeping after the cycle, hover above in the residual steam. With that adjustment though this makes good tea, better than I was expecting (I knew it’d be mad convenient especially for less finicky flavored stuff like we have for weekday afternoon tea, and the “wake up to warm freshy steeped tea” feature is priceless, but was a little nervous about overall quality of a cup). Still super busy, alas, but I have time to at least say hooray!

This is admittedly not going to be so much a specific tasting note as an exclamation about this whole deal and my surprise at it.

sunshine5150 helpfully mentioned Teabox (formerly darjeelingteaxpress) was having a half off sale on most of their big sampler kits about a week ago. I was really not in the mood to order more tea given my Black Friday sales hangover (har) but I looove me some darjeeling, this is the time of year I crave it most, and when I saw what the darj kit entailed my eyes figuratively popped out of my sockets—over 70 (75 actually, as they threw in 3 extra freebie samples) 10g samples, with a bajillion different estates and styles and seasons represented (I did a breakdown and you get the survey experience of first, second, and/or autumn flushes—and sometimes extra grades of each—for a number of estates/regions, among them Jungpana, Giddahapar, Goomtee, Thurbo, Margaret’s Hope, Avongrove, Sourenee, and Himalayan, along with stuff from Namring, Castleton, Puttabong, Arya, etc., some unusual twists on darjeeling in the form of green teas, whites, oolongs, blends represenative of each flush period, and unusual extra grades or especially muscatel stuff), for $56 with shipping included. Ain’t a pittance granted, but for what you get, the size and scope of the thing, if you’re a darjeeling lover it’s pretty irresistable (I worked it out and it’s like less than 15 cents a cup and less than $2.16 per ounce, which for samples as opposed to bulk ordering is very good).

I had trepidation thinking maybe the reason it was such a good deal is the teas, especially first flush ones, are old/stale, and maybe they skimp on quality and packaging, but no. Arrived in well under a week via FedEx and I am very impressed with the sample packaging—the bags block light completely, not just on one side, are resealable, and include lots of info individually labeled about steep time, date, source, etc. All of the teas I’ve tried so far at random (3 or 4 today) have been from 2013. And I realize I’m some kind of underleafer sometimes (it never feels like it though…I use an accurate measuring teaspoon and round the top of it to start) but I’m getting 4 solid cups (sometimes with a bit leftover even) of tea every time. Awesome!

With SO MANY darjs to try with similar but not quite exactly the same details (I’ve done this kind of “by estate and season survey” sample thing before with other spots, Upton comes to mind, manually) it gets really overwhelming, and since it’s constantly changing a while back I just decided to roll with it and enjoy darj samples each year without worrying too much about specifics, you know, a sort of “just going along for the ride” attitude. That said, so far these Teabox samples are much, much better than Upton’s were—better packaging, fresher, better tasting. And cheaper, man! Steepster makes my life better all the time, I tell ya.

BTW, I painstakingly added all 75 Teabox teas from this package to the DB this afternoon (yes I am that OCD), but I can’t for the life of me find URLs for the tea images that play nice with Steepster’s pic grabber. If anyone knows how to add those pics, let me know or feel free of course to add the images…sad without pictures!

Ugh I’ve continued to be super busy and have a feeling that won’t let up until husband goes back to work on the 7th…don’t really mean to complain; I’m having a ball hanging with friends I don’t get nearly enough time with normally, but it does mean I’ve been enjoying a ton of new teas but haven’t had the chance to log them properly or at all, alas. The ones that REALLY stand out I’m going to backlog whenever I have 5 seconds free time though, just to note they’re awesome so I remember, and this is one of them. Likely my favorite chai now, not too hot spicy or metallic-ly clove-y. Big fan.

Oh how I have missed you Steepster. Went up to see my folks in New York for the holidays, the usual traumatic dramatic blow up and stress occurred, and I have never been so happy to return home to my friends and cats and tea and own relaxed way of doing things. I packed some Harney tea bags (Tower of London, I thought I liked you before but man, you REALLY came through for me up there despite the hard-as-rocks tap water…you have my eternal gratitude and appreciation) but it was a bit of a bummer having all these wonderful holiday-themed teas to try 1,000 miles away from me on Christmas eve and day. Ah well! Got another glorious week with the husband and friends; I predict a lot of catch up tea time. The night we arrived back there was a package waiting for us from a beautiful friend in Ohio full of homemade jams and salsas, and we stopped into Trader Joe’s on the way out of Chapel Hill a couple weeks ago, making these afternoons all the sweeter.

Stayed up ‘til after 3am (last night was fun, got to put on a nice dress and shoes and jewelry, roast chestnuts and mix up fancy drinks for a friend and myself, go out to dinner—got Chinese pork and cabbage stew leftovers today yum!—talk about lyric writing and bad music videos from the ’80s, and make plans for a pots de creme party next weekend…friends are the best), slept in and cuddled with the cats all morning. Now R’s over at a friend’s brushing up on code and music making, so I have a much-needed opportunity to decompress alone. Listening to my favorite albums of the year (Grouper’s on right now! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnejbIBLGTg ), puttering away at mini projects around the apartment, reading said dear friend’s awesome wry emotionally sharp fan fiction (here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1103265 ), making tea.

Man do I love the cream aroma of Butiki teas. This was unsurprisingly delicious (and very welcome as our uber favorite local glass bottle eggnog from Rock Springs dairy is AWOL for some reason this year). I love that you can really taste the praline too, not just the eggnog. I’m quite certain I prefer this to the much beloved Creamy Eggnog. I hope there’ll somehow be an affordable chance to restock these Amoda blends eventually. So good. Bonus, it resteeps well!

Wow, this is my favorite yet, which is funny ‘cause I nearly didn’t order this because of the apple. I can’t go into detail right now, alas—about to sleep—but I really dig this. BTW, season 2 of American Horror Story is even more overtly feminist (and more subtly too, the theme of general compulsory/obligatory motherhood, or rather being force-designated and rated along that spectrum, as horror and entrapment) than 1. Dang.

This is delicious and I’m hoping it helps my immunity since we’re flying up to visit my parents this week! Curious to try it with cider or wine as suggested.

Wow, I absolutely love the smell of this chai dry and steeping! Thanks to the carby sweet potato quality of the base and the ginger it smells like a pan of freshly baked soft gingerbread. The flavor then surprises you by being quite peppercorn-y. I’m trying this steeped like standard tea, but I am pretty sure this will love being made with honey and milk. Very nice. One of the best chais I’ve tried, I love the spices and the balance.

This is buttery and quite vegetal, and while it tastes good I’m relieved I’m not madly smitten ‘cause kamairicha is somewhat hard to find and on the pricey side, and doesn’t keep well (and I’ve already grown hopelessly fond of tencha and gyokuro, which involve similar hurdles). It’s good but not mindblowing. Lovely way to close out a harried last-day-before-true-holidays-are-upon-us evening. The weather is super gross here right now—abruptly warm (like 70F after dark warm, blech) and humid, just begging to give you a sinus infection. This hits the spot.

Going out of town for Christmas soon. In case I get swept up before that and don’t post, happy holidays y’all!

Whoa, this tastes just like a candy cane, only yeah, slightly more spiced/grown up…I can definitely understand the complaints and reservations because it’s so, so sweet, truly like sugar candy, but I’m weird and when the majority of a tea’s sweetness is thanks to licorice root for some reason I really like it (Stash Licorice Spice was a staple guilty pleasure of mine back in the day) despite knowing abstractly that it’s not that removed from the gross chemical-plastic pin-pointy saccharine cloying flavor of something like, I dunno, those ‘80s packets of Sweet n’ Low. It reminds me of those individually wrapped peppermint candies that come in squarish pillowy chunks (like fat candy canes that have been chopped into segments) and have a slight marshmallow-y give to them, you know the ones I mean? There’s SWEET, and mint, and then licorice rootiness and a tinge of gingery spice. I gotta admit, as someone who hasn’t eaten holiday peppermint candy in over 10 years this is totally doing it for me right now.