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So lovely. It’s a shame that the teas I’ve been most impressed with lately—Assams from Capital Tea—I get in the mood to drink at night while snuggled up to watch Elementary, and by the end of that I’m too sleepy to write decent notes. I think I reach for them then /because/ I know they’ll be wonderful and that matches my excitement and comfort looking forward to the evening’s relaxation. Alas for them. But in short, this is yet another excellent, beyond-all-other-shops’-Assams experience for me. Remarkably smooth but chock full of deep, rich, dark-sweet flavor and lots of neat subtler nuanced notes. And just like all the other Assams from Capital so far, resteeps like a dream (and I’m normally very skeptical of resteeping black tea), like the energizer bunny (I don’t even add extra time the first couple, and I can resteep at least 3 or 4 times…nuts). I think the best way to describe this (and just about all of the Capital Assams I’ve tried so far) sloppily/lazily is that it’s like the heft and deep-dark-satisfying classic tea flavor quality one expects from an Assam (or any Indian or Ceylon tea, but with the harsh acidic lemony part removed), the smoothness, sweetness, and complexity prized in good Chinese black teas, pluuuuus an uber satisfying dark bittersweet brawn (but smooth, always smooth!) that hints at good coffee made from freshly roasted oily beans. With spice notes usually. Perfect. Assams! I love you so much right now. I just needed to find the right go-between for us to date again. Now the feelings I’ve got are getting serious. Cohabitation seems inevitable, ha.

Enjoying for afternoon tea with R, alongside graham crackers spread with a blender mix of cream cheese, greek yogurt, dried apricots, and honey. Dry and steeped this smells good, sweet and nutty. You can see caramel bits in the dry blend, and that shines through in the taste without being TOO cloying. The body and taste is lighter of course than the black based chestnut blends from Lupicia (of which Chaud Les Marrons!, with its smoothed out warmth akin to Kusmi’s Caramel, continues to be my favorite; the chocolate one, while not terrible, was disappointing), but still richer and sweeter than you expect from a green. Steeps up a bright, almost glowing warm gold-green. I imagine this might be divine coldsteeped once the weather warms up as my favorite coldsteeped greens tend to be nutty and sweet. Very enjoyable, worth waiting nearly a year (!) for (it was out of stock forever and ever and when I finally got an email notification it was available again I was shocked, figured it was a lost cause by now, ha).

I’ll never figure out how Lupicia and Den’s manage to offer flavored greens where the recommended steep temp is boiling, and it works. Oh the mysteries of life.

A really lovely breakfast blend (man, there are so many!). Does that thing many breakfast blends do where for the very first second it feels deceptively straightforward and familiar, but as the flavors sit and dwell in your mouth nuanced surprises come out. That slow transformation is great because you get the best of both parts—the comfort of familiarity at first and then the interest and complexity in the surprise. It’s deep dark and a little bready, but it also has hints of fruit and even, could I be imagining it, an ever-so-slight floral presence. Very nicely balanced, classic tasting dark heft but also a silkiness and just enough brightness to even things out. I could definitely see drinking this again if I find enough other stuff from The Devotea I like to warrant placing a “real” order.

Delicious. Scattered and vague note, alas; I will try to write a better, clearer, more precise one when I drink this not so late at night after a ton more Elementary (g’ah, I love that show). I reckon it won’t take too long because it’s so good. I also tried Capital’s New Vithanakande because I love Harney and Sons’ but have run out (only had the sample packet) and it has a similar scrummy bittersweet chocolate thing going on. I am loving all these bittersweet deeply flavored bold teas lately! Also, this one resteeps like a charm. Had still another black tea from Capital today too, but I’m blanking right now—it was lighter bodied and mild, sweet, like Golden Monkey, which again is alright but never gets me to sit up and take notice relative to stuff like this. I was kind of feeling sad about not liking Assam as much as I used to back in the day after trying so many Steepster faves (Steven Smith and to a lesser extent even A&D’s), but this parade of delicious bittersweet bold black Indian teas from Capital is changing my tune and reminding me why I fell in love with them in the first place so long ago. Hooray.

Love this tea so much. Along with those A&D Yunnan Gold Tips, maybe the best find of this winter for me (endless thanks to Dexter3657!). This time around I’m getting cinnamon and sandalwood along with that deep sweet chocolate-y element. YUM!

My Capital Tea order arrived Friday (well, actually more like Tuesday, but it was in mail jail and I knew there’d be more mail jail slips coming—my carrier changed routes and the new one is more cautious :(—so I waited ’til Friday to pick everything up at once)! A shoutout to Dexter3657, because the samples she sent my way in her amazing swapbox blew my mind and acted as the catalyst for checking them out. Thank you!

I took this out yesterday to do Saturday morning errands. It’s quite upfront smoky, and as you sip through the smoke settles and asserts itself as a barbecue smokehouse-type aroma (could be a subtle result of the citrus of the bergamot combining with the smoke, brightening it and preventing it from being too fireplace ash musty, who knows). The floral aspect from the bergamot is tucked away gently in the back, definitely present but not so strong as to clash. I liked it! Not a combo you see every day. This can go nicely in my little stable of “meditative afternoon smoke break” teas, alongside stuff like Upton Imports Baker Street, Harney and Sons Russian Country, Della Terra Professor Grey, Verdant Earl of Anxi, STEAp Shoppe Smoky Mountain STEAp, etc.

Is it weird to say “you know, this is not bad!”? That’s what I said in my head. It doesn’t have quite the depth and complexity of flavor some really fantastic blends somehow manage, but it’s a surprisingly smooth, well balanced cup with a nice bittersweetness and some heft, but not enough to make an empty stomach groan or milk a necessity. It’d make a perfectly decent every-day-ho-hum-done-nicely first thing tea. I wasn’t expecting too much after feeling disenchanted post-holiday haze about how some of Georgia Tea’s blends seem like resold stuff and a few of their things kinda felt like duds to me, but this reminds me they’re actually fine quality-wise for some stuff. I shouldn’t be so harshly dismissive.

That said, I think I’m going through one of those glorious “tea just tastes FRICKIN’ FANTASTIC” phases right now—everything I drank last night was like nectar of the gods satisfying in that strong immediate way I sense has more to do with me and where I’m at right now randomly than the teas maybe. Ha. I love those phases. Was tempted to write another late night private love letter ode to tea; I was that smitten.

Ah, pretty much exactly what I was expecting. This is quite bright and relatively astringent, tastes very much like an Indian blend but there’s no bitterness, that aspect is very smooth, and at the end of the sip there’s a (surprising given the upfront brightness) rich depth of flavor, that mysterious quality all my favorite A&D blends manage to possess. A decent morning choice. Curious how it’d go blended with something else…maybe something spicy, hm.

I’ve been a cranky ragebot all week long for various reasons, but as one of those small silly things that can talk you off the ledge last night before bed I reminded myself I’d be able to try this today (and thanks boychik, your review today made me even more excited!). I was a tad worried I’d find it too mild and straightforwardly sweet potato like I was just talking about with Golden Monkey, but this is great, a lovely balance of that sweet smoothness tips give with more robust but still smooth malty dark flavor I crave. The cup color tells it; it isn’t that warm orange-gold-brown hue of the sweet potato teas but instead a deeper more burgundy-tinged affair, as I like. And as it cools there’s a lingering aftertaste of dark chocolate, yum—I imagine it comes from the very faintest hint of bitterness I crave giving it a depth of flavor, but the smooth sweetness the tips provide rounding it out. Was prepared to send a lot of this off to my IRL tea buddy or Steepsters who might lean towards the general Yunnan style if I didn’t love this but I do. So there’s a win for the day, woo small triumphs!

ETA this is a resteep champ, yes even Western style. Had a second cup, 5 minutes just like the first, just as good maybe in some ways even better (lighter yes, but sweeter too, and still with enough heft to make it deliciously satisfying). Woo hoo!

Today’s first thing, and I’m finally nearing the end of my H&S morning contender tea sampling.

This is reaffirming for me that Golden Monkeys in general are a lovely, popular (and relatively new), sophisticated/delicate tea, but not really for me. I never mind drinking them—what’s to hate; they’re just smooth and sweet and light—but they can’t seem to floor me either, probably because of that tradeoff Michael Harney talks about it in his tea book, how emphasizing oxidized tips makes for a sweeter tea, but also a lighter one. I need more classic black tea brawn and flavor to make me sit up and take notice (weirdly, I seem to be the opposite of most Steepsters I know—I like delicate oolongs but strong blacks and am not into strong/roasty oolongs or delicate blacks). As far as sweet and innovative Chinese black teas go, I’ll take Golden Needle with its honey and more rounded body any day.

All of that said, this is a lovely version for sure, one of the better ones I’ve tried. There’s clover, sweet potato (always sweet potato, sigh), some honey, and a faint whisper of sweet chocolate. Trademark smoothness.