This is the final tea I have left from the last Here’s Hoping Teabox, which made it rounds shortly after I joined Steepster back in 2017. Can’t believe it took me this long to go through all the samples I’d stashed from that box, but here we are. Thank you to tea-sipper for organizing that box all those years ago, and to anyone that contributed tea to it. As a fledgling tea-drinker at the time, it was one of my first exposures to tea outside of grocery store teabags and a few bags of loose leaf I’d picked up on a vacation.
For the sipdown prompt, “an earthy tea.”
100ml (shiboridashi) | 4.4g | 205F | Rinse/10s/13s/16s/19s/22s/25s/28s/31s
The wet leaf smells of sour melon rind, rotting autumn leaves, and tobacco smoke. The tea steeped into a striking bright reddish-orange color, and smells like black licorice… a fennel/anise spiciness with an undertone of smoke. The first few sips even tasted a bit like licorice, but then a strong bitter note that tastes like dissolved Advil settles on the back of my tongue and after that I just taste marshy earth, wet leaves, and smoke… characteristics I’m not fond of, which is why I rarely opt for a pu’erh session. The second infusion wasn’t quite as abrasive, and actually wasn’t too bad if I focused in on the black licorice tones. Halfway into the session I was starting to taste some sweeter golden raisin notes as well as a dry grass vegetal note with far less bitterness in the aftertaste than early in the session, but my empty stomach was also starting to feel a bit woozy from the tea so I had to add some toast to the session. Late session brought out some white grapes and cucumber.
Overall, not a bad visit with Poochie Gamora.
Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Bitter, Bitter Melon, Corn Husk, Cucumber, Grass, Licorice, Medicinal, Raisins, Smoke, Smooth, Spices, Tobacco, Wet Earth, Wet Moss, White Grapes
Preparation
People who liked this
Comments
Heh. Glad she wasn’t a terrible acquaintance.
It’s been so long since I’ve gone into character.
Yay! I’m glad you finally finished the Here’s Hoping teabox! (I think I have teas from even older teaboxes around here.) And I’m glad it was mostly your intro to loose leaf. :D
Heh. Glad she wasn’t a terrible acquaintance.
It’s been so long since I’ve gone into character.
Yay! I’m glad you finally finished the Here’s Hoping teabox! (I think I have teas from even older teaboxes around here.) And I’m glad it was mostly your intro to loose leaf. :D