VariaTEA Send Message

Cold brew sipdown (203)

I enjoy the strawberry candy flavor of this a lot but that herby/earthy quality for the moringa just ruins it for me.

Sipdown (204)

This was a sample given to me by Sil and it has been one I have pulled out to make countless times and just never got to it. Today I decided to just go for it and while it is not bad, per se, I am not really enjoying it either. Sil got no astringency but I am getting astringency and that sort of perfumey dryness/metallic quality that I normally associate with Darjeelings. It is sort of malty but everything else going on really takes away from that. Perhaps it is age that is to blame? Nevertheless, thank you Sil for the chance to try this.

Tim Tam Slam Sipdown (205)

I wanted to do a tim tam slam (where you bite the cornees off a tim tam cookie and use it as a straw for a hot beverage so the inside of the cookie gets all melty and delicious) and this tea seemed like it would compliment the chocolate flavor well. It did. The tim tam mixed with the soft peppermint was delicious.

I cold brewed my sample of this tea and then came home and had it with a splash of orange juice. I wish I could remember how it was but I had a bad headache and ended up napping before really doing anything. I remember thinking this wasn’t as sweet as expected in light of the candy strawberry smell of the dry leaf. I got more of the cold brew in the fridge though so I will have more to say another time.

Sipdown (206)

I was going to steep a straight black tea because I was feeling mighty tired after my endless shrimp lunch. However, I ended up napping instead.

So it was late and after my 4-day weekend, tomorrow is a long day of class so I need to go to bed at a normal time. So rather than a caffeine filled black tea, I went with a latte. This tea has caffeine but not much and also has chamomile.

I have had this since March 2017 but have clearly put off drinking it, probably due to the chamomile. However, as a latte, it is quite nice. It has a soft raspberry flavor that is sweet and compliments the creamy vanilla. The chamomile is hidden by the milk so if you have this and don’t love chamomile, latte is the way to go.

Honestly this smells and tastes exactly like vanilla cake frosting. Like uncanny flavor capture to vanilla cake frosting so I am happy. Plus, it’s blue. So blue. Which makes this fun and sort of nostalgic since you usually tend to get fun colored vanilla cake frosting as a child…at least I know I did.

ETA: The one thing I don’t love about this is it leaves an aftertaste but it is delicious while drinking it.

Sipdown (207)

Another sample from Kittenna and also coincidentally one she had tonight as well. Thanks for sharing :)

The reviews on this one have been pretty much just okay, nothing negative, but no one is overly enthusiastic. So I was quite surprised when my first sip tasted exactly like a brownie. It someone managed to capture the entire brownie experience from flavor to mouthfeel (as much as tea can capture the mouthfeel of a solid – dense and fudgey). Subsequent sips were not quite as spot on for the brownie flavor however there is more cherry coming through. Some fudginess and strong cherry that is bordering on cough syrup but still staying on the non-medicinal side of things. It is a pretty good tea actually that I would consider getting again if that were an option but at the same time I am not heartbroken that it is no longer offered.

Sad gongfu sipdown (208)

I finally decided to sit down for another gong fu session. I had intended to use a different tea but I only had about 3 grams of that one so I ended up using the whole of my sample of this instead, which was 7 grams of tea in my 100 mL gong fu.

I prepped my gaiwan and then got ready to steep. Then I quickly realized I had no idea how long to steep the tea. So I turned to google and found a site that suggested to start with 10 seconds and then to add another 5 seconds per steep until you hit 40 seconds, so I {sorta} followed that method.

I got through 5 infusions before I gave up on the tea. Thankfully throughout the 5 infusions, I only spilled a little and did not burn my hand at all. So those aspects of my gong fu experimentation has much improved.

As for the tea, I was really disappointed. The steeped tea had an awesome milk chocolate aroma. One that reminded me of Teabento’s Jiri Horse. It just smelled delectably like chocolate deliciousness so it was upsetting when the tea, which was steeped for about 10 seconds, tasted sort of how I remember Red Rose. That plain black tea flavor that we all experienced before getting into tea and in my case the flavor that made me think I disliked tea. It was drying and astringent, but not bitter and was rather thin. The second steep was steeped for 20 seconds because I forgot why I was counting and tastewise it was the same as the first cup, but more and bitter. The second steep got dumped. Then the third steep was 10 seconds and more of the same. At the fourth steep, I grabbed a new cup, hoping that would make a difference in taste and it did not. Then the fifth steep was just 5 seconds to try and curb the astringency/dryness and ended up tasting like nothing. I gave up after this.

So, all in all, the gong fu session was a fail but also an improvement technique wise so there is that.