New Tasting Notes

I went to the store that I don’t visit often; as it is nearby my work, but closed when I go to work and when I am going home, I am catching the train and have no time. But today, I have left work late; and train just left when I was left the company. And another one in a hour.

As there is no place to wait but outside, I decided to call home if someone could pick me up (it’s about 20 minutes) and they have agreed. But I was hungry, so I went to that shop. And when I was shopping, I saw this bottled kombucha, from a brand I never heard of and decided to give it a try. There was “last chance” label on it, so probably it isn’t sold as they much as they have hoped. To be honest it is no surprise, because I bet there aren’t much people who would buy a glass bottle with something they don’t even know how to pronounce correctly; with rather higher price tag.

I digressed greatly from the tea itself, so sorry for that and here below are my impressions:

It is very refreshing and not sweet. Actually as they claim, they have used apple juice instead of sugar; and well, it works well. The green tea isn’t too strong, giving me impressions of mediocre tea used, hay-grassy notes. On the first sip I couldn’t notice jasmine at all, but later on it became prominent and gave me a nice impression and brought florals, but in just right level; so it wasn’t soapy. Definitely there are no artificial or chemical notes in this bottle. For the price tag, I wouldn’t buy it for daily drinking, though.

Ah, crap. I closed the tab. Well… round two of writing this note. Fight! Rewriting a note is about as exciting as cleaning a toilet. You just can’t capture your initial enthusiasm. But I will try.

This one needs to be consumed. It has been sitting with the rest of my dark teas and it’s been a few years and now I realize it’s not a dark tea at all. Opps.
How cool it is to put it in bamboo. While bamboo isn’t one of my favorite flavors this one packs an interesting punch. When I first unwrapped the tea and poured it into my gaiwan I found a nice, long black hair attached. It’s like it really wanted to be a tea bag but didn’t want the added plastic that comes with that.

The rinse water is the epitome of earthy aroma. Loam, woods, leaves, soil, bark. If it wasn’t 2 degrees I’d go sit on the deck and enjoy this how it is supposed to be enjoyed.
The aroma of the rinsed leaf is AMAZING! Golden, purple, and red raisins. Sweet yet with a hint of wood. This sweetness does not translate to the flavor surprisingly. It’s very deep and woody like a shou pu erh almost. A house made in the 1880s. Some drying chopped wood with moss probably decaying in a pile on the side. With an overall tone of bamboo.

Lime flavoring and I don’t get along. It just tastes like cleaner to me. I don’t taste much else other than that cleaner flavor and some slightly peppery honeybush. Possibly there’s some creaminess, but I’m drinking it with milk to try to bring out the cheesecake vibes. I drank the whole cup, but I’ll likely pass along the rest of the bag.

Sipdown

There is now enough left for one small pot of tea and I decided to make this a sharedown.

I had this a few weeks ago during a tea time with two students who I had allowed to go through all the remaining Fortnum tins and choose what they would like it try. , I got the impression that one young lady (the only one who tried it) didn’t care for it. When I mentioned last week that I had made a different tea for them since they didn’t care for the this one, she said she knew her mother and sister wouldn’t like it because of the smoke so she steered them away from it, but she did like it personally. This last bit that is left after my pot of tea today will therefore go home with her next week, especially since Ashman does not tolerate much bergamot in a blend and definitely doesn’t care for smoke….yet.

I like this one. The smoke isn’t too heavy but if you do not like Lapsang types tea, I don’t think you will like this either. It is not the smokiest tea I have ever had, but it is definitely smoky. I like it a lot!

I think the order of preference for Fortnum Earl Grey teas I have tried would be – Countess Grey, Classic Earl Grey, Smoky Earl Grey, and Victoria Grey. Victoria would move up a notch if they took out the licorice root. And depending on the mood of the day, Classic and Smoky might trade places.

Sipdown

January Sipdown Prompt – a tea you plan to buy again

This is Ashman’s favorite tea in the whole Fortnum advent every year. When I saw how much he loved it, I drank other teas and saved it for him because there are only a few teas that elicit such a response from him.

For this reason, I plan to add a whole tin to my next Fortnum order and I am considering getting the wooden caddy of special Darjeeling as well.

The special one seems to change occasionally over the years and the current offering is Badamtam First Flush FTGFOP1. Does anyone have experience with these two teas or something similar enough to give an opinion as to whether he is likely to love the more expensive one? It is possible that the very characteristics that make it unique and desirable to some people will have the opposite effect. They speak of it being high grown and having notes of minerality, whereas they describe the one we have here as smooth and drinkable.

More expensive, finer, more nuanced, more layers – may not translate into “preferred by every individual.” For instance, I prefer middle to low elevation teas from Sri Lanka because the highly desirable (to some) high elevation teas like Uva Highlands and Lover’s Leap are a bit too sharp for me. That could be the case with this tea for Ashman. Decisions, decisions.

I guess if I buy it and he doesn’t like it, at least we have a cool wooden caddy.

Going to assume that this is the correct entry for this tea, because my set names this as a Ginger Chai, not Ginger Guru Chai. Their website doesn’t seem to list anything other than Ginger Guru Chai, so until I know better, I’ll be leaving this review here.

This tea packs quite a powerful punch! I am instantly getting a ton of pepper, cardamom, and of course ginger. And wow, the more I drink this, the stronger the ginger seems to get. I can feel it slightly burning and tingling my throat. Another sip – damn, it’s straight up liquid ginger. I want to taste more of the other flavors, but everything is largely overwhelmed by the GINGER. SO. MUCH. GINGER. I enjoy a ginger tea, but this is too much. I ended up actually struggling to finish this cup, my throat actually burned with every sip. GINGER.

Sipdown, and I’m only just now finally getting the steeping parameters perfect. Boiling water, overleaf, long steep (7+ minutes). The result is a rich and roasty dark chocolate flavor. I never did get much creaminess from this but I like dark chocolate so I didn’t really miss it either.
I haven’t been on Steepster much in the past week, but I hope our California Steepsterites are safe!

This tea is so nutty and sweet, a perfect green tea, that’s low in caffeine. Makes for a great afternoon drink.

Kinda strange to be drinking this tea in the middle of winter, but it was in the subscription box, so I’ll sip on it. It’s mango and coconut to me, seems like I should be looking at waves and a nice beach to drink this. It’s not artificial, but I’m not sure I’d buy a tin of it. Maybe I’ll add some black tea and see how it tastes caffeinated.

Sipdown! (24)

From the December subscription box. Not a fan of this one, and I’m sure that’s partially because Winter Cabin is my favorite tea from OBTC, and I’m grumpy that they mixed it with something instead of including it unadulterated, like they did the previous year (and the previous box with the fall seasonal tea, Pumpkin Pie Chai). Harrumph.

But I also feel like peppermint mocha and pecan pie just don’t go together, mostly because of the mint. Buttery pecan with mint just doesn’t make sense to me, and it doesn’t make sense to my tongue either. It’s not awful, just weird and discordant. The beginning of the sip is all buttery pecan, which goes well with the chocolate and coffee flavors, but then the end is all mint and it’s just weird.

Sipdown

I thought this might be in the running as a replacement tea for my daughter who loved only London Cuppa, but she found it to be just okay and prefers a couple of other teas we have tried. Still nothing has caused her eyes to light up but several have been drinkable to her.

I really like this one. It has that rich TEA smell that grabs you at breakfast time, but doesn’t have to be tamed with milk and sugar, although it does take additions well. It resteeps for a combo pot pretty well, too.

Yesterday I got a package from derk with plum jelly that she made herself with her very own hands and I was totally stoked! I got up and made fresh biscuits and instant (expired- it’s fine) bacon while my daughter made eggs and we had a nice brekkie together. The jelly was soooo good. There was tea in the package, also, but I had promised daughter we would have Queen Anne together before I knew about the tea, and besides, I am saving it to drink with my bestie when she comes as she doesn’t drink black tea anymore! So….perfect!

Thank you, derk! I love it!

Grabbed a bunch of different Tazo teas to try from an awesome Airbnb in Las Cruces, NM. For a bagged tea, this really isn’t bad! It’s not as good as the peach cobbler one though. It’s straightforward, but the peach flavor is quite fresh and authentic. I’m not sure why the reviews are so brutal.

This is such a good tea! It’s very floral, while not being overpowering, and the white tea itself is so delicate.