Featured & New Tasting Notes

I got another sample of this tea from another most generous Steepsterite! Thank you SO much! And this time I even brewed it properly, LOL.

Man, I have to be honest here…I didn’t WANT this one to live up to be hype. I didn’t WANT to fall in love! But alas, this tea is everything everyone says about it and more. Seriously ridiculously good. I had a couple of non-tea drinkers taste my cup, and they really thought there was some chocolate in there! Nope, just two insanely good black teas and some vanilla beans. sigh I combined steeps one and two in a hot-to-go mug. I got notes of cocoa, tart cherries, pastry, malt…even some powdered sugar notes. GAH! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO GOOD!!! Sigh. Expensive tea but worth it. I’m a convert! Maybe my fave black tea of all time now??? Ambrosia!

starts saving pennies

:)

My breakfast tea of the day, a rich cup of malt, a little chocolate, & the tanginess of plums.
Speaking of breakfast, I made myself a gluten free banana muffin that I’m feeling pretty pleased about. Here’s the recipe, for all my gluten free steepster buddies:
Dry ingredients:
1/3 cup almond flour
1 T coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
heavy sprinkle of cinnamon ( I also wanted nutmeg, but Tony is out)

Wet ingredients:
1 egg
2 T coconut oil
1T Maple syrup
(I was gonna add some vanilla, but I forgot)
1/2 a banana, diced up small
Combine both.
Oil a large mug or a pint size glass measuring cup with coconut oil.
Press the batter, which will be pretty thick, into the mug, trying to press out air bubbles.
(disclaimer….these muffins are the only thing I use my microwave for)
Microwave for 1.5 minutes. If the center still is soggy, add more time at 30 second intervals.
Sometimes the center stays soft, btw…
Once you take it out, let it sit for a minute, & then invert it onto a plate.

For the original recipe, omit the cinnamon, Maple syrup, & banana.
Add 1 – 3 T water if the batter seems too dry.
This muffin makes a great cornbread substitute. It can also be sliced into 3 rounds & toasts beautifully.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I bet it would great sliced & egg battered to make a great french toast too.

And finally, I think I’m gonna try spreading it into a ramekin & baking it in the actual real oven some time. I could slice it into 2 rounds, toast it, & spread it with avocado & tomato, for a sandwich.

Day 10 of Steepster’s disaster…

I know not many will read this. But I still have to give some love to my favourite teas.

This is one of them.

Drinking this makes all the wrongs right.

Ok…it won’t fix Steepster. But that’s about the only thing it won’t fix!

Mmmm….salty caramel. I don’t really like you for real, you’re too sweet and sticky. But in my cup of tea? Yes please!

Can’t believe how a straight tea can render such decadent notes.

Aila and I… Foreverrr!

Angel generously sent me a sample of this tea for review. I jumped at the chance to try some raw puerh, as I’ve never had any. I was a little afraid of it, as the ripe puerhs have been hard for me to really enjoy, but I noticed from reviews that raw puerhs were quite different. So, I made this in my pseudo gaiwan setup. Really need a gaiwan.

The aroma of the dry leaf was quite zippy! It had a tang to it. I put half the packet in my little teacup aka gaiwan and rinsed it twice for 10 seconds each. I really don’t know what I’m doing as far as gong fu style steeping of a raw puerh, but I was copying others and also kind of winging it.

My first steeping was 15 seconds. The aroma of the wet leaf had a strong tobacco note that made me cough! The taste however, was surpringly pleasant! I got notes of tobacco smoke, mint….maybe that’s that camphor quality people talk about. Honestly it was like a smokey green tea. Much more accessible than ripe to me! Yay! I’m really surprised because I didn’t think I’d like it.

Second steep (25 sec) had more tang, was more astringent, and I think I got a little wood note. The smoke note is sweet, maybe like pipe smoke?

The third steep (~40 sec) was similar to the second, but the fourth steep (1min) was softer, less astringent, and kind of toasty.

With the fifth steep (1min30sec), there was a dominant floral note! It was also sweeter Wow! Really good!

I finished with a sixth steep at 2 minutes which was similar to the fifth.

Overall, I’m really impressed, and extremely surprised I liked it. Yay! I like puerh! :D

Another sample from Dinosara. The dry leaf looks like sencha – long, flat-steamed leaves. The dry scent is raspberry candy with a hint of citrus yumminess. I did a 3 minute steep at 175 degrees.

The brewed tea itself smells quite vegetal but sweet from the vanilla. Yum, I really like this one. The main flavor I get is a lovely combination of the grapefruit and raspberry, fresh and fruity with a little bit of tartness. The vanilla comes in more toward the end of the sip, and that’s when I can taste the lovely vegetal green tea base the most. I can see this being delightful with a bit of sugar, but I’m trying not to add sugar to any of my teas lately. It would also make a lovely iced tea, I’m sure! :)

(Backlog)

This tea embodies what I love about oolong.

First, the dry leaf is green, I mean, really green. Emerald City green.

Anticipation. A premiss of what is about to happen. Cause I just know it won’t disappoint.

The dry scent is floral and a little spicy.

I do a quick rinse to bring the leaves to life.

And boy to they come alive.

First steep and I already get tons of flavours. It’s as green as can be for oolong, vegetal and very floral.

Nice buttery and creamy mouthfeel going on, with a touch of spice. The finish is so fresh, like an evergreen breeze.

I did multiple infusions, and the later steeps lost that floral imprint in the mouth as more piney notes emerged.

And the leaves took so much room in my little gaiwan as they expanded, just beautiful!

Another amazing product from Eco Cha. All three oolongs I have purchased from them are fantastic.

Pics:

http://instagram.com/p/sGn3Yawh4x/

http://instagram.com/p/sG2djOQh_i/

I got this from an amazingly generous Steepsterite, who just wanted to expand my puerh horizons! You know who you are and thank you SO much!!!! <3

It was so much fun to have a WHOLE tangerine to bust open! I have to say, this is much better than the 2009 stuffed tangerine puerh I had a sample of from Teavivre. The shu just seems to be higher quality! The tangerine flavor itself is very subtle (I don’t think I got any bits of peel in my gaiwan this time though.) The shu is rich and creamy and earthy without any ‘off’ flavors. I was sad when the leaves finally gave up, which always speaks well of any tea :)

sad. people…I so sad… I sipped this down !!!! o.O

I love this tea so much!!!… sniffles

Ok…is not the end of the world, especially since I have another sealed ounce (which I am sooo hoarding). Hopefully this will be back in the fall lineup. If it is…I am so gonna order an obscene amount (obscene for me, anyway)…perhaps in the style of TTF :) and then i’m gonna hoard that obscene amount… so there! :-)

I LOVE YOU, YU LU!!! Please don’t ever leave my cupboard!!!

I totally thought I had reviewed this one before, but I guess not! This is another sample from my huge box of TeaUrchin sheng samples my husband got me for my birthday back in June. Best gift EVER!

After my recent blissful experience with the 2012 Spring version of this tea (insanely good flavor and strong cha qi!) otherwise known as “One thousand butterflies” I decided to revisit this one for comparison.

This harvest is also quite wonderful. It is a bit more mellow, not as floral or as insanely sweet but still well balanced. I get a warm richness from this fall harvest. Early steeps are quite bold. Tastes like colorful autumn leaves instead of spring flowers. Very light pleasant bitterness and no astringency. It is not exactly buttery but I keep thinking of browned butter as I drink. Third steep in I start to get that lingering herbal/spiced aftertaste in the back of my throat. Ahh, sheng. You’re my pal :)

As I look at the dates on other reviews I am forced to wonder when I got this sample. Note to self: start labeling samples and place them in a better spot to encourage quicker sampling.

I have tried this before and liked it, but didn’t get to give it the attention it deserved. Today I am all alone for about an hour, something that almost never happens, and I am having a little gong fu session.

My water was 194F and I started with a two minute steep, no rinse. I think I should have rinsed for gong fu with this one, because it was very light. The first aroma to hit was sweet potato but with an edge this time. There was little to no astringency and the flavor was quite light.

I gave the second steep three minutes and the color deepened. Now there is astringency but not an unpleasant one. This is accompanied by a creamy texture.

This is a very good tea for when you want TEA. I don’t think I would serve it with food unless I made it western style with extra leaf. It is not really a breakfast tea for me, but rather an afternoon or,even a contemplative evening tea.

Thank you for the lovely sample, Teavivre!

I used one tuo in 4.5 oz water at 200 degrees. Three 10 second rinses and then 15-20-25 seconds.

It took 3 rinses for the earthy flavors to abate. Now there’s just a lightly cavey flavor. It’s rather pleasant and even a little sweet.

Not much else to say. No one is going to see this anyhow, so I’m not going to take the time to be poetic. Instead, I am going to find a yoga video since I’ve stopped being so sore. Yay! :)

I, for one, welcome our new Melon Overlords.

The dry uh, leaves smell like a nice, ripe honeydew melon. And brewed, it reminds me of these Japanese gummy candies I really like. There is a sweet, fruity flavour. Lupicia, you’ve convinced me I enjoy melon flavour teas. Which is an accomplishment since I was skeptical. It is also my new fave green rooibos. Thanks to Ost for this.

Last time I had this was 5 days ago. At that time I was going to organize my tea. Yeah, I’m still going to organize… maybe. I did get two packages of tea mailed out. I still have a couple to go. With the construction going on I am not getting much else done. This was the only tea I had time to drink today. At least it good.

Is it really that no one has been active on Steepster for the last 13 hrs? I think something’s not updating!

Guh. This tea is soo good. It’s really pretty true to it’s description the first brew. I’m using it grandpa style in a glass bottle. It’s even after a few steeps it’s yummy. The flavors aren’t as hard hitting and distinct anymore, but it’s still yum.

I wonder what the drinking version of Nomnomnom is. =D

I went to Lupicia today. Let’s see when I’ll be able to put up notes.

Just cranking this one last note out from my queue because I know it’ll be a short one – and I need to make a bit of progress even if the dashboard isn’t updating regularly right now.

I cold shook some of this in a Milk 2 Go Vanilla Milk – it was delicious just like I remembered it being the first time. Pretty much just a very thick, full tasting rich pear/vanilla milkshake type drink. Perfect level of fruity and creamy and sweet.

Don’t do this in straight up milk folks; it doesn’t work. But vanilla milk? And vanilla pear? You want to try that. It’s good. Really good.

Queued post, written June 22nd 2014

Here is an LS that Auggy shared with me in the most recent care package. It was had on the morning after a family outing when quite whacked and rather in need of a good strong morning tea.

And here we ran into a problem, because this particular LS is actually rather mild. Oh well.

The leaves were quite smoky and the aroma was as well, but the flavour, especially when it started cooling down were only just mildly so. Quite sweet and a bit fruity and it had a sort of mineral, chalky touch to it, but not really the sort of kick in the face that I was hoping for under the circumstances.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad tea, because it’s not at all. It’s just more of an afternoon one than a morning one, and this is going to take some getting used to as I’ve always thought of the smoky ones as morning teas.

Cold Brewed in a few shots worth of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum.

This was ages ago; and I actually got the suggestion to brew this specific one with the rum from the Steepster Chat group. Strained it smelled not so bad; definitely spicey and Chai (lots of clove in the smell) with some way deep down fruitiness to it. Not sure if I can say specifically Apricot with any sort of confidence.

However, it tasted terrible. Like some sort of antiseptic or disinfectant. The first tiny sip I kinda choked on, and then I had Tre (my roommate) try a sip after saying I was “such a baby”. He immediately ran to the sink to spit it out. I did, however, finish it off eventually! I pounded it back and then immediately pounded back a mug of milk as chase. And then I of course rubbed it in his face.

But yeah; sorry beloved Steepsterites – this was a miserable miss that I wont be repeating.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I got hiccups immediately after finishing this one too…

This is a decent matcha for matcha lattes. I have had it for a long time and am continuing to try to sip down some of my older teas. I have been wanting to try a kefir matcha latte, and I chose an unflavored matcha to try to duplicate something like the Starbucks drink.

For those who are not familiar with it, kefir is a cultured milk drink, and thanks to Mercuryhime I am making it myself now. Think of something like a cross between Greek yogurt, unflavored Gogurt, and sour cream or buttermilk. The funny thing is that I have never liked buttermilk but I LOVE kefir. The chickens like it, the dog likes it, and my hubby and daughter like it. When a batch comes out just right, I can’t get enough! When it is really tart, the chickens get it, and they are quite happy.

This batch of kefir was thick and creamy. I added a tablespoon of sugar and a half teaspoon of matcha to eight ounces of kefir. I stirred it with a spoon instead of using a blender stick this time. The overall effect was like drinking a glass of matcha ice cream that has melted. I would call that a success.

I am not clicking that I recommend this tea, not because it is bad, but because you can get better matcha for this price.

Another tea from Han Xiang this morning! I find that it has kind of become a habit for me to try a new-to-me black tea (assuming I have one) for my first cup of the day. And that’s the case today! This is the second of three different jin jun mei teas that I ordered samples of, and the leaves are so teeny compared to the first one! They’re almost like miniature versions of the same leaves. They’re quite thin and slightly twisty, and about half golden and half dark. Dry scent is mildly sweet with a hint of herbaceousness that I often find in Fujian black teas.

Brewed, this tea smells very rich with dark fruit notes and a definite scent of molasses, along with that herby smell. Yum, this tea is dark and rich with a very strong flavor. It has a very potent herbaceous note that I find similar to dill? But not quite exactly there. This note always frustrates me, as I can never identify it! :P Otherwise, this tea has a strong fruity presence, in a dark, syrupy dried fruit kind of way. Specifically, I would identify it as a mixture of raisin, prune, and dried dark cherry. Alongside this fruitiness is a lovely rich molasses flavor that goes perfectly with the dark fruits. I catch the slightest suggestion of floral in the aftertaste, which does nothing to deter me.

So I’m wondering if that herby dill-like note is the result of the roasting? I don’t think I’ve ever noticed whether other Fujian black teas I’ve tried were roasted or not, so I guess I should keep that in mind from now on!

Backlog.

Last night I was tired and sore from some work I had done around the house. I offhandedly asked my husband if he knew how to make a proper cup of tea. The look on his face was priceless. He’s been a tea drinker far longer than I have, but he uses tea bags, Tetley tea bags to be precise. I guess he thought I impugned his tea honor because he made a beeline for the kitchen and was determined to make my tea. He asked me which tea I wanted and after choosing this one he banished me from the kitchen. The whole thing was really funny. Plus, I was served tea in bed. What’s not awesome about that?

The cup of tea he brought me was wonderful. Slightly smokey with a rich cocoa note. I also really like the strength of the malt note in this tea. It’s strong, but it doesn’t overwhelm the cup. So good! As a bonus, we both had a good laugh over the whole tea making process which made the tea even better. :)

Tea of the morning here… I got this one at Whole Foods yesterday in the bulk section. I’ve been to a bunch of other WF stores in our area and none of the other ones have bulk tea. I’m not complaining though!

Yesterday I got an IngenuiTEA from Crate and Barrel and I’ve used it a few times already. So far I really like it. And this is one of my favorite blended teas, I really like the combo of cardamom, rose and ginger.

I’m sipping on it this morning hoping for some peace of mind. It might be time to go back to tulsi… I found out yesterday through my network that a new person was hired to replace me at my former workplace and it’s just really difficult not to take this personally since I was there for so long. Anyway I hope in time I can just begin to feel better about things and move on with my life… to somewhere I am happier I hope.

Wow, Steepster is really f’ed up, isn’t it? Even the discussion boards aren’t working right. Hopefully it will work itself out soon.

I have realized that the best way for me to work down my cupboard numbers is probably to regularly drink up the Blends Club blends that I receive every month. It’s tempting to hoard some of them because I can’t get any more of them, but I have to fight the impulse and just enjoy them for what they are. Most of them I probably wouldn’t restock anyway, although I tend to find them tastier than some people. It helps to like florals in the Blends club (it also helps to like licorice and fennel, but I deal).

Anyway, this tea is quite tasty. The cocoa and berries go well together. Will happily drink this one regularly and will be a bit sad when its gone.

This is a test of the Steepster broadcasting system. This is only a test…

Lapsang Souchong to the rescue this morning. Steeped at 200 F for as long as it took to play about half of Stairway to Heaven on my guitar. So nicely sweet and smoky. Very good at a slightly lower temp than I usually use.

This has been a test of the Steepster broadcasting system. We now return you to your normal reviews… or total silence, depending on whether Steepster is actually functioning….

Thank you so much Angel and Teavivre for the opportunity to taste this Pu-erh.
I wanted to do a simple cup of this one but I cannot manage to cut the little cake, too hard. So I decided to go for a full teapot to use the entire cake.

After steeping, the leaves are very green and are a mix of cut and entire leaves.

The taste is not so smocky but very on the honey and dry stone fruit side to my opinion. It has none bitterness at all.
The texture is light, not mellow, very refreshing.

I loved this one very much, sure I’m not afraid at all anymore of Pu-erh !

You can see some pics here on my blog :http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/raw-pu-erh-mini-tuocha-teavivre/