Sipdown (119)!
Finally finishing off this forgotten sample from TheLastDodo which she sent up months ago. I’m drinking it hot while getting ready for work because I woke up a few hours early and had the time to do so!
Not going to lie; other than remembering I cold brewed this the first time around I couldn’t remember what I thought of it at all so I had to go back and read my tasting note for it. Turns out I didn’t really have much of an impression in the first place; I didn’t even initially score this!
However, as I’m sipping on it now I definitely think there are some very interesting, and nuanced things that I clearly missed when it was cold brewed! It’s like this tea has three ‘levels’ of flavour that hit you one after another. The first is very, very short – and it’s just like a punch in the mouth of of sweetness; definitely fruity goji and maybe the jujube too? That’s an ingredient I’m not too familiar with but based on what I’ve read the flavour is similar to what jujube is supposed to taste like. Of course, you can’t forge that there’s a lot of rock sugar in this too which adds to the sweetness.
Then you transition into the second ‘level’ of flavour – savory/herbaceous. It’s got the vegetal notes from the green tea base, and the strong flavor of chrysanthemum but also something very brothy too; it’s very, very borderline reminding me of cheddar and chives and potato. I love it; but it’s strange and I don’t know which of the ingredients is causing it. Then we fade to level three – sweetness again. This time the sweetness is more raisin and ginseng with a pinch of goji, and it’s the flavor that lingers in the aftertaste.
It’s also my least favourite part of the tea; probably because of the raisin.
I’m very happy I tried this hot though; it’s so incredibly different from what I remember the cold brew tasting like, and very unique overall as well! I definitely don’t think I’d buy this for myself because there were certainly unappealing aspects but I’d be curious to try it hot again to see if the flavours I picked up were the same, and I feel like I learned a lot trying it.
Thanks again TheLastDodo!
