4337 Tasting Notes
Holiday tea 2023 #10
From CameronB! Thanks again for the wonderful teas! Almost a full tin of this one, so I best start working on it. I think two teaspoons in a mug would have been okay here, I tamed it a bit with 1 3/4 teaspoons. It’s nice to occasionally see an organic tea. And I love to see “BREAKFAST” in the description — for some reason I expect more scrumptiousness in a “breakfast” blend? The black tea seems sturdy enough on a medium level of spices added here: licorice, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange peel and vanilla flavor. And then I see it’s also mixed with puerh! There was an odd flavor in there, and I think it’s the particular puerh they used. Not bad really, just noticeable. Reminds me a bit of Butiki’s puerh, which was never really my favorite from Butiki. This is supposedly an eggnog inspired tea, which I can see, but also wish they hadn’t included orange, in that case. The flavors/ spice are smooth enough to work for breakfast (kind of like the amount of spice in eggnog), with a fairly sturdy base for snowy winter mornings. I’ll have to try it with a splash of eggnog or milk at some point. The second steep, I sometimes leave the infuser tilted over the mug. This time it happened to fall back IN the mug and I didn’t notice for a while, but the flavor wasn’t entirely ruined.
Steep #1 // 1 3/4 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // <10 min steep
Holiday tea 2023 #11 Bird & Blend – Yule Log
Holiday tea 2023 #9
From CameronB! Thanks again! The perfect time to try this one. The chicory here is sure to brew this up quite dark. The scent is a little off — probably the ROSE HIPS?!?! but overall, I started chugging it. Cold, I do really get that note of rose hips. I wouldn’t call it the best peppermint bark tea around, but it could have been worse. Really mild on the chocolate, when I was craving a chocolate shake. The second steep somehow loses the rose hips effect. Happy I tried it, not the worst, but there are plenty of other yum choc mint teas I love.
Steep #1 // 14 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 min
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2023 Tea #6- December 21 – Winter Solstice
A day late! I thought I’d go with a puerh for this prompt! A dark tea, but also brewing up a ripe puerh usually brightens my day. :D
From Michelle a while ago! It’s good to be back with my neglected teas. The leaf here looks huge and high quality — and really not tightly compacted within the bits of cake Michelle sent — the cake is quite loose. The flavor is lighter because of that huge leaf. This was a good reminder why I probably like “lesser quality” ripe puerh. It’s DARKER. But this is delicious anyway — especially that third steep that I really went overboard on. It was such a sweet tasting cup! Very interesting that such a long steep was so sweet. A great no-offender puerh that should sway some newbies… but not distinct enough for me.
Steep #1 // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 3 min
Steep #3 // 2 minutes after boiling // 10 min
From Daylon R Thomas! Thanks so much! I keep trying this one, but the flavor is so mild and not very distinct, that I then hesitate to write a note. But I guess I should, just to say that there isn’t much flavor. I do think it is interesting that this particular Honey Black has a ton of gold to the leaf. Which makes it even weirder that the flavors aren’t anywhere close to something that would taste like a Chinese black tea, like this appears to be. I would have guessed it was Golden Monkey if I were just looking at the leaf and had no description for it. I would say the most distinct note is oak with a slight bite to it. BUT that was when I severely oversteeped the second cup. I do wish there was more flavor here, but I always like when my expectations for tea are thrown when I look at a leaf and think I will know what it tastes like. I like being wrong!
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a mug // 19 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // (many minute steep – forgot about it)
I agree. I’m sorry if I gave you a mediocre one. I really wanted to like it, but I thought the same thing. Malt with some minor elements gong fu. The briskness got to me personally.
PLEASE no apologizing! I’m grateful to try any tea, even those that others haven’t loved, as everyone has different tastes anyway. Thanks again :D
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2023 Tea #5 – December 13 – National Cocoa Day
A day late for the prompt but I’m sipping this gem again. So good. Bergamont with chocolate is a little like how I thought citrus and chocolate would be a terrible pairing, but trying it is actually delicious (like Terry’s orange chocolates). And this tea just does the combo perfectly.
Holiday tea 2023 #4
additional notes: I love the exclamation point in the name of this tea, as I always say it/think it like that anyway! FIGGY PUD!!! This cup today seemed especially flavorful and then I realized it was yet another holiday tea that I had brought on my trip. I think there were many of them, now that I think about it. I finally caught up on reading the December 1st advent notes today, so I’m slowly catching up!
The library I work at is part of a consortium of Idaho Libraries that includes Boise Public Library, which has, in BIG bold letters the word “LIBRARY!” printed on the side of their building. It’s always been a joke for me to shout “LIBRARY!” when talking about their branch, heh.
Visual Reference: https://boisedev.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_1980.jpg
haha – I love that. :D
Third biggest city here have in their logo three exclamation points!!!
Reference here: https://www.designportal.cz/ostrava/
Only THREE exclamation points? They must not be enthusiastic enough about it. :D
Holiday tea 2023 #3
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2023 Tea #3 – A tea with a red ingredient
This is a festive tea I brought with me AND fits a prompt. It’s a unique looking blend, as not many blends use red cornflower for some reason. So this tea came to mind when I thought of this prompt. I feel like it’s more of a Thanksgiving tea to me, but I’m drinking it as one of the only holiday teas I have with me. It’s very almond today and light on the black tea flavors.
Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2023 Tea #4 – A genmaicha or hojicha
I’m just going to log this here, as it’s a nameless matcha genmaicha that Ost sent years ago. (Didn’t want to log in under ‘random’.) It was very delicious! I love genmaicha mixed with matcha. This was an exceptional example.
2023 sipdowns: 98
