Venus

okay, so there was some user error the last time I cold brewed this. I made sure to get this in the fridge a lot earlier in the day and in the morning? yessss. but I also want to point out that my tea is PRETTY OLD (when was this released? I’m pretty sure that’s when I got it. I think they released Venus and the race car one at the same time and I got both…probably with Black Sunshine. it seems like forever ago?) it still has some nice spinach-y notes nevertheless and I love spinach sooooo. yeah. excellent for these hot days. I’ll be finished with this can soon, which is very exciting, bc the artwork is beautiful. I won’t miss this when it’s gone though.

Sipdown no. 8 of 2022 (no. 658 total).

I have been drinking too much caffeine — the other night I was up until 4 a.m. and I have to start being more careful about caffeine consumption after noon.

This was the lowest rated green tea in my collection so I decided to mark it for a sipdown. It may be the first A&D tea I have sipped down as I usually hoard and cherish them.

I tried this both hot and cold. Cold was a little too vegetal, sort of like asparagus run off — but hot was pretty much as described in the original note. A very good tea, but not the best green I’ve ever had.

Pulled this one out today as it’s the 10th tea in my collection (via my spreadsheet, which is alphabetized by company and then tea name), and I’m following the #CuppaTeaAthon prompts on Instagram this week, one of which was to drink your 10th tea.

Anyway! This is quite lovely. It’s extremely well-balanced, smooth but with some minerality and a hint of smokiness to it. There’s creaminess and edamame and hay, but also a delicious apricot aftertaste and enough astringency to keep it interesting. It’s also going on three years old, but still tastes good.

I wouldn’t say it’s a standout tea, but I feel like what it does, it does exceedingly well. It’s supremely drinkable and it makes my mouth happy. Plus, what a gorgeous tin! :3

Gongfu!

I had a very rare, for me anyway, Gongfu session w/ this tea over Thanksgiving weekend. Short and simple, like most of my tea sessions using green tea – I never want a long green tea session, it seems. I’m gonna say I did about five/six steeps?

The tea was nice – very green and pretty vegetal; sort of like edamame/green beans as the primary notes with an edge of smoke and nuttyness. Basically, very typical tasting notes for a Chinese green tea/pan fired green tea. Still, a little green bean taste is appreciated every now and then.

The really cool part of this session was the brand new teaware I was using – I had made a trip to Camellia Sinensis and I got quite the teaware haul: about six new teacups, a gaiwan, and this wicked new shibo! It’s only 80ml but it’s so wide and shallow and I fucking _love it. That’s what I was using for this session, and while it’s a bit cumbersome to pour from given my little baby hands, it pours really smoothly and is just so sleek looking! Does anyone else have a shallow shibo or gaiwan they use regularly? What kind of teas do you usually steeping in them? I picked a green tea because that’s what was recommended but I imagine I could probably do something else as long as it does have too much expansion…

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3m4oOCgvB4/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obuHYHY2HB0