Dragon Feelers

You ever just make something that is so good you feel like you could go build a skyscraper or something? I made a curry sauce for pasta with spinach and green bell pepper and it made my nose run, something suuuuuper helpful right now. When I went back to the kitchen I seriously gave myself like a happy dance because I have another bowl for tomorrow.

It’s fun to watch these steep because they look like pea pods floating around.

This is odd. It tastes like juicy fruit and kind of more like oolong? Peaches or pears..I can’t tell.

I don’t get much butter/cream, just sweetness. It is just a little bit vegetal, and just a tad astringent at the end. Mostly I get sweetness from it too, though I would guess that’s why it tastes like pears to me.

I really feel like my taste buds are broken now.

This was a sample — thanks Stacy!

I really enjoyed this one, moreso than I thought I would. Light, crisp, and refreshing. I tasted fresh green beans with a smooth creaminess, and at the suggested 3 mins not a hint of astringency.

I don’t think I’d drink this on a regular basis; it’s not an overly exciting tea (other than the lovely, fuzzy, and obviously carefully crafted leaves!), but it is simple and satisfying. Really pure and fresh tasting.

I think I’m finally ready to explore unflavoured teas a little more, and this was a nice place to start.

Sipdown #13

I’m 40 weeks pregnant today! Come on, baby! Mama wants to meet you!

I woke up to weird pelvic pain at 6:29am. Contractions feel like waves, right? This was not wavelike…luckily it went away once I got up and walked around. You usually only have a 3-4% chance of delivering on your actual due date, but since I haven’t had the baby yet…my chances of delivering today are around 15%. Still not great. :/ But I have a 61% chance that the baby will come within a week! :)

I polished this tea off last night during a game of Go with my 4 kyu husband. The score was 104.5 to 72…I got massacred. LOL! But it was a lot of fun since it was a teaching game. I’m really going to miss this tea (and Butiki Teas in general). Although I did notice that apparently Red Leaf Tea sells something called Golden Dragon Feelers that looks exactly like this. I’ll have to try that one out sometime.

Well, now that the pain has subsided, I think I’ll try and go back to sleep. I’m gonna’ need energy if I do go into labor today. Wish me luck, everyone! I’m hoping to have a medication/intervention free birth, which also means the baby needs to decide to come on his/her own so I don’t have to face an induction. An induction can start a cascade of unnecessary interventions. Since I’m GBS negative, I don’t even want an IV. Inductions mean pitocin, which means an IV. :/ But I still have 2 weeks before they’ll start talking induction. OMG, I pray I don’t have 2 more weeks of being pregnant! I don’t know if my body (or mind) can take it!

4/5 (see my bio for more info on my new pared down scale)

I love the way this one looks, long and silver like pine needles, with a fuzzy down. It smells really good brewing and in the cup too—surprisingly sweet in a rich, bakery-ish sort of way, along with some sweet buttery cooked vegetable or sweet pea element. There’s a bit of wheatiness too, not heavy or yeasty like bread really but more like fresh wheat, which surprises me. I thought it’d be light and delicate like other premium greens but it’s got a surprising richness and heft to it, maybe based on that buttery sweet aroma. It’s a pretty, pale peachy gold hue with a slight silvery green tint. I really like this, definitely one of the best greens I’ve had so far (granted, I’m a green tea newb!).

This is another sample from my swap with Emily M (^^)

The dry leaves of this one are just so intriguing that I really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it so much. It’s very vegetal, but a kind of vegetal I haven’t had before. Maybe its the pea and marine notes? I like peas, but not in tea, I guess.

I received a sample of this from Stacy. Thank-you! I had this before bed last night and really liked it. It was much sweeter tea than I had anticipated with the light veggie taste and hint of mint..

This is very light and smooth, and a little bit sweet. It’s also faintly vegetal—like peas with a tiny dash of seaweed. It reminds me of silver needles more than anything, although I like this a little bit better than I do those (as a non-fan of white tea). This was a fun tea to try—the dry leaves really do look like little dragons!—and one I won’t have trouble finishing, but I don’t think I’d purchase it again. It’s a lovely delicate tea; I just tend toward more assertive flavors.

I’ve definitely had more cups of this than I’ve logged, but I guess that’s because it’s not one I have a lot more to say about. It’s an interesting green — I have been following the instructions to steep it in boiling water, and after I got over the initial shock I was pleasantly surprised with how this one worked out. There’s not a hint of bitterness, and it’s so light, delicate and fresh tasting it’s almost unreal. In many ways, it reminds me of a white tea. It’s not floral or sweet in the same way, though — there’s a subtle taste of fresh pea, and it’s actually quite savoury in the way of spring vegetables. My favourite thing about this one is the dry leaf, though. It’s furry and stripy! Butiki do unusual teas like no-one else :)

Project Drink Your Greens continues. Although this one looks a lot more like silver needle than any other green I’ve come across – the dry leaf is super fluffy, and it was kind of hard to measure out a level teaspoon.

Boiling water? Well all right, if Stacy says so. The tea didn’t seem to suffer at all – very soft with subtle flavors, like a more vegetal silver needle. The first flavor I picked up was artichoke, and now that I read the tasting notes I notice a few wisps of pea and marine. Most green teas taste to me like some sort of leafy vegetable, but this doesn’t seem to have any element of that, which is a nice change of pace.

I’m amazed how gentle this tea is after 3 minutes in boiling water, with no bitterness or astringency other than some dryness in the throat. It’s one that you have to focus on as it’s pretty easy to overlook the mild flavors, but doing so is a rewarding experience.