Hattialli Golden Paw Assam

As expected, this is a very good tea. Malty, woody, smooth and deep. I don’t quite remember the Lion well enough to compare in detail but except for a tiny bit of astringency in the Lion that is not present in the Paw, I think they are largely the same. Wonderfully tasty and with a lot of depth. I’d be quite happy keeping either in my cupboard.

Stacy is wonderful and sent me a free sample of this with my recent order—thank you!

I believe I like this one more than the Hattialli Golden Lion from last year. It seems to have more flavor, a sweeter chocolate, especially in the initial sips. Less dry wood; it’s quite smooth, polished. Still bready like the previous one. A clean bright flavor emerges towards the end of the cup too—I could just be forgetting (it’s definitely been a while!) but I don’t recall Lion having such noticeable transformative second and third acts as this one. I would recommend if you liked the Lion; you may just find you like this even more.

It is one grey day out there—not raining right now, but wet and muddy all over, besides that one patch of snow refusing to melt by my walkway. Sooo enjoying that it’s Friday and excited for the weekend. We’re doing Ryan’s (my husband) birthday on Saturday, and I still get excited for birthdays like a little kid….but as an adult it’s extra fun, since you get to be the one throwing up decorations and making food (steak and fries for dinner….Haagen Dazs ice cream pie for dessert—he doesn’t like cake).

ok…on to the tea…. I was really excited to try this, since the description on the website made it sound right up my alley….and it was. :)
Such a smooth mouth feel! (and I love that smooth mouth feel…). Cocoa, roasted carrot and sweet potato, floral and oak (I am definitely picking up the oak note that Stacy talked about… it’s woodsy without being smokey)… and it leaves such a sweet finish on your tongue. This tea is absolutely delightful.

I should probably be nice and share this with Ryan, since it is his birthday and everything…….

*Had to come back to add more to this…. I’ve been drinking this tea ALL DAY (I was planning on trying a cold flavoured matcha, but never got around to it because the leaf in this just kept making great cups!)…. just adding time in about 30second increments. As I resteep, this really bright, crisp flavour emerges… it’s fantastic. It’s so refreshing. I absolutely love how this tea evolves as you resteep. this is a definite keeper. :)

Oh man, this is such a wonderful tea! It is quite a bit more chocolaty than last year and just very smooth, yet it is malty. I’m loving the complexity of this tea. It has a variety of notes, including: cacao, sweet potato, oak, apricot, citrus, floral, bread. This is just one of those teas that you start sipping and before you know it the whole cup is done. This has to be my favorite Assam (from India, I qualify that because the Taiwanese Assam is my absolute favorite), though the Lattakajoon is a close second favorite. It is just such a high quality tea.

Today we are working on getting 5 teas together to be added to the website. They probably won’t all go up tonight but we will have a good start.

I’m also very excited because I just bought some tickets to see Beats Antique live. I enjoy a lot of their music, which is world fusion/electronic/tribal-ish but the show looks absolutely insane. It has a bizarre circusy feel, wild visuals, belly dancing, and giant inflatable animals. Here is their short little tour promo if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32wnEGTE-8A. Love that this tour and last album was based on the works of Joseph Campbell. I’m a big fan of his work. Also, here is their song Cat Skillz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCLCZbzL3WA, which always gets me going, especially the second half of the song. It always puts me in such a great mood. Yay for great tea & great music!