Organic Morning's Journey [discontinued]

I’m a little antsy today. It’s day 5 of NaNoWriMo & although I started day one off with a bang, writing 4002 words, days 2, 3 ,& 4 were a washout. I had gigs, I had a boyfriend to entertain (& he’s been neglected A LOT lately, poor baby). Today I have a mix of students & free time, & although there are some things I’d like to get done, writing is a priority. I’d like to get back on track!

I started the day with yoga, meditation, & journaling. Then I had an awesome pile of gluten free pancakes, possibly the best recipe I’ve found online yet. http://www.elanaspantry.com/silver-dollar-pancakes/

The tea? Hugo’s Organic Morning’s Journey. I’m on my 2nd cup (not a resteep, I don’t feel that it resteeps all that well) of this bright & yet dark brew. Ahhh, yes…I feel the caffeine level rising…good morning, all!

Backlog: well… sort of. I’m on my second cup of this. The first cup was just so good that I couldn’t even spare time to type out a tasting note, I needed to focus on my cup of tea.

That is to say: Oh WoW! This is seriously GOOD!

Definitely one of the smoothest black blends I’ve come across. It’s so smooth that it doesn’t need milk or sugar to make it smooth … it just is. It doesn’t have a real “kick in the cup” type of quality that I generally look for when I consider a tea as a breakfast blend or morning blend versus a later in the day type of tea … but don’t let that fool you. It’s still invigorating and morning cuppa worthy – absolutely! It just takes a subtler approach toward the end goal – wakefulness!

It is bold yet smooth. Creamy with notes of malt and caramel, hints of chocolate in the background. Fruit notes – but the sweet fruit notes – of sweet date, grape, and even a hint of sweet apple. Now, imagine those fruits drizzled with honey. You get the idea.

By mid-cup, I notice some spices start to emerge. Slightly peppery, but very slightly, just enough to get the palate to notice something different in the background but not enough to disturb the smoothness of the cup. Maybe a hint of cinnamon.

Truly a remarkable blend. I would go so far as to say, if you had room for only one breakfast tea in your cupboard, this should be the one. I don’t think I could ever limit myself to just one, but, if I had to, this would probably be the one I chose. It’s so good… very good!!!

I am drinking a huge pot of this today! I made a steep in my small pot, poured it, and made another and this is still plenty strong, so hooray for all us resteepers!

The nice thing about this tea is that it is strong enough for morning but doesn’t make you feel like you need to do CPR on your tongue. I am awake, oh yes, but I am not traumatized.

And why did I make so much? To try out a new teapot! My doorbell rang just after eight this morning and I saw a FedEx truck. There on my doorstep was a huge box. Ike the puppy had sent me a tea service for six as a thank you gift for taking care of him while his master was in the hospital! Ike will be here again tomorrow to share my English muffin at breakfast, as he usually is, on Tuesdays. He may get jam on his piece tomorrow!

just for cavo…. finishing off the day with a cup of this tea. :)

Terri was kind enough to send some of this my way and while i’ve been drinking this tonight i’ve been perplexed. I’m not sure how i feel about this tea. It’s smooth…and then there’s this weirdo mid taste and then i’m confused again. I like it..but it’s going to need another few cups for me to land on where i feel about this one. Still glad to be trying it out though!

Sometimes you drink a tea sample, and only have enough to enjoy two cups, and then poof! It’s gone. And months go by, and even a year goes by and you’ve had hundreds of cups of different teas in between, and yet, you still find yourself thinking about this cup. This one that got away.

And then you email the company to see about ordering something similar and is there a way to make the shipping to Canada more affordable, and they reply back that they can offer you a custom black tea package deal and throw in that tea that got away since they can see you’re such a huge fan of it…

And it finally arrives!

And the tins are beautifully packaged and the box smells amazing. There’s no question which tea to try first. And it’s just as good as you remember! Your memory doesn’t fail you. Everything is so amazing!!!

(And I highly, highly recommend ordering from Hugo Teas due to their incredible customer service. I did the entire transaction through Facebook and they were very quick/responsive, as well as adding several dashes of humour.)

Found myself in that situation where there’s a little more than needed for one cup, not enough for two, so I dragged out a big mug and made with lots of leaf and a shorter steep (3 1/2 min). Lots of malt and cocoa, less of the raisin-esque character I noted the first time around. I’m thinking this is one of those rare and wonderful breakfast teas you just can’t ruin.

Enjoying an interesting cup of this tea thanks to LiberTEAS
It says there are three kinds of black tea in here but I am going to INSIST one of those “black” teas is a puerh!
I am going to do a full review for http://sororiteasisters.com/
What I will say at this time before fully immersing myself in the cup is do not hesitate to do multiple steeps.
I am on my second cup and it has changed a lot – very good stuff.
I like steep two more than steep one as the puerh flavors are coming out stronger.
Earthy, sweet, interesting.

Organic Morning’s Journey Black Tea – 2012

Introduction:
Per The 2012 Hugo Tea 2.6 oz. (75 g) tin:
“Behold friends! This is the 100% organic black tea blend you’ve been seeking. Morning’s Journey is my private blend of three black teas from three countries. This loose blend holds unparalleled balance and flavor, ready to sustain your adventures—no compass or knapsack required. Keep it close and brew it often.”

Blend of three black teas from three countries:
Fellow Steepster members have guessed Assam, Ceylon, Darjeeling, and perhaps Pu-erh. (However, since the teas come from 3 different countries, it can’t contain both Assam & Darjeeling.)

Per Hugo Teas (from review comments):
• “We hope it wouldn’t ruin your day if we told you that there isn’t any pu’erh in our Morning’s Journey—rather, there are only 100% Organic black teas here. But there are certainly pu’erh-like flavors.”
• “It does have darjeeling in it! Nice work! The other two teas are Yunnan and Ceylon :-). Happy Tea-Drinking.”

liberteas has an excellent review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2012/11/02/organic-mornings-journey-black-tea-from-hugo-tea/

“Amount: 1 Tbsp / 8oz water Temp. 205*F (96*C) Time 3-4 min.”

Technique:
1 Tablespoon – 5g (My Weigh Durascale D2 660), 8-oz filtered water (TDS: 72 PPM), heated to 205*F, brewed with a Finum tea basket in tea mug without sweeteners, milk or cream. Three steeps: 3, 4, 6, & 8 minutes.

Fragrance: Woody, warm, relaxing, pleasant, and moderately-strong
Dry leaf: Color – A few gold tips with amber, green, & dark chocolate brown < 1mm long twisted wiry leaves and small pieces.
Liquor: Clear, moderately dark copper
Aroma: Wonderful, relaxing, with a distant hint of cinnamon
Infused Leaf: Color – Mostly milk chocolate and some rustic brown leaves with some larger pieces of green leaves
Body: Full-bodied for the initial infusion and the first re-steep. Subsequent re-steeps require longer infusion times and result in a medium-bodied cup.
Caffeine: Invigorating without being aggressive like Irish-Breakfast can be.

Impression:
I’ve been enjoying multiple cups of the Organic Morning’s Journey recently. The flavor profile includes malty-ness, muscatel, and a mild caramel notes. Organic Morning’s Journey has a natural mild sweetness combined with a creamy smoothness that provides a mellow and relaxing yet invigorating cup without any hint of bitterness tartness, or astringency. This is one of the very few teas that my wife will substitute for her all-time favorite tea – Earl Grey. Very well done Hugo Teas! It’s easy to see why this was such a highly-rated tea!

Tyler,
How will your 2013 Full-Steam Black Tea compare to Organic Morning’s Journey?
• https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=493953444017194&set=a.343468832398990.79456.303309236414950&type=1&relevant_count=1
• https://sphotos-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/179720_10151497209467896_1280112790_n.jpg

I have officially survived midterms and our move to a new apartment! We went from the Sunset district to a lovely place by Dolores Park. Our neighbors are very friendly and the kitties are excited by all the birds they can see outside the window.

I’ve been having this in my thermos for the past two weeks and it’s really lovely. Very smooth blend, good amount of body, and not at all bitter. A lot of full unbroken leaves in this tea and I am really impressed by the quality for the price. Hugo Tea, if you want to sell this in a larger tin, I would certainly not complain!

Next week is sure to be crazy (the university I work at starts classes, and I also start my class!) so I used this morning to cook some things for the week so that we have food on hand — black bean stew, Indian lentil stew, German potato salad, mini meatloaves with pasta, roasted hot peppers — one less thing to worry about! I’ll only need to made a few side dishes. I also made some mustard and BBQ sauce.

My reward? A nice sit down with a giant cup of this tea. It’s magical. So smooth, malty, raisiny-sweet and flavorful. Invigorating without being strong like your typical breakfast tea. I’m having some milk and sugar with it and it’s comforting and delicious this way. Those of you that have been around for awhile — I do believe it has an echo of Thomas Sampson to it :)

Many, many thanks to ashmanra for this tea!!!