No. 49 Assam FTGFOP1

Damn you Terri! No orders until June! WANT! MOAR! NAO!

Holy hannibel, i had this in the morning and let me tell you, i have a single normal person cup’s worth left and it might just be hoarded. Because i am trying to commit to no tea orders until June. It’s going to be hard because i have been thinking about this tea most of today. This is a great assam! mmmmm i have no words beyond “now accepting donations to get me through the month of may” lol I kid! but seriously? This has me wanting to try many more Steven smith teas since this was my first taste of their teas.

My 1000th Posting on Steepster!
I really felt that I had to pick something especially good to celebrate, but I’ve got about 300+ teas here now, & I love so many of them. I thought about going with one of the new ones, but then I decided I should go with a tea that could represent the end of the first 1000. Still, there are so many that I love LoVe LOVE. In the end, I selected this one because:
a – It’s awesome
b – It’s the first one that popped into my mind
c – It’s a sipdown! At least for that package. I just got another 4oz in the mail to split with Sil, so finishing off the last hoarded cup from the previous bag was a good reason as any, right?

This really is a wonderful Assam, very bold, nicely malty, with a deep fruitiness & sweet caramel essence.

Okay, I decided to try it again this morning at 3 minutes 30 seconds… it is a delightful assam. Malty and very rich, an excellent breakfast tea. There is something floral about it, but the finish is also spicy and strong. I added some soymilk to mine but no sugar. Might even be a bit better at 3 minutes only. Not the best assam I have ever had but definitely up at the top in terms of flavor. Assams are my favorite breakfast tea so I’m glad I got a lot of this! I also recommend checking out the Brahmin if you like a strong tea.

Sorry, Sil. I’m keeping it! :-P

I’m finishing off the last that I had of this tea in my stash, it is one that will be missed. One of the nicest Assam teas I’ve had. Lovely, rich, malty … caramel-y. YUMMMM!

While this is a delicious assam, especially with a wee bit of maple syrup, I think there are others I prefer.

This is a delightful kick in the pants. Nice and strong, loads of assam flavours (ha), smooth with a bit of a bite.

Thanks, Sil, for sharing this with me. :D No, I didn’t share this one with my brother. He’s been loving puerhs and toasted oolongs more than the black teas lately.

Ok, so maybe I can see why this is so amazing. And I’m so happy I wasn’t disappointed either after reading everyone else’s reviews.

This is a nice bright assam, subtly sweet, and just a touch fruity. It’s not as punchy as the Tiger Assam, and I think I’m getting notes of caramel at the end of the sip. Very delicious.

Also, added this to my shopping list. I can see needing several Steven Smith samples in the future!

Thanks TerriHarpLady!

It was there…and then it was gone.

I gulped this in a non womenly fashion, I’ll admit to that. I try to maintain a certain elegance when I drink my tea, but not for this one.

In fact, Im pretty sure my slurping sounds could be heard overseas…(will have to ask my friend Ysaurella about that)

This morning when I woke up, I felt I needed a kick in the tooshie, so I thought it was the right time to try this generous sample from Sil.

Never heard of this merchant, but this is more than I anticipated, shopping list material. It’s just a perfect assam, not too complicated, very fruity and malty with notes of sweet honey. A bit astringent, just the way I like it (please note that I go heavy on the leaves, I like a strong cuppa)

Once again, thank you Sil, I really dig this one :-)

The dry leaf smells of raisin and vanilla and is mostly dark leafed with a scattering of golden tips among the slightly broken leaf. It brews up to a nice dark rosewood coloured brew.

After 3.5 minutes, the tea smells of malt, sweetened cooked barley, a cross between sweet potato and roasted marshmallows, citrus, and caramel.

It tastes of malt with nice deep bitter tones, a hint of floral, cocoa and caramel, finishing with citrus and spice notes.

It has a smooth, rich, dense flavour. Thanks TastyBrew for a thoroughly enjoyable first cup for the day!

Steepster seems slow today, so here is a tasting note! You’re welcome! :D Another I was dying to try that I’m so thankful that Terri Harplady sent some of. Turns out, this is exactly the tea I wanted this morning!

Steep #1 // boiled // probably 3 1/2 minutes
I added a teaspoon and 1/3, mainly so the next steep session is a sipdown. The leaves are dark with just occasional hints of gold. Steeped, the cup color is very red! I love the flavor: brisk, malty, bready. If I hadn’t added an extra 1/3 teaspoon of leaves, I probably would have gotten more of the caramel that others have noticed. This one actually compares to the Ovation black teas I have that I have a ton of, that no one really wrote tasting notes for. They may have rated as high as this one if others had tried it. So I’m glad I have large amounts of the Ovation.. I don’t really have too much quantity of plain blacks and those are my favorite. (Most of my teas are sample sized – not usually any over two ounces!)

Steep #2 // boiled // 4 minutes
This cup was still delicious, yet oaky. I’m trying to figure out why second steeps often have this flavor. It’s either too many leaves or too long of a steep time, BUT I’m beginning to think that it’s since the leaves are already unraveled from the first steep, they might be over steeping. Like I said though, still delicious! A tough tea: wake-up, it’s flavor!

Tried this again this morning, this time with a bit of milk. Either this batch is bad, or I’ve kept this sample from Terri for too long in my tea cupboard. This just isn’t good at all – it somehow manages to fluctuate between bitter and tasteless. Oh well, you can’t win them all.