Finbarr's Revenge

Upon my return home for the funeral, I was feeling very teaprived, & this one seemed the only suitable choice, to continue the theme of the day, & the week, actually, now that I think about it.

Note to self: Next year spend all of St. Patrick’s Day drinking & comparing Irish Breakfast blend, you silly lass!

Oooh. This is silky slick as oil (without actually being oily, phew!), easy going down but nice and strong too. I love when you get that strength but without the usual corresponding tannic roughness. And I’m getting that mysterious lurking marine quality Terri describes (and loving it).

I had this first thing with cold leftover cashew chicken (not the most traditional, but still the breakfast of champions). Really nice. Thinking of hanging with the Queen shortly (“rain outside so a book and the Queen, peachy keen” popped in my head and well, who am I to argue?).

Another one from my swap with TerriHarpLady.

To me this one has a bit of a spice to it. I am having a hard time putting my finger on it. It reminds me of menthol a little bit. Kind of like a cough drop without the medicinal flavour. It is very light. It is possible it could be a bit of flavour contamination, but I do not have any other teas that taste like this, that I know of anyway.

The black tea part of this tea is really good. It is a strong black tea but not astringent or bitter. It is also quite smooth.

I can sum up this Irish Breakfast variant in on sentence: This stuff actually gives you the courtesy of a reach-around before punching you in the junk.

Sipdown (133)!

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample! Just based on the name I would have assumed this one would’ve been a flavoured blend but I guess it’s not. That’s cool though.

The description said this was built for milk/sugar – I don’t add sugar to my tea, but I can definitely do milk! So, that’s how I prepared this one. It definitely takes the milk well; that’s for sure. I think it’s a little monotone though; I’m almost entirely just getting malt and while it’s tasty, it’s not satisfying. I’m at the point where, with straight blacks in particular since I’ve had more of those recently, I need to pick up multiple flavour notes to stay interested. Otherwise, things kinda start to feel repetitive even if the teas are different. I think that’s why, as a generalization, I’m still more captivated with favoured teas right now and why I drink way more of them.

Also; I’m having a hard time focusing on writing my tasting notes tonight – Tre had a date tonight which I’m assuming must have gone well because I came home from work at 10:30PM (their date started at 6PM for reference) and I can very clearly hear girly laughter coming from Tre’s room. It is now fifteen to midnight and they have yet to emerge.

Good for him – hopefully the success of tonight will cheer him up a little and make him stop feeling miserable about his love life (especially since we saw his ex today – she came in to my store to buy stuff with her current BF). However, they could try to be a bit quieter…

EDIT: I just ordered a pizza, but before I placed the order I knocked on his door and asked if he wanted me to add anything for them. They opened the door and were just hanging out on his bed (in the dark). But hey, at least they have the courtesy to not fuck while I’m in the house?

But hey; how come I don’t get an introduction! He got an introduction to Tyrell…

Thank you Cavocorax for the chance to try this tea. It is enjoyable and pairs beautifully but milk but I think it is a touch too bold for my tastes so I don’t think this will be joining my cupboard anytime soon. Still, it was fun to try. 168.

revisiting. This is a perfect Assam. very smooth. no additions needed. i would call it elegant. it was comforting. no astringency, no bitterness. perfect !

http://instagram.com/p/yM2EDtBwoF/

Another one from terri, that is still really tasty, but just slightly less so than the other couple i’ve had. This one leaves an after taste in my mouth that i’m less a fan of. HOWEVER, i wouldn’t turn this one down, nor would i discount the possibility of picking it up again because i can see it being just what i need on cooler winter mornings :) strong, smooth with a little reminder left over of what i was drinking heh. thanks terri!

Now the Devotea has me addicted to their 1910 blend, but I figured it was time to branch out into some of their other offerings with my latest order.

Before I discovered Steepster I was a Twinings Irish Breakfast kind of gal in the mornings. After many years (and thousands of dollars) later my palette has changed a lot but I still like a good Irish Breakfast tea. I steeped this up and after trying it plain my first utterance was, “Whoa!” This is a very bold, wine-y type of assam which is exactly as it should be. I wonder if 4 minutes is too long for the steeping but I think it worked out ok. I immediately added soymilk and a bit of rock sugar as I don’t really think this blend was meant to be drank straight! I wish someone would hand me a plate of scones but actually, this would go well with a bowl of steel cut oats.

Another good ’un — I think this sample will be gone within a matter of days if not hours.