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2025 sipdown no. 9

A smooth malty tea, quite light overall. I find Assams to be more ‘heavy’, but this was a nice change. The raspberry notes are there is I really concentrate (though this could be wishful thinking on my part). I quite enjoyed this cup, though not sure I’d order more.

2025 sipdown no. 8

There are both baked cherry and honey notes, but neither are as robust as I anticipated. Regardless, I had no issue polishing off 25g and look forward to the other red oolongs I have to try.

I tried this in my gaiwan doing 15-30 second steeps, western with a 2 minute, 2.5 minute, and 3 minute steep. I personally enjoyed the 3 minute western steep best.

Harvest: Spring, March 2024
Origin: Chokechamroen, T.E., Doi Mae Salong, Thailand

2025 sipdown no. 7

Thanks Martin for sending this!

I had the first two cups of this at home and found it to be floral-bitter, like a lower quality Darjeeling perhaps. The last two cups I had at work and found it to be milky in taste. Neither version was for me!

I tried boiling and 200°F at both 3 minutes and 2.5 minutes.

2025 sipdown no. 6

The base here was too sharp for my liking, finicky and quickly becoming astringent. I tried this hot at various temperatures and cold steeped, to no avail. The base was so bothersome to me, I barely noticed the flavour, but the spices and pumpkin were there, but nothing to write home about. Finally, I mixed some Wild Quince (from Georgian Tea 1847) into what was left and that mellowed it enough to enjoy this as a work tea.

2025 sipdown no. 5

ashmanra generously sent me her last cup of this. I’ve been waiting for the right time to steep this up and there never seems to be a fully right time, but this past Sunday I submitted an application I’d been working on for weeks and although my to-do list still had plenty, Monday seemed like the perfect day for all that.

I followed her instructions carefully: rinsed with boiling water (~8-10 seconds), let the leaves steam in my mug with a wee lid for 2 minutes, then steeped with boiling water for 1 minute.

1st steep, 1 minute: The taste is very clean, wet, sandy soil. As the tea cools, there is the most subtle whisper of sweetness from mid-end of the sip.
2nd steep, 1 minute: Very similar to the first steep, just as delightful.
3rd steep, 1 minute: I stepped this up before dinner and by the time I got to it, it was cold. Nevertheless, very tasty and soil-like.
4th steep, 1 minute: Taste is starting to thin out, the next steep I’ll increase the time. Still very soil-like. The taste is remarkably similar to the first steep, with only the depth changing.
5th steep, 1 minute 30 seconds: Sweetly soil.
6th steep, 14 minutes: The tea was light in colour and thin the previous two steeps, so I let this steep until I became impatient. The soil is still quite pronounced. This has been a lovely tea!

Thanks ashmanra :)

2025 sipdown no. 4

I’ve quite enjoyed this tea. The peach flavour has not diminished over 2.5 years and is quite juicy, while being just on the side of candy-esque. I’ve enjoyed the somewhat mellow Keemun base, though this tea can become astringent if oversteeped.

2025 sipdown no. 3

I really enjoy this EG variation. The lavender is at the forefront with bergamot just behind. I appreciate the Ceylon base. Looking back at the EG/EG Creams I’ve enjoyed, they all share a fully Ceylon base (a note to myself because many an EG has a weird scent that bothers me). I would order this one for my cupboard. The resteep was also really lovely and had almost as much flavour as the first.

1st steep 3 minutes
2nd steep 4 minutes 30 seconds

2025 sipdown no. 2

I expected this to be similar to Berried Treasure, but actually, Berried Treasure is the clear winner between the two. This tea has the same depth of flavour (and gorgeous colour), but the hibiscus and raspberry together creates more of a one-dimensional situation where it’s tart and not much else.

This steeped up a dark red/burgundy. Very hibiscus, but much deeper in colour. This tea smelled very, very berry-y. The taste was much deeper and ‘thicker’ than I anticipated (like when I have Cavalla and think it will be like hot chocolate — this tea was the hot chocolate version, or like mashed berries poured into a mug). The flavour was akin to a warm cherry juice. But not exactly cherries — that may be the elderberry. Regardless, I was happily impressed with this one!

This is a decent blackcurrant tea, but not my favourite. This version leans more into musty territory instead of sweet. Additionally, this is one you need to drink as soon as possible as astringency comes forward more and more as it cools (assuming this has to do with the Ceylon base). I prefer the blackcurrant from Tante T.