7 Tasting Notes

85

This tea is the current feature in the rotating cabinet of drinks I keep at my desk. Each morning starts with anywhere from 1-3 energy drinks, and eventually the workday dwindles down to a sachet of whatever tea is visiting at the time, but each cup is at the mercy of my best attempt to estimate a reasonable ratio of boiling hot water tempered with cold tap water since I don’t have a kettle with temperature control and am thereby consigned to basic breakroom amenities. Today, however, I pocketed a few sachets to enjoy at home. 1 sachet at 175F forgotten for three minutes and my cup is just blooming with the smell of warm french vanilla frosting finely tapered by a touch of lemon. Light-bodied but faintly buttery, it’s a perfect reminder that work is temporary, but tea is also temporary – tea is just much more enjoyable and maybe after work, you can have cake.

While the rose petals impart a flavor if not subtle then perhaps entirely absent, it’s difficult to distinguish this from the astringency of this tea at the back of the sip. The dry, almost gently peppery sensation lingering in my mouth evokes memories of being at a cocktail bar with a friend and daring him to eat the bitter, aromatic petals off the bouquet in front of us, until of course we were both prompted to part ways unexpectedly early in various states of gastrointestinal discomfort. Unfortunately, this is a betrayal I have yet to receive from Wedding Tea and have not been forced to truncate any workdays with thanks to it.

Flavors: Butter, Cake, Frosting, Lemon, Vanilla

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 12 OZ / 354 ML

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85
drank Genmaicha by Harney & Sons
7 tasting notes

I purchased genmaicha as a huge gamble due to my dodgy past with Japanese green teas, which I’ve come to see as the rough neighborhood I’m frequently chased out of by prowling vegetable notes and buttery flavors – a statement of preference rather than quality. That said, though my relationship with drinking veggies is unstable, my standing when it comes to rice is certain, and if there’s one thing I like more than rice, it would have to be the premium, charred rice crust I get to chip out of the bottom of the saucepan after I make rice for the simple reason that I do not know how to make rice but insist upon doing so. For this reason, genmaicha stood out as a dubious beacon of hope, but a beacon of hope nonetheless.

A whiff of the leaves did nothing to quell my reservations, evoking a somewhat grassy profile that was faintly dry and saline but unmistakably vegetal. Still, the splintery green leaves were richly interspersed with promising, amber nuggets of puffed rice and even some small, white popcorn-looking morsels that renewed my interest. The dusty breath exuding from the tin conjured a colorful suggestion that the best may be yet to come, specifically because the best is possibly locked in this bancha’s stuffy basement begging to be let out. So we return to the sketchy kitchen scale for a rough estimate of 6 grams of leaf (4 tsp volumetrically) dosed in 12 oz of 175F water for 3 minutes. The smell of the tea as it steeped is where everything changed – this was the puffed rice tea of my dreams.

Finally let out of its cage, the delectable, toasted scent of the rice has the ball! It’s mowing down any other flavors in its path! It tramples green tea underfoot! It’s broken into the end zone! Or something like that, I don’t know sports. The savory touchdown is nothing short of Orville Redenbacherian and it’s everything I could have hoped for. Though this tea rapidly grows bitter after its allotted three minute soak, as one might expect, the steeped kernels of brown rice are soft and too pleasant to waste and I must restrain myself from eating them all before the resteep.

Are there limits to this ambitious blend? Is there a law restricting me from adding more rice? How much rice can I add before surpassing the threshold of genmaicha and encroaching into congee territory? Tune in next week for answers to all these and more. As always, this has been Monday, and I am your host.

Flavors: Grass, Popcorn, Rice, Vegetables

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 4 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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80

I told myself I would save this tea for another day, but lies wear many robes. This robe looked like a spontaneous trip to Target (where I also told myself I would buy NO TREATS!) to take my mind off the tin of plump, happy buds waiting for me. Inevitably, I would get home and allow an ample three minutes for me to sink back again into the depths of boredom and ultimately give in to temptation. What can I say? I can’t resist a snappy dresser.

In the dry buds I immediately noticed a bright aroma that caused me to say out loud in disbelief, “Coriander? Is that you?”. (I consulted my kitchen spice rack for confirmation – I can hardly recognize my old friend.) This largely dissipates into a nose that is more vegetal and floral as it steeps, but the spark is somewhat retained in the wet, tough buds, which have a strikingly bitter taste. Though the vendor listing predicts a thin, diminutive body likened to water for the steep – by no means a bad thing in my book – its arrival is accompanied by a certain, faint, buttery quality that sits sweetly on the tongue long after it’s swallowed.

Ordinarily I approach “vegetal” descriptors with caution, as they’re not my favorite with respect to teas, but as a recent and a zealous convert to the Cult of Cabbage, I profess to some partiality on behalf of your commentator, and I find it to be balanced and mild otherwise. Perhaps that will change as I let it steep into infinity. Additionally, the flavor of the buds is so pronounced in comparison to the tea itself that it seems unfair to consume them together, so I might strain this one in the future to give it a fighting chance.

For the second steep, time to put the screws on Chinese Silver Needle. I subjected it to 200F and was rewarded with a much more uniformly saccharine profile. On the other hand, the steeped buds persist in being unbearable – blech!

Flavors: Butter, Cabbage, Coriander, Floral, Sweet, Vegetables

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 8 min or more 3 g 12 OZ / 354 ML
ashmanra

Welcome back to Steepster! The dashboard is stuck…again…but will be up and running soon, we hope.

"Youngest"

Thank you! Good to be back. I don’t think I broke the dashboard, but I’ve broken just about every instrument I touch at work so I wouldn’t rule it out.

Martin Bednář

“Youngest” I also break everything I touch, but Steepster isn’t my fault this time. So I am pretty sure you’re clean too :D

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85

As a tea barbarian, I’ve braved the slings and arrows of young adult life leaning on flavored teas prepared so recklessly and uncaringly as to taste less pleasant and complicated than the concerningly flavorful supply of tap water in which it was made. This is a sure way to forget what tea tastes like, why it should be consumed, or what the meaning of life may be. Changing that begins with two things, and those are, firstly, a tea whose only flavors are the ones god gave it, and secondly, the ultimate symbol of status and sophistication: one faithful Brita filter to moderate the charming savor of PFAs.

The vendor says 175F so that’s what I gave it. It’s just as agreeable at 200F. The actual weight of tea used is anybody’s guess, including my kitchen scale’s, which seems to be notably receptive to the suggestion of minor adjustments to the position of the leaves on it. “3 grams? Or maybe 4 grams. What do you think? I guess it could be 2. 5 grams if you insist.” Assuming the FDA isn’t stopping in for a cup, I imagine that will do fine.

This tea is delicious after steeping for 3 minutes, but it’s also delicious after steeping for 2 days, so there’s that. It brews up crisp and clear, revealing a mellow tint of marigold the longer you let it play. The understated aroma of citrus and spices is a preview of the taste – each sip a gentle cruise over smooth waters scintillating with unexpected sweetness. The whole, unbroken buds are delightfully soft before steeping, like eager little ferrets in silky cashmere sweaters. I never strain these out because they’re a playfully bitter and irresistibly tender little snack, and anyway it would be a crime not to challenge this tea in all its forms through its own veritable Crucible of steeping abuses like a fresh recruit of the United States Marine Corps. I have a feeling this tea would come through just fine if you steeped it in a grease fire.

Flavors: Citrus, Spices, Sweet

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 8 min or more 3 g 12 OZ / 354 ML
gmathis

I smiled all the way through this review! I have never gotten the hang of tea that’s too fussy to take water on the full boil. This sounds like it might stand a chance at my house.

ashmanra

As much as Ashman loves white tea, I have never bought this one. Maybe I should. (He has had lots of Teavivre white tea, though.)

"Youngest"

No subthreads to reply to specific comments I see. :‘) We’re really roughing it out here.

Leafhopper

Nice to see you back on Steepster! I also have a soft spot for those fuzzy buds. :)

Martin Bednář

Welcome back! And maybe one day you will be not anymore tea barbarian :)

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65

A tea as numbingly uncomplicated and unflavorful as life itself right now, and consumed just as habitually and mindlessly. I collected a bountiful supply of tea courtesy of ashmanra, and this has been my first sipdown project of the year coinciding with the return to academics. I’m one week deep in another semester and watching Cells at Work because one of my professors is a giant weeb and this has awoken a suppressed part of me that also desires to be but without success.

This tea brews a little dark. Steepster recommends a steeping time of four minutes, but the packaging recommends two to three and I personally tear off the string and plop the bag in the cup indefinitely because I’m a neanderthal. I can only touch so many wet strings before it starts to get old, okay. Speaking of wet strings, I just discovered I inadvertently steeped one of the drawstrings of my pajama pants in my tea because my room is so cold that I wedge my warm teacups in my lap or inside my hoodies to sustain me.

As for the tea itself, it doesn’t stand out as anything special. I identify pear in the aroma more than in the flavor. It’s drying, insubstantial, and not very receptive to resteeping. I drank several cups of this one night after a period of time in which I drank very little tea and I was wired for all but maybe two hours of the night. We’ve had some wild times, but I’ll be happy to move on from this tea and on to more enjoyable blends that taste less like pajama pants.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec 0 OZ / 0 ML
gmathis

I think I reached the same conclusion about this one. Well, maybe not the pajama strings…

Veronica

Is it strange that this review made me miss my college days? :)

tea-sipper

hahaha. I miss your notes, Youngest!

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He/Him/His

Biopharmaceutical researcher and energy drink addict occasionally moonlighting as a bartender, barista, and tea enthusiast. Hobbies include having jobs and working.

Give me your most diabolical Lapsang Souchong and I will show you my happiest dance.

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