Martin Bednář Send Message

Good morning! It is 8 am here, seems like another lazy day with cuppa of good tea. It is cloudy, it seems rain will come. Typical autumn weather I guess. Tea from derk.

No rinse, 3.5 grams, 85 ml gaiwan.
Wet leaf reminds me smoky lapschang, maybe bit of bacon. But in taste it is vegetal, bit salty, but still good. Okay, that was description of rinse.

1st steep, typical setup – 15 seconds.
Mellow sheng, vegetal a bit. Some refreshing note is there too.

2nd, 30 seconds
Much better, more flavourful, more full-in-taste. Good one.

3rd, 40 seconds
Derk is completly right. For newbies of pu-erh this is great tea. Why? It is easy to steep, it is tasty. But as well good to find if I like shengs or not. It shows little of astringency too, bit of vegetal taste, bit of sweet notes. Just easydrinking tea. But I am still a baby in world of Pu-erh. Yep, trying “more adult ones” but I am not really sure if pu-erh world is for me. I prefer oolongs :P

4th, 45 seconds.
Another easydrinking steep. It is tasty, maybe bit of peaches. Headache disappears slowly (I took a pill)

5th, 60 seconds.
Peach notes dominate this steep. Few of other stonefruits in background. Maybe plums?

6th, let it go seconds. More than 60. I do it with last steeps and usually it turns out tasty.
And it is tasty again.

Derk – thank you for this tea. I have half left, so maybe another day… But I know,I can expect good sheng with typical tastes for sheng. Little astringency, little sweetness, little vegetal. Stonefruits too. In conclusion, good tea, but clearly not top notch. Maybe my session was too long too.

Food pairing: oat cookies
Song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwtdhWltSIg

Received from derk. As caffeine-free alternative, I took this.

Let’s see. Do not expect anything. Just nice, easydrinking tea.
Mug, 300 ml. Boiling water.

Uh, the smell is well known, but not really linden like. Rather wax paper or something. Certainly not what I would like.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with derk. Yep, it is musty. Paper-like. Weak. Even I kept it in all the time. Not even close to something more than hot water with funky notes of linden. I had only a few linden teas, but this one is one of the weakest I ever had. It barely tastes like tea (mean tisane of course).

Bleh, it is below average. Not even good for evenings.

Sipdown; grandpa strained after few minutes (5+).

Evening here again. More over cold one – just about 15 °C ! Autumn comes quickly apparently. Not a day for shorts and tee, as I was wearing this today. In buildings it is okay, but outside it is chilly.

I used about 4,3 grams (weighed it) of mix, and as I said, prepared grandpa. It is because I could not find any strainer and even more, the mesh is usually not so fine so rooibos came through.

Tea is what I needed! And this one (thanks gonzobot for choosing; it is really a bot ;) ) was great idea. It is nicely refreshing, though it could be more “pie” like. It is not much biscuity. But certainly I notice lime and some kind of creaminess.

Overall good evening tea. Keeping the rating.

I took this one again. Grandpa with 3 teaspoons of the mix.

And it turned out perfect. Probably perfect ratio of oolong, rose petals and cascara cherries.

Yeah, it is still very rose like, but not so soapy anymore. It was light and refreshing.

I was watching WC of basketball, Czech Republic v. USA. I donot usually watch basketball, but when I do… okay I was rooting for our team of course. Even rest of my family joined, when they were having coffee and me… tea again :)

The tea is, well, quite good and had to rise the rating a bit. It is not so soapy when the ratio is right. Moreover, base is not overwhelming but adds some floral notes and creaminess. Rose petals makes it very perfume like, but it was somehow okay. What are cascara cherries and how they taste/smell I have no idea. I do not even know what is it.

But it was nice to have this tea and maybe bit better than all the fruit teas I have around now. Maybe I just needed something floral.
Rating 71 → 75 + reccomendation. (But it is gone probably), but I have some rest to share.

Received one tea bag from Postcrossing again. It is nice to receive different tea bags and more over, they are sometimes new for my collection. Not this one, but Dilmah – IMO quite good brand for Ceylon teas, especially for tea bags.

I even heard a interview with founder of this brand:
https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/1093836883-na-plovarne/6286-episodes-in-english/5134-dilhan-c-fernando-english-version/

I hope it will work and I hope it is not geoblocked. Otherwise, you have to use VPN to Czech Republic. The interview is very nice and enjoyable with cup of Ceylon tea.

Ah, why I am studying logistics and not marketing. Hihi.

Okay, the tea:
The tea brews really dark, cloudy black colour with aromas of bergamot peel and citruses. I steeped it for “minimal time”, as said, so, it was only 3 minutes. It turned out perfect. Tea base was mild, but noticable; full of flavour. On the other hand the bergamot part of this tea was highly aromatic, but in taste it was well pronouced and together it worked very well. Nothing was too strong and I think longer steeping time would make it worse and it would turn bitter.

Refreshing morning tea! I have to rate it unexpectably high, because, for tea bag, oh boy, it is great.

Spring 2018, 5 grams, all from derk.

Dry leaf smell smells after fruits with cinnamon.
1st is, as usual for me, 15 seconds long.
It smells after fruits, but tastes really sweet, like cereal maybe with sugar. Maybe bit of malt.

20 seconds for second steep.
Fruits and malt. Good.

30/3rd.
Raisins? Certainly sweet notes… bit of malty. Maybe baked bread as derk notices.

4th, 40 seconds.
Now the baked bread is present for sure. But somehow sweet. Great though.

5th, 50 seconds.
Bit of florarity appears. Sweet and floral, with bread. Weird. But so tasty…

6th, one minute.
Yep, floral. But certainly not overwhelming.

7th, 90 seconds.
Bit weaker. I think that 8th will be last one.

8th…
I just kept in gaiwan. For 90+ seconds. Close to 120 seconds for sure…

Derk – Thank you! My first GABA oolong. And it is so tasty. Creamy, but – fruity, baked bread, so much…different notes. I really enjoyed and another style I have to check when ordering somewhere next time.

Some sachet from family cupboard. Apparently from Lidl store, and apparently good ingredients. Just tea and mint. Nothing more! Great job guys.

I woke up with headache, my brain is still processing yesterday incident on railway I was, unfortunately, involved in. My train did not stop at stop signal and endangered another train which my train should let pass. Who knows what was the reason, there was a major thunderstorm, maybe the engineer checked wrong signal, maybe it did not brake correctly because of the water on rails, but luckily, there was no crash. The second train (the endagered) was way lighter so it brakes much better. If we were 10-20 metres further, second train did not stop, I would be injured at least. Oww.

The tea…
I used too hot water but it does not change it much. It is really minty, refreshing, and tea base is present too. It is not top-notch green tea, it is rather like some hay only, but that is okay.

Good considering the price. And I really enjoy the ingredients. Only mint and tea. Why to add something else?

Unfortunately SIPDOWN.

Yep, small sample from derk it gone.
I needed something to boost my mood, because yesterday I failed an exam from Algortihms and more over teacher accused me of cheating. Of course I was not! “You programmed it two hours ago, you should know now how to do it!”

Stupid teacher. Enough, I would not get angry again.

Rather enjoy this tea. This tea, which I was saving for better days. They did not came for long 6 months. Everything sucks recently. Or I have that feeling.

I even did not had tea yesterday, I had to leave early in the morning and returning back home really late, because of work.

YEEEEAAAAH! It worked. I feel much better now. At least something.

Derk – thank you for this tea. Hopefully I will be able to get something similar as this one here. Orders from US are bit out of range for me.

Rating from 88 to 92.

I have received this tea bag from postcrossing. Well, it sounds very interesting, so let’s find out.
When I took it out from foil wrapping lots of dust come out too.

Dry it smells after camphor, at least I think so. It is medicinal, bit like a some kind of lotion. I notice as well sandalwood. And then generic medicinal notes.

In taste it is not bad, though very medicinal. Bark taste in background. Not bad herbal tea.

TIL: Ojibwa is a native American tribe living around Great Lakes. NHL player T. J. Oshie claims he is Ojibwa member as well.

I have sample from Donatzsky. And this one I have not tried yet. Thank you!

I woke up today with feel like a puerh. It does not happen much often recently. So, I checked my cupboard (virtual as well real one) and decided for this one. 4 grams / 85 ml gaiwan, boiling water in thermos. Home alone. Tea was rather loose thank some kind of chunk.

1st steep was 15 seconds long. I notice it was really bitter in aroma with notes of stonefruits. In taste it is much better though, stonefruits dominate with sweet hay, bit of astringency.

2nd steep, 30 seconds.
It is very similar to first one. Cold it is completely weird. Very dry.

3rd, 45 s.
Vegetal notes, but astringency gone. Good, bit too drying for me.

4th, one minute.
Bit of white grapes, dry, but good.

I did not made another steeps, as I had to go. But I guess they would be very similar.

Song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP-n1-T9xqM
translation: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/divn%C3%BD-kn%C3%AD%C5%BEe-strange-duke.html