Martin Bednář Send Message

I do not need an Energy. But being positive. My mother had a car accident. She is okay, car is KO. She probably felt asleep behind the wheel.

I liked to drive it. It was really great car. Fast, great AC, working hard.

But it was just a car. Mommy is okay and that matters.

Tea is as before. Sweet from fruits, but bit spicy.

Finally! The storms and rain comes, so finally, temperatures drop. It is about 25°C, cloudy, finally breatable air :D.

Anyway, I have decided for this tea (now gone, well only 2 kg batch was made, so I unexpect seeing other tasting notes)

As I have just 20 g of it, I decided to make it different way than today. Only 3 grams for my 85 gaiwan. Boiling water used (duh, maybe lower temperature would be better).

I make about 10 seconds (shorter) rinse, burnt my fingers a bit, preheated gaiwan preheated cup.

It gets really vegetal notes with little smell of floral notes. But it is not DF floral, like explosion of flowers, rather hidden in vegetals.

Pours light green, rather white. Clear naturally. In taste it is full bodied, with nice mouthfeel and bit vegetal too. It reminds me bit of dancong oolong (I did not have much oolongs in my life yet). Those notes were for first steep, about 10 seconds long (only!).

For second steep I doubled the steep time. Pours more distinctive colour, but still very light.
There is some sweetness. Hidden in vegetal taste. Weird, unique, but tasty. Long mouthfeel.

Added another 10 seconds for third steep. (I will do it all the time this session)
Floral notes are way more present. It is present in aroma way more too. Refreshing sweetness.

40 seconds.
It is nicely fragant for sure. Light tea. Refreshing. Floral. Just very nice, you know!

50 seconds
I think it is slowly gone. Lost bit of flavour.

60 seconds
it means 6th steep. Last one. Have to do things, then going for summerjob. Definitely gone. It is not so floral as it was earlier.

Definitely good tea to try, maybe I will age it a bit and we will see how it develops.

Summer 2018 harvest

Well, lazy morning again.
I do not want to do anything, so I decided to do a gong fu with another new tea. As I never had a compressed white tea, I took this one.

Clean up the gaiwan (oh, come on, I even left leaves in water and forgot it for two days). Dang! Clean up the cup. Boil water to thermos.

And 15 seconds rinse. 5 grams of tea.

It woke up some aromas. Hard to describe, but closest one would be probably raisins? Is it even possible? Certainly it is some sweet aroma.

1st steep is 15 seconds long (as usual for me).
In taste it is mild, but nothing really distinctive.

2nd, much longer – forgot about it a bit. Around 45 seconds.
I was counting and then I thought, oh I am already on fourty.
It won’t be bad, I was complaining it was not distinctive for first steep. It get some floral notes. More thick too. In aroma of wet leaf I notice something refreshing, like a mint.
Yep, it is floral and nicely round. Little astringecy is there, but not really making it bad.

3rd, 1 minute
Cake chunk broke completely. It is loose leaf now. Haha.
Pours golden, with slighlty woody aroma. In taste it is nice, thick tea, kind of honey smoothness.

4th, 75 seconds
It is really bold now. But still so nice smooth, little, almost unnoticable astringency. No bitterness.

And following ones (adding 15 seconds)
are quite similar. It is not very complex tea in tastes, but easydrinking, warming cuppa.

Food pairing: Vanilla yoghurt for breakfast, haha. Not enough. Bread with salami.

Some dust from bag, grandpa, around 4-5 grams.

Why grandpa you ask?
Well, I am kind of lazy. And in Monday I should have exam, but I decided to prepare more – so, 19th August is new date. I still have two attempts remaining. So, I guess I need to study :P
Moreover, I do not know if I slept badly or what was wrong, but I woke up and everything hurts. Shoulders, arms, legs… weird start of the day.
But: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRYvuS9OxdA

Haha, okay lyrics do not really mean how I feel, but the name of the song :D

To the tea:
Liquor is green-yellow, bit cloudy. Lots of leaves actually, few stems too, I kept everything in. Oh, look at the size of the this leaf! That one particular was indeed quite big – 5×2 cm maybe? And so nicely green, no bites, not even too fried one.

It smells bit vegetal, mowed grass (I know how it smells :D) and tastes pretty similar. Grassy, easydrinking tea. And it was quite sweet, maybe kind of peas? Overall, I have enjoyed it and for the price! 3 dollars for 25 grams sample?

I got sample sachet of it, not a loose leaf. But it is available only in bulk otherwise.

I finally finished the garden, it is all mowed, but the parts where I started I can mow again, hehe.

Green tea sounds good for me today, as today is going to be long day. As I said, I was mowing (in the early morning), now tea and breakfast and then to Uni city to return books I have from library, lunch and whole afternoon to work. No more inventory checks, but warehouse office job. I was looking forward for it since I started to do inventory checks. It is different company too (I was working there previous two summers).

Tea?
82 °C water, 4-5 minutes steep.
Tea looks good in sachet, quite big leaves (as unusual for sachets) and some wonderful white petals and flowers. Liquor is quite light green and clear.

Aroma is as usual for DF teas strongly floral, with peach notes. I can imagine those nice fuzzy peaches while smelling it. Nice, ripe, fuzzy peach. Soon they will be ready there. We have a peach tree on garden.

The taste is though bit different. It is refreshing verbena flavour with peach sweetness. Good choice. There is as well floral-honeyish aftertaste. Too bad I have just a single sachet.

Great tea!

Finally! My Farmerleaf order. I placed it 15th April and yesterday I got it. I had to go to only customs post office in whole country which is in Prague. So, travel there – I had about 2 hours extra for it, but no, the railroad switches were faulty and I arrived with delay approx. 40 minutes. So, from 2 hours I had only 1 hour before closing time. And guess what! So many people there. I did some small talk with others, while all of us were compaining there is no AC, weather was terrible (around 35 °C).

At first to postal part, where I got some papers, then to customs, where they do not know what Pu-erh tea is, if it is green tea or not (and I gave them my order which I of course did not remember). There is a tax 3.2 per cent for green tea in direct wrapping (maybe pu-erh cakes?), then there is some black tea too. So, by declaration I have “foodstuff suplement”, no tax, just VAT – so I had to pay VAT (of course different counter) return back to customs, where I signed that I paid VAT, return to post office, pay them they will give the parcel to me…
And then leave! About 45 minutes spend there (and it was rather quickly as I have heard). So, free shipping was not really free for me.

But as a logistics student it was good example how it does not work in this country.

Anyway to the tea:
I used 3 grams in ball strainer (meh I know), 4 minutes in boiling water.
This is one of the nicest colour I have seen. Bronze, but shiny, completely clear, just pure eye-candy.

The aroma reminds me roasted nuts a bit, some sweet notes like nuts in sugar.
And taste: chesnuts, I agree with previous rater. Smooth, honey, nutty.

Great tea with great price (if I do not count customs). I suggest getting it before it is gone!

Another from Donatzsky, little sample package (good for my collection at least (if tea is bad))

I wantede do it western. Ratio tea/water would be bad. Grandpa – I was afraid it would be too strong. Decided for gong-fu then.

4 grams/85 ml.

Well, this tea sounds interesting. Cinnamon is my fav, pu-erh is still hit or miss. And I think this is shu.

I rather did not made any rinse, I was kind of afraid all cinnamon would be gone. So here we come:

1st steep, 20 seconds (why so long, Martin?)
Earthy for sure, but with mellow cinnamon notes. Those for aroma. In taste it is, unexpectably, similar. It is earthy, but thre cinnamon mellows it a lot and it actually tastes like some cinnamon cupcake. Good start I think.

2nd, 30 seconds
pours really dark liquor, much more earthy and no more much cinnamon. It is there, but weak. Not a good one. It is “muddy”.

3rd, 30 seconds
Yep, this is like first steep. But without cinnamon. It all flushed away? Earthy.

4th, 40 seconds
Longer, but more watery. Even clearer when poured, previous ones were very opaque, this one is actually clear. Probably it wasn´t meant to be made gong-fu. In taste it is some kind of cheap pu-erh.

5th, 60 seconds
Last one. It is almost clear. No colour, no opaque. No taste. Okay, little bit of taste – earthy something. But even that is so weak.

Today an exam. 0 points. Really?

Long story short: I made it differently and it would not work if used in different part of program. But still it made my day bitter.

When I came home, I found out that my Farmerleaf order (from 15th April) is waiting for me at customs. There is no tax on it, but it needs to be cleared through customs. So – trip to Prague tomorrow. 164 km on rails one way. At least I will think about something else. Maybe a good thing.

I was not really sure what tea I want to drink, going through my stash of puerhs, tea bags, all teas I have. And then I still ended with family cupboard and found out this one. As there is today +35°C (95 F), this sounds pretty refreshing.

Strawberry – check
Mint – Check

Good start. Both mains are present in aroma as well in taste. Pretty light, yet red colour and clear. I am impressed, usually some dust goes off of the tea bag. Not this time.

It cools down soo slowly.

But the taste is not changing… it is what it says. Strawberry & Mint.
Yep, quite fruity and quite refreshing. Probably iced will be better.

This tea is just 5 years younger than I. And as I have birthday today, I decided to make oldest tea I have in my stash. Maybe I have some forgotten tea bag somewhere in collection which is older, but bleh, I do not want to try to find it and drink it. Rather old cake. Tea cake.

I received this one from Donatzsky again, so thank you!

About 15 seconds rinse, preheated gaiwan as well the cup.
1st steep is as well 15 seconds long. I noticed whole leaves in that compressed chunk I have in gaiwan. It weights 4.5 grams, which – let´s see if enough, too much or not enough for 85 ml gaiwan.
Wet leaf aroma is bit fig, bit piney (or rather resinous). Fruity.
In taste it is mellow, but the taste is nothing distinctive. Maybe as I am drinking it rather cold?

Second steep. 30 seconds long. Pour green, clear liquor. It is more resinous in aroma as well in taste. But it is still so mellow. Bit honey.

Third steep, as well 30s.
Still mellow, still resinous and honey and mellow in taste. Some sweetness I am not able to recognize. Maybe like a candi sugar?

4th, 30 seconds once more.
Now it is not enough, it is bit watery.

5th 45 seconds
It is such a strange, chunk is still compressed, leaves do not separate itself, so I helped them a bit (let’s see if it will change something in next steeps)

This steep though, is again resinous.

6th, for a minute.
It became bit like a vegetable broth.

7th 1minute15seconds
Similar to previous one. I like that it is still very smooth, even it is more vegetal and less resinous.

8th 90 seconds
Who knows? My thermos is empty now. So last one.

Okay, it is bit vegetable, but little fruitiness takes place too (again). As well the resin. And of course bit of everything is there.

And as a festival of classical music about 10 km away from my hometown called “Smetana’s Litomyšl” let me post song pairing (made by Bedřich Smetana, who was born there): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI8iTETiSqU

Actually the song pairs the tea quite well.

And overall? Certainly a nice tea. First half I enjoyed more, resinous taste is pretty interesting and I liked refreshing taste of it. Okay, not really refreshing, but the lightness of it. Nothing “heavy” in taste.
Second half became vegetal, which was not a bad thing too. Heavier in taste, but still easydrinking and smooth.

Whoa…
there is a big demonstration against Prime Minister (mostly) over here. I am not taking part beause of upcoming exams.

So, I am at home, watching live stream, drinking tea.
This tea was last remaining from DF I have not tried. I am big fan of salted caramel, but in tea it was something I could not really imagine.

But the tea was great!
There is not much of base noticable, liquor is yellow-green and when I had a sachet in and I moved the sachet, it looked even bit oily.

But the tea – itself. As I already said, base is not really noticable, but the taste was great. Slightly mineral and salty with little sweetness beneath. But it is not awfully sweet, nor awfully salty. It was just correct amount of both. And as it is butter caramel, little bit of buttery taste is there too.

But none of the tastes was awfully strong. They work so well together making whole drink good, bit creamy as well.

Great!