Martin Bednář Send Message

You know the days that everything is going bad since the morning? Yup, that is today for me.
I just woke up, feeling miserable. I was picking a tea to brew for about half an hour. Just thinking going to the University today makes me nauseous. But I have to go there. Till 5 pm. It is 8 am and can´t imagine that. Argh!

I need to study for Thursday exam. No time and no focus. Even worse is it for next week exam. Have I said I need to make a homework till next week too? I did not. I just feel awful, sorry, but I needed to write it down and off my chest.

Now to the tea.
I noticed cherry and citrus notes today too. Still bit smoky for me. Colour is just wonderful – copper and clear. Like – complely clear. No dust!
In taste? Ahh, too hot. Second sip few minutes later. Malty as assams with some citrus after-taste. Smooth.
Still great tea, if I have it loose leaf it will be my every-day tea I guess.

I have received a tea bag included with postcard. Hurray for postcrossing, I get some teas this way and I like it so much.

I don´t know why, but I feel that today is day for herbal. I do not know why I picked this one though. Maybe the wrapper? Or just nice ingredients?

When I added a tea bag into tea, it was like some nutmeg liquor. With allspice. Weird for herbal I guess. After that 5 minutes they suggest it became much more herbal – lavender to be exact. Yes, it smells like lavender with rose, two most present ingredients. Colour of brew is clear green with yellow notes.

Hmm, what about taste? It is bit sweet from roses and elderflower; but as well somehow biting. Lavender is there as well. Quite nice and easydrinking. I do not think it will give me an abundance of love as they wrote. But yeah, it is kind of lovely tea. Maybe it is working after all?

PS: As cooling down, the lavender is more and more dominant.

I had this one yesterday on board of railjet train of Czech Railways company. I took part in “railway rallye” race with friend. We finished tenth which is fairly good, considering that we made huge mistake right after the start.

Well, with breakfast. Only tea I had that day. So, bit backlogging. I don´t know how hot water was, nor even amount of water. And yeah, it is weird to ask there. At least the sachet was not in water and I had to add it by myself. The tea in pyramid sachet looks pretty good, quite nice amount of leaves, nothing weird there. Just bit creased and torn leaves. I added the sachet to the cup.

Water started to turn golden with copper notes. After my two or three minutes steep I took that sachet out. It was looking decent. First aroma thoughts were that it is malty, yet rounded tea with no funky notes. Then I noticed some other notes. I think it was bit like red grapes. I don´t recall the taste so much, but it was fairly similar.

Overall it was pleasant and nicely surprising. Well, not the cheapest tea in the market. And it was not bad and bitter. Good!

I am the first one to rate? :O

The sachet is quite big and clear.. So, what we have there? Small green pieces, probably a leaf. Few bigger ones – brown colour. Well it is hojicha after all. I have found about 6-7 pieces of stems! That is quite a lot. Let´s brew it!

After 3 minutes brew I got a nice, clear liquor with brown colour. In aroma it was nutty. Pleasant aroma, bit unexected from green tea though :) But that is hojicha.

While drinking, I expected also nutty flavour. But it was not. It was more roasted flavour, with little astringency. But lovely. Yeah, I bet there are better Hojicha teas, but this one was not in my opinion so bad.

Okay, new day, new tea. And as I have said yesterday, a starter is this Curtis Green Tea Mango!

I made some research to find what is in. As I have only one tea bag, I wanted to make it somehow perfect. Interesting ingredients, so I torn the tea bag, put it inside gaiwan and let´s see. Hmm; green tea apparently in, one bit of mango (probably) and few white crystals (probablysugar). The tea leaves are really fine, but what to expect from tea bag, right?

Okay, I have filled the gaiwan with about 80 °C water, and after 10 seconds steep I have strained it. Of course, lots of leaves went through. Tea itself is cloudy, quite green-yellow. In taste it is strong green tea with some sweet mango aftertaste. It works well somehow. The leaves in gaiwan smell like cut grass which wasn´t raked; and rain came. So bit like manure. But I am not supposed to sniff used leaves, right?

Second steep is 15 seconds long. Mango is less noticable, it remains actually just somehow bitter of mango. Tea part is weak.

30 seconds.
Mango is gone; tea is cheap – no taste, just plain green tea. What I have been expecting? A great tea? A great green tea? When they have to crush it? How naive I have been?

Conclusion? This is not tea for me; at least in gaiwan. First steep was best, as there was lots of mango sweetness. Now it tastes like some bitter water, without any scents of aromas. Nah I guess.

Hmm, another rooibos blend; another caffeine-free tea. But what else should I drink when I came from Universtity at 7 pm? Okay, I was playing with tea bag from Curtis – Green tea with mango flavour. Maybe it will be tomorrow starter.

I had it already, in thermos; when I was away last Saturday. But I just needed something warm. What was funny, it was warmest day from whole year so far, so no hot tea was needed. So I have finished it at home along with glass of white wine. Weird, but it worked better than I have expected. I do not remeber the wine much, but tea was nice; smooth and lukewarm.

Now time for proper brew. I put about 3-4 grams in a strainer and filled the mug with boiling water. They suggest 4+ minutes brew, so lets see. Maybe I have used too much leaf? It turns dark quite fast. But dry mixture smells bit like cinnamon cake with banana, quite fresh, bit pleasantly sour.

When brewed; dark colour liquor – like a rum. Quite lots of dust went off the strainer. I wonder if it is closed properly, or it is just so fine it goes through mesh. It smells quite pleasant, bananas, bit of wood, maybe bit of alcohol? But I have not added any! But yeah, it has got that aroma.

Ohh, the taste is like biting a cake. Including the wooden board. Yeah, certainly there are some woody flavours made by rooibos. But also a cinnamon, bananas, spiced Captain Morgan. And yeah, it remains still nice smooth without any neck astringency. It tastes like rum, but without alcohol. It is much better than I expected.

I came home, prepared myself a cuppa of this one.

Just hot water in mug, where tea bag was. Just keeping bag in. So, while I am writing this line it is over 7 minutes now.

When dry, it smells strongly medicinal, so I was not really sure if it is a tea for me. Like some kind of cleaner which is used in hospitals. Bleh, but who knows, in cup it can be different. And indeed it is! I am afraid I can´t describe it very well, but just few words: “Fresh air, forest floor, after rain”. Those were random ideas whose came to my mind.

11 minutes steep now.
It becames drinkable. It is a honey? No, it is a tea! But really – smooth, honey flavour, maybe bit of roasted. Very, very interesting.

19 minutes
There is some aftertaste, which makes it sour or astringent. That makes it bit unpleasant. Still; it tastes good – but this is queer.

25 minutes
Tea is gone, certainly interesting; but I am not really sure if I would pick it again.

Thank you Derk for all three teas from Juniper Ridge, they are really interesting teas.

I had a tea bag version this morning. I did not expect much; I am rather sceptical to tea bag black teas. But I like Ceylon teas.

Anyway, in the mug it comes and let see. They suggest 4 minutes, I did about minute and half. The colour is quite dark, opaque with oil film. By tea bag taken out it looks it was milled very fine.

In aroma it was some kind of cheap black tea, nothing really distinctive, maybe bit malty. When it comes to taste it was much better than I ever expected! It was brewed just right, so no astringency, bitterness or another unpleasant things. It was mellow, chocolate with toffee flavours. But not overwhelming those tastes, there was always black tea based which made it really nice. I am really surprised with this one, not the best black tea I had, but certainly worth a note.

Not with milk this evening, as we do not have any at home. Unknown age tea bag, but it sill looks very good. Dry leaf aroma was gingerbread.
I am awake for longer time than I should. Just short naps in meantime. This is crazy. I wanted to sleep, but I was browsing the ´net instead. I feel super tired, but not sleepy.

Anyway. Tea time. Do not expect much.
Aroma went towards ginger, maybe bit of cinnamon. The colour of liquor is dark brown, opaque, with some dust on top.

It is still too hot! I want to drink it and feel asleep. While I wanted to take first sip, my brother who is sitting 2 metres away said “It smells wonderful”. Probably a good sign. It went bit colder now, bit drinkable. It tastes pretty strong, like assam tea, with sweetness of cinnamon and astringency by ginger. But 3-4 minutes will turn that tea bitter. I made again an half and it is just right. Why it reminds me now a milled poppy seed (I love it by the way)?

Anyway, I hope it won´t wake me up much and it is going to wam me inside a bit. Bit above average, I think I will try to make my own soon. I have that Ceylon tea, which is quite big package, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, all should be affordable. Cardamom, that sounds bit tough. Have you guys have experience with your own blends of chai?

Another tea room Thursday. Well, I need to boost myself because of Thursday nights part-time job. This one was delivered day before I ordered it, so apparently really fresh! Let´s see.

Gaiwan, approx. 100-120 ml. I should ask. I don´t know how much leaves in, but it was quite a lot in my opinion. I have not counted steeps, but 1 liter thermos was gone. Each steep about 15-30 seconds.

Okay, now to the tea:
Aroma was storng orchid garden, floral, with little notes of smoke.
Colour of brew was light golden which was turning to darker and darker. Leaves went through the strainer of gaiwan. Not much of them though.
Taste was wonderful, floral, with little astrigency. But still smooth, mellow. Energy boosting.

I stayed awake till 6 am without any troubles with short, about few 15 minutes naps in bus back home. So apparently wake up call. The tea was wonderful, for great price / value ratio. I paid 108 CZK for whole thermos and I can make it as I wanted. Really, 20 seconds was average steep and I am surprised how bold it was.