1839 Tasting Notes

70
drank Isabella Grape by Curtis
1839 tasting notes

A sipdown! (M: 3, Y: 23)
It seems I have too lots of sachets and tea bags; as I was craving flavoured black today morning and I have found lots of different EGs, a load of blackcurrant + mint tea, but some tea with fruits? It seems this is only one I have there in the box.

Actually it was really fine and I am surprised I have rated it only 61. Juicy grape flavour with fullbodied black tea and some floral — rose aftertaste. Fine, to keep in cupboard when craving fruity tea. Raising rating to 70.

Preparation
10 OZ / 300 ML

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80

A sipdown! (M: 2, Y: 22)
Gongfu, 7g/125 ml, 80°C.

Rinsed leaves have a wonderful creamy aroma, with meadow flowers and somehow weird note of tomato leaves or vines.

1st steep — 30 seconds
Smooth and mellow, creamy and meadow flowers in taste… sweet nectar, but honestly quite short aftertaste in my books, considered such long first steep! That aftertaste isn’t for everyone either, they say it is chalky and woody and with the first word — chalky I have to agree. It is kind of weird.

2nd steep — 40 seconds
Second steep with some extra time brought very similar results to first one, with one exception, tea was sweeter and more nectar-like.

3rd steep — 30 seconds
Chalky aftertaste gone and now full of nectar sweetiness. Yum.

4th steep — 45 seconds
Oh, what a fade away. Previous steep was lovely and swet and now I think it’s gone — not distinctive anything.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 7 g 4 OZ / 125 ML

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92

I went through all of this tea I had in one gongfu session. Thank you derk for this wonderful tea.

Harvest April 2020. Almost 4 years old. I have it… who knows how long?
7 g/boiling/125 ml gaiwan, steeped all through my thermos, not sure about the volume?

When heated and after short rinse, fruit notes are here with some spices, nutmeg or/and cinnamon, warming and pleasant.

I made approx. 6 or 7 steeps, starting with 10/20/10 seconds nad rest were up to one minute; last one was loooong, but not measured. Approx 3 minutes I assume.

Whoa, this tea have lots of to offer. Lovely fruit notes of pears and raisins, somehow followed with forest dark honey, through sweet and exciting flavours of vanilla crescents with creamy mouthfeel.
I would not thought it is a GABA, as it doesn’t had that note I noticed in other GABA oolong in the morning — the note of umami, vegetals and powder.

Actually I couldn’t pick up any vegetal note, and it wasn’t really the darkest oolong in my experience. That’s surprising.

Definitely a nice harvest and nice tea… with high probability buying one day.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 7 g 4 OZ / 125 ML

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86

Sipdown prompt: Your most unusual tea — though not sipped down yet. Maybe I have other tea that would fit this better.

I was actually waiting to review this, last Xian Cha tea tea. To see derk’s impressions first, as I wasn’t really sure what I was noticing in this oolong. It is an oolong mixed with actual gardenia flowers and that’s why I bought it as it was somehow uncommon for me.

When I read that note, I was in visible confusion. Pineapple flavour? Like what? Where? How so? It is supposed to be heavy in florals.

I have prepared it today, western, as on their bag. That’s 3 steeps with 95°C water with following steeping times: 2, 3 and 3 minutes. I have tried it with boiling water before and it seems it kills the nuances of flavours.

I get the pinapple today, definitely and very real, juicy almost.
And it goes so well with the floral, narcotic aroma of the gardenias. It goes so well together. And that word indeed fits this tea well.

Long mouthfeel, tropical fruits with hints of green oolong notes — vegetal a bit (but definitely not too much), floral (obviously gardenia), creamy (they write it’s a milk oolong), smooth, energizing and long aftertaste here as well. Distinctive, but not in a bad way. Considering another pouch once this one finished.

I have uploaded 4 photos of their stand to my Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBdtsM

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 10 OZ / 300 ML

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52
drank Noni Plum by Basilur
1839 tasting notes

Hmm, I have been searching anything about Noni and found almost nothing related to fruit; like how it should taste or something. Plum, on the other hand is well-known fruit for me; and this tea is… very ripe plum forward; very fruity and hibiscus is quite tamed when steeped short.
But actually, this blend was a bit of dismal for me. It was somehow plum-like, maybe a bit more of raw flavour would be a bit better than ripe; as it just together with hibiscus it blends into one single “fruit tea” profile.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 10 OZ / 300 ML
Skysamurai

Noni… is interesting. Or at least I think it tastes interesting. Like elderberry it is one of those antioxidant powerhouses so we’ve gotten noni juice every once in a while. But it’s … I have to taste it again so I can explain it better

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80

This tea is actually quite real to part of its name. It is true to wine flavour, fresh, floral, refreshing, some muscatel; but definitely it’s not strawberry forward (but some fruitiness is there) and sadly, not efferescent or sparkling note.

I like it for its price tag.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 4 min, 0 sec 10 OZ / 300 ML

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92

There are cups of certain herbs that are especially relaxing for me and this is one of them. My muscles felt much softer and cup full of Vitamin C as I have read somewhere — that’s douglas fir tips tea.

Definitely relaxing, definitely tasty… just something I needed this evening.
Thank you derk for a whole box. That will last for a while.

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Cardboard with whiff of forest fruits, especially blackberries.

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90

A sipdown! (M: 1, Y: 21) — Prompt: An unflavored black tea

2022 “vintage” and called Summer Wonder but I wrote a note about this tea here before, so I am keeping my sipdown note in same entry.

Western steeping. Probably I haven’t tried it gongfu.

Leafhopper thank you! A fine 1st flush tea with flavours that lean a bit more towards 2nd flush — autumn leaf pile, muscatel and warm spices today in my cup, followed with meadow and honey flavours. Smooth and silky as derk notices in their note. A great cup for afternoon.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 0 sec 3 g 10 OZ / 300 ML

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70
drank Mango Peach by Basilur
1839 tasting notes

It’s hard to go pass colorful boxes of Basilur teas; moreover a sampler boxes. Sooo… I bought two fruit tea boxes, each with 5 flavours. Some are overlapping, some aren’t. But looking forward to try those caffeine-free teas from my favorite brand.

I have prepared this tea for first time yesterday for my brother and he said it is well done tea with both fruits being present and that it was tasty. So, today I have prepared it for myself, with a bit longer steep and less water (he was using huge mug, while I used little one).

Well, I have to agree with him — mango was present and peach as well. Both fruits ripe and juicy, but sadly hibiscus is it ruining it for me a bit. It’s also tart. Not so much, but more than I would like in those fruits.
Maybe… it was because my 7 minutes steep.
But intended flavours are genuine and fresh, not artificial, so I will try to cut down steeping time and I assume it will be very fine then.

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 0 sec 7 OZ / 200 ML

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Bio

I am drinking almost everything. Tea bag collector who moved to wonderful world of loose leaf.

Trying to rate differently tea bags and loose leaf as tea bags have usually worse quality.

Photographer now and then. Postcrossing and geocaching member. Very curious person. Logistics student (should finish in June 2021).

Buried in tea right now. Is in my cupboard (trying to be updated) which sparkled your interest? Write me, I would gladly share with you. But I don’t want anything in return now :)

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