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Drank this with ashmanra’s Finicky tea" prompt in mind! This tea is more unpredictable than finicky I suppose, since I get wildly different flavors each method and session I have with it. Cold steeped this one, with some meh results. The mineralty and roastiness were present, but subdued. Found a little bit of something creamy, like vanilla, clash with a lemon zing. I wonder where that banana note went to from the last time I made this tea… I still have about 15g to play with, maybe my next foray will be steeped hot then chilled. Hmmmm.

I realized as I opened this package that the sample size was only 10g. Considering my usual 5g per session intake, I’d only be able to visit this tea twice. I really hope I don’t love this tea lol.

Welp…

Dammit this tea is good. The spring sencha is a little more fine grain than my usual, it looks like konacha to me. I used 180°ish water on quick 15-30sec steeps, producing a lime green brew that is sweet on the top and spicy with the dried kochi. The kochi/ginger has that heady ground ginger spice that lingers, much more mellow that the zing of fresh ginger. So glad that I have some dried ginger similar to the pieces in this tea, because I will have to make my own blend soon! I bet this would be great iced.

Drank this tea with an old friend in honor of Ashmanra’s April Sipdown prompt: A tea you serve to tea newbies! Took me a minute to think about this prompt, my answer just kept changing in my head. The imaginary newbie in my head would shift from someone who has only had fruity teabag tisanes but looking to jump into loose leaf, to someone who has some ancient gifted Teavana rotting next to a rusted tetsubin, to someone who is trying to kick a soda habit and is diving into tea. There are so many different paths to cha, and the tea that helps you jump off the deep end is so important, yet personal.

So i decided to ask myself, what was that tea for me? I’ve been a tea person for most of my life, and the pivotal moment for me was when my cousin moved back to the US from Japan and brought us these bagged teas, I couldn’t tell you if they were Yamamotoyama or some other brand. But the two flavors, genmaicha and hojicha – blew me away. I had no idea tea could taste like that!

This is the king’s version of those teabags I had as a child. The scent of the dry leaf is verdant and savory, the soba they use is teeny and chestnut brown – a perfect complement to the big beautiful bancha leaves. I appreciate the use of bancha here, it’s more mellow and a lot less funky than a sencha genmaicha for a newbie. The slightly nutty grassiness of the bancha compliments the popcorn toastiness of the soba cha so well. I had become bored of genmaicha as of late, but this blend combo reawaken my love for my first love tea.

Now if I was starting someone out with this tea, as a true newbie, I’d send them home with some taiwanese oolong. That’ll knock their teabag socks off XD

Drank this tea with Ashmanra’s “oldest white tea” Monthly prompt in mind! TBH, this could also fall under the category of finicky tea, ever since cracking this open I’ve had a hell of a time figuring out the right parameters.

Of course, when Steepster was down, I made a ton of sipdown progress hahaha.

Finished this off Sunday morning, added a miniscule drop of honey to bring out the bread notes in this tea and make it more pastry like. There were a little bit of crumbs at the bottom of the bag, so I tossed it into my black iced tea bucket. I really enjoyed this second flush tea for a while. I think I may be down to my last Nepal/Indian regional tea!! Oh nooo I’ll have to get more! Woe is me hehe

Sipdown! Man, this sipdown didn’t take long once I unearthed this tea. The last couple cups of this was a bit more intense on account of the crumbs left at the bottom of the bag, but the malty chocolatly whoppers flavor was still deliciously present throughout.

I think I may be down to my last Chinese black tea…. Whatever shall i do???

Sipdown!! So proud of myself for chuggin down my backlog lately! I’m fighting the sad thoughts of not having these teas in my cupboard anymore, I just have to remind myself of how much I really enjoyed each time I spent with every tea, and that there is endless good tea at my fingertips. Scarcity does funny things to the mind, don’t it?

I want to thank this tea for reminding me of how good fresh green tea can be. i seriously could not get enough of this tea! Blessed be the ultra thick packaging, hermetically sealing the tea in and keeping it’s freshness 8-ish years on! I really needed some fresh green to show me that yes, I do love me some green tea :)

So many sipdowns and notes to log since The Great Steepster Shutdown of 2023!

Sipdown!!! I began this sipdown gongfu style, but then changed to cold steeping it for a few hours. Wanted to see what that process would do to the final chunk of leaf – And i think i liked the cold steeping better this time around. The warm hay and malty notes were mellow and gave me a hint of cantalope creaminess. There were a few crumbs and fannings at the bottom of this bag, so i shook them into my bucket of misc black tea for sun tea :)

Sipdown! Made a latte as a send off for this tea. I kinda regret not making this one iced with even (gasp) apple juice. I really like these flavored matcha blends so far. Even with the added sugar, it’s a wonderful light touch. The second time I made this, I added about 2.5 extra grams of plain matcha to account for a slightly larger vessel (450ml instead of 300)

Was intrigued by this tea when I came across W2T’s spring 2023 selections. It was the cheapest of the bunch, and twice as much tea. That alone did not sell me, but the description of this tea being the outcasts of several different tea producers in the Gan Lu region definitely piqued my interest. Of course, I simply could. not. wait. to pop open this bag and see what the tea would turn out like. The dry leaves were a happy variety of fresh green leaves, some small, some a little larger, some flat and oblong, while others were thinly rolled like needles. I even found a teeny little tea seed as I was brewing! The brew was all sweet corn and grassy vegetal flavors. it’s going to be fun teasing out all the flavors as I drink this one down