15350 Tasting Notes
Sooo I’m in china, with a very limited amount of my own tea from home. I pretty much threw in some tea bags at the last minute and a few teas that are nearing sip down. It’s not going to be enough to get me through my entire time here, but im hoping that by the time the second week rolls around ill have purchased some new teas to take home with me :)
I woke up at 4:30 am here and haven’t managed to get back to sleep so I am just saying to hell with it and I’m going to get this day started. First some tea while I lounge about in this giant hotel room and te its a quick swim before breakfast #1. Apparently they also serve tea here every day in the executive lounge in the afternoon so ill be checking that out today for sure!
So far I’ve had only “Chinese tea” on the plane (they would give me nothing more specific than that) which turned out to be a mouthful of jasmine green something or other ickyness. That being said, I’m totally bringing home some “jasmin tee” in bag form for someone to try lol go go hotel room tea!
Edit: oh yeah…sip down! Haha
Still trying to decide which two teas to bring with me. I know it’s silly but at the same time, how to narrow it down to just TWO! Black for the morning and a herbal for the evening. Had this one today to remind myself to relax and enjoy. I’ve been steeping it all morning so i’m a little hoped up at the moment. Starting to enter “OH MY GOD I AM LEAVING!” territory lol
SIPDOWN! well kind, but not really since it’s not in my cupboard BUT since this is my last morning with access to my tea stash, i decided to celebrate getting my cupboard down to under 180 before my trip with my last cup of the sample Stacy sent me of the custom blend we’re working on. Since we’re hoping to have it finished by the time i get back, i thought it was fitting. Plus i just wanted something tasty and delicious. :)
mmmm having this this afternoon. I have a ton of things to do tonight when i get home – pack, charge camera, back up cameras, computer etc…, figure out my carry on…all that jazz! In addition, i need to make a decision on which ONE? TWO? of my teas are coming with me to china in the event that pollution causes me to have to stay indoors more than i’d like to.
Still enjoying this, and will look at picking up some more whenever i get down to New York, mostly because I don’t necessarily want 4oz.
Exciting that you’re going on a trip!
China here we come! business trip but i’m really hoping i can get some time to myself. i hope. i think. though the pollution is really bad :(
I’m sorry. Hope it won’t get too intolerable! I’ve never been to any Asian countries before.
Good luck with the pollution and have as much fun as you can!!!
guys…i WILLINGLY chose to drink this today. In fact, i actually purchased MORE! of a GREEN OOLONG. Yeah, that’s right. I can get behind this tea. It makes me smile. It’s creamy and delicious and smells divine!
Applause So glad that you’re starting to enjoy the green oolongs more!!
haha i think it might just be this one…and the green sparrow from butiki. You’re just hoping i’ll grow to love them and then buy lots to share :P
Now I’m curious about this one! Is it pretty much a milk oolong? Have you had other milk oolongs?
Uh the description says something about milk oolong from what I remember…lol. I just now it smells AMAZING…and so I bought more. 15% off which isn’t much but it’s something.
It’s a milky oolong, but they fully admit to adding the flavour and use a different process than whatever they normally do, or so I’m told. I looooove this one to!!
Kittenna, you can have some of mine, but it comes in a sachet (I ripped mine open)
Haha. I am curious mostly because Sil likes it! I don’t frankly care if there’s flavouring in my milk oolongs as long as I enjoy them, lol. I don’t get flavouring-yuckies from the two milk oolongs that are my current faves (DT and Bon The Place).
Ah. It’s different somehow. More on the cream, maybe? and silkier.
Not your typical MO but I can’t put my finger on why!
Lol glad me liking it causes curiosity. If you have it and can tell me about others I might like…I’ll try them. This one smells divine…though if you ask Ian he says it smells like a stick of butter lol
grrrr steepster. Imma drop kick you.
Haha! It has been off a lot lately. :)
Honestly, it’s better than that time a year or so ago when it took approximately 500 years for every page to load, no matter what. :P But yes, it has defintiely been frustrating lately.
Holy crap, the Dashboard just froze again. Jeez.
Eh, maybe it didn’t freeze actually. Definitely wonky stuff going on.
lol i was jstu frustrated since i’d tried to post a note 7 times. So i gave up haha
mmmm this is pretty tasty this morning. I wish i weren’t thoroughly exausted. One more day – thankfully my other half is cleaning the house and doing laundry today. YAY! I like the sweet/sour of this matcha. I’m not sure that I’d pick it up for myself but it was on my list to try. Not because i don’t enjoy it, but simply because there are others i love more and i’m trying to keep my matcha flavours manageable. :) Maybe i’ll bring this into the rotation in the summer :)
tried this again tonight to try and see if it can be passed on to IB…but apparently i’m too tired to really review it properly. it tasted less ick from the first time i had it so maybe it just needed time to cure even more than i’d left it. still not entirely convinced….
I’m bagged…tea bagged? lol yeah.. so tired. Massage tonight in rep for china, followed by dinner and board games with the other half as a “de stress and spend time together before you disappear for 2 weeks” kind of thing.
I had this in the afternoon…it reminds me of another tea that i can’t place at this precise moment. tasty but reminiscent of something..
SIPDOWN!
This one’s a little more ginger-y than my first cup so that’s nice. I like seeing how the actual presence of ginger impacts the tea. I really like how the two flavours come together in this tea. Still on the look out for a delicious pear (found grapefruit, now i’m on to pear!). This is probably my favourite so far.
Try the Caramelized Pear from Art of Tea if you haven’t – that’s my favorite :)
haha Kittenna received some of that in a swap from Azzrian so she’s saving some for me to try. :) I think we’re also going to try the green pear from S&V at some point too
Yeah, the art of tea’s caramelized pear was tasty, as I recall. It’s been awhile since I had it though.
i was stacy’s caramelized pear damnit! haha
I wonder why the default Chinese tea seems to be jasmine, much like the default Japanese tea seems to be genmaicha.
I’m sure there’s a reason…if I uncover it ill let you know haha
The idea of “breakfast #1” seems to indicate there is a “breakfast #2” in the future. I like this vacation already. :)
Are you traveling for fun or for work? Sounds like an interesting trip already!
Oh there is Nicole…if I keep getting up this early it’ll be get up, go swim, whirlpool, sauna, breakfast 1, shower, plan the day, breakfast 2, go out…lunch, afternoon tea, swim, whirlpool, sauna….dinner, relax, evening snack…bed lol. At least on the weekend.
Work days will be sucker but hopefully still involve tea and swimming at least once haha
Ellyn – work for 2 weeks. Even though its Sunday we’re working this afternoon and because of the time difference I suspect ill be working a bit in the evenings during the week too. Lots of busy work but its still an experience that I won’t forget
Is your bed round?? LOL take some pics!!
You know how to travel. :)
I would suspect that the added flavors in jasmine and toasted rice hide the inferiority of the actual tea they are serving. But that just might be me being a pessimist. Plus it’s traditional but not “boring” like plain tea would be to non tea drinkers.
Also, have fun in China!
Haha IB…I have and will, ill upload when I get home since there’s no Facebook.
@ mercury could be but even at the tea bar downstairs they had “oolong, jAsmin and green” lol
So descriptive. haha I find that most Chinese people feel about tea the way westerners feel about wine. Some people are hardcore while others know there’s more to it, but don’t care to get into the details. For example, tell me it’s a sweet white wine, and I’m good. I don’t care how long it spent in a barrel or exactly which vineyard the grapes came from. For many people in China, tell them it’s a green tea and that’s all they want to know. But maybe the guy working the tea bar has more details for you. :)
Are you gonna try to visit little tea shops, like the ones David talks about?