15350 Tasting Notes
There is something perfectly wonderful about brewing a mug of tea in the morning and taking the few seconds to really savour the smell coming off the dried leaves and the brewed tea. I have really come to adore this tea. It might be one of my favourite now, and what blows my mind some days is how much this feels like a flavoured tea sometimes. This morning, the sun was pretty far up in the sky – an indication that we’ll be turning our clocks back again…but the air was cool and full of smiles. Yeah..the are was full of smiles. I’m pretty sure that fall is my favourite season and i love the change as we blur from summer to fall. This tea complements that shift.
I really need to make sure this becomes a staple in my cupboard. I was half asleep when i made this in the morning so i didn’t use enough tea but that’s my own fault. However, there is still a wild amount of flavour in this tea. I adore the malty chocolate taste.
So I’ve been trying to get to at least 2-3 samples a day whenever possible. This was another from Azzrian which smells divine! On the downside though, I’m not sure how many of you out there were ever given triaminic as a kid, but they had an orange flavoured one that was my FAVOURITE! I’d sneak tastes here and there whenever i wasn’t sick because i liked the flavour so much.
Where was i going with that? Well this tea? It tastes exactly like that lol. Now of course, i’m older and much wiser, so the taste doesn’t appeal to me quite so much. This would be an excellent summer tea imo though. :)
Preparation
This tea smells like a plum…one of those plums that you know is just going to burst when you bite into it and leak juice all over your face. I just wish it tasted as delicious. Azzrian sent me this sample for which I am totally grateful :) I’m thinking maybe I brewed it a little hot so I’d like to give it a try changing the brewing parameters before I rate it – maybe even do a cold brew.
All that being said, it’s not a bad tasting tea…the scent just doesn’t jive with the taste :)
So I have zero clue of how to do this well but here goes nothing. Im trying this in small steeps but totally just winging the temperature and amount of tea haha. Mostly I figured this is a decent way to keep me drinking tonight for a bit.
First steep I’m not even sure how to describe the smell coming off this tea. Hell I’m not even sure how to describe the tea. It’s not the green that I’m used to but it’s a really refreshing tea.
Second steep: did I mention the beautiful color of this tea? It’s a great yellow…one I’d almost think about painting my bathroom. The other half didn’t like this steep. This one is less vegetal to me…like there are other things hiding there that haven’t come out yet….
Third steep: this one is my favourite…not sure what the earlier taste is but that’s now gone and I’m left with a really fresh subtle green.
I just wrote something for my blog (later) on this and my steeps were in a gaiwan and INSTANT like no time! I say it all the time. I never brew tea without going to the website’s and checking with the people who tell how to time it and how much to use. So, 3-4 grams in 4oz container 190f water for 10 seconds increasing a second or so. (Spring was 3 seconds) If you go longer you might get bitter tea.
Bonnie – yeah I went to the site, especially for verdant teas, I always double check. I just have no gaiwan and haven’t figured out a good way to do small steeps with the tools that I have on hand, this worked out alright though. I’m hoping I find a nice little gaiwan on vacation that I can bring back so it’ll be associated with vacation memories AND be functional and wonderful lol
You can use a mug and saucer which works well. I’ve done that. A smaller mug is about 8oz. so half is 4oz. I think I sounded snooty and didn’t mean to. Sorry. I hate wasting tea myself.
Haha you didn’t sound snooty Bonnie. I’m with you on the wasting tea. I got a bunch more steeps out of this one tonight, just got distracted from writing. If I had a saucer that would work lol. My apart,ent is a little ghetto these days. I’m sure I’ll resort to a tupperware lid or something eventually haha
I steeped this in some milk for 6 hours and then froze half…experimenting. Cooked with some too.
So I can totally understand why people love this tea. that being said, it’s not my favorite I mostly wanted to try this before I end up ordering the s’mores tea from Della Terra for comparisons sake evenif I can’t ever get this tea again haha. It’s not a bad tea..it’s just a bit weird for my taste. It might have sometig to do with the fact that I ate all of the mini marshmallows out of my sample before I brewed the tea grin anyway there’s chocolate in here, and hints of the sticky marshmallowy goo but I’m not quite getting the graham cracker taste. Any interesting tea to say the least :)
As far as teas with floral notes go, this one isn’t too bad. The floral notes aren’t super noticeable but they’re there. :) I’m not sure it would become a staple in my house ever but I do like the green tea with cherry notes. Thanks for the sample indigobloom happy to have tried this one.
Had just enough left for another cup of this so I tossed this in to do a short cold brew for an after workout drink. I’m really living being able to come home from the gym and have a glass of col brewed tea. I don’t need any more than the one cup but it’s a nice way to have a bit of flavour without having to drink juice or anything.
Lovely picture…we blur into Fall and the sky is full of smiles! You should write a melody with that.
I love fall as well. Nice description…“the air was full of smiles,” I like that!
It appears that my tea drinking is bringing back the poet in me. I just wish I had mor time in the day to reflect on my brewings. Changing jobs has left me stupid busy as I try and get a handle on all the new learnings.