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This was a bonus sample from the always generous Sil as I’ve been curious about the teas from TTC. From what I read from Sil’s and Terri’s notes, this was good but not their favorite of the bunch of samples. That makes me so happy. Because I love this one! And if it’s not even the best, then I’m in for a huge treat. I need to order more of these TTC teas immediately! This tea has some notes that remind of Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black. A similar juicy sweetness I think. I’m excited about these Taiwanese teas!

This was my first tea of the day. Another from the BBBB, this one via Sil. I love a good assam first thing in the morning. This one is super malty, but doesn’t have the little bit of sweetness that I’ve come to love in #49 & the Tiger. Still a great morning cup and am glad I have more to play with! Thanks Sil!

I tried this one yesterday as it seemed like the lightest tea in the BBBB and it was after 5pm. I enjoyed it. Didn’t love it. Most Yunnans are kind of just ok for me. It didn’t have the deepness that some of them (zhu rong) have, but it was still ok. I’ll try it gongfu next time and see if I can wrangle up some more complexity out of it. Thanks Terri Harplady!

I made this one up this afternoon as it was feeling especially fall-ish out. It’s been super stormy for days, but I think it finally stopped for a bit. It was sunny and crisp out and it finally felt like fall. I made this up gongfu style for the first time. It was delicious. I’ve realized in the last year, I really don’t like pumpkin flavored tea. But I love this tea because it doesn’t taste like pumpkin flavor, it tastes like pumpkin. An amazing pumpkin pie with a flaky crust. This is a great afternoon tea when i’m not feeling like a dark rich tea. It’s light, smooth, and so delicious. And made my house smell amazing for hours!

Last tea of the day. The boss man and I went to a cider and northwest food pairing dinner at a local brewery tonight and had a blast. Maybe a touch too much cider as I can already feel the headache forming, but still fun. Finished the night off with this and watched some tv on the sofa with boss man. All around great day!

I found this tea awhile back when Verdant’s Laoshan Black tea was sold out and I was desperate for some more. I did some googling and landed on Aliexpress.com. At first I was a little hesitant, but then I figured it was worth trying out. I’ve bought several different grades of LB from this seller. This one is his highest. He normally retails for something ridiculous, like $130/50g, but one day he had everything reduced 80% so I grabbed 50g of this for about 25 bucks. Still pricey, but I was curious why this one was so much more expensive. Having tasted it, I know. Maybe not $130 worth, but definitely a high end tea. The chocolate and malt is pretty insane. And it keeps its deep, rich flavor through about 5 steeps. It is definitely my favorite LB. And since it’s my birthday, I get to have one of my splurge teas :-)

Well. Today’s the day. I now check the 35-40 box. Wow. That seemed so old when I was a kid, but as I still feel like a kid most of the time I’m not gonna think too hard on it :-)

I chose this tea as my first tea of the day because it has truly stood the test of time. It was one of the very first loose leaf teas I bought online and is still one of the best. Many short-lived favorites have come and gone, but this one never disappoints. So much like a breakfast pastry, it goes perfect with my breakfast sandwich. A good sweet cup to balance the salty. Yum.

I have now tried all 6 of Yezi’s black teas and they are all really good. This one is described as scotch like, which I didn’t get, but it is still a deep rich flavor. Hints of charcoal smoke, but not meat smoky. Chocolatey, malty, woodsy. Yum! I need to get some more of all of the teas and taste them next to eachother. They are all very similar, but each one has a different twist. Super happy with Yezi teas.

I spent the weekend in Hood River, OR for a fresh hop beer festival.
This beer festival takes place the last weekend of September every year and my birthday is early October so I pretty much consider it my birthday party every year. This year it was a near monsoon, but the beer was still amazing and we had an awesome time. I love the floral/citrusy sweet hop flavor of fresh hops in beer. Yum.

Anyway, heading back to reality this morning so I stopped at my favorite HR coffee shop for my regular breakfast burrito and spicy chai to go. This chai is so spicy delicious. And not just ‘spicy’ as in full of spice, but burny spicy. And just a tad sweet. Pretty much perfect. The burrito is pretty tasty too. Breakfast of champions.

I just got another round of Yezi teas in the mail and this is one of the samples I asked for. It’s definitely the lightest of all the teas I’ve tried from them. Still very flavorful but a little fruitier and less malty. A nice light afternoon tea. Super dooper smooth. Not smoky in my opinion. Definite hints of sugarcane. Overall yummy cup.

ETA: Second steep really strong peach notes! Can’t believe I can actually taste that. Really enjoying this one.