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Sipdown no. 196. A large tin.

I thought about giving this another shot in the gaiwan or yixing, but decided I didn’t have the patience as it hadn’t been a stellar performer in either in the past. Too much tea, too little time. I’d rather just move on. There are other shous.

So I rinsed it and then steeped it in the Breville. Not a lot to report other than it is warm and inoffensive.

But the best news: I found my Timolino! Yay!

Happy The Force Awakens day! I’m thinking about going to see it tomorrow morning. Astonishingly, there are tickets available for a 10:40 a.m. showing near me. Then I’ll have to see it again with the kids, obv. Ah, the only benefit of unemployment. Movies at odd times of day during the week. I am hopeful I will remedy this situation soon. I have another interview next week at a place where I’ve been onsite for interviews twice already, so wish me luck.

I found an unopened packet of this in one of my tea drawers and thought that since I’d sipped down a large tin today (with another in the offing) I deserved to break open something new.

It has been a while since I had a straight ceylon. This has those dark, bird nesty leaves that are so fun to look at and in the packet there’s an earthy smell with some notes that are cocoa-like.

The steeped tea is clear and toward the red end of the reddish brown spectrum, and the aroma has a sweet baked bread note. Yum.

The flavor has a middle of the road sweetness to it, like a touch of honey or maybe date sugar, and the “tea” flavor that makes you wonder how it would be iced. As it happens, Kenilworth is apparently a favorite for icing (I just looked it up).

The tea is quite smooth. Not grabby in the throat, not harsh on the stomach. I sort of just want to sit back and enjoy without thinking about it too much, which I suppose is a great compliment to the tea.

I’m finding my tastebuds have a rather short memory and I can’t remember the taste of other Ceylons to compare this to, so I’ll just assign it a number for now based on overall experience and worry about how it fits in with the others later.

On a sad note, I seem to have lost my Timolino! I can’t find it anywhere, and I don’t remember where I had it last. We had a bag with swimming gear in it go missing a while back and I wonder whether my poor Timolino might have been in it. I’m so sad. I loved that thing, and I loved the color which was a sort of deep green. I looked at David’s online and I don’t see that color anymore (they seem to be selling their own brand now anyway, not so much Timolino). I think I will go cry for a while now.

Sipdown no. 195. A full sized tin.

I had just enough for hot tea this morning. I’ve mostly been using it to make cold tea since it isn’t a favorite. It’s decent cold, though the vanilla flavor in the cold version takes some getting used to.

I’m bumping down the rating some. I find that I sometimes rate things based on my mood at the time and I am not an overly harsh grader. This is objectively a good tea because it’s Kusmi. But in the end my ratings have to reflect my tastes, and I’ve had vanilla teas that truly knocked my socks off. This is not one of them.

The BF is coming down with something that is doing a number on his throat and asked me to make some tea. He also discovered recently that he can’t drink black tea first thing in the morning without puking unless he’s eaten first. Apparently, that is a thing. I never knew until it happened to him. Then I googled it, and yes, it’s a thing.

Having tons of this and thinking it would be a good alternative, I made some in the Breville. In looking back at my original notes, I seemed to have had trouble getting flavor out of it until I steeped it in the gaiwan.

So I laughed when I handed a cup to the BF and he said, “There’s no flavor in this at all and that’s perfect for how I feel right now.” He later amended his statement to say that despite not having flavor, it was very soothing on the throat.

On the heels of the oolong I just had, this doesn’t make a huge impression on me though I wouldn’t go so far as to say it is flavorless. It’s just leaning much more toward the “mouth full of snow” flavor I thought silver needles had until I had one that wasn’t that way.

Resteeped 10 degrees hotter and 30 seconds longer. Sweeter and stronger, but still extremely subtle. Some bread in the aftertaste, to make things interesting.

Just because my oolong samples from Life In Teacup have now all been enjoyed does not mean I lack for other oolong samples.

I am pretty sure that the one I have from JK Tea is this one. The sample packet (never opened until today) says 2009 Spring Da Hong Pao Ban Yan. I know I’ve had Da Hong Pao before but it has been a while. JK Tea was very kind and included this sample when they sent me the purple chrysanthemum tea they gave away a while ago, and which, unfortunately, did not mix well with me.

I’ve steeped in accordance with the directions on this page, which means hotter water than I typically use for oolongs (over 209F, it says here). There’s a lot in this sample so I have enough to try it at a lower temp later. Going for my usual 15 seconds + 5 seconds in subsequent steeps in the gaiwan.

1. Tea is golden yellow. Smells a little roasty, but there’s no pungent note like some dark oolongs have (and that reminds me of darjeeling). It’s surprisingly sweet smelling and the taste is mild, sweet and not particularly toasty. The empty cup smells like caramel. :-)

2. Dark gold. There’s a note in the aroma that is like toasted rice? Otherwise, the floral notes are coming out this time. Taste is again, not toasty. A little perkier and less sweet, but still very smooth with no bitterness.

3. Dark gold again and a light floral aroma. Continues to be medium sweet and smooth, with a floral taste, and a lovely sugary note that lingers in the cup and in the aftertaste.

4. Lighter golden in color. Honey note in aroma! It makes me think of bees and pollen. :-) Some of the toastiness is coming out in the flavor this steep, but the tea is still very smooth and sweet.

5. Similar color to 4, aroma is less sweet. Flavor has begun to fade but still has a nice, floral smoothness.

I enjoyed this!

The only reason I’m not rating this higher is that there is a sort of a funky note to the tea, a weird sort of plastic-y note, which fortunately isn’t always present and isn’t strong with this tea. I recall having a similar issue with the purple chrysanthemum, though there it was much more pronounced. I’m wondering whether it has something to do with the plastic bags used for the samples? It will be interesting to try this at a lower temperature and see what difference that makes.

Sipdown 194. The rest of the sample.

Look at me, sipping down teas I like, not just the ones I need to get out of my life asap! I feel ridiculously courageous.

I shall miss this one’s beautiful leaves. They are, I think, the most golden of any “gold” tea I’ve had. And it’s still tasty after all these years (cue Paul Simon), though I’m sure it was better back when I wrote my first note.

I have a total of nine Adagio sample tins left with varying degrees of tea still in them. I’m going to say that when I started, I had something on the order of 50. And if I were to order from Adagio, I’d probably have distilled the shopping list to 15 or so teas from the 50 samples. I record this for posterity mostly because I think it shows that sample tasting is working the way it is supposed to for me. I’m finding what I like and enjoying the process along the way.

ETA: I have to go grocery shopping immediately because the cupboard is pretty bare. No bread, no cereal, no yogurt, so breakfast was peanut butter on matzoh left over from last Passover. Here’s the weird part. This tea goes wonderfully with peanut butter! Something about it really brings out that ale-maltiness and the choco notes. Wow! Who would have thunk it?

Sipdown no. 193. But only a sample tin. Yay, so glad I have more of this!

Sipdown no. 192. A sample.

I think this is the last Samovar green tea sample I have, and one I have certainly kept too long. Be that as it may, this is yum.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t drink even this much caffeine this late in the day but I just got back from no. 1’s school holiday band concert and we still have homework to check…

The leaves don’t look or smell all that different to me from many Chinese green teas I’ve had. The tea looks no different than others I’ve had, with a pale yellow liquor with a bit of particulate in it but otherwise clear. It smells sweetly vegetal.

And that’s how it tastes, too. It’s just a very nice cup of green tea without any bitterness, with a tiny bit of butteryness. Perhaps a little more grassy than some Chinese greens, but not as much as Japanese greens. I’m trying to place the vegetal flavor. It’s not sweet enough to be peas, and too sweet to be green beans. I’m thinking maybe snow peas is a good approximation.

In any case, very enjoyable all around, and unfortunately not available on the Samovar web site. Sigh.

Sipdown no. 191. A sample, and the last Life in Teacup oolong sample. (Sniff.)

At least they went out with a bang. The leaves smelled grassy green in the packet but did some amazing things after steeping. I steeped this in the gaiwan starting with 15 seconds and increasing in 5 second increments.

1. Pale yellow tea with a milky, floral scent. Flavor is light, more floral/grassy than vegetal, something that initially presents with a slightly bitter edge but quickly smooths into a sort of green nutty flavor like chestnuts.

The cup smells very fragrant, a distinctive floral smell. I’m guessing this is why it is called osmanthus.

2. Same color, similar aroma but deeper. Flavor is fascinating. Starts as green floral and ends as green nuts. Along the way it morphs into various things too fleeting to pin down and describe. Really wonderful and, dare I say, fun.

By the end of the second steep, the leaves have almost tripled in volume.

3. Greener color. Nectar in the aroma! Nuttiness is forefront in the flavor now with floral afterwards, but the nuttiness returns in the aftertaste, light and raw and reminds me of Brazil nuts.

4. Greener again, nectar has become milder. Flavor similar to 3.

5. Similar to 4 but the nuttiness is now milder and the floral aroma/flavor is much more noticeable.

Aftertaste is sweet and fresh for a while after drinking.

Just delicious.

Trying this in the gaiwan today. Have just enough left to do something else with it. Not sure what. Maybe try it in the yixing again.

I am somewhat intimidated by pu-erh, though I like what I’ve had of it generally speaking. I’m just never sure I’m “doing it right” and since pu-erh can be pricey I’ve been reluctant to start with some of the things I know to be good in my stash.

Let me say that another way. It’s more accurate to say I believe them to be good based upon the word of the companies I’ve patronized because, as recent threads here have indicated, there’s a lot of room for everything from misunderstandings to getting ripped off particularly with regards to pu-erh. Which is one of the reasons it intimidates me.

In any case, most of my experience so far has been sort of the toe in the pool method rather than diving in head first. Because intimidated.

So here’s another toe in the water effort. I went for very short steeps after rinsing. Starting in the immediate range (1-3 seconds) and increasing by five seconds each time.

1. Very dark and opaque, like black coffee. Smells like a saddle. Tastes a bit salty and a little like potting soil. I think this is what tasters mean when they say mushroom, as raw white mushroom doesn’t taste like much to me except a little like dirt, and that’s what I’m getting here.

2. Same look to the tea, if anything a bit darker and a bit more opaque. Rather like flat cola. Still some leather in the aroma. But smoother and something else, too. Tobacco, maybe. The flavor is less salty, and actually quite smooth. It just doesn’t taste like an awful lot to me.

3. Color is the same. Less leather and more earth in the aroma. Gosh, this steep still doesn’t taste like much but it’s weird. It’s like the tea is trying to taste like something but can’t quite pull it off. A little like meat, maybe, but not in a lapsang sort of way. More like a shroomy meatiness.

4. No change on the color. No change on the aroma. Flavor is still trying to be something more than it is. There’s a tad of sweetness this time around.

5. Still dark brown but no longer opaque. There is something that makes me think of gravy in the aroma, though I’m not sure why as the salt and leather is pretty much gone. Perhaps its flour? The flavor is sweetening up some, and becoming leafy. There’s no leaf flavor listed among the options except autumn leaf pile, so that’s what I’ve picked.

6. Color similar to 5. I no longer think of gravy when I smell the tea. The flavor is brighter, and I can taste the water through the tea, which I think is a signal to me to stop here. I suppose I could push it further and see if anything miraculous happens in later steeps but I’m not excited enough by this to do that.

I have to rate this less as compared to other teas since I haven’t had many pu-erhs (certainly not many recently) and more on an absolute scale.

Assuming I’m doing it anywhere close to “right,” even if this tea was still available I can’t imagine buying it again. It’s not offensive, it’s just not really there. (The Numi bagged pu-erhs have more flavor than this does.) It makes a better cold brew than hot, and it’s hard to imagine that is how a pu-erh should be.

I’m rather gratified that other reviews didn’t find much flavor in this either, so I can’t conclude it’s just me. I want to develop a taste for puerh and I’d be horrified if I was missing the necessary taste buds to do so.

On the upside, it does seem to have made my digestive tract quite happy.