85

Sipdown no. 6 of March 2019 (no. 41 of 2019 total, no. 529 grand total). A sample, with just enough for both a first note and a sipdown. I got this as a sample when I bought some tiny glass glasses from David’s.

It bothers me that there are so many different entries for the same drink. I have, on occasion, made a mistake and entered a tea twice even after checking to see if an entry is in the database, but usually I’m able to find an existing entry by taking a few minutes to do a few different searches. I chose this of the 3 or so entries because it had the most notes by far.

Note to Jason et al — if you want to give me merge powers, I’m happy to fix these as I come upon them.

Anyway. I was only about halfway to my March sipdown goal and it is almost the middle of the month, so I thought I better get on the stick and write a rare middle of the week note.

The rooibos smells strongly of cinnamon in the packet. Very strongly. At first I thought it was stick cinnamon I was smelling, but this is sweeter than that. It’s like Red Hots.

The liquor is a burnt orange color (hook ‘em horns)! After steeping it smells pretty much the same as it did dry. The aroma doesn’t even really smooth out like it often does after steeping.

There’s just a hint of clove in the sip, which is great because too much clove is… ugh. The rooibos doesn’t taste as sweet as its aroma suggests, but it is still very cinnamony. I imagine the apple is there to sweeten things up a bit. It isn’t really an independent flavor.

The rooibos is nicely understated. A slight reediness to the flavor, but no hamster cage chips.

It’s very nice after a long day.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 500 OZ / 14786 ML
Kittenna

I would also happily merge teas as I came across them, haha. Drives me crazy too!

Mastress Alita

The merge functionality is currently broken. Jason has said to e-mail them to him as you come across him because he’s collecting them. I usually collect a bunch and then e-mail a bunch at once. jason [at] [this website domain] And trust me, I would absolutely love if I could merge entries. I’m a librarian, I merge library cataloguing records — quite literally — for a living!

__Morgana__

Bummer that it is broken.

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Kittenna

I would also happily merge teas as I came across them, haha. Drives me crazy too!

Mastress Alita

The merge functionality is currently broken. Jason has said to e-mail them to him as you come across him because he’s collecting them. I usually collect a bunch and then e-mail a bunch at once. jason [at] [this website domain] And trust me, I would absolutely love if I could merge entries. I’m a librarian, I merge library cataloguing records — quite literally — for a living!

__Morgana__

Bummer that it is broken.

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Bio

I got obsessed with tea in 2010 for a while, then other things intruded, then I cycled back to it. I seem to be continuing that in for a while, out for a while cycle. I have a short attention span, but no shortage of tea.

I’m a mom, writer, gamer, lawyer, reader, runner, traveler, and enjoyer of life, literature, art, music, thought and kindness, in no particular order. I write fantasy and science fiction under the name J. J. Roth.

Personal biases: I drink tea without additives. If a tea needs milk or sugar to improve its flavor, its unlikely I’ll rate it high. The exception is chai, which I drink with milk/sugar or substitute. Rooibos and honeybush were my gateway drugs, but as my tastes developed they became less appealing — I still enjoy nicely done blends. I do not mix well with tulsi or yerba mate, and savory teas are more often a miss than a hit with me. I used to hate hibiscus, but I’ve turned that corner. Licorice, not so much.

Since I find others’ rating legends helpful, I added my own. But I don’t really find myself hating most things I try.

I try to rate teas in relation to others of the same type, for example, Earl Greys against other Earl Greys. But if a tea rates very high with me, it’s a stand out against all other teas I’ve tried.

95-100 A once in a lifetime experience; the best there is

90-94 Excellent; first rate; top notch; really terrific; will definitely buy more

80-89 Very good; will likely buy more

70-79 Good; would enjoy again, might buy again

60-69 Okay; wouldn’t pass up if offered, but likely won’t buy again

Below 60 Meh, so-so, iffy, or ick. The lower the number, the closer to ick.

I don’t swap. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that I have way more tea than any one person needs and am not lacking for new things to try. Also, I have way too much going on already in daily life and the additional commitment to get packages to people adds to my already high stress level. (Maybe it shouldn’t, but it does.)

That said, I enjoy reading folks’ notes, talking about what I drink, and getting to “know” people virtually here on Steepster so I can get ideas of other things I might want to try if I can ever again justify buying more tea. I also like keeping track of what I drink and what I thought about it.

My current process for tea note generation is described in my note on this tea: https://steepster.com/teas/mariage-freres/6990-the-des-impressionnistes

Location

Bay Area, California

Website

http://www.jjroth.net

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