ashmanra Send Message

I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this before, but when I searched this tea there was no listing.

This has been in my cupboard for about two years. When I bought it, it was my first Pu-erh and I didn’t know that a little air circulation benefits them, so I kept it in its tightly closed foil bag. When I opened it for the first time in about year, there was a very fishy smell. I took the last three tuo cha out and set them on the shelf for about a week or so. The fishy aroma is greatly decreased, but I wondered if I went too far and the flavor was also gone.

I made this for my son, his girlfriend, and myself to drink after our pizza lunch today. They loved the Teavivre puerh, didn’t care for the Rishi loose Classic Puerh, and liked this one somewhere in between. (They wouldn’t even take a second 2 ounce cup of the Rishi.)

The first steep had the barest hint of fishy aroma, so slight it may have been my imagination. The taste was just good, earthy puerh, though. I gave it about two minutes after the initial rinse, and the color was dark orange. The next steep was darker. By the fourth steep i saw a definitely lightening of the color, but the flavor was little diminished. We took this to six steeps and the last one was getting weak, but was still pretty good. For the price, this is an inexpensive shu with enough flavor to be interesting. I still prefer Teavivre for shu puerh mini tuo cha, but this one is very similar.

Several weeks ago I added a whole vanilla beam, cut up, to a little over a half tin of this to see if that would jazz it up. I was concerned that it would be too much, but to my surprise there is little vanilla aroma now.

I washed the leaves this time and made it western style, which I think was a mistake. I think it would be better without the rinse when making it this way. Our first impression…this is a bit weak. But then I was chomping away on my celery and took a sip and suddenly I could taste the vanilla in it. Though still a bit weak, it is passable with food.

I won’t buy this tea again, but I am sure I can finish the tin without too much heartache now. When this is gone, I want to try some of the puerhs AmyOh has been reviewing and order a LOT of Teavivre’s tuo cha!

I think I will also look into the puerh at Tin Roof Teas. They only had loose, but it did smell good and there was no fishy aroma at all.

We are doing yard work and it is about 80 degrees outside, so I made a couple of pots of this and let it cool to room temperature. I love that it doesn’t take on any astringency when cold. This is very refreshing for a day like this. I am drinking it as is, no sugar added. It still has rich, buttery flavor and beautiful color.

Pup update: here is what Mr Sam is up to while we work:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24998856@N06/6990516913/in/photostream/

IN MY CUPBOARD! :)

A long time ago, I received a generous sample of this tea from QUILTGUPPY. It was amazing! I vowed that someday I would place an order with this company, but hadn’t gotten around to it.

For my birthday, hubby surprised me with a handmade gaiwan like the easy gaiwan and this tea, which came with several samples that I will be tasting soon. We decided to share it before tea time, which has been delayed to Friday this week.

He is new to greens and oolongs, but he liked how aromatic this tea is. He said it had an unusual flavor. I asked him if he might be tasting hot buttered corn on the cob and he said, “That’s it! It is butter!”

We went for four steeps on this. It was wonderful! So thankful for a thoughtful hubby!

Day Two of the birthday celebrations: fudge pie with fresh strawberries and this aromatic tea which was a Christmas gift from my oldest daughter. (Said daughter has advised me that my birthday gift from her will be two Dammann Freres teas that she selected, but I have to wait until she gets back from Europe. Eeeee!)

This is beautiful to look at, intoxicating to smell, and delicious to taste. There is definitely a biscuit aroma and taste, not biscuit as in sweet cookie, but biscuit as in bready, lovely, fresh baked biscuit.
The tea base is not as strong as the one they use for their chocolate tea, and I love that they have matched their bases to the flavorings better than many companies do.

My daughters were very insistent that we must have tea time today, and before my middle daughter had to leave to take her grandmother to an appointment. I went to a neighbor’s house for a few minutes and came home to discover cute little vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles – mine had a candle in it because today is my birthday – and this lovely oolong.

I made it gong fu style before. This time it was steeped western style. It didn’t lose a THING! Oh my! Floral and wonderful! My daughter was amazed at how large the leaves got when she made it – she drinks black tea only. The liquor is a soft yellow and looks positively elegant in my Old Country Roses teacup, and the floral headiness of the tea was beautiful against the sweet vanilla cupcake. The flavor fills your mouth and dances on your tongue. Oh my cow, this is a lovely pot of tea. Or it was. I just polished off the whole thing by myself!

I can’t wait to try more teas from Tin Roof Tea!

Doggone it, I am having a hard time justifying ordering Jasmine by Harney and Sons when this one is so darned drinkable, and only $2.50 or so at our local Asian market. While this is no Teavivre Jasmine Dragon Pearls, it is an easy to drink jasmine tea that doesn’t curl your toes. I have had a whole pot of this, sipped throughout the day. I am really grateful to K S for writing the review that pushed me over the edge to go get this one. It says it is a green base, but tastes very much like pouchong to me. Yum.

Gong fu tea with hubby! This is becoming an almost nightly event and I LOVE it! When I first tried this, I think it was only my first or second oolong and I thought I was really a dark oolong drinker. I still like this very much but I love the greener oolongs now as well.

Points to hubby…he is really new to drinking good loose leaf tea, but he sipped this and made a face. When I asked what was wrong, he said it tasted like an ashtray. I told him he was doing well with his palate, as this one is smoked and he picked up on it right away. I told him to hang in there for a couple more steeps and the smoke would fade.

It did indeed fade, and the toasted walnut notes came out to play. On the sixth steep now the color of the liquor is still strong, there is still some smokiness there, and the nuttiness dominates. But I think tomorrow night he will get something floral like a TGY or even Jasmine Dragon Pearls from Teavivre. Those are more up his alley.

I think I have made this tea gong fu style each time I have had it. Today a made a big pot of it to go with salad for lunch for hubby and myself. (Baby mixed salad greens, mozzarella, chopped walnuts, tomatoes, onions, and on top a sprinkle of fresh ground salt/garlic mix and a sprinkle of Italian seasoning and Parmesan.)

The leaves are large and lightweight, so I used about five teaspoons for my 22 ounce pot. Hubby is primarily a Ceylon tea with loads of milk and sugar drinker, but has been exploring green and oolong tea with me lately, possibly for the health benefits or possibly just to be sweet! I warned him that I am not adept at this one yet, so I wasn’t sure how it would taste. I steeped it for four minutes in 175 F water.

I was surprised to see him finish his first cup and reach for the pot, fully refilling his cup. He said, “This is not unpleasant. I wouldn’t necessarily drink it recreationally, but it isn’t unpleasant.”. And he polished off another cup. LOL!

So all in all, I think it was a successful tea pairing and a nice lunchtime together. I would like to try more of this from another source. Upton has it, and the yellow tea at Tin Roof Teas looked exactly like it, and it is very unusual looking, so I may give that one a try as well. This is still the most flavorful plain white tea I have tried thus far.

I really needed a soothing oolong break tonight – not just a cup of tea or a pot, but to sit down with my Yixing set and take my time going through a number of steeps of something interesting. This is the tea I used to season my set.

I have gmathis’ Pandora station playing (JJHeller, thank you GG, I recommended it to one of my voice students this week as well)

I think I was a bit skimpy with the leaf, but this is still good. The aroma is definitely floral, but the buttered sweet vegetables are there, too.

I am missing my dad, who died 24 years ago this week. A relative I don’t even know found a picture of my dad as a child and sent it to me yesterday, so he has been even more on my mind than usual. I had never seen a childhood photo of him, but when I looked in his eyes I knew it was him! Miss you, Dad! Thank you for everything.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24998856@N06/6819841866/