A Southern Season

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Recent Tasting Notes

It looks like A Southern Season may have closed its brick-and-mortar store, and I can’t tell if they still sell online. (Ashmanra, do you know?) Which is too bad, because I just rediscovered a buried sample of this really nice decaf OP yesterday. I had consumed so much hot liquid due to the ear/throat gunk, I sloshed when I walked and you could see the caffeine buzz coming out of my eyeballs.

Had enough in the packet for one last pot. While there will never be a decaf tea ever that is strong enough to suit me, this one had a little bit of personality. A little soapy (in a good way; I think that’s just a standard decaf personality issue), but somewhat dark and sweet, especially after I let it stew over a tea candle for a couple of hours.

At any rate, it made me feel better and I think I’m finally on the mend. Could be the antibiotics, could be the tea, but I think the real medicine may have been an afternoon in the La-Z-Boy watching episodes of Downton Abbey with Tazo snoozing on my lap.

Cameron B.

I slosh all the time with no such excuse. I hope you feel better soon!

And I’m also currently rewatching Downton Abbey! What a perfect show for tea.
;)

gmathis

Season three. The wedding episode with Maggie Smith and Shirley Maclaine—I chortled all the way through it.

White Antlers

Downton Abbey and The Great British Bake Off are both good medicine.

Mastress Alita

I haven’t seen Downton Abbey yet, but I am a Bake Off fiend.

Cameron B.

YASSSS Bake Off!

ashmanra

I am not sure if they sell online at all, but OH HOW I MISS THEM! It was so hard to lose them, like a neighbor you really, really loved.

This was a great tea. The only thing really close to it for me has been Harney’s Decaffeinated. The plain one, and it just says Decaf on the tin.

gmathis

Hmm. I’ve never looked. Is Harney’s decaf one that they have mass marketed?

ashmanra

I have only bought it from the website in a tin loose leaf. I am not sure if it is available any other way.

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64

Random pick. Surprisingly good. If you give it a minute or two to sit, it’s even better.

Flavors: Cherry, Chestnut

Preparation
155 °F / 68 °C 1 min, 15 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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After steeping these delicious leaves the second time, I pulled this tea up to tap out a quick review. The first thing I noticed is that ashmanra has a history of gifting Zhen Quo to friends, and I consider it an honor to be in that circle.

Full of golden tips , the big fluffy leaves yielded a golden brown liquor as sweet as it is beautiful. I had a similarly flavorful Yunnan Black from Silk Road Teas a while back, and I love them both!

ashmanra

So glad you enjoyed it! It is a real treat to me!

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drank 1000 Cranes by A Southern Season
3224 tasting notes

Sadly, they have reduced their tea section at A Southern Season. I bought this because my best friend loves white tea and I was hoping for a really fruity summer treat to go with our desserts.

Alas, I can not detect any strawberry flavor in this. The first time I made it I found it a little weak. I added lots more this time since there is a lot of non-tea matter in here and it was much better but still not strawberry. It was just a tasty white tea with a little sweetness from the coconut.

I shall continue to look for good, natural strawberry flavor in a white tea, but at least this one won’t be hard to drink.

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This tea smells great in the bag, and keeps a nice scent while steeping. The flavors are soft and mild and the base lacks that bitter bite that I find in so many flavored greens.

This actually belongs to youngest. She sniffed it while we were Christmas shopping in Chapel Hill and loves the scent, so I threw it in the basket to serve as a stocking stuffer.

The coconut and almond are well-balanced, and I enjoyed it sans additions. The friend who drank it with me immediately placed money on the table and asked me to have some picked up for her.

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drank Mango by A Southern Season
812 tasting notes

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This tea has some serious knock-you-in-the-face cinnamon flavor. It’s quite sweet as well; the ingredients include “natural sweet cinnamon” and “natural sweet cloves.” Now, neither cinnamon nor cloves are particularly “naturally” sweet in my opinion, so I don’t really know what that means. My guess is that some kind of sweetener must be added. Anyway, it’s a lovely tea for a cold day. As I review this it’s late August and the temp outside is close to the 90’s, but my office is pretty much a meat locker so this is hitting the spot.

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90

No notes yet. Add one?

Flavors: Honeysuckle

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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88

The Towkak Tea garden is situated on the banks of river Towkak, which also acts as a natural boundary for the garden on its western side. Towkok in Tai language means “dancing tortoise.” In those days it was heard that Towkok river was full of dancing tortoises when the first tea plantation in the area was established on its banks in the year 1885.

I have had a variety of Towkok teas over the years and was really impressed when I picked up a few ounces of loose FTGFOP tea this week from A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, NC. The price is very reasonable, regular price of $4.25 and ounce, on special now at $3.00 an ounce.

Brews up a beautiful color and aroma typical of orthodox Assam teas. Bold, hearty and with biscuity notes that make this a great morning start to the day.

Flavors: Bread, Brown Toast, Caramel

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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52

Super old sample sipdown!

Didn’t particularly care for this. First, the age… And it’s a bit bitter and reminded me of a far less superior version of H&S’s Florence, minus the chocolate.

I’m not really getting pecans out of my cup, I added milk but sugar probably would’ve helped this tea.

One more down! :)

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Backlogging from Thursday night: One of the men who attends our writers’ group came in with a gift bag. He said it was something from his wife to me. His wife is Japanese and knows how much I love tea even though we have only met once, and briefly then.

The bag contained a rainbow wood scoop (so cute!) and this tea. Naturally I steeped up some of it for the group to try. :) I ended up making four pots because everyone loved it.

The ginger isn’t too biting in this one as ginger can sometimes be, at least to me. The peach is very nice but sniffing the dry leaves AND the tea we really picked up lots of citrus, and I realized it was a very strong lime aroma. The lime as there in the taste also, and I think it was really the green base that was carrying it. Perhaps the sourgrass nature of the base (did everyone else grow up chewing on sourgrass in the summertime?) mixed with the peach flavoring combined to make lime.

It was very favorably received by all the green tea drinkers in the room, and at the rate they were drinking it, I have a feeling this pouch won’t last long. It was a lovely surprise!

gmathis

Your writers sound like an appealing and gracious bunch of people! Fiction? Non-fiction? Would you adopt a freelance curriculum writer who’s perpetually behind deadline if she could manage the 13-hour commute on Thursday nights? ;)

ashmanra

We would love to have you! We actually have one young writer in college who Skypes in when he can’t make it in person. He writes devotional poetry, essays, and sci-fi. My girls write sci-fi/fantasy. The older man writes autobiography and fiction based on his life. He was a wartime soldier who married a Japanese woman and he has based a novel on their life, on her family disowning her, and his conversion. We also have a playwright and fiction writer, another poet, and one who writes articles for emagazines! We drink a lot of tea. A lot. Of tea. LOL!

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80

Pleasant, fruit dry smell. Somehow found it to be very relaxing. Soft hints of all the flavors are present and combine well for a great tea.

Preparation
2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp

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75

Sipdown!! (199!)

Thank you Josie Jade for sending this my way. After the lack of vanilla flavoring in my matcha, this cup is really quite delicious. Filled with a creamy vanilla flavor, I am happily sipping away at the cup as I watch the Big Bang Theory.

Flavors: Cream, Vanilla

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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75

Thank you Josie Jade for sharing this with me. It smells amazing! Both in smell and taste it is reminiscent of Vanilla Comoro and Cafe Vanilla. However, I do think this is a touch weaker than those other two and for that reason I won’t seek out more. That doesn’t mean I am not thoroughly enjoying this cup though.

In other news, I just finished Lost and now need to find a new show to waste time with :P.

Flavors: Vanilla

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
__Morgana__

Yay for finishing Lost!

Roswell Strange

Are you emotional wreck? Also, Tre and I started watching Two Broke Girls last night and spent the whole evening enraptured with the fact that the main character (the not formerly rich one) is scarily like me personality wise. I’m still seeking a new show on Netflix, though.

VariaTEA

Haha. I watch that too. Also Max is pretty awesome.

Roswell Strange

Apparently living with Max would be identical to living with me – down to the cupcakes, snark, and everything else. Although, we are only like six episodes in…

VariaTEA

So I think our living together would actually work then :P. If you were like Caroline, I would not be cool with that.

Roswell Strange

Caroline, based on what we’ve seen, is way too prissy/girly to come close to being me. I’m definitely more like Max. And we’ve decided Tre is a combination of Caroline/the really sexually uncomfortable cook guy. He’s sorta proud of that, but I told him he shouldn’t be.

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I bought this to tide me over until my Harney order arrives. It is more astringent than Harney’s but for the price it isn’t bad at all, and went well with my bagel. It smells absolutely awesome when I open my tin. With food, the astringency is subdued and not at all unpleasant, but I do prefer the Harney and Nina’s versions to this one. It is a great value, though.

keychange

Ah, see I’m still on the hunt for a really good, strong vanilla black tea. I had high hopes for vanilla Comoro, but it just doesn’t seem to be working out so far.

ashmanra

Have you tried their Vanilla Black? Vanilla Comoro is decaf. Also Vanille des Îles by Marriage Freres is pretty good, but I think Nina’s Je T’Aime is better.

ashmanra

Maybe you could even add your own vanilla beans or vanilla caviar? The stuff from Olive Nation can’t be beat, IMO. I use it to make my vanilla extract and it is the best and most economical I have found.

keychange

Oh yes, both vanilla black and je t’aime are on my to try list.

Rosehips

Agreed on Je t’aime! very good vanilla tea. I am always questing for vanilla, as its my favorite. I’ll look up Vanille des Iles as well.

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My son and godson agreed to do a tea pickup at A Southern Season for me today. I got just two ounces of this for $3 to tide us over until out next Harney order as my youngest loves their Vanilla Black and Vanilla Comoro and we are out of both.

I guess I under leafed this. I steeped for four minutes at 203F and when I poured the tea it looked like a decaf resteep! I am drinking it plain and it is fine, not great, not bad. The tea is a little weak, the vanilla flavor is pretty good. I think with hotter water, longer steep, or more leaf, this could be very good. It isn’t Nina’s Je T’Aime by any stretch of the imagination, but should get us by until I place a big Harney order for my daughter.

I am most excited that Wild Forest Oolong was back in stock by the ounce! I will be having some later this weekend. The bad news is that it has gone up to $14.95 an ounce so I only got the one ounce.

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79
drank Plum Oolong by A Southern Season
15006 tasting notes

Sipdown! i like this one quite a bit. it’s plumy with a bit of spiciness to it but not overly so. Theres a sweetness to this and a bit of tartness at the same time. I am digging this one!

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I kept this from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Tea Box, originally as a present for Tony, because he really enjoys Plum Oolong. It sat on his table for a couple of weeks, waiting…

So I’m drank it with dinner. His teas are my teas, so there!
Sipdown!

Sil

i liked this one a bunch

Terri HarpLady

It was tasty!

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From the HHTTB

This is actually very nice, especially with a pinch of stevia added. Tony adores plum oolong, & there are only a few cups left, so I’m keeping this one!

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