Camellia Sinensis

Gongfu!

Enjoyed this session paired with some bright red cherries!! Though the cherries aren’t quite as juicy and sweet as they could be, they still work quite well with this fresh, aromatic oolong. Though the mouthfeel of this oolong is rather soft and buttery, it still has a fair amount of body and a wide array of tasting notes ranging from sweet corn and silky smooth coconut milk to more perfumed florals such as violets, magnolia, and lilac. It’s even a little fruity and tropical, with an aftertaste that reminds me of the lingering sweetness left on the tongue after eating a large slice of ripe mango or pineapple. More pineapple than mango go, I think. I managed to stretch out this session quite a long time while enjoying the gentle breeze and sunshine; maybe in part because I packed this gaiwan with so much leaf in the first place. Such a great session to kick off the week with, though!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7NEUDHuh7n/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlh6Df0MT8g

Gongfu!

Y’all already known that with oolongs I tend to lean a little more dark and roasty, but the afternoon I picked this up was one where my mind was a lot more fixated on the idea of holding on to the last bit of Summer instead of embracing Autumn. The creamy floral aroma of the dry leaf, in particular, really enabled that feeling. It’s interesting sipping on it now because it does have a lot more of those Spring/Summer floral top notes like peony, sweet pea blossoms, gardenia, and – though it’s not floral – fresh coconut water. The finish is buttery with vegetal notes somewhere between crisp and snappy and more tender and “cooked.”

At the same time, I’m having this session from my normal tea space by the window facing the park across the street, and I can see the first yellow and orange leaves popping up in the trees. I feel acutely aware that this is a moment of transition, which is an odd sensation to hyperfixate on…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CwyLJ0_OQrl/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAZ6oesZozk

Sipping on a fresh and frothy yunomi cup of matcha paired with a Long Jing green tea and salted egg yolk pastry & a white bean paste and jasmine cake. I recently picked up a bunch of mooncakes for the mid-Autumn festival since seeing all of the posts from other tea companies has been driving me mental craving them, and though I did get a good haul of specifically mooncakes I ended up grabbing a pretty good assortment of other treats too – like these!!

Both were delicious and really phenomenal pairings. The Long Jing and egg yolk bun was really flaky and slightly savory and brought out a lot of the more umami and oceanic flavours of the matcha, whereas the white bean and jasmine cake was really floral (though not so sweet) with a strong, lingering taste that pulled forward a bit more of the sweetness of the matcha and made everything feel super light and refreshing even though the pastry itself was actually very dense.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C_OosKDOS_O/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h09UIkCXjvE

Matcha Latte… but made a little bit funky!

Ever since the New York Times feature on them, one of my coworkers and I have had a light hearted debated on whether matcha and peanut butter cookies would taste good. We’re both very intrigued, but she’s quite skeptical the combo would work together and I’m more worried that the peanut butter would really over power the matcha.

Thing is, we’re both not willing to commit to actually making the cookies to find out. We then heard about someone who had tried the two as a latte (and not enjoyed it), and I figured that was something I could easily do! So, basically I melted a few teaspoons of peanut butter and stirred that in with some pre-whisked matcha until it was pretty emulsified and then I poured that mix into my Breville Milk Frother with some cashew milk.

Here’s the deal. It wasn’t good. It also wasn’t bad. The thing that it really was was savory. I could taste the nuttiness of the peanuts and texture-wise everything was creamy but it just brought out this DEEPLY umami flavour and all of the vegetal notes of the matcha in a way where the latte sort of tasted like fresh pea puree. It was weird. I had a hard time processing the combo as I drank it.

…and now I’m not sure where I stand on the cookies at all.

Whisked this up alongside a matcha custard mooncake!! I love the soft floral note that comes across so clearly – it compliments cool, crisp flavours of cucumber skins and sugar snaps. Admittedly, I’m usually more of a flavoured matcha fan than straight matcha, but that’s only because I am not the biggest lover of the more oceanic umami notes present in most Japanese green tea. This matcha, however, is one of a handful of exceptions to that rule. It’s just exceptionally accesible for a culinary grade, with a natural sweetness that makes it ideal for food pairing!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwio-Y_OWY-/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liZtTKAdONk

Gongfu!

Each steeps starts on a creamier, more buttery note but as these beautiful leaves really opened up the array of aromatic, fresh and delicate floral notes really (pardon the pun) began to fully blossom. Peony, orchid, and lilac. The tail end of the sip was a touch more green and vegetal, with a mild fruitiness that made me think of apple skins. I did have to keep mentally on top of my steep times as this Dong Ding does lean more astringent than desirable when brewing parameters are too relaxed, but the flavour payoff was well worth the attentiveness. Such a wonderfully creamy oolong!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cv24dryuoM0/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UglqJKIskoU

This was a gift from Derk, thank you so much!

I had no idea quite how to brew this beautiful tea, which looks like long twigs and pine sprigs. Camellia Sinensis’ website recommended 3g to 500ml at 194F, and I mostly followed that, except I had a little over 4 grams and just dumped it all in my 500ml teapot so I wouldn’t have a weird amount left over. Steeped for five minutes.

The dry leaf has a really fresh, pine aroma. Steeped, I have a harder time describing the aroma… still a bit of pine, a citrusy zing, and a soft florality I can only describe as the smell of cotton sheets straight out of the dryer. The taste has a wonderful pine overtone that lingers on the tongue, with a lemon citrus note and something a bit woody or earthy underneath… like a cross between oats and bark.

Definitely relaxing… I normally sleep through my weekends so I’m not going to say this tea caused drowsiness, but my nap definitely felt very restful!

I put the spent leaves in some cold water and added the remains of my now-cold-after-napping teacup and will see how that turns out for iced tea. Not sure how well the spent leaves will fare cold-infusing, but no harm in trying. I figure even slightly piney-tasting ice cold water would be okay in this heat we are having here.

Random tea of the day!

I thought I’d start doing daily random teas again, just to help mix it up a bit from only sipdown teas. Spreadsheet to the rescue! :P

This is such a lovely tisane, but I tend to love evergreen notes in tea anyway. Here, they’re the focus, resulting in a lovely refreshing yet resinous blend with hints of fresh grass and a subtle blueberry sweetness. So evocative of winter to me, but also light and soft enough that I’m happy to sip it any time of year. :)

Also, I’ve been considering experimenting with tea blending lately, so I find unflavored blended teas like this really inspiring. :3

ashmanra’s Sipdown Challenge – “A tea with more than 5 ingredients”

When I saw this prompt, I immediately started thinking about which tea from my cupboard would possibly have the most ingredients. I didn’t actually go through and check them all, because I’m too lazy for that. But I settled on this tisane, which has 9 ingredients (and which I hadn’t yet tried).

Now I love woodsy teas, so of course this evergreen concoction is right up my alley. This has two types of fir, as well as spruce AND juniper. Plus Labrador tea, which apparently also has a piney flavor. I was a bit afraid it would be like licking a pine tree, but actually it’s quite lovely.

The main flavor is definitely those resinous evergreen notes, and I do taste a variety of them – some more sappy, others leaning a bit toward sage, but also with some fresh and sweet nuances. And then that sweet blueberry comes in and really smooths the edges of the whole thing, while also adding a subtle syrupy base note.

Lovely, and a perfect companion for contemplation when winter comes around.

An excellent daily drinking Matcha. This tea is processed well and has a sweet vegetal flavor like fresh snap peas, slightly bitter lettuce, and sweet with a mineral note that keeps it interesting. One of my favorite value for price paid matcha teas.

One of my favorite Silver Needle White Tea! I brew it western style, because it provides at least 3 heavy duty infusions. The first steeping is rather floral at 195F for 5 minutes, with some fruity interplay and some vegetal notes. Delicious. Subsequent infusions are much the same with a nuttiness taking the forefront with a fruitiness. I aged mine out for a year, and it aged quite gracefully.

The body sensation is wonderful. Extremely relaxing, and though talking about health benefits is a faux pas, it relieves my inflammation to an extent.

Sipdown! (19 | 174)

This one was a bit odd. The description sort of emphasizes the chocolate and berries part, and lists “a touch of mint”. However, to me this has quite a strong menthol note to it, and I don’t really even notice much of the fruit or the chocolate.

I think maybe it’s the combination of peppermint/spearmint and the cardamom that’s giving me menthol? And maybe the coriander as well? It all comes out tasting a bit medicinal to me, and then the black pepper leaves a tingling sensation on my tongue. Really it tastes more like a chai with mint added than anything resembling “gourmet notes”.

Not what I expected, but was interesting to try…

2023 sipdown no. 66

This was from the only tea production in Bhutan, and from an all-women cooperative.

There’s a definite seaweed-esque smell once steeped. However, this fades away in the taste, which has a vegetal flavour, with very subtle hints of sweetness and an edge of bitterness. The second steep is also tasty, with perhaps an edge more bitterness, but also more sweetness at the end of the sip.

2023 sipdown no. 64

This tea is really beautiful to look at — rolled leaves with a unique shine and purple-blue in colour. The maltiness of this tea is heavenly. It’s light-medium bodied with an incredible natural honey sweetness that cuts through the malt. I would re-order this one.

Been using this tea a blend-making tea, just realized that I haven’t tried this on it’s own! I’ve made myself some smoked early grey, smoky vanilla black, and am plotting making a chai with this tea as well. I’m a huge smoky fan, so it’s very satisfying to have an everyday LS to mix with other teas.

On it’s own it’s fine. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it is a good base tea. The chopped leaves have longevity while steeping, and the BBQ smokiness is complimented by a lingering sweetness. It’s a great, blendable tea!

In my last Camellia Sinensis order, I got a mystery teabag as part of a contest, and if you identified what it was, you could win $500 worth of tea. Unfortunately, I only looked at the teabag after the contest was over, so here we are. At least I know what it is! I steeped 3 g of leaf in a 355 ml mug using 185F water for 3:30, 4:30, 6, and 10 minutes.

The dry aroma is of kale, spinach, hazelnuts, and sunflower seeds. The first steep has notes of spinach, kale, lettuce, green beans, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, earth, and umami. I can sort of see how the vendor says it is herbaceous. The finish is a little drying, but it’s not particularly bitter, though more bitterness comes out as it cools. The next couple steeps accentuate the beans and hazelnuts, with an earthy, herbaceous, vegetal background. The final long steep is vegetal and grassy.

I certainly feel like I’m getting my veggies with this one, and though this isn’t a bad thing, I can’t see myself drinking it regularly. Still, I’m glad to have tried a tea that I normally would have ignored, especially because it was pretty good!

Sipdown! Man, this sipdown didn’t take long once I unearthed this tea. The last couple cups of this was a bit more intense on account of the crumbs left at the bottom of the bag, but the malty chocolatly whoppers flavor was still deliciously present throughout.

I think I may be down to my last Chinese black tea…. Whatever shall i do???

Drank this tea for Ashmanra’s Oldest Black Tea prompt!

Oh yeah, this is my oldest black tea for sure. I think CS has changed packaging at least twice since I bought this tea :) I tend to finish black teas faster than any other tea kind, maybe because I find them more versatile and less finicky. That and when I share tea with people, I know a nice black tea will be a crowd favorite.

Even as old as it is, the flavor is as smooth and bold as ever. The cute lil swirls of golden fuzzy leaves give the tea a great malty kick. There’s an earthy sweet potato note that makes it go down very easily. No wonder I hoarded this one for so long, if this was one of my first forays into tippy chinese hongcha, I wouldn’t want to say goodbye to it either. Too bad, I know it’s not going to last long in my office stash hehe

Meh. This is perhaps my oldest green tea, if memory serves me correctly. I’m sure that if this was fresh, the flavor profile would be so much more lush. but this tea may well be damn near 9 years old XD

The leaves are still gorgeous, if not a little grey. I still see the beautiful fuzzy bunny tails and the craft of these flat leaves, but the flavor leaves much to be desired. It’s not bitter in any sense, but very faintly vegetal. If la croix did tea……

Note to self: If you get a spring green tea, you best drink it within the year!!! Aging isn’t for every tea. Not even this one. Boo.

Brewed usually at boiling, 400ml water, for 3 minutes at a time in my steeper basket. I’d Gong Fu’d it in my Gaiwain, however I feel like it really shines with heavy handed brewing. The first infusion is Milky and Woody undergrowth, the second infusion is Milky sweetness with Wet wood, and the third is basically a ligther milkyness with wet wood.

Absolutely no bitterness, and quite economically priced. How can I say no?

I only had a few grams of this from a sample but made the best of it.

Wood, minerals, and a slightly fruity black tea. Good balance through the body so it is not overpowering to the senses. It reminds me of a Shui Xian I had but with a smoother profile. (That could be a result of the shape of the leaves, my Shui Xian was a bit crushed.)

Pretty good, mild but flavorful through the whole cup. I’ve had better but I would gladly drink this as it is not harsh and pleases the palate.