Nothing But Tea

The last untried tea from the pu-erh sampler. I wasn’t too impressed with the loose green pu-erh, so really I’m just hoping that by being pressed into touchas this will be somehow different and better.

The smell when I poured it into the cup wasn’t really too assuring. Sweet and extremely butter-y. Little bit salty too. In the cup where the liquid is at rest, there is the well-known pu-erh smell too, but at this point I still have the vast amounts of melted butter fresh in my memory and it comes across as too little too late.

This is salty. It reminds me a bit of TeaSpring’s Long Jing, which I don’t think I’ve actually posted about yet. I think I’ve got notes for that one in my Backlog Later files. I didn’t care much for that one either, as I recall, due to the amounts of salted butter notes in it. I wonder if this stuff might be based on Long Jing, or a Long Jing type tea.

I can pick up a little of the characteristic pu-erh earthiness, but again, it’s really just too little too late.

I have a strong suspicion that whoever invented this type of tea did not have the likes of me in mind at the time. I can drink this, but I’d sort of prefer not to. I’ll probably finish off the samples just to be rid of them because I don’t like throwing stuff out unless I really seriously didn’t like it, but it’s definitely not something I’d purchase another time.

Give me a proper ordinary pu-erh anytime.

Oh my, Angrboda! What a great big huge order you just put in there with Nothing But Tea!

Erm… yes. I had reached the point where I was allowed to buy the lemon oolong and the orange pu-erh that I wanted and erm… well… things got ever so slightly out of control. But they’re just samples! It’s just… there’s an awful lot of them.

Celebrating (ahem) that with the decupboarding with the other half of one my existing samples. Again I find myself wishing I’d done the whole thing in one go at first, because I really think I would have got a lot more out of it that way than I am with this half-sample business.

As it is it’s nice, sweet and buttery. Not too green tasting and not too water-y in flavour. But it might have had a little more oomph to it if I’d used the double amount of leaf. That new water to leaves ratio pattern that I’ve got going on here is really messing with my old favourites! What I thought was GOOD may only have been good. (On the other hand, teas I found bad may have really been truly abysmal, so it’s not a total loss. I must have saved myself some unpleasantness on that front)

It’s been ages since I had TGY though. It’s about time, and I feel like it’s an old friend in my cup, even if it’s not my favourite vendor. I think I’ll take it with me out on the balcony and read some more. It’s warm enough to be nice out there today when I have a blanket.

It’s been a while since I’ve been in a proper oolong mood. I had oolong yesterday, but that wasn’t a green one. I would say, though, that it was probably that one that gave me a push back to oolong territory and made me look in the NBT oolong sampler box. Most of the ones I have left are regional oolongs and a couple of more specific types. I wanted a green one, and I couldn’t be sure about the regional oolongs and I couldn’t remember about the chinese types which was green and which wasn’t, and rather importantly, I couldn’t be bothered to go look it up. Also didn’t really have time to do so because the water was already close to boiling.

So I went with the safe choice. It’s not exactly a new tea for me at all, but it was the only one I could be certain was a green oolong.

First impression wasn’t greath, though. I poured a few of the leaves out in my hand before putting them into the pot, and while they did have that pellet-y rolled up shape, they seemed small in size. Almost broken. TeaSpring’s TGY has the best leaves of the TGYs I’ve seen so far. They are large and with a clear deep green colour. These ones seemed to have a withered yellow tint to them.

There’s nothing wrong with the colour of the tea after steeping. It’s a pale golden yellow and completely transparent. The only thing here that could be even loosely described as murkiness is my own fingerprints on the glass cup. And that totally doesn’t count.

The aroma is barely worth mentioning. What is there is sweet and vegetal as it should be. There is just so very little of it. I really had to sit here and search for it and that’s just not right.

I’m sorry to say that the flavour here is as pale as the aroma. I’m brewing this by guesstimation like I usually do, so it’s not impossible that someone with the patience for it can get more out of it than I can by tweaking some parameters. It has all the right flavour notes here, sweetness, grassyness with a touch of nuttyness and a slightly acidic aftertaste. It’s just sort of muted a bit.

After the cup has been allowed to sit and develop for a bit, this improves considerably. It’s not inconceivable that sometimes a cup of tea has to ripen a bit and that this is one of those times.The flavour as such doesn’t change. The same notes in the same combinations and the same proportions. It’s just more intensive now and I’m feeling a lot more happy with this tea. I was concerned that such a pale flavour wouldn’t really hold up to re-steeps, but now I don’t think that’ll be a problem.

I still don’t think I can really justify rating higher than this, though. At least not at this point. Perhaps later.

Smokies and pu-erhs are for me of the same sort of ‘flavour family’, if you get what I mean. So now that I ran out of Auggy smokies to try, I had the choice of going back to the wide selection TeaEqualsBliss provided me with or the education in japanese greens from EvaPeva. I chose to go back to the sampler sets from Nothing But Tea, because there are a few of them that I really want to buy and I have told myself that I’m not allowed to do this until I’ve gone through the samplers. In my small pot, I can get two sessions out of each sampler and I’ve also imposed the rule on myself that I’m not allowed to use the second serving until I’ve used the first serving of all the samples in a set. No, it makes absolutely no sense, but that’s OCD for you.

It’s been a while since I’ve been in these boxes and I haven’t really been in much of an oolong mood recently. I can’t really remember much of what I thought of the pu-erhs I’ve tried. I remember not being impressed with the green one, I remember really liking the orange flavoured one and I remember having fallen for the imperial one. Supply of the latter, iirc, being limited. Apart from that, I’m lost. No clue about any characteristics apart from the cowstableyness that is for me the definition of pu-erh. So no help there.

I’m brewing western style because quite frankly I don’t have the patience to sit here and mess with a million ultra short steeps. I’ve wasted most of the day already giving myself blood pressure problems over SimCity 2000, so the LAST thing I need right now is something that requires attention and thought process.

The colour looks great when I’m pouring the cup. It has that shade of coppery brown that looks just right. The aroma is sweet and earthy, and so closely related are pu-erhs and smokies for me that I was suprised to find that it didn’t have a smoky note.

Oh, but this is very nice indeed! It has a fresh sort of happy flavour. Earthy, hidden and slightly dusty, but it’s a happy flavour. This tea is saying, “I am finished! I am ripe and mature! Look out world, because here I come!” And then it bounces off in search of something fun to do.

I wish I had a better recollection of what the Imperial pu-erh was like, because I don’t really know actually if I like this one better or not or if it’s the same. I will definitely want to purchase one of them. Time will tell which one it’ll end up being.

Soft vanilla flavours with a little bit of astringency from the lavender and the white tea. I like it, but I’m not sure if I like it enough to buy more in. I have a feeling that this is one that I’ll find myself craving every so often, but not enough to warrant it taking up cupboard space.

This is delicious and I will definitely be keeping a stock of it in as much as I can. It’s the second milk oolong I’ve tried and it leaves the other (from oolongteashop.co.uk) in the dust; if that was milk oolong then this is cream oolong. Richer and heavier, more luxurious.

Leaves a little bit of dry mouth, but it’s nice for when I want a savoury, slightly malty tea without going as heavy as black teas.

First cup of the day at work, and my last teaspoon of this – note to self: bring some more in from home! – Delicious. A nice full, round taste. Flavourful, yet smooth. No milk required. Might try to get a second cup out of the leaves later.

OMG, this tea is so fuzzy and soft and cute. I played with it for a good few minutes before it went in the pot.

Nothing But Tea say to brew for four minutes, which seemed pretty excessive for a white tea, but it doesn’t taste bitter or overbrewed. Slightly sweet, with a mild malty sort of flavour. I really like it, I think it’s going to go on my shopping list as a ‘special treat’ tea.

As this is a very long post indeed, here is a summary for those with short attention span.

Tea is very good. Smooth and with some smoky notes. It lasts for many steeps, and provokes rather a lot of mental images about cattle. Yes, cattle. The animals that say moo.

And the actual post:

I was sorely tempted to try to write this whole entire post in the royal We, it being Imperial and all that. But then I decided that I would find that annoying to read in a long post if someone else did it, so it would undoubtedly be equally as annoying to write. So I didn’t.

I don’t really know why I was in pu-erh mood this morning. Usually specific moods and cravings like that have something to do with what I have just seen other people post about. A famous example here is Mike and that caramel black he’s got that always makes me want to go and make mine.

But that wasn’t it this time. I had decided on being in a pu-erh mood, before I even started looking at my Dashboard page. Maybe I was dreaming about cows last night or something like that.

Anyway, I dithered a bit between my various pu-erh samples from Nothing But Tea and eventually landed on this one. The word ‘Imperial’ rather appealed to me this morning.

I did a short 15 second pre steep, and then steeped for 30 seconds in not quite boiling water.

This tea has aroma all over the place! It’s a little sweet and a little flowery. Quite summerly and very pleasant. Some of you may recall that I rather like that note in pu-erhs that reminds me of an oldfashioned cowstable. Not the milk or meat factories we have today, but a small stable with maybe five to ten cows all lined up eating hay and waiting for someone to come and milk them by hand. Maybe they’re even plotting kicking over the bucket a time or two for some brief bovine entertainment. (I have mental images of giggling cows now….)

Anyway, I like that note in a pu-erh. As is evident, it speaks to my imagination. Even when it isn’t there, because this pu-erh doesn’t have that note. Oh, the cows are there, all right. Only they’re not in the stable. Here, they’re out in the meadow, eating grass and with little calves running around them playing moo.

First sip blindsided me. Scratchy! Rough. Almost smoky. Who set fire to my cow pasture?! I mean, hey I like smoky in tea. Heck, I love smoky in tea. I just wasn’t expecting it here. As it cools down a bit, it smooths out completely and the scratchy smoky bit is gone. It’s gone all round and slightly earthy but without being dusty or mouldy. There’s even something a little flowery on the swallow there. It’s vague, but it’s there.

Second time around, 45 seconds.

The aroma is stronger. The cows are still in the pasture and there’s an earthy note. Like, maybe it just rained. I can almost see the rainbow.

Tastewise, it’s stronger here. The smoky note is more apparent in the beginning, but it still turns smooth after a while. There’s a slightly dusty note on it now and the floral swallow is gone. It’s still nicely round though, and it’s going quite well with this piece of chocolate I’m eating.

Third time around, 45 seconds.

I went for the same steep time this time instead of a full minute, because the second steep had turned so much stronger than the first on just those 15 seconds.

It’s earthier here. I think a cow just took a good roll in the dust out there on the pasture. Look at how she’s wiggling her legs! The scratchy has gone from the initial sips, it’s just plain smoothness. I suspect it’s because I didn’t increase the steeping time.

Fourth time around, 1 minute.

The cows are back in the stable. There are definite stable-notes in the aroma now, although the cows are still rather smelling of fresh air.

The scratchy flavour is back again with the longer steep. Although it still smooths out as it cools, it takes longer for it to do so. The smoky note is much more pronounced now and it doesn’t go away.

It’s odd, really. You would think that a smoky note would go away over time and steeps, not increase in intensity.

Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t go for that royal We thing. How something called ‘Imperial’ can turn out to be so very peasant-y, I’m not really sure, but the royal We totally wouldn’t have worked in this post at all.

These are just the first four steeps and I’m posting here because this is already turning out to be a very long entry. I dare not think how long it would be if I were to continue it until the leaves had been worn out. I’ve been drinking this tea from this morning when I got up around 8 o’clock and until now where it’s about half past two. It’s the only tea I’ve had all day, and I haven’t grown bored with it yet. I’m definitely going to be getting me some more of this later on.

It’s rather an inspiring tea. I think I’ll be doing some writing now.

MOO!

I’ve been struck down by an assault of sleepy all of a sudden. I think it’s the long walk and then just lying around watching tv for hours. The crownprincess was very pretty (although the danish princesses, of course, are just a little bit prettier)

So I thought, I should have something to perk me up a bit. I was rifeling through the sample basket to see what I had and came upon the other half of this one. Ginseng! How utterly suitable does that sound?

I seem to recall it wasn’t my intention back when I had the first half of the sample, but right now I’m wondering if I should order it. I did give it nearly 80 points, after all, and if it can perk me up now, it should definitely be worth owning. Maybe.

Well, I wasn’t paying attention so it got a really long steep. Not even the slightest hint of bitterness, astringency or harshness. Nothing. Not even close. It tastes like I would imagine it was supposed to. Now I rather wish I could have tried it with the entire sample at once instead, because I think it would really benefit from a stronger brew.

With getting rid of a couple of undrinkable things this morning I am now allowed to place my order with Nothing But Tea (although I may wait until after the 1st), and it’s not impossible that I would have included some of this if it hadn’t been for the annoying fact that it’s out of stock! I haven’t the foggiest whether it’s going to disappear or if they’re going to restock.

I think it’s one to keep an eye on, either from this or from another company. Except Chaplon because I don’t want fertiliser. See my other post on this tea for an explanation on that one.

Once upon a time I had a ginseng oolong from Chaplon. They said that it had a licorice-y aftertaste which was what pulled me in. And it did! It was quite nice, actually. But it must not have sold too well, because the last time I visited Chaplon’s website, the same ginseng oolong was now being sold as ginseng fertilizer!!! Underneath it said ‘ginseng oolong’ in smaller font. I looked really hard at the pictures, and I read the description. I am positive that it’s the same one. Fertilizer.

I wish I was making this up, Steepsterites. Srsly.

This one from Nothing But Tea, however, was included in my oolong sampler pack from them, and it looks like I remember the Chaplon one looked. I believe that may actually be the reason that it didn’t swell very well. This tea has the most bizarre looking leaves ever. They don’t even look live leaves. They’re all rolled up and covered in ginseng powder, so that what you actually get are little tiny pellets with a smooth surface. They look like pebbles. I can imagine that this was not entirely pleasing to the conservative danish eye.

Interestingly NBT’s offering is apparently quite popular according to their site…

The aroma is rather difficult to decipher. It’s a sort of mix between cocoa, butter and something like fresh wood. Like if you break a twig off a tree and smell it. It’s not really one note over any of the others but it doesn’t feel like an equal mix of the three either. I don’t know what ginseng is supposed to smell like, but I expect it’s probably ginseng I can smell.

Tastewise, it’s pretty watery. I winged the brewing of it and it definitely tastes like I did something or other wrong. My immediate guess would be not enough leaf combined with not long enough steep. As it cools a bit, flavours start coming out more and it gains an almost pu-erh-y flavour. Dark and earthy. And yes, there it is. The vaguely licorice-y note at the back of the throat on the swallow.

I’ll have to remember to only make half the pot with the half sample I have left, because it definitely tastes like it could have taken a huge benefit from being stronger here and it’s actually not very difficult to imagine what it might have been like if brewed better than this.

Is it better or worse than the fertilizer from Chaplon? I can’t say. It’s been four years since I had that, so I can’t really compare there. But either way if I were to get more or this, I would definitely go for Nothing But Tea’s. Mainly because even though it is the same product I absolutely refuse to brew up and drink a tea that has been sold as fertilizer. (Also Chaplon’s is only sold in 800g batches…) I don’t know, though, whether or not this is something I want to buy. It’s good, but it’s not brilliant. I’ll have to think about whether or not it’s good enough.

Also, unrelated. Mentioned in a PM conversation today how I could really do with some more teapot storage space, so hey, have a couple of pictures! (These should also explain without the need of words why Adagio’s plastic offerings or even the Sorapot don’t appeal to me. I prefer a classic pot.)
Pots in use: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30057436@N04/4387919808/
Pots no longer in use: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30057436@N04/4387920294/

I made the ‘pleh’ face when I took my first sip, but in fairness I’d just been eating Haribo bears.

I actually quite like it, and I don’t like flavoured blacks. Soft strawberry with a mild peppery bite. I think it’ll taste good iced so I’m going to try that tomorrow. I think I’ll be buying some more of this.

So, I thought, since I have managed to put myself in a rather green mood recently, I thought maybe I could also put myself back in a pu-erh mood. And then I remembered that I happened to have the other half of this sample lying around.

So it’s a pu erh experiment AND it’s another notch on the Lockdown accounting. Tada!

I hadn’t actually remembered the rating I initially gave it though. I just saw that now. Hm. Well, at least if I still dislike it, I’m rid of it. (I’m glad I sent the other green pu-erh sample I had to Cait)

Hmm.

Hmmmm.

Hmmmmmmm.

…

No, I stand by my original rating. I might make another cup and dump this. Whether or not I can be bothered to actually finish this cup depends on whether or not I can be bothered to go and make another one.

Give me pu-erh fermented from black tea any day.

I’ve never tried had a green pu-erh before and I’m surprised at how large the leaves are.

Today’s cup isn’t very good for determining anything about colour. It looks a deep yellow, borderline orange, but it might be a bit off.

The aroma is rather sweet with a note of citrus fruits. It smells fresh. Not fresh as in ‘just off the bush’, but fresh as opposed to cloying. Fresh as in something that perks you up a bit. Airy. Not at all like regular pu-erh smells. I wouldn’t even suspect this was a pu-erh if I didn’t know it to be.

The flavour on the other hand completely blindsided me. Based on the aroma, this was NOT what I had expected. I thought I’d be getting something light and slightly sweet maybe with fruity hints. What I got was a strong green tea with some prickly notes on the side of the tongue and upon swallowing. But again, I wouldn’t have guessed on a blind test that this had ever been anywhere near pu-erh. Knowing, however, that it is a pu-erh, I can recognise the aftertaste as such. Here it is much much more pu-erh-y than in ANY of the other parameters.

Nothing But Tea recommends using boiling water, which strikes me as odd considering that this is based on a green tea rather than a black, but maybe the fermentation into pu-erh hardens the leaves to better withstand the higher temperature, I don’t know. I personally thought it best to let the water cool for a spell like I would with any other green tea. The steeping time was also based on NBT’s recommendation.

What, I wonder, is this supposed to taste like? Is it really supposed to be like a strong, badly brewed green tea? Say it ain’t so!

ETA: The wet leaves after steeping smell exactly like whiskas tinned cat food. Now I kind of wish I hadn’t tried smelling those…

I’m not really feeling the inspiration to write a long and insightful post today, but I have other stuff that I’d like to be writing on, and I need to sort of get the floodgates opened up. Preferably before the time where I actually ought to have already gone to bed, you know? So I’m choosing to have one of my NBT samples tonight to force myself to write a proper post and hopefully get in the swing of things so I can work on my other project.

The leaves green and smells rather… At first I thought flowery, but the more I smell them the more I’m thinking citrus-y. My immediate thought here was, ‘did they give me another sample of the lemon oolong by mistake?’. I can’t see that there are any rose bits in there either. I was rather expecting petals, you know? The lemon oolong was super-yummy, so taste-wise I know I’m not in for a disappointment if there was indeed a mix up. At least that’s something.

I can’t say anything about the colour because of the nature of the cup, but I still think it smells rather citrus-y. However, there is also a flowery note that makes me think ‘roses’, so I don’t think they actually screwed up. I’ve also looked at the site and the pictures of the lemon and rose oolongs are very similar. I’ve left the cup to stand and develop a bit more and the more it does the more rosy the aroma becomes. Okay, so they didn’t mess it up. But it was weird that they seemed so similar initially. Considering how much I liked the lemon oolong, I’m taking it as a good sign though.

It tastes slightly overdone, but I’m pretty sure that must be my fault. I think the water was a bit too hot and I think I oversteeped it some too. It’s quite rosy in flavour though. Quite rosy. Very… rosy, in fact. Quite a very lot rosy to be honest.

I think maybe the extreme rosyness wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t mistreated the leaves. Right now it seems hugely dominant. Lovely, but too much.

On the second steep, I’ve let the water cool off for a few minutes before pouring it on the leaves and I’ve made sure to pay attention to when I did that instead of just winging it like I usually do. I’m hoping it’ll be more oolong-y and a little less rosy this time around. If it is, it’s lovely. If it’s not, it’s just good.

It’s actually quite nice on the second go around. A bit understated, but I’m getting a pretty good idea of what the first steep would have been like if I hadn’t maimed it. The rosy notes are not as overwhelming here and the oolong is not as sour. Not quite lovely but definitely better than good.

It’s definitely a girly girl tea, this. I’m not sure I can get Lexitus to drink this. (I’m not sure I’d do that to him anyway) I’m not sure it’s one that I’m going to buy more of, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did either.

As I had suspected this is indeed quite similar to the pu-erh toucha I had the other day. Given a choice between the two, I’d get the toucha just for the convenience. It seemed like a good size in comparison to the size of my pot so the inability to adjust the ‘dosage’ isn’t something that would worry me.

Like the toucha, this one seems to be pretty much default pu-erh. The only difference here is that I haven’t steeped this one to the brink of death. The smaller leaf size in the toucha surprised me a bit.

But again, it’s a good tea. It’s just a pretty straight forward one. It tastes like pu-erh and it’s a good one to have for a plain every-day pu-erh that doesn’t cost a small fortune. That’s really all there is to say about it.

Never had a pu-erh toucha before. At first I wasn’t sure if I should steep it as it was or if I should break it to bits first, but I decided to go for the former after having looked it up at the seller’s website. I figured that it was little difference from various pearl teas and that if I was supposed to break it to bits, they would have said so.

Turns out I think I did it the right way this way. I could see it in the pot in the beginning of the steep and it disintegrated pretty quickly. I can’t say anything about how it smelled because although I tried, I had just handled salmon so I couldn’t really smell anything other than fish. And I was pretty certain that it wasn’t supposed to smell like smoked fish.

A normal length steep for me gave me a very dark brew. It’s as black as coffee and it’s only when I hold it up to the light that I can spot any sort of transparency. I think maybe I’ve steeped it to death here, and I’m belatedly reminded of Carolyn’s method of many very ultra short steeps. Maybe that’s the way I should go with the other toucha.

It doesn’t, however, taste in anyway ruined. It’s actually very nice. A bit mild for a pu-erh possibly, but it’s not bitter at all. It just has that hint of astringency that tells me that I’ve used too much leaf for this length of steeping. There should be loads of steeps left in this one though. Shorter ones, mind.

There’s nothing to report on the taste otherwise though. It just tastes like pu-erh. Fairly standard. Default pu-erh. I got a sample of a plain loose pu-erh too from this company, and if they turn out to be similar (which I suspect they will) then this will likely be the one of the two I’ll prefer, simply because this is easier to deal with. It’s always good, I think, to have a solid plain pu-erh around in the cupboard and that’s something I’ve been missing for a long time.

Bit like a teabag actually, just without the actual bag.

Decupboarding. Another oolong sample where I initially only used half the sample but now know I should have used the lot for the best result.

I wasn’t happy about this one the first time (it was a random pick in the basket). I was surprised by it tasting greener than it should what with it being a darker type. I notice now though that it’s a Taiwan oolong, so I’m wondering what it’s like in comparison to the boring stuff I have at work.

Yep, same sort of grass-y semi-not there aroma. Same mildness. I think it might have a tad more of a kick than the stuff at work, but it really isn’t all that great a difference. This is not one I’m going to bother with again, at work or at home.

ETA: And upon checking I find, suitable enough, that I originally gave this 57 points and the work stuff 58 points…

Interesting name! I like it, I get mental images of dragons and all. (Maybe that’s also because I’m currently listening to the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini on audiobook. Good story btw, very recommendable).

The leaves are dark, but they smell sort of like they ought to be greener. Fresh, kinda. I’m picking up sweet raisin note from them, which makes me rather look forward to tasting it. There is a lot of the raisins in the aroma after steeping too, along with something else that reminds me a little of vanilla.

Tasting it was a bit of a surprise. It tastes much greener and grassier than I had expected and I’m not finding any of the fruity sweetness anywhere. Instead there’s a slight astringency and an almost wooden primary flavour. Like a green that has been oversteeped. It’s not bitter, but it’s getting there. As the cup cools it gets a little better. The not-quite-bitterness has gone away, although it’s still tasting somewhat of pencil. You know, the flavour of the end of a chewed pencil.

I think I might have overdone it a bit with the steeping time of this one, but I’m trying to imagine what it might have been like otherwise. I’m trying to find the hints of what it could have been and I’m coming up short. It doesn’t mean they’re not there, but just that as it is, it’s not really gripping me.

According to NBT this is supposedly very suitable for multiple steeps, so we’re going to try that and see what happens. For now I’m not putting a rating on it, but if I reach a conclusion after a couple of resteeps, I’ll either make another post or just edit one in. Depending on the level of laziness.

ETA After a couple more steeps, I’ve reached a decision. It’s not that it’s not a good tea, because there isn’t really anything wrong with it. It’s just not really grabbing my interest much. I had a second and third steep of it (small pot, about two cups in each steep) and halfway through the third I just gave up and forgot about it. I got bored. Plain and simple.

Shame though, considering the name…

Feeling lazy today, so I’ll make it brief and go do something else.

Not entirely sure what it is that makes this one ‘Exotic’ and frankly I can’t be bothered to look it up right now. The leaves have some bits of something blue in them that is probably some sort of flower, and they smell very fruity and yummy. I couldn’t smell any of the actual tea though.

After brewing I can smell that it’s pu-ehr, but I’m not getting the same memory-sparking inspirational cow-stable smell that I did from the orange one yesterday (which btw was quite nice on third steep in my travel mug this morning). This is rather more fruity and there’s a note of something almost cloyingly sweet. It smells nice but at the same time a wee bit over the top. Try as I might, I can’t make my brain recognise any of the notes in this. I want to stay berries but not quite, and I want to say citrus but not quite and I want to say vanilla but not quite.

There’s definitely orange in the flavour though. I’m a little disappointed by how similar it is to the orange pu-ehr I had yesterday. It’s like it’s that one at the base and then they just kept building on it. At this point I have to look it up and see what is actually in it. NBT says ‘natural flavours, orange flowers, cornflowers and raspberry pieces.’ So I called the orange, definitely, and I called something berry-like. I’m still not sure that cornflowers have an actual flavour as such or what they’re supposed to taste like if they do, but they seem to be a fairly common addition in tea blends. Natural flavours of what? That could be anything but I’m guessing the oranges and raspberries.

I would say, yes, it definitely tastes exotic. But I just don’t think the flavours really fit in here. I’m not really sure that I think pu-ehr and berries work all that well together.

Yum yum, we have it again!

I was trying, on Husband’s wish, to buy us some more of this about a month ago, but for some reason NBT suddenly wanted a rather extravagant shipping fee from the UK to Denmark (I wrote to them to ask if that could really be true, but never got a reply), so I put it on my English Christmas list instead. I am now one of those people who put tea orders on their Christmas list, apparently. Well, it was an old favourite (and a bunch of samples) and I thought a rather special occasion. One should be allowed to take advantage of family connections, don’tcha know!

So cheers, you lot, and happy holidays.

“If somebody made me a cup of tea, I might feel better…!”

Husband obliged. I think his reasons might have been threefold.
1. He would get a cup of tea out of it.
2. He wanted me to feel better.
3. Best to nip whining in the bud whenever possible.

“If a cat would come and sit on me, I might feel better…!”

Unfortunately Luna and Charm are less susceptible to this sort of thing.

Luckily we had had this tea in the morning so a resteep of the same leaves was a pretty simple thing to do. It’s a favourite of mine, and Husband has fallen for it as well. When I bought the current lot, he told me to make sure I ordered plenty of it.

And do you know what? It does actually appear to have calmed my unhappy tummy a bit. It’s not perfect, but it does feel a bit less meh.

Currently at the fifth steep of these leaves, started yesterday evening/afternoon.

I am going to steep the heck out of them, because they were the last in the tin.

That’s two Standards I’m now out of, Tan Yang Te Ji being the other one. If only they had been from the same company, it would have warranted an order, but tea corner organisation, or lack of same, currently dictates that I wait until we have either used up some more stuff or got some sort of shelfing business sorted out. We went and found some suitable shelves today, but couldn’t carry them home ourselves on the bus along with the vast number of, frankly more important, blinds.

So it’ll have to wait. But at least we know now what we want. It will be awesome.

In the meantime I’m putting off the moment when I’ll have to say good bye and so long to this tea.

We’ll meet again. Don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day…