Silk Road

Echoing my thoughts from last time I tried this one… It’s very nutty.

Like, my first half of the sip went pretty normally/like expected for Dragonwell: “Hmm, this is pretty smooth with a mix of mild grassy and vegetal notes”. It was in the transition from body sip flavour to the finish that I was surprised. It’s just so nutty, and toasty as well? Not in an unpleasant way, and I know Dragonwell often is a nuttier green tea anyway. It’s just that this is REALLY nutty. I don’t even know how to convey just how nutty it was because I feel like that could still just be interpreted as the normal amount of nutty flavour generally associated with Dragonwell.

I don’t know, one more time for the people in the back and just in case you didn’t pick up on it the first billion times I said it… This was REALLY nutty.

Another one from my mom’s BC trip/haul.

I had actually asked for their Buddha Dragonwell because that’s a bit more unique/hard to come by, but my mom didn’t know the difference between than one and regular Dragonwell so she just got this one. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed because you can get a Dragonwell just about anywhere so there’s not really anything special to it, but I can understand the confusion and I appreciate her just grabbing tea for me at all on her vacation regardless.

This one isn’t bad, it’s lightly astringent with a vegetal bean/artichoke-y sort of quality. More than anything else, it’s quite nutty though. Of course, that’s not surprising since that’s kind of the defining/separating trait of Dragonwell in the first place. I guess as a green tea in general, it’s pretty tolerable but really nothing special at all.

Cold Brew!

Such a flat, flavourless brew – but it did have a hint of elderflower so it wasn’t a total write off. I’m nearly done this tin though – cold brewing killed a bunch of the leaf that was left. It’ll be a big relief when I finish it off.

Another not so great cup from this week. Enough so that I think I’m officially giving up on this blend, and will have to really drop my rating from the 71 it’s currently sitting at (which is already dropped from my initial rating too, sadly). I just miss the black currant notes! Where are they!? They first few times I had this is was AMAZING and mind blowing how juicy those notes were – it’s almost like this second batch didn’t have any added at all, like they had accidentally missed that step when blending!? Without the currant, all you have is a sad elderflower black tea…

Really tasted like elderflower; not at all like black currant.

I feel like I need to reduce my rating on this one; it’s just consistently not be the jammy, sweet black currant flavour that my first purchase of this tasted like and that’s just massively disappointing to me. Dropping from an 86 to a 71…

Hot cuppa; my commute tea this morning.

This was nice today! Pleasantly astringent, with a mix of notes of malt, cocoa, black currant, and elderflower. I did add in a tiny amount of cherry infused honey but I actually didn’t feel like I was tasting it in the steeped tea at all so I don’t know how much it actually did. I feel like this is a more fickle blend; but this cup was a winner.

With a touch of agave.

The almost always delivers in terms of elderflower notes, but what I really wanted was something jammy and currant heavy. You know, something that would taste a little bit like Ribena; and that’s what the agave was for. I needed a little more ‘oomph’ and ‘sparkle’, and I got it! Very satisfying.

This cuppa was very jammy, with a lot more currant notes than anything else. The black tea itself is a little bland tasting, but the added in flavours are truly lovely. Didn’t get much florals from this cup though.

Biggest thing I dislike about this one is just the general inconsistency.

Hot cup, yesterday.

Wasn’t nearly as flavourful in the black currant department as I’d wanted. In fact, for whatever reason this cup hardly tasted like black currant at all. Instead it was very floral with a potent malt/yeasty kind of quality from the black tea base. I ended up adding a little bit of frothed milk to kind of lean more into the malty/yeasty quality as it was reminding me a little bit of breakfast blends/Irish Breakfast.

It wasn’t a bad cup but it wasn’t really a good cup either.

Loved my sample of this one so much that I had to go and buy one of the larger tins of it.

In fact, my desire to have more of this in my cupboard is the whole reason I went and placed an order with Silk Road in the first place. I just liked this one so much. It’s probably the best currant tea on a black base I’ve had to date and I think tied with Tea Desire’s Champagne Cassis for favourite currant tea overall.

This cup was really satisfying! I made a little bit of a mistake with my food pairing and I chose something that kind of overpowered the taste of the tea; a cheesy cauliflower curry. I mean, it was delicious but I would have preferred to get more of my tea’s flavour. I only really got to experience that delicious jammy currant flavour in the few sips I had before I started supper and the few sips afterwards. Oh well, at least I have lots of this one now! Hooray for stocking up.

Sipdown (343)!

Finished this one off in my tea press, and it’s one that I’m actually really sad to be saying goodbye to. I don’t know the next time I’m gonna be in BC or that I’m gonna have family in BC that can restock this one for me, but it’s something I definitely 100% want more of.

Unfortunately, this last tea press worth of tea wasn’t the best incarnation of it either. It didn’t taste bad, mind you, but there was A LOT of elderflower left in the last little bit of tea so that flavour far dominated the profile of the mug and the sweet, jammy currant wasn’t all that noticeable under all of that intense elderflower. I do really like elderflower, but I just wanted more rich currant. Also, the black base was just a hint astringent but I think that’s more a result from my slightly oversteeping this one (six minutes instead of the normal four). It was really malty, as well. I actually liked the pairing of malt and elderflower though; I don’t know why but it really worked for me.

Goodbye yummy currant tea!

This cup was a lot more floral than I’ve experienced with the last two; tons and tons of strong, heady elderflower notes. Not that the black currant was absent; just more of a jammy undertone to compliment the rich floral body.

I like this one a lot.

While I definitely like the other teas I’ve had from this company, I do think that this is the only one I’d legitimately consider purchasing again – though honestly, I wasn’t even the one who purchased it for me in the first place. Point still stands.

- With added milk and sugar… kind of
- More elderflower than currant; but still both present and jammy
- Was trying to go for really “British” steep of it by using milk/sugar
- Since black currant is such a British flavour
- It didn’t quite work because my hipster ass only had coconut milk & coconut sugar
- Still pretty tasty, but coconut was not the most complimentary flavour

Another tea from the haul my mom brought back from vacation!

This one I specifically asked for because it sounded really interesting and somewhat unconventional/unique. I think that the flavour pairing sounds really brilliant, and if well executed I could totally see myself loving it. My big fear is the black currant: sometimes it comes out medicinal tasting, and when that happens it can really ruin a tea. The aroma of the dry leaf is promising though: very fresh and jammy, with that black currant sweetness that’s just so good… and British.

Thankfully, it brews up rather smoothly/pleasantly and I can tell right away that the black currant is not going to taste medicinal. My biggest complaint is that the finish is a little drying on the mouth – but the currant tastes really sweet and jammy, without being candy like or artificial. I always associate strong black currant flavours with Britain because it’s such a popular flavour there, and I have to say that this feels very British to me as I sip on it. The elderflower isn’t missed on me either; while I want to fixate on the black currant, this flavour note is also totally present and very well mixed in with the fruity sweetness. It’s floral, fresh, and a really nice compliment to the fruit notes.

All in all, I’m just very impressed with this one. It’s exactly as advertised, and the flavour combination just works for me. Thanks, mom, for scooping it up!

“Eat Down” (620)!

When I got home from Vegas, I had a few extra days off and I found myself with the strong inclination to do some different kinds of tea infused cooking/baking. A favourite recipe of mine has always been marbled tea eggs, so that was the first thing I made.

I wanted to kind of give it my own twist though – so I made them using a mixture of this tea (as my black tea) and a Spiced Apple tisane (from DAVIDsTEA) that uses a lot of the same spices as what are in a Chinese Five Spice blend. So, it was a bit of a twist – but not one that I felt was wildly out there in terms of flavour. I mean, there were still things that connected my recipe back to the traditional recipe: the Chinese five spice, inclusion of CTC grade black tea, soy sauce, etc.

Really all I switched up was adding in the herbal tea, and I also added in some maple agave as well for a bit of sweetness…

They came out really well; definitely not as dark a marbling effect as I’ve achieved before BUT the flavour was probably the best I’ve ever created – the spiced apple notes actually soaked into the egg quite well and I’m confidant that it would be clear what you were eating even if you weren’t aware of the fact I used spiced apple tea before hand.

I just think it was really, really successful!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpN1i6MllyF/?taken-by=ros_strange

Thought this might have bee a sipdown, but I underestimated the amount of tea still left in the tin so there’s still a few more cups left…

I brewed this one up extra strong though, and then topped the mug up with eggnog. I mean, ‘tis the season after all. It was very good; still super full bodied and brisk/malty with some citrus/pithy lemon notes in addition to the rich eggnog. Mouthfeel was a little weird though; borderline slimy actually. You know when you see people shooting back raw eggs for protein or whatever nonsense? I know it wasn’t actually that thick/slimey but that’s what I thought of drinking this one.

Taste was still there though and ultimately that’s the most important thing to me.

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/1R0AUyvNc4Y

So, I’m sipping on this one right now with a splash of Butter Pecan creamer in it. It’s smooth, rich and full bodied with brilliant malt notes and sweet, nuttyness from the creamer but admittedly my mind is basically anywhere BUT on the tea right now…

Wise Steepster folk, I need life advice – if anyone has some to offer.

So, there’s this guy I’m seeing but not seeing. We’re not really officially together; but we have been on a significant amount of dates and that’s 100% the direction things are moving. The point isn’t really the status of our non-relationship, though. The point is that recently, and I mean really recently his apartment complex caught fire. It sounds like the entire building is going to be condemned and the majority of the stuff in the basement is going to be totally lost. While it wasn’t his suite itself that caught fire it was the one RIGHT next to his in that basement area (they share a wall; it was very close) so more likely than not he’s lost absolutely everything except what he was wearing and what he had at his office at work/his mother’s house. Of course they’re not completely sure of that yet; they haven’t been allowed back in the building yet to survey the damage…

Even though we’re not technically in a relationship; he’s kept me in the loop thus far about the whole situation and I was one of the first people he messaged immediately after he found out a few days ago. So, I know based on that he wants me involved to at least a degree…

I want to help; but here’s where I need help – I have NO CLUE what I can do for him in this situation. I can empathize ‘til the cows come home, but bottom line is that my pity it going to do nothing for him. I did buy his a Nordic Mug and a tin of his favourite tea for his mother’s house, where he’s currently staying, because I had to do SOMETHING and I thought a kind gesture like that and a piece of normalcy throughout all of it might be helpful? His parents are setting him up with fresh clothing (because his will likely all be smoke damaged) and his immediate housing needs are taken care of so that’s one less thing I could do for him. I just…

I’m at a loss for words. So any advice would be helpful. I want to do something for him, I just don’t know what would actually be helpful and what goes beyond being reasonable for someone who hasn’t known him for the world’s longest period of time or as well as the majority of people in his life. I’m not family, and I don’t know him like his close circle of friends do…

I’m other, in this situation.

Made a hot cup of this one at work the other night, with a small splash of milk because I accidentally let it oversteep a minute or two longer than ideal and I was worried it’d be WAY too harsh since this is a CTC and steeps up very quickly.

Milk was the perfect band-aid for that screw up though; this becomes a beautiful and full bodied black tea with all the bright, brisk and malty characteristics of a solid Kenyan Black tea and hints of citrus in the undertones. Very, very smooth and with a fuller mouthfeel from the added milk. This would be great for a morning cuppa instead of a more traditional breakfast blend, but I also really enjoyed it late into the evening as something bold that could keep me going during the rest of my shift.

So my mom went on a two week vacation to British Columbia, and of course she brought back tea for me as a present/souvenir of sorts! Some of it wasn’t a surprise because it’s things I’d asked her to grab, but some of it was things that she chose on her own or with the help of shop keepers!

All in all, I wound up with fourteen different teas to enjoy from the following shops:

- Terroir Tea Merchant
- Murchie’s Tea & Coffee
- Janet’s Special Teas
- Silk Road
- Cloud Mountain Tea House
- The Fairmont Hotel (Not a tea store; but they do a High Tea where you can buy tea)

Silk Road was one of the places I had asked her to stop; I specifically wanted their Black Currant & Elderflower tea and a higher grade Dragonwell and then this is a tea she chose out for me on her own because she thought the country of origin was kind of unique – and it kind of is! I think I’ve actually had Tanzanian tea before in my Sommelier course but it’s certainly not something you see a ton of.

I was a little disappointed to see it was a CTC grade tea; but I’m not at all surprised by that either. Something like 90% of all tea produced in Africa is CTC grade, generally for tea bags or blends like breakfast blends. That said, even if I’m not really a fan of the strong, full bodied brisk and often greatly tannic brew that CTC produces I’m going to go into this mug of it as open minded as possible.

Honestly? It’s not bad.

Definitely a full bodied, brisk flavour with very round, lingering notes but it’s not unpleasantly strong and I don’t find it too tannic/astringent at all. In fact, one of the first words that comes to mind while sipping on this is “smooth”. There’s a very grainy, malty flavour that coats the tongue and is pleasantly sweet and very silky both in flavour and mouthfeel. I’m greatly enjoying it. Additionally, there’s a bit of lemon flavour in the undertones of the body and finish and while my personal experience with a lot of African black teas has been a more pithy/lemon rind kind of citrus note this is sweeter and almost sort of juicy. All in all, I think this is just a very pleasant tea not just as a CTC but just in general. Good pick, mom!

I had this hot. The brew was a dark amber colour and smelled of herbs and Earth. The brew had a pleasant flavour, but reminded me of olive oil. This is very medicinal, but I can appreciate the ginger + lemongrass combo. Spicy ginger aftertaste is my jam. :) Light tea flavour, but strongly flavoured by herbs. Many some minerals, but not metallic. It doesn’t beat Tetly’s Sooth (spicy ginger, lemongrass, and mint), but it isn’t bad, either.

I’ve tried this a few times now (both hot and cold), and can’t say I love it. I don’t hate it, but it tastes very strongly of peppermint/menthol. It is very cooling and it stays in your mouth for ever with that cold menthol feeling. It would be good if they halved the peppermint, but it is very unbalanced the way it is now. You can somewhat taste the lemongrass, but there is also dry hay flavour and something akin to lemon balm (or lemon verbena?) Also, the sales people will not stop going on about how it cures hay fevers. As if I could just drink a cup of this and be cured. If peppermint and lemongrass cured pollen/grass allergies, we wouldn’t need Claratin and other pharmaceuticals (you know, the ones that are actually backed up by medical scientific studies).

Smells delicious, tastes alright.

Like most Silk Road teas, I find this one benefits from a shorter steep at a lesser temperature than what I would normally go with for a black tea.

It did not like me adding milk. Apple flavoured things in general don’t seem to like milk.

Went out for breakfast and had this with a delicious strawberry and pineapple waffle (shoutout to West Coast Waffles!)

The looseleaf was put into a tea bag, but it had some room in there. They served it in an adorable 200 mL teapot that looked like a miniature silver English-style pot. Steeped ~3 tsp in boiling water for 2.5-3 minutes, would try 2 minutes next time.

This is a strong breakfast assam, no fruity/floral notes, maybe a little bit of malt, but nothing really notable. Just a standard breakfast blend: bold, full bodied, oxidized, slightly tannic. It would be nice iced due to its potency, and it would take sweeteneer and fruit well.