Tealyra

Sipping this down. Getting malt, hay, a little bit of melon and corn, and sweet potato. Pretty good, but glad this is almost gone.

It’s been a while since I visited this. Brewed it up Gong Fu, 190 F, Lord know’s how many grams, and began with 15 sec, and another 15 sec. I get the same thing that I did last time with a little more of a rosy floral quality. I otherwise taste a clean, creamy, and herbaceous white tea. I do get the hay, melon, and cucumber qualities as well.

Considering that I’m not plowing through other white teas in comparison, and only have a few myself, I’m enjoying this more. Again, thank you Andrew!

LP sent me some to try. I’ve heard good things about terroir of white, but it did not impress me as much as I thought it would. A white tea brewed lightly by two minutes western yielded a refreshing and crisp cup with all the notes you’d expect out of a white: hay, honeydew in the later steeps, some sweetness, light creamyness, and a Darjeeling herby characteristic. It’s good, but I’ve had better whites. I might change my mind if I revisit the sample, but I might more or less taste the same thing. I have no idea how much it costed, so I would not be a credible source on recommending this tea.

LP is exposing me again.

Okay. First steep. 15 seconds.

And it is complex as it changes a little bit when it cools down. At first, I thought it was kinda grassy or seaweed like. But it’s not quite grassy. More like a greener Darjeeling. And heavy like one, but light enough to remind you it’s a white tea. Hay is definitely there.

Steep two has an immediate sweet smell that reminds me of soap or a sugar scrub. But not salty in the least, but odd. The taste is more or less the same like earlier. Kind of astringent. After it cooled, it again got smoother.

Steep three at a few minutes-which I didn’t count-I taste honeydew.

Well, this was interesting. I’m also curious as to what a White Sencha might taste like now. I think this is a really good and complex white tea, but it’s not one that I see myself drinking often. This could go for a few more cups, but I don’t want any more for now. Maybe my palette is immature and likes sweet things like Dianhongs, Milk Oolongs, Earl Greys, and Lishans.

Cold Brew!

This was very subtle as I only used three of the pearls for my large 28 oz infusion. It’s definitely more than a little bit challenging to gauge the appropriate amount of tea leaf for cold brewing when dealing with pearl teas – I’m much more comfortable eyeballing everything else. It was a really pleasant and highly refreshing cold brew though despite the lightness of the flavours. Malty, round and clean black tea with a subtle kiss of sweet and floral lychee.

One pearl to a 12 oz perfect mug.

Even with a single pearl, this produces a rich and full bodied cuppa with deeply flavourful malty cocoa and baked bread notes from the black tea with fresh floral and juicy lychee flavours. The two seem like they should be too great a contrast, but instead it’s a dynamic and exciting cuppa with realllyyyy good flavour!

So, I am getting dangerously close to hitting 10,000 tasting notes which begs the question…

What tea do I have for tasting note 10,000!? That is a high pressure tasting note.

Anyway, I’ve been reading a lot of comics lately – not that I don’t read a bunch already, but given that I’m starting a podcast with my friend Marika that specifically focuses around various nerdy/geeky subculture, fandoms and (of course) tea, it’s been more insentive than normal to get my comic on!

It’s also Free Comic Book Summer so I’ve had a lot of short, free and easily accessible comics to keep reading through – including the one that I read when I was drinking this tea. I do, often, kind of have a thought process for what tea to drink with what comic/anime, but this was an exception to that rule in that I didn’t really know why but I felt drawn to this tea specifically for the comic even though it didn’t seem to have relevance/match the tone.

Regardless of whatever force compelled me to steep this up, I adored the tea. I remember loving this tea very intensely years ago and my “90” rating reflects that, but it had been a VERY long time since I’d last had it so I didn’t know if I would feel the same way. I do. Very much. It’s just like drinking smooth, sweet and subtly floral lychee juice mixed with malty and cocoa tasting black tea. I swear the pearls are much bigger than they used to be so it may have changed over the years in formulation – but still rocks as a tea!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CD2EGGqgPc7/

Sipdown (219)!

Finished this one off iced today, but with a slight twist. At work we spent all day sampling out different iced teas with the new flavours of agave. I was mostly unimpressed by the chocolate but the coconut flavour really spoke to me! I actually don’t generally like agave at all I’m a honey person but the coconut was really fresh tasting and I didn’t find it too sweet either, so I tried it out in a few things including this tea.

The lychee itself was beautiful, as it always is. Very fresh and juicy, and really refreshing when prepared iced. The black pearl base is smooth with notes of malt and cocoa. All of that worked very nicely with the soft, light touch of coconut that the sweetener added. I wasn’t sure if lychee/coconut would come off as too ‘exotic’ but if anything I thought that the familiarity of the coconut made the lychee feel more grounded/familiar. Really nice, overall!

I’m sad to have finished this tea off; I really enjoyed it and I feel like it brought a little something special to my stash. At least for the moment I’m not going to go seeking it out; I’ve spent way too much money on tea lately. If we cross paths again in the future, though, I would definitely like to restock this one.

So, I’m learning Mandarin right now on Rosetta Stone – it’s been both a quick process, and a slow one. If that makes sense? Like, I feel as if they’re covering a LOT of ground really quickly, but my comprehension is somewhat iffy. I can remember singular words super easily; it’s just that putting those into complete sentences is much more difficult. I also feel like I’m struggling with pronunciation in a lot of areas. I just have to keep reminding myself that this is NOT going to be a quick learning process and just to be patient, especially since this is the first language I’ve ever attempted to learn other than my native one, English.

But anyway – I just thought you all would find it really amusing that like literally the seventh word that they teach you how to say is tea/cha. I mean, not a new word for me obviously. Still, priorities, right? Gotta get that tea knowledge drilled in EARLY. I also found it interesting that another REALLY early word is newspapaer. I wouldn’t have thought that would be as important to know right off the bat. As for the tea? My accompaniment to the last lesson I took. I rewarded myself with a sip of lychee goodness every time I memorized a new noun.

This is a queued tasting note.

Sometimes, when I bring tea to work in little dime bags, I feel like the strangest drug dealer in the world. Got a coworker hooked on more of the good stuff though; brought a cold brew of this in with me for the start of my shift and split it with everyone who was working. One girl had never tried lychee before and I could tell from her first sip she was gonna be a major addict. Just gotta build them up to the point where they’re hooked enough to drop $10/1g…

That’s the going rate, right? Don’t question my also questionable drug knowledge…

Started my morning off with this one before I broke into my cuppings for the day…

This is such a smooth cold brew; the sweet, silky notes of malt and chocolate from the base tea are seductive and relaxing. I feel like I’m eating a really good, high quality dark chocolate bar and it’s melting on the roof of my mouth. Then I’m hit with the bright lychee; it’s so vibrant and just a little floral. While it doesn’t fit with my dark chocolate metaphor perfectly; I suppose it could be a lychee juice I’m washing the chocolate down with? It’s a great example of contrasting flavours coming together to create something brilliant.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwYaFkHe-5U&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=2

So, this is one of those songs I’ve heard on the radio several times and LOVED each time but never known the name of or artist. Well, recently accidentally found it when I was listening to some other City and Colour songs on Youtube and it popped up in the recommendations. I had NO IDEA this was sung by that band; but now that I know it I like it even more. I may be overplaying it a bit right now, though.

This is a queued tasting note.

Had this one as a cold brew, which is a method that overall I enjoy although hot brews are better. It had such a strong, floral lychee flavour that it was a little challenging picking anything else out. However, in the finish I observed a cross between a wood-like flavour note and the taste of dark chocolate/cocoa.

This is a queued tasting note.

So, I woke up Sunday morning to get ready for work and I had the biggest craving for lychee. I can’t even express how amazing it felt to not only have one lychee tea in my cupboard but two to pick from! Options, motherfuckers!

So this was my commute tea on Sunday: it was brilliant! The bright, juicy lychee top note satisfied that lychee craving in every possible way and the black base tea underneath is phenomenal as well. It’s natural, sweet and smooth honey, malt and cocoa notes are both a stunning contrast to the juicy, floral lychee but also a wonderful compliment. You’re matching not only the intense rich flavour of the lychee but the intense rich flavour of the black tea. Mmmm!

This is a queued tasting note.

This tea comes from Liquid Proust’s stash sale! A while back we were talking lychee teas and he highly recommended this one to me, so when I saw he was selling it I had to jump on the chance to try it!

I made this in a teacup, using five of the tiny little pearls, and resteeped it twice after the initial infusion. The first was very smooth with an incredibly light, bright and juicy lychee/floral top not practically bouncing off notes of malt, cocoa, and honey from the base tea that composed the body of the sip. It was absolutely delicious, and the juxtaposition of flavour was quite lovely and intense. Subsequent infusions were much the same, though we the lychee flavour fading fairly substantially throughout infusions. The more it faded, however, the more I noticed the floral and honey notes.

Truly, this was a wonderful tea though. Quite worthy of LP’s praise, for sure. I particularly loved the intensity of the lychee flavour that definitely stayed true to the flavour of actual lychee fruit. Mmm!

Much lighter than expected, based on aroma, but really excellent. Mellow, smooth and beautifully floral.

Nice, honey, floral, roasty, nutty oolong. Has a deep distinct green earthen/soil-like flavor that lingers in a great way. Very smooth. Amazing in both first and second steeping.

Dry leaf smell- cream, fruit, sweet, floral
Taste- floral, cream, though I wish the flavor was stronger. Short steeps had better flavor, longer steeps were smoother. My notes have a lot of question marks by this tea. Couldn’t quite get it right somehow.

smells flowery, grassy
This is definitely a greener oolong. It’s light in body both color and taste. Tastes flowery and fruity but faintly. I didn’t get the thick or sweet taste it’s supposed to have according to the description.

I’ve had this tea for awhile and can’t believe I didn’t leave a review for it. I guess I was too busy trying to sip down all the samples I have!

I brewed this for 1 min at 80C. It’s got a nice rice roasted flavour from the rice. There’s a bit of astringency and slight grassy sweetness from the green. Not bad but definitely not a “supreme” tea as they’ve named it. I still could give this a try at even lower temperatures and see if there’s a difference.

Sipdown. Ashy and sour. I’ve never liked this tea. Only got 2 steeps before I decided it wasn’t worth continuing. It won’t be missed.

Today’s the day for trying tea that I didn’t like in the gaiwan to see if a different style of steeping changes the flavor. And I’m mostly over the death cold.
Dry leaf- caramel? Small rolled balls. Dark roast off wet leaves.
30s- sweet caramel, no roasted taste. 45s- more roast, sweet. After that, I got a lot of roast but lost the sweetness of the early steeps. 1min30s serious astringency on the roof of my mouth and tongue. I wish the taste had panned out more. I got lost in the roast.

Wet smell very roasted almost coffee-esque. 2min 195 3tsp almost burnt smelling, super dark brew. Smooth not much taste. Might try this for a longer steep time or hotter water, leaves never unfurled in my steeper.

I think I am coming down with a nasty cold. Ben has been fighting with one all week and I happily seemed to have missed out on it, until last night a double slam of sore throat and fever headache hit me and all I could say was ‘oh no’ and hope it was passed in the morning. It wasn’t. I feel much worse today and my brain is mush, so I am delving into the archives for a blog I wrote specifically for days when I feel bad! Sometimes I can use foresight!

Once more into the pile of teas from the past, or at the very least tea notes from the past! Today we are looking at Spa Hydrate from Tealyra, a blend of Green Tea, White Tea, Oolong Tea, Lemon Myrtle, Lemon and Orange Peel, Goji Berries, Papaya, Pomegranate, Lime, Stevia Leaves, Osmanthus Petals, Cornflowers, and C’watre Minerals. Yes, minerals, this tea is infused with minerals to hydrate the skin, yeah I selected this tea because it sounded odd, but also because I like osmanthus flowers something fierce. The aroma of this tea is sweet and tropical, it has heady floral notes from the osmanthus, sweet papaya, lots of citrus (it smells like orange, lemon, and lime) and undertones of vegetal green and freshly cut grass. It smells very refreshing!

Brewing this tea is wow, my tea area ended up smelling like a citrus pile! Strong notes of orange and lime with undertones of lemon and lemon leaf. Underneath that are notes of papaya and sweet goji berry and a slight note of osmanthus flower. The liquid smells citrusy and refreshing with notes of papaya nectar and osmanthus flowers, at the finish is a honey sweet note of goji berries.

Tasting time, and it starts out kinda odd, it is very sharp and sour, like biting into a lemon on steroids, then it immediately goes to sweet citrus and papaya. The one two punch of sour then sweet certainly woke up my mouth and my brain! Next comes the flowers, osmanthus and lemon myrtle with a touch of green vegetation and hay undertones. It manages to make my mouth feel super dry from the lemon and then immediately quenched from the salivary explosion from the sourness. This tea was kinda fun, not a favorite, but certainly entertaining.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/02/tealyra-spa-hydrate-tea-review.html